“I want a child to share my knowledge with,” Bevan said to me. His hand crept into mine. “Do you want children?”
“I don't know,” I said honestly. “I wouldn't be against the idea, but I'm not sure how to raise a child. My uncle did a rather unusual job of it with me.”
“And you turned out brilliantly,” he noted. “There's no correct way to raise children. We all do what we feel is right. When we're children ourselves, we think that our parents know everything, that they have wisdom which others don't possess; the secret of guiding and protecting us. But, really, they're just following their hearts.”
“I think I can manage to follow my heart,” I purred.
Bevan's eyes were even darker in the moonlight, and his face seemed sweeter; a fairy prince with sleek, alien features that somehow remained masculine. He'd pulled his hair back into a low club; appropriate, I suppose. It made his face come into stark relief, and his beauty even more evident. Bevan rolled to his side and angled over me, laying a hand gently on my cheek. We stared at each other, and I will forever remember his shadowed face above me, half-lit by moonlight.
Bevan drew his hand slowly down my throat, then over my chest, skimming my breasts, all while holding my gaze. I watched his lips part, his breath coming faster, as his hand undid the bodice laces of my dress. He parted the material and finally looked down on me. Bevan's face went soft as he lightly trailed his palms over my skin, hardening my nipples with little rubs. Then he lifted his hand and made a grasping motion. A flowering bough flew into his grip. It was a thin branch, bending beneath the weight of little white flowers that had a sweetly delicate scent. He brushed the blooms across my flesh, around my breasts and up the column of my throat. I sighed in delight, the scent surrounding me as shivers raced over my skin.
Then he tossed the branch into the air, and it hovered above us, spinning. I watched it in surprise, and Bevan took the opportunity to slide between my legs, easing my skirts up around my waist. I looked down at him with a smile, and he returned it, holding my gaze again as he lowered his mouth to me. As he brought me to ecstasy in an agonizingly slow manner, petals drifted over us like falling stars.
Later, when I laid limp from fulfilled desire, Bevan eased up above me and finally brought us together with one swift plunge. I cried out, and he moaned into my throat. Then Bevan began to move with deliberate thrusts, driving to the hilt with each one. I wrapped my legs around his hips, and he smiled wickedly as he slipped his hands beneath my back and pulled. I held onto his sleek biceps as he lifted me up and sat us back so that I was spread over his lap. We embraced each other, kissing languidly as Bevan rocked me forward and back onto himself. The motion was just enough to drive him deeper and rub me right where I needed it. The pleasure built up steadily until we began to glow golden, and as our bond solidified into something unbreakable, we cried out in unison to the heavens.
That had been romantic, but Kyran was the King of Hearts, and he had romance in his blood. Romance and other things.
He sent me gifts, but Kyran's gifts were different than Draven's. Kyran went above ground to pick me flowers, and then he'd write me a poem about how my beauty outshone them. He'd run me a bath and leave a note with a glass of wine beside it, saying that he wanted nothing more than to take care of me. He'd leave me a book outside my door, and later tell me that the heroine had reminded him of me. He was good, damn good at the romantic stuff. So much so that I never even suspected the way he'd seduce me.
Since he was still recovering, I didn't think that Kyran could fully make love to me yet, but I still wanted to spend time with him. So, I accepted his invitation to visit him one evening, just to keep him company and talk privately with him. He answered the door in a velvet robe and a grin, and after he had shut the door behind me, he handed me a matching garment.
“Are we going to... ?” I looked him over.
Kyran's face was full and healthy, as handsome as I'd expected it to become. His body had begun to fill out too, but it seemed as if it had a bit to go before it was as robust as it should be. In short; he looked better, but not well enough for something as strenuous as sex.
“There is more to making love than a basic joining,” Kyran purred. “Go into the bathroom and put the robe on. I want to savor unwrapping you.”
“Unwrapping me?” I lifted a brow at him as I headed into the bathroom.
When I came out, clad only in the velvet, Kyran had a glass of wine ready for me and a blanket spread before the fireplace. A fire was a luxury in Underland, where ever chimney had to be carved up into a vent that led above ground, but Kyran was a king now, and he was entitled to the best. He helped me down onto the blanket and then sat beside me.
“Will you let me feed you?” He asked me.
I just nodded.
A plate of berries was set on a tray before the fire. There were some candles burning behind it, as well as a few bottles; one was definitely wine. Kyran picked up a berry and brought it to my mouth. I bit it in half, and he rubbed the other half over my lips, coating me with juice. Then he licked it off. Slowly.
“I love your lips,” he said. “Full and as ripe as this fruit. And your eyes, so expressive. I can almost feel your desire just by looking into your eyes.”
“I feel yours too.”
“Odd, isn't it?” He asked me. “We've only known each other a short time, and yet I've never felt closer to another person.”
“Yes, exactly,” I agreed. “I know you–I can feel the love you have for your kingdom, and the ache that your brother's death left. I know you're honorable and strong”–I trailed a hand over his sleeve–“when you're at your best. I know that you respect your magic and want nothing more than to heal Wonderland. But I don't know how you take your tea, or if you even drink it.”
“And I know that you have a deep well of passion inside you,” Kyran said. “I feel your love and gratitude for your uncle, but also the loneliness that you experienced throughout childhood. I sense that the return of your memories and the release of your magic has altered you, but in the best ways. You're stronger, more confident, and determined to right the injustice that has been done here. But I have no idea what your favorite color is, or if you prefer a sunrise to a sunset.”
“Those are all answers that time will bring us,” I whispered as I memorized the angles of his cheekbones and the burst of green spikes over his golden irises. “We can find pleasure in getting to know each other.”
“But for tonight, let us find pleasure in more physical ways,” Kyran said softly. “I can feel each turn of the card, each king laid out before you, and I know that we need this. Our magic needs this final piece to be placed so that your deck is truly complete.”
“So,” I leaned forward until my lips hovered just above his and kissed my words across his mouth, “you want my deck to be complete? That's all?”
Kyran closed his eyes and breathed my words in, then the tip of his tongue darted out and tasted my lips.
“There is so much that I want from you, Alice,” Kyran said. “I want to help you win back Wonderland, but I also want you for myself. I want to know what you taste like–your lips, your throat, your breasts”–his lips rubbed gently over mine as he spoke–“your thighs and the silken petals between. I want your smell on my skin and your hands on my body. I want to see you screaming above me and moaning beneath me. I want you to conquer me, and most of all”–he pushed me roughly back onto a pillow–“I want to conquer you.”
I stared up at him, my breath trembling in my throat, as he undid the belt of my robe. With a brisk movement, he yanked my hands behind my back and tied them with the velvet belt. I tried to move them, and he tightened the cord into a knot.
