Fourth Down (19 page)

She fell back on the bed, with her
legs still open for my viewing pleasure. I’ve never undressed so
quickly before, and I was trying not to fall over while shucking
off my pants. Within seconds I had the condom on and was back
between her smooth thighs. Poppy was still recovering and blinked
her hazel eyes open. They were still clouded with desire and she
saw me standing ready before her.

I leaned over her and scooted her up
to the pillows before easing myself on top of her. There were a
million different ways I fantasized about taking Poppy, but right
now I needed her arms around me when I eased inside of her. Today
wasn’t about wild sex; it was about connecting with her on a level
I didn’t even know existed.

Poppy wiggled her hips until I was in
just the right spot. As I slowly pushed inside her wet warmth, she
smiled up at me and wrapped her arms tightly around my back. The
emotion I had seen in her eyes earlier that had made me
uncomfortable was now flowing freely between us. Whatever it was, I
never wanted it to end.

Out of necessity for this to last
longer than two minutes, I kept my movements slow. Rotating my hips
as I slid out and back in, I knew I’d hit the spot when Poppy’s
eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted on a sigh. God, she felt
so good. With her arms around my back and her legs around my waist,
I was completely wrapped up in Poppy. It was pure
heaven.

When Poppy’s nails dug into my back, I
picked up the pace. With each thrust I brought us both closer to
release and closer together. She went first, and I couldn’t hold
out any longer when I felt the first wave of her orgasm squeeze
around me.

Granted we had only made love a few
times, but each one was better and more intense than the last.
Would it always be like this? Would I always have this need for
Poppy? It wasn’t just her body I craved. It was her whole being.
Each time I was inside her, my heart thawed a little
more.

Chapter Thirteen

Poppy

At the end of last semester, I
couldn’t wait for a break from classes and homework. Now I was
counting down the seconds until my life returned to its normal
predictable routine. The last two weeks had been filled with
sadness, goodbyes and Ford. He was a force of nature, and I was
helpless against his pull.

The first week of January was spent
dealing with the immediate aftermath of Maggie’s death and the
funeral. Last week was spent packing up the rest of the house and
putting it up for sale. Ford had technically moved into Grady and
Lindsay’s guest room, although he had yet to spend a night anywhere
other than my bed. While I certainly enjoyed our time there, each
night that passed only served to remind me that I was ultimately
one step closer to my first night without him, when he moved to
Louisiana.

He hadn’t talked about his upcoming
interview other than to ask, no, actually beg me to go with him the
day of Maggie’s funeral. Of course I said yes. Was there anything
he could possibly ask me that I would say no to?

“You okay?” Ford asked me, and I
realized I had been staring out the window and didn’t notice we had
arrived at campus. With everything that had been going on, getting
my car fixed had fallen to the bottom of the priority list. Ford
wasn’t working until this afternoon, so he had promised to get Josh
to look at it with him this morning. Until it was fixed he was my
chauffeur. Hopefully that would be soon, like four hours from
now.

Over the course of one day - New
Year’s Day - we had gone from being “friends” to spending every
spare moment together. It wasn’t that I was getting sick of him or
anything. It would be a cold day in hell before that happened. The
problem was that I wanted to be with him all the time. He seemed to
feel the same way, which should make me happy. But I worried that
our reasons were different.

I had been falling for Ford since the
second I walked into the bar and saw him shirtless in a cowboy hat
on Halloween. Whatever it was that drew me to him couldn’t be
deterred even by his nasty attitude toward me those early weeks.
When he came to me the night after Maggie died, it sealed my fate.
I was completely and hopelessly in love with Ford Walsh.

From the outside it might appear that
he loved me too. He certainly acted the part these last two weeks,
spending every possible second with me, making love to me every
night, depending on me in a way I knew he had never depended on
anyone before. But I knew his pain from losing Maggie ran deep, and
he saw me as a reprieve from that pain. He had said being around me
made him better. My greatest fear was that I was just some sort of
bridge for him from the past to the future. A future that wouldn’t
include me once he was no longer grieving.

“Poppy. What’s wrong?”

Snapping out of my daze, I smiled
weakly at Ford, who was looking at me with concern in his deep blue
eyes.

“Nothing. Just nervous about starting
new classes, I guess,” I lied.

He smiled reassuringly at me, then his
eyes caught sight of something over my shoulder and his gaze
narrowed. Turning I searched through the crowd of students until I
found what had caused his signature scowl to return.
Aiden.

Getting out of the truck, he came
around to open my door. “Come on. I’ll walk you to class,” he said,
taking my hand to help me out then taking my book bag for
me.

“It’s not 1950, Ford. I can carry my
own books,” I teased.

He raised our joined hands to his
mouth, pressing a kiss to my fingers, but his eyes remained on
Aiden. “You can do a lot of things yourself, Poppy. But I like
doing things for you. Let me take care of you for a
change.”

If only, I thought with a
sigh.

We reached the building where my first
class was held, and I paused at the door to say goodbye. Ford had
other ideas as he didn’t relinquish his hold on my bag and led me
inside to the door of my classroom.

Aiden walked toward us and just seemed
to notice me. “Hey, Poppy! Are you in this class?” His jovial
attitude deflated a bit when he took in Ford standing protectively
close to me. Good Lord, the last thing he needed to worry about was
Aiden.

“Hi, Aiden. Yup, I’m taking Anatomy
this semester. I timed it so it would be fresh in my mind for the
MCATs this spring.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot you’re planning on
going to medical school.”

I had to stop myself from rolling my
eyes. He forgot I wanted to be a doctor? Did he ever listen to a
word I said when we were dating. Forgive and forget.

