Fill Me [Dungeon Masters 3] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) (10 page)

Asher was standing in the conference hallway not far from the elevator where he could see everyone arriving for the workshops and panels. He’d already checked the rooms and there was no sign of Ryia yet. If she arrived she’d come this way.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, not surprised to see a message from Elijah saying he’d located Ryia. Well, that was fair. He’d sat with her in the previous session. Asher pulled out his schedule and hurried to the seminar he and Elijah had intended to attend.

It wasn’t anywhere near as useful as he’d expected and he had to struggle to hide his yawning, and then he had to go through the process all over again for the following workshop, which told him nothing he didn’t already know. However, the final session of the afternoon followed a fifteen-minute coffee break and was back in the ballroom with a speaker whose biography sounded really interesting. Even if he couldn’t find Ryia in time to sit with her, he expected the information would be worth hearing.

Asher ran down the stairs one level to the ballroom instead of standing in a huge line for the elevators. Once in the ballroom, he stayed at the back and headed for the left wall, snagging a seat by the wall and putting his conference satchel on the chair next to him. Then he turned sideways in his chair so he could watch for Ryia’s arrival in case she planned to sit somewhere different this time.

When she arrived, she was among a crowd of women, the only one of whom he recognized was Phoenix. But they were all talking animatedly together so he knew his hopes of sitting with her weren’t going to come to fruition. However, Elijah followed them into the room and slid into the seat beside him, handing him his convention bag and saying, “At least she’s with women, not men. If we can’t have her no one else is getting her either.”

“A little grumpy, are we?”

“Not really. I’ve spent most of the last two hours trying to plan how to make love to her.”

Asher lowered his voice to as soft as he could make it, knowing the wolf’s excellent hearing would mean he was understood. “With some hints of BDSM, I hope.”

“Absolutely.”

“Excellent. The last two workshops were a dead loss from our employer’s perspective for me and I didn’t even have the opportunity to think about tonight.”

Ninety minutes later, Asher stared at the pages of notes he’d scribbled in his notepad. The speaker had been sensational, well worth the conference registration fee on her own. And that was without the knowledge they’d found their woman even if they still had to convince her of that fact and woo her and stuff.

“We need to be watching out for Ryia right now, but there’s a passel of stuff in there we ought to tell Leif and Simon,” Elijah said softly.

“Yes. I’ll send Leif an e-mail later with the speaker’s name and her key points, but right now we need to be alert for Ryia. There’s two hours’ break before the formal dinner and I bet she’ll want to type up her notes again or whatever it is she does.”

“Hey, no problem. That’ll give you time to e-mail Leif and Simon.”

Asher considered flipping Elijah the bird for that comment but decided he’d better watch his manners instead. They both stood and waited at the back of the ballroom. He couldn’t see Ryia, but that was because so many people were standing up and moving around. She was wearing a pale shirt, blue he thought, and he’d watch for a flash of the correct color as well as for her.

He saw Phoenix go past, still surrounded by chattering women, but none of them was Ryia. And then he saw her, still in her seat, writing.
Damn, that woman works too hard.

Elijah began moving through the rows of seats, avoiding the crowded center aisle, working his way toward Ryia. Asher thought it might be better for him to wait here in case Elijah didn’t get to her before she began to leave the room. He kept his gaze mainly on her, only occasionally watching Elijah’s progress, but she showed no signs of moving, flipping through her pages of notes and adding extra comments as she went. She took this conference so seriously, it must have meant a lot to her. Perhaps it was the first business convention she’d ever attended. Maybe he’d ask her if it was, tonight. He was conscious of the dungeon allowing him paid time off to be here, but he was certain they’d be happy with the information he’d gathered so far as payment in lieu of him being at work. But Ryia. It was almost as though she was studying as if her entire future depended on passing some pop test on the convention.
Having her own store must be incredibly important to her.

Elijah sat on the empty chair beside her and she looked up and smiled at him, but then continued her writing, riffling through the pages of her notebook several times and scribbling some more. When she finally stood up, most of the people had left the ballroom, so Asher made his way toward them easily.

