Lilly stared at him, shaking her head. His fingers felt so nice linked with hers. It gave her a warm, happy feeling, but despite all the amazing things she’d seen that night, she still didn’t really believe she could help perform any kind of magic. “Well, I’ll need a shower before I can dress to play in the orchestra anyway, so maybe there’s no point in spiriting my clothes here.”
“Don’t worry about that now.” Nick’s voice was firm. “Take my hand, close your eyes and envision.”
Lilly suddenly decided she wanted to try. The very thought that she could even help make something magical occur left her nearly breathless. Could she really help them make her clothes appear out of nothing?
She took the right hand he offered her in both of hers and imagined her dignified orchestra clothes. Her white blouse and long, dark green skirt, and camel-colored wool coat, which she had laid across the back of her chair in her bedroom, along with her black high-heeled boots.
She focused on imagining her clothing with every particle of concentration she had. Her brow furrowed with intent, and she clasped Kris’s hand tightly with the fingers of her other hand.
Kris began to hum, and her own throat tingled until she began to hum with him. Her skin felt ticklish, as if a thousand butterflies beat their wings desperately against her.
When she opened her eyes, her wrought-iron bedroom chair was there on the flat roof with the blouse and skirt lying across it. Folded on top were the white lace underwear and bra she’d been planning to wear underneath. Her favorite black boots sat neatly beside the chair. She shook her head in amazement.
Nick was still curled against her spoon-style. “I also think you’re gonna need a bath before playing in that orchestra, baby. You look ravished.”
Lilly smiled at up at him. Gently, he took her wrist and unfastened her watch. She giggled and tried to pull away. “What are you doing?”
“Getting you ready for a bath. Only need to remove your watch and bracelet, since you’re otherwise naked.”
She laughed and glanced over at Kris, and he winked and smiled at her.
Nick removed her watch, slowly unzipped her handbag and placed it inside. He removed her turquoise bracelet too. Setting the bag and bracelet aside, he began to hum, and this time, a greenish-blue light drifted from his fingers, different from the pale blue magic she’d seen him use before. The warmth of the light enveloped her. Hot steam rose around her.
Lilly jolted when she suddenly found herself immersed in water and frantically grabbed the slippery edges of the bath. But in moments, the heated water soothed her, caressing her skin like silk, and soon she closed her eyes again to enjoy.
She could smell essential oils in the water, jasmine and lily. As the thick steam cleared a little, she opened her eyes once more and found she was in a huge and luxurious white marble tub on the rooftop. She was able to recline against the slanted back of the tub and look at the stars.
The practical part of her mind wanted to ask so many questions about the magic, but she shoved the annoying voice in her head to one side and relaxed, allowing the heat to soak into her very bones.
“This is one of our new toys. I think you’ll like it.” Kris’s voice was as soft and warm as the scented water. He held out what looked like a perfectly ordinary rubber ducky.
Lilly laughed. It was bright yellow and had the largest, most innocent-looking blue eyes. “What’s with the duck?”
“It’s called Magic Ducky.” He placed it gently between her legs, and beneath the water, she saw him press its yellow tummy—and oh my God—that started the vibrations up. Powerful vibrations in the duck’s head and tail massaged every inch of her sex. She fell back against the bathtub’s edge, eyes closed, just breathing in the pleasure.
Kris rubbed something smooth over her shoulders, a white translucent soap that smelled like fresh herbs. Nick’s hands took some of the lather, and his deft fingers soaped around her nipples in slow, concentric circles. His touch aroused her once more, sending tingles like sweet fire from her nipples to her loins.
The sensations of the two men’s hands on her and the toy were pure, unadulterated bliss.
Kris lathered his hands with the soap. Soon he was stroking and soaping her thighs with the lather. He pushed on her inner thighs, and obediently, she spread her legs as wide as the tub would allow. Kris worked in circular motions on her thighs, soaping them. Nick poured warm water over her breasts, washing off the soap there.
