Wonderland: King of Diamonds Read online

  “No.” Karn caught her chin and held her gaze. “I will see to all your needs, kitten. But it goes no further than my being your Sire, and you learning the art of pleasure.”

  He slid his fingers down her neck as he released her and then turned away. She watched him leave the room and just stared at the doors after they quietly shut behind him.

  A low rumbling noise drew Annie’s attention as Abra curled around her ankles. She scooped up the cat and buried her face in the soft calico hair. Tears burned at the back of Annie’s eyes as the weight of what he did and didn’t say settled inside her.

  Karn would see to her physical needs, and he would make sure she was trained in fulfilling his sexual hunger.

  But he had no intention of opening his heart and letting her inside. He had no intention of loving her, or being a husband to her beyond giving her a title and his cock.

  Chapter Seven

  The following morning, Annie woke to the soft patter of rainfall against her windowpane and Abra snuggled up to her neck. Memories of Karn, the garden, their passion washed over her, and her entire body felt warm at the thought. She was deliciously sore, her thighs and pussy having the ache of a good sexual workout.

  Another thing she’d read about and now finally got to experience for herself.

  Annie smiled, but it dissolved into a frown as she remembered Karn’s parting words from last night, “I will see to all your needs, kitten. But it goes no further than my being your Sire, and you learning the art of pleasure.”

  Her thoughts turned toward his earlier statement that she was to be his Queen. How could the man simply kidnap her and force her to marry him? Yet even stranger was how easily she had gone along with everything he demanded of her. Something about him made her want to please him, to be with him. But she hardly knew the man…although she certainly knew him well in many ways after yesterday.

  With a sigh, she carefully turned on her side and stroked Abra as she looked at the window and watched raindrops make trails down the glass. When she was young, she used to imagine that rain was the sky’s tears when its heart had been broken.

  While she watched the raindrops roll down the pane, she thought about her childhood. Every time her mother or others had stepped on her heart in her life, she had cried. She never knew her father, and her mother acted as if she hated Annie and resented her very existence.

  Annie’s grandmother had been a kind and good-hearted woman, and was the only person in Annie’s life who showed her any kind of love. But Grandma Travis had passed away close to Annie’s tenth birthday, and then she had no one.

  It wasn’t until she moved away from home to attend San Francisco State University on scholarship, that Annie found true friends and loyal family in her cousins, Alice and Alexi, and in Awai. They had embraced Annie as one of them and had taken her under their collective wings.

  She stroked Abra under her chin absentmindedly as she thought about her cousins. Alice and Alexi had been taken away from Annie, and she’d left Awai behind.

  Annie moved her hand to her collar and sighed. And here I am with a man who refuses to love. Talk about irony.

  Sparkles glittered in front of Annie, jarring her from her thoughts. Beya materialized, holding a tray piled high with dishes. Abra scampered off the bed and darted beneath it.

  “Breakfast, Mistress,” the little woman said as she bustled to a table in the corner of the bedroom. She placed the tray on the table and began arranging items in front of each of the chairs. “Sire Karn will join you shortly.”

  “Thanks, Beya.” Annie slipped out of bed, and then crawled right back under the covers when she realized what she was wearing—the sheer pink nightgown. Her cheeks heated, but the housekeeper didn’t seem to notice.

  “Come along.” As she spoke, Beya carried a crystal dish to the place beside the door where Abra’s food and water was kept. “Do not keep Sire waiting.”

  Annie clutched one of the bedcovers to her chest. “I need to change.”

  “Rubbish.” The housekeeper set the bowl on the floor and rose up to give Annie her no-nonsense look. “You are dressed appropriately for Diamond Hall. You will see,” she said and faded into so many sparkles again.

  Annie tossed aside the covers and climbed out of bed. Abra peeked out from under the bed and then walked to the crystal bowl of food with her head held high as if she was Queen of Annie’s New Realm.

