Cracking the Dating Code (12 page)

‘Ladies’ call,’ he murmured.

‘Oh, I think we get the point,’ said Lena smoothly.

‘Damn, Pop. I thought you were saving yourself for me,’ teased Trig.

‘She probably got tired of waiting for you to grow up,’ countered Lena. ‘Help me back to the kitchen, would you, please, Trig? I think I pulled that muscle in my leg again.’

Trig paled. Moments later Lena was in his arms and they were heading for the square of sofas in the middle of the big open room, with Trig berating her every step of the way.

Lena looked back at them over Trig’s shoulder and winked.

‘So has she hurt her leg or not?’ murmured Seb. For the life of him, he couldn’t tell.

‘She’s hurt it,’ replied Poppy as she watched them go. ‘She’s trying to hide how much. Lena would
never
show that kind of weakness in front of Trig if she wasn’t in serious pain, and Trig knows it. I’ll make her a cup of tea. Trig can have a Valium. What’ll you have?’

You,
he thought as he captured her lips and gave in to the need that had been riding him for what felt like days.

Poppy dropped the towel she’d been holding as Seb hauled her against him. Her arms came up to twine around his neck and the
towel fell from her shoulders as she lost herself in his arms and promptly set him on a path he’d never been down before either.

Welcome and celebration. She might have botched the words of welcome but her kiss made him feel savoured and it made him feel cherished.

‘Hi,’ she whispered as he let her go, mindful of their potential audience and fully aware that it wouldn’t take much and he’d have her up against a wall in the nearest empty room or corridor.

His need to possess her hadn’t dimmed with their days apart. If anything, it had grown.

‘Hi,’ he murmured back and felt like a schoolboy again.

She smiled and led him to the kitchen, located on the south side of that central open living area. ‘This is a beautiful home.’

‘It is, isn’t it? Damon found it and bought it but it’s fairly safe to say we all love it.’

‘What does your brother do for a living?’ asked Seb, for it was very clear that the absent Damon did not lack for money.

‘He’s into computers.’ Poppy filled the kettle and set it to heating.

‘Like you.’

‘Like me, but with a few key differences in approach.’

‘You can be very evasive when you talk about your family.’

‘Habit,’ she said. ‘My father’s fairly easy to talk about. He works the money market in Hong Kong. What else would you like to know? I can give you the fastest rundown in the West if you like? We’ve all had pretty good educations. There’s no shortage of brains. All of our occupations come with mile-long confidentiality clauses. I think we like it that way.’

‘Is
anyone
around here normal?’ asked Seb.

‘I like to think we’re very normal,’ she said, and really did pull out a tray of medications, as if getting ready to offer Valium to the beleaguered Trig. ‘Even if it’s not altogether true. Lena, do you want a painkiller?’ she asked at slightly louder volume than the one she’d used on him.

‘Bring two,’ came the thready reply.

‘I’ll be right back.’ Filling a glass with water from the tap, Poppy took the tray of medications over to where Lena and Trig were sitting. When she came back she was smiling ever so slightly. ‘They’re going to the hospital.’

‘So why are you smiling?’

‘Because it’s about time. According to Trig, Lena pulled that muscle days ago during a workout session she wasn’t supposed to be doing. It’s taken her this long to admit that she needs it looked at.’

‘Couldn’t Trig have just taken her to the hospital and
had
it checked out, regardless?’

‘Maybe if Lena was twelve and Trig was her father,’ said Poppy dryly. ‘Lena’s an adult of sound mind, Sebastian. If she doesn’t want to see a doctor she doesn’t have to see a doctor. Just ask her. Besides, Trig’s caught between wanting to wrap her up in cotton wool and knowing that he’ll lose her if he does.’

‘Poor bastard,’ murmured Seb.

‘Cherished bastard,’ she countered quietly. ‘Trig’s family, Seb. And his natural instinct is to protect. What happened at the door…he was doing a threat assessment, that’s all. Nothing personal.’

‘If you say so.’

‘I say so,’ she said with a gamine smile. ‘So cut him some slack and I’ll make sure he cuts you some.’

‘He minds you, does he?’

‘Well, he tries.’

