by Tara Rose
The two men retreated back down the same hall they’d just come through, and the guards stayed outside the doors as Jaxon and Parker ushered her into the room. They closed the doors behind them, and Brenna glanced around, taking in the opulent furnishings and dark, heavy fabrics. It was stunning, but she still wanted to go home. She also felt she should say something to them about getting her away from the brothers. “Thank you for whatever it was you did back there. Who are those three men?”
“No one you want to know,” said Parker.
“That’s not really an answer.”
Parker grinned, and she had to avert her gaze because it was so damn sexy that erotic images raced through her mind. What the hell was wrong with her? She’d just landed in…God only knew what, three very creepy men had tried to claim her, and now she was virtually a prisoner of two others who said they’d chosen her. This was hardly a situation that should make her horny. It was more like a nightmare.
“You’re used to getting answers,” he said.
“Only when I ask a direct question of another human being. You are human, right?”
“As human as you are.” He indicated an armchair. “Please, sit down. We’ll have food and drink in a moment.”
“Look, I appreciate what you both did. Really, I do. But all I want to do now is return home.”
Jaxon moved close to her and placed a hand on each shoulder. She normally didn’t care for anyone inside her personal space, but she didn’t back away. His touch was gentle and warm, and the look in his eyes was filled with compassion. None of this made sense. But once again, Brenna had the feeling these two wouldn’t hurt her or lie to her. She couldn’t have explained it if asked to, but she knew it was true.
“Brenna, what we said earlier is the truth. The portraits only work one way. This is your home now. We have no way to send you back, even if we wanted to, which we do not, by the way.”
She shook her head and would have backed away, but his grip on her shoulders increased, as if he sensed what she wanted to do. “But I have a home. I have a job. I have family and friends.” And no life to speak of, despite all that.
“I realize that. Why don’t you sit down? You look a bit pale.”
She did feel dizzy, so she took a seat in the chair that Parker had indicated a moment ago. The doors opened, and the two men dressed as servants came in, pushing a cart filled with tureens, plates, and a pitcher with glasses. “Your rooms will be ready in about an hour, Sire.”
“Thank you, Frank,” said Parker. “You may leave us to help the others.”
The men bowed, then closed the doors behind them. Parker pushed the cart closer to Brenna, then he and Jaxon took a seat on the sofa across from her. “Have something. I think you’ll find the food here much better than what you’re used to, since it’s all fresh.”
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”
“You don’t look well,” said Jaxon. “Crossing over is usually quite tiring, and you’ll feel better if you eat something.”
He removed the cover of a tureen, and as soon as she inhaled, her stomach rumbled.
“What is that?”
He peered inside. “Stew…made with animal meat and vegetables. Shall I tell you which animal?”
She shook her head. “Probably better that you don’t, but it smells really good.”
He ladled some into a bowl, and then passed it to her along with a spoon. She took it, but waited to taste it until they both had. “It’s delicious. Thank you.”
Jaxon broke off a piece of bread and buttered it, then handed that to her, too. “This is made fresh each day.”
“The bread, or the butter?”
“Both.”
The bread was equally good, but eating didn’t help clear the confusion swirling through Brenna’s mind. “I don’t understand this. Why did this happen to me?”
“We aren’t sure why certain women cross over.”
“But I mean…the painting had something to do with it, right?”
“Yes, it did. Where did you find it in your world?”
“At an estate sale. But the woman hosting it didn’t know where it came from. It was all by itself in the back of the barn where they had some of the items for sale.”
“How did you come to be there?” asked Parker. “I mean at the sale.”
“I was taking a drive and there was a detour. I spotted the sign for the sale and stopped to take a look. The painting…” This would sound crazy, but then again, this whole situation already was nutty. She might as well tell them everything. “The painting called to me. I don’t know how else to describe it. And it changed. There was only a woman at first, and then two men appeared. But the changes happened over time. And then…this is going to sound really bizarre.”
“No, it won’t,” said Jaxon. “We’ve heard of similar stories told by other women who have crossed over.”
“Really? Well, okay then.” She put down her food. “I heard a sound later, after I brought it home. And when I went into the room where I’d placed it, one of the men was swatting the woman between her legs with a paddle. That’s when I…” What had she done? “That’s when I sort of fell into the painting and landed here.”
“Describe the woman in the painting,” said Jaxon, his voice soft and sultry. Had it sounded that way before?
“She was nude, on her back, and had chains wrapped around her wrists and ankles.”
“How did that make you feel?”
Brenna stood and began to pace the room as heat rose to her face. What was in that stew? “Now you sound like the creepy triplets.”
“No. We’re not like them at all. Believe me.”
She turned to face him. “What did you mean when you said you’d chosen me? Chosen me for what, exactly?”
“Sit back down and we’ll tell you.”
He was right about them not being like the triplets. Jaxon’s voice was persuasive, but not fake, like Carleton’s had been. And he and Parker weren’t looking at her like they might devour her. She wouldn’t get all her questions answered unless she stayed calm and focused, so Brenna took her seat again and waited.
