Running From Love by Maggie Marr Page B

lifetime if she’d only surrender to the love in her heart. If only she could banish her fears …
    “I couldn’t sleep and the view is beautiful.”
    “There’s nothing more beautiful than you.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “But the stars and the moon are pretty spectacular.” He turned Poppy in his arms and his piercing blue eyes locked onto her. “Don’t run away this time, okay?”
    She nodded. He deserved better than an empty bed with nothing but a three-line note. Lucky for her, he hadn’t believed the cavalier words she’d written before her Mesquale disappearing act. 
    “I love you.”
    His face split into a smile at her words. “Why do you think I followed you halfway around the world?” He pulled Poppy closer. “I love you too, Poppy. You know that, right?”
    She nodded. His love tickled her heart but caused her gut to tumble with fear. The devil on her shoulder screamed: Run ! She loved Trevor. She trusted Trevor. She just couldn’t believe in the idea that love lasted.
    He pulled her closer. “Let’s go to bed. We’ll talk in the morning.” His gaze searched her face. The desire for her happiness evident on his face, in his arms, the way his eyebrow hitched upward.
    Poppy nodded. They needed to talk in the morning. They’d had six months of intimacy and yet had resisted building a relationship. What other secrets did he have to disclose? At Mesquale the two of them had great sex, but also a host of half-truths and omissions. Time for truth telling now, and hope that once they’d finished, Poppy would no longer need to run.

 
Chapter 11
     
    “This is your mom and dad?” Poppy pointed to a picture on a table behind the couch.
    Trevor turned away from the stove. He held a spatula in his left hand. “That’s them. The little guy beside them is me.”
    “Trevor! You’ve always been adorable.”
    “Ha! I’m guessing Mom might not agree. I think there was a period of about five years she refused to take me to the grocery store because of all the fits I threw.”
    Poppy walked back to the kitchen table and sipped her mug of coffee. The ocean view wasn’t just a part of this house, it defined it. The entire west wall was glass from floor to ceiling. She stood between the kitchen and the deck with her arms crossed over her chest.
    “Looks like some weather today.” Trevor flipped the eggs onto two plates.
    Not the usual bright-blue So Cal day. Instead gray clouds hung low over the Pacific, turning the water an angry dark grayish-blue. Steep, white-peaked waves churned against the shoreline.
    “Inside or out?”
    “I vote in,” Poppy said. “Too windy.”
    “Agreed.” Trevor set down the plates and pulled the sliders shut. “Hungry?”
    “Starved.”
    “Good to see you have an appetite.” 
    He brushed his lips against the top of her head and a flush of heat lit up her neck. Yes, she did like to eat, especially after a night of good sex. A fact he already knew from their six months together. He sat across from her and topped off each of their cups of coffee.
    “So,” he said before taking a large bite of his eggs, “this silence feels awkward, doesn’t it?”
    “I have a brother Brian and he’s coming to L.A. tomorrow.”
    “From Malaysia?”
    Poppy looked up from her plate and her eyebrow lifted.
    “There was a lot of information that came back when I was searching for your address.”
    Her hands grew clammy. Trevor knew more than she’d told him. Her throat tightened. “How much information?”
    Trevor’s eyes flicked from his coffee cup to Poppy’s face. “Probably more than you’d like. But Poppy, I think you’d feel best if I knew nothing at all about you.” He flashed her a wicked smile. “Other than that you have a scar just above your beautiful ass.”
    “Stop!” She returned his smile. “Okay, fine. You’re right, I do feel vulnerable when people know details about my life. I just need to digest that you know everything about me?