by Montana Ash
Stupid dick!
“She’s …”
Ryker jumped at the interruption from his inner diatribe, both hands reaching for his absent sickles out of habit. He felt naked without the twin blades and hated the fact that no weapons were permitted in the main hall of the Lodge. Having said that, it was Ryker who had actually instigated that little rule after one too many mishaps so he had no right to bitch. He had pointedly not asked Max if she was carrying that damn sword of hers in her boot. He didn’t want to know. Forcing himself to relax, Ryker turned to the speaker. It was Kane, one of the famed triplet paladins currently unbound to a warden. Ryker didn’t know him or his brothers well – they had arrived only one week earlier to complete their final round of training before graduating to full knight status. But they had a reputation as fierce fighters, in and out, of the bedroom. They were highly famous for their sexcapades in the paladin community all over the globe. Personally, Ryker didn’t see the appeal. He decided to finish the half spoken statement;
“Insane? A menace? A walking disaster zone?”
Kane gave a small chuckle as he shook his head. His eyes roamed Max’s profile appreciatively as he said, “I was going to say amazing.”
Ryker felt the scar on his face pull tight as he scowled. He had the sudden urge to pluck out Kane’s eyeballs with a rusty spoon. Because he wasn’t exactly renowned for his garrulous ways, he simply grunted and continued to scowl in Max’s general direction. She was now involved in an animated discussion with Cas, the other warden no longer pale or dejected. Even as he watched, Max placed a gentle hand on Cas’s arm as she whispered something in his ear. He had to shake his head at her astuteness. She was essentially staking a claim on the young outcast, touching and sharing secrets, declaring him to be a confidant. She was proving to the rest of the room that she wasn’t afraid or disgusted to be associated with him and he wasn’t going to ‘contaminate’ her. It was exactly what the other paladins in the room needed to see. There were no other wardens present now that Ignatius had left and Max and Caspian were now the highest ranking people in the room, not that Max understood that.
Caspian laughed in response and Ryker couldn’t help but notice the way the blond leaned into the touch of the older paladin next to him, nor the warm look Lawson sent Max in thanks. There was an intimacy between Cas and his paladin that couldn’t be denied. Well, if you were going to buck a trend, you may as well do it right, Ryker thought. Not only was homosexuality forbidden amongst the upper cast but relationships between wardens and paladins was severely frowned upon. Oh, sexual relations where a warden used their paladin for the express purpose of a vitality exchange was entirely acceptable. But throw some feelings in there, some respect, some genuine affection and that was taboo. Fucking hypocritical bastards! Ryker thought in disgust.
Caspian was a relatively young warden and not a physically strong one, but he was one of the most courageous men Ryker had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He stood up for what he believed in and was true to himself and those he loved. Ryker respected the hell out of the guy. So when Leo had contacted him on his brother’s behalf and told him they were having issues in their hometown in the US, Ryker had told them about the land for sale just down the road. The fact that it was Ryker’s land and he hadn’t intended to put in on the market at the time was his business. Ryker had trained Leo and his older brother Lawson here at the Lodge years ago and had been impressed with their fighting skills and good natures. It hadn’t been a hardship to sell the land to Caspian. They were good neighbours.
“So, what’s her story? I hear she’s staying with you guys. You thinking of taking on another warden?”
Shit! Was Kane still there? Ryker moved his eyes in the direction of the other paladin but gave no other sign he had heard him. No way was he explaining himself to this young buck.
Entirely unfazed, Kane chuckled. “Alrighty then. I assume she’s free game.” He rubbed his hands together, “Excellent.”
Now he did turn to Kane and pinned him with a hard stare. “She’s not free game. You remember who you’re talking about soldier. She is a warden of the highest cast and you will afford her the respect of her station. Am I understood?”
His stern voice brooked no reply other than the ‘Yes, Sir’ he received. That was more like it, Ryker thought.
“I think my ears are bleeding. Did you just lecture someone about respecting me?”
