Danny wasn’t the type to need anything like that. He was creative, passionate and full of laughter, but responsible as well. He’d put himself through school, was an editor for a well-known publisher and wrote fantasy fiction in his spare time.
The sex between them had been fantastic. Danny was eager and willing to experiment with role-play. But even better, for Kansas anyway, he’d said he wanted to be an equal partner in his life. To make their own family. Something Kansas had always longed for.
He wanted that magic he’d been told his parents had before they’d disappeared, leaving his uncle as his guardian.
For a while, it looked like he was going to get it. But he wasn’t enough.
A handful of forgiven “slips” with other men, a drained bank account and countless empty apologies later, Kansas finally understood he’d been played. The last straw came when he caught Danny in their bed with a stranger, laughing about how generous and gullible his rich boyfriend was. How he let him get away with anything.
How the mediocre sex was worth it, for that alone.
Despite his pain, he’d been generous at the end too. He’d left Danny the apartment and the convertible he’d given him for his birthday. He hadn’t needed anything to remind him what a fool he’d been. It wasn’t a lesson he planned on forgetting.
His inheritance and investments ensured Kansas would never have to work another day in his life, so he just stopped. He’d packed up his broken heart and headed to the family homestead in Iowa, where he’d been born.
A few years of renovating the farmhouse and filling it with everything a modern day hermit would need insured his isolation and self-sufficiency. He was grateful for time alone to heal.
And then, as it has a tendency to do, time passed.
Five years had slipped away so quickly. All spent alone because Kansas couldn’t trust himself not to make another mistake. Couldn’t allow himself to hope again.
The kind of love he used to dream of didn’t exist for him. There was no mate for his soul, no perfect match. No magic.
Not everyone got the happy ending. His uncle hadn’t. His best friend didn’t believe in it. Now, neither did he.
Ahhhh. Soooo saaad. Shhhh. It’sss okaaay.
“Wha—” He slid beneath the water in shock, coming up sputtering and gasping for air as he whipped his head around, searching for the voice. “Who’s there? Lenard?”
A watery chuckle bubbled around his arms. He looked down. “Please don’t tell me the water just spoke to me.”
Nooo feeear. We know youuu. Why doooo we knoooow you?
“This isn’t happening and you definitely don’t know me.”
We dooo. Let usss make youuu haaappy.
“Us? What are you doing? Oh, shit, wait—”
The water pressed Kansas against the rock wall of the waterfall, the green liquid forming tendrils that wrapped around his chest, his waist, and his cock. “I appreciate this, I do, but I’m fine. This really isn’t necessARY!” The word ended on a shout as a mouth of warmer water swallowed the head of his hardening shaft.
He parted the water with his hands, certain he would find a body attached to that powerful mouth, but he saw nothing. Only the glowing water swirling around him. Caressing him. Arousing him.
Nooo shame. Not fooor the Kansaas. Heeee is speciaaal.
“Shit.” He wasn’t special. He wasn’t… Oh God, that felt good. How long had it been since something other than his own palm stroked his cock? “This is so wrong.”
Maagic in thisss one. Hidddden.
“No.” He closed his eyes and arched his hips, giving in to the exquisite sensations. Tongues lapped his nipples, his balls, nibbled on the cheeks of his ass. The tendrils formed a hand that stroked his erection. “Yes. Oh fuck, yes.”
A loud rumbling purr had him lifting his lids to meet Fenna’s knowing gaze. She was sitting at the edge of the pool on Lenard’s lap, his hand covering her breast as they watched him.
“It looks like you get special treatment after all. Don’t mind us, sea eyes.”
Kansas was held still by the powerful pull of the water. He watched, mesmerized as Lenard lay on his back at the edge of the pool. His clawed hands positioned Fenna astride him, her back to the Felix. He couldn’t look away as the young feline lowered Fenna slowly onto his thick cock and began to fuck her.
So damn wrong.
