The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(54)
“Hm, an unfortunate circumstance living in a world with very little magic. Return us back to what we once were, a place brimming over with madness, lunacy, and folly, won’t you, my dears?”
“How?” Hatter stepped forward. “Alice has already tried that—”
He snorted, rolling his eyes to the heavens and looking like we were too stupid to be in his presence much longer. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he murmured, “You daft fools, you pay Wonderland in the only currency it ever accepted from the two of you.”
Looking at us expectantly, he waited. But I wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting at, and neither was Hatter. We both stared at him as if he’d lost his marbles.
Tossing wide his arms, he growled at the two of us. “I canna believe you’re going to make me say it. In love, you blathering simpletons! In bloody love. By the gods, you’re both unmitigated pains in me arse. But then you’ve always been. How Wonderland chose you both, I’ll never ken.”
I laughed. Because this was so achingly familiar that for just a moment, I was able to forget the pain of all that was still lost to us.
“I missed you too, Cheshire.”
“Pft.” He snorted, but just before he turned on his heel and marched off, I caught a glimmer of moisture lingering in the corners of his eyes.
Whether that grumpy cat wanted to admit it or not, he’d missed us too.
Only once we were well and truly alone did we look back at each other. Blazing in Hatter’s eyes was raw truth, honesty, and love.
“Alice, I believe I still have one question left to ask.”
I giggled, remembering that game and shocked that in this moment that’s what he’d choose to dwell on. But I shrugged and said, “Yes, my love. You do.”
Clearing his throat, he asked, “What is it that you love most in all the world?”
And finally I understood that question as I hadn’t been able to before. Touching the tip of my finger to his peaked devil’s brow, I whispered, “Our life together, Hatter. Every wonderful and impossible part of it.”
Pleasure suffused his face, and for just a moment he looked youthful and happy, practically dancing on his toes. Wrapping me up in his big strong arms, he whisked me around, holding on so tight that I could scarcely breathe, but breathing hardly mattered at a time like this.
Tilting my head back, I laughed with joy. I still ached for the loss of our child and prayed to the gods for a miracle but relished this stolen moment of pure happiness I thought I’d never feel again.
His laughter mingled with mine, and only after we’d twirled so many times I’d grown impossibly dizzy with it, he finally set me down before gently tracing his thumb across the smooth expanse of my cheek, causing a slow burn of heat to ignite deep inside me.
“Then you heard what the cat had to say,” he began with a whiskey-thick drawl, and I nodded, shivering from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet.
“Mm-hmm. I heard.” And as I laced my fingers through his and leaned up on tiptoe I whispered against the curve of his luscious lips. “Do you really think it could be that simple, my love?”
He leaned forward until the tip of his nose pressed to mine, the wash of his minty breath feathering against my mouth as he whispered, “All we can do is try our best.”
I laughed, the sound spilling from me with effervescent joy. And as I did, I began to glow golden.
Hatter’s eyes widened and his voice grew thick and scratchy. “It’s our joy, Alice. It’s our joy that brings our world alive.”
“Yes,” I breathed, sealing our words, our hearts, our minds, and soul with a kiss.
Song began to play.
Gentle at first. In the breeze. Bells. Chimes. Winds.
His large, warm hand slid up my arm, and even through the gown my body broke out in a delicious wash of goose bumps.
“Too many clothes,” he whispered between nips.
I sighed, wiggling against his large, broad form, telling him without words to fix that immediately.
But Hatter was tasting me, reacquainting himself with my form. His touch was slow, meandering, hot, and possessive. When his hand covered my breast, I hissed, and the music grew louder. Percussions and strings were added to the mix.
Creeping vines began to slowly wind up my legs, but I remembered their touch, their warmth, and I welcomed them. Happiness bloomed inside my soul as Hatter finally found the zipper at the side of my waist and slowly, so incredibly slowly, unzipped me.
I took a deep, unhindered breath the moment the wind brushed against my heated flesh.
“Dammit, Alice, want to be slow,” he mumbled and I nodded, then cried out when his hot mouth latched onto the vein on the side of my throat and he gently bit down.
We’d already had wild sex back in the underworld. But, like I’d always known, Hatter and I were incapable of anything other than wild and raw.
I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of him, and that was okay with me.
Delirious with images of him pushing his way deep inside me, I shook my head and violently shoved the jacket off his shoulders. “Softer later,” I grunted. “Want you now.”
The sounds that spilled from us mingled with the song of a slowly awakening realm, long dormant but now coming alive.
Our movements were volatile as we ripped, yanked, and shucked all clothing off each other. By the time we’d finished, we were gasping and staring at each other’s naked bodies.