I’m so addicted to her, and I’ve only been inside her a handful of times. I close my eyes and try to go back to sleep, but my head is full of worry.

An hour later, her alarm goes off. She pushes her face into the side of my neck. Normally I’d cringe away from that kind of closeness, but I can’t get enough of it with Poppy. She mumbles something, but I don’t catch it.

“What was that?”

“No morning.” She crawls over my chest, slapping at the buttons on her alarm.

“I could’ve helped you with that.”

She says something else into the pillow. She’s draped across my body, her perfect, round yoga ass right there, asking to be squeezed.

She wiggles like she’s trying to move and groans.

“Everything okay?” I push her hair back from her face and she turns her head, one eye blinking at me.

“So sore.” She struggles to climb back over my body, so I help put her back where she was. “Muscles hurt that I never knew existed.

“I guess that means no morning sex?” I’m kind of joking, but mostly not.

Her eyes go wide. “Wasn’t that what happened at three in the morning?”

“That was middle of the night sex.”

Poppy eyes the tent in the sheets. She lifts the covers to have a peek. “Wow. You’re serious.”

“I told you I could go all night.”

“I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration meant to feed my ego. Clearly not.”

I kiss her forehead and gather her hand in mine so she drops the covers. “Don’t worry. That’ll disappear eventually.”

She bites her lip and looks up at me. “I have a really great place for it to disappear into.”

It takes me a second to get that she’s being funny. “I thought you were sore.”

“Orgasms are a great analgesic.”

“Is that right?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

I roll over and fit myself between her legs, but she puts her hand over my mouth.

“I refuse to kiss you before you brush your teeth.”

“What about a mint?”

“As long as you have one for each of us.”

I roll off and root around in my pants pocket for the pack of mints. I pop one in her mouth and one into mine. While I suck on it, I kiss her neck, rolling my hips and nestling my cock in the warm and wet between her legs.

I’m out of my condoms, so we have to use the regular ones. It feels like I’m cutting off the circulation to my dick, but I’ll take it if it means I get to hear and see Poppy come for me again.

Afterward we shower, washing away sex and sweat. Poppy dresses in yoga pants and a T-shirt, then makes coffee while she sets out cereal and milk. She eats one bowl, and I eat the rest of the box.

When she takes our empty bowls to the sink to rinse them, I get panicky over my time with her coming to an end. We don’t have another date set up yet, and this week is going to be busy. I’ll be away starting Wednesday for a couple days. I don’t want to wait until I get back to see her again.

“Can I drive you to work? How many clients do you have? Maybe I can pick you up after if you’re not busy tonight?”

Poppy closes the dishwasher and looks at me. “Um, I’m supposed to have dinner with April tonight.”

“Right. Okay.” I tap on the counter.

“We’ll probably be done by seven, though.”

“Yeah?” The anxious feeling that’s tensing my shoulders eases a bit.

“I could text when we’re done, and if you still want to see me—”

“I’ll still want to see you.”

She gives me a shy smile. “Okay.”

I end up driving her into work because she can catch a ride with April on the way home. I kiss her in the parking lot until she tells me she’s going to be late.

I’m running late for skate practice now too, but nothing seems to matter at the moment. I have a good thing going, and her name is Poppy. I get to see her again. Tonight. I speed back to my house to get my gear, and then book it to the rink.

I finally check my phone as I’m walking into the arena, having turned it off when Tash messaged during dinner last night. My good mood deflates when I see twenty new messages and two voicemails from her. I also have messages from Randy and Miller.

I don’t check any of them before I hit the locker room to change because I don’t want what’s left of my post-Poppy high to disappear.

“What the fuck, Romance?” Randy asks when I enter.

“Huh?” I drop my bag beside him.

“Thanks for letting us know you weren’t coming to get us.” Miller slams his locker shut.

“Oh, shit.” I totally forgot I was supposed to pick them up for practice. I scramble for a reason because neither of them knows what I was up to last night, or this morning. “I shut off my phone last night ’cause Tash wouldn’t stop messaging me, and I just turned it back on. I totally forgot.”

Miller scoffs and gives Randy a look. “Tash? What kind of fucking bullshit are you pulling, Romance?” He jams his helmet on and clomps off, red faced.

“Jesus. What’s his problem?” Things have been less tense since Sunny had the baby, but now he’s pissy with me again. I rush to put on my equipment so I’m not late hitting the ice.

“Have you checked social media today?” Randy laces up his skates.

“No. Why? What’s going on?”