Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
POPPY
NEW YEAR’S EVE
It was New Year’s Eve and our anniversary.
Mom was sad not to be invited to our wedding.
To be honest, I was barely conscious for it myself.
When she suggested an anniversary slash vow renewal, the idea didn’t make me want to hurl.
It would be all right to create new memories around our wedding day, one where I was upright, and our daughter was in attendance.
What I hadn’t expected was for Damon to corner me just as I went into my old bedroom to change. This detour wasn’t a part of the program.
“What happened to not seeing the bride before the wedding?” I panted against his palm, which was doing a piss-poor job of muffling my moans.
I tried to angle away from him, but he wasn’t having any of that. He dropped his hand and wrapped it around my middle instead. Not that he needed to secure me in place—my wrist was handcuffed to his left hand.
Damon chuckled lowly against my ear. “You’re already my bride. Besides, I’ll be in a bad mood if anyone else sees you before me.”
The hand plunged lower, delving beneath my black satin gown—I opted for the same dress from our Las Vegas wedding—and between my thighs.
“But you’ve already seen me in this dress. I married you in this dress.”
“I still want to be the first person to see you in it today.”
He didn’t give a shit about the dress. It was wrinkled by now, lewdly and haphazardly bunched around my hips. Damon was irritated by our lack of intimacy ever since Arya entered the picture. As much as he loved our daughter, he wasn’t a fan of sharing me with her.
We were on the balcony of my old bedroom, overlooking the courtyard where Damon and I used to sneak around behind everyone’s backs.
There was one exception tonight. The courtyard was littered with guests.
The trees were decorated, and the aisles were lined with heaters.
Guests cuddled with cozy, warm blankets in their designated seats.
Some moseyed to the bar for a pre-ceremony drink.
The ceremony would take place at midnight.
Until then, guests had been provided with plenty of activities—alcohol, hot chocolate, hot chocolate with alcohol, champagne, and more alcohol to heat them up in the cold.
Meanwhile, we had found our own way of keeping warm.
I arched against Damon as his fingers found that sensitive bundle of nerves. My mouth opened when he applied the perfect amount of pressure. A sound escaped my lips, and his palm slapped over my mouth instantly.
“Don’t make a sound,” he murmured in my ear. “If any of our guests see you in this position, I’ll have to kill them. That would be bad luck before the wedding.”
I rolled my eyes.
We were far enough away from the guests, but the rustling of the dress and my shallow, desperate breaths were unmistakable. Only one person had to glance up for us to be found out. I could just imagine the headlines.
Disgraced Philanthropist’s Sex Scandal in Front of Hundreds of People.
Damon would never be able to recover his golden boy persona.
Perhaps that was why I loved it so much when he pulled shit like handcuffing me and fucking me out in the open because he couldn’t wait another second.
Inwardly, Damon was just as bad as I was, but no one else knew this side of him because…
He was only bad for me.
The thrill of watching such a principled man come undone, his halo slipping to reveal the devil hiding beneath, made me lose control.
“Fuck.”
I jolted when he slapped my ass. “Quiet.”
I bit my lip to obey even as his fingers slid into my wet cunt.
“Good girl.” His possessive palm slid over the curve of my ass to soothe the sting.
This was the same man who took my last name so my legitimacy wouldn’t be questioned by our company’s board members.
He was nothing if not encouraging of my career.
But he flipped the script in times like these—he was dominant, and the contradiction was my undoing.
I had long stopped trying to make sense of it and only knew one thing. Right now, he was in control.
My pulse thrummed when the back of my bare thighs chafed against his trousers.
He pulled me closer, letting me feel his freed erection.
With his hand between my shoulder blades, he pressed me against the balustrade.
He pushed inside me in one fluid motion.
The intrusion was sudden, and I fought to stay quiet, struggling to draw in a few ragged breaths.
His hand firmly held me in place as he took me with deep, relentless thrusts, leaving no room to deny him.
Not that I could; something about him drove me wild. He knew exactly what buttons to push, whispering filthy words in my ear that made my knees weak. I came with his palm covering my mouth, my body trembling as he held me against the railing, each movement prolonging the agony.
When I looked back, I saw my husband’s face and the life we had built together.
The company had grown under Damon’s patented technology and my ruthlessness.
