Wicked Wonderland (11 page)

Though mild suspicion still glinted in his eyes, it seemed to have lessened. That glimmer of pain, or possibly jealousy, made her ache to comfort him, and she vowed that after this one extraordinary night, she would leave Kris and Nick to their former relationship. The last thing she wanted was to cause jealousy between them. Tonight, they’d made her feel precious and special and beautiful, and they deserved to be happy together, not have her come between their love for each other.

Kris brushed a curl of hair back from her forehead. “How do you feel about the fact you made love with both of us tonight?”

Her heart melted at the humble way he asked the question, and she reached out to touch his arm. “I told you. It turns me on. You turn me on.”

She leaned close and pressed her lips to his. He responded ardently, like the teenage boy she’d once known. As he held her in his arms, her awareness of the hard angles of his body increased. She spread her hands across his wide, solid chest and trembled as memories of the erotic encounters the two of them had shared filled her mind. She nipped at his upper lip. His exploration was soft and hesitant, and the sweetness of it enchanted her.

He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead gently against hers. She could feel the intensity of emotion underneath. He pulled back and gazed into her eyes. “When we hung out together in college, I believed I was just a shoulder for you to cry on about breaking up with Nick. Even though I ached to make love to you, I took things slow…the way you wanted it at the time.” He grinned. “If you ever wondered why I didn’t push to consummate our relationship, now you know. I thought you were only in love with Nick.”

“You were wrong. You weren’t just a shoulder to cry on. You were my best friend, but God knows I lusted for you too.” She blushed and laughed to cover her embarrassment. “Not to mention that you don’t have Nick’s surliness.”

Kris shrugged. “Yeah, well, he had a rough childhood.”

“Rougher than yours growing up in an orphanage?”

“Nick never told you about his mother?”

She shook her head. The nineteen-year-old Nick she’d dated had never talked about his parents.

“His mortal mother was an adventurer. Whether it was bungee jumping, sky-diving, or having a love affair with an irresponsible male fae, it seems she was always taking risks and never looking after her son. She often left him with his Uncle Grant, who was a drunk and beat him. He was almost thirteen before he wrote to Santa the way I did, asking for a family, and Santa came for him. I went with Santa to pick him up. I saw the filthy apartment they lived in.” Kris went silent. Guilt haunted his expression as he looked down at the floor.

Lilly’s belly squeezed and flipped. It was horrible to imagine Nick as a tiny child at the mercy of some drunken uncle. “So what happened to his mom?”

“Didn’t he ever tell you? She died in a sky-diving accident when he was only seven.”

Lilly’s blood froze in her veins at the thought of Nick’s pain. Tears filled her eyes. Seven. That was so young to lose a mother. And yet old enough to love her very deeply.

Kris’s gaze searched her face. “I can see you have deep feelings for him, Lilly.”

She turned away to fiddle with a ruby-bright satin cushion. As much as her heart ached for Nick’s childhood pain, a selfish, stupid, little part of her was actually jealous that Nick had confided in Kris about his childhood and had never confided in her about losing his mother. She couldn’t bear to have Kris know she was jealous of what he had with Nick, that she too wanted that kind of soul-deep relationship with someone. Ridiculously, she felt like she was in love with both of them, even though she hadn’t seen them in ten years.

She couldn’t bear the shame, so she laughed and lied. “I wouldn’t say I have
deep
feelings for him. I can enjoy a night of sensual lovemaking and not take it too seriously. I know the score.”

Kris put his hand on her shoulder so that she looked up to face him again. “What does that mean? What score?”

“You and Nick are an item. I understand that. It did hurt me at the time, when we were in college. It hurt me a lot to see you with him. I loved him as my boyfriend; I loved you as my best friend. I felt hurt, betrayed and so stupid.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “All this time, I’ve been thinking the real reason you want nothing more than a one-night thing is because you wish it could be just you and Nick together without me.”

“It’s not about that. It’s not.” She didn’t even want to talk about not damaging his relationship with Nick. He’d only deny it was a problem. But it wasn’t the only issue anyway.

