Brida Pact (19 page)

“I am so happy, my little flower,” he whispered to her,
seeming not yet ready to break the little bubble they had created.

“I am too, babe. I am too,” she whispered back.

After lying there a long while, Poppy had a thought.

“Are you able to stay the night, or will you need to go back
to the apartment?” she asked, not really wanting to hear the answer if it
wasn’t going to make her happy.

“I want to stay. I plan on staying. Let me check my messages
quickly and then I will come back and hold you.”

As he stood, she realized she needed to tidy up. Good sex,
it seemed, was a messy affair.

After she finished up in the bathroom, she found him the
kitchen area with a glass of water. He was standing completely naked while
chugging it. Poppy took a moment to appreciate the nude vision in front of her.
His cock had just finished making her come but it was still long and thick as
it rested against his thigh. His throat worked as he gulped, causing her own
mouth to water. The strong line of his neck was calling for her to nibble at it.
Lowering the glass, Wheaton shot her a sexy grin. His thoughts were obvious, if
his hot stare was anything to go by.

“Did you check your messages yet?” she asked to distract
herself from climbing on top of him in the kitchen.

Handing her a refilled glass of water, he walked over to the
computer and waved his bracelet. The system told him he had one message and he
quickly asked for it to play. His shoulders had stiffened so she figured he was
anxious to make sure that he wasn’t being called away yet again. The voice that
came over the speaker wasn’t a fellow Council member, though; it was Hannah.

“Wheaton, I figured that you would be back late and wanted
to let you know that I am going to go ahead and go to bed. Don’t worry about
waking me up when you come to bed, just try not to turn on the light or steal
the covers again. I was cold last night,” said a voice that sounded more like a
wife letting her husband know she couldn’t wait up for him than just a mere
roomie.

He turned around to walk back to Poppy with a swagger but
she was still processing what she’d just heard.

Putting her hand out to halt him in his tracks, she couldn’t
hold in her reaction any longer.

“What the fuck!” she yelled at Wheaton.

“What?” he asked, perplexed.

“Don’t you ’what‘ me! Are you sharing a bed with Hannah?”
she asked, hoping that his answer would be “of course not”.

“Well…yes. What is the problem?” he answered, confusion
evident on his face.

“Wheaton, we have a
big
problem. You’re sharing
a
bed
with her. That is
not
okay.
Not. Okay
,” she repeated.

“The apartment only has one bedroom, Poppy. I am unsure why
you are angry,” he said with a shake of his head.

“Because we are
together
, Wheaton! Have you fucked
her?” She could hear herself losing her shit and tried to breathe through her
nose to calm down. What she really felt like doing was pitching the glass that
was still in her hand at his head.

“No, we have not had sexual relations.” Hands held up as if
in surrender, Wheaton moved closer.

“Have you messed around with her? Kissed her? Touched her?
Has anything happened
other
than sleep, Wheaton?” she bit out, now
furious.

The guilt on his face made her stomach drop. Oh dear Lord,
she might puke. Turning to the kitchen bar, she placed the glass down calmly.
Walking through the bedroom, Poppy understood her next stop was to be the
bathroom. Locking the door quickly behind her so he wouldn’t see her toss her
cookies, she leaned over the toilet and breathed heavily. Stomach turning to
acid, she tried to concentrate on calming her nerves.

Wheaton hadn’t realized that Poppy would have such an
emotional reaction. Yes, he had kissed Hannah. At the time, Hannah had argued
and explained that maybe he
was
feeling closeness to Poppy because she
had been the only available female. He knew that was not the case but Hannah
seemed insistent that he test her theory. He kissed her and quickly proved that
it was not true. Kissing Hannah had been like a shaking of hands. Cold and
unemotional with no stimulation sexually. Wheaton could actually say with a certainty
that he’d felt more emotion by simply speaking with Poppy than he had felt when
kissing Hannah.

“Poppy? Poppy, open the door.” The doorknob jiggled. Poppy
checked quickly to make sure she’d engaged the lock firmly.

