“Poppy, oh Christ.”
One more thrust and as his cock jerked and spurted inside her, Poppy’s muscles joined the party. She cried out and unraveled like a paper streamer launched into the air. Ribbons of pleasure twisting through her body as she slumped forward.
Joe lay against her back, sliding his hands underneath her to envelop her breasts. She could feel him shaking, his breath little puffs of air on her neck.
“I was going to apologize for that being so fast but it was your fault,” he said. “But I really needed to do that and I’m going to need to do it again once I’ve recovered.”
“Can you make it last a bit longer next time? And use your cock.”
Joe laughed and collapsed on his side, taking her with him. “I’ll make you regret saying that.” He pulled out of her and turned her over. “Poppy, you do know how much I…”
Her heart skipped a beat, but Joe went silent. He pressed his face into her neck and nuzzled her. The combination of his soft lips and slightly rough chin sent Poppy soaring back towards paradise. His tongue trailed along her collarbone, licking and teasing before dropping to trace the inner curve of her breast. Poppy quivered like a kitten. Joe cupped her left breast and rubbed the swollen tip with his thumb while his lips teased the other nipple. As she whimpered, he switched and switched again until Poppy writhed beneath him.
His head moved lower, and her skin twitched around her bellybutton with every brush of his lips. When she felt his shoulders shaking, she knew he was laughing. Poppy pushed herself up on her elbows. “What’s funny?”
“You are. Watching your stomach quiver. It’s like that film Alien.”
Poppy meshed her fingers in his hair and wrapped her legs around his back. “Well, guess what? When the monster leaps out of me, it’s you he’s going to eat.”
Joe wriggled free, pushed up her knees and nestled between her legs, his tongue running along her folds, sucking up her cream, teasing her clit until Poppy drummed on his back with her heels. She could feel herself coming again, the ripples gaining strength, growing into waves, and she stopped kicking to let the surge sweep over her and carry her away. The sensation of coming was so overwhelming, Poppy lost all sense but that. It was like her world ended just for a moment in a blaze of glorious pleasure. She gave a deep sigh as the last tremor faded away.
“Good?” Joe asked.
“Aarghhh.”
Joe spread her legs wider. As he nipped her with his teeth, Poppy’s back arched off the bed.
“No…gawwwd,” she gasped.
He caught her flailing hands and entwined his fingers with hers. “I’ve rendered you speechless. My work is done.”
When Poppy slid into an exhausted nap, Joe ran her a bath. He was hungry but the food could wait. He tipped in half a bottle of pink gloop he found on the shelf, stared at the pathetic number of bubbles being produced and tipped in the rest under the tap. He stared at the red plastic container that sat on the floor and realized it contained his ashes. Joe wondered what he looked like. He pried off the top. Cat litter. He wished he’d not bothered.
Joe went back into the bedroom, sat on the edge of the bed and stared at Poppy, still flushed from fucking, her lips swollen. Probably both set of lips swollen. Joe grinned and the smile slipped from his face. He wanted to give Poppy the world and it was too late. The one thing he could give her was the one thing she wouldn’t want. Joe had to let her go. Poppy still had a life to live and it couldn’t be with him.
The stab of pain that knowledge brought made Joe’s breath lodge in his throat. Poppy had one arm tucked under her pillow, the other curled close to her face and she looked about ten years old. Her fingers were long and delicate, her wrists tiny, her skin soft and smooth. Joe’s eyes lingered on the jagged red scar at her hip and he flinched. His weight had pulled her onto the glass. She could have died too.
“What’s that noise?” Poppy asked, her eyelids fluttering open.
“Shit.”
Joe leapt for the bathroom. The water hadn’t reached the top of the tub, but the foam had and oozed over the floor like some pink-tinged fungus. His shoulders slumped.
“Shit. I wanted it to be nice and all I’ve done is make a mess.”
Poppy rested her head against his back. “Doesn’t matter. It’s the thought that counts.”
Joe turned and hugged her. “I’ve made a mess of everything.”
“I can mop up with towels, it’s fine, don’t worry.”
He put his forehead against hers. “I don’t mean that. I…I…” Fuck, why couldn’t he get the words out? Poppy pulled away and stepped into the foam.
