Fill Me [Dungeon Masters 3] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) (8 page)

He hurried into the booth and stood behind Ryia, staring at the convention employee. The man looked up at him and the smile on his face disappeared. “Can I help you, sir? I’ll be free in a few moments.”

“That’s all right. I’m just waiting for…Ryia.”

He’d had to stop himself saying “my woman.” But she was his woman. His and Elijah’s, not this jumped-up peacock’s.

Ryia twisted around in her chair to stare at him. “I’m sorry. I thought we were meeting in the other room. I’m considering renting a stand at the convention next year. I won’t be a moment. I just have two more questions to ask.”

He nodded, and she looked down at the notebook she had on the table. As always, she was taking notes. She took everything so seriously. It was a lesson to him really. Maybe he ought to work harder himself.

She asked her questions, wrote down the answers, and checked she had a passel of paperwork the convention employee pointed out to her.

The man shook her hand and Asher ground his teeth at the thought of someone else touching her, but she wasn’t his yet. How had be become so very possessive so fast? He wasn’t the fucking wolf. That was Elijah.

Asher looked over at his friend and noted the crossed arms, spread legs, and frowning face. Yes. Elijah was finding this as hard as he was. This was day two of the convention. Was it too soon to ask Ryia to mate them? Yeah, probably.
Fuck!

* * * *

Elijah hated it that some stranger was sitting companionably with his woman and enjoying talking to her. Not that he expected Ryia not to talk to people, but the convention employee seemed to be far too happy to be with her than he should be. The wolf was starting to see that she might need more looking after than he’d appreciated until they could get her safely committed to them and wearing their ring. Or better yet a collar. She’d obeyed them by closing her eyes last night. Would she play a BDSM game with them? Might she turn out to be their sub as well as their mate?

He also noticed how Ryia had apologized by saying she had misunderstood where they were to meet, when actually she was perfectly correct. They were the ones in the wrong. They were early and not waiting where they’d said they’d be. She had much nicer manners than him. He needed to get his act together really fast or some polished man would snatch her out of his hands if he didn’t watch out. She wasn’t theirs yet, and if they wanted her they needed to be caring and considerate, not rough and abrupt with her. Damn. His mama had reared him right. He’d had good manners instilled in him. It was about time he dusted them off and started using them.

Perfume? Didn’t all women like perfume? There was sure to be a store downstairs that sold that kind of thing. He’d go and pick something out for her today. No, wait. He ought to ask her what kind of fragrances she preferred first. This was a gift for her and he had to focus on what she liked. So, first he needed a conversation about her favorite things, and then he could go buy her some perfume to give her tonight. Right. He could do that.

When she stood up and left the tiny booth, Elijah gently held her arm, and Asher said, “Have you finished in here yet? We’ve still got maybe seven or eight minutes before we have to be in the other room.”

“I’m all done, thank you. I have a lot of sorting out to so, lists to make and so on, but I have all the information I require, thank you.”

“Shall we go into the other room, then, and you can choose where you want to sit?” asked Asher.

She said at the back, Elijah reminded himself, but he stood behind her, letting her choose. Sure enough, she walked to the side of the room, much as she’d done the previous night, and sat by the wall. At least she was between them in the row of seats, thanks to Asher moving quickly. No other man was going to be able to touch her.

“What do you mean lists to make out?” he asked curiously once they were settled in their seats, Ryia with her notepad on her knee and her pen in her hand.

“Well, you know I own a store,” she said softly looking around them. Elijah nodded. He noticed Asher looking all around them, too, but couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation. They weren’t exactly selling illicit drugs or planning to rob a bank here.

“I came here primarily to learn from the speakers and workshops. But I’m also looking for extra ideas for stock for my store, or things I could do to make my store more interesting. There’s only me to look after me, so I have to make a success of this business.”

He wanted to contradict her to say he and Asher would look after her forever, but now wasn’t the time or place for that conversation.

