Page 50 of Paladin's Hope

“You are incredibly brave,” said Piper. “You go into those rooms first, expecting to die.”

“Yes, but that’s not heroism,” said Galen. “That’s what I’m for. And don’t start with me about how doing your job is heroic under the right circumstances, because I’ve seen plenty of battlefield medics, too, so you’d be just as guilty of it as I am.”

“God forbid.” It was Piper’s turn to snort. “Why do you think I stopped working with the living? It was too much. Well, fine. Maybe a hero is just what we call someone who doesn’t have the sense to stop before they destroy themselves.”

“In the army, they’d send kids barely old enough to shave to take forward positions. They knew they’d have thirty, forty percent losses or more. Those kids got told they were heroes, too.” Galen sighed, draping his wrists over his knees, letting his hands dangle. “I doubt you can call any of the Saint’s chosen inherently heroic. We didn’t have much choice, did we? The battle tide wakes up, and there we are. It’s not heroic if you’ve forgotten you’re not invincible. Then again, I’ve known paladins who really were heroic. My friend Istvhan, have you met him? And Shane. Shane could go toe-to-toe with a god, if he could get his head out of his own ass first. A couple of the Forge God’s people. The Dreaming God’s people are positively stiff with it, whatever it is.”

Piper nodded. “Still,” he said finally. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Whatever I may think, it doesn’t matter enough to be sniping at each other while we’re down here. In whatever this is.”

He was doing it again, Galen thought. Stepping back from emotions as if they were an imposition. It was hard to believe that this was the same man who had argued so passionately on Galen’s behalf—and kissed him just as passionately a moment later.

The memory of that kiss heated his blood. They could be doing so many things other than arguing. Did he need another set of blades slicing down around him to remind him of that?

Piper turned his head and started to say something else—Galen never knew what—and Galen leaned forward and kissed him.

What has come over me? He had never particularly liked kissing and now it seemed like he couldn’t get enough of it. Something about Piper’s lips against his, about the taste of him, about the look of surprise and delight in the man’s eyes…he felt almost drunk with it. He needed more. A lot more.

You need to get laid is what you need. Once that’s over, this will all recede and you’ll be able to think again.

Unfortunately, when he shifted position to reach for Piper’s shoulders, his knee smacked into the ground and the flare of pain made him wince and recoil. Piper’s eyes went wide and he pulled away. “Uh…”

“Nothing you did,” Galen assured him. “Banged up my knee earlier and it just reminded me, that’s all.”

The doctor was immediately all cool professionalism. “Let me take a look at it,” he said, in a voice that brooked no disobedience.

Galen stifled a sigh, feeling the mood evaporate. He rolled up his trouser leg and Piper ran his gloved hands over the joint. There was a red mark already starting to darken towards blue and Galen grimaced.

“Bend it…good…and extend it toward me…mmm. Stand up and put weight on it?”

Galen got to his feet, back against the corner. Piper continued prodding his leg and having him lift it and the paladin felt a sudden sympathy for horses, an animal he generally could do without. At least he isn’t trying to nail hot metal to your foot.

“The good news is that you don’t seem to have done anything to the tendon,” said Piper, concluding his poke-and-prod routine. “Just bruised the kneecap, and you know how knees hurt all out of proportion.”

“God, yes.”

“I should probably wrap it, though. Knees swell up if you look at them funny.” He dug through the pack and pulled out the remains of the shirt that Earstripe had already cut into bandages. Galen leaned back, watching the dark head bent over him, thinking mostly carnal thoughts.

When the job was done, Piper sat back and looked up at him, his assured manner suddenly falling away. “I…uh…”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” said Galen. “I’ve been wanting you on your knees for days now. I was just hoping that it wouldn’t be my knee you were paying attention to.”

The doctor blushed scarlet. Galen opened his mouth to say something clever and flirtatious and then Piper reached up to the front of his trousers and began unhooking the buttons and he briefly lost the power of speech.

Coherent thought did not return until Piper bit the fingertip of one of his gloves and pulled it off. Leather slid over skin for a small eternity. He set the first glove down and reached for the second. “No,” Galen heard himself croak, “leave that one on.”

Piper raised his eyebrows and smiled a small, devilish smile, despite the blush that hadn’t quite faded. Galen dug his fingers into the man’s hair and then Piper’s mouth and extremely clever fingers were on him and he was lost.

It didn’t take long. It was almost embarrassing, how long it didn’t take. The sensation of skin and leather and Piper’s tongue were too much to bear, and then he made the mistake of opening his eyes so that he could see the other man’s mouth on him. He gripped Piper’s shoulders and gasped something that might have been his name, or the Saint’s, or just a general obscenity. His knees turned to water and he slid down the wall as soon as Piper let him go.

“Good god,” he said, when he could think again, “why the hell did we wait so long?”

Piper chuckled, taking a long swig from the waterskin. “Well, we had a few other things on our minds. Death trap, murders, that sort of thing.”

“I can’t imagine how those could have been more important.” Galen rubbed his forehead. “Give me a moment or two to recover, and then I’d be happy to reciprocate.”

“Not on your knees you won’t,” said Piper, frowning at him. “Not with your knee like that.”

“Are all doctors this pushy in bed?”

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