“Yes, I have.”
“How long was your longest relationship?”
“A year and a half.”
“Wow, okay… so then with the sensory issues, can you…” Her cheeks turned red, and she licked her lips again.
He couldn’t be absolutely certain what she was trying to ask, but there was a very high probability he had the right guess.
“Can I have sex,” he stated bluntly.
“Sorry.” She shook her head. “It’s none of my business.”
“It is if you want it to be.”
AJreallyhoped she wanted it to be her business.
10
If this wasa game of sexual red rover, then AJ had just called Poppy over. He’d said that whether or not he could have sexwasher business if she wanted it to be.
That was a green light, right? Oh, that rhymed.Stop.
She had to stop overthinking this. Just feel. The energy in the room was electrically charged with foreplay. Or at least that was how Poppy felt. She was tingling all over, and AJ hadn’t even touched her.
"It is?” Poppy questioned, her breaths coming in shallow pants.
“Yes.”
“Okay.” She tried to inhale slowly through her nose and then exhale through her mouth so she didn’t hyperventilate and pass out before they even got to the good stuff. “I want it to be.”
“Yes, I can have sex.”
“How?” she blurted out.
That amused glimmer in his eyes returned. “Have you not had the birds and bees talk?”
Poppy chuckled, and it broke the tension just enough to soften the edges of her frazzled nerves. “You know what I mean.”
His eyes warmed to a soft smolder that she felt spread through her body. “Typically, I have to get to know someone to feel comfortable with them. It takes months before I can be intimate with someone, and then I have ways of dealing with it.”
“Oh.”Months. She nodded and felt her heart drop in disappointment, but she did her best to hide it. “Right, yeah, that makes sense, of course.”
His hands rested on the counter behind him, and he leaned back casually, portraying an ease that Poppy wasnotfeeling. She was strung tightly.
“That being said, I’ve never met someone and wanted to touch her just to feel how soft her hair would be running between my fingers. Or not been able to take my eyes off of a woman all night and then subjected myself to taking part in an antiquated ritual because the thought of another man taking a photo with her made me want to put my fist through a wall.”
Wait.Was he talking about her?
“Or had an entire room of people disappear the moment she sat on my lap to take a photo, and I felt peace and calm come over me like she was the equivalent of a human weighted blanket, and a sexy one at that.”
Yes.He was talking about her.
“Or pulled her against my body and held her in my arms, not wanting to let her go but scared if I didn’t, I would embarrass myself. Or driven thirty minutes after I’ve flown across the country just for an excuse to spend more time with her because I would do anything for the night not to end.”
“So does that mean there are exceptions to?—”
“No.”