The sentient water wrapped around his erection matched Lenard’s rhythm. The liquid mouth rippled and vibrated around his cock. It felt like a throat swallowing him down, a fist squeezing like a vise around him.
An animal growl drew his attention to Lenard. His face tight, more alien in his ecstasy. He was looking directly at Kansas, his expression unmistakable.
He would fuck him too, if Kansas agreed.
He pressed his palms back against the slick rocks, his feet digging into the small pebbles beneath him, seeking purchase when the water began to slap excitedly against his flesh, quickening with the pace of Lenard’s thrusts.
Yourrr tassste. Ssso different. Speciaaal.
How could he be expected to think while the water was separating the cheeks of his ass? When the distinct shape of a tongue was pressing against the tight, long neglected ring of muscles to push inside? He was lost.
He’d rarely let anyone top him, but he wasn’t immune to the powerful feelings rocking him as the phallic-shaped liquid filled his ass, taking him harder than he ever would have allowed a partner to take him before. Pounding against him with the force of a small tsunami.
“Fuck, yes!”
Fuuck yees. Heee will waaant you.
The water flipped him onto his back and he looked up in surprise as it formed into the shape of a man. Bald, beautiful, and well muscled. It pushed his legs up until his knees were digging into his shoulders and took him, even harder than before.
“God, that’s hot,” he muttered, before his neck arched, mouth opening on a soundless cry as his watery lover found his prostate and hammered it without mercy.
So good. How could this feel so good?
He came hard, his release instantly washed away by the churning water around him. The water that had taken the shape of the sexiest man he’d ever seen in his life. The climaxing screams of his guides joined his own low groans and he didn’t even care that they’d been watching. It felt too. Fucking. Good.
Welcooome hooome.
He lay back on the cool wet stone, utterly boneless. The body melted away but the water kissed his chin and snuggled against him affectionately. Kansas sighed. The aftershocks of his release still shuddered through his limbs and already he wanted more. What the hell was wrong with him?
This had been no more than glorified masturbation, no matter how real those mouths had felt. How solid and hard that cock had been inside him. He ran his hands softly through the water, palms curved in apology for his thoughts.
S’okaaay, speciaaal onnne. You are meant forrr the kiiing.
He suddenly wondered if they had liquor in this world. He could really use a drink right now. He turned his head toward Fenna and Lenard, watching them splash each other playfully, waiting for them to look his way.
“I’m not complaining but… Is this gonna happen every time I take a bath?”
Chapter Three
“Fenna. Those men are wearing clothes. I need pants or I’m not going one step further.”
Kansas was pissed. He’d half expected to wake up in his bed this morning, but he returned to consciousness, still trapped in the land of the crazy animal people.
Lenard said he really needed to stop calling it that or someone might be offended. But when they told him what they actually called their world, he refused to believe it, and it had him doubting his sanity once more.
“Why are you so obsessed with these pants? All your pale bits are covered. Lenard even made shoes.” Fenna rolled her eyes and gripped his hand tighter in her own spindly, long-fingered grasp, dragging him determinedly past the outer doors of the palace. �
��Trust me, Kansas, no one will care what you’re wearing. The less the better, in my opinion.”
“She makes a good point,” Lenard said, unhelpfully.
“You’re taking me to meet a king. In a castle. Filled with people wearing pants. I see your people, the Gliders? They’re wearing pants. I see people who look like Lenard wearing pants. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here.”
He stopped again, jerking the smaller Fenna to a halt. “Come to think of it, why aren’t you two wearing any clothes? No wait, don’t tell me. It’s all starting to make sense.” He ran a hand over his eyes. “It wasn’t enough to get dropped by a sadistic weather anomaly into a strange new world where every living thing and a pool of water is ready to get it on at the first opportunity, I had to land smack dab in the path of a strange nudist cult. That’s why you won’t give me pants, right? It’s against your religious beliefs?”
