Work in Progress Wednesday: An Unedited Excerpt from The Soldier & the Shaman

Here's a sneaky-peaky at the wip I'm currently embroiled in... I do love me some Specialist Evans (Christie's bff from The Soldier & the State Trooper) and this is a peek into his story. Enjoy!

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Sadly there was no reason to open up a can of whoop-ass on the big man. Nikki grumbled very softly, low in her throat. The doctor heard her. He arched one of those damnably knowing eyebrows up. Nikki bit her lip to keep from snarling in the enclosed space. The doctor shifted suddenly in his chair, and Nikki nearly did something far worse by whimpering. You could never let them see fear. Once she had control of herself she spoke.

“You never answer the question I asked about Evans…well, not properly. And what the hell is your first name?  Or is Bald-Eagle your whole name?”

By the time she got done, he was giving her that ‘oh aren’t you adorable look’. Nikki’s fingers itched to smack it off his face. Something must have shown on her face, because he sighed, shook his head and started to talk.

“My first name is Ryan, Nikolina. And he told me his very long white name when we first met, and Hawk was part of it. He was this heartbreakingly beautiful, brave, sad-eyed little boy…I don’t think he could have been more than three or four. So I told him that it was too long a name for me to remember, and that I would give him a name of the People.”

Nikki was leaning forward in her seat at this point. Ryan’s whole face lit up as he told her about his first meeting with Evans. His fierce amber eyes softened, and the starkly beautiful planes of his face eased into something warm, and approachable. Her gut unclenched. This—this was like sitting at a table with Nalle. Nikki bite the inside of her bottom lip. Nalle wouldn’t hurt her… so maybe this man wouldn’t either.

She didn’t worry that he would get the best of her. She was highly trained in hand to hand combat now. There was no real threat as long as she remained vigilant. Only time would tell if the big man would try to use his size against her, or Evans. The skin at the base of her scalp prickled.

“I made up some ridiculous ceremony involving a lot of chanting and smearing copious amounts of mud onto each other’s faces. When we had danced until we lost our breath, we fell onto the ground together and …”

A slightly shaky voice spoke from the doorway. Nikki and Ryan both looked up immediately, Nikki just a hair more quickly.  She turned, leaning back into the corner, to find Evans stading there, pale but resolute. The hand he gripped the doorframe with was white knuckled.

“And he told me that my name and mine alone, from that day forward would be Little Hawk.”

*****

Chapter Six

Ryan saw the white knuckles and heard the shaking voice. He was out of his chair and at Little Hawk’s side in a flash. He got there just as the smaller man’s knees buckled.

“I thought I told you to stay in bed?”

Nikolina made a choking noise behind him. Little Hawk looked up at him with laughter dancing in his eyes. He cocked an eyebrow at Ryan. His voice was decidedly wispy sounding.

“I may not be able to stand on my own two feet right now, but last time I checked I was a full grown man.”

Ryan growled. He slid his hands down from their grasp at waist level to grip Little Hawk’s firm ass. He lifted the smaller man hard against his aching erection.

“I don’t think you’re a child. I think you’re a man I want better as soon as possibleso I can fuck your sweet ass into a screaming orgasm.”

The kitchen was silent aside from the uneven sounds of all of their breathing. Ryan carried Little Hawk to the table. Nikki hastily scrambled up from her own seat to pull a chair out for him. Her heavy breaths, flared nostrils and the rhythmic clenching and unclenching of her fists attested to the effect of his words on her. Ryan eyed her warily as he placed Little Hawk carefully in the seat. Bending down he looked the stubborn man in the eyes. “Stay here while I make lunch.”

Nikolina cleared her throat. Ryan looked up at her. Shit. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes narrowed. Her voice rasped with suppressed emotion when she spoke. “What do you want me to do? I thought I was helping you make lunch?”

Ryan reached across Little Hawk to pick her up. She gave an undignified squeak before he plopped her down on Little Hawk’s lap. She turned a shocked face up to him. “Sit on him and keep him where he is.”

Nikolina squeaked again as Ryan turned away. He strode over to the freezer, pulled the door open and stood in front of it. The cold air eased the ache in his cock slightly. He reached in, grabbed an unlabeled container and held it against his groin for a moment.

I have to feed then both and let Little Hawk rest more before we can have sex. No room for negotiation there. Must let them eat. Must let him rest, and Great Spirit, I must find some way to explain to Nikolina why I dragged her out here with us. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea.

Ryan realized the container was some of the chicken soup he’d made and frozen against a day when he might be sick and not feel like cooking for himself. Perfect. It was light, nutritious and easy. He popped it out of the container and into a microwave safe mixing bowl. He set the timer for ten minutes, and then grabbed the basket of rolls he’d baked the day before and set them on the table. As he placed them, he caught first Nikki’s eye, then Little Hawk’s.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for both of you. I know I get ahead of things…I apologize…I’ve known both of you longer than you’ve known me. At least I’ve known you longer consciously, because I remember all my dreams of the two of you. Every single one of them was an incredible experience I shared with you. I have decades of those memories with Little Hawk, and months and months of them with you Nikolina.”

