by Mari Byrne
It wasn’t until a throat cleared to her right she reluctantly turned her attention back to a voice calling her name.
“What…? Oh.” She prayed none of the men noticed the blush as she wiped the slobber from her chin. She tried to bluff her way out of it.
“Yes, well… Can you tell me what’s really going on? You seem to be the stable one in this bunch.”
Winters smiled winningly at Shari and she knew she hadn’t managed to pull anything off. He was gentle as he answered her.
“Of course, My Lady Princess. What would you like to know?”
My Lady what? Maybe he hadn’t been the one to ask after all. Straightening up in her chair and hitching her covering higher still, she tried again.
“Where am I? Let’s start with that and go from there.”
Winters nodded agreeably.
“Of course, My Lady Princess. You’re in the Queendom of Aranak in the Realm of Azaya.”
Shari gaped at the man.
“Was that all you wished to know, My Lady Princess?”
Quickly, closing her mouth, she shook her head negatively.
“Um… The Queendom of Aranak? The Realm of Azaya? Where on Earth exactly am I?”
“Earth? No dear.” Winters reached out, patting her hand with a look of sympathy in his eyes. “You’re in Azaya now. Earth is another realm in the universes. Here, in Azaya, you have Aranak, Horrd, Zynthia, Stocklem, Xaneria, Kled…”
Shari shook her head in astonishment at the man. He had to be a loon too. Even though he had stopped speaking, he was nodding his head in the affirmative.
“Yes, My Lady Princess. It’s true. There are other realms. My Lord Princes would be more than happy to…”
This could not be happening. It could not.
“Shari.”
She turned her head from Winters and found Vincent had been calling her name softly in a tone she would normally reserve for a person in shock.
“Shari, you really are in another realm. If, when we’re done speaking, you want proof, we’ll show you. But please, hear us out first.”
Shari felt a hand grasp one of hers and turned to find Shan Lin on his knees at her side.
“Kasha. When we came to your door in the Earth…”
Shari opened her mouth to object to the term Earth, and was quickly silenced.
“…realm we did so to check on you. We saw what happened and were worried.”
“But you don’t even know me!” Shari cried helplessly.
Shan Lin stroked a hand down her arm again.
“It’s true, but we went to check on you nonetheless.”
Shari tried to imagine someone she had never met caring for her but couldn’t wrap her mind around the possibility.
“It’s true. We came to your door to check on you. There is something about you…a strength we sensed in you. We wanted to meet you and…”
“So you kidnapped me, stripped me, and stood over me naked with raging hard-ons until I woke up so you could speak to me?”
Shan Lin winced. Put that way…
Vincent made a rude noise. “No. We married you.”
Shan Lin looked up at Vincent and tried to keep the smile off his face. The frustration in his brother’s voice amused him. He stroked a hand down Shari’s arm to gain back her attention. His grin widened as he watched Shari glare at Vincent.
“What my brother is so eloquently trying to say is we have need of you just as you have need of us.”
Shari knotted her brows finally turning toward Shan Lin.
“What do you mean have need of me? Outside of a good psychiatrist’s phone number or the name of a great psycho ward, I can’t think of anything the two of you would need from me.”
“We’re not insane, Shari. I swear to you.”
Vincent’s voice, when he spoke, was persuasive, seducing her to listen to the crazy words he was spouting. It was the only defense Shari could come up with to justify continuing to sit here and listen to the two men tell her these lies. Not to mention, to continue to sit there wrapped only in a sheet.
Vincent, who had been standing just a few feet away, suddenly came forward and knelt at Shari’s feet. She stared down at him while he lifted her other hand and brought it to his lips.
“I’ll make you a deal, Kasha. Why don’t you get dressed, and afterwards, we’ll take you outside and let you see Aranak for yourself. You can go into Naralin, which is the closest town to our home, and find out for yourself. If afterward you still think we’re crazy, we’ll send you home.”
Shari listened and breathed a sigh of relief. If she could get outside, she had a good chance to get away. If she could just slip…
“However,” Vincent interrupted her escape plan. “If you find you’d rather stay here a while longer with your new husbands, then agree to sit and listen to what we have to say, and find out that there really are more inhabitants in your Realm of worlds than any human could ever dream of.”
Shari nodded her agreement immediately. She was going to be able to get out of this situation. With clothes on no less, and she wasn’t even going to have to fight her way out. It was the best deal she had ever been given. The best thing anyone…
Shari forced herself to quit nodding and her brain to cease babbling. If she was going to pull this off, she had to pull her thoughts together and form a plan for when she finally got outside.
“Good. We’ll leave you now to dress. When you’re ready, Winters will be just outside the door to take you through the house. All right?”
Shari found her head bobbing up and down once more and kept nodding until the two men got up and left the room closing the door behind them.
Not daring to think they might just change their mind and come back in, Shari jumped out of her chair to dress. Fumbling with the clothing Shan Lin had handed her, she began to unravel the fabric and hurriedly slipped on the butter soft material, barely paying attention to just what she wore.
The pants fit her nearly like a second skin seeming to stretch with her every movement without restriction. The shirt sleeves ended below the elbow and came to rest at the top of the pants. The color of both seemed to be a mixture of sea green and teal blue.
