For a long while, they were motionless, welded together, the only sound their labored breathing. Poppy didn’t have sex without emotion. For her, the physical part of a relationship developed alongside her feelings. Most women were like that, she thought. They had sex and they fell in love. Often before they had sex. Not guys. They pursued you with words of love until they got what they wanted and then the sex lost its emotion. Joe pretended he didn’t love her, that this was merely sex with no strings but Poppy knew deep down in his heart, in some locked up, hidden away, secluded corner, the truth was hiding. Joe did love her, he just didn’t know how to tell her.
Poppy knew when he’d done whatever it was that needed to be done to get his wings, she’d lose him again. It wasn’t a matter of her holding on to him, but the other way round. Joe moved his head back and looked at Poppy’s face. One finger on her cheek wiped a streak of wetness.
“I thought you only cried in the shower.”
“Better get me in there quick,” she said.
Joe grinned and began to unbutton her shirt. Wasn’t that just Joe? Poppy thought. He’d never seen her cry but he didn’t even ask her why.
Joe couldn’t let Poppy out of his sight. They showered together, fell back into bed together. When she got up to go to the bathroom, he followed. When she wandered into the kitchen, he stayed at her heels. He couldn’t stop touching her. He’d never thought of himself as a tactile person but he needed to constantly feel her next to him. When they weren’t fucking, he thought about fucking. She never pushed him away, never refused him anything. Sometimes, a part of him wished she would.
She was his drug, his compulsion, his addiction. The more he had, the more he wanted. He knew he was scaring her with his intensity. He was scaring himself but Joe couldn’t stop, couldn’t imagine what would stop him wanting Poppy.
“Are you hungry?” she whispered.
Oh, yeah, that might make him stop for a bit. Food. “Starving. I can’t remember the last time I ate.” Joe thought about it. He couldn’t.
“Shall I rustle us something up or would you rather have a pizza? I’m not sure I’ve got much in the fridge.”
Joe had already looked. “Pizza. I’ll call.”
He reached across the bed and snagged her phone. That reminded him he hadn’t seen his mobile. Maybe they weren’t allowed to seekers.
“Hi, one medium four cheese and one large meat special. Thin base. Delivered,” he said.
“Hello, anyone there?”
Joe repeated the order but before he’d finished speaking the connection was broken. About to get uppity, realization sank in. The guy couldn’t hear him.
“Ah.” He passed the phone to Poppy. “I forgot.”
She rolled her eyes. “I suppose that means you can’t pay either.”
“There’s money in my wallet but I can’t figure out how this works. If I can’t talk to anyone but you, how am I supposed to buy food or…”
Maybe that was the point, Joe thought. He was supposed to rely on Poppy. She was the key to all this. His way of getting his wings. She stood leaning against the wall as she gave the order for the pizza and Joe got to his feet. He hooked an arm around her waist and kissed her shoulder. As the phone went down he pressed his lips against hers. Joe meant it to be a short, sweet kiss but it dropped straight into a frenzied assault on her mouth.
His hands slid under her bottom and he picked her up, wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her back against the wall. He might be dead, but adrenaline pumped so furiously around his body that Joe could have lifted twice her weight. He plastered himself against her, thrust his tongue into Poppy’s mouth and groaned low in his throat.
With considerable effort he dragged his head back and stared at her. “How can you drive me so wild? I only have to look at you to want you. Hell, I only have to think of you to go hard.”
Poppy looped her arms around his neck and he shifted his hips so his cock slid between her legs. They both groaned.
“This isn’t easy,” Poppy whispered. “I’m heavy.”
Joe looked deep into her eyes and lifted her so the blunt head of his cock nudged against her folds. Then he kept her there. Poppy wriggled but he wouldn’t let her move. The fact that this was killing him and driving his balls beyond despair was beside the point. Poppy kept trying to sink onto him and Joe kept her off.
“Have…I proved…my point?” he gasped the words out and didn’t much care for the sly look in Poppy’s eyes.
“No, I’m timing you. The record for holding me in this position is twelve minutes. James, I think it was. Or it might have been Pete.”
“Fuck that.”