  With a shake of her head, Annie smiled. But when the handle on the door that led to Karn’s room jiggled, she darted right back into bed.

  Karn entered her chambers and shut the door behind him. His massive presence filled the room, making even the furniture small in comparison to his large frame. Annie’s whole body reacted immediately, her pussy growing damp and her nipples tightening.

  He frowned. “I expected you to be waiting for me at the breakfast table, kitten.”

  Holding her cover tight to her chest, she said, “I didn’t get a chance to change.”

  “I instructed you to never hide yourself from me.” His frown turned into a scowl as he strode to the bed and ripped the blanket right out of her hands.

  She covered her breasts by folding her arms across her chest, but Karn grabbed her wrists and pulled them away. ““You have earned another punishment,” he said with a look so dark that she was surprised into being speechless. He held out his palm and a red strap appeared on it.

  In a movement so quick she didn’t have time to catch her breath, he turned her on her belly so that she was laying half on and half off the bed. A matter of a second or two, and he had tied her wrists behind her back with the strap.

  Annie’s face was in the bedcovers and she turned her head sideways so that she could breathe. “Wait. What are you—” she started, then gasped as he moved between her legs and spread her thighs wide. “Karn—”

  “Sire,” he commanded as he pushed her nightgown up to her waist, exposing her bare ass. “Do you understand why you are being punished, kitten?”

  Annie tried to be mad at him, but having him between her legs was making her so hot. She couldn’t help but remember the erotic punishment he had dealt her yesterday. “You’re punishing me for hiding myself…Sire.”

  Karn caressed her naked flesh and then she felt his lips and his tongue on her skin and she couldn’t help a moan. She yelped in surprise as he bit her ass, hard enough that it would probably leave a temporary mark. Yet it surprised her though the bite hurt a little, it had been pleasurable, too.

  He rubbed his stubbled cheek over her bare skin and kissed her crack. Annie moaned, her pussy flooding with need. When Annie moaned, he murmured, “Remember, kitten, it is about my pleasure, not yours.”

  “Yes, Sire,” she whispered, hoping his punishment would be as delicious today as it was yesterday.

  But instead of spanking her, he picked her up and set her on her feet, then led her to the table. Her hair was wild around her shoulders from sleeping on it, and she felt small and vulnerable next to him.

  After he seated her with her hands still behind her back, Karn took the chair beside her, and moved it close. “I am going to feed you your breakfast. Do not climax without my permission.”

  “Is breakfast that good?” Annie asked, but then he was sliding a piece of fruit into her mouth at the same time he moved his fingers between her thighs and stroked her clit. She jumped from the initial contact and then moaned around the fruit. It was the same color of red as a pomegranate and had the consistency of cantaloupe, but tasted like a cross between a mango and an apple.

  He bit into a tart then put it to her lips. Annie took a bite just as he thrust two fingers into her core, and she rolled her eyes back from the exquisite pleasure. The strawberry cream cheese taste melted in her mouth as he moved his fingers in and out of her pussy. She pulled against her bonds, wanting to touch him, to hold onto something as he continued his sexual torture.

  Throughout their breakfast he drove her crazy, taking her to the brink of orgasm and then pulling
back.

  When they had eaten the last of the meal, Karn bent and licked her nipple through the thin material of her nightgown. He continued to plunge his fingers in and out of her pussy.

  “Karn, I mean Sire.” Annie could barely speak, she was so close. “May I come, please?”

  “No.” He moved his mouth to her other nipple and kept thrusting into her with his fingers. “You must resist.”

  “I—I can’t.”

  He only moved his fingers in and out of her faster. “You will not orgasm, or I shall have to punish you.”

  Annie leaned her head back, her breasts thrust forward and he suckled her nipple harder. “Stop, please,” she begged, even though she wanted him to continue and wanted to come so bad she could just scream.

  “This pleases me,” he murmured as he moved his mouth back to her other nipple. “And you are here to see to my pleasure.”