All this, she noticed peripherally as she pulled the clothing on as fast as she could.
When the shirt and pants were on, she wondered absently if they’d forgotten to give her underclothes on purpose. Even though she didn’t need a bra, even if it was just one more shield of a woman’s armor, she would love to have at the moment.
Thinking of shields, she looked around her chair praying Shan Lin had left shoes behind and she just hadn’t noticed. Even though she went around the chair twice, then got down on her hands and knees and looked under it, she couldn’t find them.
She had to wonder. Had they deliberately forgotten to give her some? Did they already know she was planning to escape? Had they read her mind and wanted to keep her here even though they had told her she would be able to leave?
She tried to put some ummph into her words, not whimper if she could help it, but was afraid what came out was more of a frightened squeak.
“Shit! They still managed to only answer one question, and damn it all! I still need shoes!”
Chapter Seven
“You know she thinks we’re insane, don’t you?” Shan Lin asked philosophically as the brothers made their way back to their room for more clothing.
Vincent grunted moodily as the two brothers reached their room.
“As long as she doesn’t hold onto the naive belief we’ll let her go, she can think we’re freching lours for all I give a shit.”
Shan Lin grumbled an assent as the brothers grabbed shirts, socks, and boots for their trip to town.
“Why was it necessary to spring the bit about us needing her so soon?”
Vincent pulled the tan, button-down shirt on and sat on the bed to put his boots on before he spoke.
“Because it felt too much like lying to her and I’ll be damned i
f I wanted to do that. It’s not as if we have any choice about it. Yes, we’ve said we married her, but…” Vincent shrugged, “Then there’s the Queen to worry about.”
“Which one?” Shan Lin mumbled at his brother’s words and pulled the leathery boots on. He felt the emotions running riot through Vincent and understood. Since the same emotions started churning in his own gut, he changed the subject.
“I have a feeling Queen Sara will be unable to read her mind. It was a steel trap the first time I tried to get in. You know, before she had actually made eye contact with us?”
Vincent paused in pulling on his own boots thinking on his brother’s words.
“Now that you mention it, I had the same problem. Usually we can scan humans without much thought. I can only hope with Queen Sara’s track record, your prediction happens to be the case.”
Shan Lin stood as Vincent handed him the weapons the brothers had discarded earlier and began stuffing them in various places on his person. Vincent did the same once he gained his feet.
Mentally counting his weaponry, Shan Lin spoke, satisfied.
“That ought to do it. Just remember, treat her as our bride, and things should go well.”
Vincent gave his brother a speaking look that said, “Do you think I’m an idiot?”, before walking across the room and out the door.
Shan Lin snickered and followed in the wake of the sexual hunger that had yet to leak completely from his brother’s body.
* * * * *
The tension in the vehicle nearly threatened to choke Shari. The brothers sat in the back of what Shari assumed was a proto-type car. One on either side of her, she experienced first hand the hold they were keeping on their bodies.
The tension felt sexual and she gazed quickly toward the bodies of the men. Both still had hard-ons bulging against the front of their tight pants. Shivering in response at the thought of just what she could do with one of those hard, sleek, large bulges. Shari did her best to push the thoughts out of her mind.
Think of something else, she chided herself, her own body beginning to react to the sexual tension.
She hadn’t a clue what make the car could be.
Yes, the car! That ought to do the trick.
It reminded her of a Lincoln Town Car, yet not quite. She couldn’t put her finger on just what made the car different, she just knew it was. And what a car it was. Apparently, there was no driver needed.
Dismissing it as unimportant at the moment, her mind began to race with the possibility she had lost her mind. If she could just get loose once the car doors opened…
She was so lost in her plans it took her a few moments to realize Shan Lin had begun to stroke her arm. He seemed to be trying to reassure her. Vincent had, at some time during her racing thoughts, grabbed hold of her hand, laid it in his lap, and begun to caress her palm sensually.
So much for forgetting the sexual tension, Shari thought wryly.
Looking down, she noticed her nipples poking against the material of the top she now wore. Hunching her shoulders in case one of the men noticed, Shari nearly cried out at the stimulation of silky clothing sliding against her aroused nipples.
Sucking in a deep breath, Shari looked from one brother to the other. Finding neither of them had noticed; she slowly released her pent up breath, then decided to ignore what they were doing.
I can do this, Shari thought determinedly. She would only be with them a little longer, and they weren’t actually hurting her… In fact, the two didn’t seem to realize what they were doing to her. Both men were looking out the vehicle’s windows rather than at her. She wondered if either one was asked if they knew what they were doing, if they would have a clue what she was talking about.
Sighing inwardly, she acknowledged she could force herself to live with two delectable, if insane, hunks, fawning over her for a few more moments.
She looked out the window, expecting to find nothing more than what she saw every day in her own town, and gasped. Whatever country they were in was gorgeous.
Lush scenery flew by as the vehicle raced along. Vivid colors streamed past the car windows, interrupted occasionally by breathtaking fauna and flora. Tree branches swayed on standing timber, some as tall as skyscrapers, and flowers bloomed from their limbs. Here and there structures dotted the landscape, but the vehicle was going so fast Shari had little time to get a good look at them.
