by Eva Chase
He would like that, wouldn’t he? He’d said he could relax more when someone else was involved. Had he known Hatter’s bedroom was right under this one—had he let the sword fall loudly on purpose?
I wasn’t sure it mattered. The idea of Hatter caressing me with his hands as well as his gaze set off a quiver of desire through my nerves. I’d never been with two guys at the same time, but I didn’t have a doubt that with these two, it would be fucking spectacular. Or spectacular fucking?
Both—definitely both.
“No objections here,” I said, extending my hand toward Hatter.
He hesitated a moment longer. Obviously he hadn’t joined in with Chess for similar interludes in the past. The thought that this would be new for him too sparked an excitement that radiated through my core as he stepped inside and shut the door.
Chess raised my nightshirt to yank it right off me. As he tossed it aside, Hatter inhaled sharply. He came up beside the bed and tipped my head toward his for a kiss, hot and determined. Chess bent down to slick his tongue over the peak of my breast. My fingers curled around the silky lapel of Hatter’s pajama top, around Chess’s hair, pleasure spiking through me.
Chess had loosened up, all right. He fondled one breast with his hand while he worked over the other with his mouth so thoroughly I whimpered and rocked in his chest. Hatter was devouring me with a kiss so hard my lips tingled. He stroked his fingertips up and down my back, and Chess gripped my hip to tug me tighter to him, teasing a fang over my nipple. The feel of his rigid cock pressing against me through two thin layers of fabric made me want to explode right there.
I pulled back just far enough to squirm out of my panties. Hatter’s fingers trailed over my legs as he offered his assistance. He kissed my neck, my shoulder, as he traced his hand back up my inner thigh. I fumbled with the buttons on his top, losing track of what I was doing when he swiveled his thumb over my clit. A cry broke from my lips.
Chess gave my nipple one last swipe of his talented tongue and wriggled out of his boxer-briefs. He dipped a finger into my wetness as Hatter continued working his magic just above. I sank lower instinctively. “Chess…”
“Right here,” he murmured, and guided the straining head of his cock to my slit. Oh, God, it was as big as the rest of him. A burn of pleasure spread out from my core as I eased down onto him. Chess groaned, pressing his mouth to my throat. Hatter kept teasing my clit, his other hand gliding up to tweak the tip of my breast, his breath shaky against my shoulder blade.
Chess caught my mouth as we slid together all the way to the base of his cock. He tucked his hand around to my ass to adjust my position, stroking into me at an angle that made me shudder with bliss. Then he held still, his fingers reaching farther to lightly probe my other entrance. A different but no less eager tingling sparked at his touch.
“You could have us both,” he said in a liquid voice. “Double the enjoyment?”
I’d never “had” any guy that way, but the pleasure rushing through me and the promise in Chess’s voice made me want to try. My agreement tumbled out. “Yes. I’ve never—we’ll have to take it slow—”
Chess grinned at my stumbling enthusiasm. His gaze shifted to Hatter. “Do you have suitable oil?”
Hatter let out a rough chuckle, looking gloriously disheveled with his hair wild and his top half unbuttoned, his face even more flushed than before. The silk fabric of his pajamas did nothing to hide the erection tenting the bottoms. “I think— Yes, there should be—”
He vanished out the door, walking swiftly but lightly. We definitely didn’t want anyone else in the apartment waking up. I slung my arms across Chess’s shoulders, careful not to set them too close to his neck, and rocked with him through another kiss. Just that subtle movement and the fullness of him inside me took my breath away.
Remembering the fears he’d expressed earlier, I tipped my cheek next to his and murmured, “This is good. This is really good. You can climb in through my window anytime.”
Chess laughed and kissed me again, penetrating me with a deeper thrust that had me seeing stars. Then Hatter was back, dashing to the bed. He opened the little jar he was holding and rubbed a slick substance between his fingers.
“Better to warm it up first, I think,” he said in a low voice that turned me on even more.
