Someone was getting himself some and he liked what he was getting.

My body tensed when I felt Lahn straighten and he snarled a bunch of not happy words at the warrior. Although clearly not happy, as in way not happy, the warrior didn’t miss a step nor did his grin falter. In fact, it got bigger and then he threw his head back and roared with hearty laughter.

He stopped laughing and shook his head as he made it to us and said a bunch of stuff and, while doing it, once gestured to me with his head.

Lahn returned his volley and also gestured to me with his head.

The other warriors eyebrows went up in disbelief and then he said something that sounded disbelieving but, if I wasn’t wrong, it was a kind of “you the man” disbelieving. I was pretty sure I was proved right when his eyes came to me and he looked me up and down then turned to Lahn and nodded his approval.

Totally you the man.

Um.

Was my husband bragging about his escapades with me right in front of me?

I stepped out of his arms and planted my hands on my hips.

“Uh… baby,” I called and both men turned to me, both looked at my face, clearly both read my face and before I could say more, Lahn did – not to me, to the warrior.

And I didn’t speak Korwahk but it was clearly, “See what I mean?” and whatever he meant made the warrior roar with laughter again.

The thing was, Lahn did it with him.

I stood there, staring.

I’d never kissed my husband and I’d never seen him laugh. I hadn’t even seen him smile.

Until then.

Jeez, how weird was that?

He had a great laugh and he looked good doing it.

And he had very white teeth.

They stopped laughing, the other warrior said something and tipped his head to me. Lahn nodded, smiling and then suddenly he grabbed my bicep and my body was in motion. Then, I had no idea how he did it, but he swung me up on his back so my arm was around his neck and my thighs were at his hips. His big hands came to my ass and he started walking while talking to the other warrior who fell in step at his side, all the while carrying me on his back.

I curved my legs fully around him to hold on, my other arm going around his chest and there was something about this, something sweet, something intimate, something I liked.

Oh man.

We walked through the encampment and drew every eye from every person we passed. I noticed Lahn didn’t smile or nod his head. I noticed Lahn had his hands on my ass, me on his back and a warrior at his side and that was his whole focus. The people we passed did not exist. He didn’t acknowledge them in any way.

So I did, smiling and nodding at anyone who caught my eye. And there were a lot of those too.

Lahn’s fingers tensed into my flesh and he turned his head and said something to me.

I didn’t understand, obviously, so I dropped my chin to his shoulder and whispered, “I don’t understand you, baby.”

His dark eyes caught mine and he said quietly, “Lahnahsahna Circe … okay?”

Oh man.

Yeah, I was okay. Okay with Lahn attempting to communicate with me in my own language.

Yeah, totally okay.

I closed my eyes and squeezed my arms then nodded, opened my eyes and whispered, “Okay.”

That got me another squeeze on my ass as Lahn looked forward again and his warrior said something to him.

I looked forward too, sighed, held tight and enjoyed the ride.

* * * * *

Okay, it was safe to say, the minute we entered the ginormous tent where the games were held, I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

This was because there were a lot of beefy men sitting around on benches, it smelled like man and booze and there were two men beating the crap out of each other in the middle of the circle of benches. And by that I meant, sweaty, bloody, grunting, beating the crap out of each other.

Very few eyes came to us such was the attention on the match. But an entire bench was open at one side, the other warrior broke off from us and Lahn walked right to it, swung me off his back (jarring my shoulder as he did, the big guy was rough but I was getting the feeling he didn’t know it). He deposited me, feet to the ground, sat, opened his legs wide, grabbed my hand, tugged it so hard it jarred my shoulder again and my knees gave out so I sank to the stone ground. He hauled me between his legs; I did my best to get comfortable and looked around.

Lots of warriors, though I couldn’t find the one who claimed Narinda, not that I was sure I would remember what he looked like. There were no women except the two scurrying around with jugs and filling the leather covered cups the men were guzzling from. One scurried to Lahn, he took the full cup she offered, put it to his lips, gulped back a huge swallow then righted himself and his eyes locked on the fighters.

No beverage was offered to me before the woman scurried off.

Hmm. Apparently women weren’t provided with refreshments.

Figured.

To get comfortable, I scooted close between his legs and draped an arm on Lahn’s thigh. I didn’t know if that was all right but I figured if it wasn’t, I’d find out soon enough.

He didn’t remove it so I leaned into it and looked at the shouting, cheering, stamping warriors.

Man, they were eating this shit up. Nearly frenzied.

Then I looked at the fighters. One looked about to drop. This was good and bad. Good for me because it meant this match was nearly over. Bad for him because it was clear there were no technical knockouts in this game and he looked like he could use one.

I was right. Five minutes later he was down and out.

One minute later he was dragged unceremoniously across the stone ground as the other fighter beat his chest, threw out his ripped arms, stamped his tree trunk legs and shouted his triumph. Then he tore a leather cup from a passing waitress type person and downed most of it in one gulp and poured the rest of it over his body, shaking his big head, blood, sweat and booze flying everywhere and he shouted again.

Yikes.

“Lahnahsahna Circe,” I heard Lahn call my name and I leaned back to look up at him.

“Yeah?”

He brought the cup to my lips. “Gingoo,” he ordered and it didn’t take a linguistics master to know he meant drink.

I parted my lips, he tipped the cup and I noticed as he did he was watching with intense interest.

I expected a beer-like substance, seeing as we were at a sporting event.

It wasn’t a beer-like substance. It was a straight, raw, spirit and it burned my throat but it didn’t taste all that bad. He took the cup away and I grinned at him.

“Kay ahnay see,” I said, he stared at me a second, his bearded chin jerking back in surprise and then his entire head tilted back as he roared with laughter.