9. Poppy #2
Her climax began to build again, a coiling pressure more intense than anything before.
This wasn't just physical release though; it felt like the crescendo of every suppressed need, every lonely night, every burden she'd carried alone.
She chased it with a wild, desperate abandon, her body moving in perfect, furious sync with his.
Wrapping her arms around his back, she pulled his sweat-slicked chest flush against hers, eliminating any last whisper of space between them. She tightened her legs around him, meeting every deep, driving thrust with a roll of her hips that made him curse into the crook of her neck.
The world dissolved into sensation—the smell of their mingled scents, the sound of skin meeting skin, the brilliant white light sparking behind her eyelids.
Then it finally shattered. Her orgasm crashed through her with a violent, cataclysmic force, wringing a raw, broken cry from her throat.
Her body started convulsing from the pure pleasure of it, and her inner walls clenched around his cock in relentless, rhythmic pulses.
The feeling of her tight, fluttering walls against him was clearly his undoing. With a final, desperate surge, he drove into her one last time, and she felt the hot spill of his release and the pulse of him within her as a ragged groan of pleasure tore from him.
"Poppy," he rasped, his voice shattered. "You're perfect."
She was beyond words, lost in a hazy, breathless paradise of spent nerves and thrumming satisfaction.
He collapsed against her, his weight a comforting anchor in the aftermath of everything they'd shared together.
For one perfect, silent moment, she simply existed, her fingers tracing the damp skin of his back.
Then, reality poured back in, cold and sobering.
She had just obliterated every professional boundary between them, tangled herself inextricably with the one person who could complicate her crumbling world beyond repair.
Her people needed a strong leader, not a vulnerable woman who fell into bed with a wolf Alpha because destiny said so and because he just so happened to give her the best orgasm of her life.
Sander could use this relationship against her. The elders would see it as proof of emotional miscalculation. And the ninety-day clock was still ticking, louder than ever.
Her lioness whined in protest, but Poppy shoved the beast down, her Alpha mask slipping back into place. Then she moved, extracting herself from his embrace. The loss of his warmth was immediate and acute, and he made a sound of protest, his arm reaching for her.
"Get dressed." Her voice was cool and clipped.
She didn't look at him as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. But the sore, pleasant ache between her thighs was a traitorous reminder of what had just transpired between them. She walked to where her overnight bag sat, her movements becoming brisk and efficient.
Keiro pushed himself up on his elbows. The confusion in his eyes was quickly followed by a flicker of hurt, which he just as quickly hid, his expression closing down into his own Alpha mask.
"Poppy—"
"We need to get to the bank and sign the land ownership papers," she interrupted before he could say another word.
She pulled a pair of leggings, a simple sweater, and fresh undergarments from her bag, turning her back to him.
“Because I have to get back to my estate as soon as possible. I need to deal with the breach last night, secure the perimeter, and figure out how to tell my pride elders about our… business partnership.”
She stressed the last two words, a deliberate reinforcement of the wall she was desperately rebuilding. She finally glanced at him as she tugged the sweater over her head. "I can't afford more complications right now."
He held her gaze for a long moment. The air crackled with everything unsaid—the memory of his touch, the echo of his groan, the phantom feeling of him still inside her.
Then, without a word, he stood up and moved with a predator's grace, utterly unselfconscious in his nakedness, and stalked into his walk-in closet.
The silence was thick and suffocating. And now, horribly, it was filled with more than silence.
The mate bond, freshly amplified by their intimacy, thrummed between them stronger than ever.
She couldn't shut it out. She felt the cool wash of his confusion and a sharp sting of rejection that was quickly buried under a layer of pragmatic resolve.
He was retreating, too, building his own walls to match hers.
The intimacy of feeling his emotional shift was more invasive than anything physical they'd just shared.
She had acted on impulse, letting her lioness and her own desperate needs consume her judgment when the pleasure overtook her body. But the consequence was a deeper, more dangerous entanglement.
By the time Keiro emerged, he was immaculate in a charcoal suit, every strand of dark hair in place, the Alpha and CEO of Izell Financial once more. Only the faint shadow in his gold-flecked eyes betrayed the man who had been claimed by her moments before.
"Ready?" he asked, his voice a neutral, deep rumble.
Poppy nodded, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Yes. Let's go."
She followed him out of the bedroom, the ghost of his touch lingering on her skin and the new, unsettling clarity of the bond a constant pressure in her chest. She had just made everything infinitely more difficult, and the most terrifying part was that a piece of her, buried deep beneath the panic and duty, didn't regret it at all.