A sadness filled his soul-stealing gaze, and she found herself wondering what could possibly make a man as big and strong as Jax Monroe feel as though he were unworthy.
“Make me understand,” she demanded. Wrapping her fingers around his thick wrist, Poppy kept her eyes laser focused on the hardened former SEAL. “I know it sounds crazy, but I feel this sort of…connection to you. I felt it that very first night downstairs in your club.” Something she hadn’t exactly planned on admitting, but what the hell, right? “I was out of my mind with fear, literally running for my life, but then…”I found you.“When I first looked into your eyes, it was like everything else around us…the men chasing me, the people inside the club, the music…it all just—”
“Disappeared,” Jax whispered the very word she’d been thinking. “I know, Kitten.”
“Because you felt it, too.”
His Adams apple bobbed up and down again as he swallowed with a single nod. “But my job is to protect you.”
“Actually, I hired you to prove I wasn’t crazy.” The revelation of that fact struck suddenly, like a powerful, wonderful blow. “You did that.”
“I didn’t—”
“You did. You and the others, you’ve already uncovered what really happened in the alley that night. Yes, Declan and the FBI still have to find the evidence to be able to file charges, but what I needed for myself…what I needed fromyou…was to help make the police see that I wasn’t making it all up. That I didn’t imagine it in a drunken stupor. So as far as I’m concerned, your part is officially over.” Which meant they could do whatever they wanted without him having to feel guilty about crossing that imaginary line.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong.” That thumb of his feathered across her skin. “My job isn’t over until De Luca and his crew are behind bars, and I know you’re safe.”
“Why?” Something else Poppy really needed to know. “Why are you so hell bent on being the one to protect me?”
“Honestly?” A slight smirk lifted one corner of his kissable lips. “I have no idea. The only thing I do know is that I can’t walk away from you. Not now. Not while there’s still a target on your back.”
She didn’t ask about after. That was a conversation for another day.
“I want you, Penelope. Make no mistake about that.” Jax leaned in closer, arousal flourishing behind the heat in his eyes. “But right now, my focus needs to be on keeping you safe, and that starts with us leaving town and laying low.”
“Okay.” Poppy’s breath stuttered a bit as she licked her dry lips.
She was tempted—oh, so tempted—to rise onto her tiptoes and steal another kiss. But he was right. They needed to keep their eye on their goal, which was making sure she didn’t end up dead.
“I’ll get my things.” Since she didn’t have much here, it wouldn’t take but a few minutes.
“I’ll go clean up the kitchen.” His gaze lowered to her mouth and back up again. “What am I going to do with you, Kitten?”
Whatever you want.
Those exotic words were on the tip of her tongue, but Poppy held them back. There’d be time enough for that later.
She took a step backward, just outside of his reach. As he let his hand fall to his side, Poppy ignored the stark void she felt from the loss of his touch and headed into the bathroom.
Once inside, she closed the door and leaned her back against it, giving herself a moment to regroup.
How was it possible to develop feelings for someone after a single freaking day?
It’s not. These aren’t real feelings. It’s simply a combination of attraction and lust.
A hot, blinding lust for a man unlike any she’d ever met.
Of course, it didn’t help that she’d gone a really, really long time without sex. Put those together and what did she have?
A wild, uninhibited need for the man she’d just left standing in the other room.
Not wanting to keep him waiting, Poppy pushed herself off the door and began gathering the few toiletries she’d left sitting out this morning. Minutes later, she was walking down the hallway with her two bags in her hands when someone knocked on Jax’s door.
The sound startled her, but Jax quickly put her mind at ease.
“It’s just Ivan.” He went to the door. “He texted to say he was on his way up.”
Setting the bags down by the end of the bar, Poppy stood and waited while Jax let his trusted friend inside.