For a moment, Poppy felt a thundering clap that hit at her heart.
The man she'd had a kiddie crush on for years had just told her he loved her and she had no idea what to say to him.
She was an adult woman who commanded an entire warship full of hot-blooded male warriors. She had gone into battle, killed countless enemy troops. She was no star-struck child who was faced with an idol for the very first time.
It was just a childhood crush, this thing she felt for Matt.
She was barely sixteen when she first met him. She had never really even talked with a man who was not one of her brothers or her uncle.
Her crush on her benefactor had always been something she hid because Matt was a dashing handsome pirate who slayed the pirate world and crushed the opposition in the palm of his hands.
And Poppy…
Poppy was just a delinquent young teen who had been sold into his world at such a price that it nearly beggared him just to rescue her from the slave traders. She was a young girl he had to provide for even though he himself was also struggling to survive.
And then without warning, the man who she considered to be her benefactor suddenly turned into a rising star.
Like a dark knight, he rose from the ranks and conquest after conquest, literally turned Pirate space into his own domain. Within a matter of ten years, he had officially becoming the undisputed King of the Pirates.
The higher he rose to power and fame, the larger Poppy's crush grew, but Matt doted on her and treated her as if he was her older brother.
She could not destroy that perfect relationship with him by revealing her crush. It would have made things so awkward for both of them.
So she killed the crush.
She had stomped on it and squelched it and buried it until there was nothing left of it.
Nothing left.
"I'm…" Poppy cleared her throat. "I—"
She never got any farther than that as Mattheus crushed her into his arms and his warm soft shapely lips covered her mouth.
"Aaaahhh!" Poppy gasped with surprise.
She had imagined this so many times as a young girl, but she could never have expected for his kisses to be like this.
As his tongue thrust in between her lips, she quivered uncontrollably.
The crush that had died a miserable death for so many years suddenly flared back to life.
No, no, no, she thought with wretched misery. It had taken so much effort for her to kill that disease of a crush. So many days and nights of slaying the unwanted crush beast.
All it had taken was a single kiss from the Pirate King and it had once again flared out of control. That dreaded crush had taken over her soul once more, obliterating all her banal ineffectual protests.
Letting out a soft whimper, she gave up and surrendered herself to his kisses.
As Poppy's body melted into his and her arms began winding around his neck, Mattheus pushed his tongue deeper into her mouth, tasting, caressing, suckling.
He had been dreaming about holding her in his arms for so long, but the reality was so much more soul-melting that could not get enough of her taste.
"Haaaahhh. Mattheus." She moaned into his mouth, causing him to shudder with a deep soulful longing.
She began seeking out his pulse points, picking up on the strong scent of his blood.
Poppy exhaled a ragged breath.
She could smell the blood running through Mattheus' arteries and she was craving his warm viscous bodily fluids.
She began to lick at the warm expanse of his neck as her fangs began lengthening. As her fangs grew, her craving for him increased until it was all she could do just to maintain her human form.
"Hmmm." Mattheus smiled with hope, seeing the blood bat side of her projecting out.
"You're starving for me, aren't you? Bite me then, my love. Take what you need. All that I am is yours."
Poppy's eyes glazed over, even as she fought down the sudden primal urge to pierce his neck with her sharp teeth.
She could not do this to Matt. He was her only anchor in this galaxy.
"I can't do this to you. Not you." She breathed in quick shallow breaths trying to recover her balance. "We will be forever linked in a way that is irreversible."
"Do it! I'm giving you permission. No scratch that." He hissed. "I'm begging you to please bite and take my blood."
She could hear the pounding of her heartbeat thundering through her head.
Her mouth opened and she hissed with anticipation.
At the moment when she could no longer hold back, almost against her will, Poppy closed her eyes and slowly sank her fangs into Mattheus' warm throbbing neck.
"Aaaaahhh…" Matt sighed as he felt a slight sting which vanished almost immediately from the pain killer that Poppy released into his body.
And then he felt a warm rush as Poppy's liquid injection hit his bloodstream. It started at the point where she bit him and within seconds had raced throughout Mattheus' entire body.
His body shook with ecstasy as he felt Poppy sucking on his neck and taking his blood into her body.
Mattheus wound his fingers into her red hair, shaking from her injection. He was heating up rapidly, unable to contain his quivering. It felt like his body was on a drug-induced high.
Poppy pulled back, her lips stained with his blood. As she licked his wound clean of blood, an insistent voice began clamoring into Mattheus' head.
'You can no longer escape. You are now mine.'
"Pop—Poppy..." He murmured, eyes glazed from the effects of the drug.
'Yes Matt?' The voice in his head prompted even though Poppy's tongue was still licking at his wound.
"I think I'm going crazy. I can hear you in my head."
'You're not going crazy Matt. I've shared my essence with you and now we are mind-linked.'
"Really? I can—" he took a deep breath. 'I can talk to you mentally now?'
'Yes.' Poppy smiled.
'I love you Poppy.' He whispered into her mind.
'You'd better!' The voice in his head responded with fierce.