TSS 3: Knight's Son Ch. 03

"I think we should move on to another room," I said over my shoulder, only to find that Al wasn't there. Glancing around, I saw a blonde woman in a slinky silver dress sitting in his lap at the bar while a woman with salt and pepper hair nibbled on his neck.

If this were any normal situation, I'd have given him a thumbs-up and a grin. Older women or not, having two of them hitting on a buddy could only end in a wild night for that buddy. However, I saw the look of desperation in his eyes as he looked my way.

As I approached, trying to figure out what I'd say to extricate him, I felt strong arms circle my waist and turn me to see a green-eyed redhead, grinning wide.

"What's the rush, dawlin?" she asked with a thick southern accent. "Your friend is in good hands. Play your cards right, and you could be in even better hands."

"Uh, thanks, but--" I tried to pull away, but another woman pressed herself to my back.

"Stay and entertain us," this new woman whispered in my ear, hot and breathy. "It gets so lonely in here. You wouldn't want us to be lonely, would you?" I felt her tongue lick along the back of my right ear. While my mind knew I needed to go, being sandwiched between the two women had my body telling me to stay.

"I'm sorry, but we really need to be going," I said, twisting my body hard enough to break free but not wanting to hurt the women.

It worked, whether because they didn't expect it or they weren't willing to hold me against my will. I reached Al, grabbed his arm, and hauled him up. "Come on, buddy. Let's go."

"Please don't leave us," one of the women called after us, her voice thick with pleading.

"Not again!" Another pouted. If they said any more, we didn't hear them after the door closed behind us.

"Holy, shit!" Al gasped, staring at the door. "Those women were desperate. What do you think was going on?"

I shook my head, having no answer for him. Worst of all, my crotch was still tight and showed no signs of relaxing. I hadn't been turned on that much, had I? Charlotte drained me pretty good last night, but I felt ready to try taking on the whole cheerleading squad at the university. Even if the head cheerleader was an ice queen.

"Still don't want to try the pharmacy, right?" Al's voice caught me as I turned to adjust my package.

I shook my head again, then noticed something different about the hallway. Not counting the door we came through, there were only three rooms to choose from. I couldn't remember from the first hallway, but I was confident that there were always 4 rooms to choose from. Did that mean we were running out of options?

"Well, I don't want to listen to techno, so I guess it's the conference room," Al said. "Thanks for helping me out back there. They were starting to get me riled up, and I might have made a mistake if you hadn't pulled me away when you did. I'm not usually into older women, but they knew how to get my motor running!"

He shifted his hips, and I realized he was suffering the same issue I was. Had someone slipped us a pill? Maybe that was the reason for the pharmacy? To counteract whatever they gave us?

"Stay close to me this time," I told Al as I walked to the Conference Room door. "It seems like the less attractive they are, the more desperate they become." Where had the Knights gotten these women? Why were they acting like their life depended on getting us in the sack? Honestly, it made me a little sick. I hoped they weren't being mistreated.

I also wondered if I should find a bathroom and rub one out. Making decisions while this horny couldn't be a good idea.

Two steps into the conference room, and I relaxed. While it was still predominantly the prettier sex, they looked to be our age. They were dressed nice, in either sophisticated dresses or even a few suits. Soft music played, as women either chatted in small groups, played on their phones, or read books. I saw three other men, and all of them were talking to a woman. The atmosphere was relaxed, and so was I, other than the brain in my pants.

Best of all, the women in here were easily the most attractive. Of course, I might be a bit biased, as I have a thing for nerdy or smart-looking women.

"Would you get a look at her?" Al asked, and I looked to where he indicated. "Uh, I hope you don't mind, but I think I found who I want to try my luck with."

He took a step in the woman's direction, but I placed my hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"You might want to reconsider," I told him, examining the women that'd caught his eye. She was an incredible stunner, slender, round face, a dress that hinted at what was underneath without having to flaunt it, and her hair done up in an intricate design. I would have thought her well out of his or my league under normal circumstances, but I suspected the usual rules didn't apply tonight. The problem I had with her was that hair.

"You've got to be careful with redheads," I warned him. "They'll act all sweet and innocent, then stab you in the back the first chance they get. There's a reason they say you'll get burned when playing with a fire-crotch."