Joe slammed her down over his cock as he arched his hips and jerked into her. Poppy cried out. He didn’t let her move, pinned her against the wall while their bodies heaved with the force of their breathing. Joe rested his forehead against Poppy’s and brought his thumbs up to graze under her breasts.
“Any time you’re ready,” Poppy said with a groan.
Joe bent his knees to slide his cock in and out of her as slowly as he could, trying to suppress the white-hot need to go fast and hard that swirled inside him. She was so soft, her warm, velvety cream coated his hardness and Joe trembled as he began to pulse inside her with longer, deeper thrusts.
“Oh God, Joe. That’s so good. Right there. Oooh.”
“Poppy, I…God…I…” His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and he stuttered in speech and for a moment in action.
She dug her fingers into his shoulders. “Don’t stop, don’t stop.”
If he could, Joe would have laughed. Nothing could have stopped him, not even a nuclear explosion. No point stopping for that. In fact that would have been a way to go, fucking himself to oblivion instead of tumbling off a roof.
Poppy’s back arched against the wall and he felt her clench around him, a hard pull against his cock that sent a ricochet to his balls.
“Open your eyes. I want to watch you come,” Joe gasped.
He rolled his hips, made his cock dance in her pussy and Poppy yipped. With one strong flex of his hips, Joe embedded himself so deep inside her, he thought he might never come out, and for a moment, he didn’t want to. His balls tingled and then exploded in an electric firestorm. The contractions of her orgasm intensified his and a burning flash rocketed through his cock, sending phosphoric flames shooting through his body. Almost painful in its intensity, the impact of the orgasm made him hold her too tight, afraid someone or something would tear her away before he could bring himself to let her go.
Another shower and the doorbell rang while they were washing each other. Joe started to get out to answer it and then remembered. Poppy grabbed a robe.
“I’ll see if your money disappears.”
When he walked into the kitchen and smelled the pizza, his stomach gave a loud rumble.
Poppy laughed. “Five point two on the Richter scale.”
Joe yanked the robe from her shoulders. “You aren’t allowed clothes. They waste too much time.”
“Shall we forget eating then and have a bath together? Want to guess how long I can hold my breath?”
Joe gave her a pained look and stared at the boxes. “Do you think I’ll be able to eat?”
“I’ll eat yours if you can’t.” Poppy lifted the lid on the smaller box. “Hey, and your money’s good so I gave the guy a huge tip.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “How huge?”
Poppy couldn’t answer. Her mouth was full of pizza. A moment later, so was Joe’s.
“Shall we eat in front of the TV?” Joe asked.
He didn’t wait for Poppy to answer but scooped up the boxes and carried them through. She smiled and followed.
“Football on by any chance?” she asked.
“Is there?”
Poppy rolled her eyes. There was always football on. But Joe didn’t go and sit in his chair. He sat on the couch. He handed the remote to Poppy and watched her stare at it as though it was a big fat spider.
“Put on what you like,” he said.
“Strictly Ballroom?”
He cringed. “If you must.”
Poppy clicked onto the football.
Joe beamed. “I’ll reward you later.”
“You better.”
* * * * *
Poppy woke the next morning with Joe’s cock thickening between her thighs. She smiled. They were insatiable. Her smile faltered. Poppy was scared of losing him again. She didn’t want to leave his side in case he disappeared. Did Joe fear the same? He always had some part of him in contact with her—his fingers touching, an arm, knee or toes—as though that grounded him in her world. She wriggled her backside harder against him and in response he nuzzled into her neck, his fingers tickling her hip before sweeping to her breast.
“Ahem.”
Poppy’s eyes snapped open at the strange voice. Joe yanked the sheet over them.
“Want to explain what you’re doing?”
Poppy lifted her head and saw a beautiful chocolate-skinned woman standing at the end of the bed.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Joe said.
“I’m the one asking the questions. What in G’s name do you think you’re up to?”
“Having a fuck.”
Poppy thought she saw a flash of disappointment cross the woman’s face.
“It’s my fault,” Poppy said. “Don’t blame Joe.”
The woman gaped at her. “You can see me? Hear me?”