Seb smiled. He liked the dynamic she
shared with her sister and with Trig. It spoke of pushing and pulling and a robustness he hadn’t expected. Not shy around family, but loving and beloved.

‘I’ll try too,’ he murmured angelically. ‘Trouble is I’m drawn to sin.’

‘Aren’t we all.’ Her gaze locked with his and there was knowledge in those blue depths now, a knowledge that he’d put there and that he had every intention of expanding on.

Somewhere a door closed. Seb wrenched his attention away from Poppy’s face and the smile in her eyes and looked towards the lounge area.

‘They’ve gone,’ she murmured.

So they had.

‘I really should shower,’ she said next. ‘I’m all pool salty. You probably don’t want me all pool salty.’

He wanted her any way he could get her.

‘How long are you here for?’ she asked as he took her hand and tugged her towards him.

‘I have to be back in Darwin tomorrow. I’m supposed to be there now.’ He bent his head and touched his tongue to her collarbone. ‘The pool salt doesn’t bother me.’ He pulled back to look at her and she looked back in silence, her eyes slightly dazed. And
then he kissed her again and this time he let the hunger come.

Her fingers were at his shirt buttons in moments. A quick tug on her bikini ties and the twin scraps of material covering her breasts were gone.

‘I’m guessing that this is the insatiable-for-each-other stage of a relationship,’ she said and cried out as he hoisted her in his arms and headed for the nearest private space, which just so happened to be the pantry. ‘There are bedrooms,’ she said next. ‘Many, many bedrooms. Mine would be the one at the end of this wing on your right.’

The wing in question was a thousand miles long, or so it seemed to Seb. He had to stop and pin her against the wall as he stripped her bikini bottoms off. His shoes and trousers went at around about the same time they hit the carpet runner, Seb on his back and Poppy slick and wet all over him.

‘Condom,’ he said raggedly, and fitted one on and Poppy smiled a little ruefully and then straddled him again and before the kiss she bestowed on him was done he’d pushed his way inside her, all hurry and no finesse.

He wondered if he was being too rough for her, but her lips were curved and her eyes were glazed as he withdrew and pulled her
to her feet again. In his arms with her legs wrapped around his waist as he positioned her for entry and thrust into her again.

‘More,’ she gasped, and then again as he backed her against a wall and thrust harder.

‘Better,’ she whispered and then bit down on his ear and then laid waste to his mouth and by the time they made it to her bedroom and her bed, it was all he could do to fall down on it with her and give himself over to her assault.

‘Don’t you be careful with me this time,’ she muttered fiercely, so Seb wasn’t, and she was wild beneath him, and utterly unafraid of where it might lead. He went down on her again and gloried in her sweetness, licking into her and over her and then sucking hard as she cried out and bucked beneath his ministrations. Not like last time, not gentle and measured, but reckless and raw in his need to possess.

He brought her to completion that way, and while she still rode the waves he knelt up and got behind her and slid into her again and slipped a finger either side of her jutting little clitoris. And with her eyes closed and her breath coming in gasps as she leaned back into him, he made her come again.

He could do anything with her, she was
that responsive. But she had a mind and she reclaimed it eventually as he slowed his strokes and slipped out of her completely. Still hard, still straining but he wanted her in a different way now. He needed to see her face, and he needed her beneath him, with her hands above her head and her fingers clenched around his.

Like that. Just like that, as she picked up his rhythm and made it theirs alone. Slow, deep strokes and kisses hot and wet, a deep, drugging ecstasy and finally, as she climaxed around him yet again, a shattering, soul-screaming release.

P
OPPY
woke before dawn the next morning, with a sleeping Seb wrapped around her. He’d taken most of the bed, she’d taken most of the covers, and her heart stuttered as he pressed a kiss to her temple and his arm tightened around her momentarily before he loosened his grip and slid back into sleep.

The man was tired and so he should be. Poppy was tired too, but she’d remembered that their clothes were out there somewhere and that it wouldn’t hurt to have them in
here.

She slipped on the pearly grey shortie nightie that she usually slept in and slipped out of the room and closed the door silently behind her. The first item she picked up was a black sock. The sock monster had already visited because there didn’t seem to be another. Poppy scooped up boxers, then trousers, shoes—there were two of those—bikini
bottoms. Seb’s shirt would be where? In the pantry?

