Chapter 65
Chapter Sixty-Five
Poppy
By the time I finished telling him everything—every frantic second, every terrible detail, every heartbeat that led me back to him—Ivan was no longer sitting.
He was moving. He crossed the room so fast it punched the breath from my lungs.
His hands cupped my face as though he needed proof I was real, and then his lips were crashing into mine.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t hesitant. It was like he’d been dying of thirst, and I was the first drop of water.
Like breathing for the first time after drowning.
Like every terrible moment of the last month was being rewritten by the force of a single kiss.
A broken sound escaped him—half relief, half anguish—as his forehead pressed to mine.
“You survived,” he whispered against my mouth, voice ragged. “You came back to me.”
My fingers curled into the front of his shirt, holding on like he was the only solid thing in the world.
“There was no where else I wanted to be,” I whispered.
His eyes squeezed shut. “You came home.”
His thumbs stroked my cheeks like he wasn’t sure he was allowed to touch me, like any second I might shatter into mist and disappear again.
But I didn’t disappear. I kissed him back—soft at first, then with all the desperate, aching longing I’d tried to bury.
His breath hitched. His hands slid to the back of my neck. His entire body trembled.
“I thought—” he broke off, voice cracking. “I thought I’d lost you forever. I was so certain that you would never want to see me again after I ran like a coward.”
“You didn’t lose me. You hurt me, but I had to come here and try. I had to see if this was over. I had to do something.”
I felt his whole chest collapse with a silent, gut-deep exhale.
When he kissed me again, it was slower and deeper. “I love you.” He breathed against my lips, and everything felt right.
“Even after everything I’ve done?”
He laughed softly against my skin. “Everything you’ve done? What about what I’ve done? You had to protect yourself. I was doing it for a job.”
“You were protecting me, even if you didn’t know it.” I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and smoothed it out on the coffee table in front of us. “All of the proof is here. Everything my father was planning for Jane and me… Even Jade was involved, but it was just to save her own skin.”
He brushed his fingertips over my cheek and leaned forward to press another kiss to my lips. “I missed you. I can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t believe you’re free. I just can’t believe it.”
I grabbed him on either side of his collar and tugged him to me. It didn’t take much convincing on his part, and before I knew it, we were both tearing at each other’s clothes.
My fingers tangled in his shirt, tugging, clawing, desperate to feel skin. His breath hitched as he tore at the hem of my sweater, his palms sliding under the fabric like he couldn’t get close enough fast enough.
His breath hitched when I pulled him on top of me, both of us half-laughing, half-breaking as we kissed like we were trying to make up for every second we’d been apart.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured against my jaw, voice torn open and raw.
“You didn’t,” I whispered back, hooking my fingers beneath the hem of his shirt and tearing it upward. “I came back for you.”
His body shuddered when my hands met his skin. Hot. Solid. Scarred. Mine.
“Poppy…” he groaned, almost like it hurt to say my name. “Tell me this is real.”
I arched up into him, hips meeting his in a way that stole both our breath.
“It’s real,” I whispered. “I’m here. I want you.”
That was all it took.
Ivan’s restraint snapped like a frayed wire.
His mouth trailed down my throat, slow at first, then deeper, his breath dragging over my pulse as if tasting the proof that I was still alive. One of his hands slid beneath my sweater, skimming my stomach, tracing the line of my waist like he was memorizing me again from scratch.
“I dreamed about this,” he rasped, voice hoarse with hunger.
“You,” a kiss just below my ear.
“In my arms,” another kiss at the base of my throat.
“Wanting me,” his lips brushed the edge of my collarbone. “Just like this.”
He slipped his hands to my hips and pulled me flush against him, and the shock of how much he wanted me—how hard he was shaking with it—stole my breath. His forehead pressed to mine, both of us panting, both of us trembling.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered, though his grip was already tight on my hips, already pulling me down into the couch cushions.
“Don’t you dare stop,” I whispered back.
Ivan’s answering sound was almost a groan, almost a curse, and then he was stripping me out of my clothes—slow enough to savor, fast enough to show how desperate he was. His hands mapped every inch of skin he uncovered, his mouth chasing the path his palms left behind.
He finally hooked his fingers in my jeans and tugged them down my legs. When his thumbs pulled my panties down, and the cold air hit me, I let out a little gasp; he smirked as he uncovered more of me.
Ever so slowly, he ran his thumb down the center of me, and I jerked against the couch.
He watched me with dark eyes as he put his thumb into his mouth and sucked my wetness off of his skin.