I thought I was ready, but when his hand slipped over my ass to my opening, my nerves jumped and a gasp spilled out of me.
Hatter definitely wasn’t new at this, whether he’d tried it as part of a threesome before or not. His deft fingers relaxed me as easily as they seemed to do everything. He traced their slick tips around my entrance until I was pushing back toward him, wanting more. One and then another worked inside me. A pleased hum reverberated through my chest, and Chess groaned as I bobbed against him.
When Hatter asked, “Ready?” with that one word so charged with wanting it nearly melted me, I was aching for it.
“Please,” I said, and whimpered at the press of his cock, slick as his fingers had been. The two men held me steady between them as Hatter stretched me, filling me twice as much as before. The heady sensation of having them both inside me made my head spin with bliss.
I gripped Chess’s hair, my lips brushing his, panting too hard to properly kiss him. Hatter brushed my hair to the side and nipped the back of my neck. His rough breath seared my skin.
We moved together, Chess’s hand on my thigh, Hatter’s arm around my waist, their lengths pulsing through me in a building rhythm. The stars I’d seen before spiraled before my eyes. One wave of pleasure and another and another rushed through me.
“Fuck,” Hatter muttered against my back, jerking a little harder, a little faster, with a shudder that told me he couldn’t hold back any longer. The urgency of his release tipped me over the edge right after him. I bucked against Chess, the stars behind my eyelids bursting into fireworks in time with the crackle of ecstasy that swept me away.
“Oh, Lyssa,” Chess said, soft as a sigh. As Hatter withdrew, he plunged up into me, pushing my orgasm higher, farther, until his breath broke with the hitch of his own release.
I sagged onto the bed beside Chess, and Hatter settled in at my other side. Tucked there between the two of them, more sated than I’d ever felt in my life and the afterglow still tingling through me, it was hard to imagine ever wanting anything more than this.
“Mmm,” Chess murmured. “Now that is what I call paradise. We could teach the Diamonds a thing or three. Not that we’d want to bother.”
He said it so breezily that I couldn’t help snickering. But as the pleasure of the encounter waned and all the other worries I’d had crept back in, my mind slipped back to other things he’d said about the Diamonds, before tonight.
“Chess,” I said quietly. “You mentioned that you thought the Diamonds were unhappy enough with the Queen that someone there might have murdered the prince. Do you think… Are there any of them who’d help us displace her?” Whatever I decided to do, she wasn’t going to back down easily.
Chess cocked his head in contemplation. The corners of his lips curled up, and he brushed a kiss to my cheek. “You know what? There just might be.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lyssa
“You’re sure he’ll be there right now?” Theo asked, glancing over at Chess as we ambled along the road through the city, toward the lane that would take us past the pond of tears. The morning sun glinted off the puddles of rainwater left from last night’s storm.
“Unicorn was a creature of habit as long as I knew him,” Chess replied. He walked with a spring in his step that I liked to think was as much thanks to our amazing night together as the mission ahead of us. “He always took his run before lunch. The field out past the mushroom stands is a good distance out from everyone. He doesn’t like to be watched when he gets down on all fours.” He waggled his eyebrows.
He’d told me earlier that he’d followed Unicorn once, invisibly, out of curiosity, and that was how he’d
discovered this part of his schedule. Which worked out well for us now, because if things hadn’t changed, we should find the palace dweller on his own.
Whether he’d be interested in our proposal was another matter. Chess had seemed pretty certain the equine man could be swayed.
Theo was possibly less certain, as Chess must have picked up on too. “You really don’t need to accompany us the entire way, White Knight,” he said teasingly. “I’d almost think you don’t trust me to spin my words well enough.”
Theo smiled, but his eyes stayed grim. “It’s not so much how well you spin them but how quickly you can cut to the heart of the matter, friend,” he said. “You have to admit you do have a tendency toward obfuscation. Besides, with this much riding on the meeting, I’d like to be on hand even if only to lend authority to the offer of alliance.”
