by A. K. Koonce
“I’m sure Alice and I will get along just fine.”
Her eyes narrow into thin slits just as those lips of hers do exactly what I knew they would.
Thank the Wanderlust I showed up to meet the sweet, corruptible Madison.
Sixteen
Madison
The King closed the door on me to speak with his advisors. I can’t be too upset about it since Alixx and Lighton were both shown the door as well. The three of us linger in the hall while the sound of Konstance’s voice grows louder and louder.
“If he touches me, if I’m plagued from all of this—”
“You won’t be. Calm down. You want someone who knows their place. Rotter knows. Rotter will not get in your way, Sister.”
The two voices mingle together, and I don’t hear a single word from Kais, but the man isn’t exactly the talkative type in front of his King.
Smart for a guy playing both sides.
My head tilts closer to the door, and just as I’m listening intently, a big palm slams firmly next to my face. I blink at the sudden rattling of the door, casting my gaze to the man crowding my space.
“It isn’t polite to eavesdrop, my Alice.” His gloved hand stays there, right in my line of sight while his chest nearly brushes mine.
Peculiar black wings shadow the sharp angles of his face, nearly hiding the scar that runs up to meet the corner of his left eye. The wings are bat-like. They’re not pretty, but they match his hair and make his eyes seem brighter.
Alixx is…strangely beautiful in a flawed way.
He’s so damn cocky though. He must really believe he’s the only person to come into this world with a sickness. Maybe he is. Until me that is.
And I know his secret: he isn’t diseased at all. Sure, he was. At one time, he obviously was. And maybe he truly believes that he still is.
But Wanderlust cured me, so I know it cured him as well.
I didn’t have friends in school. I had books and I had my homework, and I threw my lack of a social life into my grades. A simple glance at a history book will tell you that plagues don’t kill at a slow impossible pace. He’d never make it over a century with just a jagged blemish on the back of his hand. Whatever disease he had in the surface world isn’t in him now.
I lean into him, cutting his breath off immediately with the nearness of my mouth to his. He’s tall, a few inches taller than myself, making me tilt my chin up to breath my words against his lips.
“I already have one bossy male in my life. I don’t need another.”
His breathing increases visibly just from how close I’m standing to him. It feels oddly good to give him a dose of his own medicine. How does he like being the one played with?
Dark eyebrows lift as he stares stunned at me, his green eyes becoming wide but lust-filled as he glances down at the nearness of our mouths.
“Madison, don’t touch him,” Lighton whispers from somewhere behind me.
I keep my attention held on Alixx and the devilish gleam in his gaze.
“What game are you playing, Alice?”
He is good at his infuriating games though. Because I can’t fucking stand him and I just met him.
My lips thin, and I know he’s doing the Alice name to piss me off. Neither of us moves. We keep the challenging space between us, letting a fire blaze between the small spaces that separate our bodies. It really is a game in this moment. A game that neither of us knows the rules to and neither of us is willing to lose.
“I don’t know what you mean, Alixx.” The use of his name seems to have the opposite effect from when he uses Alice on me.
The darkness of his pupils dilates, and he looks at me with so much heat in his emerald eyes that my breath catches, making me forget that I really am playing a game with this strange, beautiful man. I wanted to piss him off and make him crazy, but it’s a dangerous game it seems.
I’m only making myself crazy. Making the both of us crazy.
“Listen to your rabbit friend, sweet Alice. Don’t touch me.” A splatter of red along his white collar pulls at my attention, but what’s more demanding is the way he glances down to my lips once more as if he’s memorizing the way my mouth looks so close to his, fantasizing about how it’d feel if my lips pressed to his, my body wrapping around his…
It’s a dangerous, dangerous game I’m getting lost in.
“Let’s get one thing straight. Your fearmongering doesn’t work on me. Don’t feed me your lies, Alixx. Don’t mess with me the way you mess with everyone else, and you and I will be just fine.”
