Free Wicked Wonderland by Lisa Whitefern

least that was the plan.” She looked off in the distance, and he wondered if she felt regret.
    Kris slid his hand over Lilly’s shoulder in a gentle caress. “Is life really that hard?”
    She nibbled on her lower lip. Finally, she looked at him again. “It’s Marion. She needs the money. She has this weird friend named Mrs. Barrie. The woman must be in her sixties, but she’s always trying to get my mother into some kind of mischief. Mrs. Barrie got her into gambling, and Mom got hooked. She won nine hundred dollars the first night she went to the casino, and she’s been going there and losing money ever since. I have to help her. After everything she’s done for me?”
    “Who’s Marion?” Kris asked Nick under his breath while Lilly looked out over the lights of New York City below.
    “Her adoptive mother, the woman who brought her up. I actually met her once when Lilly invited me to her mother’s townhouse for Thanksgiving.”
    “Oh.” Kris frowned. “I don’t think Lilly ever even told me her mother’s name.”
    Nick could see jealousy in Kris’s eyes. Kris obviously didn’t like the thought that Lilly had told Nick things she hadn’t shared with him. Nick needed to find the time to talk to him about this later. Everything should be fair and equal between the three of them. It was Kris’s unselfish way to always put others before himself and to subjugate his needs to those of his dominant lover. But Nick needed to make Kris realize how much he meant to both of them, for Nick was sure Lilly desired and cared about Kris too.
    Kris’s eyes lit up. “Oh hey, Lilly, do you still do that fabulous plus-size modeling? I saw you in a catalogue about five years ago. You looked fierce!”
    Lilly grinned at his enthusiasm. “I actually didn’t find much work as a model. I did do a few ads for plus-size bras for Ruben’s lingerie. That’s probably what you saw me in.”
    Nick raised an eyebrow and pulled a face. “You pervert, Kris. What were you doing looking at women’s underwear catalogue?”
    Kris flipped a hand. “It was junk mail in our mailbox at our Long Island place. You were away on business at the time. I saved it to show you, but I think you must have put it out with the recycling, because I was never able to find it after you came home.” Kris turned to her. “Why don’t you model anymore, angel?”
    Lilly grimaced. “I’m twenty-eight. I’m a bit old for plus-size modeling now. And God knows I was never really comfortable with it. Mom kind of bullied me into it, to be honest. Some friend of hers wanted to ‘discover’ me.”
    Lilly paused, and Nick noticed her swallowing uncomfortably. “Are you okay?”
    “My throat’s a little dry.”
    “We’re terrible hosts, Kris,” Nick said. “We’ve offered her nothing to eat or drink. Magic up something for her.”
    Kris snapped his fingers and hummed a few high notes. He raised his palm upward, and golden-yellow light shot out of his hand. A bottle of Dom Pérignon suddenly hung above Lilly’s head, and a black lacquered plate full of sushi floated gently into her lap. In the air above her floated a plate of mini toasted baguettes and a little dish of caviar, with a little silver knife for spreading.
    Nick rolled his eyes at Kris’s pretentious choice of food, but Lilly seemed to like it. She reached for some sushi eagerly, licking her lips. Her eyes were wide, and she seemed overwhelmed with wonder at Kris’s simple culinary conjuring.
    Her enjoyment of the food stirred Nick’s libido. A fierce urge to kiss her seized him. He longed to grab her voluptuous, very real body and never let her go, but he held himself in check. He would not frighten her again.
    “Some champagne, Lilly?” Kris asked, reaching for the bottle. “Alcohol doesn’t affect us much, but we do like the taste.”
    “Well, maybe that proves I’m not part fae. Alcohol usually affects me.” She took a sip of champagne from the elegant crystal flute Kris