Chapter Fourteen
POPPY HAD NEVER FELTso pampered in her life. Heather had arranged for Monty to drive her to the airport the next day, and his big, black, shiny limo had created quite the fuss in her working-class neighborhood.
Poppy, just like everyone else, had vague dreams of traveling. But these were also grounded in reality, with Poppy imagining that she would likely be in her sixties before she could afford to do so. That she would also fly economy was a given, but as God would have it, her first flight turned out to be a lot more magical than she allowed herself to ever dream of.
Valerian had arranged for her to fly in business class, and the perks that came with it had Poppy feeling like she was a child again. Her ideas about the dos and don"ts of flying proved outdated, and there was just so much to discover and enjoy.
For one thing, Poppy had thought Internet access was disabled when aboard a plane, but she was happy to be proven wrong.
Poppy: This is one of the most amazing experiences in my life. Thank you. I just feel guilty I"m having such a great time while you"ve been burning the midnight oil at both ends.
Valerian: You"re already helping me with your messages. I wouldn"t be inclined to take a break from work if not for them.
Poppy: Be prepared for a barrage of messages in that case, complete with an unnecessary number of exclamation points!!!
Valerian: You can type everything in uppercase if you wish. I"d still enjoy reading your messages.
Poppy: I never knew you were such a flirt!!!
Valerian: There"s a lot of things you don"t know about me.
Poppy: There are also plenty of things you don"t know about me. You"re not the only one who can be mysterious.
Valerian: You won"t get any arguments from me about that.
Poppy: I feel like you"re insulting me in a really clever way, but whatever. I"ll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Poppy: I just want to get to the fun part now, like my "personal" flight attendant telling me that the amenity kit is something I can keep!
Poppy: I mean, how do they even make money if they give stuff like this for free?
Poppy: And I think it"s by some famous designer. I don"t even know how to read it. That"s proof it"s expensive, right? Oh, and it has my initials monogrammed, too!!!
Poppy: Did I mention the champagne"s free-flowing?
Poppy: And that I can have a shower while onboard?
Poppy: She also gave me loungewear and slippers!
Poppy: It"s like a hotel with wings. It"s so surreal.
Valerian: It will be even better when I get my jet back. Give me six months, and I promise you"ll be a member of the mile-high club.
Fire burst in her cheeks at Valerian"s unexpected reply.
Poppy: OKAY.
Poppy had already hit Send before realizing she had no idea why she had even typed the whole word in uppercase. Aargh!
Maria came by her seat and asked if she wanted to try the buffet spread in the lounge bar.
"Do you mean when we touch down?"
"No, Ms. Cortez. We have a lounge in the back." Maria quickly suppressed her smile as the younger woman clapped her hands over her mouth.
"Seriously?"
This girl was a treasure, Maria thought fondly. Her every reaction was genuine, and she didn"t seem to have a single entitled bone in her whole body.
"I can"t believe this is all complimentary," Poppy exclaimed as she happily sampled the wide selection of hors d"oeuvres on display. "Can I take some of them home? No? Just kidding."
Maria and the others were still laughing when Poppy"s phone buzzed in her pocket.
Valerian: I know. I can"t wait either.
A mixture of shock, embarrassment, and helpless desire had Poppy"s fingers suddenly turning to jelly, and her phone fell on the carpeted floor with a muted thud. As she bent down to pick up her phone, Poppy heard an unexpectedly familiar voice addressing her.
"It"s you, isn"t it? The one who works for my ex-boyfriend?"
Poppy schooled her features as she rose to her feet. It was Camelia, of course, and her stomach twisted in unease when she glimpsed the malice in the other woman"s gaze. The sooner I"m out of her hair, Poppy thought, the better.
"Hello, Ms. Blanchard."
"Pippi, isn"t it?"
Poppy only nodded, having no interest in being baited. But just as she turned away, the other woman"s fingers curled around her arm, and Poppy almost winced as Camelia"s nails dug into her flesh.
