CHAPTER SIX
When Poppy felt the finger tap her on the shoulder, she had been expecting to see Stetson, but she forced a smile past her disappointment at the woman who’d tapped her. The elderly woman gasped, “Look.”
Poppy followed the woman’s arm right down to her finger and right past it to where she was pointing through the closest window. As she turned her attention to whatever the woman was pointing at, she heard others around her begin to gasp and comment. Almost in unison, the entire room turned to look out of the bank of windows on the far side of the room.
“It’s a wolf!” one of the guests gasped. Poppy found herself having to push herself up on her tiptoes to be able to see the magnificent sight before her eyes. Through the window, not twenty feet from where she was standing, was a huge gray wolf. Its head was reared towards the sky. The mighty howl that erupted from the wolf’s throat caused Poppy to shiver and she closed her eyes for a moment to savor the sound. The sound of excited people all around her made her spirits lift beyond belief. Everything was right in the world again. Her guests were excited, and the party was growing livelier again. When she opened her eyes, she realized that the wolf had disappeared. If not for the excited whisperings that continued to fill the room, she might have believed that she had imagined the entire thing.
“Well, I don’t know how you did it Poppy Wade, but you sure know how to entertain our guests,” Sandra spoke up from where she had been standing beside Poppy. “I don’t think a wolf has ever come so close to the observatory before.”
“I think this is a good sign that we should be working with you in the future. We have a lot of upcoming events that we should discuss over dinner sometime,” Maria added, in agreement with her business partner.
“We would love to have you organize our next charity auction,” Amber added, and Poppy felt overwhelmed with the sudden change of mood in the room. She had begun to think that she was failing in her job as an event planner as she’d felt the lowering mood all around her, but it seemed that the simplest sight of a wolf howling at the moon had changed everything.
She wasn’t sure what had brought that wolf forward out of the shadows and safety of the reserve, but she sent a silent thank you to it anyway.
“What did I miss?” She heard the familiar low voice just as she felt an equally familiar hand land on the small of her back. The simple touch caused her breath to hitch in her throat and her back twitched a little. She felt Stetson smile as he leaned in and pressed his lips gently to her cheek in greeting. The masculine scent of him wafted into her nostrils and she could feel the cool night air still lingering on his clothes as he pulled her into his side.
“You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you!” Poppy said, smiling coyly at him. He’d probably missed the whole wolf thing.
“Try me,” he said, giving her back a small smile. An intimate smile, reserved only for her.
***
“I don’t believe this!”
The way Poppy bounced with pure energy thrilled Stetson. He couldn’t help but smile as he leaned back against the table, watching her pacing up and down the now empty observatory. The room was a mess of deflated balloons, leftover food, and dirty napkins but that didn’t seem to bother her. She was ecstatic, and Stetson liked the feeling that he had something to do with that. He felt pride at seeing the beaming smile upon her face.
“This may be the biggest break of my career!”
“Believe it,” he told her with a smile. “Because you earned it.”
“I thought tonight was going down the toilet, until that wolf appeared out of nowhere!” Poppy said, still sounding as if she couldn’t believe it. “That beautiful animal sure saved this party.”
Stetson felt another wave of pride and happiness at the thought that she had just called him ‘beautiful’. It was not at all the descriptive word he would have used to describe himself but from a human point of view, he knew that the gray wolf could be viewed as a monster. It warmed him to know that she’d seen the beauty of his ‘beast’ side.
“You thought it was beautiful?” he found himself asking. He wanted her to elaborate on it. He couldn’t help but feel the happiness inside himself at her words.
“Didn’t you?” She turned to look at him. When she grew still, Stetson couldn’t help but look her up and down. Even after a long night of partying, she still looked flawless and again Stetson found himself mentally undressing her. Though the tight bodycon left little to the imagination, he knew that she was hiding a killer body beneath it. He bit the inside of his lip as he felt his cock hardening in his pants.
“I didn’t see it, remember?” He tried his hardest to push back the thoughts of her naked as he wandered over to take hold of her hips. “Don’t put all the credit on the wolf’s shoulders. You did a great job tonight.”
Poppy shook her head and looked deep into his eyes as she replied, “I messed up. I should have done more to make sure that everybody had a good time. If it hadn’t been for that wolf, no one would be talking about my party tomorrow.”
Stetson couldn’t stand the thought of her being so hard on herself. He reached up and took hold of her face in both his hands. Her cheeks were warm and soft beneath his touch as he stared back into her eyes. They swirled with a myriad of colors. He had never been close enough before to see just how many different colors were locked in her sparkling irises and the realization of it burned inside him. Something so primal that he struggled to control himself.
“You were amazing. You are amazing.” He told her and with that he could control himself no longer. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. The room seemed to melt away around them until there was nothing in the world but her touch as she reached out and placed her hands on his hips. When her fingers squeezed him gently he suddenly realized his mistake and pulled back.
“I’m sorry,” he shook his head as he turned his gaze away from her. Though he did not look at her he could sense her deflating beside him, “I should take you home.”
“Stetson, don’t ap…” she began but he would not hear it. He would not allow her to tell him not to apologize. He couldn’t bear the thought of where that would lead them. Though he wanted it to lead there, oh how he wanted it to lead there more than ever, he knew he couldn’t allow it to. He could not allow himself to get involved with this woman.
“I’m taking you home.”
***
Poppy’s head continued to spin. She found herself standing in her hallway, alone and in the pitch black. She could not bring herself to turn on the light. Stetson had left her moments before with a brief, passionate kiss and some tense words of goodbye. Every inch of her body was begging her to turn around, walk right out of the door, and call him back. But something stopped her. Something about the look of painful control in Stetson’s eyes caused her to realize that he was forcing himself to stay away from her. Something about that look also told her he had a good reason for doing so.
He’s not right for you, she told herself even as she stood with her fingertips pressed against her lips. She could still feel the bruising sensation of his mouth on hers and how he had kissed her so passionately that she thought she might melt right into him. He’s not your type at all.
She remembered the way his thick, muscular arms had wrapped around her smaller, fragile body and she couldn’t help but shiver with delight.
She suddenly found herself thinking of all the dates she’d taken to events in the past and how she had never let a single one of them take her home. In the process, she realized that she hadn’t even thought about protesting. It had seemed to right, so natural to allow him to escort her back to her apartment. Even as they’d stood outside the door, she had found herself wishing she’d had the guts to invite him in. Though she knew from her dream and the excitement that it caused inside her that she was ready to give her body to him, she wasn’t at all sure she was ready to give her heart to him. The scary thing was, though she didn’t want to admit it, she thought she had already begun to give it to him.
Trying to push that thought away, she kicked off her heels and left them by the shoe rack, too exhausted to bother with moving them the few inches onto the top shelf. Her bed was calling her name and, for the first time in almost a year, she found herself wishing that she wasn’t going there alone.
She was smiling to herself at the thought of leading Stetson to her bed when she suddenly felt a body slide up behind her. For an instant, she allowed herself to believe that it was Stetson himself, wrapping his muscular arms around her as he pulled her into him and kissed her neck. Then that happy thought was gone, replaced by total fear as she felt the hand wrap around her mouth to cut off her scream.
The next thought that erupted into her mind was, I am going to die!