Page 23 of Queen Takes Triune
Daire came racing back across the lawn and I almost choked on the bite in my mouth when I snorted. Rik thumped me on the back, making sure I could breathe.
With a towel wrapped around his waist—and absolutely nothing else—Daire slid to a stop beside Nevarre. “I don’t have a kilt, but I’m going to show off my legs as much as him, or it’s not a fair competition.”
Nevarre scowled at him and popped his hips enough to make the kilt flare up dangerously high. “It’s not my legs I intend to show her, but I assure you there’s no competition in that regard.”
“Jealous?” Daire planted his fists on his hips and deliberately waggled his groin at the other man. No one was surprised that the towel was tented. I’m pretty sure the guys walked around with a hard-on ninety-percent of the time.
:Try one hundred percent of the time,:Mehen muttered.
“Hardly.” Nevarre pulled the long tail of his plaid free from the belt at his waist so he could drag his shirt over his head. He deliberately tossed it in Daire’s face. “Though we’ll go chest-to-chest as well as kilt-to-kilt.”
Daire’s purr rumbled the ground, sending a delicious thrum through my body. “Mmmmm, smells good, bird brain, but not as good as me.”
“Yeah? Do you care to make this challenge even more interesting?”
He winked at Nevarre and gave me a saucy grin. “Yeah. Because she’s going to bite me first.”
Nevarre shook his head, making his long hair glisten and dance around his shoulders. “It’s a bet, cat. The first one she sinks fangs into is the winner.”
I wheezed for breath, trying to stop laughing. “Stop making me laugh so I can eat.”
Ezra growled. “Are you lousy motherfuckers ever going to take this fucking log off my shoulder?”
“Fuck yeah.” Daire stepped closer, eyeing the log like he actually thought he could lift it. He shot a wide-eyed look over his shoulder at me and pouted. “You actually think I can’t throw it?”
“It’s at least three times taller than you,” Rik reminded him. “Even I’d have a hard time managing something that long and heavy without transforming to my rock troll.”
“And I’ve been standing here holding the fucking caber like a goddess-damned ijit.” For all Ezra’s complaining, I didn’t actually feel any strain in his bond, at least nothing that suggested he was struggling to hold the massive log.
:He just likes to complain,:Mehen assured me.
:Like some other people we know,:Llewellyn added, earning a very disgusted dragon glare.
“At least let me go first to show you how it’s done,” Nevarre said.
Daire nodded grudgingly, so Nevarre took position in front of Llewellyn. “All right, let’s position the thinner end down at the ground. It’s easier to get my hands underneath it.”
The two Blood eased the thick log down to the ground with the narrow end braced in the grass. Nevarre slowly bent down, shifting the log inch by inch onto his shoulder, while he eased his fingers underneath the cut edge of the log.
Oh. My. Hot. Kilt. Alert.
As he bent down, the kilt rode up. And up. Giving me a good, long look at the backs of his hamstrings. I’d never really thought about hamstrings being sexy, but I couldn’t look away as the lines of sinew and muscle worked beneath his skin. He wasn’t a thick, bulky man, but lifting that caber onto his shoulder made everything he had bulge. Deliciously.
My mouth was watering, and it had absolutely nothing to do with fried chicken.
With a deep grunt, he pushed his knees straight and began walking rapidly across the grass, picking up speed. Until he heaved the log straight up, every muscle straining.
With an extra kilt flip that showed me he definitely wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
I was too entranced to notice how far the log sailed or how many times it flipped, but by the whoops and cheers from the rest of my Blood, it must have been a good throw.
He sauntered back, grinning and sweaty and so damned delectable that I tugged on his bond, willing him to come straight to me. Which he did, much to Daire’s chagrin.
As the other Blood approached me, Daire hurried to get the log shifted onto his shoulder with Ezra’s help. “Not fair, Nevermore. You have to at least wait until I’ve made my toss and have the same chance to flash her.”
Staggering beneath the weight of the giant caber, he started a precarious trek across the grass.
But not before Ezra yanked the towel off his hips.