"I saw in the news that Valerian's here doing business. Are you flying to meet with him?"
"I'm afraid I can't answer that, Ms. Blanchard."
Camelia turned to the flight crew surrounding them with an incredulous laugh. "This girl works for my ex-boyfriend. But she's neither his doctor or lawyer. She only trims his hair every few weeks, but here she is, invoking client confidentiality. Crazy, isn't it?"
Maria and the others knew they were being expected to laugh. But none of them did.
Camelia's lip curled when she realized what was happening. "How cute. You're all taking her side. But would you still do that when you find out this girl has had the hots for my ex even when we were still together?"
Poppy paled. "Ms. Blanchard—"
"If you're planning to apologize, don't bother. I even told him he was free to hook up with you. Did he tell you that?" Camelia's contemptuous gaze raked Poppy from head to toe. "I never imagined he'd sink so low to actually do it, though. He must be so depressed—"
"He's not—"
"And you think you know him better than I do, when I've been with him for years?"
"I only know what I've personally observed. And what I saw was a man who's been tirelessly working to turn things around, not for himself but for the thousands of people relying on him to keep a roof over their heads—"
Camelia clapped her hands in a mocking gesture of appreciation. "That's very sweet." She should"ve known this slut had the same holier-than-thou attitude that she occasionally glimpsed and despised so much in Valerian. "You look up to him while the whole world sees the same things I do. Valerian's a loser, Pippi. That's why I threw him away. Valerian's a loser now. He has nothing to offer—"
"I"m sorry you see things that way," Poppy said softly, "but I"m not with him because of what he can give me."
Vitriol unlike nothing Camelia had ever felt consumed her out of the blue. I hate this bitch so fucking much.
And before she knew it, Camelia had already raised her hand.
Just one slap.
All this girl needed was one solid slap of reality to get her back to her senses and realize what Camelia had known all along. Being good and honorable meant shit in this world.
Her hand started to swing down, but someone caught her wrist from behind.
"I wouldn"t do that if I were you."
Camelia was so outraged at being hindered that she didn"t notice the way Poppy"s eyes and everyone else"s widened in recognition
Whoever this jerk was, he would pay for not minding his own business.
She turned around and whipped her hand out of the bastard"s hold. "You—-"
The rest of Camelia"s words died in her throat.
Fuck.
The man standing in front of her was one of the heirs of Russian billionaire Fyodor Grachyov, and it went without saying that Camelia"s wealth, even when combined with that of her lover Ignacio, would only amount to a fraction of the Grachyovs" wealth.
"M-Misha, isn"t it?"
She was prepared to brazen it out in whatever way she could, but the younger man didn"t even look at her. His gaze instead was solely focused on...Valerian"s slut.
"Are you alright, Poppy?"
****
VALERIAN WAS ON HISway to the airport when his phone buzzed.
Heather: I had our I.T. team keep an eye on the Internet for anything related to Poppy. This just popped up.
The link Heather sent took him straight to a short-length video, and Valerian cursed under his breath when he saw Poppy talking to his ex.
What the hell?
His mood turned from furious brooding as the shakily recorded clip showed Camelia attempting to slap Poppy and a man intervening in time. Whoever was taking the video had quickly lowered his or her camera, as if fearing the consequences of revealing the man"s identity.
But when Valerian heard his name stammer out a name, it was easy to put one and one together and figure out who it was that had come to Poppy"s rescue.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
It felt like the past all over again, but he strove to remind himself that Poppy and Camelia were polar opposites, and so were Misha Grachyov and Camelia"s aging lover, whose source of wealth was dubious at best.
So keep your damn cool, Rossfield.
Poppy was all alone as his car cruised up the driveway. No Camelia or Grachyov on sight, but this didn"t make him feel any less on edge. A part of him was determined to get Poppy talking right this moment, but when Valerian stepped out of his car, and he saw the way her eyes shone like stars upon seeing him—-
I just want you to know...I believe in you. I know you can do this. I have complete faith in you.
