I Vid. I Write. I Fangirl.

Poppy decided, in light of Alex having not emerged from the tent as soon as she had, and upon waiting at least five minutes, she was restless and energized after a granola bar, and so opted to go on a little hike by herself.

She sent Alex a little text of where she’d be going, despite the cell service not being fantastic out in the middle of nowhere, and abandoned the newly experienced fuck-baby to go exploring on her own.

Not wanting to go on a trail and run into people, she decided to go on a random maze through the woods. In order to not get lost, she walked in a straight line and told herself she would not make any turns. She’d stay on the straight and narrow until she found a truly riveting sight, where she’d then plop herself down to think about what she’d done to poor virgin baby Alex Nilsen.

In the end, she trekked about an hour on mostly level ground and then fell straight on her ass and off a slanted decline after tripping over a fallen tree branch.

Having only a little bit on a skinned knee, which she figured water could clear up, she was amazed at the sight she discovered on standing up.

A beautiful waterfall, actually three of them because two smaller ones converged on the big one in the middle. It was actually breathtaking, and she regretted not forcing Alex to get up and come with her.

There was also a secluded pool at the base of the waterfalls that was clear as day and got darker in the middle, which presumably meant there was some depth to it. She so wanted to strip down and just jump in, since nobody else appeared to be nearby.

But again, she didn’t want to do it without Alex. And truly, most of her horniness following their sex in the tent had gone away during her hike. Maybe they could have fun in this pool of nature without thinking back on what they’d done.

They could even skinny dip with no one around to see!

If she thought on that for more than a second, she would see how bad of an idea that was, given the circumstances.

But she didn’t think on it for more than that one second because she was too busy trying to figuring out a way to get back up the incline she’d fallen down.

At last, she found a shallow sort-of ramp built into the dirt that she could climb up to get back to the level she’d been at before falling. Before she took it though, she crept down to the edge of the pool and scooped up some water on her knee. It stung a little, but not nearly as much as some sort of antiseptic might have, so she counted herself grateful.

Then, she snapped a picture of the three waterfalls and a few more of the surrounding area, and off she went up the ramp path and back the way she’d come.

After she returned to the campsite, the unmistakable sound of Alex cursing could be heard from his tent. She froze and frowned and slowly approached it, deciding not to pull the zipper down in case he was in a compromising position.

Not that she hadn’t seen him in said position a few short hours ago, but it was better to not repeat that if she didn’t want to walk back to the waterfall aroused and checking him out every step.

She’d done so well getting past that when she was by herself.

“Alex?” she called out, and he immediately went silent. “…Alex?” she tried again about a minute later, tentatively this time. “Are you…alright?”

“I’m fine,” came out in a squeak, after which he cleared his throat. “I’m fine.” Much deeper this time, but deeper than his normal voice too. Then, a whine and some more quiet cursing.

“Alex…I’m coming in.”

Her hand on the zipper, he cried out, “No!”

She propped her hands on her hips and huffed.

“Come on, Alex,” she whined. “I just went on this long hike and ran into these really beautiful waterfalls, and I want you to come see it with me. It’s our last day, and-”

“Alright, alright, alright.” He sighed. “Just, don’t come in. I’ll be out as soon as I get dressed.”

Poppy rolled her eyes and walked away from the tent before plopping back in the camping chair beside the dead fire pit.

“Okay, but don’t take forever,” she called out. “We’re losing daylight.”

It wasn’t really that true, since it was only a little after noon, she discovered shortly after, but a little white lie wasn’t going to kill him. Especially if it got him to move a little faster.

“Ew, gross,” Alex whispered before Poppy heard a swiping sound that likely came from wiping something off the sleeping bag in there.

She tried not to think of what it could be that he was cleaning up, though one thing did occur to her, and she blotted it out as soon as she thought of it.

Sperm.

She thought then of the huge box of lambskin condoms sitting somewhere in Alex’s luggage that her mother had insisted they take along.

Who knew they’d actually go at it with no protection?

At least she’d gotten off of him in time.

And they were never going to do it again, so it didn’t matter.

Besides, the last thing she needed was her mother – or both her parents for that matter – teasing her for the rest of the summer if the box came back open.