“It’s about my…my stalker. Because of what he does, what he’s done, I feel like I’ve never been able to relax around men the way I once relaxed and loved the two of you. Until…now.” Her heart pounded in her breast. “And I’m afraid I’ll spoil it. Spoil tonight, spoil everything by wanting more than I can ever have.”

Kris rubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, then. Whatever happens between us happens to and because of all three of us. It’ll wait until you’re ready.”

She looked down. “I still don’t really understand why the two of you lied to me. I loved both of you, so much…”

“We didn’t lie to you. We just didn’t tell you because, to us, it didn’t seem necessary. It was a cultural misunderstanding. In the Fae Realm, among sylphs, ménage relationships are the norm. Nick and I were ignorant, I guess. It just never even occurred to us that you’d be shocked and devastated by our relationship.” He gave a wry grin. “We had a lot to learn about human women. We probably still do.”

“Why did you never perform magic in front of me back in those days? You talked about it, but I never saw it. You never showed me you could perform magic, so I thought it was all a joke. Some kind of silly shtick the two of you had.”

Kris grimaced. “I guess we took Dad’s words a little literally. He said we must never perform magic in front of humans. That it could terrify them, that the shock of seeing magic performed could even cause heart attacks or seizures in people prone to those conditions. ”

“The fact that you never showed me the magic…it feels like more lies. Like you were lying to me.”

He shook his head. “It was never like that. We just followed the rules about not performing magic in front of mortals in a half-ass way, I guess. And we trusted you. We wanted so much for you to be part of our world. We never told anyone else the things we told you.” Nick sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “We can’t change the past, Lilly, but we’d like to be part of your future. That’s why we’re sharing our magic with you now. We want to have you back in our lives.”

She could hear the weariness in his voice, the certainly that she would reject him again, and she couldn’t deal with it. She’d promised herself after Cody cheated on her and then dumped her that she was done with relationships. Cody couldn’t handle her mother and neither could Nick. Cody couldn’t handle that she was being stalked, and she doubted these two would want to deal with that issue long-term either. No lover ever did. Cody was the closest she’d ever come to having a normal relationship, and look how that turned out.

“Look, Kris, my feelings about you, Nick and pretty much everything else are very muddled and confused right now.” She put a hand on his chest and nudged him back. “Why don’t you show me those sample products you’re selling?”

Kris sighed. “Okay, which ones would you like to see?”

She thought a moment. Her cheeks heated, but she answered honestly. “Well, I’m kind of partial to dildos and vibrators.”

He grinned and climbed over to the cargo hold. He rustled around until he came back with a huge, gold-colored briefcase.

He flipped it open, and she took in the extensive range of toys. “Wow. Some of these are really beautiful.”

Her nails skimmed over a glass vibrator with an elegant, swirled design, partly clear, partly painted gold and with a soft, nub-covered tip. Then her eyes moved on to jellied vibes and dildos made of chrome.

“Yeah,” Kris said, “Nick does some great work, huh? He’s very talented. Some are objects d’art. People actually display them in their living rooms and stuff. It’s kind of a thrill that visitors don’t always know they’re sex toys as well as decoration.”

“These are too much.” She tapped a dildo that must have been well over a foot long and massively thick and pink. She shivered at the thought of it. “And what the hell are these? They aren’t vibrators.” She’d picked up a tiny pair of silver clips with bells on them.

“No, they aren’t, but they do vibrate.” Kris picked them up and attached them to his own erect nipples. He turned them on, and they buzzed on his sculpted golden chest. At first, she giggled, but then the blissful look on his face began to arouse her and reminded her of what he’d once looked like playing the submissive slave boy to Nick’s Dom all those years ago.

Kris smiled at her and took them off. “Here. Nick’s seen me wearing these before. I know he would love to see you in them.”

She could hear how much he loved Nick in the very way he said the man’s name. Looking into his eyes, she knew their feelings for the man were identical. They both wanted to please Nick and submit sexually to his dominant nature.

“Let me open one of the bondage cases first, though, Lilly. Let me get you ready for our Nick.”

Lilly’s heart began to pound, but she nodded her acceptance.

