Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
“Are you okay?” Brookes whispers, his hands still gripping my fleshy hips almost to the point of pain, but it’s a good pain, one I never knew I needed.
I close my eyes, squeezing them tight.
“Poppy?”
Yep, he’s really there. Not my imagination or some hot ass dream.
Reluctantly, I open my eyes, meeting his penetrating blue gaze that cuts through the darkness like steel.
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
“I-I think I just…” I glance down, looking between my thighs that are still straddling Brookes’ waist, feeling wetnesseverywhere. Lifting my gaze, I see his eyebrows tug together.
“You came,” he finishes my sentence.
I nod, frantically, my breath hitching in the back of my throat as my mind reels.
“Poppy?”
I search his eyes.
“Have you—” He snaps his mouth shut, rubbing his lipstogether a moment before continuing, “You’ve never come before.” It’s more a statement than a question.
My cheeks flame, and the dizzying euphoria coursing through me makes way for stark humiliation, my shoulders instinctively cowering. I shake my head, averting my eyes.
Brookes tucks a finger under my chin, forcing my eyes back to his, his stare so hard and intense it almost feels as if he can see straight through me. “You’re not a?—”
“No!” I answer as soon as I see his mouth work around the very first letter of the word.
He releases a breath, his broad shoulders visibly relaxing.
“I just…” I shake my head. “I’ve never.”
Brookes’ gaze dips down momentarily before meeting mine again, one brow quirking curiously as he asks, “Not even… on your own?”
I shake my head quickly, and when he narrows his eyes dubiously, I want to curl in on myself. When a deep crease buries itself between Brookes’ eyebrows, his jaw ticking, I panic because he’s pissed. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to?—”
“That asshole never made you come?” he practically spits, interrupting my apology.
My face falls, and I don’t miss the relief that washes through me when I realize his anger isn’t directed at me, but at Simon. I shake my head.
Brookes closes his eyes, exhaling a hard yet steady breath through his nose. When he opens his eyes, there’s a tenderness there, masking the anger. “You trust me?”
I swallow hard, nodding. Because I do trust him. It’s both confusing and confronting how much I trust this man I barely know. “Yes.”
Suddenly, and without warning, Brookes moves, and I am being lifted in the air, like I weigh nothing instead of one hundred seventy-two pounds, all the air ripped from my lungs as he rises to his feet, taking me with him.
“Brookes, put me down!” I gasp. “I’m too heavy—you’re gonna break your damn back!”
Ignoring me, he hitches me higher in his arms with a scoff. “It seems you underestimate me, Pops.”
I wrap my arms around his neck, holding on tight as he carries me through into the bedroom where the drapes are open because that’s how I like to sleep, the sheers letting in a little light, warding off the darkness of night.
Brookes climbs onto the bed, placing me gently onto the mattress, his body looming over mine, strong arms caging me on either side of my head. His pale-blue eyes cut through the muted light, boring into mine.
“I’m going to make you come again,” he says. “On my tongue.”
