by Tara Rose
Brenna begged them to let her come, but they merely chuckled and told her she’d have to work for the next one. Her ass cheeks were on fire from their open-handed spankings by the time they told her to stand. She did, and then Jaxon took a seat in the chair and pulled her onto his lap, with her back to him.
He reached around and rubbed her clit, teasing it into the most intense orgasm she’d ever had, while Parker stood in front of her and pulled on his dick. She begged him to put it into her mouth, but he didn’t. He waited until she’d come, and then they stood her up again and told her to bend over the chair and rest her elbows on the seat cushion.
She did, and then they took turns fucking her in the pussy from behind until she came a third time, and they both finally came inside her. She’d never had so much fun, and when she realized they’d both left their clothes on through all this, she almost came again. It was so sexy and raw being taken like this, outside, with her totally naked and both of them only taking their dicks out of their breeches.
It had an aura of forbidden sex to it that made her want them all over again. When they finally led her back inside, they curled up on Jaxon’s bed and she fell asleep in their arms, sated and happier than she’d ever been.
She was so in love with both of them. They needed to know that. And now, because she felt like she’d made major strides in resolving the issues she’d carried in her heart for almost three years, now she could tell them both that she loved them.
* * * *
Another week went by before Brenna, Jaxon, and Parker received a clue to Molly’s disappearance. They were in the sitting room having breakfast when Janey came in, holding out a silver tray. She curtseyed, then told Brenna that she had a message from someone.
The three exchanged confused glances, and then Jaxon plucked the parchment off the tray and glanced at the seal. Brenna’s heart raced at the look of trepidation on his face. “What is it?” she asked.
“I know this seal. It’s from a man named Alfred who used to be an apothecary here. He was accused of making poisons years ago. Parker and I hadn’t yet come of age at the time. He was almost banished to the Wastelands, but instead my father took pity on him and sent him to live with his family.”
“Why would he send me a message?”
“I have no idea. Let’s find out.” Jaxon tore the seal and read the note, then passed it to Parker. Brenna was ready to jump out of her skin by the time Parker handed it to her.
Miss Brenna, I hope this note finds you this time. I’ve had no response from the previous ones I’ve sent you. I’m hurt and need your help. Ask Their Highnesses to bring you to Wexler. They’ll know where that is. I’m in a cabin there, being held by a man named Alfred. Please help me. Molly.
Brenna glanced toward Janey, and then Parker and Jaxon did as well. Jaxon spoke first. “Who brought this to you?”
“The guard named Daniel, Sire.” Her voice shook.
“And who brought it to him?”
“I don’t know, Sire.”
“Send him in here.”
“Yes, Sire.”
She scurried out of the room, and Brenna read the note again. “I never received her other notes. That means someone else intercepted them.”
“If she sent them,” said Parker.
“What? Why would she say she had if she hadn’t? There is no way she would risk sending something like this if it wasn’t true. I mean, there are too many people who might read it first. And obviously someone read the other ones she sent, but never told me about them!”
“It’s a trick,” said Jaxon. “And not a very clever or convincing one.”
“A trick? Why would she do something so obvious if this wasn’t true? She’s really hurt, and is so desperate for help that she’s been risking sending me notes. She’s alive and she needs our help. We have to find her!”
Parker sighed out loud. “Brenna, this isn’t real. Think about it. Do you realize how many people something like this would have to go through to even get inside this castle?”
“No, I don’t.”
He started to speak again, but stopped when Daniel came into the room. “Sire, the note was brought to the castle by a man on horseback.” He sounded out of breath, as though he’d been running recently. “He wasn’t identified. He told the guards at the gate that he was my cousin, and they came and found me. The note only passed through my hands.”
“Did you know this man?” asked Parker.
“No, Sire. He was cloaked and his face partially hidden by a hood. But when I heard his voice I knew he wasn’t my cousin. I didn’t tell the guards that fact. I thought under the circumstances, it was more important to hear him out first.”
“Wise move,” said Jaxon.
“Thank you, Sire. The man took me aside and told me that Molly needed Miss Brenna’s help, and she’d given him specific orders to give the note only to me. I was then to give it to Miss Brenna.” Daniel glanced toward Janey, who cowered in the corner. “The only person who touched it other than me is Janey.”
“Why wasn’t this man detained?” asked Jaxon.
Daniel looked uncomfortable. “Sire, I asked him to be, but then in the confusion he must have left. I’m sorry, Sire.”
“When did this happen?” asked Parker.
“Just now, Sire.”
“And how many other notes have been brought to this castle for Miss Brenna?”
Daniel looked confused. “None that I know of, Sire. This is the only one.”
Jaxon mumbled something under his breath that sounded like a string of curse words, and then he rang for Michael. When Michael came into the room, he told him to find the king, but to tell no one else that they needed to speak to His Majesty as soon as possible. Michael left the room, and then Jaxon rose and closed the doors to the hallway.
He faced them. “This incident does not leave this room. Understood?”
