Taken by Passion: King of Hearts (Wonderland Book 1) (2 page)

And worse yet, they were on Alice’s bed. The bed she’d had since she was a teenager and taken with her when she’d moved away from home.

That’s my bed.

Alice wanted to scream, but she was too stunned to move. It was happening again. Goddamn it, again. Catching her last boyfriend screwing around apparently hadn’t been enough.

“You ready to be fucked?” Min asked Jon, her sultry dark eyes filled with lust.

“Oh yeah, babe.” Jon flipped his dark red hair out of his eyes as he grabbed his dick in his hand and positioned it at Min’s slit. “I want it all.”

“This is some fine shit,” a man’s deep baritone came from near the chest of drawers behind the bedroom door, and the buzzing in Alice’s head reached epic proportions.

Her jaw dropped as a big man with a full beard walked into the center of the room. The guy was partially clothed in leather chaps, thick-linked silver chains, and a spiked collar. He had greased his dick with something and was stroking his hand up and down with one palm while carrying a leather strap and chain in his other hand.

Alice caught the scent of roses and she sucked in her breath. The asshole was using
her
expensive rose-scented body cream.

Before she’d recovered from that revelation, O-bearded-one reached Min and Jon, who were still fondling each other on Alice’s bed.

She couldn’t believe it. Jon was engaging in a
ménage à trois
—fulfilling Alice’s fantasy, but for another woman.

Alice had dreamed of a dark, virile man tying her up and taking her places she’d never been before.

When Alice had told Jon that her most erotic fantasy was to be tied up and taken by two men at once, he’d laughed and told her that would never happen. He’d said she’d have to settle for his dick in her core and her favorite glass dildo up her ass, because he wasn’t going there. So she’d experimented with various toys and butt plugs and used her imagination for the rest.

And here the bastard was, about to help Min have it from both ends.

Only the big bearded guy came up behind Jon’s skinny ass and gave it a few quick slaps with his palm. “You ready, Jon-boy?”

Jon-boy?

“Do it to me, Stone.”

Do it to me, Stone?

Alice stared in horrified fascination as Stone bent over Jon, yanked his head back and fastened the leather strap around her
ex
-fiancé's neck, and let the attached long, thick-linked silver chain lie across Jon’s back. Stone unhooked one of the chains hanging from his black chaps—the chain had two clamps on it. Just as she wondered what in the heck he was going to do with that, Stone handed it to Min. The woman proceeded to clamp each of Jon’s nipples, and when she tugged on the chain Jon cried out like a stuck pig.

“Does that hurt, slave?” Min asked.

“Yeah.” Jon’s voice squeaked. “Hurts real good, babe.”

Min frowned and curled her lip into a snarl. “From this point forward you will call me Mistress and you shall refer to Stone as Master. Do you understand, slave?”

“Yes, Mistress.” Jon’s breathing grew more labored, and he had an excited glaze to his eyes and flush to his cheeks. “Yes, Master.”

Oh. My. God.

Alice’s soon to be ex-and
dead
fiancé was a freaking submissive. When it came to sex, she didn’t mind a few beta characteristics in a man, although she preferred alpha—a combination was nice.

“I will allow you to fuck me, slave.” Min’s exotic eyes narrowed. She pulled taut on the chains and Jon blanched. “But you will not come until I tell you to. Is that clear, slave?”

“Yes, Min.” When she yanked on the chains Jon cried out and hurriedly said, “I mean, yes, Mistress.”

While he reached around Jon’s hips, Stone pressed his dick to the slave’s ass. He grabbed Jon’s dick, none too gently, and snapped on a leather cuff close to his balls.

“Feels good, don’t it, slave?” Stone’s bass voice rumbled.

Jon squeaked again. “Real good.”

Stone grabbed the long chain hanging from the collar and smacked Jon’s ass with it, hard enough to leave a red welt, and Jon yelped.

“Master!” Jon shouted. “I mean, real good, Master!” Stone took his well-lotioned dick and placed it to Jon’s tight red anus. “This is going to hurt, and you’re going to love it, aren’t you, slave?”

Licking his lips, Jon replied, “Yes, Master.”

“Slide your dick into Min’s slit.” Stone slapped the chain across Jon’s ass.

Jon responded with another yelp and a, “Yes, Master!” and then plunged his dick into Min.

