“Of course,” I reply, and Dee is so close now that when I talk, I feel our mouths brushing together.
“This is like that … only better. So, if you're curious … kiss me and put your fingers on my back.”
Taking a deep breath, I reach out and put a hand on either of Dee's shoulders. The position is awkward from where I'm sitting, so I turn and crawl up onto the bed, straddling him through the thick blankets. I try not to think too hard about the hardness of his cock underneath all this fabric. Instead, I close my eyes and lean in close, slanting my lips to his.
Dee groans violently and puts his big hands on my waist, parting my mouth with his tongue and teasing me with long, careful flicks. I lean into him, my breasts pressing against his bare chest, my fingers gliding down his arms and … across the gentle softness of down feathers on his back. My fingertips bump against the warm metal of chains and I gasp as I hear them clinking against one another.
“Don't stop,” Dee groans as my heart thunders in my chest and I feel my body respond to the heat and husky need in his voice. I open my mouth and let him kiss me deeper, harder, tasting the sweetness of his mouth, a fresh crispness that matches that wild airy scent of his. “Now, take them off …” he whispers and I start to push the chains down his wings, feeling sharp surges of satisfaction as they slide over the feathers and land in metal pools on the pillows behind him.
Pulling back, I watch in open-mouthed awe as Dee spreads his wings out, these two glorious expanses of black and blue feathers that shimmer in the weak candlelight from the single taper flickering on the wall.
“Holy shit,” I whisper, sitting up on my knees and reaching out with my right hand. I stroke my knuckles down the length of one glorious wing and Dee groans like I've just licked his cock. When his eyes flick up to mine, they're heavy and half-lidded with lust. “Does that feel good?” I ask, my body pulsing and throbbing in all the right places. My nipples are pebbled, hard and desperate beneath my blouse, and my thighs are clenched tight against a surge of heat between my legs.
“It feels incredible,” Dee groans as I do it again, stroking and petting his wings. His head falls back and he groans, his hips rising unconsciously beneath me. Leaning forward, I press my lips to the side of his throat, kissing and licking his suddenly sweaty skin. His hands tighten on my waist as he continues to thrust beneath me, these slow, undulating motions that make me question whether or not I have any self-control at all.
Grabbing two handfuls of feathers on either one of Dee's wings, I yank hard and he grunts in a mix of pain and pleasure, following me forward and pushing me onto my back. He covers his mouth with mine at the same time he covers my body with his own. Our tongues swirling together as he curls his wings forward and slips them underneath me, creating this cocoon of feathers that has me writhing and thrashing with need.
Dee curls his fingers in my hair and pulls my head back, taking his own turn to kiss and nip at my throat as I struggle to kick my boots off and down for the button on my pants. He doesn't stop me as I undo the breeches and push them down as far as I can.
“Allison-who-isn't-Alice,” he whispers as he licks the curve of my ear and slips his left hand into my pants to cup my ass. “Did you want me to fuck you?”
He asks that question just before pulling away and sliding off the end of the bed. Dee's expression is wicked as he curls his fingers under the waistband of my pants, taking my panties with him as he yanks and pulls them down my legs and over my feet, tossing them aside.
Dee drops his own pants, revealing the hardened length of his cock just before he climbs back on top of me and starts kissing my neck again.
“Alice,” he whispers, teasing me with gentle thrusts of his hips, slipping his shaft between my folds and teasing my clit. “You have to tell me yes or I can't do it. I have to hear the word yes from you, mistress.”
“Do you have protection?” I ask as Dee pulls back a fraction and tilts his head at me.
“I'm all the protection you need when I'm in this form,” he tells me with panting breaths, his sapphire eyes dark with lust, so dark it's hard to make out where the blue color ends and his pupils behind. “This is what I was asking for, during the fight. Unleash me and my brother like this and we can fight for you, Alice. That's why the king sent us—he knows we're the best.”