“Yes, Sire.” They all said it at once, and then he told Janey and Daniel they could leave. Once they were gone and the doors closed again, Jaxon fixed his gaze on Brenna. “I know you’re upset right now and that you want to go to her, but you cannot do that.”
“But someone has to check this out. If she sent other notes, who knows how long she’s been hurt.”
“Let my father send out guards to try to find this man, and to see if Molly is truly being held by Alfred.”
“Do you know what place she’s talking about?”
“Yes. If she’s there, we will find her. But you cannot leave the castle. Is that understood?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t do that. But if this is a trap like you two seem to think it is, it makes no sense. No one is that stupid, are they? To think you two wouldn’t also read the note and then take guards with you when you go to find her?”
“We’re not going to find her,” said Parker. “No one expects us to leave the castle based on this note.”
“But that makes it even more suspicious. What could they hope to gain by doing this if it isn’t to draw you two out? Don’t you see what I’m saying? Who would be foolish enough to lay such an obvious trap?”
They didn’t answer, but she finally saw her logic hit home on their faces. “No one. No one would do this. There’s no purpose to it. They would know what you both would do. You’d tell the king and you’d send guards to find Alfred. They know you’d never do what Molly asked of me. You’d never go there and take me with you.”
Parker ran his hands through his hair. “She’s right you know.”
“I am! That’s why I know this has to be true. Molly really is there and she’s been trying to contact me. She’s hurt and she needs me.”
“Why you?” asked Parker. “Why wouldn’t she send a note to the queen instead?”
“I don’t know. But she didn’t. She asked me for help.”
“You are not going,” said Jaxon, his voice angry now. “We have healers in this kingdom. We will send one with the guards on the off chance that this is real.”
�
�Promise?”
He didn’t have the chance to answer because the doors burst open and the king entered, followed by several guards that Brenna didn’t recognize. “What the hell is going on?”
Chapter Sixteen
Jaxon handed his father the note, and summarized what Daniel had told them. He then shared Brenna’s concerns over whether this might be real and Molly really did need their help.
His father narrowed his eyes at Brenna. “Have you had contact with her in the past two weeks since her disappearance?”
“No, Your Majesty. Of course not. I would have told your son and Parker immediately.”
“Very well. I’m sending out a contingent of guards and a healer to ascertain whether this is true. And I’m placing additional guards outside this suite immediately.”
He glared at Brenna, and Jaxon watched her stiffen. Then he asked his father if they could speak privately, and Atheron followed Jaxon into his bedroom. Jaxon closed the doors behind them, wishing the room didn’t still smell like sex, but more concerned about his father’s reaction toward Brenna. “She had nothing to do with this.”
“Are you sure?”
“What?”
“The night Brenna tried to find the portraits, Molly wasn’t at her post. Why is that?”
A nasty shiver ran down Jaxon’s spine. “I don’t know. We never investigated beyond asking her. She said she made a mistake, and that was that. Brenna said she heard Molly in her brother’s room, laughing and talking with him and Frank.”
“Is she certain it was Molly she heard?”
“I never asked her that. What’s your point, Father?”
“My point is that whoever sent this didn’t do it to try to trick you three into leaving the castle. It’s too transparent.”
“We all agree on that. But has it not also crossed your mind that Alfred used to be an apothecary? We’re back to the triplets and the accusations they poisoned the women they’d chosen.”
Atheron frowned. “That’s a large leap.”
“Is it? What if the same person or persons who took Molly two weeks ago sent this today? What if they’re trying to implicate Brenna to discredit her, along with me and Parker, so any lingering doubts about Molly’s demise is cast off them for good? You read the note, and that’s where your mind immediately went. That Brenna had been in contact with Molly and never told us.”
His father watched him carefully for a few seconds. “You trust her.”
“Completely.” Jaxon’s body shook with the effort of holding his anger in check. “She would never betray us. If Molly had contacted her, she would have told us.”
“Then we shall find out soon enough if your trust is misplaced. In the meantime, do not let her out of your sight.”
“We haven’t done that since the first night.”
When his father left, Jaxon returned to the sitting room with Parker and Brenna. They asked him what the king had said, but he told them he’d merely reiterated what they’d already talked about. He was sending guards and a healer to Alfred’s home today.
* * * *
Parker tried to distract Brenna with a puzzle she’d been putting together all week, but all she did was pace the sitting room after each piece she fitted in the puzzle. He admired her courage and determination. She’d get on a horse right now and go to Molly if she could, whether the note was real or not, simply because she believed the girl was really in trouble and needed her.
When she excused herself to the bathroom, Parker took the opportunity to ask Jaxon what his father had really said. When he told him, Parker grew angry. “You have got to know Brenna hasn’t lied to us.”
“I know it. But someone is going out of their way to make it look like she did.”
“You know who’s behind this.”
“I only wish my father and yours believed it as much as we do.”
“It will take them several days to reach Wexler. We have at least a week to wait for word.”
Jaxon nodded. “Then we will wait with Brenna, and try to keep her mind occupied in the meantime.”
