ONE THOUSAND AND ONE STEAMY NIGHTS

by Shara Azod

  “Yes, I can see why you want,” his brother murmured. “And I agree. Exquisite.”

  “Shall I have Nicu collect her after?” Dragoş was uncharacteristically impatient.

  Their fathers had warned them of this. They were a people who believed in mysticism and things unseen larger than themselves. They had damn good cause. They were more than human. They were wolf shifters and wizards, bound to this land from the moment of their births.

  The brothers shared far more than rule of a country. They shared everything. From the time they were old enough to understand anything, they had been taught to do everything together, to lean on one another for more than support. It had been decreed by the spirits long before historians kept time. They lived longer, shrouding the truth of what they were with magic. Each pair of brothers ruled for one century, then disappeared into the mists of the forests for the next pair to take over.

  But there was one powerful element to their rule Dragoş and Valentin were missing. Their bride. Supposedly they would know her on sight, long for her scent, and love her until the end of time. It was this love that had destroyed their fathers, but not through any wrong doings of their own.

  One of their fathers, Luca, had five brothers. After they fall of the Soviet Union, the brother with no true claim to power in Frumos had fought for power elsewhere using any and every treacherous means imaginable. Their uncles had been responsible for the death of their mother. But Luca had something none of the other brother had. He had the brother-bond, a brother-bond the others had been denied. There was only one bond per generation. Their uncles and cousins could scoff all they wanted, their combined power was too much to take them head on. Plus, having your bond-brother embedded as a top general had given Luca enormous leverage over the others. No coup could get past the planning stage, because their other father, Christi had eyes and ears everywhere. Dragoş and Valentin had been raised in a home with two fathers and one mother that were completely devoted to each other. It would have seemed odd to an outside observer, but it served its purpose. Only once had the arrangement failed to protect their family, with devastating consequences.

  A message had been sent to their mother, claiming to be from her sons. Someone had claimed Valentin had been in a terrible accident and was not likely to survive. As any mother would do, she rushed off, determined to get to Scotland where they both had gone to college at St. Andrew’s while her husbands were away in Russia. It was rare they left her alone, but negotiations for peace had been fierce and both men had been determined to throw off the rule of their former Russian overlords. She had repeatedly tried to call both men, but a junior officer, part of the plot, had refused to let her speak to either Luca or Christi. Her plane crashed in the mountains without making it out of Frumos.

  It was a tragic lesson, but Luca and Christi had taught their sons well. Never leave their woman unprotected. Always work as a unit. Never let anyone into their inner circle. It was the only way to preserve the Republic from those who would see it fall into the hands of their greedy, bigger neighbors, or take over for themselves, giving the land a true taste of tyranny. All of the Alexandrescu family had gifts of magic, though not all were shifters. With even a little knowledge of wizardry, usurpers who ran unchecked could devastate the natural balance and destroy the country.

  Dragoş and Valentin had heard the rumors concerning them. They knew the reporters assembled were here to see the Frumosian Despots, as they were so affectionately called. While it was true they kept a tight rein on their country, it was out of necessity. Even now, the two uncles who yet live, as well as numerous cousins schemed and plotted to wrestle power away from them. Without completion of the triad, they were vulnerable and had not yet attained their full power. They could never let down their guard or show weakness. At the same time, they were not the monsters their kinsmen had whispered to the world they were. It smarted to be thought of as such. They were far from the monsters they were painted as being.

  “Yes,” Valentin agreed after several moments of quiet contemplation. “Send Nicu to collect her. Tell him to find out where she is staying and collect her belongings. I think we should give the lovely reporter an exclusive, no?”

  Dragoş had to restrain himself from clapping his hands and jumping up and down like a child. Oh yes, they needed to give this reporter an exclusive all right. Already the pull of their woman so strong it was almost a tangible thing.

  “We must tread carefully, Dragoş,” his brother cautioned him. “While I, too, am excited, Western women don’t understand our…ways.”