“You didn’t need to wait for me,” she said.

“But we’ve looked forward to talking to you some more. Did you get everything done you wanted to before?” he asked.

“Oh yes, thank you. There’s so much wonderful information. I know I’ll forget half of it if I don’t write it all down.”

“But we have two hours of free time now before the formal dinner. Would you like to come with us for a cup of coffee or something?” asked Elijah.

“Most of the women will take that long to get ready for tonight. They’re going to do their nails and things like that.”

“And what about you?” asked Asher.

She looked down at her nails. “I might buy some of that scented nail polish in the exhibition room I suppose.”

“We’ll come with you.” Asher moved right beside her and she gave him a worried look and remained still.

“I’m not—I mean I don’t—I haven’t—” There was a long silence and then she stood straighter and said, “I haven’t made any promises to either of you. I’ve never done…you know, like last night…ever before. I’m not that kind of person even though I own an adult store.”

“We know that and understand,” said Elijah.

“We won’t be asking anything of you that you don’t want to give. We’ll simply accompany you, buy you coffee, maybe dance with you tonight at the dinner. And if that’s all you are prepared to offer us we’ll completely accept that,” said Asher. Not that he wasn’t hoping she’d agree to a hell of a lot more than coffee and maybe a dance. But he meant what he said. Neither he nor Elijah would ever force a woman to do something she didn’t want to. Hell, that’s why there were safe words in BDSM scenes. Even when a sub agreed to a scene, she still had the means to change her mind at the last minute. And Ryia meant a whole lot more to him than any sub had ever done.

* * * *

Ryia stared at herself in the mirror in her hotel room. She’d bought this dress online. She’d tried it on immediately it’d been delivered to check it fit her properly and fortunately it did. She’d been worried that perhaps she needed a larger size but she’d measured her upper arms as well as the rest of her, and she was well within the measurements for the size she’d bought it and it fit. It looked pretty. She had to acknowledge that. The dress was a sort of gold-verging-on-ocher, a slightly different color, but one she hoped wouldn’t make her look even fatter than she was. From what she could see in the mirror here, her ass looked no bigger than usual in it, and the front hugged her breasts, which were likely her best feature.

She smiled at her nails. She’d bought two colors of scented polish, Orgasmic Orange and Stunning Strawberry. Again, she’d worried that the orange would look trashy and loud on her nails tonight and unsuitable for a formal dinner, but the color was perfect with her dress and not loud at all, so that made her happy.

Ryia slid her feet into her stilettos and picked up her purse, a tiny gold one which wouldn’t hold much more than lipstick, a cell phone, and her room key, but she managed to slide a pen and three tightly folded up sheets of notepaper into it as well, in case the after-dinner speaker said anything she wanted to add to her conference notes. It was supposed to be a lighthearted evening, but still, best to be prepared, she felt.

Right on cue there was a knock on her door. She’d had to think hard before agreeing to let Asher and Elijah know her room number. The idea of having two men escort her to the formal dinner was a heady one. Quite a few of the people she’d spoken to were bringing a partner tonight, and she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d attended a special meal. Likely not since her so-called wedding.

I will
not
think of that tonight. Tonight is about me.

She opened her door to Elijah and Asher. Damn, they looked good. Both were wearing tuxedos, and both looked so tall, muscular, and so damn magnificent she was almost ready to jump into bed with them right now. Asher’s blond hair looked stunning against the black suit, and Elijah’s brown eyes were sparkling and full of lust as he stared at her. Yeah. She was feeling about the same.

“You’re beautiful. May I kiss you?” Elijah touched her arm lightly.

Obediently she lifted her lips to his and then she was lost. He kissed her softly and sweetly, but it was the headiest, most erotic kiss imaginable. He poured passion into her until her legs wobbled with the need to be fucked.

When he lifted his lips, she had to blink hard to regain the real world. “Oh, my. Now that was a kiss.”

