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  After going through two more dresser drawers and not finding anything I wanted to wear right then, I gave up, grabbed my jeans from the floor, and began pulling them on, heaving a sigh. A moment later, the loud, insistent knocking sounded in the distance again. It was so loud, in fact, and it started back up again so suddenly, that I jumped a mile, startled.

  “Just a minute! I’m getting dressed in here, okay? Just give me one damned minute!”

  Although I had no way of knowing who, exactly, was doing the knocking, I was beginning to seriously dislike both of my suitors already.

  After throwing my sweatshirt back on, I’d just dashed out to the living room when another knock sounded, followed by the sound of a deep male voice.

  “Miss Wakefield, if you don’t open this door soon, we’re going to assume you’re trying to make some sort of escape attempt by taking the service stairs at the back of your apartment.”

  I hadn’t even been aware that I had any “service stairs” at the back of my apartment.

  “You should know that if this is what you’re thinking about doing, it won’t work, because our grandfather has guards posted at several points along the stairs to make sure that you don’t escape. So, it’s pointless for you to try anything. Now, as a courtesy to you, we’re going to give you ten more seconds to open your door yourself before we’re going to go ahead and let ourselves in. Your door is already unlocked. Ten seconds.”

  Suddenly, my attire was the furthest thing from my mind.

  With my pulse accelerating, I grabbed the doorknob and yanked the front door open. “Oh, you’re allowing me to answer my own apartment door as a courtesy to me? Well, thank you ever so much. How very courteous of you, not to mention….”

  Unsure of what I’d even been planning to say, I swallowed and fell silent. The boiling lava that had flooded my veins at what had been said to me had quickly cooled upon me getting a good look at the speaker.

  Tall, dark-haired, impossibly handsome, and extremely well-built, he stood with a hand on the door frame, expression somehow expectant, as if waiting for me to continue on in my rant. “’Not to mention’ what? Please continue. I’d really like to hear what you have to say.”

  Some ways behind this man, out in the hallway, another impossibly handsome, tall, dark-haired, extremely well-built man looked up from his phone, as if also interested to hear what I’d been going to say next in my rant. This man’s eyes were a pale, icy blue, and the man who’d spoken to me had gray eyes the color of dark, angry storm clouds.

  Having seen pictures of them in magazines, I knew these two men were the Iverson brothers. I hadn’t been expecting anyone else, obviously. However, even though I’d seen pictures of them before, I hadn’t expected them to both be so devastatingly handsome in person. And now, I had no idea what to say anymore. I had no idea what I’d been trying to say just a few seconds earlier. All I knew was that my heart was rapidly thudding in my ears, and I just wanted these two devastatingly attractive men to leave and never come back.

  With one of my hands seeming to move almost of its own accord, I began slowly closing the door. “Sorry. Sheila told me the two of you would be coming and everything, but I just don’t want any visitors right now, and maybe not ever. So, if you don’t mind…please just leave.”

  The gray-eyed man stuck a black-booted foot in the doorway to stop me from fully closing it. “I’m sorry, but we’re not going anywhere. For whatever absurd, silly, superstitious reason, our grandfather wants us to meet you, and we’re not in the habit of disappointing him. So, please just let us in. Right now.”

  With my heartbeat accelerating with anger now, I began trying to close the door on his foot. “No.”

  Glowering, he jammed his boot a little further in the doorway. “Yes.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Although they’d both appeared incredibly handsome in the pictures I’d seen in magazines and online, I just hadn’t expected the two Iverson brothers to be so drop-dead gorgeous in person. I hadn’t expected them to have muscular chests that appeared to have been carved from stone, which almost seemed to be begging me to reach out and touch them. I hadn’t expected them to have such utterly perfect strong, square jaws, and gazes so intense they almost seemed to look right into my very soul. I was beginning to realize that there were some things that just didn’t fully leap off the page of a magazine in quite the same way that they did in person.

  After the gray-eyed brother, who I was pretty sure was Alex Iverson, had stuck his boot in the door to keep me from closing it, I spent a long moment just gritting my teeth, trying to think of what choices I had and realizing I pretty much had none. Unless I wanted a fast-track ticket to prison anyway, I figured.

  So, I opened my apartment door and then stepped aside to let the two brothers enter. “Fine. Just come right on in, then. You both may as well, since I realize I don’t really have a choice in the matter, and since you’ll both probably break my door down with all your knocking if I don’t let you in right this second. I highly doubt you’re both polite enough not to.”

  The man I was pretty sure was Alex Iverson entered first and came to a stop, towering over me. “You're right about that. We’re not, so you made a good choice in voluntarily letting us in. Maybe you’ll even let us sit down, too, so that we can all talk and get acquainted.”

  I shrugged, hating his tall height, my relative shortness, and the feeling of him towering over me. “Fine, then. I don’t have a problem with that. The two of you can follow me to the living room, we’ll sit, and we’ll talk.”

  I turned from him and began striding across the marble-floored foyer to the hardwood-floored living room, which was beautifully decorated with framed oil paintings, gilded lamps, and crystal vases that a maid had been filling with fresh flowers when I’d arrived. I couldn’t deny that for someone who’d been forced out of her home, my current accommodations could have been a lot worse. Though I wasn’t able to leave, I certainly wasn’t locked in a dungeon, either.