Ryker closed his eyes and groaned. The woman was so tiny she had managed to sneak up behind him. Naturally, her timing was perfect and she just had to hear his mini rant to Kane. How was he supposed to live with her after this?
****
“Are you going to introduce me?” Max asked Ryker. Although his eyes spoke volumes, his mouth did not. “I’ll take that as a no. Hi, I’m Max.” She smiled widely at the newest primo specimen in front of her as she held out her hand for him to shake.
“My name is Kane. It is a great pleasure to meet you, Max.” Kane practically purred as he took her hand and skimmed his lips over the top gallantly. The way he said the word ‘pleasure’ had Max believing that he would indeed be a pleasure … multiple pleasures in fact!
“Oh, my!” She twittered as she batted her lashes. Ordinarily, Max would think such flirtations were an insult to her feministic side but after the mass rejection of the paladins that morning, she was willing to go with the flow. She heard a low sound, oddly like a rumble or a growl and was just turning to place it when Kane’s brilliant white smile widened and revealed a matching set of dimples. Now that was just plain wrong! That such a masculine, mountain of a man, so rugged and virile would have those boyish little dimples … sigh! Looking around she noticed the band of merry misfits watching the exchange with varying degrees of amusement, shock, censure and approval. The approval, of course, coming from her fellow chica Cali.
Max tried to return her attention to Kane only to be distracted by that grumbling sound again. She pivoted and narrowed her eyes at Ryker. “Are you growling?”
“No!” Ryker growled.
Shrugging off the antisocial, perpetually premenstrual paladin, Max opened her mouth to ask Kane if he wanted to join her for a drink when her brain decided to have a seizure or something. Standing in front of her was not one, but three Kanes! They wore identical expressions of lust and had identical gleams in their eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she apologised, “but I think I may have just had a stroke. You seem to have multiplied.”
The three Kanes laughed in tandem. “No stroke.” Kane the Second assured her. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with your fine self. I’m Kai, and this is our baby brother Kellan.” Kai bowed graciously and indicated the remaining look alike to his left.
Kane the Third tilted his head and flashed his own set of killer dimples. “By baby, he means by two minutes. I promise you, there is nothing babyish about me.”
Max held up hands. “Wait a minute. There are three of you?”
The three K’s grinned devilishly whilst nodding their heads. Not one to believe in such luck immediately, after all, some hallucinations could be very vivid, Max turned to Cali for confirmation, “There are three of them?”
Cali widened her eyes comically and mouthed silently but distinctly, “There are three of them!” Her words held more power because of their silence and just like that, Max believed in Santa Claus again!
With nothing intelligent left to say, she simply twittered another, “Oh, my!” as she battered her lashes once again.
“You said that already!” The snarl from Ryker rudely interrupted Max’s in-brain movie of herself in a sweaty triplet sandwich. She shoved him with her shoulder not even sparing him a glance as she spoke to the trio.
“Don’t mind him. He has some kind of brain disorder that I haven’t quite figured out yet.”
The choking gasp from Ryker could be heard over the several loud snickers and chuckles. Max rolled her eyes, “See what I mean?”
Clenching his jaw, he rumbled, “Wou
ld you please try to contain yourself? It’s embarrassing!”
“Who’s embarrassed? I’m not embarrassed. You guys embarrassed?” She asked the triplets and received three vigorous head shakes. She turned to Caspian, “Yo, Cas. You embarrassed?”
“No ma’am,” he replied swiftly, “you could very well live out a favourite fantasy of mine if you continue down this path.”
Lawson gave him a playful swat to the rump, “Watch yourself, brat.”
Max smiled, those two were so cute! She tucked her unruly hair behind her ears and stood a little straighter, causing her breasts to push against her tee shirt. Good posture was very important. It was times like these that she wished she had some nicer and newer clothes, maybe a little make-up or hair product. And wow, was she really standing here lamenting over her lack of feminine wiles? She had truly hit rock bottom but what was a girl supposed to think when she was a frumpy dwarf surrounded by a bunch of beautiful amazons? She was so out of her league, but if Ryker and the others didn’t want her then she would damn well prove that somebody else did. The three hotties in front of her were a good place to start.