“I’m going to do a reverse Aphrodite.”
Joe’s jaw twitched. He was allowing Poppy do what she always did when he struggled with his emotions—let him off the hook.
“Not sure you’re going to be able to find me in here.” She lay down, sent a wave of bubbles pouring over the rim and all but disappeared.
Joe laughed and blew a hole in the foam over her face.
“You get in too,” Poppy said.
By the time Joe was in with her and Poppy lay on his chest, the entire bathroom was splattered with flecks of foam. They took turns with the soap, each lathering a limb and the bubbles prickled and popped as they disintegrated around them. Joe washed Poppy’s hair and wondered why the hell they’d never done this before. He was as turned-on as Poppy. Like an ecstatic snake, she slithered with delight under his hands. They behaved like two little kids, shaping each others hair into spikes, ridges and curls, and for a while, Joe forgot this couldn’t last.
* * * * *
“Why do we have to get dressed to eat?” Poppy grumbled as she pulled on the black dress Joe had taken from her wardrobe.
“Because I want it to be as if we’d gone out to a restaurant. I can’t do that with you so this is the next best thing.”
“Ah, so it’s not because you want me to do a striptease for dessert?”
Joe growled. “Set the table while I reheat the food.”
Poppy loved him so much, her heart hurt. They worked side by side, and no more than a few seconds passed before one of them reached to touch the other, a simple fingertip stroke, a caress with a hand, a brush with the side of the body, a bare foot on a calf, a pinched backside.
“Ouch,” Joe yelped.
“I can’t help it. Your butt just asks for it, pleads for it. It’s frustrated under your pants. It’s telling me it wants freedom.”
“And do you listen to all my body parts?”
“Yes, except your mouth.”
Poppy dodged out of his reach. She wanted so much to tell him that she loved him but the look that came over Joe’s face when she’d blurted it out twice since he’d come back, trapped the words in her heart. But Joe had changed. He seemed gentler, more aware of her. Poppy caught him looking at her sometimes as though he was seeing her for the first time. Was he falling in love with her?
Joe opened a bottle of white wine, dimmed the lights and pulled out Poppy’s chair for her. He’d found two stubby, mismatched emergency candles, stuck them in saucers and lit them. Poppy was astounded. Romance and Joe were not words that went in the same sentence unless there was a not in there too. Joe shook out the length of kitchen roll he’d ripped off for a napkin and with a wink, placed it over Poppy’s lap.
The Thai food was delicious as usual and as usual, Joe speared one of her prawns each time she had the chopsticks close to her mouth. Poppy was always unwilling to stop what she was doing to stab the thieving bastard because she didn’t find eating with chopsticks very easy. By the time she’d achieved the minor miracle of a full load heading towards her mouth, she was salivating.
Joe ate at three times her speed and occasionally offered her a mouthful with his own sticks but Poppy saw the meal as a challenge and liked to empty her plate herself. Joe speared her last prawn as Poppy balanced a swirl of noodles in front of her mouth. He didn’t eat it, but waited until she’d finished and offered it to
her. As Poppy wrapped her lips around it, she suddenly realized what this evening was about and couldn’t swallow.
The effort of not spitting the prawn out made her shake. Finally, it went down. She’d eat no more. Joe wasn’t looking at her for the first time, instead he was looking at her for the last. He’d done something to earn his wings and was saying goodbye. Only Joe wouldn’t say anything. He’d just go. She twirled her chopsticks in the remains of the noodles but never lifted them to her mouth. Joe’s dish was empty, hers half-full, just like their lives except Poppy’s was empty without Joe.
He reached across the table and took hold of her hand. Poppy wondered what had made that dent in the table.
“Poppy, look at me.”
Joe needed to change his shirt. He’d dripped sauce on it. She’d lost count of the number of times he’d had to strip off halfway through a meal so she could put his shirt in cold water. Still, there was the added compensation of having his lovely chest to look at. Those rounded pecs topped by tight copper nipples. She sucked her lip.
“Look at my face, Poppy.”
Oh God. When she did, Poppy was lost, swept up in the dark storm clouds of his eyes, tossed in heavy seas, sinking, drowning. Her fist clenched.