"Oh really?" Al's voice dripped sarcasm. Too late, I remembered that he was also a redhead, though his hair was more orange than red, and the women's hair was a deep scarlet. "Tell me, should I start sharpening my knife now or wait for when you least expect it?"

"I--Shit. I didn't... I mean..." I grimaced, trying to figure out how to recover from insulting him. "I'm sorry, Al. My ex was a redhead. She led me on for a while, telling me she loved me, then I found her making out with another man... with one of those freaks, no less. She left me for him, and I just don't want to see you get hurt like that. I know it's unfair, but every redhead female I or a friend dated--well, it didn't end well. I had a friend offer me that advice before I asked Megan out, and I wish I would have listened."

Al scowled at me a moment longer before saying, "I'm guessing this is the same ex you mentioned earlier? I think I might know how to handle one of my kind. Besides, gotta keep the bloodlines pure, right? Can't risk putting a soulless redheaded child into a brunette or blonde, right?" I stared at him a moment longer before his demeanor cracked, and he grinned from ear to ear. "I appreciate you looking out for me, but I can handle myself in this arena."

I didn't want to say I doubted that. I am by no means a good judge of men's looks. Freckles on a woman are attractive, but I didn't think the reciprocal was true.

"Well, what about those two?" I asked, trying to change the direction of his aim. A taller woman with a broad smile talked to a petite black woman with dirty-blonde dyed hair. Either woman was eye-catching, though I found my eyes lingering on the taller brunette. They were also looking at us. "Let's go talk to them."

Al hesitated a moment before giving me a nod. "Right behind you."

I didn't waste a moment, making a beeline for the women. My pants were still a little uncomfortable, and I hoped they wouldn't notice. They both glanced at me, each giving me a shrewd appraisal as I stepped up to them and spoke. "Evening, ladies. My friend and I were wondering if we could keep you company?" As far as pickup lines go, that had to be the worst I'd ever given. I blame it on the lack of blood flow to the brain above my shoulders. But, based on how everything else in this crazy hotel seemed to be geared towards pleasing the newly sworn-in Knights, I didn't think it would matter.

"Your friend?" the short blonde asked, looking around.

I turned to indicate Al and groaned. Not only was he not at my side, but he was giggling at something the redhead just said to him. The man tricked me! He saw me looking, then mimicked a stabbing action and winked.

"Heh, well, I guess it's just me," I turned back to the women and tried to salvage my pride. Maybe I deserved that from him, and perhaps I didn't. Either way, I was on my own now.

Both women regarded me with smirks. I got a distinct impression that these women weren't pushovers. In fact, there was unmistakable intelligence behind their eyes.

"So, tell me, Bobby," the taller one spoke as she tucked a strand of light brown hair behind her left ear. "What makes you think that you're worth our time?"

"How do you know my name?" I asked, suddenly wary.

"I guess he doesn't recognize us, Elly," the petite woman said.

"I can understand him not recognizing me," the brunette added. "I only share a single class with him. It's not like I cheer at every one of his sports games."

"Oh, I think he's figured it out," the short woman smiled, her dazzling white teeth standing out against her darker skin.

I put on my most charming smile in an attempt to hide my unease. "We all go to the same school," I said. That would mean someone at my school would know that I'm a Knight now. I know I'm supposed to keep that secret, and I didn't see how this would play out. Since I couldn't change the circumstances, I decided to see where they would take me. "I guess I didn't expect to run into anyone I know here. And to be fair, Shayna, I'm used to seeing you in a cheerleader's outfit, not a power suit."

Despite the smile on my lips, mentally, I cursed my luck. Shayna was the ice-queen head cheerleader. There were urban legends about how brutally she turned down men's and women's advances. Every jock knew to steer well clear of her.

Elly's broad smile grew hungry as she teased, "Okay, so picking out the head cheerleader is easy. Almost everyone recognizes her."

I'll admit here, though never to her face, that it took me a moment longer to place her. "You go by Eleanor in class, not Elly. And I'm pretty sure if you showed up in our biology class wearing a dress like that--professional looking or not--everyone in the class would be thinking of a different biology lesson."

