King of Spades (3 page)

The first week after Alice’s disappearance, while she searched for her twin, Alexi had hired movers to bring all of Alice’s belongings from that little apartment she’d lived in with her asshole ex-fiancé. Everything had been moved in and was ready for Alice, when Alexi found her sister.

But she never did.

Shoving back the painful memories, Alexi reached the small concrete landing and grasped the old-fashioned brass door handle and paused. She almost didn’t want to go into the house…to be alone again. She breathed deeply of the smells of ocean and fresh cut grass and allowed herself to enjoy the cool wind lifting her hair from around her face. A foghorn floated through the night along with the clanging sound of a ferry’s bell.

After unlocking the door, she let herself into the dim interior lit only by a colorful stained glass lamp on a small table in the foyer. One of Annie’s beautiful seascape oil paintings graced the wall just above the table. Alexi locked the door behind her, then started to slip her jacket from her shoulders. Familiar odors of cinnamon potpourri and lemon furniture polish surrounded her, and she almost imagined she could smell the rose-scented lotion Alice used to use.

But then Alexi caught smells that didn’t belong, and she dropped her jacket to the carpeted floor in a rush, freeing her arms. The unfamiliar scents set her senses on alert because they didn’t belong in her home…wildflowers, sunshine, and a fresh mountain breeze. Pleasant, yes, but they shouldn’t have been there.

Her purse still hung from her shoulder, and she slipped her hand inside until her fingers met the cool mace canister. Hair prickled at her nape while she withdrew the canister. Slowly she let her purse slide to the carpeted floor where it landed with a soft thud. Her heart pounded, and the pleasant buzz she’d had vanished.

An eerie blue glow flared from the direction of Alexi’s bedroom.

Anger burned in her gut. Someone was in her home and she was going to kick the person’s ass. She might not know
tai chi
like her Aunt Awai, but Alexi worked out, she had mace, and she had a hell of a temper that more than made up for her lack of martial arts knowledge.

Mace held high in her left hand, Alexi gritted her teeth and silently eased down the plush carpeted steps and through the living room. She clenched her right hand into a fist, prepared to deck the sonofabitch once she nailed him with the mace.

All her senses were on high alert, and her ankles didn’t even wobble in the killer heels. When she reached the bedroom door she waited a second, then peeked around the door frame.

A giant mirror stood where her bed should be. An incredibly beautiful mirror with an ornate frame that glittered in the strange blue glow now filling her bedroom. Sparkles flashed amongst the blue misty glow, looking as though Tinkerbell had come for a visit.

What the hell?

Anger and confusion mingled with curiosity as Alexi moved toward the mirror. The bead fringe along her blouse caressed her belly as a breeze seemed to come from
inside
the mirror and out into the bedroom. Her steps faltered and she wondered if maybe she’d gotten a whole lot more buzzed than she’d originally thought. She had to be hallucinating—all of this.

When she finally reached the mirror she stood face-to-face with her reflection. Her almond-shaped turquoise eyes, her auburn hair, her hand held high, still gripping the mace. What was she going to do, mace her mirror image?

The whole moment was bizarre and surreal, and Alexi was sure she’d lost her grip on reality. Hell, maybe her sanity, too. She let the canister slip from her fingers and it gave a soft thump as it landed on the carpet. The gold bracelet on her wrist glittered in the room’s eerie light as she raised her hand and placed her palm flat against the mirror’s surface. It was smooth, but surprisingly warm to her touch.

It sure didn’t feel like a hallucination.

Her reflection rippled and changed and Alexi’s knees almost gave out.

A mountain meadow appeared, surrounded with thick forest to the left, a ridge of mountains to the right, and lots of wildflowers scattered through thick grass. A cool breeze washed over Alexi, fluttering the bead fringe at her belly and chilling the gold tiger charm at her navel. In the distance water tumbled down a steep mountainside and she heard the rumble of the falls and birds twittering. Rich scents swept over her with the breeze…smells of pine, damp forest loam, wildflowers, and fresh water.

Okay, she was certifiable. Call the funny farm, because Alexi O’Brien had done lost it. No more beer for her—crappy tasting stuff, anyway. She might as well just curl up on the floor, take a nap, and sleep it off.