  “I will tread as carefully as I can,” he answered Valentin honestly. “But I cannot promise to wait long.”

  As Valentin turned away, Dragoş distinctly heard his brother’s muttered, “Nor can I.”

  ~2~

  Kiana was transfixed. Although the Alexandrescu men conducted the conference mostly in English, she couldn’t honestly recall a word that was said. The first problem had been the Prime Minister, Valentin Alexandrescu. As soon as he started speaking, Kiana found herself lost in the melody of his voice. It was comically melodramatic and completely cliché, but nonetheless true. His voice wasn’t particularly deep, but it was melodically smooth and rich. It flowed over her, stroking all her most sensitive spots, started an uncomfortable wetness between her legs.

  Her reaction to the Prime Minister was weird in the extreme. Generally, she didn’t become truly attracted to a guy until she had talked to him for several minutes. Looks alone never really turned her on. Sure the man was devilishly handsome, but half the world was beautiful. She had long since passed the point where all it took was a pretty face and a wicked smile to rev her engine. But this man did. And without any apparent effort. His gaze seemed to seek her out and linger from time to time, to the point that others in the room noticed and cast surreptitious glances in her direction. Kiana merely chalked it up as his first time seeing a black woman, maybe.

  Okay, that didn’t make much sense seeing as how he and his brother had been educated in the UK. Maybe he had never seen a black woman here in Frumos. She hoped like hell that was it, ‘cause if he was interested, she wasn’t all too sure she would say no. In fact, given her reaction to his freaking voice, she could pretty much guarantee she would fall into bed with him should he but ask.

  She was relieved when it was over. Had he continued to talk, she would have started to undress. But then, General Dragoş Alexandrescu had to go and open his mouth. He really needed to keep that voice to himself – it was just that lethal! His tone was much deeper than his brother. He had the James Earl Jones voice of a brother, and that really should have been against the law given his whole “I am powerful and virile and can fuck you bowlegged” looks. Dragoş was dangerously sexy. No, sexy was far too tame for him. He wore his thick, black hair in waves down to his shoulders, despite the crisp uniform. His light blue eyes probably didn’t miss a thing, and far too often settled right on her. This time her colleagues looked right at her as though she had something to do with where his eyes landed. He made her feel naked. Naked and hot. Naked, hot and wet. Like she really needed that after his too-smooth-for-words brother.

  They probably each had a harem full of ready and willing women. They probably had women in every country from here to Timbuktu. Kiana shouldn’t look at them with lust in her heart. It might influence her reporting.

  But damn they were hot!

  She hoped the camera crew got whatever it was they were spouting. All she could remember was the way their lips moved, the way she could have sworn Valentin actually licked those lips as his gaze slid all over her. They both had full, sensuous looking lips. Pussy eating lips. She had to press her legs tightly together just contemplating them. Dragoş and Valentin Alexandrescu were walking, talking advertisements for sin. The kind that got a woman kicked to the ninth circle of hell. She wasn’t even trying to go there!

  Kiana felt like falling down on her knees in thanksgiving by the time it was over. The whole atmosphere
was starting to make her feel funny, like she should be following the brothers off the raised dais and marking them as her own. Wow! She was actually panting after not one but two men that were so far out of her comfort zone it was frightening. What kind of slutty little yearnings had she been suppressing? She was thinking it would probably be best if she talked to low level officials and rural citizens, staying away from the modernized castle that served as the Alexandrescu home, and the gothic mansion where the simplified government of the tiny nation hammered out its business. She would file the simplest piece of fluff story imaginable. A week, tops, and then she was outtie.

  “Excuse me, miss?”

  Kiana whirled and almost swallowed her tongue. The thing tapping her on the shoulder couldn’t possibly be human! First of all, he was huge. Taller than any man should ever be and built like a fortress. His face was strangely devoid of any hint of human emotion. It was like facing a huge statue of some kind of mythical warrior. Creepy! There was no doubt he was talking to her, seeing as how his gigantic paw still rested on her shoulder. And despite the heavy Romanian/Hungarian accent (as she hadn’t yet come to understand much less define all accents in this strange little country), she had understood every word.