Her chagrined look told me I hit the mark. "I'm sure not everyone would be thinking that. My psych professors would be talking about Freud this, or Nietzsche that. Dr. Bins--"

"Doctor Bins," I cut in, stressing his title the way he tended to when someone accidentally calls him professor, "is an old man, and he would have a heart attack if you walked in like that. To hear my roommate tell stories about when he was younger, Dr. Bins wasn't always the upstanding Mormon role model."

Elly met my gaze as Shayna burst out laughing. It only took the taller woman a moment before her façade broke, and she met me grin for grin.

"I guess you're more than the mindless jock and gamer people say you are," Elly chuckled, a glint in her light brown eyes. This close, I realized her eyes match her hair. Inside I writhed at her comments. I wasn't a 4.0 student, but I was close. I worked hard in sports, gaming, and academia. The Knight's may have paid for my tuition and fees, but I felt I'd earned my place at the university.

"What?!" I mocked outrage. "I'd be offended if I knew what mindless meant."

Shayna laughed at my weak joke, and for the first time this evening, I felt relaxed. These women weren't trying to pull me into a corner, and I felt comfortable talking to them. I was reminded a bit of Charlotte's sharp wit and felt comfortable conversing with these two.

I didn't know them well, but I'd seen them around campus. Shayna had her reputation. Elly was always quiet in class, but I recall thinking that she'd be cuter if she didn't cover herself up all the time. As I spared a moment to admire her, I wondered why she didn't flaunt what she obviously had. Not that I'd ever say that to her face. Women have the right to wear whatever they want. If she wanted to hide her beauty and body, I wasn't going to tell her otherwise.

"You're staring," Elly said. She didn't seem angry but just stating a fact. "You're wondering why I don't dress nicer for classes, aren't you?"

"I'd think you were reading my mind if you hadn't told me you're a psych major," I shrugged as I replied.

"Do you know how many men have told me I'd be cuter if I smiled, or dressed better, or any of a thousand other inane things?" Elly asked.

Is she reading my mind? I wondered. If you can hear me, rub your right ear. If she'd listened to my thoughts, she didn't let on. Please don't notice my raging boner! Her eyes didn't drop to my crotch. I was pretty sure my thoughts were safe in my head.

"Yeah," Shayna cut in. "They think they're paying us a compliment. As if saying we don't look good, but we could, is any praise. Morons!"

I hid my grimace as I remembered having done that same thing in high school. It took a friend explaining to me why that was insulting for me to stop.

"While I can't deny you look exceptional tonight," I said, picking my words carefully, "I think you may have the right idea. You both strike me as the type that goes to school to learn. You're not there as the rest of us neanderthals, wondering when you'll get your next drink or who's sleeping with who."

Both women stared at me, shocked. I wondered if I'd accidentally misspoke and said something wrong.

"Nope," Shayna said as I grew uncomfortable. "Not a brainless jock or gamer at all."

"You're not who I pegged you as," Elly added. I raised my eyebrow in an unasked question, and she chuckled before continuing. "You really don't think we haven't heard about your blurse, do you?"

I stopped, stunned, before grimacing and saying, "I don't believe in that nonsense, but if people are willing to take me out and buy me drinks, who am I to turn them down?"

"Neanderthal," Shayna poked me in the side, and I realized how my comment sounded.

"That's brainless neanderthal to you," I shot back with my cheesiest grin.

Shayna's blue eyes sparkled as she gazed up at me. As our eyes continued to meet, I realized there was a spark growing between us. Am I thawing the ice queen?

"I'd tell you two to get a room, but there are a couple problems with that," Elly said, and I tore my eyes away. Elly was only a few inches shorter than me, though tall for a woman, and she managed to meet my gaze with a smile. "One, your friend is coming over here. And two, you'd leave me here alone."

"You're welcome to join us," I said as I turned to look for Al, then froze as those words played back in my head. Throughout our conversation, I'd tried to portray myself as a gentleman, and then I say something cocked up like that? Silence met my words, and I didn't dare look at either woman. I waited for them to start calling me a chauvinist pig or something equally as accurate after my comment. I wanted to blame the raging boner in my pants--seriously, why the hell wouldn't it go down?!?--but I also knew that given even half the chance to be with these two, I'd walk on burning coals for it.

