Truth or Demon

CHAPTER 28

He was on his knees. She looked down at him. Their eyes held. Locked. Words flowed between them. Hunger. Need. Lust. But so much more than that. Words that shouldn’t be there, but were. Gentleness. Caring. Affection.

He rose, their eyes never leaving each other’s.

Slowly, he leaned in, bring his lips to press against hers. Kissing her. Tasting her. She savored him too. The embrace was unhurried, thorough, encompassing. A true melding of beings. Of souls.

Time didn’t seem to exist, they just were. One.

Finally they parted, eyes searching each other. Heat and emotion swirling there.

Then words were said aloud.

“I love you.”

Poppy gasped, sitting up straight in her bed. She pressed a hand to her chest, her heart crashing against her rib cage like a panicked bird trapped in a cage. Like she’d just woken from a horrible nightmare.

But it hadn’t been a nightmare. Not exactly. More like …

She pulled in several more breaths, trying desperately to calm herself. It was just a dream.

She fell back against her pillows. Just a dream.

Just a dream in which she told Killian that she loved him.

Killian’s eyes snapped open. He didn’t move, although his heart raced as if it were trying to escape his body. His breathing sounded rapid and harsh in the silent darkness.

He’d been dreaming. A very vivid, very real dream.

The words that had come from his lips echoed through his mind in time with his heartbeat and his breathing.

I love you. I love you.

He’d told Poppy he loved her.

“Wow,” Daisy said when she shuffled into the kitchen the next morning in her Hello Kitty slippers. “You look like you didn’t sleep too well last night.”

Poppy looked up from the chapter she’d been editing, knowing full well she looked exhausted. After the dream, sleep had never returned. By three a.m., she’d given up and decided to get some work done.

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep,” Poppy said, “and there didn’t seem to be much point just staring at the ceiling.”

Plus, staring at the ceiling gave her way too much time to reflect on the significance of her dream.

Of which there was none, she assured herself. For the umpteenth time. Dreams were just crazy workings of the subconscious mind. They didn’t have to mean anything at all.

And really, why would she even give it much thought? Loving Killian. That was silly. She barely knew him. So he’d hung around her place a few days. And they’d gone on a couple ill-fated outings. And … some other things.

She should be laughing about the dream, not flipping out about it.

Daisy joined her at the table with her usual cereal and milk.

“So are you still going out tomorrow with Killian?” she asked as she poured—cornflakes this morning—into a bowl.

Poppy paused at the sound of his name. “Umm, no. I don’t think so.”

Daisy stopped, half a gallon of milk in her hand, poised mid-pour. “Really?”

Poppy shrugged, confused by the displeased expression on Daisy’s face. “Well, I’m not sure, but I do have a lot of work to do. So I thought I’d probably just stay in.”

Daisy looked unimpressed. She finished preparing her breakfast, and Poppy had the distinct feeling she was irritated.

“And I’d like to go do something with you,” Poppy added, hoping to appease her annoyance. Annoyance she didn’t understand.

“I’m going with Emma and her family this weekend. Remember, we’re going to her grandmother’s place on the Cape?”

“Oh, right.” No, Poppy hadn’t remembered that, but she had agreed weeks ago Daisy could go. And even though Poppy really wanted her sister’s company this weekend, there was no way she could tell her she couldn’t go now. That wouldn’t be fair.

“So you should really go out this weekend,” Daisy said, her tone bordering on—bossy.

Poppy put down the red pencil she held and regarded her sister closely. Going out was becoming really important to her.

She sighed. “Well, maybe I will. You know, now. Because you are going to be away.”

Poppy still had no intention of doing so, but a half-truth was better than a continued debate with a fifteen-year-old. Talk about an exercise in futility.

Daisy took a bite of her cereal, looking neither as if she believed Poppy nor as if she was appeased.

Poppy sipped her coffee.

After a moment, Daisy blurted out, “I thought something happened last night.”

Poppy’s heart stopped. But she managed to look up calmly at Daisy. “Why did you think that?”

Daisy shook her head. “I don’t know. I just thought something had.”

“No,” Poppy said, trying to appear perplexed by her sister’s notion.

Daisy returned her attention back to her breakfast.

“Like what?” Poppy found herself asking. Did Daisy still have some false hope that she’d become interested in Killian? Even after Poppy had made it clear that wouldn’t happen?

