He glanced at Marcus and saw his brother trying to appear calm as he awaited Tessa’s reaction. But his clenched fists clearly indicated nervous anticipation. Well, Aerolus thought and inwardly smiled. The coolest of the bunch had finally met his match. Aerolus only wished he knew how long it would take the River Prince to recognise he’d fallen.
Tessa stared at three—not one, but three—carbon copies of the sexiest man she’d ever seen in her life. Amazingly, they all possessed the exact same haircut, same facial features and same height, but not the same eyes. Marcus’ were a clear, ocean blue, whereas the one who’d seen her earlier had silver eyes, and the grinning one on the couch possessed light brown, laughing eyes.
She was glad one of them found the situation amusing.
“Anything else you’d like to tell me? Are there any more of you I should know about?” She tried to appear nonchalant, as if she always made hot, passionate love with one of several clones after slaying demon spawn at the office.
Marcus sighed and the brown-eyed copy laughed openly. “Actually, yes. There’s one more of us, our brother Darius, but he’s not here.” She stared at him in amazement and he quickly continued. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I was just coming back to explain our situation when you walked in.” He took a breath and calmly introduced the others, as if one of his brothers hadn’t already seen too much of her earlier.
“We’ve met,” Aerolus said blandly and grasped her hand in his large palms. She could practically feel Marcus’ tension rise until Aerolus nodded respectfully and took a step back, safely out of reach.
Had Cool Blue just shown some jealousy? Intriguing thought. She gave him a surreptitious study before nodding towards the remaining brother, Cadmus. Darius, Aerolus, Cadmus—geez, was Marcus the only one with a normal name?
“What an absolute pleasure to meet you,” Cadmus said smoothly, lifting her hand to his hot mouth. He placed a chaste kiss against the back of her hand that warmed, but in no way made her feel what Marcus had.
Marcus’ eyes darkened and narrowed, and suddenly Cadmus stumbled back several paces to tumble over the couch.
“Dammit, Marcus, I’m not the one who saw her naked!”
Aerolus rubbed his forehead as a flush of red bronzed his cheekbones. “You have as much tact as a freznalian bull,” he murmured and shook his head. “I’m sorry for any duress I may have caused earlier,” he said to her in a soft, deep voice. “I clearly had no idea my brother had company when I arrived.”
Tessa nodded, accepting his apology even as it stirred new questions. “About that arrival—”
“Tessa, you’d better sit down,” Marcus deliberately interrupted and led her to the couch. “There’s a lot to explain and no way to do it gently.”
“I’m not china, Marcus,” she said firmly. “I won’t break. And with what you know about me, I don’t think my accepting the unusual will be that difficult, do you?”
Cadmus and Aerolus watched the interplay with interest.
“What does she mean?” Cadmus asked, nearing her before Marcus forcibly thrust him further down the couch. “By the Light, Marcus, I wasn’t trying to seduce her with a kiss to the hand.” He sounded exasperated but he turned to Tessa with a wink. “It didn’t work, did it?”
She couldn’t help sharing his grin. His playful antics relieved some of her stress, but apparently did little to ease Marcus’ worries. He placed a protective—or was that possessive?—arm around her and remained stoic under his brothers’ regard.
Aerolus raised one brow, an eerie likeness of the Marcus she knew at the office. But he didn’t comment on the arm, or on Marcus’ aggressive stance.
Again she studied the men surrounding her before conceding with a sigh. As much as she wanted to stand around and stare at three gorgeous men, she couldn’t ignore what had happened last night. She needed answers, some way to make sense of the unreal creatures they had fought, as well as the near-perfect lovemaking she’d experienced with the office bad boy who was way more than what he seemed.
Her gaze unwillingly sought Marcus and her entire body throbbed at the challenge in his turbulent gaze.
She cleared her throat, determined to focus, and stepped away from him. “I think it goes without saying I want some answers. This has been the strangest weekend of my life. And trust me, I know strange.”
“Explain strange,” Marcus said. “What was that vague explanation you made in my office? How is your ability to move things with your mind my fault?”
Aware of the intense watchfulness in the room, Tessa began pacing, struck with a sudden burst of nerves. No one outside her family knew of her abilities. She’d never trusted anyone enough to share her secret. Yet as she studied Marcus and his brothers, she knew they had more to hide than she did.
“My family has been steeped in the paranormal since the early 1800s, when my great-great-great-grandmother was run out of town for practicing ‘the dark arts’.”
Marcus and Cadmus looked confused before Aerolus murmured, “Sorcery.”
She nodded. “Sorcery, witchcraft, it all boils down to magic of the mind if you ask me. In any case, my entire family has flashes of insight and mental abilities that would make most people uncomfortable if they knew. We keep it quiet and live our lives as best we can. Unfortunately, we don’t always see what’s right in front of us.” Her thoughts strayed to the untimely death of her parents ten years ago.
“We’re not supposed to,” Cadmus said. “Some things are meant to happen without our interference.”
She blinked and stared at Cadmus, surprised at his insightful observation. “That’s what I told my brother Tom. He’s the one in the family with a gift for precognition.”
“Cadmus also possesses the ability to foretell the future,” Marcus said.
“And what about you?” she asked. “What exactly can you do besides move things with your mind and drown people in the middle of a dry room?”
Silence settled over the room until Aerolus sighed. “You might as well tell her all, Marcus. It’s not as if she hasn’t seen you use your elemental powers.”
“Elemental powers?”
“I, we,” Marcus corrected, nodding to his brothers, “are the last remaining Storm Lords, along with our brother Darius. We are the Royal Four, identical princes with the powers of the elements.”
Storm Lords? Princes? That explained the arrogance, she thought as she stared at him, dying to know more.
“We come from a parallel world called Tanselm, a land that, as we speak, is under siege from evil, from the creatures you met last night, and worse.”
“Of course you are. Good versus evil, magic powers, royal princes, this just keeps getting better.” She couldn’t help but laugh. Despite the absurdity of his story, she believed him. She’d seen evil up close, had witnessed Marcus’ awesome victory over the creatures. And her gift for telepathy not withstanding—
“Ow! Dammit, where did that come from?” Cadmus scowled at the coffee cup that had smacked him in the side of the head. “Watch it, Marcus.”
Marcus’ lips curled. “That wasn’t me.”
Three pair of eyes trained on her.
She shrugged defensively, embarrassed. “It’s not my fault. It’s his.” At Marcus’ impatient sigh, she explained. “I call it my ability to siphon. Since as far back as I can remember, people with strong extrasensory gifts affect me. Without knowing how I do it, I, well, I siphon their abilities.
“Friday night I scared myself silly by moving a bottle of water with my mind. I didn’t think about it. I was thirsty, and the bottle flew towards my hand. I knew someone I’d come into contact with had to be gifted with telekinesis. I just never thought it would be Marcus Storm,” she ended wryly.