He smiles at me and leans down to kiss my mouth again.
I let him, twirling my tongue around his for several seconds as his hands explore inside the peasant blouse and free my breasts from the confines of the corset, lifting them up and over the top so he can palm them, cup them in warm hands and flick his thumb across the swollen peaks of my nipples.
He misunderstood the protection question … Shit.
“Do you have condoms here?” I ask after another moment and Dee pauses.
“Condoms?” he asks, blinking down at me. “Uh …”
“Like, to protect against diseases? Pregnancy?”
“Oh,” Dee says, his face falling. I reach up and put a palm on either of his cheeks so that he'll look me straight in the face. “The king had us stripped of our fertility—another angel will never be born in Underland.”
I lick my lips, my throat tightening at the sound of despair in his voice.
“As for diseases …” he starts and shakes his head. “I don't have any. You can use your magic to check if you want, I don't mind.” He reaches down and takes my palm, putting it in the center of his chest, like I have any idea what to do with that. “Just close your eyes, Alice. Tee and I belong to you now. As soon as you crossed the barrier into Underland, the gifting was complete. The king arranged the whole thing—there's nothing about me you can't know if you want to.”
The moment is so surreal that I actually find myself surrendering to it, the way I would a dream. My eyes close and I suck in a sharp breath, feeling this … something between me and Dee, like a tether binding his heart to mine. It feels uneven, this connection, like holding the leash for a dog. But there's nothing I can do about it, so I relax into it, follow it to its source … and feel myself being swallowed by blackness.
It's night out when they come, the blackest black, an evening of ink and stars. They surge up the side of the mountain like shadows. They shouldn't be able to get up here, not without the power of flight. But they come anyway, hordes and hordes of soldiers in red metal, climbing the sheer rock face as easily as if it were a staircase.
Magic.
Someone gifted … someone powerful has given them the ability to break down the last barrier that stands between us, taken away our last hope, our only sanctuary.
I fly out of bed to take my brother, but he's already up. We exchange a look in the dark that speaks volumes. Slipping into clothes and strapping on what weapons we have, we move down the stairs, our wings dragging against the stone floor behind us.
I can already hear the screams, already smell the blood.
The things that rush in the door at us … they aren't even people. I don't recognize the flat faces and the silent screams of rage frozen on their faces. They're soulless, empty, with as much heart as a a deck of cards.
“Get to Mom's room!” Tee screams as he heads in the direction of the nursery. I'm torn between wanting to follow him, and wanting to check on my parents. If we're going to run again, we need the queen and her kings with us, just like last time. Last time, we escaped together and started again. They found us, all the way up here, buried in the clouds, but we can try again. If we're still alive, there's always the hope of starting over.
I burst into my parents' bedroom just in time to see a spear slide through my mother's stomach, blood spattering the stone wall behind her. She spreads her wings wide one last time and collapses to the floor at the feet of the King of Hearts.
When he turns to look at me, I feel my blood turn to ice.
“Just in time to see the show,” he says, stepping back and waving a single arm in my mother's direction. “Off with her head.”
Before I can ge
t a single step into the room, the king's guard swings a massive claymore in her direction … severing her head from her neck, painting the white roses on her nightstand red.
With a gasp, I come to, Dee still resting on top of me, his sapphire eyes looking into mine. I can feel my body trembling and shaking beneath him as he leans down and kisses first one eyelid and then the other. I think he mistakes the quivering for lust or want—there's no way I can tell him what I just saw. That is, if I even had a damn clue what it is I just saw.
Was that a memory? A prophecy? It was me in that vision and yet … it wasn't. No, I'm pretty sure I was watching the world through Dee's eyes.
“Did you see?” he asks, pinning my arms gently above my head, pressing my skin against the silken cocoon of his feathers.
“I saw,” I whisper, wrapping my legs around him as he releases my wrists and reaches between us, finding my opening and pressing the head of his cock against me.
