Into the Madness

by A. K. Koonce

  I pause there looking at the two men who watch me intently.

  “Do you want me to go first?” Brody shrugs out of his sleek black coat, revealing the soft material of his black button up.

  My heels take a clicking step back.

  “No.” I lift my hands, unsure what to do now that I’ve gotten myself into this fantasy of a situation. I can’t think of a better dream than having two sexy men slide into a bath with me. In reality, all of this is a bit fucking much. Deep down, I want to be carefree and sexy, but it’s hard to be that person when I have no real experience. It was easy to pull Austin, Texas, behind a tree and prepare for utter disappointment. I was drunk and had plotted the moment all week.

  I’m painfully sober right now in front of these beautiful men.

  “Can you just—turn around?”

  Lighton passes Brody a look, and the shared moment makes them smile. The cat that got the canary is definitely in their features right now.

  Slowly they both turn on their heels. Brody leans a shoulder against the glass wall while Lighton waits with his hands carefully tucked into his pockets.

  The toe of one shoe presses against the back of the other, and I kick the heels off quickly. I don’t know why it feels like a race to undress before they turn around, but it does. My fingers shove off the socks caked in dry mud, and the moment I slip out of the destroyed dress, I feel lighter. And naked. Literally.

  I dip into the hot bath as fast as my pounding heart will allow. It stings against my skin, but I submerge myself deeper, not even pausing to untangle the clips of the wig from my hair. It’s easier to just leave the messy wig on and relax for now. It feels amazingly soothing. I don’t look down at the steaming water though.

  My gaze holds on them as they turn slowly around. Brody doesn’t undress, but he comes closer, touching his fingers lightly to the surface of the water. Pink light ripples out from his touch, and flower petals drift up around his palm, drifting out on the rings of shimmering pink until they’re spread all around me. The small rose petals skim against my skin, filling my nose with a beautiful scent that’s too strong to really be rose.

  When I look up, Lighton’s eyes darken to an almost black color as he looks at me from across the small room. His hands fist in the collar of his black shirt, and he pulls it away within seconds. Hard lines veer down his stomach in delicious squares.

  Shit.

  I’ve never seen a man as muscular as Lighton naked.

  And I’m about to now. I inhale deeply on a shaking breath, and the floral scent fills my lungs, making me cough just lightly.

  His fingers shove down his black skinny jeans, taking his boxers with them in an instant.

  “I guess you don’t want me to turn around,” I whisper more to myself than anyone.

  “Mmm and miss the look on your face? Never.” His teeth sink into his lower lip as he strides toward me.

  You know when someone points to an enemy, and you try real discreetly not to look but fail miserably? Lighton’s cock is the enemy right now.

  I fail. Miserably.

  My lashes flutter as I look to his face, down, look to his gorgeous face, look down, finally catch sight of—fuck. I swallow the moment I see it.

  Fun fact that I haven’t admitted to anyone here: I’m a virgin.

  Between being labeled the Sick Girl and losing my mom earlier this year, I’ve never had a normal sexual experience.

  A rush of restless energy soars through my veins all at once, giving me a heady feeling as I breathe in the warm bath water. In this moment of knowing my cancer returned just last month, I want that experience.

  And Lighton looks like the guy who wants to give it to me.

  Even if I weren’t inexperienced—I mean, there was that time sophomore year of high school that Jared Porter fingered me for a grand total of four minutes in his car before dropping me off from our date, but that hardly counts—but even if I weren’t inexperienced, I’d think that Lighton’s is impressive. It arches up toward his lean stomach, and he smiles when I finally meet his eyes again.

  “Like what you see?” He licks his lips slowly.

  I close my mouth with a snap and wet my lips before pushing a look of indifference into my features. “I’ve seen better.”

