Chapter 3
POPPY
The hottest guy I’d ever seen in real life stood and circled my desk to lean in and brush his lips against my cheek like it was the most natural thing in the world. Every single nerve ending in my body lit up as though he’d done a whole lot more.
It was barely a kiss, but I’d never experienced anything like this before. I was worried my bright-red cheeks made that painfully obvious to Ace, adding to my embarrassment from spilling coffee and calling him “ridiculously attractive” during my nervous babbling.
Judging by his sexy smirk, I had good reason to be concerned. My blush intensified, and his light-brown eyes heated to a molten gold.
His fuller bottom lip looked downright sinful.
Combined with his six feet and four inches of lean muscles, short blond hair, and chiseled jawline, I didn’t stand a chance.
And that was without factoring in his hands.
They were the last thing I would’ve thought could be sexy, but something about his long fingers inspired filthy fantasies.
I shook my head, hoping to clear my thoughts, and a laugh bubbled up. Because he had to be kidding about finding my blathering enchanting. And the kiss was just him being nice.
But he didn’t laugh with me.
Instead, his grin widened before he murmured, “I’ll pick you up at seven tonight for dinner.”
He turned to leave, and I jumped up, blurting the first coherent thing my brain could manage. “Wait. Don’t you need my phone number? Or my address?”
He glanced over his shoulder, and my gaze dropped to the colorful half sleeve of tattoos on his right arm. A rose tangled with a diamond, with a vine crawling beneath his shirtsleeve.
“Don’t worry. I’ll find you, Poppy.” He winked, and I had to grip the edge of my desk before my knees gave out. “I have my ways.”
Then he was gone, striding out of my office.
I stood there frozen, my fingertips pressed to my cheek where his lips had been. The skin still tingled, and I was pretty sure I was glowing.
Which was ridiculous, but that didn’t stop me from hurrying to my door to peek into the hallway and watch Ace walk away until I couldn’t see him anymore.
It was the only way to confirm that Ace wasn’t a tall, tattooed hallucination sent by my sleep-deprived brain to ruin me for every other man on the planet. He was real, and he’d actually kissed my cheek and told me we were going out to dinner tonight.
I finally managed to blink and noticed a prickle between my shoulder blades that made me feel like someone was staring. I turned and saw Sarah from accounting at the other end of the hallway, her mug of coffee halfway to her mouth, frozen mid-sip.
Oh no.
She’d caught me gawking at Ace. How embarrassing.
The rambling started before I could stop it. “Okay, so that was…I mean, he’s just…did you see his hands? I think I blacked out for a second. Is this what spontaneous combustion feels like? Because I’m 98 percent sure—”
“Poppy.” Sarah cut me off mid-sentence, her voice a delighted whisper-shriek. “Who was that?”
I blinked at her and swallowed, suddenly aware of the familiar ache I experienced when someone interrupted me.
It had been happening all my life. One of my earliest memories was when my second-grade teacher told me to use my inside voice.
Another was the next year, when the girls I thought were my friends asked me to talk less at the lunch table because they didn’t want to have to talk over me all the time.
Even my mom got irritated when I went on a tangent.
Everyone tolerated me. Except my best friend Clara, who always happily listened to whatever I had to say. And now, Ace didn’t seem put off by my talkative nature.
He’d paid attention to every word like I mattered. And then he’d kissed my cheek and told me we were going on a dinner date.
My eyes stung, and I blinked hard, then I looked up when Sarah cleared her throat.
She was still staring at me, her eyebrows raised expectantly.
“He’s…um. A client,” I managed. “He just had a few questions. A compliance thing. Super normal.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, which was fair since we didn’t usually have guys from the Hounds of Hellfire stopping by the office. But for the first time, I didn’t feel like talking. I just wanted to go back to my office and think about what I should wear for my date with Ace tonight.
I backed away, my cheeks on fire. “Gotta get back to my desk! Those reports aren’t going to reconcile themselves. Bye!”
I dove back into my office like my life depended on it, racing toward my chair and dropping onto it with a sigh. But I didn’t open any of the files waiting for me. Instead, I leaned back and stared at the ceiling, mentally going through the contents of my closet.
I’d seen other Hounds around town all my life, but I didn’t know any of them well. With their big motorcycles and leather vests, they were hard to miss, though. And the women who’d been spotted with them over the past couple of years were just as impressive as the men themselves.
They were each unique in their looks and what they wore, so maybe I didn’t need to run out and buy a biker chick outfit for tonight.
I couldn’t remember a single time I’d seen one of the women in leather pants, but they all had really cool helmets for when they rode on the back of their guy’s motorcycle.
This was a new goal of mine—to be wrapped around Ace.
“Ugh, what do you even wear to dinner with a man who looks like that?” I mumbled.
It didn’t help that I had no idea where he was taking me. If jeans would be too casual, or a dress was going overboard. I didn’t want to wind up in a biker bar looking like I wandered in from a garden party. But I needed to do myself up enough so no one would wonder why I was out with Ace.
I spun in my chair once, just to burn off some of the jittery energy, then forced myself to face my monitor.
Ace wasn’t picking me up until seven, so I’d have plenty of time when I got home to ransack my closet for the perfect outfit.
I had a job that paid my rent and kept me in iced vanilla lattes—one I couldn’t afford to lose. So I pulled up the flagged queue and tried to focus.
I needed to review two wire transfers from yesterday. Routine stuff that popped up every single day. I cross-checked the client notes against the supervisor guidance I’d printed out as reference.
Based on the instructions I’d been given, there weren’t any escalation indicators. Just normal transactions for a business that had a higher-than-average number of transactions each day.
I clicked to approve them both and glanced at the clock. I still had way too much time until I could leave and wondered if I should check with my boss to see if I could work through lunch so I could clock out an hour early.
Deciding that was the right call, I jumped out of my seat and hurried down the hallway to his office. The door was open, but I rapped my knuckles against the hard surface and waited for him to acknowledge me before stepping inside.
“Come in.”
“Hey, Mr. Hopkins.”
His smile had the opposite effect of Ace’s smirk. There was just something off about it, probably because he was older than my father but never acted like it.
He gestured toward the chairs in front of his desk. “Please sit, Poppy. And as I’ve told you many times, there’s no need to be so formal. Call me Fred.”
“Yes, sorry,” I murmured, moving forward to press my palms against the back of the chair nearest to me. “I only need a moment.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I was hoping it would be okay if I worked through my lunch today and left an hour early.” At his quirked brow, I hurried to add, “I’ll make sure all my tasks are completed first.”
He nodded. “That’s fine, Poppy.”
“Thank you.”
I bit my lip to hide the smile that wanted to take over my entire face as I left his office.
With an extra hour to prepare, I’d be as ready as I could when Ace showed up at my door tonight.
Maybe I’d get lucky, and Clara could come over and help.
I’d take every advantage I could get with the sexy man who didn’t even need my address to come pick me up for our date.