d so strange…Or maybe not. I suppose it’s relative, right? I mean, clearly what I think is strange is different than—” He rolled his eyes at his own rambling. His only excuse was that all his blood had left his brain for southern exposure as soon as he had laid eyes on the masculine monarch.
“My name is Kansas Frayne. I was brought by a storm. From Iowa? That’s in the United States…on Earth… So, yeah, you could say I was lost.”
The king’s brow furrowed. “Eye-Oh-Wa? Earth?” His nostrils flared, eyes widening as he took a step back. “A Storm Child?”
Fenna moved closer in response. “He says his clan is Human. He was naked as a babe when we found him, but for this. And we are witness to the fact that he is unique.”
Kansas glared at Fenna as she handed over his now-cracked cell phone to her sovereign. “My phone? Where the hell did you get that?”
“It was on the ground beside you. I put it in my pack for safe keeping and forgot about it,” she admitted under her breath.
Great. He was fairly certain it wouldn’t get a signal but still. “The storm took my clothes, but not my electronics?”
Did that not seem weird to anyone else?
The king was turning the device over in his hands and randomly pressing things, the wizard hovering over his shoulder with an odd gleam in his eyes. “I should study that, to see what it might reveal about the land of Earth.”
Kansas glared at him suspiciously. “Or you could give it back and just ask me what you want to know.”
“He was naked, you say?” The king asked, ignoring Z and Kansas to and ask Lenard, who instantly started to tremble in response.
“Pale as cream.”
Oh Lord.
A few moments of uncomfortable silence followed. Kansas wanted to melt into a puddle of humiliation on the floor until the king cleared his throat. “You are both welcomed in the palace for as long as you’d like as my honored guests. My guards will take you to your rooms.”
“Real rooms?” Kansas interrupted. “Not cells?”
“Kansas, stop,” Lenard whispered. “The king would never do something like that.”
“Real rooms,” the king intoned firmly, irritation flickering in his gaze. “I thank you Fenna Glider and Lenard Felix for your care in delivering this…human. It will not be forgotten.”
They clearly didn’t want to leave him, but neither Fenna nor Lenard would question their ruler. Giving Kansas a parting embrace, they left to find their new accommodations.
“I would believe that you were an illusion created by Z to amuse me, but even he is not this good.”
Z sniffed. “I’ll let the insult to my abilities go since you’re royalty and I am ever your humble servant.”
“Wise.”
“I thought so.”
Kansas smiled slightly at their comfortable banter, sobering when he noticed how the movement had drawn the king’s gaze to his lips. He had a sudden, wild desire to return to the watering hole. At least there he’d find some satisfaction for the arousal beating in his blood.
“I’m no illusion,” he said instead. “That’s the only thing I’ve been sure of since I arrived.”
He waved his hand dismissively at Kansas. “Of course not. Though you must forgive me my surprise. Storm children and storm riders are the stuff of children’s stories. Tales our parents use to teach us about offering kindness to strangers. I never once imagined they were true and yet, here you are. Why now?”
“I have no idea.” Kansas was aware that the king and his wizard had moved closer. Having the attention of both of the sexually dynamic men had put his senses in overdrive. “One minute I was walking in an open field near my home, the next I was naked in a forest, with Fenna and Lenard standing over me. I still can’t wrap my head around it.”
“You didn’t choose to come here of your own volition?”
Kansas shook his head and the king licked his lips. “Then you don’t know how to return?”
“That’s why I’m here. I was told you could help.”
Of all the things to get distracted by, Kansas found his gaze lingering on the king’s dark nipples. Bronze and hard and pierced with silver bars. The temptation to lick them, to swirl his tongue around the piercings, was hard to resist. Emphasis on hard.