“Have you found some ideas already? I noticed you collecting brochures and business cards,” said Asher.

“Oh yes. One of the suppliers has scented nail polish. That’s one thing I intend to add to my inventory immediately. That’s a really clever and sexy idea. A lot of other things have potential but I’ll need to weigh up one against the other and then try things out. I can’t afford to fill my store with new ideas all at once and risk none of them selling.”

“That’s logical.”

She looked down at her lap as the rows in front of them began to fill up and Elijah knew she didn’t want to talk about her store anymore right now. However, there was one question he could ask her that should be all right.

“You mentioned scented nail polish. Do you have some favorite scents?”

“I don’t really know. I like shampoo and body products with fruit scents. Peach and coconut and apple blossom. I’m not sure they’d work for nail polish, though. I guess they might have strawberry or something. I’d need to check the catalogue.”

That wasn’t what he wanted to know. “How about fragrances for perfumes?”

“Perfume?” She seemed quite surprised. He supposed she was focused on her store, not on her personal preferences, but he really needed to buy her a gift. Perfume could be sexy but it probably wasn’t standard adult store stock. Not that he’d even thought about it like that. Aromas could be powerful aphrodisiacs if done well in the dungeon. He knew that for a fact.

“I haven’t had any perfume for a very long time. I don’t even know what the current trends in it are. When I was a little girl I can remember my mom giving me a tiny vial of 4711 Eau de Cologne. I know I thought that made me the most beautiful girl on Earth when I wore it.” Once again her gaze dropped to her hands.

The room suddenly went silent as a man wearing the convention center uniform walked to the podium. The session was about to start. But that was all good. He’d buy her some 4711 Eau de Cologne and tell her that with or without it she was still the most beautiful woman in the world in his eyes.

* * * *

Ryia had felt embarrassed when the men had sought her out in the exhibition hall and stood beside her like guard dogs as she finished talking about renting a display booth at next year’s convention. And then the question about perfume had brought all the memories of her mother abandoning her back to the forefront of her mind.
I don’t have time to deal with any of this. I need to work.

Ryia forced herself to listen to every word of the introduction and then to take copious notes as the speaker talked about what he termed “incredible opportunities for growth” now that sex had become, at least to some extent, mainstream.

Ryia made a note to locate Phoenix and talk about adding more erotic romance novels to her store. She had a small bookshelf with novels and DVDs and a few games, but erotic romance was a huge and growing genre of reading, especially for women, and she needed to include that in her thinking. Maybe she could find some erotic covers for Kindles and Nooks. Hmm. Maybe not. Readers might prefer to remain incognito. Screen savers maybe? Ryia scribbled more notes to herself. She could think about all that later. She had enough things in her conference satchel to think about from now until the end of the year, but that was good. Adding one or two new items at a time to her store was likely the best way to go. That way there would always be something fresh and new to welcome in repeat visitors, but not so much new she might get left with a lot of unwanted stock.

At the end of the session they were reminded there was a ten-minute coffee break before the next session began, but Ryia jumped to her feet and slung her satchel over her shoulder.

Elijah, who was sitting on the end of the row of chairs, hemming her in, didn’t move. “Where are you going? There’s no rush. We’ve got ten minutes.”

That was fine for him but she had things to do. “Excuse me, please. I need to go.”

He stood and let her past and she wiggled her way into the exiting crowd and moved into the hallway looking for Phoenix. She couldn’t see her anywhere but a lot of people were heading for the bathrooms, so she followed the crowd in there, but Phoenix wasn’t in line. She came out again and slowly walked past the long tables with water, tea, and coffee, looking for Phoenix. When Ryia found Phoenix, she was surrounded by a crowd of people all talking so Ryia pulled out her notebook again and found the room she needed to head to for the next session.
Maybe I’ll see her at lunch.