Though she could lie and say she’d had sex with Buck. She shuddered at the thought. Everything about that man just didn’t appeal to her anymore – and no, not because she’d had sex with Alex instead (the irony), but because of that death tattoo on Buck’s chest. She’d never look at him the same, even with a shirt on.

Her thoughts shifted back to Alex and that tent and how she wouldn’t be sharing it with him tonight because she had her own tent with all her stuff in it. And there was no need to share a tent if they weren’t going to be having sex, especially if she had her own tent.

“You coming, or…?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. Jesus, Poppy,” he muttered, more annoyed than she’d heard him in the past year.

The zipper came up, and out tumbled Alex, rubbing his hands with something.

Poppy’s thoughts immediately jumped to the worst possibility, and her nose scrunched up.

“Hand sanitizer,” Alex explained when he caught her looking, and her face cleared up.

“Of course. Duh. You ready?”

“I’m kind of hungry,” he said, right before both their stomachs growled.

“Hmm. Well, I have more granola bars.”

“It’s lunch time,” he defended.

“We have cooled hot dogs that we cooked yesterday before the water taxi.”

This time his nose scrunched up.

“You can’t be so picky, Alex. We’re camping, not in town where we can just pick something up or stop at a restaurant.”

“Fine. Bring them out. We’ll eat quick and then we’ll go.”

He still sounded a little grumpy, but Poppy decided not to comment on it. That would likely only make things worse.

Maybe she’d woken him up, and that’s why he was in a mood. Or maybe it was all the sperm he’d had to clean up. Or maybe he’d woken up as horny as she had, and was having a hard time stifling it.

Poppy shook that off.

Nah, that probably wasn’t it.

…

Alex decided he was going to die.

If he had to walk next to Poppy a moment longer without envisioning her naked beneath her clothes from yesterday.

How could she just walk like that? Confidently? Enthusiastically? With a fucking spring in her step?

It was like she couldn’t wait to get to this stupid waterfall where she would likely take off said clothes and drive him insane in her nakedness.

Maybe.

It was possible he was jumping to conclusions.

“So, I know you did this already technically,” Poppy began, breaking through his horny, sexually frustrated thoughts.

Oh, no.

“But if there’s still no one at the waterfalls, it might be fun to skinny dip in them.”

He sucked in a large gasp.

“I don’t know if that’s such a…good idea.”

“Why not?” Poppy trudged on, seemingly unaffected. “You can’t turn off Vacation Alex yet.”

He groaned inwardly. He was so impossibly far from being turned off it was unreal. In fact, Poppy without her romper on showed every curve of her body in those loosely fitting shirt and shorts. She was practically naked because he could picture it all and was getting a major case of flashbacks.

Especially when she-

“If it’s because it’s daylight,” she continued, oblivious, “I still don’t think it’ll be a problem if no one else is there. It’s fairly deep in the middle of the pool, so if you are feeling shy the couple seconds it takes to get in won’t last very long at all.”

“I’m not feeling shy,” he muttered.

Far from it.

His body was feeling particularly bold and gutsy and like if it didn’t pin Poppy Wright to a tree and fuck her like it wanted to, he’d be going absolutely out of his mind.

Not that he would know how to fuck her against a tree, given the opportunity. All he knew was about her riding him – and oh, how more flashbacks hit him just then of her doing exactly that.

He whimpered aloud, and Poppy turned to look at him.

“So, it’s a deal?” she asked inquisitively. “We’ll skinny dip if no one’s around?”

He gulped and looked at her with the fakest smile on his face.

“Okay, sure, fine. Just…don’t look when I strip.”

She snorted and faced forward again.

“It’s not like I haven’t seen you nake-ahhh!”

“Poppy!”

And he watched as they hit the edge of a slight cliff where Poppy tumbled down and seemingly scraped her other knee, not the one that she’d been trying to hide from scraping before.

“Fuck!” she cried once she stopped tumbling and rocked back and forth a bit while she blew away the dirt that was embedded in her scrape

Alex braced himself against a tree.

“Are you okay?”

“Does it fucking look like I’m okay?” she growled, licking her hand to dampen the scrape that had a little blood surfacing.

Worried now, Alex looked around and saw that there was a shallower decline to where Poppy was now sitting. He took that route and came around to her, stopping only briefly when he came face to face with the waterfalls and pool Poppy had mentioned before.