“Yes?” he asks again and as I fight my way out of the vision. I don't want to see Dee's most painful moments, not when I have plenty of my own. Why would the magic … or whatever it is, show me that? That's about the last thing I'd ever want to see.
“Yes,” I breathe and gasp as he thrusts into me, filling me up with the full-length of his warm cock. I squeeze him tight with my thighs, sliding my fingers over his shoulders and playing with the skin and feathers where his back and wings meet.
Dee's mouth meets mine in a rush of heat, pleasure teasing me in almost equal measures from all the places he's touching—my breasts, my mouth, the silken softness under my back where his wings hold me in what feels like a giant hug. He moves inside of me nice and slow, taking his time, making me gasp with each forward thrust and moan each time he pulls away.
The sounds he makes are half relief and half pleasure, the muscles in his wings trembling beneath my fingers, making me wonder how long it's been since he last felt them spread wide and glorious behind him. Weeks? Months? Years?
“Thank you,” Dee whispers against my ear, and I know he's not talking about the sex … although he seems pretty thrilled with that, too. I smile against his mouth as our kisses grow deeper, hotter, more desperate.
When I feel his body tensing up, sweat pouring down his sides, I convince him to roll us over by putting a single palm to his chest.
Once I'm situated on top of Dee, his shaft buried all the way inside of me, I start to move my hips, looking down at him with his blue-black wings spread across the bed, his hands on my hips, our gazes locked. I work him until I feel his muscles getting tight again, leaning down so I can kiss his mouth and work my clit at the same time. His orgasm hits first, but I don't stop moving, refusing to let him rest until I'm done, too. Fortunately, it only takes me a moment, and I find myself collapsing on top of him with a long, embarrassing groan.
As soon as I do, I feel Dee's arms go around my waist.
“Hello hello,” he says, lifting his neck up to look in the direction of the door. I get the feeling he's most definitely not talking to me. Sitting up and jerking my head around, I meet Tee's violet stare and feel my cheeks flush with heat. “Something we can help you with?”
“No,” Tee says, but his eyes flash with envy before he turns away. I can't decide if that envy's over me … or the wings. Oh, who I am kidding? It's probably the wings. “Allison, the Duke would like to see you downstairs when you get the chance.”
Before I can respond, he's stepping back and closing the door while I curse and clumsily extract myself from Dee's body.
“Would you like some help in the shower?” he asks, sitting up with that lazy, heavy-lidded bedroom look of his, wings splayed open and resting against the mattress. “Because that's what I'm here for, Allison-who-isn't-Alice, to serve.”
“Right,” I say, my emotions twisting into a strange bundle inside my belly. “But I can think I manage this part on my own.”
Dee raises a dark brow at me as I scramble inside the bathroom and slam the door, turning around and leaning my back against it as I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a moment. What did I just do?! I just fucked a guy from another world, a world that … shouldn't even exist. Christ almighty, I screwed Tweedle-goddamn-dee.
Who's a prince.
And an angel.
And then his brother walked in on us?!
And I thought Underland couldn't get any weirder …
Oh how wrong I was.
After I quick shower, I get dressed again and step into the room to find both Tee and Dee missing.
Huh.
The hallway is empty, too, when I let myself out so I start walking in the direction I last saw Tee go and down a set of curved stairs. The house is grand and whimsical, with soaring ceilings, delicate black glass chandeliers and walls as red as blood. As pretty as it all is though, after a few floors and a few hallways, it starts looking like I'm going in circles.
At one point, I pause and backtrack, pushing open a set of glass doors into a solarium where I know for sure I've never been. The trees, flowers, and—you guessed it—mushrooms kept in here are like nothing I've ever seen before. As I pause to rub at a plant with fuzzy orange leaves, I notice it again, that white-white smile in the shadows.
