“Why?” He ground out.
“Why what?” I asked. He turned around and came at me. For once, there was no smile on his face. The blank expression filled me with terror. I scrambled away from him, running around the desk. He leapt across it and snatched the edge of my robe in his hands, pushing me against the wall and grabbing my face.
His mouth was too wide, his teeth far too sharp, and his eyes too large and feline for me to ever mistake him as human. The fur around his head and catlike ears on top didn’t help either.
“Why him and not me?” Cheshire’s eyes were furious but he held my face in a gentle grip.
“Christ, what are you mad about? Losing to him or not having me?” I asked, my voice strong despite my shaking body. Cheshire’s smile returned, mean and fierce. He looked at my mouth for a long time.
“Another deal,” he finally said.
“Deals with you don’t always go the way I want,” I responded.
“You can leave this room. Roam my den and do as you please. Enjoy the fun you crave so desperately. Let me touch you, Alice. I promise not to fuck you, since you’re so tortured by the idea,” he said in amusement. I stilled.
Cheshire knew me better than he had any right to. He was aware I didn’t just sign his contract to keep my secrets or for Shaheen. I signed because I wanted more. I wantedhere. I wanted the brilliance of life that exploded at the seams in Cheshire’s Den of Debauchery. I wanted hedonism and art, music, and sex. I wanted excess and now he was giving me that.
He was even giving me him, minus the fucking. And I did want him. My body craved his in a way that terrified me and the situation only left me confused. This felt like something learned but when could I have learned to both fear and desire Cheshire’s claws?
Perhaps small tastes of him would dull that madness. Perhaps playing a little with the Cheshire Cat of Wonderland would be the medicine to cure this frightening desire.
“Yes,” I whispered. I would take my medicine—touches of him—hoping the cure lay at the other end instead of my demise. He hummed and the noise slid between my legs.
“But,” he started. I should have known this was coming. “If you ever fuck Shaheen again, all deals are off.” I swallowed down my grief. Clearly, Cheshire had something against Shaheen and me together and there was no speaking sense into him at this moment.
I nodded my head in agreement, promising myself I’d find a way around it later.
“Am I too vile and wicked for you to even consider without bribes and deals?” Cheshire suddenly asked. The question was odd, having a taste of self-consciousness I hadn’t thought he was capable of. I didn’t know what to say. After a moment of waiting for my answer, he gave up.
I watched as before my eyes he began to disappear from feet to neck until only his head was smiling at me. I hated his invisibility. If there was someone not to be trusted with such a thing it was him. No doubt he took advantage whenever possible.
“No sex, Alice. Not with anyone,” he said then he was completely invisible and his body lifted away from mine. “Or you're mine entirely,” he growled in joy. I felt the brush of fur on my exposed ankle.
“Get dressed,” he commanded and then there was silence. I kept looking over my shoulder as I walked around, imagining eyes on me—digging into every nook and cranny my body had to offer until there was no privacy left.
On a long table against a wall, there was a blue dress.
“Wear me,” was written on a tiny piece of parchment set on top. The fabric was the robin’s egg blue of Cheshire’s stripes. It was also entirely sheer and there was no other clothing in sight. My eyes settled on the destroyed lump of dirty blue that used to be my dress. The last of what I had from England. It felt sad to let it go but also freeing.
I dropped the robe I was wearing and it slid down my shoulders and pooled on the floor. Gooseflesh rose on my skin from the sensation of being watched. Was he still here?
“Cheshire?” I asked the room but the room didn’t answer. Cheshire was either gone or pretending he was. I took a deep breath and touched the clothes set out for me. The slip was soft and very thin.
It filled me with a breath of excitement as I imagined walking around for everyone to see what normally hid so well under my clothes. The scandalous thrill of it was already warming my cheeks as I pulled it over my head. It fell loose around my body but then suddenly began to shrink.
I squeaked as I attempted to grab the fabric at my waist. It just kept getting smaller and smaller. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a pair of shears or a letter opener, anything! I was about to be squished inside this thing, it was already tightening around my ribs.
Panicked, and nearly hyperventilating, I dashed to Cheshire’s desk to find what I needed to free myself. The wooden monstrosity was a mess of knick knacks just like some housecat stealing little treasures for the simple pleasure of owning them. His entire room was like that really—the bed, the walls, the tables, the desk. There were even things hanging from the ceiling—glass lanterns, dangling sculptures, and probably even pieces of string for him to play with. I wasn’t sure. I was too concerned about being murdered by his ridiculous outfit.
However, by the time I shoved everything off his desk and onto the floor, I realised the dress wasn’t shrinking any more and I’d done that for no reason. The fabric laid against me like a second skin, tight from my chest down to my hips. Then it fanned out loosely, draping to the floor.
With a heaving breath of irritation, I shook myself out and ran my hands over my body. I certainly wasn’t in London anymore. They’d send me to a sanitarium if I wore this. A giggle bubbled from my mouth and my cheeks flushed as I moved to leave the room.
Of course, I’d be embarrassed to have so much of myself seen but also, I’d never felt more appealing in my life. I began to daydream of Shaheen seeing me like this and being incensed, wanting me as badly as I wanted him. My mind tried to worm Cheshire into the daydream as well, his evil eyes eating me up. I groaned in dismay before stomping to the door.
My fingers brushed his doorknob, expecting it to be locked but it came open easily enough, swinging ajar to reveal the darkened hall and the distant noises of a party somewhere in the building. When I walked through, the door closed back behind me by itself.
The doorknob glared at me. The little nails were furious little eyes and the polished knob a robust nose.