“Slow down.” Shan Lin spoke quietly.
Shari stared out the window as the vehicle began to slow, barely aware of the spoken command.
The Realm of Azaya seemed to be a curiously blended mix of both old and new. Shari found, to her delight, a castle right down the road from where the brothers lived.
We must be somewhere in Europe.
As soon as she had the thought, she was immediately proved wrong. The huts they were approaching were near exact duplicates to ones she had seen in pictures of Africa and South American jungles.
The vehicle made its way past the huts coming alongside what looked to Shari to be tract housing.
Shari found her mouth had been gaping because Vincent reached a hand over, stroked her cheek with the back of his hand right before she snapped her mouth shut.
“We’re nearing the heart of the town of Naralin, Kasha. From here on in you might see some things you’ve never seen before. If you have questions, or would like to stop, all you have to do…”
“What the hell is that?” Shari cried out as something flew by at an incredible speed.
She’d been trying to listen to what Vincent had been saying, but the blur of fur that streaked by the window had startled her. Even though the car was moving at a pretty steady pace, whatever had passed them a moment ago had zoomed by them as if they were standing still.
“It was a mo-go.” Shan Lin said explaining. “It’s a hybrid of a rocket and a land cruiser for two. Would you like a ride on one?”
“Mo-go? You can ride a mo-go? What kind of animal is it? A fast horse of some kind?” Shari asked in disbelief.
“No. It was a man riding a mo-go with a shag-rug for warmth.” Vincent spoke up.
“He was wearing a carpet for warmth? Don’t you have jackets here?” Shari asked, taking in the sights beyond the window.
She flashed back on what Shan Lin had said suddenly.
“A rocket hybrid? Are we in Florida then? Somewhere near NASA?”
Her mind quickly dismissed what she had seen.
“No, Shari. We’re heading to Naralin, in the Queendom of Aranak.” Shan Lin interrupted her thoughts gently.
“It was a hybrid rocket L/C, model 45 M-Class. It can go from nil to ocht in three seconds flat. It has dual cylendric cart-hars and gets two hundred frit to the coals. I have seven of them in different colors and…” Vincent began quickly, a note of excitement to his words.
Shari tuned him out. If she was in another realm, one thing was surely universal everywhere. Men and their vehicles. Vincent spoke like most of the guys she worked with describing in minute detail all the bells and whistles of their cars and bikes.
The words might not be the same, but feelings were. Even if he had been speaking a language she understood, she would still have been lost.
“What’s nil to ocht mean?” Shari interrupted in the middle of his on going enthusiasm.
Vincent started as he stopped speaking, then squeezed the hand he was still stroking in his lap.
“Sorry. That would be…zero to eighty.” He smiled lovingly down at her as he explained.
Oh lord, I might be in trouble here if he keeps looking at me like that.
Smiling a little in turn, she turned with the intention of seeing out the other side of the vehicle and glimpsed Shan Lin looking at her too.
Down girl! Shari commanded her body as her heart raced. Thoughts of flight left her mind to be replaced by images of these two men worshipping her body.
There was a fire kindling in Shan Lin eyes that seemed to send a message to her groin for an answer. Heat be
gan to spread through her body at an alarming rate as she gasped then quickly turned back to look out the other window.
Too late, she realized her mistake.
If it was possible, Vincent’s eyes held even more fire than his brother’s. The heat starting to spread through her body began to pool in one place in her body, directly in the center of her core.
Shari squirmed as she felt the moistness in her pussy, and could have kicked herself. The more she moved, the more intense the feeling got.
“Um…” she began, as the two men suddenly seemed to have grown larger. The feeling of being surrounded, enclosed by a wall of desire, began to overwhelm any thoughts trying to rise to the surface.
Shan Lin no longer stroked her arm. Instead, he seemed to have scooted closer to her in the confines of the vehicle and was now stroking the nape of her neck.
On the other side of her, Vincent was now bringing her sensitized hand up to his mouth and scraping his teeth gently against the palm of her hand. A shiver raced through her body as he then bit down gently upon the base of her thumb.
She glanced over and found the heat in his eyes had turned up yet another notch. He was even closer to her than before. An almost physical impossibility in the small space the three now occupied.
“Er…” There was something she wanted to say, but Shan Lin reached out at that moment and laid his palm on her cheek turning her head toward him.
He was so close their mouths nearly touched, and Shari was tempted to lean just a little bit closer…
“Shari…” There was no need for her to lean in. Instead, Shan Lin moved to take her lips in a scorching kiss.
It began as a questing and soon turned into meltdown. His lips were hot and so silky soft as he began skimming them back and forth over her lips. A touch so light at first that she ended up leaning into him anyway. He opened his mouth and nipped at her lower lip gently with his teeth before slowly soothing the sting away with his tongue.
He skimmed his tongue down the edge of her mouth, trailing heat before the hand now holding her cheek slid down to her chin and opened her mouth.
A whimper escaped her parted lips before his tongue entered her mouth. It had been too long since a man had kissed her properly, and Shan Lin seemed to be making up for lost time.