“Wow.”

“It’s not that bad actually.” Poppy looked at her scrape, seemingly settled down. “I’m just annoyed that I fell off the edge a second time. Clearly, you were distracting me.”

Alex looked back at her.

“No, I was…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s get some water on that scrape to get rid of the dirt.”

“No!”

Poppy moved her knee away from him.

“What?” he asked, slightly panicked himself.

“Save your fresh, clean water for your mouth, Alex Nilsen. I can just wash it off in the pool.”

His eyebrows smushed together.

“Is that sanitary?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Save your water, Alex. Please. If we get dehydrated, all we have is our water bottles for each of us.”

“Fine. But get into the water then. We don’t want it getting infected. Then we can put a bandage on it when we get back to camp.”

“Help me up?” she requested, holding her arms up to him.

He chuckled and shook his head but lifted her just under her arms and helped her stand. She was a little shaky, since straightening her knees probably made the scrapes hurt more, but after a moment she was steady.

“You good?”

“Yeah. I think so. Just…”

“What?” he frowned, prepared to carry her back to camp to get that Neosporin and bandage on he’d brought along for emergencies.

“I think I’ll have to hold onto you for when I strip down. I’m a little wobbly.”

“Oh.”

His face turned red-hot, and he gulped.

“Relax. You can turn around if you want to. I just need to steady myself.”

“No, it’s um-it’s okay. I mean, it’s not like this is an erotic situation. You’re just undressing.”

He laughed nervously.

“That’s the spirit!” Poppy cheered, laughing a little nervously herself but more for how she was going to undress and hold onto him simultaneously.

And also, if she’d need him before she got into the water to steady her.

“Fuck, I hate being so helpless,” she muttered.

His heart softened, and for the first time since they started their walk, he wasn’t thinking about banging his best friend again.

“Poppy, you’re not helpless.”

“Uh-huh.”

She rolled her eyes, clearly not believing him.

“You’re not. You’re just…hurt.”

Her shoulders slumped.

“Hey.” He tipped her chin up, and she looked at him with those watery hazel eyes of hers that for some reason melted him even more, made him really want to kiss her too. “You’re not helpless.”

She tried for a smile, but it came out lopsided.

“Okay. Thanks, Alex.”

He smiled for her and nodded.

“What are best friends for?”

She laughed then and shook her head.

“Apparently for seeing me naked on numerous occasions.”

And he was about to object, to tell her she could go in with her clothes on, but it was too late. She was already clutching at him with one hand and lifting up her shirt with the other.

Impressively, the flimsy bra she’d put on came off with one hand too, and then she was shoving her shorts and underwear down until she had to shake them off of her shoes.

He swallowed hard, but she didn’t give him time to process.

“Okay. Help me to the edge of the pool?”

“Right. Yeah. Okay.”

And he lifted her up in his arms and carried her the short distance away, even as she squealed unexpectedly and wriggled in his grasp.

He set her down, and she dipped her toe in the water before her eyes lit up in surprise.

“Cold?”

She shook her head.

“No, warm. Really warm.”

She was delighted and laughed, and he grinned, delighted for her.

She slipped her whole foot into the water, and then the other. Then one step at a time she got in until he was no longer touching her, and she seemed to be okay by herself.

She laughed aloud again.

“It’s great, Alex! It’s so great!”

And as she got closer to the middle, she sank down to her shoulders and was practically purring.

Alex smiled and shook his head, admiring her strength and her determination.

“Okay!” she chirped. “Your turn.”

His face fell.

Poppy woke up first.

Her eyes blinked open, and she looked around at her surroundings, confused at first about what had happened and where she was.

It all came back with blinding color, however, when she tried to lift her hand to run it over her face and found it pinned down by another hand instead.

She looked over to her side and found Alex snoring peacefully with a gigantic smile on his face.

That’s when she remembered.

Oh, shit.

She’d taken her best friend’s virginity.

Alex’s virginity.

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

What had possessed her to do such a thing? To put their friendship on the line the way she had? And worse, why was her body itching to do it again?

She shook her head and pried her hand loose to drag both hands down her face.

“Shiiiiit,” she cursed under her breath.