  I. Have. Not.

  That casual smirk is still in place when he lifts his leg over the edge of the tub and sinks down at my side. An odd silver chain bracelet is all he wears, his arms spread out along the edge of the tub as he relaxes, his fingers nearly touching my shoulder. My lashes close slowly as I take a deep breath of the warm, intoxicating water. My fingers glide distractedly through the hundreds of red, glittering petals as another wave of strange, slow emotions swirl through me. It’s the most alluring but confusing sensation.

  It’s a drunken energy that’s soothing and tiring all at the same time.

  Brody comes closer, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. Tattoos line his left arm. A weird rabbit that reminds me of a nineties band is on his forearm with the green mushroom from Mario just beneath it and then other brightly colored whimsical animals and symbols drift up from his wrist and sneak beneath the line of his shirt sleeve. If I didn’t know he wasn’t a Jane Austen gentleman, I do now.

  He sits at the edge of the bath, never undressing, only letting his fingers slice through the water, creating more and more pink blooming ripples with every move of his hand. When I look up at him, he’s inhaling another cigarette to his lips again. A perfect ring is blown out on a steady exhale. He sends ripples through the shimmering red petals, and another strong waft of that alluring scent fills my lungs. The smoke, the water, it’s all an addicting taste that I know I shouldn’t submerge myself into the way that I am.

  My eyes close slowly once more. Brody led me here. He’s fully clothed and keeping a nice distance between us… I wonder if the look he passed Cat meant anything. I can’t really picture the two of them together. She’s too eccentric, and he’s too proper.

  On and on my mind drifts about to most mundane things.

  I wonder if Kais will join us for a bath soon… Everyone has to bathe sometime, right? Why am I so obsessed about his cleanliness all of a sudden?

  Because I want him dirty…

  Yeah. That’s definitely the real reason.

  “You’re not the One-est One they’re looking for, are you, Madison?” Brody’s tone is calming as he takes another puff, his fingers trailing through the water between Lighton and the wall.

  I blink up at him, and my mind feels tired now. Sleepy.

  A smile pulls at my lips as I consider that title. One-est. One-east, Onest. Wontst. A giggle tumbles from my lips, and Lighton laughs maniacally with me, his slick fingers skimming down the side of my shoulder. At the small contact of his skin against mine, I come closer to him, my body drifting through the water that’s feeling a bit too thick now.

  My body thrums when my legs meet his, and he wastes no time pulling me onto his lap. Tingles like I’ve never felt wash over me as cool air meets my breasts. Water trickles down my skin when I lift slightly to straddle myself over Lighton’s lean hips. He smiles that alluring smile of his, but his hands hold in place against my hips.

  What I wouldn’t do to feel his hands all over. To let his fingertips explore every part of my body in the slowest possible way.

  And then my core settles against the thickness of his cock.

  Fuck his fingers. Fingers are overrated. This, this is what I never knew I needed. I shift over his length, letting the underside of his cock brush against my clit just right. We both exhale an unsteady breath, inhaling more of that sweet scent of the water.

  “Is it big? It’s big isn’t it? What’s the average for men, eight, nine inches?” I whisper my question to him, my eyes widening as if it’s hard to keep focused on his gentle amber eyes.

  Lighton and Brody both laugh at my words, but I don’t know why.

  “Mmm, you’re just innocent enough to make me think you are Alice,” Lighto
n says in a quiet voice tinged with sadness. “I know Kais hopes you are. I hope you’re not.”

  “Why?” I breathe out that word as his palms start to wash away the dirt against my skin. Long fingers glide along my throat, his thumb skimming against my jaw in such a delicate way it causes the air in my lungs to catch.

  My thundering heart becomes louder when his fingers dip down, barely skimming the curve of my breast before coming back up to my collarbone.

  My heartbeat is still fluttering even as he says the strangest thing. Stranger than usual, I mean.

  “Because if you’re Alice, you’ll hate me soon enough.”

  Eight

  I’m still staring down at the beautiful man with his confusing words and charming smile. He always says the most confusing things with the sweetest smile on his lips. I can’t make sense of it.

  Nothing here makes sense. My head is pounding, and I can’t seem to think straight to save my life.