He closed his eyes before he gently spread me with his fingers and devoured me.
He was a starved man as his lips found my clit and sucked hard.
I saw stars. A moan escaped me and I bucked against the couch. One of his hands snaked up and pushed my hips back down while his other hand teased my pussy.
The rough scrape of his stubble against my thighs, only added to the torture and before I knew it, I was gasping loudly. The sounds I made echoed around the bare cabin walls; any other time I would have been self-conscious, nervous even, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
He lapped at my like a starving man. My legs shook, and even with him holding me down against the couch, I couldn’t help but continue to writhe beneath him.
It was almost too much and too good. Stars danced on the inside of my eyes as he inserted a finger into my pussy and pumped it there as he licked and sucked on my clit.
It wasn’t until he added the second finger that the orgasm slammed into me full force.
I gasped for breath and moaned his name, thinking he would pull away from me, but he didn’t.
He continued to eat, lick, and suck me until tears rolled down my cheeks and I couldn’t handle it anymore.
He pulled away from my body with a satisfied smack of his lips and smiled at me lazily.
“I don’t know what Carina is up to, but I’m thankful she allowed us some time alone.
I was so caught up in you that I forgot about everything else, but now that I’ve tasted you…
I’m beginning to see some kind of reason again.
” His cheeks turned pink as he spoke. “Maybe we should take this upstairs, just in case.”
Ivan’s bedroom door had barely closed behind us, and he was lifting me off of the ground and slamming me into the wall.
His fingers found my pussy again, while his lips sought out mine, and I knew I was going to have a long night filled with orgasms. He pumped two fingers into me as he had me pressed against the wall.
My eyes rolled back into my head with every stroke.
After all he’d done with his mouth, I didn’t think I had it in me to cum again, but the more he moved and the more he kissed me, I knew I would be cumming a lot more than I could have ever planned.
The clink of his belt buckle hitting the floor had another satisfied moan escaping my lips. He rubbed his cock along my entrance, and I could have cum again just from that touch alone.
“Ivan—” His name broke on a gasp, my forehead dropping to his as heat flooded through me all over again.
His mouth dragged down my jaw, to my throat, lingering there as if tasting every ragged breath I took. “You don’t know what you do to me,” he murmured, voice so low it trembled. “You don’t know how many nights I’ve thought about this—about you—trying to forget and failing every damn time.”
My fingers tightened in his hair.
He lifted me higher, effortlessly, his body fitting against mine like he’d been carved to match me. The room spun, heat coiling in my stomach, my pulse pounding so hard I felt it between my teeth. His breath grazed my neck, my shoulder, every inch he touched, leaving a burning imprint.
“I need you,” he whispered, the words torn from him like a confession. “I need all of you. Tell me you’re here. Tell me you’re staying.”
“I’m here,” I whispered into his mouth. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His answering sound was a groan, raw and hungry. He pushed into me with slow, torturous strokes, and I was lost to the feel of him.
My head fell back against the wall, a helpless, breathless cry tearing out of me. Everything tightened, building all over again, bright and hot and overwhelming. I clung to him as the pressure climbed, every nerve burning.
“Look at me,” he breathed.
I forced my eyes open—and the second our gazes locked, the rest of the world shattered. Heat broke through me in a dizzy, consuming rush as he picked up tempo and began to pound me into the wall. He tugged at the bottom of my sweater and cursed when I started to fall.
Changing tactics, he whipped around, still buried inside of me, and stumbled to the bed. As soon as I was laid out beneath him, he ripped the sweater from my body and hungrily took in my heaving breasts. He chewed on his bottom lip as he took me all in.
He pumped into me slower this time, but leaned forward to take one of my nipples into his mouth. He tugged with his teeth, and I felt myself getting closer and closer to my next orgasm. I couldn’t handle it.
“More,” I whispered, and he sucked me farther into his mouth as he picked up the tempo. His hand splayed across my belly, moved lower until his thumb found my clit again.
His pace changed, intensified, grew urgent and wild, until heat was coiling tight in my belly again.
His hands skimmed my body with reverence edged in desperation, like he needed to touch everything he thought he’d never get again.
My back arched sharply. My breath caught.
Pleasure rushed through me, bright and dizzying.
His forehead dropped to mine, his voice a strangled whisper I felt more than heard.“Poppy… look at me.”
And when I did—
I fell apart all over again. He was right behind me, spilling into me with a fierce groan as he collapsed over my body.