Kris moved the ducky a little to one side, and his hand moved in a corkscrew pattern on her inner lips, moving slowly toward her clit. She gripped the sides of the bath, pressing her feet against the marble bottom and her head against the lip of the tub. Kris’s teasing made her toes curl. She groaned when Nick drew a nipple into his mouth.
Kris kept up a constant rhythm and pressure with his hands on her pussy, and she could hear her own rough breathing that made her breasts rise and fall. His fingers finally found her clit.
Nick continued to suck on one nipple while tweaking the other with the tips of his fingers. The sensation made her head swim. It was like being plugged into some supply of dark and strong running current, as though he were charging her whole body. Kris slipped two fingers inside her and continued rubbing. He found the most sensitive spot on her clit at last, throwing her into a massive climax, her whole body shaking and her pussy squeezing his fingers as her hips jerked for more.
The duck shot up and floated across the surface of the bath, making Nick and Kris laugh.
Suddenly, her fairy voice began to hum as her body burned with the afterglow. She hadn’t sung like this since childhood, but it was wonderful, a magnificent and glorious release. The melody was rich and strong, and she couldn’t help but be impressed with her own voice. She sounded like an angel.
No, not an angel—a fairy, a half sylph.
A pearly light shone from her fingers, and white rose petals fell on their naked bodies and floated across the bathwater. Nick’s eyes glowed with wonder. “Lilly, you did that. You made the petals fall. That’s your magic.”
Kris smiled down at her. The admiration in his eyes made her own eyes fill with tears. She felt beautiful, desired, sexy, magical and loved.
Could she really have made a white light shine from her fingers and petals fall out of the sky?
Kris stood beside the bath, holding a massive, fluffy, white towel for her. Reluctantly, she left the beautiful warm water and climbed out of the bath. She let Kris enfold her in the towel and rub her dry all over. She couldn’t help squirming and giggling as he rubbed her breasts and between her thighs. Nick busily dried her hair with another towel. The two of them were drying her off so quickly in the warm night air, she was sure it must be more magic.
Her mind and heart opened to all kinds of new possibilities. In a haze, she barely registered the sound of her ringtone playing Jingle Bell Rock in her purse. It was Kris who handed the towel to her, walked over and opened her handbag, then fished out the cell phone and handed it to her.
Dimly, she became aware she had a text from an unfamiliar number. She pressed the button to read it and stared blankly at the words. Everything had been so perfect and beautiful this evening, leaving her unprepared for the ugliness that faced her on the little screen.
Got a surprise 4 u when u get home u WHORE & I dnt think ur gonna like it.
Chapter Eight
The shock of the abusive text after so much kindness and pleasure made tears spring to her eyes. Lilly swore softly to herself and shoved her phone back into her bag.
She went over to the chair, put on her fresh underwear and her green skirt. Nick was alert to her change in mood. “What is it, Lilly?”
“Oh. It’s nothing. I’m getting harassed by text message, that’s all.” She gave an ironic, mirthless laugh and began putting on her bra.
Nick and Kris can never know, never understand what it’s like to have an anonymous stalker. No one ever does. No one ever has. Not really. No point in explaining;
they’d never understand.
The insulting words on the screen also made her cringe. She didn’t want Nick and Kris to see someone calling her those names. Names she’d always been called by her hateful stalker.
“It’s really no big deal at all.” She put her arms in the sleeves of her white blouse and began to button it.
Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him. He forced her to look him in the eye with a firm finger under her chin. “Don’t lie to us.”
His dark tone made her shiver and half relent. “It’s…it’s just some cowardly jerk who gets off on bothering women.”
“Let me see.”
Lilly pulled away from him. “No, it’s all right. It’s just some bullshit.”
“Has this happened before?”
She flinched, then nodded.
His hazel eyes seemed to darken as they narrowed on her. “Have you been to the police about these texts?”
“Not these recent ones. No.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. “Why the hell not?”