I should step back. I should back down, and I should show some sort of formal distance between myself and the man who will someday be my brother-in-law.
But I don’t. Just like The Rotter, I’m sheltered. I haven’t really felt the heat of a man’s body…ever. Not one I was attracted to. Not one with such defined shoulders and beautiful eyes and taunting lips.
“I can’t make any promises, Alice. But believe me when I say, I’m not lying. And on the off chance that I’m telling you the truth: Do. Not. Touch. Me.” The sad but angry way he says that is what makes me snap.
Like I said, I make bad decisions.
And I’m about to make one more.
I just can’t take the empty sadness in Alixx Stone’s green eyes. He can mask it with indifference and pettiness all he wants, but it’s there. He’s being eaten alive with sadness.
And he doesn’t even know it.
My gaze locks with his, and with slow intent, I lean forward, pressing my hands to his black vest, to the hard planes of his chest as I shift up on the toes of my high heels. Every muscle in his body stiffens. He doesn’t move an inch. All that cocky masculinity is gone the very moment my hands land on his body. And then I brush my lips faintly against his.
I tear the façade of The Rotter away just like that. It’s empowering, in a way, to see how easily his charade of a personality can be torn away. Whatever wall this man built around his little black heart just came crashing down all because a virgin woman had the balls to kiss him chastely on his ever-taunting lips.
The gentleness of his hands against my hips makes my fingers fist harder into his shirt, pressing my lips more firmly against his until everything I feel and everything I breathe is Alixx Stone.
“Shit,” Lighton whispers so quietly it barely registers in my mind.
That single word pulls him away from me. Alixx steps back so suddenly I stagger from the amount of faith I had apparently put in his body supporting mine. He turns away from me, giving me the span of his inky wings while running his hand over his face slowly.
All I see is his confused but blatant frustration.
Then he vanishes right before my very eyes.
I blink and he’s gone. The long gold and cream-colored hall looks wider without him in front of me.
“What—” What the fuck?
Lighton pulls at my shoulder, forcing me to look up into his amber eyes. He searches my face, his gaze analyzing every single detail while he holds me at arm’s length.
“Where did he go?” I peer past him, but the quiet corridor is empty aside from us.
“Why did you do that? Are you out of your mind?” Lighton pulls me a little closer, leaving a meager amount of space between our bodies.
“Where did he go? He just…disappeared?”
“He’s been here a long time. Second to Kais. His magic is more advanced.” Lighton keeps his hands firmly on my shoulders while he looks at every inch of me carefully.
The door creaks open, and I jump from the sound of it. Lighton slowly releases his hold on me when we’re met with stern eyes. How can the most beautiful blue eyes be so…angry? All of the time.
Kais looks from Lighton to me. He carefully dissects the two of us, our closeness and everything in between, as if he can decide if Lighton’s deflowered me right here against the King’s door without anyone ever noticing.
“This is taking longer than expected. I’ll meet you two back at
my house.” Kais cuts his attention up to Lighton before adding, “No house guests tonight.”
Lighton makes a face as if he wouldn’t dream of it. But the way Kais stares him down tells us that they both know Lighton would in fact dream of it.
“I don’t like this. Honestly, how do you even know her number won’t turn black soon? She hasn’t even been here a day, Constantine,” the voice shrills loudly, and Kais pulls the door shut in an instant without so much as a goodbye slipping through.
Lighton shifts on his heels, turning to me with a smile pulling at his lips. “I need a drink. What about you?”
I came to Wanderlust and was told I’d marry a king. Instead I’m setting out to get drunk with a rabbit…
It’s odd how much more appealing that sounds. I don’t look back at the King’s door as I walk down the quiet hall with the rambling rabbit.
We don’t get drunk though. We don’t even make it back to Kais’s house.