“Are all humans this irritating?” Fenna didn’t seem to expect an answer. Nodding to Lenard, she tugged Kansas while he pushed from behind, propelling him forward once more. “Clothing is optional in this world, sea eyes. An afterthought. The Crow Warriors who live here are just more modest than the other clans. Always have been, though we have no idea why. It’s out of respect for them and the king, who is also a Crow, that most of the visitors to the palace follow suit. A shame if you ask me. Pants are far too confining.”
The Crow Warriors were the only people he could see that looked human. Or, mostly human. Their skin was golden. Not the kind of golden that came from spending years in the sun, but a true, rich unmistakable gold. Kansas had a hard time believing it was their natural hue. Maybe they painted themselves or applied gold leafing for ritual purposes. Either way, the effect was stunning. They gleamed.
Gold skin, hair as black as night and eyes that varied in shades from whiskey to amber. If they all looked like this, it was no wonder that Lenard thought he was an unusual specimen.
Lenard wasn’t the only one. Everyone who saw him looked at Kansas with intense curiosity—some with a level of shocked surprise and fascination that made him decidedly nervous.
“If I get arrested for public indecency, I’m so taking you two with me. That goes double if anything gets cut off.” Like his head.
“Why would we arrest such an honored guest? Welcome, Kansas Frayne. I’ve been expecting you.”
Fenna froze, leaving Kansas to bump into her back as momentum pulled him forward. The towering Lenard fell to his knees, thighs spread and trembling with his ever-present arousal thrusting toward the dark haired man.
Kansas shook his head in resignation at the Felix. Did everything arouse him? Apparently. It took him a moment to register the stranger’s words, but then he stilled in surprise. “How do you know my name?”
Fenna punched his thigh as she too fell to her knees beside him. Her loud whisper echoed through the marbled hall. “Show some respect, sea eyes. The wizard is powerful and wise. And he has the ear of the king.”
The wizard? Kansas rubbed his pained leg, glaring at Fenna. “I’m not a natural kneeler.”
“That is good to know.”
He looked up to study the silently smiling man before them. There was no reason he should look familiar, but he did. Like the hazy memory of another dream. But if Kansas had ever seen him before he doubted he would have forgotten it. Those features were too distinctive. That gaze too potently sexual.
He didn’t look anything like what Kansas would have expected a court magician to look like. No bushy white beard, pointy hat or flowing robes. The wizard’s long black braid fell over one shoulder, dark facial hair thick along his jawline. His open white shirt revealed a lean golden chest, making him look more like a pirate than a sorcerer.
He’d been expecting him?
“The king is in the receiving room. As fate would have it, you’ve arrived at the perfect time. Today, subjects have come from every clan to air their grievances and pay homage to their sovereign. You will be allowed to enter the hall without issue, to tell him of your plight and make your request.”
“Request?” Kansas was mesmerized by the wizard’s sensual voice. It seemed to weave around him, beckoning him closer.
“To return home, of course.”
Kansas jerked in surprise when Fenna and Lenard both began to speak at once.
“You’re sending him back?”
“No! You can’t. We just found him!”
The wizard broke eye contact first, looking down at Fenna. “Young Glider, please take your partner and go forward to pay respects to the king. I will care for our human. You did the right thing, bringing him here. You will be properly rewarded for your loyalty.”
Lenard stood swiftly in obedience, gripping Fenna’s hand and shushing her when she would have continued to protest. Kansas watched them go, and he couldn’t help the warmth that filled him. They’d known him for only a day and already they’d shown more loyalty than most.
The king could send him home.
Kansas had doubted his sanity, he’d grumbled and groaned about the strange situation he’d been thrust into since he’d arrived here yesterday, yearned to wake up from the coma he must surely be in, but he hadn’t imagined how he would ever get back to his farm. Or that anyone here had the ability to make it happen.
He also didn’t entirely trust it.