“Because it’s no big deal. It’s some random asshole trying to be annoying, no one I know.” She hesitated. “They’ve mostly called me fat and a…a bitch.”
She didn’t want him to know the texter called her a whore. It was too embarrassing. It was bad enough they knew she worked as a stripper.
Nick looked suspicious. “And what else? You’re not telling us everything. I can see that.”
“Look, these texts have never made any kind of specific threat. The police just can’t do much when there’s no specific threat, and this person…he keeps calling from cloned cell phones. The police can’t trace these calls.”
His knowing eyes scanned her face. “You’re still hiding something.”
She sighed. “It’s my stalker, the same one from college. This kind of thing happens to me all the time, all my life, even when I was a kid. Crank callers. Nasty emails, abusive texts—you name it, I get them. There was a time when we used to go to the police about it, Mom and I, but nothing ever came of it. Nothing changes. Police have more important things to deal with. By their standards, these are really only minor complaints.
“Even when I was a child, someone was always writing Dumpster Girl in chalk on the sidewalk outside my foster home and later my mother’s townhouse.” She gave a wry smile. “I’m kinda used to it.”
Kris’s gaze darkened, and she gulped, unused to seeing real anger on his face instead of his usual laid-back smile. “You need to keep documenting these calls and keep informing the police.”
Typical response, Kris.
She rolled her eyes. “Mom and I have been to the police dozens of times. They don’t take this kind of thing very seriously. One of them said…” Lilly stopped speaking as heat rose in her cheeks.
“What did he say?”
“One policeman, Officer Casteel, said I was ‘a very attractive girl’, and I should get used to this kind of thing.” She was gratified to see both Kris and Nick look disgusted. “I wanted to smack Officer Casteel. There’s no evidence that the person who’s stalking me is even attracted to me or that he wants to date me. And even if there was, that would still be bullshit.” She blinked back tears. There was no way she’d even wanted to get into this with Kris and Nick. Sure, they’d try to understand, like others had, but they could never get that this was something that had been happening all her life, and no matter what she did, the anonymous stalker was never caught.
Kris put his hand on her shoulder; his mouth was set in a grim line. “Of course it’s bullshit. That so-called policeman was a total asshole.”
Nick paced back and forth. “You still need to document everything. Find a decent police officer. You need to fight for yourself about this. Don’t give up.”
Lilly gritted her teeth as anger and humiliation surged in her blood. “I do fight for what I want. I don’t give up. Why do you think I’ve swallowed my pride to work at Venus Girls? Because I need money. So I do what I have to do.”
Nick grimaced. “You’re not doing that for yourself; you’re doing that for your mother.”
“So?”
He took her hand and skimmed his thumb over her knuckles. “Just because she adopted you doesn’t make her a saint. The woman has had a gambling problem ever since I’ve known you.”
The rage he felt toward her mother lit his eyes even as he fought to keep it out of his voice. His hand rested gently in hers, and liquid warmth spread through her. She wanted to curse the effect he had on her even when she was angry at him.
Nick pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. “I think you might be…something they talk about on those talk shows women watch in the afternoons. Like…” He looked at Kris.
“Dr. Phil?”
“Yeah, you’re an enabler, like they talk about on Dr. Phil or one of those kinds of shows. I don’t mean to be cruel, baby, but I really think you’re enabling your mother’s gambling.”
Lilly’s mouth opened and then closed. She looked to Kris for help.
“I think he’s right, Lilly.”
Anger made her ears hot, her teeth clench. “Neither of you has even seen me in the last ten years until yesterday. You really don’t know a thing about me or my life!”
Everything in Nick’s face seemed to chill in response to her anger. “I know you’re still spending your life paying for your selfish mother’s mistakes. That much is obvious. You could let us help you with that, you know.” Nick reached out and touched her shoulder. He almost distracted her from her anger.
