“… Try to do it long-distance?” she finished instead. “Would that work, do you think?”
Max reached across the table, taking her hand in his, and Poppy almost sighed in happiness at the wonderful warmth of his touch.
“I’m happy to try it if you are,” he said. “I actually move around a lot, so it would be easy for me to come visit fairly often, if I wouldn’t be imposing.”
“You wouldn’t be imposing!” she blurted out, before reining herself in. She’d been about to invite him to move in with her, but that would be taking things way too fast. She hadn’t even known the guy for twenty-four hours!
Still, the thought was awfully tempting. Waking up every morning to Max’s face… well, she’d probably stay unemployed forever, if she had to choose between snuggling up to Max or trudging off to work every day. She honestly didn’t know how she’d be able to peel herself away from him.
Geri would probably be pretty annoyed if Max moved straight in, anyway. She ruled the roost, and visitors were allowed under her roof only under sufferance.
“Oh,” Poppy said, a thought occurring to her. “You’re not allergic to cats, are you?”
“Cats?” Max blinked. “No, no allergies. How many do you have?”
“Just the one, but dealing with her sometimes feels like dealing with ten cats at once.”
Max laughed. “Isn’t that just all cats?”
Poppy laughed back. “Maybe so. Still, she’s the jealous type. You might have to earn her love.”
Max bowed his head solemnly. “I shall do my utmost.”
His face became more genuinely serious, and he ran his thumb along the back of her hand, sending a delicious shiver down her spine.
“I really do want to get to know you better, Poppy,” he said. “Although I already feel like I’ve known you forever.”
“I know what you mean,” she said, happiness coursing throughout her body and warming her from the inside out. “I can’t explain it, but I feel like…”
You’re the one,she wanted to say.
Instead, she squeezed his hand – and he seemed to get the message, because he leaned across the table, brushing her lips ever so gently with his own.
Poppy sighed with pleasure, closing her eyes briefly at his touch. She would never get sick of this – she thought she could kiss him all day, and never get bored.
Still, there was something she wanted even more than this…
Pulling back regretfully, she opened her eyes, looking at his gorgeous face.
“Should we…?” she asked coyly, angling her head toward the door leading back to her room. As much as she wanted to take him right here on the table, she didn’t really think that it would be fair on whichever poor guest next wanted to use the kitchen.
Max’s eyes widened, and he seemed about to say yes, when he visibly stopped himself. He hesitated a moment, seeming to be finding the right words, before he spoke.
“There’s one thing I want to let you know first,” he said, his voice way too serious for a guy who was basically being offered a supremely horny woman on a platter.
“Is it so important that it can’t wait?” she asked, trying to keep the impatience from her voice. She needed Max, and she needed himnow. Trying to make her have a conversation and use her words was just plain cruel.
He paused, before nodding. “I think so, yes.”
“Too much hesitation. It can’t be that important,” Poppy declared, the slightest hint of worry worming its way into her mind. Was he having second thoughts? “Unless it’s a literal matter of life and death, I don’t want to know about it right now.”
Max opened his mouth, again seeming to hesitate as he thought about what to say.
You really do overthink things too much,Poppy wanted to say. Instead, what she said was, “Boom! Too slow. You’re coming with me.”
She stood up, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and pulled him to his feet, in the full knowledge that he could easily stop her if he wanted to.
But apparently he didn’t want to, because he let her drag him across the kitchen and through her apartment door.
