“I am. Continue, Greer.”
“Being the strategic mind he is, he set a date to lose his virginity. He had it all planned out. We had just started officer training and were not permitted to leave Basecamp. But he decided he didn’t want his first time to be with anyone at camp. The plan was to sneak out to a pub at the nearest village and proposition a sex worker. He wanted nothing more than the act and then he would return home before dawn.”
“Mistake number one: he told Ulric and me the plan,” Terro says, holding up a finger.
“Biggest fucking mistake,” Kyron grumbles.
Greer gives a cheeky grin. “It worked out perfectly for me. Ky and I were rivals at that time. We had it out for each other. Whatever we could do to make the other look bad, we would do it. There were no rules. Anyway, I was on guard duty that night, and he had slipped out of the stables without me noticing, but these two fumbling idiots weren’t so quiet. When I caught them, they told me what they were up to and why.”
“Aye, we were hoping to catch Ky making a fool of himself with a lady,” Ulric says.
Greer gives a little snort of laughter and says, “I told them I wouldn’t turn them into Abrum if they took me with them. They agreed.”
Kyron sweeps his hair back from his face and shakes his head. “Assholes sold me out to save their own hides.”
“So, did it work out? Did he find someone to show him thepleasures of the flesh?” I ask, through a fit of laughter.
Kyron slides his hand under my tunic, and his fingers tickle along my ribs. I squirm in an attempt to get away, but his hold is too tight. He pulls me over his lap and places me between his legs, pressing his chest to my back. “What does it matter? I don’t hear any complaints from you. It’s quite the opposite,” he whispers in my ear.
I look at him over my shoulder. “I just want to know if there’s a woman in a small village I need to send flowers and a thank you card.”
His cheeks burn red, and he purses his lips to combat a smile. Greer saves him from combusting with embarrassment as she continues the story.
“He found a very beautiful woman who was scantily clad at the pub. From our lookout in the far corner, he seemed the perfect gentleman. He bought her a drink and held a conversation with her for a few minutes. I thought he chickened out to be honest. It was taking him forever to drag her up to one of the rooms on the second floor. Finally he did. He and the woman hadn’t been gone for more than two minutes when the base commander of north camp came charging through the door looking for his wife.”
“Ky’s second mistake of the evening, he was too much of a gentleman to ask the woman her price. He would have learnedthen and there she was a lonely officer’s wife looking for a bit of attention,” Ulric says.
I whip around with wide eyes. “Your first time was with a married woman?”
He shakes his head. “Let Greer finish the story.”
“Please do. I’m getting to the good part,” Greer says, rubbing her palms together. “So, it wasn’t long before a patron pointed the commander upstairs. Ulric, Terro, and I raced out of our seats and chased after him. We stood back as he kicked in the door, but we got a peek of what was going on inside. Let’s just say Ky had his britches around his ankles, and she was on her knees. I’ve never seen a person with their pants down run around a bed and jump across a mattress quite as gracefully as he did. Ky came barreling out of that room with his cock still out and fumbling to cover himself. He almost got away, but he tripped and tumbled down the last five steps. He ended up sprawled out on the floor, face down with his bare ass out.”
“Oh no,” I say and clasp my hands over my mouth. I’m not sure whether to laugh or comfort Kyron. It couldn’t have been easy being a young man and enduring such a humiliating moment in front of an entire pub of strangers and friends.
“So then what happened?” I ask.
“The commander broke his nose and dragged him back to Basecamp. Abrum put him on trash detail for two months,” Greer says, like this was a regular occurrence in her life.
“Don’t forget stable duty in the mornings,” Ulric adds.
“And my all-time favorite assembly presented by Lieutenant Kyron LeFur.” Terro stands, holds his arms behind his back. The flames flicker across his face, creating deep lines that are not normally there. He covers his mouth with his fist and clears his throat before saying, “The Dangers of Spending Less Than an Hour Getting to Know Your Sexual Partners.”
Kyron snorts, holding back a chuckle. He shifts behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder. “And the real lesson I learned that night was to never share your sex schedule with your friends.”
“Good idea,” I say.
He lifts his brows, saying, “Yeah, the greatest idea.”
Greer, Kyron, Terro, and Ulric spend the next hour sharing stories with Ashavee and me. She is just as enthralled with the tidbits of their past as I am. We laugh at the way they banter with one another and join in with our own commentary when we can. To an outsider, we would look like longtime friends, enjoying each other’s company, instead of a king and his closest advisors on a quest to save his land.
When the fire dims, Ashavee throws two more logs on top, and drifts off into the trees. The rest of us settle in for the night. Greer and Terro lay at opposite ends by themselves, each with their back to the fire and facing the forest. Ashavee returns in her jaguar form and curls up closer to where we tied up the horses. I don’t miss the way Ulric casually takes a spot near her. Kyron rolls out a sleeping mat for us and we cuddle under a thick wool blanket. I rest my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. The soft thump relaxes me. My eyes grow heavy, and my body goes limp, molding into his. Sleep weighs down on me, pulling me under.
Down.
Down.
Down.