“Very good, slave,” she said as she tugged on the nipple clamps. “Now, when Stone takes you, I want you to fuck me without stopping. If you stop then I shall be forced to punish you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Alice couldn’t believe how excited Jon looked. He was obviously enjoying every bit of this Dom/sub routine and was totally getting off on it. Part of her wondered if she should just turn and walk away, but part of her wanted to see just how far Jon would let this go.

In the next second she found out as Stone yanked the chain to Jon’s collar and pulled it tight as he plunged his dick into Jon’s ass and began pummeling him unmercifully.

Jon literally screamed.

“How do you like that, slave?” Stone shouted as he thrust in and out of Jon’s ass and whipped him at the same time with the chain.

“I love it, Master,” Jon said, tears rolling down his face.

Min yanked on the nipple clamps and Jon cried out again. “Sorry, Mistress,” he said, and began moving in and out of her with his sorry-excuse-for-a-prick. “That hurts so good, Master and Mistress.”

“Oh. My. God.” Alexi’s hoarse whisper startled Alice from her horrified trance.

Her gaze shot to her twin’s and she saw Alexi holding her can of Mace like she was about to spray a giant cockroach. A really grotesque man-eating roach. Alice knew by the look on Alexi’s face that Jon was going to be hurting a hell of a lot more once she got through with him.

“You cheating sonofabitch.” Alexi’s courtroom attorney’s voice cut through the kink happening on Alice’s bed.

All kink instantly ceased. The three froze as their gazes riveted on Alice and Alexi.

“Shit,” Jon muttered.

Alice eyed him more coolly than she ever thought possible. “You mean shit,
Mistress.
”

And with that she spun and marched away. She had to get out of the house, now. Hell, she’d never be able to sleep in that bed again, much less this apartment.

Behind her she heard Alexi laying into the slimy bastard. Alice had no doubt that the apartment would be cleared of all scum in no time flat.

The buzzing in her head was coming real close to migraine level. Alice slipped on a pair of dry walking shoes, yanked on her San Francisco Giants baseball jacket, and grabbed her purse off the stand where the telephone receiver still hung from its cord.

In the background, she heard Jon’s defensive whine as he started, “If Alice wasn’t so fat, I wouldn’t have to—”

A spraying sound and Alexi’s shout of, “Bastard!” covered up the rest of the dick’s words as she let loose with the Mace. Shrieks and screams from club kink immediately followed.

Without looking back, without closing the door behind her, Alice fled into the dreary San Francisco morning.

KING JARRONN SCRUBBED THE STUBBLE on his jaw and flexed his powerful muscles as he scowled at the four cards lying facedown on the
a’bin.
The cards mocked him from the glowing table Sorceress Kalina used to foretell the destiny of all four kingdoms throughout the lands of Tarok.

Beside him the sorceress shifted and a red crystal heart dangled from each of her erect nipples, both hearts glittering in the candlelight. “It is time to choose, Milord.”

Jarronn growled and glared at the cards.
How can I simply turn a card when the fate of my kingdom rests at my fingertips?
The king clenched his fists and bit back a snarl.
It is too simple a gesture for the destiny of my people.

He shifted his attention from the
a’bin
to the cobalt walls of the sorceress’s private chamber. Where the rest of his kingdom was bright and airy, Kalina’s quarters were dark and mysterious, mirroring the sorceress herself. A thousand scents flooded the king’s acute senses…honeysuckle incense, tallow, perfumes, oils, elixirs, and more perplexing smells that surely only the sorceress could identify.

Candle flame danced and flickered in the gentle breeze that moved through the lone window and across Jarronn’s naked chest. Sheer pearl veiling fluttered to either side of the large window that offered a stunning view of his realm. In contrast to his dark thoughts, outside sunlight warmed brilliant flowers in the royal rainbow gardens and teased forth new growth. Birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and every other animal species mated with spring fervor, sowing countless seeds for a new crop of babes. Many of Jarronn’s subjects frolicked throughout the extensive gardens, naked as they were wont to be, enjoying one another’s pleasures.

It should have been a time of growth for Jarronn’s people, too—a time for males to seed their mates’ wombs. A time to look forward to new births in the fall.

Veins rose along the surface of Jarronn’s muscles as rage filled him anew that he had been unable to break Mikaela’s powerful mind-spells, the black sorcery that had rendered the women of Tarok incapable of conception for nearly two decades.