But it wasn’t.

In the kitchen?

Nope. But Trig was.

He sat at the breakfast bar, bare-chested and fresh from either a shower or a swim. He had a very nice chest; Poppy had always thought so. But the difference between looking at a bare-chested Trig and a similarly undressed Sebastian was enormous.

With Trig there was no fierce quickening of blood and of breath. No overwhelming need to touch him and taste him. Good to know that she had not turned into a nymphomaniac overnight. That her complete sexual abandon happened in the presence of one man and one man only.

Trig’s gaze rested thoughtfully on the pile of clothes in her arms as he reached for the cereal box and filled his bowl to the brim with flakes of corn. Two litres of skim milk sat beside him, awaiting annihilation.

‘Morning,’ she said warily, for he had a look in his eyes that didn’t bode well for someone, and she had a feeling that someone was her.

‘Laundry day, is it?’ he asked silkily, and then reached down to the barstool beside him
and lifted up her bikini top, dangling it from his fingertips. ‘Guess you’ll be needing this, then.’

Poppy fought a blush and failed. The sooner she stopped blushing altogether, the better. She was in complete agreement with Seb on that one.

‘Thank you,’ she murmured and moved to take it, only to have him whip it out of her reach. Her hands were already full of clothes and shoes and her reach was limited.

‘Adrian.’ Poppy narrowed her gaze. She wasn’t impressed. ‘Give.’

‘What do you know about him, Poppy?’ Clearly, Trig’s honorary big brother status was not just an empty title as far as he was concerned.

‘I know he pleases me.’

‘In bed? It’s not as if you have a lot to compare him with.’

‘Are you berating me for falling into bed with him so fast? Or am I to infer from your comment that you think I should have fallen into bed with a dozen others before him?’

Trig looked momentarily confused and Poppy took the opportunity to snatch her bikini top from his unwary fingers. ‘Sebastian Reyne pleases me. Both in bed and out.

I’ve waited a long time to be able to say that about a man, Adrian. A very long time.’

‘Point taken, but he comes in here and—’

‘And what? Challenges you? Lays claim to me? You’d think less of him if he didn’t.’

‘He’s going to be a possessive man, Poppy.’

‘And?’

‘And you’re going to get sick of it.’

‘When and
if
I do, I will deal with it. Quite frankly, I don’t see him as any more possessive than, say, you, or Jared, or Damon. Do you really think me incapable of holding my own with any of you?’

‘I was just—’

‘Don’t.’

‘—making an observation.’

‘Based on a three minute introduction. And maybe you’re right. And maybe you haven’t even tried to get to know him yet. Maybe you’d think more of him if you did.’

She might not have spoken her thoughts aloud every time she’d had them but Poppy had
always
known her own heart and mind. Fight for a cause or fight for a man—she’d been raised with warriors and, although she’d chosen a gentler, more peaceful path through life, her fighting colours were no different from theirs.

‘I’m not a mouse,’ she told Trig fiercely. ‘I
know what I want and right now I want Seb to feel welcome here. The way I see it, you can either help me in that regard or, so help me, I will crucify you.’

Poppy turned on her heel; she’d made her point and had no intention of repeating it.

‘Poppy,’ said Trig when she was halfway across the kitchen.

‘What!’
It was a mark of iron-willed self-control that her voice was still low, especially when she saw Seb’s white shirt in Trig’s outstretched hand.

‘You might want to take this too.’

Seb opened his eyes when Poppy came back into the bedroom, possibly because she hadn’t been quite so quiet in her door handling procedures as she’d been when she left. It took a lot to get her riled, but Trig had managed it effortlessly.

Cookies for him.

‘Are you going to be a possessive man?’ she said as she dumped the clothes on the bed and promptly crawled on top of a hot and naked Seb and pinned him to the bed with her weight.

‘Where you’re concerned?’ he murmured and shifted beneath her, his hands sliding to her waist and his thumbs tracing lazy circles
there. ‘Looks like. Let me guess. You ran into Trig.’

‘He thinks you’re going to be possessive,’ she repeated. ‘Which could prove a problem given that I already have two brothers who can be more than a touch protective at times, then there’s Trig who considers himself an honorary brother and is just as bad, and then there’s Lena, who I guarantee will offer to cut out your heart if you hurt me.’

