Marie Harte - The Fire Within

“It’s a term of affection, nothing more.” Why had he called her that? Granted, making love with her was better than anything he’d ever experienced, but great sex was a far cry from a lifetime of commitment.

The stupid crystal around his neck seemed no help. Despite not wanting an affai —not in the slightest, he told himself—he was disappointed the stone hadn’t reacted to Samantha.

Silently cursing the vexing stone burned into his skin, he knew it was best to keep any talk of a bride and permanence to himself, at least until he knew just what his connection with Samantha truly meant. Better to gauge her reaction to his explanation of Tanselm and the Storm Lords. No need to overwhelm her with talk of a binding future, especially if there wasn’t one.

For her part, Samantha seemed to accept his explanation and remained quiet the rest of the drive. Thirty minutes later he escorted her into his home, more than curious to see how she would react to his brothers. In Tanselm, a place where the Royal Four existed and were accepted, people continually stopped and stared when he and his brothers grouped together.

His mother liked to think it was ‘the sheer beauty of her four handsome sons’ clustered in one place that caused such awe, but Arim speculated the brothers’ energies bonded, charging the space around them with a powerful presence impossible to ignore.

Since entering this realm a year ago, Darius had brought only three other women to his home to meet his brothers. One of the women had been so intimidated she’d immediately broken off with him. The other two, he grimaced remembering, had boldly hinted at an open sexual relationship with him and his brothers, even after he’d tested the waters promising a more permanent relationship.

Disturbed by their greed, he’d ended their association without a qualm. As a general rule, he and his brothers didn’t share women, not about to allow a female to come between them. The women he’d brought home, however, he couldn’t have cared less about sharing. Their lack of principles disgusted him.

But now, with Samantha… He didn’t like the possessiveness he felt. He didn’t want to think of his reaction should she prove as fickle and shallow as the women he’d brought home. But more than that, he didn’t want to face the secret desire building within him should she prove a false hope.

The minute Samantha walked through the door of his fabulously expensive house and faced Darius’ family, she froze in what she hoped was the last shock of the day.

Darius had said little on the drive home. After being stunned by her mention of an ‘ affai ’, whatever that was, he’d made a short phone call. Apparently he hadn’t intended to bring her home until he saw her injury in the hotel room, for he made a rather vague explanation to whoever he talked to on the cell phone before grunting and hanging up.

When she’d questioned him about his home, he evaded her enquiry about his family and grew stiffly silent. Not that she expected small talk from Darius, but even a comment about the weather might have eased the tension in his rickety truck. Tired, she accepted the quiet. She might have reacted differently had she not still been recovering from the nightmare from hell and from her astonishing lack of control when it came to Darius.

Now, however, she wished she’d pressed him. Darius Storm was one of four identical quadruplets. Identical. Quadruplets. Good Lord, that a man as good-looking as Darius existed boggled the mind. But to see four of him, all standing together, well, it was all she could do to keep from drooling.

She stood inside the foyer staring at all of them, unsure of what to say. They possessed a magnetism she found irresistible, and as she adjusted to their presence, her eyes drifted automatically to the annoyed man next to her.

Darius eyed her like a cat about to pounce, and she was aware she stood on a precipice of some kind, that her response to his unique family would answer some test she’d unwittingly been assigned.

“Please tell me this is the last surprise of the day,” she muttered wearily, not able to think of anything witty at the moment. “I’ve got a massive headache, and the cause of said headache drove me here. I can’t handle three more of him , not on four hours of sleep and no caffeine.” Listening to her inane comments, she scowled at Darius. It was all his fault she sounded like a blithering idiot.

Three of the four men smiled, Darius’ grin slower to appear. “Well said,” one of them replied and shook her hand. All four of them stood the same height and possessed the same brawny handsomeness that made her mouth water. And as she studied them trying to find a way to tell them apart, Darius gruffly introduced them.

“Marcus, Cadmus and Aerolus, meet Samantha Brooks. Samantha, my brothers.”

She nodded politely, surprised to note each brother had a different eye colour. Marcus had blue eyes—he must have been the man she saw outside the restaurant yesterday. She frowned at him, then turned to the man who’d shaken her hand, the brown-eyed Cadmus, and finally settled a tight smile on the grey-eyed Aerolus.

Darius stepped closer to her and placed his arm around her shoulders looking strangely satisfied. “Welcome to my home, Samantha.” He led her further inside to the living room couch and sat down next to her. Way too close . She was extremely aware of his body heat bleeding into her everywhere they touched.

“I’m sorry to barge in on you like this,” she said to the room at large, the three mirror images of Darius dwarfing the open space as they sat around her. She aimed a glare at the stubborn man beside her. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“No worries,” Cadmus said with a twinkle in his gaze. “Trust us, we know what a jackass Darius is. We live with him.”

“Yes,” Aerolus parroted his brother with a straight face. “He’s a complete jackass.”

His words sounded funny, spoken with a strangely exotic accent and murmured from a stoic face.

Marcus rolled his eyes. “We’re all in agreement as to what a pain Darius can be. Now Darius, tell us exactly what’s going on. Samantha obviously doesn’t want to be here, so why did you drag her here? I thought the plan was to stay with her at the hotel.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be here, specifically, but… What do you mean the plan was to stay with me at the hotel?” She jerked away from Darius’ heavy arm.

The others grew silent but Samantha had eyes only for Darius. He looked faintly uncomfortable, more so surrounded by his brothers.

“Samantha,” he began in a low voice meant to soften her. She didn’t blink, refusing to bend, and he sighed. “I told you I’d explain.”

Silence.

“Well?” she prodded, her arms crossed, her posture screaming at him to give her the answers she wanted or she’d explode.

“Fine.” He cursed, his brows knit in irritation. “You want answers? How’s this? We four,” he paused as he motioned to his brothers, “are known as the Royal Four, the next in line to lead Tanselm, a world you’ve never heard of that’s under attack from the same evil you experienced this morning.”

“What?” Aerolus shot off the couch, Marcus and Cadmus both stunned as well.

Samantha’s head throbbed. “Say that again?”

“By the Light, Darius.” Marcus shook his head. “I think a decent explanation is in order here, for Samantha and for us.”

Cadmus nodded, his frown clearly disapproving. “Yeah. You really have no sense of tact.” He turned to Samantha. “Though your taste in women is definitely improving.”

Darius growled and Samantha held up a hand to stop the insanity. “Everyone just shut up.” Her voice rose over the brotherly discourse. “You, Aerolus, you’ve been fairly quiet. Why don’t you explain this to me?”