“Why yes he did…and I noticed your close encounter withHoover Hannah.” At his questioning glance, Poppy motioned to his neck.
Now with his face completely red, he pulled his leathercollar up higher and flashed her full fang.
“Do not call her that and yes, we had a wonderful night.”Walking the last couple steps to the doorway, he swiped his hand across thewrist plate and continued, “She is not anything like you described her before.”
Poppy made a face at him and folded her arms across herchest before she smirked and dropped the bomb she was sure he wasn’t aware ofyet. “Oh really, well then I guess I shouldn’t have hated her for a whilebecause she kissed Wheaton.” Turning, she walked through the med center doorsas Behyr sputtered behind her.
“What?” Obviously shocked, he didn’t move for a moment andthe door closed with him on the other side.
“Oh, you hadn’t heard that part of the story?” Poppy askedwhen the door opened again and he still had his mouth open.
“No, I did not. Explain the story please.”
“Yeah, apparently your new girlfriend decided to test outher seduction skills on Wheaton before I made her realize it was a bad idea.”When Behyr’s face fell in disappointment, Poppy realized that she might haveruined the idea of Hannah for him. She clutched his arm and tugged him into theroom so he wouldn’t be shut out again.
“Don’t make the gloomy face. She was testing the waters, andI don’t have a problem with her anymore…at least as long as she keeps her eyesoff Wheaton as potential mate material.” Winking at him and nodding to hisneck, she went on, “Plus, I think she may have someone new on her mind.”
Poppy patted Behyr on the arm as she went to see where Rodinand Tamin were. Checking the exam rooms, she noticed that everything was emptyeven though the machines had been booted up. She heard footsteps behind her.Behyr had followed her as she’d searched for the doctors.
“Maybe they were called down to the training centers.” Behyrwas already moving to check the computer for messages. “Well…it doesn’t saywhere they are but it does say here that we are to expect four brides today forcheckups. At least, that is what the schedule has recorded.”
“Really?” Poppy practically skipped to the message center,she was so excited to meet the other brides who were on the ship.
“Yes, it says here that they are to arrive this morningafter Valerie has a scan.” Pausing to glance around the center again, he shotPoppy a questioning gaze. “Is she sick?”
“Ummm…I think she wants to get a baseline in the system. Youknow, since she’s stuck here and everything.”
Not wanting to tell another’s secrets, Poppy tried to makeherself busy by gathering the welcome bags she’d prepped for the brides lastweek. They weren’t much but she figured that any human female would appreciatea bottle of lotion and familiar soap along with some other female products theymay have forgotten to bring or run out of by now. Poppy smiled, rememberingTamin’s look of disbelief when she’d asked if they had ribbon for her to makebows. He’d ended up shaking his head but provided her with some blue medicalstring from the supply closet. She was happy she was going to be able to givethese out and meet some of the other ladies.
“Poppy?” Behry’s deep voice penetrated her thoughts.
“Oh, sorry. I’ve just been anxious to meet these women. Itseemed like it was never going to happen.” Smiling at him reassuringly, she putthe bags back down. “Come to think of it, I should become friends with as manyas I can, right?”
Behyr nodded, peering at the bags she had set down.
“What are these?” Picking one up, he read the bottle thatshowed clear through the cellophane wrapping. “Peaches and cream?”
“It’s lotion.” Taking up a basket that had the loose extrasfor more bags, she flipped open the top of a similar tube. “For some reason,when Earth sent supplies for the brides, they put in a large shipment ofscented lotions for the women.” Holding the tube up to his face, she puffedsome air out and a glob popped out the opening to hit the tip of his nose.
“Aaack!” He jerked back with such a reaction of disgustPoppy couldn’t help but laugh hysterically.
“It’s only lotion, you goofball, not acid.” Reaching for atissue to help him clean off his face, she found he’d already done so with hishands and was sniffing them.
“This smell is…pleasant.” As if he didn’t know how todescribe it, he kept sniffing his hands. “Could I have one of these packs forHannah?”
Smiling at how sweet he was toward Hannah, she held out thebasket. “Of course you can. There are different scents, though. Do you want tosmell them all to see which one you like more?” Reaching for another bottle,she giggled when he snatched it from her.
“I’ll do that. You seemed to laugh so much before that Ithink you may have done that to me on purpose.”
After going through the bottles, he settled on one that wasa vanilla-sugar blend. Noting his pick, Poppy figured it wouldn’t be a bad ideato let Hannah know he preferred that scent over the other ones that wereavailable.
Behyr stuck around long enough to help Poppy prepareeverything, since the docs still hadn’t arrived. He seemed to ask about everythinghuman-related and Poppy got a kick out of pointing out the different thingshuman women might like or need. Behyr became obsessed with a shower pouf andkept rubbing his thumb over a foot pumice stone, but when Poppy pulled out abox of tampons, he dropped the items and quickly found something to do inanother room. If he did end up taking Hannah for a bride he would need to getover the squeamishness of the female cycle. Remembering she’d had to explain itto Wheaton and what had happened made her smile to herself. Wheaton had beencurious when he had found her empty birth control packet and asked if they werevitamins.
