“Well, if the beard fits.”
I’d had enough. I reached out and caught her hand, dragging her behind me as I rounded the side of the green house. I pushed her up against it, bracing one hand near her head, surrounding her.
She didn’t push me away. She didn’t tell me to back up. She stood her ground the way she always did, her body a silent challenge. Those dark eyes saw more than they should have, more than I wanted them to.
I leaned down, my face close to hers. “You know what almost happened in the shed, don’t you?”
She nodded. Her lips parted, just enough to show the tip of her tongue. She wasn’t scared. Poppy was never scared. But she was very still, waiting.
“I’ve been trying to be a decent man about it.”
Another nod.
I brought my hand up and cupped her jaw, my thumb tracing the line of her cheekbone, and felt the breath stutter out of her. Then I kissed her because I couldn’t wait another heartbeat to feel her lips against mine.
I crashed my mouth against hers, rough and hungry, pouring every ounce of frustration and possessiveness I’d been feeling into the kiss. She tasted sweeter than I’d imagined. And I’d imagined kissing her every night since she’d arrived. I groaned into her mouth, my tongue tangling with hers asI deepened the kiss, my hand sliding down to her wide, soft bottom to haul her up against the rock-hard length of my cock.
I wanted her to feel how much she wrecked me. I wanted her to know that my dick was straining against my fly just from the scent of her. I wanted to mark her, let everyone around know she was mine.
Especially damn deliver men who thought a smile would win her over.
She didn’t fight me. Her arms wound around my neck, her fingers pulling my hair as she arched her back, pressing her ample, breathtaking body into mine. I could feel her nipples peaking under the fabric, rubbing against my chest with every ragged breath. She was making small, desperate sounds against my lips, and it was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard.
When I pulled back, her lips were swollen, her eyes dark and heavy, her fists still twisted in the fabric of my shirt. The morning light fell across her face and she looked undone, vulnerable and fierce all at once. I wanted to slide my hands down those leggings and touch her. I wanted to see if she was as wet for me as I hoped.
“Okay,” she said, a little breathless. “There’s definitely something behind that broody glare.”
That made me laugh. A sound I hadn’t heard myself make in a very long time. I’d just kissed a woman senseless, and she was making me laugh.
But that was Poppy.
Something shifted in my chest—loose and warm. I wanted to claim her, to protect her, to keep her in my bed and never let the world touch her.
I made myself step back. Not because I didn’t want to kiss her again, but because I sure as hell did.
She stood there, leaning against the greenhouse as if her legs wouldn’t quite support her.
“What now, Cord?”
“Now we get back to work.” I turned and walked away, my cock still throbbing, my head spinning with the realization that I wanted her. Above all else, I wanted her to be mine.
Mine.
The word settled in me quiet and certain, the way all the things I was sure of settled.
Outside, the sky had taken on that particular weight at the edge of the peaks—the pressure that meant weather was coming. Fast-moving, the kind that didn’t announce itself.
Just like Poppy. She’d arrived without warning.
I’d weathered more storms than I cared to count, but her… she was something else entirely.
CHAPTER FIVE
Poppy
I woke at two in the morning because the wind was blowing against the side of the cabin, knocking like it wanted inside. I lay there for a moment listening to it, and then I remembered the seedlings.
“Damn it.” I jumped out of bed, pulling on the pair of leggings I’d taken off for bed. The broken seedlings I’d rescued after the rack disaster were sitting on the edge of the back stoop in order to catch the sunlight. They had grown several inches, and I’d been unreasonably proud of that.