He broke off there, and turned back to supervise the microwave’s heating of their lunch. In the shiny black surface of its door he watched as they stared first at one another, and then turned in unison to watch him. The silence stretched out until the microwave pinged. He opened the door, stirred the half-melted soup, and reset the time for six minutes. Pressing the start button, he forced himself to turn and face them.

*****

“Wow.”

Nikki and Evans spoke at the same time. She grinned over at him, and gave in to the impish impulse tugging at her.

“Jinx…you owe me a soda.”

Evans laughed at her, delight clear in his shining eyes. Nikki took in the look of wonder in the grey-blue eyes, the little dimple in his left cheek. It merrily echoed the larger one at the tip of his chin. Then, just as quickly as the sunny expression had come, it faded away. A wary look of concern took over.

“I—um, I’m sorry to have been so much trouble to both of you. I—er, if there’s a taxi-service out here I can just call for a cab back to base. I really am much better now.”

Ryan stood with his back to them as he stirred the soup again. His snort was still clearly audible. Nikki felt herself taken aback by Evans’s diffident manner. It was like he was trying to obliquely apologize for his moment of joy...or perhaps for drawing their attention with it?

Did no one lovingly tease him as a child? And then afterward take joy in his joy?

Nikki felt her heart lurch just a little. Based on his reaction she guessed not. Imagining her daughter Alyssa without the basic security of those interactions with her extended family…she couldn’t help thinking his childhood must have been lonely.

No wonder he made a play for Christie. That little man is bursting at the seams with love, and he comes complete with his own little family.

Nikki bit her lip and started to speak. Ryan beat her to it. “We can talk about it after lunch.”

Evans looked down at the table like a scolded child.

Well, shit. Where’s the cocky guy who calls me Pretty? Him I can have a good brawl with. This guy I just wanna wrap up in my arms and rock. 

“So, Doc—uh, I mean Ryan, you’ve been dreaming us? Will you tell us more about that?”   

Ryan half-turned, arching an eyebrow at her as he answered. “Yes. I started dreaming of Little Hawk when I was…oh, sixteen I think. Maybe I was seventeen. It was the last summer I spent with my grandfather before I went away to college…so I must have been seventeen.”

Evans looked up then, a hesitant smile on his handsome face. Ryan’s words drew an answer from him.

“I wrote a story about that dream. When I was in school my Advanced English teacher tried to encourage us to get in touch with our creative sides. He offered these corny prizes…but I wanted to do it. I wrote about that dream. But in the dream I wasn’t a little boy.”

Ryan’s look grew heated. Before he could respond to Evans’s words, the microwave’s timer shrilled again. Nikki repressed the urge to scream.

Just say whatever it was you were thinking. We can get to the damn soup later. All this freaking cloak and dagger shit and the sexual tension between the two of you is killing me!

When two pairs of startled eyes turned her way Nikki realized she’d spoken those thoughts aloud. “Well, shit! Um, oops?”

*****

Spirit—Ryan groaned. Evans kept his mouth shut. There was no way he was bailing the big man out on this one. He wanted to know what he’d been about to say too.

“Nikki, you both need to eat. Little Hawk needs more rest. I—“

He stopped speaking and leaned forward, rhythmically banging his forehead against the cabinet door in front of him. Nikki squirmed her way in-between him and the counter. Evans couldn’t see what she did, but it had to be good, because Ryan stopped beating his head against the cabinet. Instead he scooped Nikki up with a growl, set her ass on the counter and then swung around to the table.

Holy fucking hell!!

The heat in his eyes was burning Evans alive. Ryan took two long strides across the kitchen, cupped Evans face in his hands and then laid a scorching kiss on his mouth. Evans moaned, pulling the bigger man toward him by the waistband of his jeans and popping the top two buttons open before his brain really processed what he was doing. 

Wait a minute…I don’t remember these pants… he was wearing dress pants at the wedding… oh, right he must have changed while I was out of it.

In a trice, Evans had three more buttons of the big man’s pants undone and had heisted his ass up on the battered wooden surface in front of Ryan. He started to peel back the sides of Ryan’s fly, intent on devouring the big man faster than a tender feast at a Denture Wearers convention.

A clatter from the far side of the kitchen drew Evans’s attention for a second, and he stared, slack jawed as Pretty scrambled down off the counter. He swore steam was shooting out of her ears. “Now you just hold on a damn minute Ryan Bald-Eagle! I like good porn as much as the next girl, but seriously? Can you guys wait at least until I leave the room?”

Ryan shook his head, stumbling back with a look of contrition on his face. “I have to finish the soup.”

She was panting, her chest heaving with barely controlled rage. Evans could see the pissed off look creeping over the side of her face as she wound herself up to really light into Ryan. Right in front of him she morphed from the comrade who had laughed with him to something unchecked, lethal and frankly frightening.

Pretty is about to blow harder than that volcano at Pompeii, and I don’t think Ryan has a clue. What did I do to piss the universe off? What? Mean-assed-killer-ninja-barbie is about to take us both out for getting frisky in front of her, and I’m never even going to get to have Ryan fuck me senseless. If that doesn’t just suck giant hairy monkey balls, I don’t know what does.