Poppy nodded. Desiree gave a heavy sigh. “It must be because the bond between you is so strong.”
Poppy wanted to rejoice at that, instead her heart sank. So it was her fault. The pressure of knowing she was responsible for Joe being trapped made her head ache.
“I’m going to have to check up on this. I suggest you spend less time in bed and more time figuring out how to earn your full wings or you could find they’re taken away altogether.”
“What would happen then?” Poppy asked.
Desiree shuddered, her hair shimmering in its own light.
“You said it can take years,” Joe pointed out and stroked Poppy’s cheek. “I can’t see what’s so bad about that.”
“Can’t you? Have you thought of the implications for Poppy? Tied to a lover no one else can see? And you’ll start to feel hungry, Joe. A hunger that can’t be satisfied by food. It will grow worse the longer you take to earn your wings. You’ll turn as gray as them and eventually you’ll fade away. And it’s very painful.”
Joe stopped stroking Poppy. “You didn’t tell me that before.”
“I usually don’t have to tell anyone the unpleasant part—93.57 percent of the newly deceased earn their wings within a few days. Those that don’t tend to be criminals, extremely immature, obsessive compulsive or Virgos.”
“And which were you?” Joe asked.
Desiree shuffled her feet. “Kleptomaniac.”
Joe gaped at her. “A shoplifter?”
“It’s an illness,” Desiree said. “I’m better now.”
“I’m a cop and I have a thief as my guide?”
“You’re no longer a cop and I’m no longer a thief.” Desiree stared straight at him.
“No, you’re right,” Joe said. “Look, can’t you give me a clue about what I should be doing?”
Poppy could tell Joe was worried from the way his fingers squeezed hers under the sheet.
“Maybe it’s not something you have to do,” Desiree said. “I’m going to check up on the fact that you two are still able to—fuck.”
Poppy didn’t miss the emphasis she gave those words, but Joe appeared oblivious. A blink and Desiree had gone.
Joe rolled onto his back and ran his fingers through his hair. “Maybe I have to perform some sort of good deed connected to being a cop. What do you think, Poppy?” He looked at her with a hopeful expression on his face.
“Like stopping a crime before it takes place or saving someone who’s about to get run over?”
Joe nodded.
“How would you know it was going to happen? You can’t see the future, can you? And you told me you can’t touch anyone, only me.” She gave a little smile.
Joe dropped his face to her stomach and blew a loud raspberry. Poppy giggled.
He gazed up at her. “But you can touch people. I could tell you how to help them. I can get into places you can’t. I can warn you what’s going down.” He looked pleased with himself. “I’ll come out on patrol with you.”
“Okay.”
Since Joe had been on patrol with her every day since she’d been back at work, Poppy thought life would carry on pretty much as normal. She wanted to help him. It was the least she could do, even though by helping him she’d lose him again. But if Joe couldn’t be happy with her, then Poppy wanted him to be happy without her.
Chapter Seven
Joe held open the exterior door to Poppy’s apartment building, and let her leave first.
“I can take you to work on my bike,” he said.
“I don’t think so. Look.”
Poppy’s hand was on his arm. Not on his arm. Somewhere in the middle of his arm. Joe lifted his hand to her face and tried to touch her cheek.
“Oh fuck. I can’t feel you. I can see you, but I can’t touch you.”
The pain that came with that realization froze him where he stood. Poppy gulped and then turned to look at the door they’d come through.
“Back inside,” Joe said, thinking the same.
He followed Poppy. He’d held her hand down the stairs, but he was afraid to try again now they were back inside. They stared at each other and then Poppy threw herself at him. Joe caught her, staggered back and knocked his head on the wall. He groaned and then laughed. Poppy closed her eyes with a deep sigh and Joe rubbed his cheek against hers.
“God, I thought I’d lost you again,” he whispered.
“Shut up and kiss me.”
“You’re going to be late.”
“I don’t care.”
“Jeff will skin you alive.”
“I don’t care.”
There was a desperation in her Joe didn’t think he’d seen before. Usually he was the aggressor, the one in control, but it felt like Poppy was trying to consume him. Her fingers fumbled with his zipper. Joe slid his hands over her hips. He was hard—again.