“Fenna and Lenard are good judges of character with pure souls. I’m glad they’re the ones who found you.” The wizard slid a hand out from behind his back, wrapping slender fingers around Kansas’s forearm and guiding him down the imposing hall.
His skin tingled with static and heat at the touch. Again, a sense of familiarity and déjà vu hit him hard. Who the hell was this guy? And why was Kansas having such a hard time concentrating around him? “How do you know me?”
The wizard ignored his question and drew him into a small, empty side room filled with cloaks and partially mended clothing. “We should be able to find you something to wear in here that will make you more comfortable. From what I’ve learned so far, humans are a self-conscious, prudish people. More so than mine, which I never imagined was possible. I rather wish you’d stay as you are, but it would be too distracting for you, particularly when seeking a royal audience.”
Kansas narrowed his eyes at the smirking man studying the snug strip of cloth at his waist with undisguised interest. “I’m up here. What is in the water around here that—You know what? Don’t answer that. You know my name and you know I’m human, so either you really are some kind of magician, or you’re my subconscious trying to get me out of this delusion. So? Where’s the exit, buddy?”
“Despite your continuous claims to the contrary, this world and everyone in it is very real.” The wizard lifted one finger and a pair of brown trousers and a white shirt flew from the pile of clothes to land on the floor between them. “I am what I say. And you are the latest storm child to wash up in our world. Not the first, but the first in long enough for you to be considered an oddity.”
“An oddity? Sounds like something that ends up in a castle menagerie or in a cage.”
“I would never allow it. And, if you wish, you can go home again. After you’ve met the king.”
Kansas picked up the clothing that reminded him of a Renaissance costume and bit his lip. “So you’re saying that all I have to do is ask the king to go home and poof—my wish is granted?”
“Please, call me Z. The king does, since my name is too much of a mouthful and he’s far too irreverent to call me wizard.”
Kansas hesitated before changing. “Turn around so I can put these on, Z.”
“You’re very demanding.” Z chuckled, the dark tone causing Kansas to look up. “But I don’t think I will. Go on. Put them on and I’ll tell you what the king will do with your request.”
Kansas felt another zap of arousal and his cock hardened. Prudish, huh?
He dropped the pants, his hands reaching for the knot at his waist a little defiantly. Z wanted a show? Well Kansas
wanted some answers. “Start talking, wizard.”
Z’s smile was delighted. “You have spirit, Kansas Frayne. And you’ll need it. Especially with the king’s current frame of mind.”
The knot loosened.
“He’s the greatest ruler our world has ever known. Before his majority he’d brought peace and prosperity to our lands, as well as a spirit of cooperation between the clans that no one else has been…able to…um…manage.”
The fabric pooled at Kansas’s feet and Z’s voice faded, his attention focused in a direction that had Kansas squirming with embarrassment and desire. The first emotion was understandable. The second was ridiculous, considering the circumstances.
“So, the king is a paragon and you live in a Utopic society. And?”
“Not quite Utopic.” Z coughed, the dark gold flush on his cheeks and his unblinking gaze telling Kansas he liked what he saw. “But yes, the king is truly great. We’ve waited for his like a long time, and I’ve made it my life’s mission to ensure he fulfills his destiny. At the moment, his only problem is that he has nothing to challenge his interest. Nothing new to conquer.”
Kansas put his hands on his bare hips, a secret part of him reveling in the handsome wizard’s groan and the subsequent thickening of his own erection. “You’re telling me he’s bored? Monarchy problems, huh? They’re a bitch. How exactly does that affect me?”
Z abruptly turned his back. “If you don’t want me to bend your pale behind over that table before you get your chance to meet the king, you’ll put those pants on. Now.”
A shudder wracked Kansas’s body. He was actually tempted! He shook his head hard, trying to jar his mind back into place, and bent down to grab the pants. “Sorry. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me. I never act like this.” A tease.
“You’ve had to take in much in a short period of time. It’s understandable. But we need to focus.”
Not in Kansas-Kindle Page 3