A glittering white waterfall shimmers down to a pool of natural water. It glints with the promise of something magical infused in the water that Lighton’s stripping down in front of. Cat and, to my surprise, Brody are here. Naked. Swimming and laughing and touching coyly beneath the water. Lighton’s gray shirt lies in the dirt near a pine tree while he takes his time unbuttoning his jeans. I can’t help but watch him blatantly. The small of his back has two perfect dimples. Higher up, curving muscle tone etches lines across his back; his arms never flex, but his biceps are curved with shadows of strength. Every single part of him is big.
And so he reminds me as he lowers his jeans.
He turns to me with a small smirk, and it’s incredibly hard for me to keep my attention focused on his mouth and his eyes and just his handsome face.
“Come in with us.” His gaze trails so slowly down my body that I feel his attention flittering across my skin.
“I do happen to remember the last time I was naked in shimmering water with you, and it wasn’t the best moment of my poor-decision-making life.”
“Poor decisions or romantic memories?”
“Definitely poor decisions.” I nod to him, and his smile only grows.
Honestly, I want those poor decisions. I want to be a girl who makes memorable mistakes. I want the thrill of living. The good, the bad and the ugly.
And those ‘poor Lighton decisions’ I made yesterday—those would fall under the good. The very good.
“You were naked with Lighton. Do tell.” Cat swims gracefully to the edge of the water, resting her glistening arms on a smooth rock as she peers up at me. “Did you lick his waffle abs?”
My lips part as I try to speak, but I don’t know what to say to that. “Waffle abs?”
Lighton sinks down into the clear water, and it glimmers brighter around his waist for just a few seconds before dimming faintly.
“You know. The type of abs you want to pour syrup over and lick across every single divot of yumminess and hope and pray that those calories go straight between your thighs.” Cat’s lavender eyes gleam like a kitten spotting a mouse.
Being the arrogant ass that he is, Lighton pushes his big palm across his chest, raining water down his stomach in a way that highlights the very thing that Cat was describing.
Waffle abs indeed. Definitely something I’d want between my thighs.
“Cat wouldn’t lick any part of me.”
“I would. If your personality matched those abs, I definitely would. It’s a shame, really.” Cat smiles as she floats leisurely on her back, displaying the perfect curve of her breasts from beneath the water.
Brody sneaks up behind her, wrapping his arms around her stomach and pulling her against his chest. She smiles as her sharp nails skim over his knuckles. The proper gentleman and the smutty cat. They are an interesting pair. I bet Cat makes memorable mistakes.
Do I really need any more bad choices in my life though?
“Come swim with us,” Lighton says again.
His shoulders are relaxed, his gaze sweet but not hooded like they were this morning.
“I don’t know what kind of drug this is. This isn’t really my thing.” I try not to sound like a complete judgmental good girl.
“It’s not like last night. Rosen is really strong. It’s different. It feels more like a Tylenol. It makes your body feel better, your muscles relax. It’s good for you, trust me.”
It’s good for you. Really?
Sure, maybe I’ve never met an actual drug dealer before, but that does sound like something they’d say.
“Really, trust Light, he was a doctor after all.” Brody keeps his hungry gaze fixed on Cat, but he sounds completely honest right now, even if what he said astounds me.
That’s not true. Is it?
“That’s a lie.” Cat rolls her eyes. “He was a stripper on the surface. Remember the waffle abs, Maddy.” Cat hisses like it’s a secret she’s just willing to share with me.
“I wasn’t a stripper.” Lighton smirks, but Cat just talks over his denial.
“You know who else has waffle abs?”
I shake my head.
“Strippers,” she stage whispers.
“I was not a stripper.”
“He was,” she mouths behind his back, shaking her head hard.
“He was also a performer in Cirque Du Soleil. Not one of the sexy acrobats though. A clown of course.” Brody’s smile grows larger as Lighton narrows his eyes on his friend.
“I was not a clown.”
“Well, maybe not professionally.” Brody shrugs his bare shoulders, and Cat cackles an adoring laugh that makes me smile as well.