“How about I buy you boys a drink?”
The middle one, Kai, smiled. “Drinks are free here.”
Max grinned back, “Even better.”
A giant shadow seemed to suddenly block out all the light in the room. Max craned her head back, back, back, only to see a scowling Ryker directly behind her, his oversize head obstructing the above light. Max could tell by the look in those yummy eyes of his that he was going to ruin all her fun.
He flicked his eyes forward. “Go away now.” Just three little words but it was enough to bring about a flurry of movement. Although Ryker insisted they weren’t the most respected paladins in the room, it looked like they were the most feared for everyone scattered including the three pretties.
“That was not appropriate behaviour.” He intoned.
Max spun around and poked a finger into his hard chest, “Are you kidding? Those three are my reward for being a lone wolf all these years! I totally deserve them! You can’t have them!” Max yelled a little hysterically at seeing her new toys slip through her fingers.
Ryker rolled his eyes, completely unmoved. “You’re being ridiculous. You can’t keep them.”
“Actually, she can. Isn’t that the whole point of coming here today? So she could be introduced to unbound paladins and find those who would share their vitality?” Cali inquired.
“It’s not going to be them.” Ryker stated.
Cali placed her hand on a slim hip, “And why is that?”
“Cali …” Ryker’s low voice held a warning that she was pushing him past his limits.
“Ryker …” Wow, Cali had a pretty impressive growl of her own.
“That’s it. Show and tell is over. We’re leaving.” Ryker actually grabbed Max by the arm and began dragging her from the room. She managed to throw a ‘nice to meet you’ over her shoulder at Caspian before she found herself outside once again.
“Hey! Wait a minute Bullwinkle. You can’t just drag me around like a piece of meat. I heard you lecturing the pretties about respect, how about you start showing some?” Max demanded, hands on hips. The others had followed them out and she noticed they were standing around her in various poses of displeasure. Looks like they were on her side for once.
“Ryker man, she’s right. You can’t be treating a warden that way, especially not in front of the other paladins. It undermines her authority.” Beyden said.
Lark quickly followed up with; “And as a warden – a Life Warden nonetheless – her authority is absolute.”
Max tried not to look smug. It was nice to have defenders. Ryker ran his hands through his hair in exasperation as he appeared to take on board the criticism. She had to give him that at least; he always listened to his fellow knights and weighed and measured their opinions before forming a conclusion of his own. She bet he would have made a formidable Captain.
“You’re right. I apologise.”
Max nearly fell over. “Was that an apology? I don’t believe it.” She turned to a stunned looking Darius, “Can we stop at a newsagent on the way back? I need to buy a lottery ticket.”
“Yeah, yeah. Live it up while you can. I am sorry. I had no right to manhandle you but those three are not what I had in mind when I said you needed to bind yourself to your own paladins.”
“Heck, Ryker. I didn’t want to bind myself to Kane … I just wanted to sit on his face.”
Could someone go into a catatonic state while standing up? Because that’s what Ryker seemed to do. He was standing so still she wasn’t even sure he was breathing, he was no longer blinking, and his face looked like it was carved from granite. Max glanced around at the other paladins and saw various looks of astonishment on their faces; Darius was blushing, Axel was grinning seductively as if he was picturing Max on his face, Beyden’s amber eyes were wide in disbelief, Lark was laughing uproariously, and Cali was giving her a thumbs up sign. Clearly they weren’t quite used to her yet. Too bad they didn’t want to take the time to try, she thought, feeling dejected once again.
NINETEEN
She wanted to sit on his face? She wanted to sit on his face? Two hours later, Ryker was pacing the length of his room as his brain tried to compute Max’s outrageous statement from earlier. He had been absolutely livid when he had heard her refer to the other paladin in such a way. He wanted to hunt the triplets down and mess up their pretty-boy faces so no female would ever be attracted to them again. After the green-eyed monster had calmed the fuck down, his one-eyed monster had decided to chime in with nothing but images of a naked, writhing Max. He wanted her to sit on his face.
