Brida Pact (22 page)

Poppy might have warned Hannah off Wheaton but she wasn’t
going to be so dumb as to look like crap when the time came for lunch. Excusing
herself to the bathroom to freshen up before they arrived, she stared at her
reflection. Comparing herself to Hannah would do her no good. Where she was
dark and curly, Hannah was platinum and sleek. It was apples and oranges. Thank
goodness Wheaton preferred her apples. Smiling at herself, she smoothed her
hair, or as much as she could. Hearing voices in the hallway outside the door,
she listened closely, wishing she had just a bit more time. The male voices
were muffled just enough for Poppy to be unable to make out who’d arrived.
Slicking on some lip gloss and straightening her top, she opened the door to see
that Behyr had arrived.

“Hey, Behyr!” she said, giving him a big smile in greeting
that was followed by a quick hug. Of course he stiffened up again when she
hugged him, which caused her to add in a whisper, “Remember I’m a hugger and
this torture will not stop.”

At his low chuckle, she stepped back and gave him a serious
face, which caused him to still, most likely thinking that something was wrong.

“About last night—” she began, only to be interrupted.

“No worries, Poppy. I was out of line showing you my teeth.
I can understand Wheaton’s distress and it will not happen again.”

His face was so serious she was afraid he was actually going
to go back to being Mr. Cold on her.

“Oh no, Behyr! He wasn’t mad at you, not really… We were
both frustrated with not seeing each other for days on end, and you were
convenient for him to get mad at.” Noticing his disbelief, she went on, “I’m
serious. You have become a great friend.” Turning to the other men in the room,
she glanced at all of them in turn. “In fact, you have all become amazing
friends, and I don’t know how I would have survived this past week without any
of you. Wheaton is going to need to accept that humans need friends and that’s
exactly what you are to me.”

Nodding her head at the men who watched her while shaking
their heads, she continued, “Really, you guys have kept me sane. I have had fun
this past week instead of staying in my room crying…and that’s all thanks to
you guys.”

The men were silent for a couple moments before Behyr
stepped forward and spoke.

“Poppy, Wheaton may not be comfortable with that. We value
your friendship as well but Wheaton is a formidable warrior and I would not
want to be on his bad side.” Both Tamin and Rodin nodded their heads in
agreement.

“Don’t be such a pussy,” she said jokingly while patting
Behyr’s arm.

Noticing his perplexed expression, she waited for it…

“A cat?”

When the question popped out of his mouth, she giggled.

“Not
that
type of pussy. There are many meanings of
that word in our language. I was using it to replace ‘being scared’,” she said
between giggles.

“That is not nice, Poppy. I am scared of nothing,” Behyr
said in the most affronted voice she’d ever heard him use.

“Well then quit acting like it, Behyr. In fact, all of you
need to knock it off. Don’t freeze up when he’s around. It took me a while to
get you comfortable and joking, and I don’t want to go back and have to start
over.” She followed up her edict with a shoulder nudge to Tamin.

Walking from the room with the others following, she glanced
back and asked to anyone who would want to answer, “Who’s bringing the food?”

“I believe Wheaton and Hannah will be bringing lunch,” Rodin
replied.

Behyr was apparently out of the loop, because he stared at
Poppy as if she’d sprouted two heads. “Isn’t Hannah…” he started.

“We’ve decided to make nice and have lunch together today.”
Making a funny face at the men, she went on, “My goal is to distract her with
other beefcake options, and she’ll move on and leave Wheaton alone. Any ideas
of who might be waiting for a bride?” she asked with an eyebrow wiggle.

“Is she anything like you?” Behyr asked with obvious
interest.

Poppy couldn’t help but sputter out a laugh at the thought
of being compared to Hannah.

“Oh no, my dear friend. We are
nothing
alike. In
fact, I can safely say she is the exact opposite of what you see standing
before you today.” Sweeping her hand up and down her body like a
Price Is
Right
model, she laughed again.

“Well then no, I would not like to distract her,” Behyr said
with a straight face while the Bobbsey Twins nodded in unison.