No matter what they said next, one thing was clear. She was stuck here. At least until she could figure out a way to return to that twin painting and travel back through it. Because as sexy and charming as these two were, she had no intentions of staying here with them for the rest of her life. She wanted to go home.
Chapter Four
Jaxon leaned forward slightly and clasped his hands. The gesture made him look kind, but Brenna decided to hold off judgment on that one until she heard his answer. “Three thousand years ago, a king from Enfield was spurned by a woman from Ashdown. Enfield is the kingdom to our west. The king placed a powerful curse on our women from that point onward. If they didn’t choose a man from Enfield as their husband, they would never have children. They would be barren.”
She raised her brows. “Is that why I’m here? To have your children?”
“No. I’m telling you the history from the beginning in the hopes you’ll understand your purpose here. The curse was designed to wipe out the ruling class of our kingdom, but our leaders turned to Wythmail, the kingdom east of us. We also built a wall between us and Enfield that is fourteen feet high. It stretches from the Great Lake to the north, and to the Wastelands in the south. There is razor wire at the top of it, and it’s patrolled regularly.”
“So, obviously you no longer have dealings with Enfield.”
“Correct. As to Wythmail, however, our princes at first and then other men in the kingdom began taking women from their kingdom as brides. Their leaders grew tired of it because the kingdom wasn’t compensated for this. Now, our men enter into complicated contracts with a Wythmail woman’s family before she’s brought here as a bride. Wythmail has become quite wealthy as a result of this.”
“But what happened to the women of your kingdom?”
“As the bloodlines became mixed, we found that our daughters still a
re barren. The curse is powerful, and we must continue to take women from Wythmail in order to produce children.”
“So, even the daughters of a woman from Wythmail and one of your men can’t have children of their own?”
“That is correct.”
“So what do they do, then? The women?”
“They are servants here in the castle, or they work in other occupations throughout the kingdom.”
She glanced around again. What good was all this wealth if you had to steal women from another place to keep your kingdom afloat? “So why do you need women from my world?”
“Two distinct classes of princes have developed since the curse. The elite class from the pure bloodlines, which Parker and I are descended from, and the others who now have a mixed bloodline and less specific sexual preferences.”
Brenna shivered at his words, but not from fear this time. She took a sip of tea simply so she could collect her thoughts. “I take it then that not all the men of this kingdom share your particular preferences?”
“That is correct.”
“Can you elaborate on those a bit? Your sexual preferences, I mean.”
He grinned, and she had to bite back a moan. “We enjoy kinky sex. Bondage, spanking, paddling, flogging, the occasional forced seduction, and some hair pulling, but not enough to actually cause permanent harm.”
Brenna swallowed hard. Holy shit! She didn’t know what to say for a few moments. They watched her carefully, as if assessing her reaction. Not that she could control it. Unless they were braindead, they’d see how aroused their simple words had made her. “So, this elite class that you both are from…you don’t produced heirs?”
“The men like Parker and myself aren’t interested in marriage and children. We let the others take care of that to keep the bloodlines going.”
“Oh.” Earth to Brenna! Snap out of it! “Wait. Hold on a second. If you don’t have children, how do you keep your pure bloodlines going?”
He and Parker exchanged a glance, then Parker leaned closer. “Our sorcerers believe a spell was placed on King Reginald, giving him power over women. All women, not only those in our world. Reginald was said to have seduced every female who came near him, but he never found true love. He didn’t want it. He only wanted to wear himself out with sex.”
And these two were his descendants. Yep. It all made sense now. Surely they knew how seductive they were. Images of them tying her up and spanking her ass filled her head, and she could barely form a coherent thought. “So, does he have something to do with the portraits?”
“The answers aren’t entirely clear yet, but somehow Reginald also had a spell cast on the paintings themselves. They are said to be portraits of the women he’d seduced, but now there are artists producing more of them with images of different women. No one knows why the original ones and the new ones hold the same magick, any more than they know why Reginald’s descendants hold this kind of power over the paintings.”
“Our particular bloodline is descended directly from King Reginald,” said Jaxon. “He ruled when the original portraits were discovered. But as to the other bloodlines, we fake them to trick the people of Enfield. They can’t understand how we’re able to still have princes, and they’ve been trying for nearly two hundred years to discover our secret.”
“But why do they care?”
“Because of the curse. They want to annihilate us.”
“Still? All these years later? But why not just scale the wall then and attack you?” This all seemed so ridiculous to her, but then she imagined if she were to tell them some of the conflicts going on in her world, they’d think the same thing.
“Because we have an army that would wipe them out,” said Parker.
“So what happens if they discover you’re faking your status as princes? Can’t you simply wipe them out anyway?”
“We’re not falsifying all of them,” said Jaxon. “Only some of them.”
“Okay. But so what? What would happen if they found out?”