After the tension-filled drive back to camp, everyone had separated to do their own thing. Ryker didn’t know where Max had disappeared to, she had been studiously ignoring him the whole ride back, which was just as well for her. One more word out of that smart mouth of hers and he was liable to turn her over his knee and give her the spanking she so obviously needed. He groaned and pressed the palm of his hand against his straining erection – that imagery was so not helping. He had already undone the button on his jeans as a concession to his hardness and stripped off shirt and shoes in an attempt to cool his overheated skin. His lust had been on a slow simmer since she had first walked through the door sixteen days ago but he was now at boiling point. It was taking all of his iron-willed control not to seek out the woman and throw her over his shoulder, cave-man style. Maybe if he pounded his frustrations out on a punching bag, his body might deflate enough to allow him some sleep.
Although not the type of pounding his idiotic cock wanted, he decided to head down to the gym anyway, that was until he opened up his bedroom door and saw the object of his unanswered lust standing on the threshold. One look at the stubborn tilt to her chin and the flashing fire in those strange eyes of hers and all reason flew out the window.
“The only person you’re going to be sitting on is me!” Okay, so that was totally not what he was intending to say but damned if he would take it back.
****
Max had been standing outside Ryker’s door for over five minutes rehearsing the butt-chewing she intended to unleash on his unsuspecting arse. Who the hell did he think he was? He didn’t want her but he didn’t want anybody else to have her either? So not cool! Raising her fist to knock curtly, she almost swallowed her tongue when a half-naked Ryker opened the door. He was wearing a pair of unbuttoned jeans … and nothing else save those two little silver bars through his tanned nipples.
“The only person you’re going to be sitting on is me!”
Say what now? Had he just said …? His hungry brown eyes were all the confirmation she needed. She had a split second to make her decision and considered her choice made when she stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind her. Apparently that was all Ryker needed as well as he began to stalk forward. Max swallowed hard as she took in his predatory grace. The man move
d like a jungle cat, all muscle and sinew bunching and flexing in an erotic display of power. He was all muscle, not an ounce of fat on him and she found herself surprised at his leanness. She thought he might be bulky, but he was more smooth lines. She licked her lips in anticipation even as she felt a flutter of nerves in her belly. She had wanted to let the lion out of its cage and it seemed like she just got her wish. So what was one more stick on the fire?
“Really? You want me? Come and get me, big man.” She taunted right before she turned and fled.
She made it one step.
One step, before she found herself sandwiched between two hard surfaces. The one at her front was hard and unyielding, cold and smooth against her palms. The one at her back was also hard, but dipped and yielded in the most interesting places. It was also hot. Very, very hot. Two large hands began a rough exploration of her legs and her back side and Max realised he was frisking her for weapons. She smiled as Ryker managed to find every last one of her blades and even her garrotte wire she kept in the waistband of her pants. The paladins had removed all their weapons before entering the training facility but she didn’t go anywhere without her blades. All the weapons were carefully placed on the bedside table including her tanto sword. The last made her pause for a moment but Ryker was thoughtful and kept it in plain sight as if he knew how important it was to her.
She felt the breath rush from her lungs as she was swiftly spun around and Ryker’s mouth wasted no time in swallowing her gasp of shock. Her mouth opened under the demand of his surprisingly soft lips and she welcomed his tongue as he swirled and plundered, mimicking what was to come. Moaning, she arched her back and hooked one leg around his hips, rubbing herself against the man like a cat in heat. He felt so good and all she could think was more, more, more. So she was a little bewildered when she felt Ryker pull back and do nothing but stare down at her with eyes darkened by desire. His strong, callused hands cupped her face as he leaned down once again and used his tongue to explore the inner cavern of her mouth, this time at a more leisurely pace as if he had all the time in the world. She growled in frustration at the change in tempo. Here she was about to self-combust and he wasn’t even winded! Ryker obviously read her growl correctly for he said;