She heard a crunching sound and noticed Bockle, whose existence she’d almost forgotten about, still sitting in the front seat, swinging his short legs back and forth and eating something that looked like walnuts. When he noticed her staring at him, he bobbed his head up and down and then disappeared in a puff of brown smoke. She gave a little gasp.

When she looked back over at Kris, he’d opened the cargo hold. He was clearly trying not to laugh. “I see you’re not used to earth elementals like Bockle. Brownies, especially, aren’t sure what to make us of us half fae. They don’t hate mortals staring at them, but they prefer not to be seen, so, yeah. I’m not surprised he made himself vanish when you looked straight at him like that.”

“He hasn’t been watching us, has he? I don’t think he turned his head once. He just seemed focused on driving the sleigh.”

Kris put an arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick hug. “Don’t you worry about that. The last thing a brownie’s interested in is human sex. The only thing Bockle’s interested in is helping humans.” He pulled his arm away and left her side. The loss of his warmth caused an irrational sudden loneliness to grip and tighten around her heart.

But in a moment he was back, he’d brought a black case to show her. Laying it beside her on the seat, he foraged through it until he found what could only be described as Christmas handcuffs. They were padded red satin with white-faux-fur trim.

“I really want to decorate you.” Delight and excitement were evident in Kris’s voice. “Let’s make you a present for our Nick.” Still holding the cuffs, he took her hand and led her out of the sleigh and onto the roof. Luckily, the house was Mediterranean style, so the roof had flat, sturdy terracotta tiles and was easy to walk on
.

Out on the roof, she had a good view of both the starry sky and the gardens below. What city had they landed in? Here, the night air was warm, not cold like New York had been. In the moonlight, the garden below was full of soft-colored gladioli. Had they crossed the equator?

Kris came up behind her and gently pulled her arms in front of her. He fastened her wrists together with the handcuffs. She liked the feel of satin on her wrists and the sensation of being bound. The thought of Nick seeing her restrained and submissive made her melt into a puddle of lust. She felt boneless, weightless. Her nipples tightened till they hurt.

Kris noticed, and he bent his head and began sucking her distended nipple through the white top of her costume until the material was completely transparent. She groaned, and he picked up a handful of decorations, which he draped around her. Bound in gold tinsel and jewel-colored ribbons, she giggled.

He wound a golden cord under her breasts, pushing them upward. The end of the cord draped down between her buttocks and rested against the crease of her ass through the thin material of her skirt. A fresh flood of arousal heated her sex.

Her right nipple, which Kris had neglected to suck, ached for his tongue. At last, his mouth closed over it. He pulled and teased it gently with his teeth until she made a little sound in the back of her throat. Kris’s feral gaze hooked her, and his usually boyish smile became dangerous.

He brought out the clips and raised one eyebrow in question. She nodded, and he pulled down the thin chiffon of her top. He scooped one hand into the cup of her white bra. The warmth of his palm made her moan. He lifted the other breast out of its cup and attached a clip to the base of her erect nipple. Then he dealt with the other. Lilly dug her teeth into her lip as the pleasure and pain coursed through her. The clips didn’t hurt much, just a firm grip. He flicked the switch on them so they vibrated, and she moaned at the delicious sensation.

“This isn’t quite right,” Kris said. “There’s a better way.”

He muttered a few words in the secret language she’d heard Nick use earlier, and then he began to hum. He held his hand palm upward, and a spark of golden-yellow light wafted from it. A pretty white metal chair appeared on the flat tile roof.

Kris helped her bend to sit in it and then began tying her to the chair. His broad-shouldered, golden beauty filled her senses, and she felt tiny and helpless in comparison. She loved the feeling.

He tied more cords around her breasts and then her legs, nudging her knees apart and rucking up the thin material of her skirt. Lilly sat as still as she could, moving only when he nudged her. The sounds of the night and Kris’s breathing filled the air.

He pulled her skirt up farther until he exposed the tops of her white stockings and curvy thighs. Then he bound her with golden rope that squeezed her vulva. She whimpered, and Kris bit his lip, perhaps to control his own desire for her. He ran his hand down the side of her neck, down her throat to her oversized breasts.