Once again she sat in the back row by the wall, her favorite place to sit. Somehow she felt safe there. Not like everyone was staring at the fat, ugly woman, and wondering what she was doing there.
No. I promised Asher and Elijah I wouldn’t think like that. I’m a businesswoman. A person in my own right even if I am overweight. I will be fat and successful and be known as the successful owner of Paddle My Ass, not just a fat lazy cow.

The workshop she’d chosen to attend wasn’t one of the most popular ones, and most people sat in the front few rows, so she was a little surprised when someone sat on the chair next to her, instead of leaving a space between them. She didn’t look up, because the moderator of the workshop was already giving her introduction. However, the shoes next to hers looked familiar. She looked up and into Asher’s face. He was leaning back in the chair beside her, his gaze fixed on the front of the room, but his hands were in his pockets. Clearly he wasn’t here to take notes like her. Although he was listening so maybe she was being self-centered, assuming he’d come just to be with her, or was there to guard her. She’d gotten a real sense of possession from their attitude to her in the exhibition hall this morning. All right. She’d had sex with them. Very good sex with them. The best sex in her entire life. But it was a one-night stand, surely. Not a statement that they now had some kind of hold over her.

Oh hell. Had she given them reason to think she was their fuck-buddy now? Had she fallen into some sort of trap whereby they now could blackmail her into fucking them whenever they liked? But they hadn’t been like that. They’d been very careful to ensure she climaxed first and more often than them.

But was that just the hook to catch her? Had she effectively agreed to be their partner by going to their room last night? Oh hell, what had she done? Had she merely replaced one abuser for two?

Asher and Elijah had lost track of Ryia when she’d disappeared into the bathroom. Asher had almost blushed at his bad manners. Fancy getting in her way, trying to detain her when she needed to visit the restroom. He was an idiot of the most stupid kind ever. How could he ever have been so rude and crass?

The workshops were being held on two different levels of the hotel so Elijah had taken one level and he the other. “If we don’t find her we’ll go to the workshop we originally planned to go to and we’ll definitely meet up at the ballroom for the buffet lunch,” said Asher.

“Agreed. I also want to buy a couple of things downstairs. If I don’t find her I’ll do that before I meet you both for lunch,” said Elijah.

Asher spent about a minute and a half wondering what shopping Elijah needed to do, and then shrugged and walked from one workshop room to the next. They all seemed quite interesting. He had to congratulate the organizers. They had some good helpful stuff in their program. Even if he wasn’t the lucky one who met up with Ryia, he would have plenty to interest him here.

Once again there was a table in the hallway with plates of cookies and bottles of water. He took a bottle of water and drank it down, then crunched his way through a giant honey oatmeal cookie, and followed it up with a white chocolate chip cookie. Delicious. Then he checked the rooms again, looking for the muted-blue top Ryia was wearing today with a skirt patterned in fawns, beiges, and gray-blues. But she was nowhere to be seen.

Sighing, he contemplated another cookie, but instead paced the length of the hallway again, looking into each room. It was almost time for the session to begin and people were crowding in now. One of the rooms was very full with all the seats taken and people leaning against the walls. He took extra time there to look at each person, but Ryia wasn’t there.

When he found her, she was sitting in what he was starting to recognize as
her
place in the back row beside the wall. Fortunately this workshop wasn’t overcrowded, and the back row was almost empty. He eased into the seat beside her and was able to relax for the first time since she’d disappeared. He ached to speak to her, to ask her to have lunch with them, to tell her he longed to stay with her forever, but the speaker was already talking. And actually, the subject matter was quite interesting. He found himself nodding agreement with points that were made, and almost asked a question at the end. Except that he needed to stay with Ryia and couldn’t risk getting caught up in a discussion with the speaker and having her vanish on him again.

As the session ended, Ryia dropped her notepad back into her conference bag. She’d taken so many notes Asher hoped she had a second notepad because that one was going to be all used up very soon at the rate she was going.

“Elijah and I hope you’ll eat lunch with us now,” he said, holding his hand out to help her stand.

She shook her head and said firmly, “I’m sorry. I can’t.”