I lower myself down at the edge of the water, pulling my shoes and sheer tights off with little grace before slowly sinking my feet into the warm glittering cove.
Lighton wades closer, the water lapping up against his hard stomach with every step he takes.
“You do trust me.” There’s a hint of a smile on his lips, and my body tingles where the glitter coats my skin. It’s the most relaxing sensation around my feet and ankles.
“How could I not trust a stripping clown who has a doctorate?”
Another small smile peeks out beneath his scruffy beard.
His hands slice back and forth in the water for just a few seconds, and then he moves slowly closer, watching me intently as he seems to think out his next move. My body thrums with the thought of him touching me. His palms skim along the surface, and my skin tingles even more when he takes my foot in his hands. His fingers knead and press perfectly along the arch of my foot.
“Careful, he was a happy endings masseuse too,” Cat whispers just loud enough to make Lighton shake his head at her.
“That would be a masseur actually.” Lighton arches a pale eyebrow at her, but then he backtracks. “I don’t know that because I was one…”
“Sure.” Cat mockingly nods in agreement.
It’s then that I realize all his strange wording has stopped since this morning. He just corrected someone else’s word choice.
And he was right.
His little ticks are just calm energy now.
“You’re sober right now, aren’t you?” I ask.
He gives my ankle a slow roll of his wrists, massaging just right, before skimming his palms higher up my calf. Warm water trails down my skin. A little higher and a little higher he roams, and I can’t help but wonder if he’ll be working the tension out of my G-spot if he keeps sneaking up my leg like this.
“Unfortunately, yes.” His jaw grinds together just slightly, his attention lost and a little too far away.
“I like you sober,” I whisper just to him.
He peers up at me with the most beautiful warm brown eyes.
“You’re the only one, Cupcake.” He swallows hard before speaking again, “I hate who I am when I’m drunk, and I hate the memories of who I used to be when I’m sober.” The sadness held in those beautiful eyes rips through my chest.
Slowly I slide down off the bank, slipping down until
the water seeps into my dress, sticking to my thighs like a second skin, and then I’m standing before him, his hands lightly touching my arms, but he’s unsure of where to touch me now that I’m just inches from him.
We study each other for several passing seconds.
“Why’d you kiss the Rotter?” he finally whispers.
“You kissed Rotter?” Cat gasps like that’s the most scandalous thing the naked woman has ever heard. “Well, what Lighton really means then is why’d you kiss Rotter and not him. Jealousy is not your best color, Light.”
Lighton glares over at the cat woman but pulls his curious gaze back to me.
This is really a hot topic for him. For the first time, it seems Lighton is…frustrated.
“You held me in your arms last night. I was naked in your arms, Lighton.” I ramble the thoughts out as fast as they come, and his eyebrows lift high at the sound of my honesty. My arms fold across my chest, and he follows the motion, attention lingering on the curve of my breasts. His distracted attention only infuriates me even more. We shared a really sexy moment. A drunken sort of moment, but really it was all there. Our attraction was immediate. He could have marked that one big thing off my bucket list, and I knew he’d do it right.
But he was drunk. And so was I.
He isn’t the type of guy I’d want to forget in a drunken night. That’s what breaks my heart when I think of how much he misses out on in his own life.
“If you’d have been sober, maybe things would have been different.” I stare up into his tragically beautiful brown eyes. He studies me for a moment longer.
“So you won’t kiss me unless I’m sober?” I feel like I can see his little hamster wheel spinning, but the hamster has long since fallen off.
I roll my eyes at his train of thought. It isn’t about kissing him. It’s about wanting to want him, but he’s checked out. I can’t want someone who isn’t here. He doesn’t want to be here; he wants to feel lost. Numb. I don’t even know what, but he doesn’t want to feel all the things in life I want to feel.
And I want it. I want love and lust and everything in between. I have a real shot at life now, and I’m not wasting it on someone who isn’t here for that.