A man moved into her mirror view, and Alexi thought she was going to scream.

That or orgasm, because he was the most gorgeous, most dangerous looking man she’d ever seen…and his penetrating green eyes were staring right at her, as if he could
see
her.

Alexi’s nipples tightened beneath her scanty midriff top, her pussy flooded, and her clit ached.
Damn
this was one fine hallucination.

The man held up a golden playing card and the muscles of his bare chest and arms rippled with power. His features were strong and chiseled and his long wood-brown hair stirred around his shoulders in the breeze. He looked bad to the bone from the gold earring he sported in his left ear to the tattoo of a spade on his left wrist, to—
hold on
—to that one hell of a package between his powerful black-clad thighs. She’d bet he’d be man enough to take her on. Maybe even man enough to tie her up and give her one hell of a ride.

Alexi sucked in her breath and pressed her palm tighter to the mirror.
Damn. If he were real I’d fuck him in a heartbeat.

The hallucination man’s lips quirked and Alexi thought she’d climax just from the sinfully sensual movement.

Time to get out the vibrator.

With a twist of his fingers, the golden card vanished. On his side of the mirror, he raised his hand and placed his palm against Alexi’s.

Shock tore through her at the feel of his warm, calloused hand against her palm. When his fingers interlocked with hers, Alexi gasped and tried to free herself, but he was too powerful.

The man pulled, and she stared in horrified fascination as her hand and wrist slipped
into
the mirror. It felt like she was being drawn through a Jell-O wall.

She struggled for real then, fighting to get away from his grip. “Let me go, you sonofabitch!”

A predatory rumble rose up from the man and he yanked her arm. Alexi screamed and pitched forward, right through the mirror.

Chapter Two

The woman was a fighter, and Darronn’s cock stiffened in appreciation of her fiery spirit. Even as he drew her toward him through the looking glass, the woman struggled. Her nipples poked against the flimsy material of her clothing, and he scented her feminine heat, the desire that had flooded her while she had stared at him through the sorceress’s magical looking glass.

Fear and fury blazed in her aqua eyes as he pulled her through and she shouted, “Let me go, you sonofabitch!”

Lust raged through Darronn and he tired of waiting for his mate. With little effort, he tugged, and the woman screamed as he brought her into his arms.

“Bastard!” she shouted as she slammed her right fist into his eye and rammed her knee into his groin.

Searing pain in his cock and bollocks drove Darronn to his knees…pain unlike any he had felt in his over two hundred Tarok years. White sparks burst in his head, fire burned through his groin and fury flamed in his gut.

How dare the wench strike the King of Spades!

The woman whirled toward the looking glass and started to step through it. With a roar, Darronn shifted into his white tiger form and tackled her, knocking her sideways. He roughly pinned her shoulders to the grass with his massive paws, and had her flat on her back. Without putting all his weight on the woman, which would crush her, he settled between her thighs so that her entire body was immobile. He wasn’t about to let her kick his bollocks again, regardless of what form he was in.

“Oh, shit,” the woman whispered as she stared up at him, the smell of her fear and the throbbing pulse at her throat affirming her terror. “Nice kitty?”

Darronn roared with all the power of his species, and the woman’s face turned white as a snowburst bloom. Fear was a good place to start teaching the wench a lesson.

Alexi stared up at the tiger pinning her to the ground, and her mind hurtled through all her options. She was going to die. No…no, she wouldn’t accept death. There had to be a way to keep the beast from eating her.

Adrenalin pumped through her body, causing every inch of her to tremble. Her back ached from landing so hard on the ground and her knuckles throbbed from that punch to the guy’s eye. She dared to glance away from the tiger to where she’d decked the man—but he wasn’t there. Although the bastard didn’t seem the type to leave a woman to be a meal for a huge tiger, he must have fled when the beast jumped her.

But wait, this couldn’t be real.
Get serious, Alexi.
Falling through a mirror and now trapped beneath a giant white tiger… This was nuts. She was just having one hell of a nightmare.

