Poppy was having one of those moments where nothing madesense anymore. Before today, she’d had a goal. She knew what she was fightingfor. But apparently Wheaton wasn’t sure if he should even be fightingfor her, not if he felt the need to go around kissing people to “test theirattraction”. Knowing that she was never going to be a pushover or a woman ofweak will, she decided to make him see what she was feeling and there was onlyone way to do that.
Walking over to find the nightshirt she’d thrown on thefloor the previous day, she slipped it over her head. Snagging a hair tie offthe nightstand gave her a few more seconds to figure out what she was going tosay. Wheaton had not felt the need to get dressed and sat as naked as he’d beenbefore. Sure that her face conveyed her feelings, she stared at him for a fewmoments, waiting for him to look her in the eye. When he finally made eyecontact, she saw him flinch. Whether it was the pure anger and disappointmenton her face or the tears that had dried on her cheeks, she didn’t know forsure, 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 justsaid, so I know I didn’t hallucinate or misunderstand what happened.”
Pausing, she stood a couple feet in front of him and lacedher fingers in front of her.
“You’ve been sleeping with Hannah in our bed. Yes orno?” Keeping her gaze on his, she waited for his reply.
“Yes…but there is no other bed in the apartment. You areaware of this.”
“Just keep it to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for right now.” She held upher hand and closed her eyes for a second to hold back the tears she knew weregoing to start again once she said what was next.
“You’ve kissed Hannah…yes or no?” She was unable to keep atear from rolling down her cheek.
“Yes, but…” His voice halted when she held up her hand in a stopmotion.
“The reason you kissed Hannah was to test your feelings forme…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 morequestion.” This was the one she didn’t want to ask, because it could seriouslybreak her heart.
“Other than that one kiss, have you been intimate withHannah or touched her in an intimate way?” Poppy didn’t want to meet his eyesbut knew she would need to when she heard the answer. Holding the stare of thegreen eyes she had come to love, she whispered, “Yes or no?”
Realizing what Poppy thought had happened made Wheaton feelabout ten inches tall. Did she really think that he would have sex with someoneelse? Did she have so little faith in him that she expected he would be given anew 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 todrive her point home, especially since he was giving her the hurt-puppy-dogface right now as if he’d done nothing wrong. Now was the part where she madehim realize what she’d felt when he dropped the Hannah bomb.
“Using your logic, I should be able to test my ownattraction with other warriors to make sure that my feelings for you arereal. Yes or no?”
Boom. She saw what he felt the minute he realizedwhat he’d done. His eyes got huge and his mouth dropped open as if he werestunned. He took a step toward her and gripped her arms as if getting ready togive her a good shake.
“No!” he shouted in a voice that made her wince. Itseemed Wheaton couldn’t help but feel intense rage at the thought of anotherwarrior kissing his woman, but Poppy kept talking, not caring he was about tolose his mind.
Feeling a calm that wasn’t actually there, she asked steadily,“Why not?”
Keeping her arms in his strong hands, not squeezing, justrestraining, he stood stock-still. His mouth opened a couple times as if he hadthe correct answer to her question but was unable to say it. After what seemedlike a lifetime, he slowly released her arms and took a step back.
“Because it would hurt me to have you kiss someone else,” hewhispered in a raw voice. She saw the understanding on his face and wanted tomake 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 Iwas for this to work. The fact that you felt you needed to even ‘test’ thathurts me. It makes it worse that you decided to do that with Hannah, the brideDemascus the Douche seems to have handpicked for you.”
Wheaton nodded in understanding, obviously still reelingfrom the idea of Poppy kissing another male.
“We are going to make a list of deal-breakers, okay?” At hisconfused expression, she pushed him back until his knees hit the bed and he satdown. Sitting beside him, she held out her hand and started counting off itemsthat would cause her to call this whole thing quits.
“First off, no cheating. If you ever cheat on me inthe future, we are done.”
She waited for him to nod.
Nodding quickly, he said, “Agreed.”
Holding up another finger, she continued, “Second, noabuse…mental or physical. Don’t fuck with my head and play games, and I won’tdo it to you.”
“Agreed,” he repeated with another nod and took the handthat she was counting off her fingers on and linked his fingers with hers.
“Poppy, are you going to test your compatibility with othermales?” he asked in a rough voice, the thought clearly making him sick to hisstomach.
Then, before she could even answer, he continued with anangry shake of his head and