And she knew – she knew – there had been reasons. Alex had been raw and honest with her about his insecurities. He’d practically begged her to have sex with him. And at the bottom of it was he felt safe with her. Safer than he did with anyone. And that made her heart melt a little, enough for her to agree to the act at the very least.

But what she needed right now was some distance, enough distance to shake off how good it had been with him, even if it had been awkward at the start.

Scooching down the length of the sleeping bag, she grabbed her clothes and dressed as quickly as she could. Then she pulled the zipper slowly, quietly, looking over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure she wasn’t waking up Alex, and at last stepped out of the tent and zipped it closed behind her.

Slipping on the shoes she’d left just outside the tent, she stood up completely, trying not to topple over when she shoved her feet into the shoes and then promptly took three normal-sized steps before collapsing into the camping chair by the long-ago put-out fire pit.

She sighed deeply and thumped her fingers in a staccato motion on the arms of her chair.

What were they going to do now?

…

Alex woke up about an hour later.

It took him a moment of staring up at the ceiling on the tent to remember what had gone down, and why he was sleeping and where he was sleeping.

But then it all came down in a mad rush.

Poppy. Him. Her naked. Him almost naked. Fucking.

Fuck.

They’d fucked.

For real, for real.

He was no longer a virgin.

A sappy smile stretched across his face.

He was no longer a virgin.

Replaying the whole sex thing in his mind, he felt his cock spring to life. He looked down, saw it starting to get hard and pointing up, up, up instead of lying limp.

He reached for it to hopefully calm it down, but all that did was send him into a tailspin of memories.

Poppy wrapping her hand around it. Poppy jerking him off. Poppy sticking it in her wet mouth and bobbing her head up and down, and –

“Fuck!”

This had been a bad idea. Such a bad idea.

In his head, he knew it had been good. It had made sense. He had to do it with somebody, so why not Poppy? She was experienced. She knew what she was doing. Like, really. And he felt safe with her. All bullet points had been checked off with a yes, green flags all around.

There was that thought in the back of their minds, of course, of what if this ruined everything? What if their whole friendship went down the tubes because of a one-time decision that in the end would be beneficial for him and give her bragging rights for life?

But now that it was over, and his body still wanted her body, what would they do? What could they do? Just jerk off to each other until they found someone else to have sex with?

He felt like a horny teenager, which wasn’t far from the truth. He was only twenty. But even when he’d nearly seen Sarah naked a year ago, it hadn’t gotten him this riled up. It had to be because he’d literally done the act and now his body wanted more.

It was just super inconvenient that the only body it wanted was the one he’d just had.

He groaned and closed his eyes, covering his face with his hands.

He had to calm down. He needed to calm down. Before Poppy saw him in this condition. Because she probably – no, definitely – wasn’t having the same problem he was.

Or was she?

No. Don’t get hopeful.

They’d said one time, and that would be it.

It had to be it.

They had to pretend like it hadn’t happened, even if they both knew it had for the sake of their friendship.

He looked down at his cock again, seeing it spring to life even more the more he thought about Poppy, and particularly the way she’d been gripping her breasts and rubbing something deep in her pussy that apparently helped get her to an orgasm.

He wanted to know what that was. Certainly it would be helpful to have that knowledge whenever he had sex with other girls in the future.

Right?

And what about being on top? What if girls expected him to initiate and to be on top in the future so they weren’t doing all the work? Wouldn’t it be beneficial for Poppy to walk him through that?

He didn’t know. Fuck, he didn’t know.

Was he just coming up with excuses so he could have sex with his best friend again?

Or could he actually make an argument for it?

Or maybe he should just jerk himself off now and then the feeling would subside and he could get on with his day.

Yeah.

Maybe that was it.

It had to be it.

He could do that, and be done with it, and not have to worry about ruining his friendship with Poppy by asking if they could have sex a few more times before they left for Ohio in the morning.

Fuck, had he just thought a few? Instead of one?

He was so screwed.

Randy’s Music Store.

A shop just getting by in a small dead-end town.

The music store’s owner was one, Randall Vickers, father to Lysistrata “Lyssie” Vickers and employer to her and her friends, Jessup “Jess” Diggs, Lucy Gray Baird, and Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow.

