Page 42 of Paladin's Hope

Piper felt a flush starting. “I didn’t think it was, no. You know, the pointy metal thing?”

“…you know they don’t come when called, right?”

“Neither do cats, but people name those.” His flush was definitely growing.

“Yes, but that’s so you have something to yell when they knock things off the table.” Galen rubbed his forehead. “No, I don’t name my swords. I’d have to keep thinking of names, for one thing. They break and then I grumble and try to find another one that suits my grip and hand over far too much money for the privilege.”

“So all those tales of heroes with magic swords named, oh, Chainbreaker and Blood-drinker and so on?” He finished the bindings and Galen pulled his shirt back on.

“I suppose if you had a magic sword, the rules would be different. Or even a particularly fine one. I’m a berserker, though, as you might have noticed. We’re rather hard on weapons.” He climbed to his feet, his gaze darkened. “And everything else.”

Dammit. For a second there, Piper thought he had managed to distract the man. “That’s hardly your fault,” he said.

“Don’t do this,” said Galen. “Don’t excuse it. You of all people should have seen it enough by now. A man beats the shit out of his loved ones, and all they can say is, ‘but he loves me, he doesn’t mean it.’ And then he apologizes and eventually they wind up on your slab, because love doesn’t fix it.”

“It’s not the same,” said Piper furiously. “You have a medical condition. Sleep disturbances have been known to medicine for centuries. Including violence. Sleepwalkers have murdered people and judges found them not accountable because they were asleep.”

Too late, he realized that this was the wrong tactic. Galen’s face grew even bleaker. “Fat lot of good that did the people they killed. Fat lot it would have done you, if I’d...” He couldn’t seem to finish the words. So softly that Piper could barely hear it, he added, “I should have killed myself after Hallowbind. I should have known that I was too broken to live around other people. Damn Stephen and Istvhan for stopping me.”

“You aren’t too broken! You said you’ve lived just fine for years now! Dammit…” Piper stomped forward, grabbed both of Galen’s hands in his and brought them to his throat. “Here! Do you want to start strangling me? Are you fighting the urge to kill me right now?”

Galen’s nostrils flared and he took a step back. Piper followed, clinging to the paladin’s hands. “See? You don’t have the least desire in the world to hurt me. This is just a thing that happens to you when you sleep, like…like snoring, for god’s sake!”

“Nobody dies because you snore at them.”

Piper’s exasperation was exceeding his ability to keep his emotions in check. “Nobody died today. Stop it. You are not a monster.”

“You have no idea what I am.”

“Maybe not. But I’d like to find out.”He risked dropping one of the man’s hands so that he could reach up and touch that angular jaw.

Galen froze.

Oh boy. Did not expect to be doing this. Adrenaline aftereffects. How ‘bout that. The paladin’s skin was just starting to roughen with stubble, the texture slick one way, coarse the other. Either this is a wonderful idea or I am making a colossal fool of myself. I suppose, that’s always the risk you take when you declare your intentions. Piper moved his thumb gently across Galen’s lips and something hot and savage flared in the paladin’s eyes.

“You’re not afraid of me.” His breath was warm on Piper’s fingers.

“No,” said Piper, which was mostly true, although the look in the other man’s eyes was waking something that felt a little like fear and a lot like lust. “No, I’m not.”

The paladin moved. He was impossibly fast, catching Piper’s arms and pinning him up against the wall. Piper swallowed hard, stunned by the speed and by the sensation of Galen’s body pressed full-length against his.

“You should be,” said Galen, and kissed him.

Eighteen

Piper had experienced a number of kisses that started tender and turned fierce. He’d never had one go the other way before. Galen’s mouth was hard over his, all teeth and tongue, but as soon as Piper began to respond, he softened. His hands slid down Piper’s arms. Some part of the doctor’s mind registered that he was free, and another part registered that he didn’t particularly wish to be.

It was so good. The hardness of the muscles he’d been trying to ignore, just a few minutes ago, the hardness of…well, other things that weren’t technically muscle, actually they were spongiform erectile tissue comparable to…dear sweet Rat, why am I thinking about spongiform erectile tissue right now…okay, well, obviously that’s why I’m thinking about it, but…

The kiss ended. Galen brushed his lips almost apologetically and stepped away. “Damn,” the paladin said softly. “Damnit, I shouldn’t have done that.” He raked his hand through his hair. “I find myself behaving very badly around you. I’m sorry.”

“I rather enjoyed it,” said Piper, which was possibly the understatement of the century.

Hmm, that’s a funny way of saying ‘take me, take me now, right here, let’s go.’

He told himself to shut up. His inner voice laughed at him.

Galen gave him an anguished look. Piper knew that he was about say something self-flagellating and was almost certainly going to promise to never kiss Piper again and he didn’t want that to happen so he opened his mouth and blurted out the first thing that came into his head.

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