‘Really?’ Seb smiled that lazy smile. ‘How is Lena this morning?’

‘Dammit!’
She’d forgotten to ask. ‘Don’t move.’

So it was back through the clothing free hallway again and into the kitchen where Trig sat eating his cereal.

‘Is this a rerun?’ he asked warily. ‘Because if it is, I like your new friend. Must ask him where he buys his shirts.’

‘He asked me how Lena was,’ said Poppy curtly. ‘And I didn’t know.’

That shut breakfast boy’s smart mouth up. He put down his spoon. ‘The doctors are pretty sure it’s just a muscle tear, but they looked at Lena’s last lot of X-rays and they’ve decided to take a new set. She’s booked in for Thursday. They gave her better painkillers
and ordered bed rest until further notice. She’s asleep.’

‘You double dosed her?’

‘No, but she topped herself up with the new ones at three this morning. They work a treat.’

‘And you know this how?’

‘I was sitting in a chair beside her bed playing Florence goddamn Nightingale,’ he said, and in a rougher, softer voice, ‘She had my hand, Pop. She wouldn’t let it go.’

‘Oh.’ Poppy blinked hard at the image that came to mind. Of Lena vulnerable and Trig standing guard over her. She leaned across the counter and pressed a kiss to his forehead. ‘Thank you. Maybe you should try and get some sleep this morning too.’ She turned to go.

‘Poppy,’ murmured Trig as she reached the door and she turned towards him warily. She didn’t want to be at odds with Trig, she really didn’t, but if he was going to offer up some new character assassination of Sebastian, they would be.

‘Point for Seb.’

‘Lena’s dosed up on painkillers and asleep in her room,’ Poppy said as she straddled Seb’s naked form and settled down atop him.

‘Trig’s going back to bed for a nana nap if he knows what’s good for him.’

‘Do they
know
you rule them all, yet? Do they realise how strong-willed you are?’ His hand slipped over her stomach, wide and warm.

Poppy smiled, wide and easy. ‘Why, Sebastian? Are you calling me a tyrant?’

‘I wouldn’t dare,’ he murmured. ‘I was merely making the observation that more often than not, and with seeming effortlessness on your part, people around you tend to do what you want them to do. There’s no conflict, no apparent manipulation.’

‘It’s a gift.’

‘It’s frightening,’ he muttered. ‘Look at me. Did I intend to deflower my brother’s boss? No. Did I intend to end up on your doorstep yesterday? No.’

‘Why
did
you end up on my doorstep yesterday?’ Poppy leaned forward to nibble at his lips.

‘You mean besides this?’ He deepened the kiss and a now familiar tightness began to spread deep in her belly.

‘Yes.’ She let him move on to graze the cord of her neck. ‘Besides this.’

‘I’d seen Bonnie,’ he offered gruffly. ‘I’d given her the picture.’ His lips found the sensitive
spot behind her ear. ‘After that, all I wanted to do was to see you. I haven’t finished with you yet, Ophelia. Not by a long shot.’

He could make love to her with words, this man, just as easily as he made love to her with his body. The effect was the same. She melted for him. Because of him. And he grew hard beneath her and she set her hands to his shoulders and let the silk of her panties provide a little extra slide as she pressed down against him. ‘You are so easy,’ he whispered.

‘You are so wrong.’ Poppy closed her eyes and began to move, not sure she would ever get her fill of this man’s body and the pleasure it could bring to hers.

‘You’re easy for me.’

Oh. ‘Yes. Well.’ He rolled her onto her back beneath him, which was exactly where she wanted to be this morning. ‘True.’

‘What am I going to do with you?’

‘This,’ she suggested shamelessly. ‘A lot.’

They made it to brunch, and were greeted by a relentlessly polite Trig and a still drowsy Lena. Trig had taken charge of the kitchen, but he was all about sharing the joy as he set Poppy to slicing watermelon for a fruit platter. Lena was in charge of toast.

‘Tongs,’ murmured Seb as Trig held them out to him.

Trig pointed in the direction of the pan. ‘I’m giving him my tongs, Poppy. I’m putting him in charge of the bacon and eggs. It’s an act of pure trust and acceptance. Gestures don’t come any more welcoming than that.’