Valerian remembered her words, and he realized two things.
Poppy"s smile faded. "Is something wrong?"
How was this girl so fucking attuned to his feelings when they had barely exchanged any words in the eight months they had been in each other"s lives?
"Not something," he said tautly. "Rather, there are two things that bother me."
Concern filled her gaze. "What is it?"
"I"m jealous."
She stared at him blankly. "Over what?"
His gaze bored through hers, and Poppy actually gasped. "M-Me?"
"A clip of Misha Grachyov coming to your rescue has been circulating on the Internet."
"W-What? H-How?"
"That's what I'd like to know as well," he said grimly." How do you know Grachyov?"
"I went to the same high school he did."
"That's not enough for someone like Grachyov to remember you."
"I was also in the same year as his sister's. I was one of the few girls she was friends with."
Valerian was not close friends with Grachyov, but even he was aware of how Misha and all the men in his family doted on Seri. Poppy's explanation made perfect sense in light of that, but even so.
"Do you want to know the second thing that bothers the fuck out of me?"
He didn"t wait for her to answer, with a part of him already bracing for the worst since even he knew his next words weren"t warranted.
"I don"t know how to trust you the way you trust me."
And now there was nothing to do but wait.
"Oh."
What the hell did that mean?
"Okay."
That was it? Okay?
"You"re...jealous."
The way she was suddenly biting her lip hard completely gave her away, and Valerian didn"t know whether to feel amused, exasperated, or amused by her one-track mind.
"Did you even hear the last thing I said?"
"You"re jealous?"
"I said I have a hard time trusting you."
"Because you're jealous." And this time, Poppy was clearly losing the battle against stifling her smile.
I give up, he thought.
He knew she had been joking earlier when she said she could be mysterious.
But he had meant it when he told her she wouldn"t get any arguments from him.
Because it was this side of her that was a mystery to him.
His whole life was a sinking ship, and yet here she was, struggling not to show how amazed she was that he was jealous.
She even had someone like Misha fucking Grachyov charging to her side like some knight in fucking Valentino. But here she was, and the stars in her eyes had actually multiplied in the last thirty seconds.
"Poppy?"
"Yes?"
"Can I kiss you?"
He should"ve probably expected how she would respond to this. But he didn"t, mostly because a part of him hadn"t stopped reeling since standing at the top of the world in one moment and then finding himself hitting rock bottom the next.
And so that part of him had expected her to say no. Or play coy. Or just something worse.
But as soon as Valerian had asked her, the stars in her eyes turned into an entire fucking galaxy, and her voice took a now-familiar tone of breathlessness as she answered him with absolutely no hesitation at all.
"Yes!"
His heart slammed against his chest.
Yes.
Just like that, just like always, she had given him what he wanted.
Needed.
He cupped her face like he vaguely remembered doing in the past.
Heard her breath catch in the sweetest fucking way as he lowered his head.
And then just like before, he was covering her mouth with his.
But this time, he knew it was a kiss he would remember forever.
Poppy, Poppy, Poppy.
There had been rare instances in his life, for various reasons, that a kiss alone had been able to make his cock throb and harden with need.
But this was definitely the first fucking time that his soul had come alive with a kiss.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He had never kissed with need coursing through his body and his soul. It was the most powerful sensation. The hottest. The most fucking addictive. And before he knew it, his large hands were covering the sweet round cheeks of her bottom as he pulled her close, his cock throbbing harder against her belly, and his tongue driving inside the innocent warmth of her mouth.
The more he kissed her, the more he couldn"t get enough of her. And the more he tasted her, the more he wanted. He would've kept kissing her until they were both out of breath. He would've kept kissing her because it seemed impossible for him to stop.
Except he did stop...the moment her arms circled his neck, and he felt her fingers play with the curls of his hair.
No. Fuck. No.
His entire body jerked, and he didn't even realize he had shoved her away until he heard her stunned cry...followed by the sound of screeching tires.