  I didn’t even glance back to see if the two Iverson brothers were following me, but the sound of their boots on the wood flooring told me that they were, and pretty closely. When I finally turned to face them in the living room, I found them both a mere foot or so away from me. I hated it, because I hated to be stunned by the sight of them all over again. I just really hadn’t counted on them both being so damned attractive in person. I’d honestly been hoping that without the magic of airbrushing and other magazine tricks, they’d be average-looking or even ugly in “real life,” so that I wouldn’t even be tempted to start crushing on either of them. However, despite the fact that I’d just been treated rudely, something just told me that considering the brothers’ looks and long, well-muscled physiques, not crushing at all might be impossible for me.

  Standing so close to me I could see the tiniest flecks of light gray within his coal-gray eyes, the brother who’d stuck his boot in the door spoke in a voice that held more than a hint of steel. “Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alex Iverson, and I’m co-first lieutenant of the UWS.”

  The other of my suitors, the brother with the pale blue eyes, took the tiniest of steps closer to me, even though he was plenty close enough. “I’m Mason Iverson, also co-first lieutenant of the UWS.”

  Frustrated with myself for being unable to resist finding both Mason and Alex so attractive, I tried to speak in a flat, emotionless voice that I hoped didn’t betray the irritation I felt. “I’m Kira Wakefield, and it’s nice to meet you both. It’s fine if the three of us sit and talk for a while, if that’s what the two of you would like.”

  Mason suddenly fixed me with a look I couldn’t quite read. “I would like to sit and talk, Kira, but there’s something else I’d like to do even more first.”

  I couldn’t imagine what that could possibly be. However, Mason gave me a little clue when he looked at me with his icy blue eyes glittering, and the corners of his mouth seeming like they wanted to lift into a bit of a sly grin.
This had the effect of making his face appear so devastatingly handsome that I found I couldn’t have looked away if my life had depended on it.

  The longer I looked at him, the more I was pretty sure I knew what he wanted to do even more than talking. I had just a little hint that he wanted to make a trip to my bedroom before either of us said another word. Honestly, by the way he was looking at me with a devilish glint in his eyes, I half-expected him to grab me by the hand and drag me off. Maybe he’d even throw me over his shoulder, I thought. Because he was a man that I was sure was used to always getting what he wanted when he wanted it, neither of these things seemed outside the realm of possibility at all.

  To my complete astonishment, I realized that maybe I wouldn’t say no if he tried to pull me away to my bedroom right then and there, before we’d even had a chance to talk. Maybe I’d even say yes enthusiastically. It was as if his good looks were having the effect of hypnotizing me or something.

  However, shocking me, instead of tossing me over his shoulder or pulling me away to my bedroom by the hand, Mason simply reached for a lock of my long, dark blonde hair that had fallen into my face. Then, with his somewhat sly, devilish expression morphing into one that resembled tenderness or something close to it, he brushed the lock away and tucked it behind my ear with his fingers just barely grazing my skin. “There. That’s better. I’m sorry, but that strand of hair was in your face, looking so soft and beautiful that it was almost begging me to touch it.”

  I had no idea what to say. I had no earthly clue. Being that I was pretty sure Mason probably had women practically throwing themselves at him regularly, I hadn’t expected him to try to seduce me by way of romantic-type words. Now that he had, I just stared at him, having been rendered speechless, wondering if this was some sort of a test. Not that I could even imagine what kind of a test it might be.

  Alex, however, unlike me, wasn’t tongue-tied in the least by what Mason had said. After just a moment or two, he cleared his throat, casting a sidelong look of what appeared to be irritation at Mason. “Look. The three of us are supposed to sit down and have a talk. So, let’s all have a seat and get this over with. Right now.”

  After looking at me for just a second longer, Mason shifted his gaze to Alex, lifting his broad shoulders in a shrug. “You’re right. Grandpa said we should all sit down and talk, so we should all sit down and talk. Business before pleasure.”

  Pleasure. I could barely believe that Mason had so boldly spoken that very suggestive word out loud. However, there was something else I could barely believe, which was that, for just a fraction of a moment, while I’d been looking at his handsome face as he’d been lifting the strand of my hair, the word pleasure had come into my mind, too.

  Beginning to feel really unsure of myself and not wanting to be stuck on the couch sitting with him and Alex, I quickly seated myself on an overstuffed chair opposite. Looking more than a bit disappointed that I’d made this seating choice, Mason had a seat on the couch, and Alex did, too.

  Late-day sunlight streaming in through the wide living room windows illuminated their lightly tanned faces, making their skin almost seem to glow, which accentuated their good looks. Why did they have to be so damn handsome in person? I thought, deeply uncomfortable.

  Seeming to read my mind, Mason gave me a little smile, settling back on the couch. “You’re looking at us like you’re surprised by how we look or something. Did you think that the magazines ‘doctor’ all our photos?”

  A little embarrassed that he’d pretty much read my mind exactly, I shrugged, trying my best to act nonchalant. “I really don’t know what I was expecting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be taken from my home essentially against my will today.”