  Working around a suddenly parched throat she managed to croak a pitiful, “Yes?”

  She was going to be arrested. Locked in the dungeon. Maybe she had asked too many questions during her twenty-seven hour stay. It may have only been the hotel staff, where she and her crew were staying and a few townspeople, but she had breached some horrible protocol she knew nothing about.

  “The Prime Minister and the General would like a word with you,” the man-beast informed her.

  Wait, really?!

  Oh, damn. What could that possibly mean, and how the hell was she going to keep her wits about her? If she couldn’t stand there during a freaking press conference without lusting – hard – how they hell would she manage to do it one on one?

  “Um, okay, just let me gather my crew together and –”

  “Just you, miss,” man-beast insisted. “This way, please.”

  Kiana could do nothing more than cast a confused look over her shoulder at the small three man team that had traveled to Frumos with her. The man-beast had his hand on her back, steering her away. She could have dug in her heels or yelled or something, there were plenty of people still milling about, most of them sneering at her now. She could feel some serious evil eye action from competing networks. The truth was she wanted to go. She wanted to meet the men who had so thoroughly seduced her form the podium. She could keep her composure, she was a professional.

  Oh, to see those yummy specimens of ideal manhood up close and personal!

  Oh, no, she was so screwed.

  *****

  Valentin had changed positions in the eighteenth century winged back chair a dozen times before he heard the heavy footsteps of Nicu echoing in the hallway. There was just no hiding the raging erection he was sporting. Dragoş had opted to stand, as usual, behind the chair. He too had tell-tale evidence of their mutual attraction, however his brother’s, er, desire was well hidden. It might have been just as well. They believed in brutal honesty in Frumos, to a point. Perhaps it was best that she knew they wanted her from the very beginning.

  “Stop fidgeting, Val. She might mistake you for a blushing virgin,” Dragoş drawled dryly. “There’s simply no way to hide that log you’re sporting.”

  Dragoş was one to tease, his log was in no way smaller than Valentin’s, and his was concealed. The ass.

  “Taci din gura!” Valentin growled under his breath. The last thing he needed was to be overheard by… their as yet unnamed future first lady, discussing his inexplicable hard on.

  From first sight Valentin had felt an immediate powerful attraction. His eyes kept returning to her over and over again throughout the press conference. He had been short and curt in his answers, all because he wanted it to be over. He wanted to meet her, to know her name, to begin the careful seduction that was necessary to make her never want to leave them. She would probably think they were insane, but Valentin knew as well as Dragoş she had been made for them. The magic produced by being the same room as her had his skin tingling with raw, natural energy. She was the one they had been waiting for to share their lives, the last piece to the puzzle. The wait now that they had seen her was excruciating.

  It took a woman of grit to be the First Lady of Frumos. With treachery and deceit around every corner, she had to be able to hold her own. Valentin knew this reporter was such a woman. The Fates wouldn’t send a weak woman to them. And she had to be able to accept what and who they were. This would be difficult for a woman of the West, but he had no doubt they would overcome that obstacle. All they had to do was thoroughly seduce her body and mind before revealing their true selves.

  His back straightened when the large doors to the receiving room slowly swung open. His world narrowed, his vision focused on one thing. She really was a petite little thing, walking with the regal bearing of a queen in three inch heeled boots. They hugged her shapely calves, stopping just below her knees where the skin tight leather showed an abundance of fur lining. Valentin’s mind conjured up visions of her in just those boots, seated to ride.

  His erection jumped.

  “Bun venit, frumoasa mea,” Dragoş boomed out as Valentin sat mentally undressing her. “Which means ‘Welcome to Frumos’, of course.”

  That was a crock of bull. It meant welcome, my beautiful. Dragoş took special delight in teasing, especially if the person had no idea what he was saying.

  “Do you speak Romanian?” Valentin fairly barked out, sounded every bit as much like the despot he had been falsely labeled. He winced, but it was too late to take it back.