“It would strengthen their position, politically, with other kingdoms to know we’ve been lying all these years.”
She nodded, then sipped more tea. It really was delicious. “Do you think they’ll ever find out?”
They exchanged another glance. “As a matter of fact,” said Parker, “they already have.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They discovered the portraits, and they now know women from your world cross over through them.”
“What are you going to do about that?”
“We’re working on a solution.” His voice was full of sarcasm. “If only our Council members would look within their own ranks first.”
Jaxon shot him a warning look, and then he offered to pour her another cup of tea. “It’s quite good, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Thank you. So tell me more about these paintings.”
“They were discovered two hundred years ago, and the artists who paint new ones live here in the castle now. Women from your world only cross over a few times a year, and always during a full moon.”
“How do we do that, exactly? How do we cross over?”
“We don’t know the specifics. And we don’t know how the twin paintings come to your world. Only the direct male descendants of Reginald seem to have the power to pull women through the portraits, but our sorcerers and stargazers haven’t figured out how or why yet.”
“And you are the only ones who can claim us?”
“Yes, that’s right. The descendants of Reginald.”
“Are the creepy triplets his descendants as well?”
“Yes.”
“So once we’re here, any of you can claim us.”
“That is true.”
“And ever since the discovery of the portraits, his descendants have been enticing women here?”
“Yes,” said Parker. “Because here you are.”
His grin was so damn sexy. They both were. But their explanation of why she was there still seemed lacking in something. “That’s why I’m here, then. To have sex with both of you.”
“Right again.”
She eyed them both, then placed her tea cup in the saucer because her hands were shaking. “Forgive me, but I don’t understand why you two would need to bring someone over from another world just to have sex. You’re both really good-looking men, and surely you have women here who would be more than willing to hop into bed with you.”
“Oh, we do,” said Jaxon. “But we’re tired of seducing servants. And it’s our birthright to claim a woman from your world. It’s the birthright of all Reginald’s descendants.”
“So why not just choose a different woman who isn’t a servant?”
“It can’t be done. Our laws prevent it. We would look foolish to even try. It’s our custom to choose this way, from your world. And the women here are no longer our own, as we said. They are descended from Wythmail families. We cannot claim one of them for our desires.”
“Even their daughters? The ones who were originally descended from your men and the Wythmail women?”
“That is correct.”
“So you do this because it’s your custom. Your tradition. You choose a woman from my world.”
They each nodded.
“And I have no say-so in it. Because I took home a painting that intrigued me, here I am. Claimed by you two, and expected to have sex with you both.”
“I think she finally understands it,” said Parker, grinning.
Brenna shook her head. This had to be a dream. No way that two men in this day and age were so arrogant and sexist. Then she remembered she wasn’t in her world, whatever that actually meant. And she also recalled the looks on the triplets’ faces, and the way no one in that room seemed to think their behavior was out of line. No one she’d met yet thought this situation was off base. To them, this was normal.
But did that mean she had to play along? As sexy as they were, and as much as she was intrigued to find out they enjoyed kinky sex,
this wasn’t right. She had to go home. There had to be a way to get out of here, despite what they’d told her.
Brenna stood. “I’m not sure if time is the same here as where I was, but it feels late to me, as though I’ve been up for days. Would it be possible for me to sleep for a while, and think through all this? I’m very confused.”
They stood as well, and Jaxon held out his arm. “It’s usual for a woman to feel sleepy for a few days after crossing over. Let’s see if your room is ready yet.”
She took his arm, feeling guilty as she did so. But she couldn’t stay here. She simply couldn’t. If what they said was true, someone else would find a painting and cross over, as they’d called it, and maybe she’d be happy here?
They led her into what was clearly a bedroom, where a young girl dressed in a long dark blue dress, and wearing a white cotton cap on her head placed clothing in drawers. When she turned and curtseyed, Brenna bit her tongue to keep from laughing. “Oh, pardon me, Your Highnesses. I was just finishing up.”
“This is Molly,” said Jaxon. “She’s Michael’s sister. You met him earlier. He’s my valet.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Brenna.
“It’s nice to meet you, too, Miss Brenna.”
“Brenna is feeling tired,” said Jaxon. “We’re going to let her sleep now and we’ll have breakfast with her in the morning.”
“I have a few more things to fetch, and then I’ll help her find something to wear to bed.”
This woman was her maid. Good lord. As Molly scurried from the room, Jaxon took her hand from his arm and lifted it to his lips, kissing the back of it in a way that made her pussy wet and her nipples tingle. Don’t go there!
“We’ll see you in the morning, Brenna. Sleep well.”
“Thank you.” She couldn’t seem to stop staring into his eyes, and had to make an effort to pull her hand away. Parker surprised the hell out of her by pulling her close and holding her. Brenna had to bite back a moan. How the hell could she be this attracted to two strangers, and under these insane circumstances? She almost felt drugged.
Drugged…
