She started for the door, clearly humiliated, but I wasn’t going to let her leave.
“Stop, Poppy.” During the time I was married to her mother, I never used that tone with her. While I commanded people and I expected them to follow, I’ve always seen Poppy as fragile.
I had to say, seeing her comply so quickly turned me on even more.
She didn’t turn around, and right then, I didn’t want her to, otherwise she would have seen the evidence of my rock hard cock. I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
Was it wrong that I wanted her to see it? That I wanted her to want it?
Would her pussy be nice and tight, or had she been fucking her way through the guys that surrounded her?
Poppy had the kind of beauty that men were drawn to. Her curves, her smile, and the way she was just nice, she was like a flame for all the moths.
Yeah, I didn’t like the thought of other men being near her. I wanted them as far away from her as they could get.
Taking hold of her shoulders, I turned her around, and she looked up at me with those big eyes.
All this time I’d thought I was a sick fuck, but the look she gave me was undeniable.
Poppy wanted me just as much as I wanted her.
3
Poppy
“Sit, Poppy,” Alexei said, his voice hard, unyielding.
I’d always had this little fear of him, not that I thought he’d hurt me, but because he was just so commanding, so dangerous. The men he’d hung out with were powerful, big, and I’d always thought that maybe things weren’t always on the up and up where his affairs were concerned. But then again that might have just been those fantasies again.
I walked over to the couch and sat down, watching as Alexei moved over to the bar in the corner of the office and poured two glasses of whiskey. I never really drank, but right now, I needed something hard, especially since I knew he’d make me tell him everything.
He came back, handed me the glass, and took a seat across from me, his focus right at my eyes. The intensity I knew so well speared right into my very soul.
“Tell me what’s going on, Poppy, and try not to lie to me this time.”
I looked down at the glass; the crystal glass caused the amber colored liquid to cast little rainbows. Might as well get this over with. I tossed back the drink, breathing out as the liquor burned its way down my throat. Setting the now empty glass down on the table in front of me, I looked at Alexei.
“I met a guy.” God, starting those words off made me so embarrassed. How many books, movies, or even my friends had started their sentence with those words?
Alexei didn’t move, didn’t speak, but his jaw clenched, and I saw the way his hand tightened on the glass he held.
“Things were fine at first, really good, in fact. But…” I looked down at my hands, now clasped together in my lap. “We were only together a few months, but in that time he found out all of my account information.” I looked at Alexei, not wanting to cry, but my emotions rose up swift and hard.
This is so damn painful to talk about, especially with Alexei.
“He cleared out my savings account, my checking… everything.” I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling my eyes water.
“What else, Poppy.” Alexei leaned forward, set the glass on the table, and looked so damn pissed.
I looked at my hands, kept silent, for probably longer than I should have. It was dramatic, and I was humiliated being here, telling him these things, but I needed his help. He was the only one that could get me out of the absolute shithole I’d found myself in.
“Before I found out he wiped my accounts clean, I’d told him I wanted to end things.”
“Why did you want to end it?” Alexei’s voice was deep, hard. When I didn’t answer, he said again, “Tell me, Poppy, now.”
I lifted my gaze to his and just spit it out. “He hit me, and I wasn’t about to stay with a guy that put his hands on me like that.” The emotion that covered Alexei’s face was dangerous, violent, and I actually leaned farther back on the couch. A gust of frigid air emanated from him, washing me in the promise of what he’d do to my ex.
Alexei
I was going to fucking kill the prick. No, not kill him right away, but make him suffer before I ended his worthless life. He’d put his hands on Poppy, stolen from her; and I was going to make sure the fucker knew messing with her was the last thing he’d ever fucking do.
I stood, my anger tangible. I knew Poppy could see it, hell, fucking feel it. I walked over to the bar again, poured myself another drink, and downed it before turning and facing her. “I need to know where he is.” She shook her head before I even finished.