Bound by Desire: King of Diamonds (Wonderland Book 3)

by Jaymie Holland

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  BOUND BY DESIRE

  BEGINNINGS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Cheyenne writing as Jaymie Holland

  Also by Cheyenne McCray

  Excerpt...Stranded

  Excerpt…Hidden Prey

  The Auction Series

  About Jaymie Holland

  BOUND BY DESIRE

  Wonderland Series:

  KING OF DIAMONDS

  Jaymie Holland

  WONDERLAND Series: King of Diamonds - Bound by Desire

  Copyright © 2015 Jaymie Holland

  All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any printed or electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Pink Zebra Publishing.

  e-book ISBN: 978-1-939778-67-3

  Formatting by Bella Media Management.

  Cover by Scott Carpenter at www.pandngraphics.com

  BEGINNINGS

  DEAR READER,

  The award-winning Wonderland series is back, and over sixty-five pages of new and expanded scenes have been added to Bound by Desire: King of Diamonds!

  I have more great news for Wonderland fans. As countless readers have requested, a new fifth book will be coming soon in the series, entitled Owned by Fire.

  St. Martin’s Press published Bound by Desire in print only, with the pseudonym Jaymie Holland. Ellora’s Cave published the series primarily in e-book, the third as King of Diamonds under the name Cheyenne McCray.

  Bound by Desire, as Wonderland: King of Diamonds, was given terrific reviews, including a 4-star review from the RT Book Reviews magazine.

  I hope you enjoy Bound by Desire: King of Diamonds, where futures haven’t yet been painted.

  Cheyenne McCray

  aka Jaymie Holland

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE MANSION’S WINDOWPANES RATTLED and thunder cleaved the night as a brilliant flash of lightning briefly illuminated the dim room.

  Smells of burning tallow, sandalwood, and scents of arousal from the two women in his bedchambers triggered Karn’s nostrils to flare and his cock to stiffen.

  Like a caged tiger, the ruler of the Kingdom of Diamonds paced his expansive candlelit chambers and ignored the two naked females silently waiting for him. Cool air caressed his scarred chest, and he flexed his muscles as he fought against what he was required to do. For even though he was king of his own realm, he still answered to the High King, his oldest brother, Jarronn.

  Unlike his three brothers’ castles and palaces, Karn resided in a foreboding mansion. He preferred to live in a home that was elegant, yet understated, but dark like his moods. The sea and a steep drop to the rocky cove were on one side of his mansion, with endless moors on the opposite side. The villagers lived in a valley beyond the moors.

  The people within the Kingdom of Diamonds were loyal to Karn as well as to Jarronn, the High King of Tarok. They were good people, and he did everything he could to protect them from the evil to the south.

  From Mikaela. His sister.

  The sister who had betrayed her four brothers and sought to destroy each of them.

  It had nearly destroyed them all to lose her to Balin of the Malachad realm, where she had turned against her brothers.

  Rage filled him. Not only for the loss of someone he knew and loved, but also the way they had lost her.

  Karn paused before one window and looked out into the darkness. Mikaela was in Malachad, far to the south, beyond Hearts. He had warded his mansion well and its inhabitants and his future queen would be safe from his sister, a powerful sorceress.

  Mikaela and her bakirs used mind-spells to convince women they were sterile and could not bear children. No children had been born in Tarok for many years until Alice and Alexi came to this world. The mind-spells were crippling all of the peoples of Tarok.

  The storm obscured his view of the ridge overlooking the valley and he could not see beyond that to the stormy sea. It gave the mansion a feeling of being more remote than it actually was. An exile of sorts.

  Lost in his thoughts, Karn barely spared a glance at the two cards lying face down upon the a’bin. Despite Jarronn’s orders, despite the Sorceress Kalina’s urgent plea that Karn choose a card and select his mate as his elder twin brothers had, he loathed to comply.

  He had no desire to bring a woman from another world into a loveless joining. For Karn would never love anyone outside his brothers and their mates, his nieces, and his nephews. Even to those individuals, a portion of his heart was cut off and would be known to none.

  Not after losing his parents to an incurable disease, not after losing his sister to evil insanity, not after losing the one woman he had ever given his love.

  No. He would never love again.

  Instead of the magical cards, Karn stopped pacing and focused his attention on Kalina and Aleana, his favored pleasure toys.

  Flickering candle flame danced upon the midnight-dark skin of Aleana who stood beside the a’bin, at the foot of his massive four-poster bed. Her skin was perfection, like silk made from the night sky and created for a man’s touch. A single white lock graced her long black hair, framing one side of her face as it spilled from her part, over her forehead, and down to her shoulders. The paleness of the lock was a stunning contrast to her lovely skin.

  “My beauty.” Karn moved close enough to Aleana to lightly stroke her breasts with his fingertips. He pinched one pierced nipple and she gave an excited cry. The pristine clear diamond hanging from the piercing glittered in the candlelight, casting rainbows throughout the dim room. “Do you know what I desire of you, my sweet?” he asked.