Her eyes met the intense green stare of the gigantic cat and chills rolled down her spine. No dream or nightmare had ever been this real, this vivid, this intense. Pebbles poked at her backside and grass tickled the exposed flesh on her arms, the base of her neck, and her ass, since the tiny skirt was now riding up around her waist. Wind blew through the meadow, ruffling the tiger’s glossy white coat and rustling the surrounding trees. The beast’s fur was soft against her bare belly and her hips—which didn’t make sense if he was a wild animal.

“Are you someone’s pet?” Alexi asked, as if the tiger could respond. “You haven’t, er, eaten me yet.”

The beast narrowed his gaze.
I always play with my food before I dine,
came a low and powerful voice in Alexi’s mind, and she almost wet her panties.

“Some jerk must have slipped something into my drink.” Alexi closed her eyes, forcing away the all too real image, and tried to calm the frantic racing of her heart. “That’s the only explanation. I’ve been drugged and I’m just going to have to ride this out.” She paused and swallowed. “And then I’ll hunt down the bastard who did it and sue his sorry ass. Right after I kill him.”

A rumble that sounded more like a chuckle rose up from the tiger hallucination that she could no longer see because she’d closed her eyes. Most unlike the way the rational and kickass Alexi handled problems, the drunk and drugged Alexi decided there was no way to fight a hallucination, so she might as well pretend none of this was happening, and the tiger didn’t exist.

The beast’s imaginary musk was strong, its weight still pressed against her. The hallucination shifted its bulk and Alexi felt a muzzle between her breasts, the light scrape of teeth, and then heard the distinct sound of cloth ripping. A tug at the flimsy clasp of her bra, and then the rush of cool air over her breasts. Her nipples tightened to hard peaks that made her squirm.

Okay, this hallucination feels far too real. I’ve seriously gone over the edge.

A rough tongue laved one nipple, sending a thrill straight to her pussy and hardening her nipple even more.

Alexi’s eyes popped open. The tiger lifted its giant head, and if she didn’t know better, the beast was pleased with her body’s response.

The tiger hallucination sort of shimmered and started to change. To
shift
. White fur melted away to olive skin and wood-brown hair. Paws, forelegs, and tiger body changed to a naked muscled chest…and suddenly it was the gorgeous man who had yanked her through the imaginary mirror.

Giving in to the assurance that she’d totally lost all semblance of her sanity, Alexi stared up at the gorgeous face of the man she’d decked only moments before. The skin around his eye had already started to purple, and his furious expression told her he was none too pleased with her.

“You have already earned the severest of punishments.” The man’s voice vibrated through her, and sounded like the one she’d heard in her head when the tiger had her pinned. He had an unusual accent, maybe European. “You have much to learn, wench.”

“
Wench
?” Hallucination or no, she wasn’t taking that crap from anyone. Even if the timber of his voice made her pussy wet when he said the word. “My name is Alexi O’Brien—Ms. O’Brien to you, bastard. I have no intention of being punished by you or anyone else. I’m not a child, damn it.”

With a scowl the man raised up just enough to work the torn blouse and bra the rest of the way from her torso. Fear and anger drove Alexi as she attempted to fight him, but he was too fast, too strong.

When she was naked from the waist up, he grabbed both her wrists with his hands, forcing them together so that her twin gold bracelets met. When he released her, she tried to pull them apart, but somehow the gold had been welded together, shackling her.

Alexi struggled against her bonds and tried to move her legs which were still pinned beneath his weight. She gave him her fiercest glare and shouted, “Let me go, you prick.”

The man’s smile was both dangerous and sensual as he placed his palms over both her breasts and pinched her nipples. Alexi gasped and fought not to shrink away from his touch…or arch into it.

This is all too goddamn weird.

“I am Darronn, Ruler of the Kingdom of Spades,” he said as he continued to pinch and pull her nipples. “You will call me Master.”

Anger burned through Alexi at his demand. “Fuck you!” She thrust her bound arms upwards, planning to catch him on the chin, but this time he was ready for her.

The man who called himself Darronn caught her wrists, his huge hand dwarfing both of hers. He forced her arms up over her head and in one smooth move scooted up so that he straddled her, keeping her hips pinned as he responded, “Yes, I will fuck you. Many, many times. Many, many ways.”