  Mason winced slightly and said sorry, and that’s when I recalled something and realized something simultaneously. The recalling part was that I recalled what I’d overheard while pretty much hiding in the commander’s office. The realizing something was that I realized that the deep male voice I’d heard was definitely identical to Mason’s. However, now that I was thinking about it, Alex had almost the exact same voice as his brother. In fact, I thought, not “almost” the exact same voice. Their voices are indistinguishable. Obviously, this was going to make it difficult for me to determine who I’d overheard on the phone saying something about “eliminating the competition.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  As soon as I realized that Alex and Mason had voices that were indistinguishable, the spacious living room, which had been filled with bright September sunshine, suddenly darkened a bit, presumably because of a cloud or two rolling across the blue sky. However, the room darkening might have just been my imagination. Either that, or a slight sense of dread because I had a mystery to solve and no way as of yet to solve it.

  Part of me wondered if I’d even heard the mystery speaker correctly in the first place. After all, I’d been worked up and nervous to the point of being dizzy at the time. Another part of me wondered if the whole thing had just been part of a joke anyway. Maybe it would have made more sense to me if I’d been able to hear what the person on the other end of the phone was saying, I figured. As it was, even the mystery speaker’s voice had been just slightly muffled, being that he’d been several feet outside the office and I’d been inside.

  Besides, I thought, maybe what I’d overheard was none of my business. I had bigger problems to deal with anyway. Namely, the fact that I was being forced to date two men I didn’t know, whether I liked it or not.

  As much as I hated the thought of being forced to do anything with the two were-dragons who were currently sitting across from me, both of them frowning hard now, I almost hated something else even more. I hated the fact that even despite the fact that I was in my current situation against my will, the thought of how utterly, devastatingly handsome Alex and Mason were in person was still somewhere near the front of my mind. This felt somehow like a betrayal, although against who or what, I couldn’t even figure out. Maybe a betrayal against myself for not going through my current situation with any thoughts other than resentment.

  Across the living room, a grandfather clock chimed the hour, and once it went silent, I fully expected Alex or Mason, or both of them, to say something snarky in response to what I’d said about not having expected to be pretty much forcibly taken from my apartment that day, on pain of prison time if I didn’t comply. I expected Alex or Mason to at least maybe cast an eye roll of disgust or derision in my direction to imply that me protesting against my current accommodations was somehow unreasonable or something.

  However, a bit to my surprise, although both of them were still frowning, neither of them had any other negative reaction. Instead, surprising me again, Mason slowly got up, crossed the distance to where I sat in my overstuffed chair, and knelt beside me. “We completely understand why you’re upset, Kira. You have every right to be. In fact, it would be odd if you weren’t.”

  His deep voice was low, gentle. Not at all like the voice of a man who had no compassion for me. I dared to hope that maybe I’d been wrong about him and Alex in thinking that they probably wouldn’t have any sympathy for me.

  Realizing that my heartbeat had begun accelerating when Mason had knelt beside my chair, I took a deep breath before responding to him. “So…do you acknowledge that what your grandfather did…taking me out of my home and everything and bringing me here…was wrong?”

  The frown Mason had been wearing softened into an expression that almost resembled one of sympathy, surprising me yet again. And when he spoke, his voice held an unmistakable trace of sympathy as well.

  “Yes. My grandfather is a strong, good man, but what he did to you was wrong. Alex and I both believe this. See, our grandfather’s heart is in the right place…it really is…but the way he’s gone about all this…it’s not right. Not to mention that Alex and I aren’t superstitious like our grandfather, so all this doesn’t really seem right to us even if our grandfather had gone about things the right way, by may
be simply offering you money to come here and meet us, just like any other job.”

  “So, you think that the whole ‘prophecy’ thing that your grandfather believes about what his mother dreamed…about a woman with different-colored eyes choosing a new commander…you and Alex both think that’s silly?”

  Mason offered me the hint of a smile. “Yes, just a bit. We want to humor our grandfather, though, because we both love him, and we’re both loyal to him. But that doesn’t mean that we exactly have to like all this.”

  I offered Mason the hint of a smile in return. “Funny…that’s almost exactly what I told your grandfather earlier today. I basically said that if I have to stay here against my will, then so be it. But I don’t have to like it.”

  Mason gave me another of his small smiles, curving the edges of his full lips just a few degrees. “Great minds obviously do think alike. I’m glad you now know that Alex and I have the same mindset, because the truth is that we’re all in this together. We all have to do what we have to do in order to make my grandfather happy, but really, now that we all understand that we’re all reasonable people here, that shouldn’t be too tall of an order. We just have to spend some time together, just getting to know each other. Maybe the three of us will even start seeing this all as real ‘dating.’ Just for three months, which doesn’t sound too bad to me at all. In fact, the moment I saw you and your beautiful eyes, I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’d fight off hordes of other were-dragons just to get the chance to ask her out on one single date…let alone get the chance to date her for three months.”

  Feeling heat rising to my face, I couldn’t help but smile. “Well, that’s very flattering. If I’d met you outside of this situation, I think getting the chance to date you might have been on my mind, too.”