Taking another look at Ford, Aiden
took a wide berth as he passed me to enter the room. “See you in
class, Poppy.”

I gave him a little wave and turned
around to face plant into Ford’s chest since he was standing so
close to me. “Okay, you can knock off the caveman act. He got the
message.”

Finally the corner of his mouth
quirked up in a half smile. “Yeah, I think he did.”

Ford placed his fingers under my chin
to tilt my head up. Leaning down he pressed a soft kiss to my lips.
The fire that blazed between us was never far from the surface and
even the most innocent of kisses could quickly turn into much more.
Remembering where we were, I placed my hands on his chest to keep
the kiss quick and easy.

Ford groaned in protest when I
wouldn’t part my lips to let him in. He settled for nipping my
bottom lip and grabbing my ass. Giggling I pushed him away and blew
him a kiss as I walked into class.

Aiden was watching me in surprise. I
had always been firmly against PDA when I was with him, but Ford
was different.

Just seconds before class started
Lindsay ran into the room, her blonde hair rumpled and wild. She
scanned the class for a seat, and her eyes lit up when she saw
me.

“Hi, Poppy! This is so great we have a
class together!” She exclaimed as she slid into the empty seat next
to me.

I had first met Lindsay and the rest
of Ford’s friends at Maggie’s funeral. At first they had watched me
like I was some kind of rare and endangered animal. Apparently Ford
had never had a serious girlfriend before. I didn’t bother
correcting them. I wasn’t his girlfriend, and I didn’t know how to
describe what our relationship was at the moment. So, I just kept
quiet and let them assume.

When I helped Ford move his stuff into
Grady and Lindsay’s basement to store for now, we had stayed and
had dinner with them. I learned that Lindsay was going back to
school to become a nurse, so it didn’t surprise me that we shared a
class this semester. She reminded me a lot of Brooke - bubbly and
outgoing with the knack for making me feel like we had been friends
forever. I liked her immediately, and it helped that she was
somewhat of a newcomer to the tight knit group of Ford, Grady, Josh
and Leah, just like me.

“I’m a little nervous about all these
science classes I have to take,” Lindsay whispered to me as we
waited for the professor to finish writing his name on the board. I
remembered that Lindsay said she had been studying pre-law at NYU
before moving here last summer.

“You’ll be fine,” I reassured her. “We
can study together if you want.”

“That would be great! I’m so glad to
have another friend in town.”

I was genuinely glad to have another
friend too. When Ford left I would need all the support I could
get. Brooke and Lindsay would get along great, and Brooke might
even know Leah from high school. They were the same age and both
grew up here. While the professor ran through the syllabus and
started in on the first lecture, I noticed Aiden repeatedly
glancing over at us. Not at me though, but at Lindsay. I frowned at
him and pointed to my left ring finger and then nodded in Lindsay’s
direction.

Aiden glanced at the wedding band on
Lindsay’s finger and frowned back at me. Sorry, buddy. She’s taken,
and her husband is covered in tattoos and could definitely kick
your ass for even looking in her direction. I would have to tell
Ford he didn’t need to worry about Aiden being interested in me,
but he should warn Grady.

Yeah, right. Even in the short time I
had spent with Lindsay and Grady, it was clear they were the real
thing.

Because this class only met twice a
week plus a lab, the lectures were two hours long. Lindsay had to
sneak out halfway through to pee.

“This baby is sitting right on my
bladder,” she complained as we walked out of class together. It
might have been a complaint, but the way her eyes lit up whenever
she talked about her pregnancy told me she was loving every second
of it.

“Do you have another class today?”
Lindsay asked me as we exited the building into the bitterly cold
January air.

“Yes, I have Economics now,” I said
with a grimace. “As worried as you are about science, I’m ten times
more worried about Econ. It’s my last required core class, and I’ve
been putting it off.”

“Oooh, I breezed through Econ. I’ll
help you with that, and you help me with Anatomy,” Lindsay
offered.

“Deal.”

We parted ways at the sidewalk with me
going to Econ hell and Lindsay going to her car to go home. Since
this was a core class for almost every major and I had been putting
it off forever, the class was filled with mostly freshman. At least
it would be over with and I could concentrate solely on my major
electives next year. My other two classes this semester were a
lighter load than I usually take, but I did have the MCATs coming
up in May. When I wasn’t working or studying for my classes, I
would need to be studying for the MCATs. A good score would help me
get into a good medical school after I graduated next
year.

Ford was waiting in the parking lot
when I got out of class. He was leaning against his truck with his
arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing jeans and a hooded
sweatshirt with his ever present baseball cap. Shivering in the
cold and pulling my scarf tighter around my neck, I hurried across
the snow covered grass to where he was waiting. I often wondered
how he didn’t get cold, because he rarely wore a coat, just those
sweatshirts.

He smiled at me as I approached, and I
marveled at how handsome he looked when he smiled. Of course he
looked sexy as hell when he was scowling, so either worked for me.
From the way other girls were watching him, I wasn’t the only one
who appreciated his good looks.

“How was your first day?” Ford asked
me as I scurried into the warmth of his waiting arms.

“Good, but I’d rather tell you about
it inside your truck…with the heat on.”

He chuckled and kept his arm around my
shoulders as he opened the passenger door for me.

“First things first. Did you get my
car fixed?” I asked hopefully.

“We did. It’s running again…for
now.”

“You don’t sound happy about it,” I
said.

Ford shrugged. “No, it’s good. I’m
just going to miss driving you around. And I kind of liked knowing
you’d be there to pick me up after work.”

I had liked that part of it too.
Knowing that he would be staying with me every night. Would he stop
staying at my place now that he didn’t have to give me a ride to
work and class in the mornings?