She glanced to the side of the room where Pixie was eatingsome cookies while staring at her as if she were watching a movie. Turningslightly away from Wheaton, Poppy mouthed, Cut it out, which made Pixielaugh and shovel another cookie into her mouth while she wiggled her eyebrows.
“Soooo…” Poppy didn’t quite know what to say as she gazed upinto Wheaton’s eyes.
“Would you like to sit and have a beverage? They placed fooditems in here for us to eat while waiting for you.”
He placed his hand on her back to guide her to one of thechairs at the table. Poppy felt the heat from his large hand above her waistand goose bumps popped up on her arms. Holy cow that was electric. He moved thechair out for her to sit and sat in the one next to it, but moved closer andleaned forward as if he were going to tell her a secret. She angled her head soshe could hear him better when she realized he was simply breathing her in. Hereyes closed as she tilted even closer to his mouth.
“You smell wonderful…and your hair, it appears so soft. MayI touch it?” His nose was now pressing against the side of her neck and theirchairs were as close as they could be.
“Well, it seems only fair…I touched yours.” Grateful she’dleft her hair down today, she nodded while trying to swallow past the dry lumpin her throat. She heard a soft sound and realized it was a whimper that hadcome from her.
Instead of him simply touching her hair, which was whatshe’d expected, he put his hand on the back of her neck and threaded hisfingers into the strands at her nape. Giving it a slight tug, he pulled herhead back and moved his nose down her neck, causing her to let out a noise shehadn’t heard herself make before. Whimpering? Since when did she whimper?
Another noise, this time coming from him, had her openingher eyes.
“Did you just growl at me?” she whispered.
“I rumbled. It’s a sound our race makes when we have certainemotions,” he said in a husky voice.
“Your rumble sounded an awful lot like a growl.” Poppy’slips were almost touching his, they were so close.
“I am sorry if I scared you. We don’t have much physicalcontact unless we are training or in combat. I find touching you, even justyour hair…arousing.” He licked his lips while staring at hers.
Poppy felt as if they were in a bubble of their own insidethe large conference room. She could hear the buzz of the lights overhead andalso her sister talking to Valerie. Every once in a while she could hearDathrow murmur something but it all seemed fuzzy, almost as if they werehuddled together in a dimly lit bar instead of in a brightly lit boardroom.
“Wheaton. Wheaton!” Dathrow was now standing behind theirchairs. “I have been trying to get your attention for a couple moments now.Your cheeks seem flushed. Are you feeling well? We can have a Brakken ready a medi-unitfor our arrival on Squadron One if needed.” Dathrow seemed more like aconcerned parent wanting to hover over a sick child than the warrior she’dfirst seen him as.
Wheaton slowly untangled his fingers from her nape and withone last neck squeeze, he rolled his chair back and cleared his throat.
“I apologize, Dathrow. I was speaking with Poppy and tryingto measure our compatibility.” He reached up to rub his neck.
“Well, you guys were compatible as fuck from where I wasstanding.”
Pixie of course took that moment to pipe up.
“Wheaton, I need your mark on these papers for the trialperiod to begin. Valerie will collect Poppy’s mark and then we need to leave.Apparently the knowledge of our presence has been leaked and the angry peopleout front have grown louder.” Dathrow motioned Wheaton away and Pixie ploppedinto the chair that Wheaton had vacated.
“Holy shit, Pops. I thought he was licking your neck fromwhere I was standing. And I’m pretty sure I saw your eyes roll into the back ofyour head.” She looked at Valerie and smiled. “I guess we don’t have to worryabout them being attracted to each other now, do we?”
“Nope, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue at all.Poppy, did he steal your ability to speak? You’ve been sitting there with your mouthopen since we interrupted your…moment.” Valerie placed a hand on Poppy’sshoulder, about to give it a little shake.
“No, I’m fine. I’ve never felt anything like that before.Ever. Like ever ever. I think he blew my circuits there for a minute.Did you hear him growl? It literally made me shiver. I need some cold water.”Poppy sat there stunned and fanned her face with a hand.
She had never felt that type of physical response to anyonein the past. It had almost felt that if he breathed on her a bit more, shecould’ve had an orgasm then and there. She felt so overwhelmed that she couldprobably start laughing hysterically any time now. The only thing that stoppedher was the fact Wheaton and Dathrow were talking but still watching the womenfrom their side of the room. Meeting Wheaton’s eyes from the distance, shesmiled at him and when he smiled back, she couldn’t help but let her smilegrow.
“Well, my mind’s made up. Let’s sign this stuff and get mytrial going.” Poppy had a huge smile on her face by the time she signed thetrial forms.
Pixie sat there tapping her fingers on the table while Poppysigned the forms to leave Earth. It hit her all of a sudden that her sister wasactually doing this. Poppy was leaving. And she wouldn’t be coming backif that hunky warrior had anything to say about it. She didn’t want to beselfish, but that’s exactly how she felt. Pixie looked at her sister—reallylooked at her. Poppy had smiled more and seemed more alive in the past fifteenminutes than Pixie had seen her