  “What my brother meant to say is you have us at a loss,” Dragoş cut in smoothly. This was a first. Usually Dragoş was the autocratic asshole while he was the smooth, debonair one. “You know who we are, but we a deprived of knowing the name of such an exquisite beauty right in our midst.”

  Valentin wanted to growl at his brother, but that would only make things worse.

  “Yes, that is exactly what I mean to say,” he agreed instead, rising to his feet to stride in front of her. She was too far away, he didn’t like that. “And to request your presence at our castle.”

  “For dinner,” Dragoş added.

  “And after,” Valentin insisted. “To stay.”

  “While you are here, in our country.” Dragoş cutting in. He was really starting to get on Valentin’s nerve.

  “If that’s what you want to call it,” he added so there was no doubt to his meaning.

  It was a jack ass move, he knew that, but he seemed to be on a roll. The lovely lady’s eyes darted to his crotch then quickly back up to his eyes, then to his brother’s crotch and back to him. Valentin gave her a wolf’s grin.

  “And you didn’t answer my brother, love,” he purred, taking her tiny hand in his. He just couldn’t help himself. He was pushing it, he knew it, and he couldn’t stop it. Everything about her screamed out to him to make her theirs. Now.

  “Uh, what? I’m sorry was there a question?” Her voice was soft and melodic with just a touch of huskiness, just enough to make it sexy.

  “Your name,” Dragoş reminder her, moving to stand behind her.

  Perfect. She was surrounded by them, but she didn’t show an ounce of nervousness. She was slightly confused, a little off center, but she didn’t move away or get defensive. In fact, Valentin detected the hardening of her nipples beneath the peach silk of her blouse. Her skin really was rather enticing up close. All dark and beckoning, it looked delicious.

  “My name is Kiana, Kiana Davies,” she spoke clearly, as if he couldn’t feel the slight tremble through her hand, which he was not about to let go of. “I’m here reporting for American News Network International. I would like to thank you for this opportunity for an exclusive interview, but I am afraid your, er, butler moved too fast for
my crew to follow.”

  Valentin raised an eyebrow at her audacity. She knew good and well she hadn’t been asked here for an interview. Dragoş let out a deep belly laugh, the kind no one save himself had ever seen the formidable general utter. Kiana didn’t bat an eyelash. In fact, the little pixie acted as if nothing at all was amiss. Like there wasn’t a six-foot five feared general guffawing behind her.

  “Really?” He would play along, for now. “We will have to make sure someone collects them later – much later. As for now you will ride with us to our home, yes?”

  She scowled at him. Actually scowled, her deep brown eyes shooting fire right at him. Oh, yes, she had spunk! His cock jumped again, precum leaking from the tiny slit. It would be a miracle if they made it through the ride to their ancestral home without having a little taste. The magic was insistently demanding the consummation of the union meant to be.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded. Tapping her little foot like a schoolmarm. She had not a clue what a challenge she was throwing out. It was like waving a red cloth in front of two very ready bulls.

  “Like what?” Valentin dared. He couldn’t wait to hear what she would say.

  “I am a professional reporter,” she replied tartly. “Not some bubble-headed floozy. You may be used to getting your way with women but I am here to report, not for some fling. Stop looking at me like…like you want to eat me!”

  This set off another round of guffaws from Dragoş. “That’s because we do, my lovely little Kiana!”

  Valentin waited until the thought settled and marinated. Her eyes rounded, her pouty lips forming a perfect “O”, but she still didn’t move away. And her nipples got harder. Mmmm, what he could do with that mouth.

  “And we will, dragă,” Valentin leaned closed to whisper. “This I promise.”

  ~3~

  She had officially lost her mind. That was the only way Kiana could explain letting the two dangerously devilish men escort her into their limousine. Unless she was hearing things, they had just propositioned her. She was supposed to be all indignant and storm off, wasn’t she? So why was it that all she felt was excitement? This was bad. She had to get a handle on things.