“Poppy,” he groaned.
His zipper down, Poppy had her hand in his pants. Joe dragged her around the corner and pressed her up against the door to the cleaner’s closet. Her fingers were wrapped around his cock, sliding up and down. He really didn’t need that. He was already primed. Joe pulled her hand away.
“Sweetheart…”
“Joe, now,” she whispered. “Please, I need you to fuck me.”
Not that he was arguing but he did wonder what this would look like if he was invisible. Joe lifted Poppy’s skirt and pushed aside her panties. He groaned. She was hot and wet and now Joe couldn’t wait either. He bent his knees to angle his dick and one long, hard thrust rocked her off her feet. Joe began pumping hard and fast, the pace growing more frantic until she clenched around him. The pulse drummed in his ears as he tugged her down hard onto his cock and Joe came too. He held her tight in his arms as he jetted into her, pressing his forehead against hers as her spasms milked him dry.
“Fuck, Poppy. How fast was that?” Joe let out a shaky laugh.
Only fast wasn’t good. He wanted to drag her back upstairs and never let her leave his side. Every time he touched her he slipped out of control and it scared him. Joe shook with the intensity of his feelings. His heart was pounding hard enough to crack his ribs. He kissed her nose and lifted her down. Poppy straightened her skirt. She slipped his cock back inside his pants and zipped him up.
“Have the day off. You’ve just whetted my appetite for a day in bed.” Joe bent his head and nibbled her earlobe.
Poppy broke away with a groan. “I can’t. I’ve had too much time off.”
Joe looked at her, with her sh
ining eyes, swollen lips, and untidy hair, and his stomach clenched as if he anticipated getting thumped. She’d been his and no matter what happened now, he’d lost her. And what did she mean about having too much time off? Joe opened his mouth to ask and she dashed for the door.
“I’ll see you at the station. Making out with a dead guy is one reason for being late I’m not going to get away with.”
* * * * *
Joe parked right outside Hackney Central Police Station, glancing at the double yellow lines under his bike wheels. Breaking the law wasn’t as much fun when no one cared. He wondered if there was an angelic police force, whether he’d be expected to join. Maybe illegal parking would scupper his chances. He grinned.
No problem finding the room holding the ranks of uniformed officers. Joe could hear the racket they made all the way down the corridor. He pushed open the door and walked in. Touching inanimate objects didn’t appear to be a problem, but it seemed they only moved in his reality.
There was no sign of Poppy and no one paid any attention to him so Joe assumed there were no other seekers around.
“Parade time,” a guy shouted.
Poppy was now late and going to be in trouble. The room bustled with activity as helmets and hats were grabbed and uniforms straightened. Everyone rushed through Joe to get out of the room. A weird mental sensation, but he didn’t feel the faintest flicker.
Joe followed the uniforms and watched them line up outside, jostling and joking with each other. Eons ago, he’d been one of them. Joe remembered how glad he’d been when he’d made detective and no longer had to go on parade. Treading the beat as the lowest-ranking officer was compulsory for every police entrant and Joe thought it was a sound principle, but he hated Poppy doing it, afraid she’d get hurt.
He breathed a sigh of relief when she slipped into place on the front row just as her boss, Jeff Garside, came into the yard from the other direction. Joe walked to Poppy’s side. She looked cute in her uniform, very fuckable. He groaned. Could he think of nothing else when he looked at her?
“My cum dripping down your thighs?” he said at her ear.
When Poppy ignored him, Joe’s heart began to stutter. He flapped his arms at her side to see if she’d react and suddenly his wings were out and he was airborne. Six feet up and rising. Shit! Fifteen feet. He heard Poppy gasp, which was a good thing because now he knew she could see him, but in his shock he stopped moving his wings. Fucking hell. The ground was coming up fast and it looked hard. That was definitely bad. Joe’s wings retracted. Well of course they did, they weren’t stupid, and he fell in a crumpled heap at the Chief Inspector’s feet. The impact knocked all the air out of his lungs and Joe gasped.
Power of Love Page 7