  Her thighs began to tremble and a fine sheen of sweat broke out upon her skin. She worked to hold back the impending explosion, though she wasn’t completely sure why—except that it would make Karn happy.

  Maybe if she made him happy enough…

  And then he stopped.

  Annie groaned as he pulled his fingers out. Just one touch more and she would have come for sure.

  “That was your first punishment,” he said as he stood. “Your second will come later.”

  “You’re not going to let me come?” Annie muttered, her clit so sensitive that she squeezed her thighs together to try and calm the sensations. “What else am I being punished for?”

  “You were not waiting at the table when I came into the room.” He stood and pulled back her chair, then helped her stand. “I will deal your consequences to you later.”

  Annie’s gaze snapped up to meet Karn’s. “What are you going to do to me, Karn?”

  He waved his hand and the tie fell from her wrists. “Do not forget your place, kitten.” Then he took her by the elbow and guided her to her trunk. “Always refer to me as Sire, or I may take you to the dungeon.”

  She swallowed, hard, as he opened the trunk with a flick of his fingers. “You would lock me in the dungeon, Sire?”

  “Perhaps.” He shrugged as if indifferent to the fact that he was suggesting he would lock her up in a cell. “If you earn such treatment.”

  Annie was quiet as he withdrew a pair of doeskin boots from the trunk that certainly weren’t there when she’d looked before. He also took out a leather dress and a cloak. “Does it bother you to walk in the rain?” he asked as he handed her the leather dress.

  She shook her head as she clutched the dress to her chest. “I used to do that all the time at home.”

  “Good.” He frowned at the way she was covering her breasts with the dress. “Put this clothing on.”

  Annie did as he bade, not wanting to add another punishment to her tally. His dark eyes looked hungry as he watched her slip out of the nightgown and into the dress. When she got it on, she was sure she was going to die of embarrassment, because there were two holes right where her breasts were. Her full breasts poked out like twin torpedoes, not to mention the dress was so short it barely covered her mound.

  Karn’s feral smile caused Annie to shiver with excitement. As long as no one else saw her in this dress, it actually turned her on to have her breasts on display for him.

  He held out his hand, and two white diamond pendants appeared. They looked like earrings, only they had loops at the top of each pendant. Before she could ask him what they were for, he reached up and pinched her nipple, causing her to gasp and the taut nub to grow even harder. He released her then slipped the looped end of the diamond dangle over her nipple, then slid a golden band up the loop so that the ring was taut. Her nipple turned darker red, almost purple, and the sensation was one of both pain and pleasure.

  Annie watched in amazement as he repeated the process on her other breast then examined his handiwork. It felt exotic to have the charms dangling from her nipples, the loops tight and keeping the nubs erect.

  “You will wear these and think of me touching you, tasting you,” he murmured as he flicked one of the crystals. “Put on the boots now.”

  When she bent over to put on the soft leather boots, the diamonds swung and she almost gasped from the sensation of the nipple charms tugging at her as they rocked back and forth. After her boots were on, he held the cloak over one arm then took her hand and led her out the doors that opened with his magic as they approached.

  Panic rose inside Annie as he guided her through the doors and into the hallway. “You’re not going to make me walk through the mansion like this, are you?”

  He frowned down at her, and Annie was quick to add, “Sire.”

  “Do not question me,” he said as he led her toward the stairs. “Or another punishment will be added.”

  Annie clamped her teeth together, caught between the urge to rage and the desire to submit.

  When they reached the landing, Annie stopped walking, literally digging her heels in. Karn could have used his massive strength, dragging her on, or simply have thrown her over his shoulder, but thankfully he didn’t.

  Karn looked down at his mate, but this time he did not frown. She looked so upset. A key twisted in his heart, unlocking emotions he had not allowed himself to feel in decades. “What is it, kitten?”