“In that case, I’d better not compete.” Asher picked up her hand and pressed a light kiss to her wrist.

“That reminds me. I have a gift for you.” Elijah reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a tiny parcel.

Surprised, Ryia opened it to reveal a bottle of perfume. “No one has ever given me perfume before.”

“I hope you like the scent. The lady in the store recommended it and I thought it smelled nice.”

She unscrewed the top of the bottle and sniffed. It was nice. Happily she dabbed a little on both wrists. “I do like it. There’s rose and jasmine, and something else as well. Orange perhaps and maybe vanilla. I’m not sure. Thank you so much.” She carefully put the bottle in her luggage, and then closed the door of her room.

There was already a crowd waiting for the elevator, and when it arrived it was full already.

“We could take the stairs.” She wondered if that was an unladylike suggestion. She was used to standing and walking around all day and today she’d spent most of her time sitting.

“That’s what we’ve been doing, but you’re the one with the high heels. Are you all right on the stairs in them?” asked Asher.

“Yes. I should be fine. It’s only a few floors to go down.”

At the entrance to the ballroom was a security guard checking everyone’s lanyards. “I know they told us we had to wear them all the time, but this is the first time mine’s been checked,” she whispered to Elijah.

“I expect they don’t really care if a couple of people who haven’t paid listen to the speakers, but for the formal dinner there’ll only be the correct number of table settings,” he replied.

Ryia blushed. She should have thought of that herself. It just showed how ignorant she was of polite society.

The guard marked their names off his list and said, “You can sit wherever you like except for the two reserved tables, ma’am, sirs.”

“Thank you.” She and the two men answered in a chorus, making her smile.

Inside the room had been rearranged, the tables covered with deep green table cloths and the chairs encased in the same deep green fabric, making everything look very different from just a few hours ago.

Asher turned to her. “Where would you like to sit? Is the back left your favorite place or are meals different from lectures?”

“Back left, please.”

She chose the chair that seated her with her back to the wall and the men sat either side of her.

“Why the back left? I’m not criticizing. Anywhere you want to be is fine by me. I’m just curious,” asked Elijah.

“I like the back so I can leave inconspicuously if I want to. The left is because most people look right and turn right when they enter a room. Most people are right handed and that’s the way they move. That means the right side is more likely to be crowded and the left have more space.”

“I never knew that. How did you find out?” asked Asher.

“I read it in an article about arranging stock. The things the store manager most wants to sell need to be on the ends of the aisles. However, the store can refine that even more by arranging the stock so the average person, who turns right upon entering the store, is more likely to encounter the items I want most to move.”

The conversation flowed between the three of them all evening. The food was the most delicious Ryia could ever remember tasting. Each dish was beautifully presented, almost like an artwork, but it wasn’t just pretty to look at. Every item on the plate was cooked to perfection as well. She was very hungry, having had only water during the day because she knew there’d be a big meal at night and she needed to save all her calories for that. But even so, Ryia was certain she’d have enjoyed the food even if she hadn’t been hungry. It was a feast for all the senses, not just the palate.

She was also relieved that the people on their table seemed to be very friendly. There was a lot of cross-table banter during the evening as they laughed at jokes and commented on the various awards, some of which were serious and some humorous. Their tablemates constantly raved about the delicious meal as well.

“Oh my God, that peanut-butter cheesecake was divine. I’d kill for a second serving,” said one man.

“Just don’t kill the chef. We get more food again tomorrow, remember,” replied one of their other table companions, as everyone else laughed.

“Which workshops are you planning to attend tomorrow?” Asher asked the table in general, starting another lively conversation.

Ryia watched each person as they spoke, seldom contributing any comments unless directly asked, but loving every moment of the shared fun.

“What about you, Ryia?” asked Violet, the woman sitting opposite her, a friend of Phoenix’s.

“The website development one. I was really fascinated by the earlier speaker who said that many of the developments on the internet were driven by the adult industry. That the adult industry was the first non-government enterprise to really make full use of the internet. It made me realize my website is likely too basic and needs some help.”