  “You’re the hare, aren’t you?” My voice sounds far off, my mouth hovering just above his.

  He’d be a good kisser, I bet.

  “I’m a man. Sometimes. Sometimes I’m a man.”

  His fingers catch in my wig, pulling at it until his brow creases.

  “And sometimes?” My fingers push along the dark stubble of his jaw. The lighting flecks golden colors among the dark. Golden just like his long hair that’s tied back from his face. He has a man bun. I wonder if man buns were popular during the time he was on…what did Cat call it? The surface. I wonder if they were popular when he was on the surface or if he’s just naturally sexy like this.

  “Sometimes I’m a man. Sometimes a rabbit. Sometimes I’m nothing more than smoke in the wind. Depends on what the occasion calls for. Job for the dress you want, not for the dress you have and all that.”

  I arch an eyebrow at him, but a smile pulls at my lips.

  Kais is the white rabbit obsessed with time, and Lighton is…that other manic one that drinks too much tea. The March Hare.

  “So you are the hare?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he whispers.

  We’re smiling at one another, running our fingers all over each other’s bodies slowly until we’re just breathing each other in with the warm delicious floral scent of the water. His fingers hesitate when they slide over my collarbone. He holds my gaze as his fingertips trail lower and lower and lower, tracing down along the water droplets against my skin. The water and the feel of his light touch is enough to make me shiver.

  His palm just grazes over my breast when the door opens, drifting cold wind over my heated skin instantly.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Kais’s glaring gaze shifts from Brody who’s watching me in his friend’s arms to Lighton who still hasn’t taken his eyes off of me to notice the angry man storming into the room.

  “We’re questioning the enemy for you, of course,” Lighton says with that sensual smile pulling at his lips. White teeth give a full perfect smile among his scruffy beard, and my heart flutters at the sight of his happiness.

  “Yes, this looks like a very standard interrogation.” Kais’s jaw tightens, and his stormy eyes only lose track of that anger for a second when his gaze dips low to follow the movement of Lighton’s fingertips sweeping so slowly across my nipple.

  When my breath catches, Lighton smirks, his gaze held fully on me, focused for possibly the first time since I met him.

  Lighton’s hands rise, and he wipes away something on my cheeks before pushing his fingers…under my wig instead of through my hair. Another crease of his brow as his hands stay locked in place between the clips and the mesh.

  Oh. That’s awkward.

  “She’s Alice, okay? Stop trying to fuck her before the King’s sister cuts your cock off. The numbers are red. She’s Alice.” Kais’s voice grows louder, interrupting the haze in my mind as I look up at the scowling man. “Her socks were white, her hair is blonde, you can see she’s Alice.”

  And that’s the last straw.

  With a huff, my fingers tangle into the matted blonde locks. My scalp stings as the clips pull against my hair. I actually really liked that wig. Strands of my hair had started to fall out just this week from the chemo. The wig was thick and beautiful where my hair was thinning.

  I swallow down my self-consciousness at revealing my red hair that’s plastered against my head. It used to be so damn shiny. Long and beautiful. It’s still long, but it hasn’t been pretty since I was a little girl.

  I toss that stupid wig and the little black headband at Kais’s feet. Before he can yell about it anymore, I dip my head under water. I slip away from Lighton and his fantastic cock and push my hands through my hair over and over and over again. I push at it until the sweat and the dirtiness is gone, and all that’s left is the sinking feeling that I’ll never be a normal woman. I’ll never be that pretty girl that gets to make fun mistakes with a guy like Lighton.

  A part of me will always be that bitter Sick Girl.

  When my face surfaces and I breathe in the steamy warm air, I’m met with the rage of Kais’s gaze.

  “Are you fucking crazy? Put this shit back on before you get us all killed.”

  I never thought he could be more on edge than he already was.

  Until now.

  Nine

  Kais

  I swear this woman’s going to fuck up a Kingdom as well as a rebellion.

  History is full of beautiful women making stupid men do stupid fucking things to the point of destruction. That’s what I see when I look at this beautiful fucking woman: destruction.