Instantly, the incident on the roof and then the dream flashed through Poppy’s mind.

Yeah, she’d made that clear all right. Maybe to Daisy, but apparently not to herself.

“I thought you might have met someone.”

Someone. Not Killian, just a random, faceless someone.

Poppy found herself nodding. “I did.”

Daisy’s head popped up, her dark eyes searching Poppy’s. “You did? Really?”

Poppy nodded again.

“I knew it,” Daisy exclaimed, a huge grin replacing her sullen irritation. “What’s he like?”

She shouldn’t be doing this.

“He’s nice,” Poppy told her. “A—professor.”

“Really?” Daisy’s smiled widened, if possible. “Like Dad? That’s a good fit for you.”

“Well, we just met. So, you know, I don’t want to make too many assumptions, but yeah, it could be good.”

Daisy jumped up. “Well, I think it’s great. You gotta go out this weekend.” She hugged Poppy. “I’m late, but I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as Daisy bounced out of the room, Poppy’s strained smile faded. Why had she told her sister that? There was no professor. There was just a tawdry encounter on a rooftop with a man who would never really be interested in her—well, you know, beyond “like.” But she’d hated her sister’s disappointment.

And Poppy supposed it would be easy enough to get rid of a nonexistent professor. She just didn’t want Daisy to worry about her. Even for a weekend.

“Have a good day,” Daisy called to Poppy as she headed to the apartment door.

“You too,” Poppy yelled back, then pulled in a deep breath.

Twirling the pencil on its tip, she wondered how she was going to have a good day. Not with all these worries haunting her.

Killian was just stepping into the lobby of the apartment house when Daisy and the girls came off the elevator. Daisy grinned, dashing up to him. And much to his surprise, she hugged him.

“Thank you!” she said, squeezing him.

He hesitated, and then his arms went around her thin form. He hugged her back.

Daisy embraced him a few moments longer, then stepped back to beam up at him. “I knew you would do it.”

He nodded as if he understood.

“I could tell last night when Poppy walked through the door that it had finally happened.” Daisy practically danced with happiness.

Killian glanced at her friends. Emma smiled too, a small, wistful smile. Madison for once didn’t look completely unimpressed. But still he had no idea what was going on.

“I’m really happy with your choice,” Daisy said, giving him another quick hug. Then the girls hurried out of the lobby, rushing off to school in a flurry of giddy, girlish chatter.

Killian watched them leave, trying to understand what had just transpired. She knew what had happened last night and she was thrilled?

Somehow he had a hard time believing that Poppy would share all the details about what had happened. But she must have told Daisy something.

Killian walked into the elevator and pressed the number for Poppy’s floor. He leaned against the wall as the elevator shuddered to life. The wall against which he’d kissed Poppy.

He’d spent most of the night walking around Boston, thinking about everything that had happened over the past week. Trying to understand. Understand why he’d been conjured here. Why he hadn’t been willing to find Poppy a man, any man, and leave. Why was he attracted to her? More than attracted. His body ached for her.

As he’d walked and walked, one thing started to become clear to him. He was supposed to be with Poppy.

Not as her soul mate. He’d have to have a soul for that. But maybe as a stepping-stone. All along he’d had this sense she needed to move on. She needed to rediscover herself. To mend some of the wounds caused by Adam, and her parents’ deaths.

He had to help her do that before he could do this job. He couldn’t think of any other reason for everything that had happened. Including the sex. She needed to rediscover herself sexually too.

He considered sex pretty damned important. But then, he was a demon, so he would. But as he walked, and thought about the events of the art gallery, he also found himself thinking about those photos. Captured moments of human sexuality.

And he realized that Poppy needed to learn to open up to that side of herself just as much as any of her other sides.

Sex was important. And she needed to feel confident about that to move on too.

So he was going to talk to her right now about his plan. And it was a good one.

Poppy answered the door on his second knock. She was still in her pajamas. The T-shirt clung to her slight frame, and he struggled, not letting his gaze wander downward to appreciate the way the fabric hugged her pert breasts, more revealing than any silk teddy.

“Killian.”

He couldn’t tell if she was pleased or not to see him. Her dark eyes regarded him, wide, maybe a little uncertain.

He understood that feeling. Maybe for the first time in his existence, he wasn’t sure about his next actions. But he didn’t see any point in standing there, hemming and hawing. He knew this was part of what he was here to do.

“Poppy, I think we should have an affair.”