The Red Knight, who’d been walking a little behind us, let out a doubtful sounding harrumph. “Can’t trust any of the palace folk. No loyalty there.”
He’d insisted on coming with us—coming with me, mainly—but thankfully we’d managed to talk him into gelling down his wayward hair and shedding his tarnished armor for one of Hatter’s suits, which fit his height even if it hung a little loose on his skinny frame. So far he hadn’t drawn any unusual attention.
Making sure no one noticed me was the bigger concern. I’d darkened my hair with a fresh dose of dye powder and pulled it back into a braid so its length wasn’t as obvious. Between that and the bright green Wonderlander dress I was wearing, I felt reasonably disguised, but my skin still prickled whenever we passed anyone.
The streets were pretty quiet, though. The Queen had come through with her procession just a couple hours ago, the guards grabbing six more people, and the city’s residents seemed to be hanging back behind closed doors as if worried she might make a second sweep.
That thought brought back the doubts that had been dogging me since the Red Knight had first told his story, along with the more specific ones that had risen up this morning.
“Even if he will join us, even if I wanted to try for the throne, are we in any position to do that right away?” I asked quietly, looking to Theo. “No one else in Wonderland knows about the Red royals—do you think they’ll believe that story and take our side if I challenge the Queen of Hearts?”
Theo let out a slow breath. “Unfortunately, no,” he said. “To both questions. If you can convince Unicorn, he may turn enough of the palace folk to our side to spur on a rebellion that way. If you can demonstrate the powers of the artifacts, we should be able to sway enough Clubbers to overcome the Hearts’ Guard without the Diamonds help at all. But both of those scenarios will require time and care. As soon as the Queen catches wind that you truly are aiming to displace, she’ll put all her power into destroying you.”
In a weird way, his answer was a relief. It took off a bit of the pressure. If we couldn’t try for the throne now, then I didn’t have to decide yet.
“Is that what I should ask Unicorn to do first, then? Talk up the cause with the other Diamonds?”
Theo shook his head. “Our first priority has to be getting the prisoners out before she orders their execution. Her dungeon is filling fast. If we lose them, no amount of magic is going to win the city folk over. Unicorn can give us a more in-depth account of the security and perhaps get us access so we can retrieve them.”
“Besides, once they’re out, it’ll be easy to convince more of the Clubbers to join the Spades,” Chess said brightly. “Onward toward rebellion.”
I tried to ignore the knot in my stomach. “Onward, one step at a time.”
That was how I’d approached everything in my life. Get food on the table. Get Mom to work another day. Get this bill paid and then that one.
If you looked too hard at the big picture bearing down on you, it could overwhelm you.
At the edge of the city, just beyond the last of the off-kilter buildings, a woman with wiry gray hair and a slightly stooped back was swaying from side to side as she peered off down the road. She was gripping the shoulders of the boy standing in front of her, who looked to be about ten. His gaze shot toward us at the sound of our feet, and his eyes widened. He shifted backward as if trying to urge her out of view.
Theo frowned. He picked up his pace to pull ahead of us, walking with swift but smooth strides. “What’s the matter?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of the pair.
The boy opened and closed his mouth a couple times. “Nothing. Everything’s fine.”
“We’re waiting—” the old woman started, and the boy clenched her hand.
“No, Grandma. We’re just—just enjoying the view.”
That comment sounded so unlikely that even I knew he had to be lying. Theo’s attention shifted to the woman, his expression mild despite the concern in it. “You know me, don’t you, Gladey?”
She swayed a little toward him, her eyes twitching before they settled on him. “Inventor,” she said. “Why, where are you off to today?”
“To see about solving a problem or two, as I usually am,” Theo said. “I’m getting the feeling you might have one.”
The boy’s eyes had widened even more. “Inventor!” he exclaimed, and bit his lip. “Sorry. I didn’t realize…”
“It’s all right,” Theo said. “I don’t believe we’ve had a chance to meet before. You’re Gladey’s grandson?”