  It’s in all of us, really. I’ve seen the darkest parts of the world. War might be riddled with death, but there are far worse things than dying.

  I see dark things when I look at this innocent girl with the big green eyes.

  And right now, I need her to play this part for all it’s worth.

  “Put the fucking animal pelt back on.”

  “Animal pelt?” Her upper lip curls. She does that a lot when she speaks to me. She looks at Lighton with interest and curiosity. She looks at me like I do nothing but confuse and disgust her all at the same damn time. “It’s a wig. Human hair.”

  “That only makes it worse, Prospect.”

  Lighton and Brody both nod in unsubtle agreement.

  I consider my little pet name for her. I can’t bring myself to call her by her name when I know she’ll change it. They always do. Everyone’s so quick to change themselves here.

  I also can’t bring myself to call her Alice though either. It’s a lie and I know it. I knew it the moment I met her and she was out of her mind babbling about fucking orgasms of all things.

  It’s easier if I just pretend she’s a nameless newcomer to me. I’ll call this confusing woman Prospect until the day she marries the King.

  And she will marry the King.

  Light shines off of her deep red locks, and I notice how far she’s sunken down into the intoxicating Rosen Bath since I entered the room. I hate how much I keep thinking about her breasts pushed up against Lighton’s chest.

  Were they fucking?

  I shake my head at the drifting thought that I can’t seem to push aside.

  Brody is a cocksucker for giving her a drug she doesn’t even realize is absorbing slowly through her skin with each minute that ticks by.

  “Get out of the Rosen. Put the hair back on and do not take the fucking thing off again.” My voice is more growling than I intended, but she doesn’t even blink at the sound of it.

  I need to calm down. I need us to be friends of sorts. But she’s such a fucking mess she makes it impossible for me to breathe easy without wondering what she’s diving face first into next.

  Like Lighton’s cock.

  “I’m actually enjoying myself. Maybe I’ll stay here for a while. Maybe I’ll never leave the Rosen. Maybe as the future Queen of Lust”—she winces at that strange title but carries on—“maybe I’ll demand my loyal subjects to…entert
ain me right here.” She sends a sultry smile at Lighton, and when he smirks back at her, anger strikes right through me. He shifts, pushing off from his spot near the edge to glide toward her.

  My hand grips his slick shoulder, sloshing him right back in place in an instant.

  “Get. Out. Of. The. Fucking. Bath. Madison.” My jaw clenches. Her eyebrow arches.

  Everything with her is a fight. Nothing is easy.

  I hoped she’d be resilient not impossible.

  “Don’t be an asshole, Rabbit.” Lighton turns his ridiculous amusement on me, and when he smiles, it takes everything in me not to knock my fist into his messy mind. “Join us. But—enter at your own risk, she thinks nine inches is very average.”

  Did I say she was impossible? I meant unbearable.

  Brody and Lighton exchange a quiet laugh, and I’m still glaring down at the two of them. If she lingers for another twenty minutes in the Rosen, she’ll be as crazy as Lighton.

  That’s it. I’m done. Play time is over.

  I shove past Lighton, over Brody’s trailing fingertips. Warm water saturates my pants as I stomp into it. It sloshes over the edges in heaps. A creaking sound comes from the flooring, but I ignore it. My fingertips meet her slick curves, and for the second time tonight, I toss her over my shoulder. This time, it’s harder to find a platonic place to grip ahold of her. My palms slide against her thighs, and I’m all too aware of how close my hand is to her hot pussy. My boots skate against the bath as her screech echoes through the room.

  “I knew you’d want her for yourself. You can’t be a hero with an erection, Kais.” Lighton’s fucking words trail after me as I carry her to the door, suddenly aware of just how hard my dick actually is.

  When Lighton Farrow makes an accurate statement, it’s startling. Why can’t he be right about something else? Anything else.

  Before I rush away from him, I grab a white towel and toss it over the distracting curve of her ass as I head out into the night air.