His failure to end this mind-war wrenched at Jarronn’s soul. He clenched his fist and raised it toward the south, where the bitch’s realm crouched like a great swamp beast beneath the Malachad Mountains. Damn the skies, but he would find some way to end Mikaela’s reign of black sorcery.

What Kalina offered the kings of Tarok… How could such magic possibly be their salvation?

Perhaps the spring will be a time of renewal once again.
The thought stirred within him, and he growled.

“You must choose one, Milord,” Kalina said, a hint of urgency in her melodic voice.

Jarronn turned his scowl on the lovely sorceress, but her eyes were lowered in the proper position of respect, her stance wide and her hands clasped behind her back. A fine red glitter powdered the surface of her kohl-lined eyelids. The crystal hearts sparkled as they swung from each of her berry-dark nipples, and a crimson leather collar enhanced Kalina’s slender neck. Long black hair tumbled over her pale breasts.

A primal urge roared through Jarronn and he clenched his fists to contain himself. He could scent the sorceress’s arousal. Perhaps he would reward her with pleasures of the flesh. Perhaps not. All would depend upon whether or not he was pleased with the choice he must now make.

For the future of his people. For the future of his kingdom.

With another growl, Jarronn swept his hand out, gesturing toward the damnable cards. “What if I order you to choose for me, sorceress?”

“I—I cannot, Milord.” Kalina’s fire-ice eyes remained lowered, although he imagined the caress of her brilliant amber gaze over him. Despite himself, he grew hard beneath his black breeches. “It must be your choice,” she added in a near whisper.

Jarronn reached out one hand to flick the glittering heart at her left nipple. “Even if it means punishment?”

Kalina audibly caught her breath and ran her tongue along her lower lip. “Yes, Milord.”

“What if I take one of my other servants instead of you, while you watch, to teach you a lesson in obedience?” he asked as he flicked the heart dangling from her other nipple.

“I will accept whatever punishment you deem necessary, Milord.” Kalina’s breast pressed toward his palm and he was sure she was eyeing him most hungrily. “You alone must choose your future mate.”

He pinched her nipple and she held back her gasp admirably well, but Jarronn had no doubt that his sorceress enjoyed the feel of his callused fingers pulling and working the tender nub. Watching Kalina intently, he released the nipple and trailed his fingers down her flat belly to her bare mound. With a rough motion he cupped her and slid one finger into the delectable wetness.

The corner of his mouth curved into an almost smile as he watched her bite her lip, obviously attempting to hold back a moan. To tease Kalina’s arousal, he allowed a light dose of
tigri
pheromones to flow over her.

The sorceress began to tremble. A fine sheen of sweat beaded her fair skin and her nipples grew visibly tighter. “Time is our enemy, Milord,” the sorceress reminded him in a hoarse murmur. “Choose.
Please.
”

His erection grew mightier yet, and erotic thoughts nearly consumed him of throwing the sorceress facedown on the
a’bin
amongst the cards. He would free himself from his breeches and take her from behind, hard and fast, while he flogged her ass cheeks a hearty shade of rose. No doubt Kalina would enjoy such pleasures and would beg him for more as she always did.

All he had to do was choose a damn card.

Four cards. Four kings. Four mates.

When Jarronn finally drew the card, he knew that his emblem, that of the Ruler of the Kingdom of Hearts, would appear. His fate and the fate of his future mate would be sealed. This moment fell to him, as eldest brother and High King of Tarok.

His scowl would surely slay any who might choose to enter the sorceress’s chamber at that moment, but the room remained silent save for Kalina’s soft breathing. No doubt the longer he took, the more aroused the sorceress would become, waiting for whatever sexual pleasures he might treat her to. If he dared to emit more of his powerful pheromones, Kalina would become wild with need and passion. She would drop to her knees and beg.

Enough.

Never one to be indecisive, Jarronn was infuriated by his own hesitation. He had no desire for an unknown mate from one of the many other worlds, but his people were dying. Children had not been born to Tarok women for nearly two decades. Kalina’s magic had determined the women were all fertile, yet none could conceive because of the damnable mind-spells of Mikaela and her legion of psychics, her
bakirs.

New hope had sprung amongst the Tarok brothers when the sorceress’s cards had revealed how his people could survive and prosper. But once a Tarok male mated, he mated for life… and if Jarronn chose the wrong woman… there would be no heirs to his kingdom and little immediate hope for his people.