Poppy was flattered by their compliments. “Aw shucks, you
men sure know how to make a gal feel good about herself.”

The door to the med center swished open and she turned to
see Hannah and Wheaton enter with platters in hand. Walking up to Wheaton and
taking the tray in exchange for a quick kiss, she turned to greet Hannah. Poppy
was surprised Hannah actually gave her a genuine smile. Looking back at the
men, she cleared her throat and gestured toward the large plate that Hannah was
carrying with a
help her, you morons
expression on her face.

“Hannah, I would like to introduce you to Behyr. He’s been
my escort this past week while Wheaton was busy.”

Behyr nodded and stiffly bowed when introduced.

“And these two great guys are the doctors here in the
medical unit. This is Tamin and this one over here is Rodin.” She waved them
over to Hannah to shake hands. “Men, this is Hannah.”

Tamin and Rodin greeted her with cool smiles. Apparently all
the talking about Hannah this and that had sunk in, and she had a feeling the
“bros before hoes” motto was sticking with them…Poppy being a “bro” in this
scenario.

“Let’s eat and you two can tell us about your morning,” she
suggested when nobody seemed to move.

At a round table in the common area of the medical unit,
they dished out sandwiches and pasta salad. Of course, silence had descended on
their group. With Wheaton sitting next to her, she gave him a nudge with her
foot to hopefully get someone speaking. He obviously didn’t get her “talk about
something” nudge because he took a huge bite of his food. The men seemed happy
stuffing their faces but Poppy could tell that Hannah was uncomfortable with
the silence. Picking at her food and casting glances around the room, the
blonde appeared nervous.

“So, Hannah…do you like attending the Council meetings?”
Poppy asked in an effort to open up dialogue.

Hannah smiled at Poppy in what could only be interpreted as
relief to be able to talk about work instead of something personal.

“Yes I do. With the recent situation, I believe I have
become quite helpful calming down the Council.”

Wheaton agreed with a nod as he chewed.

“What recent situation?” Poppy asked, while looking at
Wheaton for clarification. Hannah was the one to answer though since she wasn’t
the one currently with a mouthful of sandwich.

“Well, when the ship started moving toward the home planet,
the US government panicked.”

“Why the panic? I’m sure they didn’t expect the ships to
stay in one place too long.”

“They’re aware that ships will be traveling back and forth,
but they had some visitors on the ships who were not cleared to be taken out of
reach.”

At Poppy’s confused face, Hannah went on, “Valerie for
instance is being viewed as a hostage since she wasn’t given an option to
return before the ship started moving. When she did not return home her family
filed a police report and have essentially used the word ‘kidnapped’. Her
parents are very conservative regarding their views of the Phaeton situation
and don’t seem to even support her work here.” Hannah ended with a frown.

“Oh no, I haven’t had a chance to see Val all week. Every
time I tried to message her she wasn’t available. Is she doing okay?”

Concern for her friend was now running through her head.
When she hadn’t been able to get in touch, she’d just assumed that maybe Thorne
was keeping her company or something. She hadn’t considered that Val was stuck
on the ship—and possibly in trouble for it.

“Wheaton? She isn’t in trouble, right? I mean, she came up
here to help us out with the bride stuff, and I would hate to have brought this
trouble on her.”

Wheaton patted her hand to calm her down and said in a
soothing voice, “Do not worry, Poppy, Hannah has actually made great strides in
talking to your government and explaining the situation as to why Valerie was
needed on the ship. It took a few days, but with Val sending messages to her
parents assuring them that she was safe, she was able to convince them that we
were not harming her and she would be returned safely as soon as possible.”

“Whew.” Poppy released a sigh of relief. Turning to Hannah,
she smiled gratefully, “Thanks, Hannah, I’m sure your previous political
experience helped the situation a lot and now I can see why you were needed at
those meetings all week.”

Wheaton cast Poppy a glance that she interpreted as relief
on his part as well.

“This is what I do. Being a City Council member, I had to
deal with some crazies…not only crazy but we had a lot of lawsuits for no
reason other than miscommunication.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.