"You heard him say that, right?" Elly asked in an even tone. I cringed, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

Before Shayna could respond, Al joined us with the stunning redhead linked in his arm. "Hey, Bobby. I'd like you to meet Jolene. Jolene, this is my friend, Bobby."

My throat felt dry as I began to speak. Mentally, I scrambled to figure out how to recover from my faux pas. I'm sure Elly thought I'd made quite the Freudian slip. "Nice to meet you, Jolene. This is Elly and Shayna. We all go to university together."

Then, to my utter shock, I felt both my arms taken. Shayna, on my left, took and interlaced her fingers in mine. Elly, on my other side, slipped her arm in, linking our elbows.

"We all know each other," Jolene laughed softly. Her voice came out smooth and confident. Her demeanor struck me as a woman who knew her worth and felt no need to flaunt it. She wore a pair of spectacles on her face, framing her hazel eyes.

I had a flashback of Megan for the briefest moment, but I shoved down the emotions that rose up. From the shit-eating grin splitting Al's face, I could tell that he was beyond giddy with hooking this woman. I hoped that he wouldn't regret it.

Besides, through luck or fate, I had two incredible women at my side right then. I squeezed Shayna's hand while tightening Elly's arm against my side.

"I see someone finally caught your eye," Elly said to Jolene. I thought for a moment that she was snide until she added, "I'm glad!"

"Well, what can I say?" Jolene still had that laugh in her voice as she spoke. "Al is the first man brave enough to talk to me. Even though this is my third year going to these things, no one has ever talked to me. I was afraid I'd end up in the cocktail lounge."

"This is my fourth year," Elly added. "Trust me when I say that most the men that stumble in here are mindless idiots. You're lucky the first one to talk to you wasn't."

"Neanderthals," Shayna giggled, bumping my leg with her hip to drive the joke in.

"Well, I hate to rush things," Jolene's smile faltered, "but has he mentioned which rooms they've been through yet?"

The women on either side of me leaned forward to look at each other, then up to me. "No," they said in unison.

This time when Jolene laughed, there wasn't much humor in it, and I felt a pit forming in my stomach.

"They were smart enough to avoid the pharmacy, but they've been in nearly every other room," Jolene said in a way that carried import, though I couldn't tell what that may be. Was that part of the test? Had we failed because we went to too many rooms? I was glad we hadn't gone to the pharmacy and wondered if my hunch about drugs was correct. Was there another room we should have avoided?

"Oh," Shayna said, with equally heavy import. "I wondered why he was so...."

So... what?!? I screamed in my head, wondering what I was missing.

"You mean they went through the cocktail lounge, and he still managed not to make a complete jackass out of himself?" Elly asked.

"What's wrong with the cocktail lounge?" I asked. "I mean, the ladies in there were a little more than forward, but--"

"They didn't have anything to drink in there, but they did eat a little bit in the dining room," Jolene interjected.

The women on either side evaluated me for a few seconds, then in unison, their gazes dropped to the unmistakable bulge in my pants. Was it getting hot in here? Until that moment, I had no idea that it was possible to feel ashamed, mortified, and very horny all at the same time. And for the record, no, that is not some kink I have.

"If you ladies are amenable," Jolene went on as though everything they were saying made perfect sense, "I think we should escort them out of here."

"Out?" I asked. By the sounds of it, we had failed and failed hard. Instead of getting lucky, they were kicking us out. Except, there was no out--only that damned red-carpeted hallway. "We can't get out," I muttered, trying to think clearly. I knew I was missing something, but between the events of the night--hell, the last couple of days--having two gorgeous women on each side of me and a rock-hard throbbing erection that would put steel girders to shame, it was hard to figure it out. Sure, I was horny, but I was a young man. I'm always horny. I chalked my issues up to not having enough blood in the proper brain.

Despite my words, the women led us to the exit. I was about to mention how pointless it was and that I didn't want to leave yet, but I found the lobby on the other side when they opened the door. Playing back over the rooms we'd walked through, it was physically impossible for the entrance to be outside that door, but there we were.

The five of us walked up to the lobby clerk. I hung my head in shame, waiting for them to call for security and have us removed. I felt awful for dragging Al through this. Being a Knight was his childhood dream. Looking back, I should have let him hook up with that Asian babe in the dining room. Sure, she couldn't hold a candle to Jolene, but better that than to have met her and have her reject him.