“You weren’t responsible for what happened to me. I should never have let you think you were. How could you have hauled me back onto the roof? Apart from the fact that you were injured, I weigh a hell of lot more than you. It was an accident, Poppy. You didn’t let me go. I slipped from your grasp. I didn’t need to forgive you because it was never your fault. You were brave.”
“But I knocked—”
His hand tightened around hers. “No buts. You tried to save me. You didn’t want to let me go and you’ve let guilt consume you to the point that you imagined I was still with you. In holding yourself responsible for my death, you bound us together with barbed wire. You want to feel guilty because that makes you hurt more.”
She bit the inside of her cheeks so hard, she tasted blood.
“You’re punishing yourself for something that isn’t your fault. I can’t let you do that, Poppy. You’re alive. I’m dead. You deserve to be happy. I can’t take you out for meals or dance with you in a club. We can never walk hand in hand on a beach. We don’t exist outside this apartment. I need to let you go. That’s what I have to do to get my white wings. This is our last night and I want it to be perfect.”
His words froze the breath in her lungs, stopped her heart, clogged her veins.
“If you’re dead, then I want to die too,” she whispered.
Joe shook his head. “No, you don’t.”
If you disappear, I’ll kill myself.
“Don’t you dare,” Joe said. “I know what you’re thinking.” He released her hand and wiped the tear from under her eye. “You’re not in the shower. No crying. Eat while it’s still warm.”
“I can’t,” Poppy whispered. “I don’t want to waste one minute doing anything other than holding you.”
She stood and slipped out of the dress, letting it fall to the floor by her chair. The Adam’s apple in Joe’s throat moved up and down as he stared at her. Poppy reached to the fastening of her bra and he stopped her.
“No. Come here.”
Poppy surrendered into his arms. Joe turned his chair away from the table, pulled her down so she straddled his lap and pressed his lips to hers. One hand held the nape of her neck, the other slid up her back and unsnapped her bra. Poppy lowered her arms and the bra dropped. Pulling her wrists free she let it fall to the floor.
“Oh Poppy, you are so beautiful. Look at these, all hard and ready to go.”
He rubbed his fingers over her nipples. Heat spiked through her to leave a tingling in her clit.
“Unfasten my shirt.” His voice was rough and ragged.
Poppy’s fumbling fingers undid every button, tugged the shirt out of his pants and pushed it off his shoulders to join her bra. Joe pulled her forward to kiss her again, rocking against her, his tongue tracing the outline of her lips before slipping between her teeth. His cock pressed against her belly, straining to escape his pants. Poppy trembled and moaned when Joe’s lips swooped to her ear and rimmed the delicate shell before nibbling the lobe. The feel of his breath at that spot turned Poppy’s heat up to full power.
She clung to Joe’s shoulders as he ran his lips down the column of her neck and along the line of her chin. Tiny kisses, long wet slurps, Poppy loved them all. Loved Joe.
I love you.
She held in her head the words she longed to say, afraid he’d push her away for the third time. He supported her at the waist and tipped her back so he could lick a path to her nipples. Joe sucked one then the other, teasing with his teeth, soothing with the flat of his warm tongue, circling with his soft lips. Poppy reached such a state of bliss she could no longer focus. Lost in some erotic dream, waves of sensation curled her toes and made her hair prickle. Joe homed in on every erogenous zone north of her waist and her body thrummed with excitement.
Joe pulled her close to his chest, his tight nipples rubbing against her breasts as he brought his mouth down on hers again. His tongue plunged between her lips, and Poppy drank and drank. No one had ever kissed her like Joe. No one ever would. She could come just from his kiss. The very first time they’d joined lips, the day they’d met, she’d unraveled in his arms. They stood in the middle of a restaurant and Joe had laughed in her ear and told her he was going to arrest her for coming without permission.
Joe’s fingers slid down her body leaving ripples in their wake. When he touched her panties he laughed into her mouth. “Not ready for me yet?”
Poppy didn’t think she’d ever been this drenched. He trailed one finger under the edge of the material along the line of her belly and her pussy muscles clenched hard enough to make her shudder. Poppy’s thighs trembled, her breathing reduced to ragged little bursts. That same lovely finger snuck down her groin and pushed the panties aside. Joe stroked the brown curls he’d exposed and then slid his finger over her slick folds before he gently delved inside.