When Hannah had explained her part in helping the warriors
avoid conflict, Behyr had sat up and started studying her with a more
appraising gaze than the weary one he’d had on his face earlier.

“Behyr?” Waiting for him to drag his eyes from Hannah, she
smiled when he finally paid attention to her. “How’s your warrior training
going? Any there any more sparring sessions that we’re going to need to prepare
for in the medical unit?”

“You train the warriors here?” Hannah asked, casting her own
appraising glance at the big man sitting across from her.

As the conversation continued, mostly with Behyr and Hannah
talking, the rest of the group finished their lunches. Seeing that Hannah was
starting to glance at Behyr with familiar big doe eyes while he talked about
what it took to train the men, Poppy smiled inwardly. Mission Distract with
Beefcake complete.

Since nothing was left on the platters, they were able to
quickly clean up. Noticing that Tamin and Rodin had gone into “doctor mode” to
prepare for their afternoon patients, she decided now was a great time to sneak
in a little Wheaton time. Nodding her head for him to follow her, she led him
down the small hallway to pull him into an empty supply closet where she
wrapped him in a full-body hug. He returned the embrace and upped the contact
with a full ass grab as he breathed in her scent.

“I have missed you, my little flower,” he whispered huskily.

“I missed you too, babe,” she said quietly back. “Why are we
whispering?”

Smiling down at her, he said, “Because I don’t want this
moment to be rushed and I am hoping they forget we are here.”

“I am sure at some point they’ll need to come in for a
supply or two,” she joked.

Gripping her butt just enough to lift her onto her toes, he
ground his hips into hers. “We can throw what they need in the hall.”

This man made her engine go from zero to sixty in six
seconds. Her skin had already begun to tingle and she wiggled even closer to
him. At his rumble, she rubbed her hands on his chest as she leaned up for a
deep kiss. Moving her hands to his neck, she ran her fingers through his hair
and then back down.

Pulling down on his shoulders made him stoop slightly. Now
she was able to give a slight jump, using him as leverage. When he caught her
weight with his palms on her ass, she wrapped her legs around his waist. The
rumble got louder when her crotch met the hard plane of his abdomen. Now
face-to-face with her quarry, she nuzzled his mouth with hers. As he met her
kiss and deepened it, she realized she’d never been this physically confident
with any man before. She wasn’t a small lady but Wheaton was able to handle her
as if she were a doll. He always seemed to be surrounding her and sheltering
her, which made her feel smaller than she actually was. That in itself was a
huge turn-on.

Getting lost in his kisses while he kneaded her, she rubbed
against him. Dear god, she was humping Wheaton in a closet. And not only was
she humping him, she was extremely close to getting off. His chest rumbles had
the effect of a vibrator against her clit. Dragging her mouth away to catch her
breath, she shivered when Wheaton bit her earlobe. Poppy’s eyes rolled back in
her head as she took one step closer to coming.

“Wheaton?” she mumbled.

“Hmmm?” Still nibbling, he ground her pelvis into him
harder.

“Undo your pants. Now,” she said in a voice bordering on
being able to qualify as a sex phone operator.

“Pants….can’t…have to get back to work,” he mumbled, while
nipping harder at her ear and neck.

“No work. Cock now.” Letting go of him, she wiggled to be
let down. With a groan of disappointment he complied, obviously not hearing the
“cock now” portion of what she’d said.

Slithering down his body, she went all the way to her knees.
His eyes widened as he realized what she was about to do.

Poppy saw a doubled-over exercise mat in the corner.
Dragging it to her, she lifted up enough to put it under her knees. The padding
was thick enough to give her knees relief from the hard white floor and also
thick enough to help her reach his cock easily while kneeling.

“Are you going to…” he asked with his eyebrows raised.

“Yep,” she said with a wicked grin. Unsnapping the buttons
on his leather pants, she licked her lips.

“I have seen this on the vids but I didn’t expect…”

“I know, babe, but I want your cock in my mouth right
about…now.” She gripped his length and tilted his cock down slightly to meet
her open lips. Swiping her tongue across the precome that had begun to collect,
she smiled against his tip at his sucked-in breath.