He was a pleasant man who mainly stuck to the back room of the shop while Coryo was placed at the register for being ‘the prettiest’. Lucy Gray often took the second register when there were enough customers, due to her charm. Jess and Lyssie stocked, or bagged when it got busy, which was a rarity.

All four were in their early-20s and home from college for the summer. They’d been friends since high school when they started working at the music store. And, despite them all being mostly attractive and compatible, no romance had stirred between the four.

Until now.

In truth, Coryo had been pining over Lucy Gray since the moment he met her when he was 18 and she was 16 in the sole high school in town. His best friend, who’d since moved away, Sejanus, had encouraged him heavily to ask her out, but Coryo seemed to always have his tongue caught in his teeth when the opportunities arose. And given she never asked him out, Coryo came to the conclusion that she was equally too scared to or just didn’t feel the same way.

Now, standing behind the register, Coryo began to contemplate his life and the sad shell it had become. There had been so much expected of him, good things, a life of luxury – or so his family had hoped for what with his good grades and scholarship that got him into one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

But coming home to this dead-end town on school breaks after being unable to secure suitable employment or internships elsewhere, he was forced into the same small rut of working at the music store day in and day out and going out with the three others he shared that space with on the weekends and after work, getting drunk or playing pool or dancing, and then back to work the next day.

Sure, it was fun in the moment, but when he got home, he was alone with only the stray cat he’d taken in a month ago to comfort him. And that cat – Whiskers, as he called him – did comfort him.

But he wanted more. He wanted…her.

With not a single customer in the shop, he could look across the room and gaze at Lucy Gray in leisure.

She was stocking CDs and vinyls, a job that came easy to her with her knack for organization and the shorter tables for stacking and inserting items. That helped with her petite size.

A size that was perfect for him where he towered at just over six feet. He could only imagine scooping her up to twirl her around as she laughed and smiled. Or bending down to press his lips to hers as she stepped up on her tippy toes the way she used to do when Mr. Vickers first hired her and asked her to grab a step stool to shelve the higher items.

Of course, Lucy Gray had been stubborn and insisted on not needing one, going up on her toes instead to just barely shelve the items appropriately. After that, their store manager assigned her to other tasks and made her second in command at the register.

Coryo still remembered the first day she sidled up next to him to help him at the register when a line started to develop on an unusually busy Monday night.

When her arm brushed his elbow, he could hardly think straight his heart was thudding so loudly and so quickly in his ears. Sweat began to form on his forehead beneath his blond bangs, and if it hadn’t been for the customer, a middle-aged Karen of sorts, repeating herself loudly in his ears to the point that his normally appealing blue eyes went wide, and his cheeks paled, he would’ve stood there like an idiot the entire evening.

“I can take you over here,” Lucy Gray had said, and the customer moved over with a huff.

Lucy Gray then shot him a concerned look, to which he could only force the tiniest smile in gratitude and take the next customer, a more timid one he could handle now that Lucy Gray was no longer touching him.

As time went on, he got used to her occasional brushes and eventual flirty touches, because, well, she flirted with everyone. She had her own little what she called ‘Covey’ in her neck of the neighborhood, and they were a small folk song band that played in the park on the weekends; which was why she’d been so excited to work in a music store, even if, much to her chagrin, the items for sale were discs and not actual instruments and music books.

Coryo went to her concerts every weekend during the summer, hiding amongst the crowd that usually stirred up, since there wasn’t much to do in their little town. He was mesmerized by her voice and her talent, the way she could get a rise out of her audience and the way her music carried down the streets to even the farthest houses and shops.

She was a vision and completely in her element when she sang, and in fact, she rarely stopped singing, was always humming when stocking in the store. And even when she left to go home there was a musical lilt in her voice with the jingle over the door.

Ah, but it was a pipe dream, Coryo thought.

He’d never land someone as amazing and beautiful and funny and charming as Lucy Gray Baird.

“Alright, everybody, time to go home!” Mr. Vickers with his booming voice said as he came out of the back room.

That got Coryo to straighten up and focus on something other than Lucy Gray, who also turned towards their employer along with the other two.

“Storm’s on its way, and we have no customers. I don’t want any of y’all to get caught up in the flash flooding they say’s gonna hit.”

