“Aeric?” She glanced at him shyly as they walked toward the same clearing he’d once held Lissa in after her abduction.
“Hmm?” He handed her licorice stick he’d just plucked from a bush. She loved licorice, funny, because Lissa had hated it.
Nibbling on its tip, she gave him a grateful smile and his heart thumped in his chest. Her shy glances and sweet smiles were coming to mean so much to him.
“You once asked me if you were even in Wonderland.”
Nodding, he thinned his eyes. “I remember.”
Taking another bite of the candy, she swallowed before asking, “Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess the way you shifted the land on me that night, left me stranded inside of a field of sinkholes.” He poked her in the side.
Making a sound between a snort and a laugh she swatted at his hand. “That was wrong of me. I never did tell you I was sorry.”
“No.” He shook his head, tugging her in for a hug. “I know why you did it, it’s not even an issue for me.”
Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “You’ve given me a gift, and now I want to give you one too.”
Stepping out of his arms she wiggled her fingers as he’d seen her do before. And for a second he recalled that each time she’d done it something bad had happened. But not this time. This time the sun was shining down upon them, the clouds were cotton tail white and the sky a robin egg blue. Suddenly there was music. A tinkling merry sound that brought an instant smile to his face and before them an image—like an oasis mirage—shimmered into focus.
Revealing a large, golden carousal full of whimsically carved creatures sliding up and down beneath its red and white striped dome. There were white rabbits dressed in livery, a mouse wearing a vest, a caterpillar with a dress for a body, a large orange stripped tabby sat beside a blue one with a jeweled collar. Every creature he’d seen and known while here.
Holding her hands together she looked at him and he knew, understood deep in his soul that she was nervous of his reaction. Of what it might be.
Grabbing her hands, he kissed each knuckle. “It’s beautiful.”
Lips twisting, she pointed. “Do you want to ride with me?”
“I would love to.”
Up and down they rode, he on the caterpillar, she on the white rabbit.
Her face was joyful, exuberant and it was all Aeric could do not to stare at her in wonder. It’d taken months, but Chrysalis had finally come out of her shell. She was still painfully awkward and shy, but none of it bothered him.
Grabbing her hand, he brought it to his lips as the world swirled around them in a dazzling array of color and sound.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered and her head whipped toward his.
Suddenly the ride stopped as her breathing hitched. “Me?” Her fingers touched her chest.
Dropping from his seat, he moved into her, still hanging onto her hand. “You.”
Then she was standing beside him and the carousel was gone, the clearing was as it’d once been and yet everything was different. The air was charged and prickled upon his flesh.
Her hand shook when she placed it against his rapidly beating heart.
He grabbed it.
“Don’t you mean, Lissa?”
“No.”
The world seemed pregnant with wonder and possibility as he gazed at the same heart shaped face he’d fallen in love with all over again.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “But I’m weird and so socially inept, doesn’t it bother you?”
He laughed and flicked at her nose. “None of you bothers me.”
“Really? You’re not embarrassed to be around me? Or—”
“Chrysa, never.” And when he kissed her she threw all of herself into it.
She wasn’t practiced, her touches were exploratory and tentative, nor was she wild like his Lissa. Chrysalis approached this as she approached everything in her life. With caution and thought and he let her do whatever she wanted to him.
Her fingers were warm as they slid beneath the fabric of his shirt, tracing the ridges of his stomach. Groaning, his thighs shook and he quickly led them to the soft grass beneath.
Rolling on top of him, she continued to explore him. Kissing his jaw and chin, running her tongue along the curve of his neck, making him hiss as she nipped at his nipple.
Glancing up at him as if unsure whether she’d hurt him he quickly shook his head. “It’s good, Chrysa,” he said in a throaty voice.
Nothing moved fast, she took her time learning him. Pushing the shirt up until she’d exposed enough of his flesh to lick and nibble her way across and he couldn’t stop from moaning, from arching his back as all the blood in his body rushed between his thighs.
At one point she must have been aware of the firm rod poking into her backside because her eyes widened and a blush stole across her cheeks when she looked down at him. They were still fully dressed. Reaching out a hand she grabbed hold of him.