But the need to defend herself from their accusations was stronger, especially when a little part of her suggested there was truth to their words. “I admit my mother is weak when it comes to gambling, and I’ve suffered for it. But you two don’t know her. You don’t know what a wonderful person she was before she became a gambling addict, what a wonderful mother she was to me when I was a little girl.
“My adoptive parents were there for me when I was a baby, when no one else wanted me. Then my dad decided Marion’s gambling was too rough on his fragile health, and he moved out. You know he was already in his fifties when they adopted me? He died of diabetes complications when I was eleven.”
Kris’s arm went around her waist. “I’m so sorry.”
Lilly gently shrugged off his embrace. Tears welled in her eyes, and she blinked them back, then lifted her chin, turning toward Nick to stare him down. “My mother’s all the family I’ve got, and I’m not going to let her down.”
Nick brushed a lock of hair back from her face and tucked it gently behind her ear. “I know, Lilly. You have a heart of gold.”
Her stomach dipped a little as she looked into his handsome face. The sincerity in his eyes made her irritation fade. She looked down to do up the last button on her blouse. When she glanced back up, Kris had his hand on Nick’s shoulder. It looked so natural there. The two of them were soul mates and magical beings. As much as they were obviously attracted to her, she didn’t see how she could ever really be a part of their world, and their comments about her being an enabler made her question their respect for her. Perhaps because they’d both spent time in the Fae Realm, she could never really understand them, and they could never really understand her.
That thought cut like a knife.
I need to focus. This fantastic experience is near an end.
“I need to go home now.”
“You can’t stay with us for the rest of the deliveries? Kris and I are going to have to go back and help Santa with the ordinary deliveries now. We’d love for you to come with us, though.” Nick’s grin made her grin back.
“No, I can’t. Tonight’s been amazing, but I have to get back to my real life now and let you two get back to yours.” She tried to give them both a brave and warm smile. “I’ll remember this night forever, and I’ll miss you both.”
Nick ran a hand through his hair. “Goddamn it, Lilly. I want to be with you. So does Kris.”
Her heart stuttered.
&n
bsp; “I want to be with you.” What did that really mean? It was the kind of vague love comment a woman could let circle in her head until it drove her mad, trying to read more into it than was really there.
She shook her head. “Seriously, I can’t get involved with one man, let alone two. I have to put all my energies, all my emotions into working out my financial problems.”
Kris raised an eyebrow. “You mean your mother’s financial problems.” She would have expected a comment like that from Nick, not Kris. It almost felt like a betrayal the way he was siding with Nick’s opinion of her mother instead of being his usual understanding self, and it just made her feel even more certain that the two of them had an inseparable bond she shouldn’t be part of.
She took two steps back.
Nick halted her retreat by grabbing her upper arms and pulling her toward his chest. Her heart was beating too fast. Emotionally, she didn’t want to leave either of them. The thought of never seeing them again made her stomach drop. Fear of the overwhelming loneliness that might consume her was like a hot ball lodged in her chest. She wanted to dissolve that ball, wanted to collapse into their arms and pour out all her longing for them, pour out all her adoration, tell them she was in love with both of them. And that would be crazy wrong.
She put her hands on Nick’s shoulders, trying to push him from her side even as her soul screamed “no”, even as her heart ached. Nick held her close for a moment and then eased away.
Dozens of thoughts and emotions drifted through her head in murky confusion until she finally alighted on one.
They’re the perfect happy couple, and there’s no way I’m going to get in the way of that.
“It won’t work, Nick. The three of us, it can never work. Not ever.”
Kris looked startled. Nick seemed seriously pissed off. Everything in his face seemed to tighten and go hard. It made a chill go through her. She sought for words to placate him. “Um…look, Nick, you’re right. I’ll call the police about the message as soon as I get home. I’ll get them to check it out. I need to get home. People are counting on me. The concert tonight is for a charity I’m involved with, Music and Dance for Miracles. The ballet will raise money for TONTA, the Orphans’ National Trust of America.”
Wicked Wonderland Page 12