Whoops and hollers shot up from Lyssie and Jessup, and even Lucy Gray joined in as they all took off their clip name tags and deposited them in the employee lounge before heading out the front door just as the clouds above them started to grow dark.

“Hey, Coryo, why don’t you take Lucy Gray home tonight? She lives by you.”

Oh, yes. That’s right. She did live by him.

Lucy Gray spun around.

“I’m fine walking, really. You don’t have to take me.”

His heart leapt in his throat.

I want to take you, his inner voice screamed.

“I won’t hear another word about it, Lucy Gray Baird!” Jess hollered back. “You will not be getting caught in this storm!”

She was about to protest again when the first drops of rain started to fall.

They looked heaven-sent descending on her brunette curls.

“It’s no trouble,” he heard himself say, much to his surprise. “My car’s right here.”

“Okay,” she bubbled up, and he unlocked the car so she could pop inside the passenger side.

Once inside and down the first street, the rain really started to pour, and Coriolanus slowed down.

“Good thing we don’t live far from the store,” Lucy Gray said aloud, looking out her window.

Coryo gripped the steering wheel tightly, hoping a flash flood wouldn’t appear suddenly before their eyes.

“Yeah,” he said with a gulp, continuing to drive until he reached her driveway and pulled in.

“Sorry I don’t have an umbrella,” he lamented aloud, looking into the backseat of the car as the rain poured around them.

“Oh, you’re sweet, Coryo. Don’t worry about it. A little water never hurt anybody.”

Except for those in flash floods, he thought.

But his whole brain short-circuited, because right then Lucy Gray leaned across the console and pressed a peck of a kiss to his cheek.

He was half-tempted to raise his hand to the spot she’d kissed just to feel if it was real.

“Thanks for the ride, Handsome,” Lucy Gray said, bringing him back to reality as her eyes sparkled and she flitted from the car like some sort of bird, fearless in the pouring rain.

He waited until she got inside, then backed out the driveway and went into his driveway a few houses down.

He was not so keen on walking the short distance to his front door in the pouring rain, but he did it, expecting some pleasant meows to greet him once he got inside.

What he got was silence.

“Whiskers?”

He frowned, walking throughout the house and not finding his cat anywhere. A small knot grew in the center of his chest as he approached the last room.

The bathroom door was ajar, and on the tile floor was Whiskers, not moving, with a half-empty open bottle of pills a short distance away from his still body.

Coryo crouched down and felt the body for any sign of life, any movement whatsoever.

He found none and ran his hand through his blond curls as devastation struck and tears got caught in his throat.

The air conditioning of their hotel swished around them as they entered about an hour or so later, pulling their luggage behind them.

There were a few people ahead of them in line, but as soon as they were next, Alex shot Poppy a smug, charming smile and strolled on ahead of her.

“What?” Poppy had asked, as he charged on, not answering her and instead directing his next words to the middle-aged woman behind the desk.

“Hi, I’m Alex Nilsen. My girlfriend and I are staying here for the next week.”

He grinned unabashedly.

Poppy smirked and joined him at the desk.

“Alex…Nilsen,” the woman skimmed through their records, having no reaction at all to Alex’s cute possessive display. “Sorry, don’t see you. Could it be under another name?”

Alex frowned, but Poppy wasn’t worried.

“It should be under Wright. W-r-i-g-h-t, Poppy Wright.”

“What?” He turned to look at her.

“Ah, yes, here you are. Card you registered under? And ID, please.”

Poppy dug for the items in her cute, little wallet and handed them over.

“I registered us, remember? So I could use my discount?” She lowered her voice. “We’re millennials, blogging and teaching living in New York City somehow? We can use all the discounts we can get.”

“Ahem.” The woman cleared her throat, waiting for Poppy to take back the cards, and in addition the keys to their room, the pool, and the work-out facility.

Poppy smiled pristinely and took them.

“Thank you.”

“Smart girlfriend.” Alex jutted his thumb in Poppy’s direction.

“You’re in Room 208, right across from the pool. Enjoy your stay.”

“Thanks,” Poppy chirped and nudged Alex to walk with her.

“Well, she wasn’t very hospitable,” he muttered.

“Alex,” she scolded, but there was a smile on her face and a giggle in her voice.

