“Hannah, I would like to introduce you to Behyr. He’s beenmy 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 themedical unit. This is Tamin and this one over here is Rodin.” She waved themover to Hannah to shake hands. “Men, this is Hannah.”
Tamin and Rodin greeted her with cool smiles. Apparently allthe 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 thisscenario.
“Let’s eat and you two can tell us about your morning,” shesuggested 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 ontheir group. With Wheaton sitting next to her, she gave him a nudge with herfoot to hopefully get someone speaking. He obviously didn’t get her “talk aboutsomething” nudge because he took a huge bite of his food. The men seemed happystuffing their faces but Poppy could tell that Hannah was uncomfortable withthe silence. Picking at her food and casting glances around the room, theblonde 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 asrelief to be able to talk about work instead of something personal.
“Yes I do. With the recent situation, I believe I havebecome quite helpful calming down the Council.”
Wheaton agreed with a nod as he chewed.
“What recent situation?” Poppy asked, while looking atWheaton for clarification. Hannah was the one to answer though since she wasn’tthe 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 tostay 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 ofreach.”
At Poppy’s confused face, Hannah went on, “Valerie forinstance is being viewed as a hostage since she wasn’t given an option toreturn before the ship started moving. When she did not return home her familyfiled a police report and have essentially used the word ‘kidnapped’. Herparents are very conservative regarding their views of the Phaeton situationand 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. Everytime 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 Thornewas keeping her company or something. She hadn’t considered that Val was stuckon the ship—and possibly in trouble for it.
“Wheaton? She isn’t in trouble, right? I mean, she came uphere to help us out with the bride stuff, and I would hate to have brought thistrouble on her.”
Wheaton patted her hand to calm her down and said in asoothing voice, “Do not worry, Poppy, Hannah has actually made great strides intalking to your government and explaining the situation as to why Valerie wasneeded on the ship. It took a few days, but with Val sending messages to herparents assuring them that she was safe, she was able to convince them that wewere 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 politicalexperience helped the situation a lot and now I can see why you were needed atthose meetings all week.”
Wheaton cast Poppy a glance that she interpreted as reliefon his part as well.
“This is what I do. Being a City Council member, I had todeal with some crazies…not only crazy but we had a lot of lawsuits for noreason other than miscommunication.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
When Hannah had explained her part in helping the warriorsavoid conflict, Behyr had sat up and started studying her with a moreappraising gaze than the weary one he’d had on his face earlier.
“Behyr?” Waiting for him to drag his eyes from Hannah, shesmiled when he finally paid attention to her. “How’s your warrior traininggoing? Any there any more sparring sessions that we’re going to need to preparefor in the medical unit?”
“You train the warriors here?” Hannah asked, casting her ownappraising glance at the big man sitting across from her.
As the conversation continued, mostly with Behyr and Hannahtalking, the rest of the group finished their lunches. Seeing that Hannah wasstarting to glance at Behyr with familiar big doe eyes while he talked aboutwhat it took to train the men, Poppy smiled inwardly. Mission Distract withBeefcake complete.
Since nothing was left on the platters, they were able toquickly clean up. Noticing that Tamin and Rodin had gone into “doctor mode” toprepare for their afternoon patients, she decided now was a great time to sneakin a little Wheaton time. Nodding her head for him to follow her, she led himdown the small hallway to pull him into an empty supply closet where shewrapped him in a full-body hug. He returned the embrace and upped the contactwith 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 wewhispering?”
Smiling down at her, he said, “Because I don’t want thismoment 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 asupply or two,” she joked.
Gripping her butt just enough to lift her onto her toes, heground his hips into hers. “We can