  She bit her lower lip then took a deep breath. “I can’t do this. Punish me if you want, but I can’t walk around other people like-like this. I didn’t mind while we were alone in the bedroom, but I just can’t with anyone else.”

  Annie’s voice had trembled as she spoke, and that key in his heart turned a little more. She was such a gentle creature, yet willing to stand up to him if he crossed her boundaries. He did not want to hurt her. Even though he would not allow himself to love her, he could not help but care for his future Queen.

  Without saying a word, he took the cloak and wrapped it around her, helping her to put her arms through the holes, then fastening it so that it covered her breasts. When he finished he hooked his finger under her chin. “If ever there is something I ask of you that you do not enjoy, then simply tell me. I feel no pleasure in your distress.”

  He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers, then forced himself to back away and take her hand again.

  Annie sighed with relief as they walked down the stairs together. No doubt in Karn’s kingdom he was used to his subjects obeying his commands. They probably enjoyed it, even. But the fact that he had listened to her, and cared enough to cover her when she was truly embarrassed and pushed beyond where she would ever want to go, raised her estimation of him even higher.

  While they walked together, Karn was silent. The cloak chafed her nipples and the dangles bounced against her breasts, keeping her stimulated. The leather outfit felt exciting the way it held her breasts in the holes, and the way the bottom of the dress brushed her mound as she moved. Even the collar she wore for Karn was a turn on.

  Yet the walk through the mansion was a little nerve-wracking. What did he have planned for her next punishment? Annie’s cheeks burned every time they passed a castle servant. What if they knew what she had on beneath the cloak?

  When he took her down a flight of stone steps, deep below the mansion, her heart started to pound like crazy. Odd looking torches lit the way. Rather than fire, they were glowing orbs on the ends of long sticks held in place by brackets. The place smelled musty and damp, and Annie was sure he was going to lock her up. If he tried, she’d let him know that was another thing she just couldn’t handle.

  It seemed as if they had walked forever down spiraling steps when they reached a dank hallway. Karn stopped in front of a huge wooden door with an iron handle. With a wave of his hand, the door creaked open, and Annie found herself holding her breath.

  It was completely dark as he guided her into the room, and she imagined she heard the scurrying of mice. Too bad Abra isn’t with me. At least I’d have a companion and Abra would enjoy a good chase and
a good meal.

  But then again, Karn had told her to let him know if something frightened her. Being locked in a dungeon would definitely qualify as scary.

  “Are you frightened, kitten?” he whispered near her ear as the door closed behind them.

  Annie bit her lip. She wasn’t really scared with Karn by her side, just nervous about what he had planned for her. “Not as long as you’re here.”

  Karn gave a low purr, telling her that he approved of her choice of words. “You trust me then?”

  Strangely enough she did. So far everything he’d done to her and with her had been pleasurable. Even though he’d locked away his heart, she knew inside that he was a good man, and she did trust him.

  In the next instant a torch lit the room. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light and to see that it was empty, the size of a small bathroom, with a door on the far side.

  Relief rushed through her, and then she realized she had no idea what was on the other side of the door. He led her to it and opened it with a wave of his hand.

  A gust of moist wind rushed in along with the roar of waves crashing against rocks and sand. Through the doorway she saw a path leading to the shore. They were almost level with the ocean, and it wasn’t raining any longer, just a fine mist filled the air.

  She shot Karn a look and his lips quirked. “What were you expecting, kitten?”

  Annie could tell by the look in his eyes that he’d been teasing her about the dungeon. “So you do have a sense of humor.” She smiled back at him. “I was afraid you didn’t.”

  Karn took her hand and led her down a path through the light mist that wet her cheeks and hair. Through the soft boots she could feel the shale, but it didn’t hurt her feet. The air smelled of rain mixed with salt and fish. Seaweed littered the sand near the crashing waves, but it was different than what she was used to. Rather than dark green and brown, it was yellow and orange and made for a colorful shoreline.