‘Or more trumpeted,’ murmured Lena.

‘Why, thank you, Adrian.’ Poppy favoured Trig with a gentle smile. ‘What are you going to do now that you’ve assigned all the jobs?’

‘I’m going to make coffee. I’m going to give one to my new acquaintance here, while I keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t burn the bacon. Then I’m going to ask him what happens on an offshore oil rig once there’s been a blowout. Rest easy, Pop. I’m not even going to try and list your faults; the primary one being that even though you rarely set your sights on something, the minute you do it’s as good as a done deal. I’m not even going to bother telling him to run.’ Trig turned to Seb with an air of gleeful enjoyment. ‘You
can
run, right?’

‘Put a man on a gushing rig and there
is
nowhere to run,’ countered Seb. ‘You get your hard hat on, ante up and prepare to get well and truly worked over.’

‘Then what happens?’ asked Lena.

‘Then you hit that wilful mother with everything you’ve got.’

‘Mothers, eh? Hear that, Poppy?’ asked Lena dryly. ‘Wilful oil-wells are female. Tell me, Sebastian—do they become male if they behave?’

‘They’re always female.’ Seb shot Lena an unrepentant smile. ‘Just ask anyone who’s ever worked on one.’

‘Lena’s going to want your balls for breakfast soon, my new friend,’ said Trig. ‘Me, I’m liking you more and more.’

‘So you’re on a rig in the middle of the ocean and it’s raining oil and spewing gas and you’re hitting that wilful mother with everything you’ve got,’ murmured Lena, her eyes alight with laughter. ‘Then what happens?’

‘Simple. You fight until you win.’

Seb needed to leave for Brisbane after brunch was over. He needed to get to the plane in order to get to Darwin and the work he’d left behind. Poppy saw him to the car with a mixture of contentment and sadness. They were in a better place with their relationship than they had been when they’d parted two days ago. The footing was firmer, their understanding of each other more secure. There
was still the small matter of Poppy living in and working out of Oxford at this point in time and Sebastian working out of Darwin, but the tyranny of distance was hardly an insurmountable object when money was plentiful and transport so readily available.

‘You going to come visit me before you leave?’ he asked her as they stood beside the hire car.

‘What would I do there?’

‘Whatever you want. I can show you round. Show you what I do, introduce you to the crew. I’m not sure who’s there at the moment. Not everyone.’

‘Is this your equivalent of taking me to meet your mother?’

‘Close. You want to meet my mother too?’

‘I’ve met her. Tom brought her and your father in to work one day when they were visiting the UK.’

‘Perfect,’ said Seb. ‘You’re already done.’

‘This is going to get messy,’ she murmured. ‘Tom’s going to—’

‘Vie with Lena for best threat if I do anything to hurt you. Honestly, he’ll enjoy himself.’ But Poppy didn’t smile. Seb sighed. ‘We’re good together, Poppy, but we’ve been living on an island. Possibly in a bar. All I’m asking is do you want to continue this in real
life? If you do…’ Seb shrugged and tried to look cool, calm and collected. ‘The invitation’s there.’

‘He wants me to meet his crew,’ said Poppy to Lena and Trig once she’d stepped back inside. ‘It’s too soon. Don’t you think it’s too soon?’

Lena eyed Poppy thoughtfully. ‘Judging from the afterglow you’ve got going on there, I’m going to have to go with no.’

‘He’s worried that I’m not going to fit.’

‘He said that?’

‘Well, no. But he should have.’

‘Are
you
worried that you’re not going to fit?’ asked Lena gently.

‘A little.’ Poppy took a breath and let the terror she’d been holding at bay come. ‘A lot. And it’s not that they’re going to be rowdy or rough, it’s just…’

‘People,’ Trig finished for her.

‘Exactly. I’m no good with people. Especially large groups of people I’ve never met before and badly want to impress.’

‘But you are good with Seb,’ said Lena thoughtfully. ‘You’re very good with him.’

‘Yes, and it took a deserted island, a tiger shark, bribery, corruption, a code I couldn’t crack and half a dozen blackouts to get that
way with him. I’m going to muck it up. I know I’m going to muck it up.’