Page 56 of Poppy Kisses
Violet’s face was screwed up like she was thinking hard. “What if…what if you had rules?”
I perked up. I knew surrounding myself with smart ladies would help. “What do you mean?”
“Not in his bedroom,” Violet said. “Or yours.”
“Or not inabed,” Daisy added. “Since there are ways to have sex in a bedroom but not in bed.”
“I really have a hard time when it’s my brother you’re talking about.” Lily shook herself. “But I’m also happy it’s you with my brother you’re talking about. What a mindfuck.”
“Totally,” Violet said. “I might need another drink.”
“We had a roommate agreement when we first married.” A blush darkened Daisy’s cheeks. “Admittedly, we broke the rules pretty quickly.”
“I’d ask what rules,” I said, “but also it’s our brother.” I thought for a moment. Rules were boundaries and that was what I had thought we needed. We still did. “The idea has promise.”
“Like after Auggie’s in bed.” Lily ticked a finger. “No beds. No cuddling after.” She continued ticking off fingers. “Um, no candlelight dinners.”
“Straight fucking.” I sucked in a deep breath. Could I do that? He’d said he was willing. Would he mind a roommate agreement? A fake marriage arrangement? Since we weren’t married yet, it’d be an engagement agreement. Semantics, but I clung to the fine line. Because I’d be dancing on it as soon as I got home.
ChapterThirteen
Jensen
Auggie was asleep, and I reclined on the couch, watching one of my favorite episodes ofBrooklyn Nine-Nine. Poppy wouldn’t be home late. She and her sisters weren’t like that, but on the off chance she was, I had the urge to wait up for her. I wanted to make sure she made it home safely.
An anxious tangle formed in my gut. I didn’t like the sense of waiting, of wondering. Of having to nurse a hungover wife who’d partied with clients and fellow cowboys. Of wondering if this time she’d smell like someone else’s cologne. Or when she’d rush right into the shower. Back then, I’d known it was a matter of time. My ex had a code of honor, but I was never sure how long it’d protect me.
Headlights swung by the window and a knot in my stomach eased. It was barely after ten, and she was already home. She’d joked about getting wasted. I hoped if she did, she caught a ride.
My phone pinged. Frowning, I glanced at it.
Poppy: Can you meet me outside?
I was out the door in a minute. All I had on was a white T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants full of brightly wrapped presents that my mom had helped Auggie pick out for Christmas.
Poppy was waiting by my pickup, shifting from foot to foot like she was doing some ankle warm-up drill from her soccer days. The sky wasn’t fully dark. I could see her pretty clearly, standing between our vehicles. She had worn the same thing to the bar that I had taken off her in the shop this afternoon. That had also been like a balm to the scars inside me. She hadn’t dressed to the nines like she wanted to be the center of male attention—because being the center of mine wasn’t enough.
“What’s up?” I asked, shoving my hands into my pockets. The pants dragged a little lower on my hips, but the other option was to squat and run my hands down those muscular legs that drove me wild.
She started pacing. “I’m sorry that I had to talk to my sisters about us.”
Lead lined my stomach. What’d they say? I’d been the topic of “girl talk” before and it was about how much I’d been a downer. “It’s fine. You needed to talk.”
She stopped abruptly in front of me. I drank her in—the fading light on her soft curls and the sparkle in the yellow flecks of her eyes. “They had some, uh, good ideas.” When I lifted a brow, she nodded and her cheeks flushed bright. “Like an engagement agreement.”
“Don’t we already have one?”
“For sex.”
My dick immediately came to attention. If this kept up, all she had to do was think about sex, and I would get hard.
“We don’t do it in a bed,” she continued and licked her lips. Fuck. “We only do it when Auggie’s asleep, and no cuddling or that’d invite emotion, and we haven’t even started our official time together.” She wrung her hands. “Mostly, I don’t want to mess this up. I like you and I like our arrangement. I know the sex will be good, probablyamazing, and if we catch feelings, then…we risk messing up our bargain.”
Mulling over her words, I also enjoyed the nervous buzz of energy coming off her. I didn’t smell alcohol, just her normal sunshine-and-peaches scent. She was serious. So serious, she’d had a Duke sisters meeting about it, about us.
She’d thought it out. I didn’t have to ponder for long. “Auggie’s asleep and we’re nowhere near a bed.”
Her lips parted and a soft inhale resounded between us.