When I blink and take a few steps closer, I can see that it's a cat, sitting in the bough of a tree. The cat only grins wider when it sees me. Knowing how the story goes, I'm fairly certain it's not going to hurt me, but still … it has very long claws and a great many teeth. Besides, it looks like a cat now, but who knows what—or whom—it might shift into. I decide to start off with a respectful greeting.
“Cheshire Puss,” I quote, referencing the original book as I cross my arms over my chest and study the black and white striped cat. It blinks big, gray eyes at me and stands up, arching its back in a languid, sleepy sort of way, grinning a little wider. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” he purrs in a rich, deep baritone, sitting down on the tree limb and swishing his fluffy black and white tail at me. As I watch, parts of him fade in and out—his tail, his paws, his ears, his head. The only thing that seems to stay consistent is his grin.
“I don't much care where—” I start as he crouches down to look more closely at me.
“Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” he replies as I roll my eyes.
“—so long as I find the Duke. Do you know where he is? And don't think I haven't noticed you following me the last few days.”
“Oh, you're sure to find him,” the cat continues, ignoring the latter part of my statement, “if you only walk long enough.”
With a yawn and another stretch, he hops down off the tree, shifting as he goes so that when he lands, I'm looking at a man instead of a cat.
The Cheshire Cat rises to his feet, towering over me and flashing that same maniacal grin, his two front teeth pointed slightly, like a vampire's. His eyes are the same steely gray, a mimicry of the storm outside, the ears sticking up from his black hair striped and pierced through with several silver rings. In fact, with him leaning over me like that, I can see that he has a ring on either side of his lip, too. And one in his eyebrow.
“In that direction,” he says, sweeping a hand out the way I came, “you'll find the Caterpillar and the White Rabbit.” His grin turns into a wickedly curved little smile as he leans in a little closer and I take a small step away from him, my back pressing against one of the glass walls of the solarium. “And in that direction,” he points the opposite way, toward a path in the bright foliage, “you'll find the Duke and the twins. Visit whomever you like: both sets are mad.”
I lick my lower lip and the cat watches the movement. He smells like wood smoke and flowers, an interesting mixture to be sure. But it's almost intoxicating. I blame Dee for waking up my hungry sex drive. It's been a while since I got any, so to speak, especially in a situation that felt as safe and normal and easy as it was with Dee. Even without whett
ing my voracious appetite, I was checking out every goddamn guy in Underland anyway. Guess I can't really blame this on the angel prince, huh?
I know what I'm about to do, follow the script from the original book … but I can't help myself. It's like the words are slipping from my mouth before I can stop them.
“But I don't want to go among mad people,” I whisper as the Cheshire Cat puts a palm on either side of my head and leans in even closer.
“Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad for you here.” I blink a few times as I try to process what he just said. Pretty sure that wasn't in the original book. “I'm mad. They're mad.” He tilts his head in the direction of the foliage, just as the twins step out from behind some thick fronds. Dee's wings are still out, spreading wide as soon as he's free of the trees.
“How do you know they're mad?” I ask as the cat grins at me again and takes a step back, casting a haughty look in the twins' direction.
“They must be or they wouldn't have come here,” he says, looking particularly gorgeous in a pair of leather pants and a black and white striped tank. Another very modern looking outfit. But after the three-way fight between the giant spider-bird, the dragon, and the werewolf with rabbit ears … I forgot to be surprised.
“And why is that?” Tee asks, flicking his eyes to me and away again. But he can't hide it. Even that split second look was long enough for me to see the longing and desperation in his gaze. He wants his wings, and I can't blame him. I wonder if what I did to Dee is permanent or something that has to, like be renewed on a regular basis?
The cat just smiles mysteriously and takes a few more steps back, perching his—admittedly gorgeous—ass on the edge of a small bridge. Underneath it, there's a small creek filled with koi that makes me think of my dad. My heart constricts painfully and I glance away, noticing as I do that the cat's eyes are following the movements of the fish with more than just simple curiosity.
Allison's Adventures in Underland Page 14
