Wonderland: King of Hearts Read online

  To Frank

  My King of Hearts

  Acknowledgment:

  Thank you Karen, Johanna, MK & e

  for all your fabulous input

  and for giving Alice and Jarronn a thumbs up *g*

  Author’s Note

  The Wonderland series is intended to be purely fantasy, taking only elements of BDSM and Domination/submission. None of the books in the series are intended to accurately portray a true BDSM or Dom/sub relationship.

  In the spirit of fantasy, the Wonderland series is also pure fantasy when it comes to sex. In real life, keep it real and practice safe sex. We’ll keep the fantasies in Wonderland. ;-)

  Chey McCray

  Prologue

  It had been the morning from hell. Possibly the worst day of her life, but Alice O’Brien was still reserving judgment on that one.

  A thick San Francisco fog shrouded the city, perfectly mirroring her dark mood as she stood on the landing outside her apartment door and searched her purse. She’d just climbed the three flights to her apartment, which was above the dim sum restaurant on Grant Street

  , and had managed to snag her last pair of queen-sized nylons because somebody had left a mop bucket out on the second floor landing.

  Damn but she had to get a new apartment and a new landlady.

  And of course, before that lovely icing on her day, when she’d made the hike from her ex-job on Market Street

  , all the way up to Grant, she’d stumbled into possibly the deepest puddle in the whole freaking city. And definitely the most polluted.

  Alice shivered, her toes growing numb in her soaked walking shoes. Now where’s that damn key? After this morning, it would be just peachy if she’d gone and lost her house key.

  Normally Alice would be at work right now, efficiently performing mundane secretarial duties for Mitch, that slimeball of an accountant she used to work for. However, when she’d insisted this morning that her name was not Monica, and that he was not the President, and that her secretarial duties did not include sucking his cock—he’d canned her.

  The bastard had freaking fired her!

  Well, he’d be one cock-less sonofabitch CPA when her twin sister Alexi got a hold of him. A dynamic attorney, Alexi specialized in sexual harassment, and Alice fully intended to hire her and make that bastard pay.

  Alice gave a cry of frustration and almost threw her purse onto the cracked concrete landing. Where was that damn key?

  A splatter landed on Alice’s shoulder. Very slowly she turned to look, knowing what would be on her trench coat even before she saw it.

  Pigeon shit.

  Alice groaned and banged her forehead against the wooden door of her apartment.

  Perfect. Just perfect.

  How could the day possibly get any worse?

  She banged her head against the door, harder this time. It swung open and she stumbled over the threshold, barely managing to keep from falling on her face. Smells of stale bacon and moldy carpet assailed her.

  Damn Jon. Her somewhat forgetful—make that irresponsible—fiancé had forgotten to lock the door again.

  Well, this time it might be the one thing in the whole miserable morning that had worked out in her favor.

  Alice ached from head to toe as she dropped her purse on the telephone stand just inside the entryway then pulled the door shut behind her. Who would have thought that being fired, falling into a puddle the size of the San Francisco Bay, and shredding her best and most expensive pair of pantyhose—not to mention getting shit on—would be so exhausting?

  And all before noon.

  After she shrugged out of her soiled trench coat, she let it drop to the cracked black and white checked linoleum. She kicked off her soaked walking shoes and peeled off her sopping wet nylons. Her low-heeled sandals were in her purse—everyone in the City by the Bay made the hike up and down the steep hills in comfortable shoes and carried their heels for work. With its narrow streets and lack of inexpensive parking, no one drove to work in San Fran. Instead they walked or took the city buses or rode the cable cars.

  Alice gave a weary sigh as she tugged on her short skirt that had somehow twisted around her ample hips so that the zipper was off kilter. Why couldn’t she be slender, with all those thick, wavy, auburn locks like her twin? Alice wouldn’t have minded at all if they’d been identical, so long as they both looked like Alexi. The only thing they had in common were their turquoise eyes.

  Alice sighed again as she tightened the blue silk ribbon holding her hair back, away from her rounder-than-Alexi’s face. She lifted her fine, long, and very straight blonde hair out of the collar of her blouse, and eyed the old-fashioned telephone.

  She took a deep breath, snatched up the receiver, and dialed Alexi’s cell phone. Just wait until she hears what happened!

  “This is Alexi,” came the firm don’t-mess-with-me voice that she used for business.

  “It’s your favorite twin,” Alice said as she fiddled with the woven bracelet her sister had given her for their eighteenth birthday, six years ago.

  Alexi’s tone changed instantly to the friendly, fun loving sister Alice had grown up with. “Heya, Sis. Dump that loser yet?”

  Alice rolled her eyes to the ceiling of the small entryway. Neither her best friend Maryam, nor her sister liked Jon at all. They didn’t see the fun side of him and the way he made her laugh. “You’re talking about my fiancé.”

  Alexi snorted. “Yeah. The loser.”

  “Whatever.” Alice twirled the phone cord like a mini jump rope. “I’m calling from home. Are you down at the office, or working out of your apartment today?”

  “Right upstairs.” Papers rustled as Alexi spoke. “Shall I stomp twice?”

  “You don’t happen to have any mocha almond fudge in your freezer, do you?” Alice pulled the phone cord taut in irritation. “Jon ate the last of mine. And damn it, I need to talk.”

  “Two whole pints. Is this a pint each talk, or a two-spoons-in-one-pint problem?”

  “Honey, I need a pint all my own.” Alice tapped her long fingernails on the telephone stand, the click-clack echoing through the empty hallway. “Something happened today—”

  “What?” Alice could just imagine Alexi bolting out of her chair as she practically shouted the word. “You’re not hurt or anything, are you? I would have sensed it—”

  “No.” She had to smile at her two-minute older protective sister. “It’s nothing like that. It—”

  A woman’s passionate cry tore through the apartment and Alice froze.

  “What was that?” Alexi asked in her attorney voice.

  “Hold on.” Alice’s heart pounded and she gritted her teeth. “I’m about to find out.”

  She thunked the phone on the wooden stand, and as she walked away she could hear her sister’s voice saying, “Alice? You’d better be back on the line in thirty seconds or I’m coming down with the mace!”

  Alice’s head buzzed as her bare feet padded over the cracked linoleum floor toward the single bedroom. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

  Would he?

  Feminine laughter followed by Jon’s familiar moan of ecstasy confirmed that he would. The cheating bastard.

  But she had to see for herself. Had to see that it was her loser of a fiancé…

  She peeked around the doorframe, and the buzzing in her head increased. Sure enough, Jon was naked and between the just as naked thighs of Min, their beautiful slender landlady, and he was suckling the dark nipples of her small, firm breasts.

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

  That was her 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 wanna be fucked good.”

  “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 his erection 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 for another woman.

  When Alice had told Jon that her most erotic fantasy was to be tied up and fucked 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 pussy, and her favorite glass cock 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 lay 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 little beta characteristics in a man, although she preferred alpha—a combination was nice. But a submissive? Blech. Fine for others, but not for her.

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

  While he reached around Jon’s hips, Stone pressed his erect penis 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 cock 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 cunt.” Stone slapped the chain across Jon’s ass.

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

  “Very good, slave,” she said as she tugged on the nipple clamps. “Now, when Stone fucks 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 fucked 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 fucking 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 on her barefoot heel 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 that 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.

  Chapter One

  King Jarronn scrubbed his hand over his light beard 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 the 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.

  Candleflame 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 mate’s 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 mindspells…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?

  Mayhap 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 red 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 and almost to the hairless mound that glistened with moisture.