We were the best at what we did, but that wasn’t why I loved him.
Nothing existed for Damon outside the orbit of our little family.
When Arya cried at three a.m., he was already halfway to her crib before I even stirred.
During my pregnancy, he canceled every meeting to attend my doctor’s appointments.
Our photo was his cellphone wallpaper, his laptop screensaver, framed on his desk, and hung in every corner of his office.
Yes, he hovered too close and glared at any man who spoke to me, but no one had ever protected me, believed in me, or stood up for me the way he had. My stalker—my secret protector and champion.
Damon smiled that devastating smile as he uncuffed me and started pulling my dress down. He stopped when he saw the cum trickling down my leg. Something unholy shifted in his eyes, and that primal look was back in his face.
I pointed my index finger at him. “Don’t even think about it. Mom and her entourage are about to bring over Arya so I can feed her and put her to sleep.”
“One more time for good luck.”
“There’ll be enough time for that starting tomorrow.
” We were leaving for a second honeymoon since I spent the first one being handcuffed to Damon in his penthouse.
Everything was real this time around. “How did you convince Zane to watch Arya for a week anyway?” Zane was extremely possessive of his time with Mom.
“I brought Piya into the conversation and let her make the call.”
I rolled my eyes. It was how he had been dealing with Zane over the last year. “You can’t keep using Mom against Zane.”
He shrugged. “We’re both getting what we want out of this arrangement. Piya wants more time with her granddaughter and I don’t want to keep sharing my wife.”
“You do know that you’re being jealous of your own daughter.”
“Yes, I’m awful. But somehow, you still love me.”
“That I do.” His eyes glinted with all things vulgar but I slapped a hand over his chest. “Nope. Not again. Keep it in your pants.”
“No promises.” He started pulling me toward him when we were interrupted by a loud noise.
“Poppy!” My mother banged on the bedroom door. “We’re here. Open up.”
“Shit.” With my hands against his chest, I shoved him away.
“Hey!” he protested, trying to gather me in his arms again. “I wasn’t done with you.”
“Poppy. What’s taking so long?” Mom sounded panicked. She was half convinced that I would make a run from the shenanigans. “We have to start with your hair and makeup.”
I inwardly groaned. “Go!” I told Damon, tilting my head at the railing.
He gave me an Are you serious? look. “I’m pretty sure your mom already knows that we’re married and have sex.”
“I don’t care.” The photographer was with my mother, along with my cousins and at least twenty other people.
One look at us, and they would know exactly what we were up to.
While it shouldn’t matter—since we were married and all—I wasn’t big on PDA, and I definitely didn’t want to get caught post coitus.
“You cornered me for a quick fuck. The cost is leaving through the balcony.”
He smirked. “Worth it.”
“Start climbing.”
“At least give me a kiss first.”
“The next time I kiss you will be at the altar.” Otherwise, we would go for round two and miss the ceremony completely. I would like to make it to at least one of my weddings.
Damon shook his head while descending the rails. “This brings back memories.”
I couldn’t help my half smile. It was a fitting way to start our vow renewal ceremony.
The banging on the door intensified just as Damon disappeared into the dark. “Poppy! What’s going on?”
I straightened my dress before marching to the door.
“What took you so long?” Mom asked, rocking Arya against her. As much as she joked about how I made her a grandmother way too soon, she loved Arya to death, and my daughter was already attached to her nani.
I smoothed a hand down my dress. “I was just trying it on. Still fits.”
Jordan grabbed at the edge of the fabric. “It’s a little wrinkled, babe.”
“Is it?” I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible. I wondered if she could smell the cum leaking down my thighs.
“Don’t worry. We’ll steam it,” Rose chirped.
I shrugged, changing into a robe and handing the dress over to Rose. I inwardly cringed when I noticed remnants of white against the inner lining. Luckily, no one else caught it.
Soon, I was distracted with feeding my daughter and putting her to sleep. Meanwhile, Mom was busy with pre-wedding details. She had finally gotten her lifelong dream of fussing over me.
“Stop moving, Poppy,” Mom scolded, painting my eyelids with a brush.
“Then stop putting stuff on my face.” I would kill her if I found anything sparkling on my eyelids.
“It’s just a little makeup. It’s for the photos.”