* * * *
It was during dinner a week later that the three finally received word. Atheron arrived, followed by yet more guards, and asked to speak with Parker and Jaxon alone. Parker refused. “Whatever you have to say to us, Your Majesty, can be said in front of Brenna as well.”
The king dismissed all the guards from the room. “Molly is dead. We found her in Alfred’s house. Our healer said she’d likely been dead for the past three weeks, and felt certain she’d been poisoned. Alfred, however, is missing. And when we spoke to the neighbors, they said he hasn’t lived in the home for several years. No one has.”
Brenna ran from the room with her hand over her mouth. Parker followed her, but stood outside the door to his bathroom when he heard her retching. When he no longer heard the sounds, he went inside and closed the door. She was sitting on the floor in front of the toilet, crying. He ran cold water and wet a washcloth, then knelt next to her and moved her over to the bathtub so she could lean against it.
He flushed the toilet, and placed the washcloth over her neck. “It’s all right. Just breathe.”
“You see? I was right. She’d been sending me notes and I never got them. And now it’s too late.”
“Brenna, did you hear what the king said? Molly has been dead for three weeks. That’s how long she’s been gone. So it’s not possible she’s been sending you notes since her disappearance.”
She wiped her tears and looked at him with more distress on her face than he’d ever seen. “I have to tell you something.”
His breath caught in his throat. He almost asked her not to say anything because if he’d been wrong about her having contact with Molly, he’d die inside.
“I have to get this out now, because I’m afraid I might never see you two again. I’m afraid whoever is trying to make it look like I’ve done something wrong just succeeded.”
He stroked her hair and back. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”
The look of desperation she gave him made his heart skip a beat. “Parker, I’m not stupid. I know a setup when I see one. The same way my coworkers looked at me after Mark’s death is the way the king looks at me now.”
“Brenna, you listen to me. Jaxon and I are responsible for you, not the king. And I’m telling you that nothing is going to happen to you. So whatever you have to tell me, tell me now, quickly. It will stay between us. I swear to you.”
Her face changed, just like that, and he realized what a fool he’d been to doubt her even for a second. He also realized he’d fucked this up in the space of a few sentences. She wasn’t involved. That hadn’t been what she’d been about to him.
“Brenna…”
She stood and tossed the washcloth into the tub. “Go to hell, Your Highness.”
He grabbed her arm as she brushed past him but she shook him off. “You said you trusted me. Both of you. But that was a lie. You think Molly has been sending me notes and I never told you two. I saw it in your eyes. That’s what you think I was about to say to you, isn’t it? Admit it!”
The door opened, but Parker realized Brenna wasn’t even aware of it. Her back was to it as she continued yelling at him, and she never reacted to the sound of the door.
“I was going to tell you that I love you. You and Jaxon both. I wanted to say the words in case I never had the chance to again. That’s what I’d been about to tell you. But I can see now what a damn fool I’ve been. You don’t trust me. Neither of you do. You actually believe that I could do this, after everything we’ve shared, and after everything I’ve told you about my life before I came here.”
He couldn’t find the words. He was still too stunned by hearing her say the words. She loved him. She loved them both. And she was right. He actually had believed for a moment that she had kept something from them. After everything she’d gone through her with fiancé’s death, and finding out the depth of his secrecy and betrayal, he had imagined, just f
or a moment, that she could turn around and do the same thing to him and Jaxon. He believed that somehow she had been in contact with Molly, or whoever had taken her, but hadn’t told them.
“I’m so sorry, Brenna.”
She shook her head. “Sorry won’t cut it.” Her entire body shook. He could actually see her trembling. “How could you believe something like that of me? How?”
He sat on the edge of the tub and simply stared at her, unable to speak. When he glanced behind her into Jaxon’s eyes, she finally realized they weren’t alone and whirled around. “And you, Sire? Did you believe this, too? That I lied to you both? That I kept this from you?”
“No. Not at all. What’s going on? I’m confused.”
Parker told Jaxon and the king what had happened before they came into the room. “I made an incorrect assumption when she told me she had something to tell me.”
“It’s an honest mistake,” said Atheron.
“I’m afraid I don’t see it that way, Your Majesty.”
Her voice sounded so small and unsure. Parker rose and pulled her into his arms. Her body wasn’t warm or yielding, the way it normally was, but he held her close anyway. Then he took several deep breaths as he realized she was crying again. It was time to swallow his pride. “Now it’s my turn to tell you something.”
“No. I don’t want to hear it.”
He and Jaxon exchanged a glance, and then Jaxon moved closer to them until he was right next to Brenna. Parker no longer gave a shit that the king was also standing in his bathroom, watching this bizarre exchange. There was no time to waste unless he wanted to lose her forever.
“You’re going to hear it anyway,” said Parker. “I love you, Brenna Rutherford, woman of the other world. I’m crazy, head over heels in love with you. And I will spend the rest of my life begging your forgiveness if I need to, and making this up to you.”