“I was hoping for more of a reaction.”

“I know you were, babe, but we can’t have everything from everybody.”

He frowned, his brows furrowed.

“Why not?”

Poppy rolled her eyes and kept her smile, taking the lead once they got down the somewhat narrow hall until they got to their room.

Alex inhaled softly.

“Mmm, chlorine.”

Poppy chuckled.

“Yeah,” she said dreamily. “It’s nice.”

She shot him a look over her shoulder and found him staring at her ass.

“Alex!”

His gaze zipped up to hers.

“What? Can’t a boyfriend look at his girlfriend’s ass once in a while?”

She laughed and opened the door with her keycard.

“You’re impossible,” she said, but she was fiercely blushing and in disbelief that he’d brought that out of her when she was usually the one to make him blush.

Once inside, his sexy chuckles hot on the back of her neck, they pushed their bags against the wall and inspected the room. Rather, Poppy explored the room while Alex watched her, undressing her with his eyes.

“Nice. Huge. Spacious.” She nodded her approval.

“Big bed,” Alex commented innocently.

Poppy didn’t deign to look over her shoulder this time.

“Bet the view is stunning too. I asked for one overlooking the beach.”

She started in the direction of the window, set on reaching for the stick hanging by the side to draw the curtains to each end.

“Later,” Alex said, and this time she did look.

“What? It’s just a view, Alex. Surely, we can-”

But Alex strode to her in two long steps and gathered her in his arms, dismantling her fingers from the end of the twirling stick.

“I said, later,” he whispered into her left ear, then swept tendrils of her hair behind her right ear and whispered there, “I want you now.”

Poppy turned in his arms and threaded her fingers through his hair before loosely draping her arms around his neck.

“You do, huh?” Her voice turned low and gravelly.

He nodded. “Since the plane.” He kissed the inside of one of her arms. “Since we made up.” He kissed the other. “Was half-tempted to join the Mile High club just to have you where I want you.”

Poppy’s jaw dropped.

“Sex on a plane? That’s so unlike you, Professor Nilsen.”

His eyes darkened with lust.

“But it’s very like Vacation Alex, is it not?”

“Perhaps.” She gave him a sly grin.

“And we are on vacation.”

“We are,” she agreed.

“So, kiss me, Poppy Wright, and don’t stop there.”

Her eyes sparkled.

She leaned in for a kiss, only to stop just before their lips brushed, so she could drag her hands over his shoulders and down his chest, lifting his shirt up and over his head and sending it flying to some spot on the floor.

She sighed contently, drumming her fingers over his pecs.

“So, so ripped.”

“Poppy,” he rasped, usually groaning at such a comment, but not now, not when he wanted her so badly.

His hands on her waist, he dug his fingers into the fabric of her shirt, tugging and stretching it with his need to rid her of it.

“Take it off,” she urged him, and that lit a fire in his eyes.

He lifted the white top up and over her head, disposing of it somewhere else on the floor before pulling the scrunchie from her hair and watching her brown hair tumble around her shoulders.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Poppy.”

He pulled her close, hands on her back as he unlatched her bra and sent it tumbling also after she excruciatingly slowly removed the straps down her arms.

Inches from her lips, he kissed the top of each breast instead, then nuzzled the valley between them as his hands shoved her skirt and underwear down her legs, and he lifted her up in the air, her shoes dropping as he did.

Poppy yelped and clung to him, smushing his face between her cleavage.

She felt his tongue there shortly after, and warm, wet – no, hot kisses causing her to shiver deliciously.

“Mmm,” she moaned. “That feels so good, Alex.”

He walked the two steps to the bed and laid her down gently before shoving his own pants and underwear in a pool at his feet. He kicked off his shoes and slid out of his socks before joining her on the bed. Kissing her once at her ankles, knees, and thighs, he continued the ascent with a long lick up her belly and a quick tug of each of her nipples before he was hovering over her, his erection growing more by the second and brushing against her skin.

Then, at last, he was at eye-level with her again. He waited for her consent, that look in her eye, the nod that told him she was ready and wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Her fingers in his hair, messing it thoroughly, and a gentle tug of her nails in his scalp as she lifted her head slightly to meet him halfway.

And there, at last, they claimed each other with a kiss.