Page 32 of Brewing Up a Bad Boy

His mind always concentrated on the regrets. Like forgetting how it felt to be in her orbit. She might have thought that she needed to feel worthy of him, but there was so much power in her. Whenever she danced and moved, he was utterly captivated.

Poppy was comfortable in her skin in a way he’d never been.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the rhythm, her hands on his hips until he found the beat. She danced around him, her hips brushing against his. The coolness of the material of her skirt against his bare legs made him forget everything but her.

He put his hands on her waist and pulled her into his body, his mouth on hers, her hands in his hair. He’d have a million tough conversations with her if it meant she’d come into his arms like this again.

Not just for a few nights. There was no denying he wanted her to come back to him. He’d tried to dress it up to make him feel better about approaching her when she’d clearly moved on. But he no longer could deny that this was why he’d joined the Tea Society.

Sure, he wanted to help her, but he really wanted to help himself. Wanted to be the man who was worthy of being loved by Poppy.

Alistair wasn’t sure that he even knew what love was, but he was going to try to figure it out.

She tasted of the spring brew and something that was just purely Poppy. He deepened the kiss for a split second before it trickled into his mind that they were in the beer garden. In public.

“Want to get out of here?”

“Yesss.That song...I’m back here with you,” she said.

“Indeed.”

“Don’t fuck me over again,” she said quietly as she grabbed her bag and led the way out of the pub.

How could he tell her that he never intended to before?

Did he need Poppy now because he was on the cusp of severing his connection to his family? They might not be the most ideal family, but they were his. Ever since he’d left for boarding school, he’d felt alone. His name and the need to prove himself as a Miller had always driven him.

He was on his own now.

Maybe he was still that guy. Totally making choices that felt right for him but might not be right for her.

He had to remember that he was filtering this through his awakened self. That he was trying to be more temperate and not act on impulse.

He had to be very sure that he wasn’t using Poppy once again.

Nine

She was a bit buzzed, but she wanted to assign the past to the done column in her life’s to-do list before making any new mistakes. So she turned to Ali. “We good?”

“What?” he asked.

He looked so cute and confused. His hair was tousled from the repeated times he’d shoved his own hand through it. He had some stubble on his jaw, and those thick eyebrows of his were quizzical. She didn’t want to feel bad about getting involved with him again, because he was making her feel so good.

For once, she didn’t want to look at the two of them and just see a fucked-up mess.

She wanted to relax into this and let him weave that magic that he wasn’t aware he possessed. That power over her that made her feel as if her life was the romantic fairy tale she’d always wanted it to be. The one where she wasn’t the middle daughter of a very normal family, the odd one that no one else really understood.

Liberty once bluntly stated it was her family’s loss that they didn’t get her. She’d tell Poppy to take what she wanted from Alistair, and tomorrow morning, she could kick him out, and they could go back to being enemies.

But they weren’t enemies. They hadn’t been for the past six months or so since he’d shown up online. He’d been slowly reminding her of all the things that made her fall for him the first time.

She was holding on to her own hurt because it made her feel safe. A little anger blanket that she could wrap herself in and use to justify acting like an asshole to him.

Not anymore. Time to find a new emotion to wrap herself in.

Her body was voting heavily for lust.

The moon shone down on them as they turned onto the quiet lane leading to Ali’s house. Stopping, she turned to face him. “Do you feel like we’ve hashed out everything from our marriage so we can finally put it to bed?”

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