“We need to talk face-to-face…open the door please,” he
pleaded.

“Fuck you, Wheaton. Fuck. You,” she cried out, not being
able to stop a sob. Feeling that the nausea had passed, she stood up straight
and moved to the sink. Splashing water on her face, she tried to stop her
tears.

“Poppy, it is not what you think. Open the door, little
flower, and let me talk to you.” Hearing him talk close to the door, she knew
he was not going to leave until she let him speak. She opened the door so
quickly he had to step back or get whapped with it.

“Talk, asshole,” she bit out with her arms crossed in front
of her.

“Hannah kissed me. I did kiss her back.” Seeing Poppy’s face
get even redder than it had been before, he rushed on, “However, it was more
for the peace of mind that I had made the correct decision. I felt nothing for
Hannah. No attraction. Nothing,” he explained.

“Peace of mind? Are you fucking kidding me?” She walked over
to the bed where just moments before she thought they had shared something
special.

“I wanted to make sure that my attraction and feelings for
you were genuine.” At her look of disbelief, he continued, “Hannah said that I
might have overestimated my feelings for you, since you were the only human
woman whom I had been exposed to. She suggested that we kiss or touch to test the
attraction, for both of us to make sure that what I feel is true,” he explained
calmly.

Poppy was having one of those moments where nothing made
sense anymore. Before today, she’d had a goal. She knew what she was fighting
for. But apparently Wheaton wasn’t sure if he should even
be
fighting
for her, not if he felt the need to go around kissing people to “test their
attraction”. Knowing that she was never going to be a pushover or a woman of
weak will, she decided to make him see what she was feeling and there was only
one way to do that.

Walking over to find the nightshirt she’d thrown on the
floor the previous day, she slipped it over her head. Snagging a hair tie off
the nightstand gave her a few more seconds to figure out what she was going to
say. Wheaton had not felt the need to get dressed and sat as naked as he’d been
before. Sure that her face conveyed her feelings, she stared at him for a few
moments, waiting for him to look her in the eye. When he finally made eye
contact, she saw him flinch. Whether it was the pure anger and disappointment
on her face or the tears that had dried on her cheeks, she didn’t know for
sure, but he definitely flinched.

“Wheaton…I want you to listen very carefully to me, okay?”
She waited for his nod before she continued. “I’m going to repeat what you just
said, so I know I didn’t hallucinate or misunderstand what happened.”

Pausing, she stood a couple feet in front of him and laced
her fingers in front of her.

“You’ve been sleeping with Hannah in
our
bed. Yes or
no?” Keeping her gaze on his, she waited for his reply.

“Yes…but there is no other bed in the apartment. You are
aware of this.”

“Just keep it to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for right now.” She held up
her hand and closed her eyes for a second to hold back the tears she knew were
going to start again once she said what was next.

“You’ve kissed Hannah…yes or no?” She was unable to keep a
tear from rolling down her cheek.

“Yes, but…” His voice halted when she held up her hand in a
stop
motion.

“The reason you kissed Hannah was to test your feelings for
me…yes or no?” she continued.

“Yes…it seemed like a logical plan,” he argued.

“Okay, now that we’re both clear on that, I have one more
question.” This was the one she didn’t want to ask, because it could seriously
break her heart.

“Other than that one kiss, have you been intimate with
Hannah or touched her in an intimate way?” Poppy didn’t want to meet his eyes
but knew she would need to when she heard the answer. Holding the stare of the
green eyes she had come to love, she whispered, “Yes or no?”

Realizing what Poppy thought had happened made Wheaton feel
about ten inches tall. Did she really think that he would have sex with someone
else? Did she have so little faith in him that she expected he would be given a
new bride and forget about the one he wanted?

“No,” he said clearly, hoping that she believed him.

Poppy felt relief it had gone no further, but she needed to
drive her point home, especially since he was giving her the hurt-puppy-dog
face right now as if he’d done nothing wrong. Now was the part where she made
him realize what she’d felt when he dropped the Hannah bomb.