The boy nodded, suddenly shy. “Winden,” he said. “I—I don’t know what to do, but I don’t think there’s any invention that’s going to help.”
“That’s all right.” Theo bent forward so their heads were level, as if they were about to conspire. “Sometimes I simply invent plans. What’s the trouble here?”
My heart fluttered where the other three of us had hung back. I’d seen Theo leading the Spades as the White Knight, commanding and passionate, but I hadn’t had much chance to see him act as Inventor to the Clubbers and other city people. His presence still held its usual air of authority, but softer around the edges, his smile gentle and his stance relaxed, welcoming these people into the opportunity to rely on him.
You couldn’t watch and not know how much they mattered to him.
The woman jumped to answer his question. “It’s Mallowy,” she said. “She’s not come back from the mushroom stands yet. I’m going to be here when she comes. I’m going to see her.”
“Grandma,” the boy said tightly. He looked at Theo and spoke under his breath. “The guards took my mom. Two days ago. Grandma was there, but she keeps talking like she thinks she’s just got to wait here and Mom will show up. I don’t know why. Mom won’t come, and if the guards see Grandma here acting like this—she was yelling for her earlier…”
His voice wobbled. My gut twisted in understanding. If the guards noticed someone standing around talking about wanting to find one of the prisoners, they might see it as an act of defiance. They might take Gladey too.
Theo’s jaw tensed. He patted the boy’s shoulder, but I could see the pain in his expression. I was feeling it too. We didn’t have any real reassurance to offer, any guarantee that the boy’s mother would be returned safely. We didn’t partly because of my own hesitation.
I braced myself for Theo to glance at me, maybe not even to say anything, but just to catch my gaze and share this moment with me, making sure I knew how much I was needed.
He didn’t. He didn’t shift his attention off the boy and his grandmother for a second. He simply straightened up and touched Gladey’s elbow.
“Gladey,” he said kindly, his smile going crooked. “I know where Mallowy is. She’s not out at the mushroom stands. You won’t find her waiting here. All right?”
“But she must be so lonely, off all on her own,” Gladey said. “How will she find her way home?”
“I’m working on a way to bring her back,” Theo said firmly. “I promise you, I’ll give it everything I have. In the meantime, I know she’ll feel so much better if she can be sure you and Winden are at home keep
ing everything in order for her. Should we go and see if there’s anything there I could fix for her before she gets back?”
The old woman lit up, her swaying slowing. “Yes. Yes, there is—that ledge has tipped again. All those years it stayed in place without Time messing with it, and as soon as we’re moving again…” She shook her head with a huff.
“Let’s get that done right away, then,” Theo said. “Let me just give my leave to my friends, and I’ll join you.”
The boy beamed at him gratefully and clutched his grandmother’s hand as she started to shuffle down the road into the city.
Theo came over to us. “It looks like I’m trusting you to pull this off on your own after all,” he said to Chess. His gaze slid to me. “You’ll be all right, won’t you? I’d ask them to wait, but the longer she’s out here, the more chance the guards will take offense.”
“Of course,” I said quickly. “I’m sure we can manage.”
He leaned in. “Don’t be afraid to show Unicorn how much authority you can wield,” he said by my ear. He gave me a grateful peck on the lips before pulling away, there and then back to his duty.
An ache of emotion swelled from deep inside me as I watched him go. He took on so much. When did he have time to think about what he needed?
I already knew what he’d say to that. He’d say that seeing Wonderland’s people safe and free was what he needed more than anything else. And he’d mean it.
He was the one who should be ruling Wonderland, not me. It was an honor that a man like that would even think me capable of it.
I tugged my focus back to the task at hand.
“Come along,” Chess said with a careless wave of his hand. “We have time, but not so much we should squander heaps of it.”
“I don’t recall a Unicorn in my day,” the Red Knight muttered as we passed the looming ferns that hid the pond from view.