  Aleana licked her burgundy lips with the tip of her tongue, her brown eyes flashing with need. “I wish only for your pleasure, Sire.”

  While he continued to fondle Aleana’s nipple, Karn motioned to Kalina to come closer. Thunder rumbled again as the sorceress approached. With his magic, he could feel the charge in the air as the sky prepared to break loose with all its fury.

  When Kalina was close enough, Karn reached out and rubbed the pad of his thumb over her taut nipple and its diamond piercing, causing her to gasp with pleasure, too. Her voice trembled with the strength of her need. “You have little time, Sire. The path will not stay open for long.”

  “I am aware of how much time I have and do not have.” Karn’s voice held just enough reproach that Kalina lowered her fire-ice eyes.

  “Yes, Sire.”

  He let his hands fall away and he stepped back so he might better observe the beautiful women, his precious pleasure toys.

  Karn ached even more at the sight of Kalina’s ivory bod
y near Aleana’s ebony skin. It never ceased to please him to fuck the two women until they could take no more. However, he had yet to discover a partner with whom he could find complete release. Now that he was forced to choose his queen from a card, he likely never would. Even two women fully trained in sexual arts could not satisfy him. How could one woman do so—and a woman ignorant to the sensual ways of his own world, no less?

  A flash of light and then thunder boomed again.

  Long had he enjoyed taking the sorceress the times he visited the Kingdom of Hearts when she served his brother, Jarronn, and later in Spades when she had served Darronn. Now she was Karn’s, until he took his own queen, and she would then go to the youngest king, Ty.

  The sorceress’s kohl-rimmed eyes were heavy-lidded with desire, but he did not touch her. He would take both women after the draw of the card.

  He moved away from the window to the a’bin and held his hands above the two cards. The second one glowed and a jolt of sensation ran through his body and straight to his cock. The electric feeling was so intense he almost climaxed.

  Karn snatched the card up and almost lost control again as he turned it over and for the first time saw his future mate.

  Annie. The name came to him like a whisper on the wind. Her name is Annie.

  Long brown hair, a voluptuous body with curves he wanted to caress, and beguiling innocence wrapped in one delectable package. She would be his sweet kitten.

  Yes, kitten, he said in his thoughts to the woman in the card. You will be mine. Slowly he returned to the present, the card still in his hand and the sorceress and Aleana before him.

  Not the woman from the card.

  He no longer desired Aleana or Kalina. Only the woman called Annie would do.

  The sorceress’s pleased expression told him that she was satisfied with his response.

  Karn felt a mixture of irritation and intrigue. He hadn’t expected anything, much less such a strong wave of sensation. He stood, moved to the window, and gazed out into the stormy night. Lightning illuminated his realm, a land slipping into spring. Thunder boomed and windowpanes rattled again.

  “It is time,” he murmured under his breath. “It is time.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  ANNIE TRAVIS SQUEEZED A DAB OF navy-blue paint onto her palette, her hand trembling slightly as memories of the past two years threatened her creative energy. First, her cousin Alice had disappeared, and then exactly a year later to the day, Alice’s twin, Alexi, vanished.

  The note. Remember the note, Annie reminded herself as she screwed on the tube’s lid and put the paint back into her artist’s toolbox. The room smelled of her paints and of the unlit cranberry and spice candles in her apartment. Her cat, Abracadabra, curled around Annie’s ankles and warmed her bare feet.

  She tossed her braid over her shoulder and stared at the large blank canvas that was five feet high and four feet wide. She had no idea why she’d purchased one this size—it was certainly too big to put on the wall of her apartment. Perhaps it would look good in Aunt Awai’s condo, depending on what scene Annie came up with. Something stirred in the back of her consciousness. It was as if her mind was already working on what she wanted to paint, and she just needed to give it a little more time to gel.

  Abra gave a little “Meow,” as if reminding Annie she was supposed to be painting and not moping over her missing cousins. Annie absently reached down from her stool to rub behind the calico cat’s ears until Abra purred and nuzzled Annie’s bare feet.

  With a smile, Annie pushed her wire-rimmed half-glasses up the bridge of her nose, then selected a paintbrush with heavy bristles. For a moment, she glanced away from her canvas to the window. She had tied back the curtains so she could clearly see the rare sunny San Francisco day, the sky a cerulean blue with just a few wisps of transparent clouds streaking the horizon.

  She lived with only Abra for company, right off the beach in Pacifica, a suburb of San Francisco. Year-round, the Pacific Ocean in the Bay Area was too darn cold for anyone to brave it without wetsuits, but Annie wasn’t much into water sports anyway. She’d chosen the apartment because rent was cheaper here than in the city, and because she loved to watch and to experience the ocean, with all of her artist’s senses. The dark push and pull of the waves, the way they crested pearl-white when the water was rough and slammed onto the beach, the stark black cliffs against slate blue waters, and the tang of salt and brine in the air.

  Today she was attempting to portray the sunny beauty outside and get her mind off of her missing twin cousins.

  Yellow. Bright, happy, relaxing…

  She sighed. Not working.