“Using your logic, I should be able to test my own
attraction with other warriors to make sure that my feelings for
you
are
real. Yes or no?”

Boom.
She saw what he felt the minute he realized
what he’d done. His eyes got huge and his mouth dropped open as if he were
stunned. He took a step toward her and gripped her arms as if getting ready to
give her a good shake.

“
No!
” he shouted in a voice that made her wince. It
seemed Wheaton couldn’t help but feel intense rage at the thought of another
warrior kissing his woman, but Poppy kept talking, not caring he was about to
lose his mind.

Feeling a calm that wasn’t actually there, she asked steadily,
“Why not?”

Keeping her arms in his strong hands, not squeezing, just
restraining, he stood stock-still. His mouth opened a couple times as if he had
the correct answer to her question but was unable to say it. After what seemed
like a lifetime, he slowly released her arms and took a step back.

“Because it would hurt me to have you kiss someone else,” he
whispered in a raw voice. She saw the understanding on his face and wanted to
make sure he knew how much his actions had hurt her.

“Wheaton, it hurt me for you to even doubt what we have.
When we made love the first time, I was showing you how I felt. How committed I
was for this to work. The fact that you felt you needed to even ‘test’ that
hurts me. It makes it worse that you decided to do that with Hannah, the bride
Demascus the Douche seems to have handpicked for you.”

Wheaton nodded in understanding, obviously still reeling
from the idea of Poppy kissing another male.

“We are going to make a list of deal-breakers, okay?” At his
confused expression, she pushed him back until his knees hit the bed and he sat
down. Sitting beside him, she held out her hand and started counting off items
that would cause her to call this whole thing quits.

“First off, no cheating. If you
ever
cheat on me in
the future,
we are done
.”

She waited for him to nod.

Nodding quickly, he said, “Agreed.”

Holding up another finger, she continued, “Second, no
abuse…mental or physical. Don’t fuck with my head and play games, and I won’t
do it to you.”

“Agreed,” he repeated with another nod and took the hand
that she was counting off her fingers on and linked his fingers with hers.

“Poppy, are you going to test your compatibility with other
males?” he asked in a rough voice, the thought clearly making him sick to his
stomach.

Then, before she could even answer, he continued with an
angry shake of his head and a squeeze of his hand.

“No. You will not. I will kill any male that comes near
you.” He bared his teeth. “Part of me wanted to pull Behyr’s arms off and beat
him with them when I saw you both smiling at each other,” he admitted.

Taking her free hand, Poppy cupped his cheek. She realized
that this big, stupid man had made a mistake and finally figured it out.
Leaning forward to give him a hug, she basked in his closeness again.

Poppy sniffed through her now-stuffy nose. “You aren’t off
the hook yet, big guy. I am still disappointed in you for having doubts.”
Rubbing at her nose, she gave him a serious look.

“And I am pissed the fuck off at that bitch, Hannah. She’s a
human woman and would know how much that kiss would hurt me but also how that
message sounded. I have a feeling she wanted me to hear it.”

That quickly, Poppy’s emotions shifted from sadness to
anger. Jesus, it felt as if she were going through every single emotion in the
world today. From complete bliss when finally able to see Wheaton, then
sadness, anger, confusion. Anger at the other woman was clearly winning in the
emotional wheel of fortune. She definitely needed to have a sit-down with
Hannah the Whore, and hopefully it wouldn’t end with her pulling out every
single strand of her silky blonde hair.

“There will be no more sleeping in the same bed. You should
have been on the couch or the floor the first night the problem came up. I
don’t care how uncomfortable it is.” Seeing he was going to argue, she
continued with what she knew would make him understand.

“Can you imagine how you would have reacted if you had found
another warrior in my bed? Even simply sharing the same space? When Behyr found
out I was pregnant, he didn’t want me to spend my nights alone in case there
was an emergency. It took quite a few talks to make him understand I didn’t
need him monitoring me during the night.”

Breathing out heavily, Poppy said, “From now on, when you
come across a situation like this, I want you to ask yourself one question.”