She clenched around him, biting contractions radiating from her core to fling her into a whirlpool of sensation. Poppy sighed into his mouth as she came apart, a long trembling exhale that he swallowed.
“My little firecracker,” Joe said with a laugh.
He pulled his finger out of her tight sheath and stroked her wet folds back and forth, side to side, avoiding her clit. Poppy tried to shift on his lap to get him to the right spot, the one that would make her come again. Joe clamped his other hand on her hip to hold her still.
“Wait, sweetheart,” he whispered into her mouth.
He pushed more of her panties aside and then there were two fingers inside her and Poppy was making a weird noise. She wanted to move, but Joe wouldn’t let her. Each time she hovered on the brink of falling, he pulled back. Frustrated anticipation fed her desire.
Poppy dragged her mouth from his. “How long?” she gasped.
“What? How long is my cock?”
“Stop it.”
Joe’s fingers stopped moving.
“Not that. Keep doing that. Stop teasing me.”
“Never. I’m going to make you come so many times you’ll lose count,” he whispered. “I’m going to fuck you until you see stars, until you scream my name, so you never forget me.”
He didn’t need the third finger. Poppy came shuddering and crying as she slumped against him.
Joe caressed from her neck to her waist as she rested her head on his shoulder. He told his cock and balls to stop complaining and show some dignity. Another burst of pre-cum wet his pants. Joe scooped Poppy’s cream from between her legs and smeared it over her lips, then he kissed her. Poppy caught his hand, brought it to her mouth and wrapped her lips around each of his fingers in turn, sucking so hard she yanked a groan from his throat and turned up the fire in his balls.
“I want you on the table for dessert,” he whispered.
“Move t
he candles first or I’ll be a flambé.”
Joe laughed. He stood and sat her on the chair while he cleared the table. He left the candles alight on the counter and shucked off his pants and boxers. He hadn’t bothered with socks and shoes. Joe turned from the sink to see her lying on the table, knees raised and legs spread. His eyes glazed over and he had to grab the root of his cock to stop himself spurting. The panties were gone.
“Hey, I wanted to take those off,” he said.
“They dissolved.”
He dragged the chair to the end of the table and sat staring at her soft, pink folds, all wet and glistening in the candlelight. Joe inhaled her musky scent and yanked down on his balls. Not yet. He kissed her toes, swept his lips around her ankle, licking as he went and let his fingers follow the wet trail, up the swell of her calf, lingering over that ultrasensitive spot behind her knee, on along the inside of her quivering thigh until he laid his mouth over her core.
Joe breathed on her pussy and Poppy’s back arched. Her fingers grasped the edge of the table and Joe moved his hands over hers, rubbing her taut knuckles with his thumbs. He peeled her right hand free and brought it between her legs, so his mouth and both their hands lay in the same place.
“Bring yourself off, Poppy,” he whispered.
He loved watching her do this, sometimes made her do it in public—in a restaurant, in the cinema and the park. Her fingers sank into her folds, twisting below the damp curls of her pubic hair. The room slipped away. Joe smelt her musk, scented his own arousal. He listened to the sounds of her movements, the soft wetness as she speared herself, the breathy groans from her throat. More cream gushed from her and his cock felt fit to burst. There was no way he could watch this and not come. Joe climbed on the table astride her and lowered his cock to her mouth.
“Suck me,” he said, his voice almost breaking.
He cradled the back of her head in his palm as he pressed his cock down. Poppy opened wide and engulfed him. The moment she tightened her lips around him, Joe almost lost it but managed to drag himself back. He was a little afraid he’d fall off the table and take her with him but now he’d started this, he didn’t want to stop. He could feel her arms rubbing his backside as she pleasured herself, feel she was close by the way she gasped around his dick. Joe wanted to fuck her mouth hard but he also wanted this to last. Poppy wrapped her lips around the head of his cock and squeezed and Joe’s knees shook. Her mouth was liquid heat, a wet heaven, and in a moment he was going to make it wetter.
Power of Love Page 10
