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I lifted my hand in a pathetic little wave. “Hi.”
“What the fuck are you doing here, Poppy?”
Chapter 3
Jax
In the back of my mind, the place where I shoved down all the things that I refused to think about, I think I knew this would happen eventually.
There was no way it wouldn’t happen.
It would’ve been too easy for me to just wait it out. Let her find someone else. No, because not a single person in that fucking Wilder family could let something go easily when they believed in it strongly enough. Poppy Wilder—though she came off as sweet and kind and innocent, everything I should avoid—was so fucking stubborn because youhadto be the worst kind of stubborn not to let go of whatever her misplaced feelings were for me.
And a stubborn woman, a sweet and kind and innocent one, with big brown eyes and long eyelashes and a smile that lit up every fucking room she walked into, was the most dangerous thing in the world. Letting her walk into my house while it was dark and stormy and I’d been drinking, with a shirt damp from the rain and a skirt swishing around her thighs, was an awful lot like setting a grenade on the floor and hoping it didn’t blow the whole damn place down.
My hands tightened on the frame of the door as I staredher down. Her chin edged up, and that slight show of challenge had my lungs tightening.
Don’t do this, I begged silently.Don’t put me in this position.If I closed my eyes, I could only imagine what hersixolder siblings would plan to do with my body.
We stood there for an impossibly long moment that could’ve been seconds, could’ve been minutes. I wasn’t even fucking sure. She slowly dug her teeth into that lush bottom lip before speaking.
“Can I come in?” she asked.
The rain was coming down sideways now, and the ominous, clanking sound of water turning to sleet as it hit the side of my house intensified my glare.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I’ve had a few drinks,” I admitted.
She smiled—the bright, sunny smile that did things to me, and I had to tear my eyes away. “Perfect, me too.”
Then Poppy ducked underneath my arm, leaving a warm breeze of a sweet, clean scent that had me slamming the door shut. The walls trembled, and she was, naturally, completely unfazed.
Hands clasped behind her back, Poppy studied the main living space of my house. I found myself watching her reactions as her eyes tracked over the wood burning stove in the corner, the oversized couch and chair, the wood beams that ran across the ceiling, and the L-shaped kitchen where I usually ate takeout or something simple.
I’d never needed much. It was a place to lay my head and had a pretty view while I drank my coffee. The preserve behind my house reminded me of the meadow behind Henry’s yard.
But beyond the flowers and the meadow and the space, I was able to be alone out here, just the way I liked it.
Never, not once, had a woman wandered this space.
For it to bethisone, I had to clench my teeth and prepare for whatever the hell she had planned by showing up here.
“It’s nice,” she said finally. She gave me a wry grin over her shoulder, a tiny dimple appearing in her cheek. “I can’t really see you in it anywhere, though.”
All she got in response to that was a low grunt of concession.
I tore my eyes away from that dimple, the whiskey in my veins making my head swim dangerously. Why,whydid I think I could have a quiet weekend at home and enjoy a few drinks while I listened to the rain?
Poppy swayed slightly on her feet, and I resisted the urge to reach out to steady her. I kept my arms crossed over my chest, my eyes locked on the wall just past her when she started twisting all that dark, long hair into a knot at the top of her head.
It fell in a wavy curtain around her shoulders when she let it go, and with a sigh, she sat on the couch, crossing one leg over the other as she met my gaze head-on. If I looked, I’d see the slight flex of muscles in her upper thigh, so I didn’t look because I didn’twantto look.
“What do you want, Poppy?” I asked. God, why did my voice sound like I’d chewed glass? “Did something happen?”
She licked her lips and took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling along with that small bit of fortification. “I had a bad date tonight,” she said, her eyes big and wide and soft. “I’ve had a lot of bad dates recently, but this one might have been the worst.”
Don’t ask.
Do not ask, you asshole.
