His dark hair was slick on his forehead, and his chest was heaving. In the thin running gear, he seemed bigger than he usually did. His chest was wide. His shoulders broad. Less a deadly blade and more a blunt object.
He grabbed the hem of his shirt and used it to wipe his face, revealing the pale skin of his stomach. The ripple of muscle.
My smile faded slowly from my face as my body remembered what he did to it last night. My body wanted more. So much more. All at once my body wanted everything this man could do to it.
“Come on, man,” Theo said and reached over and honked the horn. The car was tiny, and Theo was not a small man. We were shoulder to shoulder in the front seat, and when he reached past me we touched even more.
Ronan saw it all. But his face registered nothing. Nothing at all.
What is he thinking? Did he care? Did it matter that I was sitting so close to another man? I smiled to see if there was a reaction. His face didn’t even reveal that he knew me. Let alone that he’d put his mouth on me.
He walked to the side of the road and watched us as we drove by. The gears grinding, the car lurching.
I looked back in the rear-view mirror, and he was still there. Still watching.
“You all right, Poppy?” Theo asked. Dropping the ma’am, and I quite suddenly wanted it back. The distance. Which was ridiculous. Ronan wasn’t my... anything. His dark stare, that I still felt on the back of my neck, was another one of his games.
“I’m fine,” I said, and I pushed the clutch, shifted to third and took off down the hill.
Monday morning Theo drove me into the city.
“You sure you don’t want to try?” he asked. The window was rolled down, and his eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror. They were nice eyes. Brown and big. Kinder than I’d ever noticed.
“Driving around Bishop’s Landing is one thing. Manhattan is another thing all together. I’m just trying to save your life, Theo.”
“Well, I appreciate that, Poppy.”
My name in his mouth sent a strange ripple through me. I wasn’t sure if I was uncomfortable or if I liked it.
My phone rang, saving me from contemplating kissing Theo in order to forget Ronan and what a mess that would be. The screen said Zilla.
“Excuse me,” I said to Theo.
“Of course,” Theo said and pushed the button that made the window between us slide up.
“Hey,” I said. “How are you, Zilla?”
“I’m fine. Good. How are you? I didn’t hear from you after your meeting with Eden.”
“Oh, right,” I said, that weird meeting forgotten after Ronan and then the driving lesson. “It was fine. I mean. I didn’t get a lot of information. It was probably a mistake trying to pry.”
There was a second of silence on Zilla’s side. “You’re joking, right?”
“No. I mean. I appreciate your effort but—”
“My effort?” She laughed. “God you’re such an infant sometimes, Poppy.”
That stung. Really stung. But it also worried me. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“Oh Jesus Christ,” she said. “For once this isn’t about my mistakes. You owe Eden Morelli a favor, Poppy.”
“I know.”
“Do you know what kind of favors she wants?”
“No.”
“Bloody ones. Criminal ones.”