  A few months after Alexi’s disappearance, Annie had gone to the twins’ townhouse to clean it out for the landlord and to put her cousins’ belongings into storage. When she’d walked into Alexi’s bedroom, Annie found a rolled-up piece of parchment tied with a black ribbon on Alexi’s bedspread. A spade crest was stamped onto a wax seal.

  After Annie had removed the tie, broken the seal, and unrolled the note, she saw that it was a note written in Alexi’s bold scrawl. It even looked as if she had used a quill, of all things—there were a couple of smudges and a blob of ink at one corner.

  A kaleidoscope of emotions had whirled through Annie when she’d first read the note. Uncertainty, disbelief, and hope. Definitely hope.

  Dragging herself back to the present, Annie set her paintbrush onto her easel and slipped one hand into the pocket of her smock to retrieve the parchment. She didn’t know why she’d taken it from her nightstand this morning. Maybe it was for the comfort it gave her to read the words she was sure Alexi had penned. It was as if her cousin was talking to her, reassuring her.

  Annie’s hands were steadier now as she slipped the black tie from around the note and let the ribbon fall to the floor. The parchment felt thick and coarse to her fingertips as she smoothed it out on her lap and read it for at least the hundredth time.

  Dear Annie and Aunt Awai,

  Please don’t worry about Alice and me. It’s a very long story, and it’s one I hope to tell you one day in person. But for now know we’re both safe, and we’re both happy. It’s likely we won’t be able to see you until another “path” opens between us. I know this all sounds cryptic, but please trust me.

  So that you’ll know it’s me and not someone else: Annie, remember the time Alice and I accidentally turned your hair orange when we were teenagers? We were grounded most of our eighth grade year over that one. Never thought you’d forgive us. Have you?

  And Awai, I bet you’ll never forget the time we broke that unusual tall glass cylindrical sculpture we found in your bedroom. Of course it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I ran across one in an erotic boutique and learned it was a glass cock. Go, Auntie!

  Hugs and kisses from both Alice and me. I found her! Well, more or less. Anyway, you can imagine how happy I am. I only wish that you could be here with us.

  I also wish they had computers here, and e-mail. This ink stick is frickin’ hard to write with.

  All our love,

  Alexi and Alice

  A smile tugged at the corner of Annie’s mouth, while at the same time tears burned behind her eyes. Amused and sad—the two emotions blended like discordant colors. She shook her head as she retrieved the black ribbon from Abra who had pounced on it when it fell on the floor, and promptly attacked it.

  “Listen, you little imp,” Annie said as she leaned down and snatched the ribbon from Abra. Annie rolled the note and tied it while trying to keep the cat from untying it again. “This is my ribbon and you can’t have it.”

  Okay, so she had no life. Outside of teaching, her daily conversations consisted of talking to a cat and painting.

  While she tucked the parchment into her smock, hiding it from Abra’s mischievous paws, Annie wondered yet again who “they” were—the people that Alice and Alexi were with. “They” were probably some kind of cult, which was what the police department had conclu
ded even without the note. Annie had showed it to Awai only, for fear that the police would take it and lose it somewhere in all the shuffle of paperwork. That note was too important—it was her only link to her cousins.

  Yeah, the twins were likely hidden up in the Tahoe area in some kind of back-to-nature commune. Yet, Annie couldn’t believe that Alexi could possibly have been brainwashed enough to live with a cult—she was too damn pigheaded, stubborn, modern, not to mention so black and white that she didn’t allow for gray areas. Alice had a gentler side that could be more easily swayed than Alexi, but Alice had her own brand of stubborn, too.

  Even with the note, though, Annie had never stopped her search for her twin cousins. She had hired private investigator after private investigator, but every lead turned up empty. It was as if her cousins had vanished to another planet or something.

  Using her free hand, Annie pulled her smock and T-shirt away from her breasts to allow a little cool air to flow through. It was an unusually warm day, and sweat had beaded on her skin. She had very large breasts to go along with her size 16-18 figure, and when she was home she preferred to go with no bra.

  Even though she was inexperienced sexually, she had plenty of fantasies. It made her feel naughty and kind of sexy to be clad only in her white T-shirt and black jeans, with no underwear on at all.

  An ache developed between her thighs and her nipples tightened as a thought crossed her mind—she should try taking off all her clothes and painting in the nude. Should she?

  Why not? No one would see.

  But what if someone stops by?

  Well, she’d settle for leaving her jeans on and taking off only her shirt.

  Annie whipped off her smock and pulled her T-shirt over her head, causing her braid to flip over her shoulder again. She tossed the shirt and smock onto the taupe leather couch behind her.

  Closing her eyes, Annie brought her hands to her breasts, allowing her fantasies to take over. As usual, a dark, mysterious, faceless man filled her thoughts. As she imagined his hands on her nipples, she tweaked and tugged at them, feeling a response shoot down to her folds. She moved her hips in time with the movements, causing her jeans to rub against her clit as she imagined the man licking and sucking her.