And thinking about his mouth being wicked makes my insides clench up with excitement.
“She’s already thinking about getting fucked,” Vane says.
“Hey! Quit reading my mind.”
“Wait, you can read each other’s minds?” Bash asks.
“No,” I answer and take the first step up. “But the shadow casts our emotions back to one another. And Vane is particularly good at reading mine.”
“What is the Dark One feeling right now?” Bash asks, leaning his shoulder into the stone wall at the entrance.
I look at Vane again, standing at the back beside Pan, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression practically daring me to read him.
He’s closed up again, as usual, bastard.
To Bash I say, “Have you ever seen a kid at a carnival, when they’re sitting on a bench devouring a giant cone of cotton candy? And they’re a little sticky and ravenous and giddy with excitement?”
“Of course,” Bash says.
“That’s Vane right now.”
Kas tries to hide his laughter, but it comes out anyway and Vane scowls at him.
“Darling,” Vane says, narrowing his eyes, “I will make you pay for that smart mouth of yours.”
“Ohhhhh,” Bash says. “Let me tie her up first so you can have your way with her.”
Immediately, no questions asked, I’m fucking dripping.
Why do these boys have such a hold over me? Why does my body immediately puddle every single time they promise to treat me like a dirty whore?
I’m going to pretend like there is no more warfare quietly building on the horizon, and I’m going to let them treat me like a whore so that all I feel is pleasure and the frenzy of being used by men who love me enough to know exactly what I want and need, and how I need it.
“Let’s go,” I say and follow the curving stairs up and up into the shadows.
20
WINNIE
Kas is immediately by my side when I stumble into the secret room. There is more light here than I expected, but not knowing what I’m walking into makes me hesitate.
The stone stairs end on a wood floor and I gaze up at the ceiling, immediately swaying from the shock of what I see.
“Oh my god,” I breathe out. The entire ceiling is a dome of glass with a honeycomb of iron between panes.
The sky is still shrouded by cloud cover and I’m disappointed not to see the ceiling breakaway to twilight sky.
It must be amazing when the night is clear.
Lanterns are lit around the room and Kas clears away the dust and debris in a fireplace made of patched stones, cemented into place with gray mud.
I turn a circle, trying to take it all in. The room is more than a bedroom. There are stairs that follow the curve of one wall that stop at a platform where another giant window curves out like a bubble. From there, a short rope bridge goes to another platform where several pillows line the floor with a telescope set in front of them.
Another set of stairs go up to a nook lined with bookshelves, the shelves full of leather-bound volumes. And then lastly, one more set of stairs go up to a massive circular platform, with a spindled railing.
That platform is so high up I can’t see what’s on it, but it’s closest to the domed ceiling, half beneath it, and I wonder if it’s where the bed is.
“Light a fire,” Pan orders as he wraps his arms around me, drawing me into his heat.
Kas is already on it, crouched in front of the fireplace stacking up kindling and wood from the box beside the hearth. Vane hands him his lighter and within just a few minutes, the fire is crackling.
I turn a circle on the threadbare rug on the floor, hungry for more details of Peter Pan’s life.
There’s a green velvet couch on the far wall, tucked beneath one of the platforms, two support posts on either side of it. More books are stacked into piles beneath two little windows. There’s a glass full of acorns and another full of rocks and seashells.
A desk is directly behind me with a wooden stool pulled away from it, as if Pan left it decades ago and never bothered to shove it beneath again. A feather quill sits in a crystal stand with a stoppered jar of ink beside it. A few sheets of parchment, the edges now curled.
“I like this room,” I tell Pan when he steps beside me.
He looks around. “It seems like another life.”
I go to the desk and sit on its edge, hoping the wood and the screws have held up over the years.
“Did you ever bring a girl up here?”
He comes over, nestling himself between my legs. “You’re the first.”
“How lucky I am.”
He tips my chin up to meet him and kisses me gently, our tongues meeting. My pussy throbs beneath his attention and the promise of what’s to come.
Another kiss and I moan into him. “Bash?” he says. “You got that rope ready?”
His soft chuckle sounds behind Pan. “You know I do.”
Pan kisses me again, his nimble fingers going to the buttons on the back of my dress. I feel each one pop open, cool air ghosting over my spine.
When the dress is undone, Pan takes my hand and pulls me off the edge of the desk, and the dress, now with no buttons and no illusion holding it in place, slips right off of me.
The boys cannot look away.
“Fuck, Darling,” Bash says, a coiled length of rope hanging from his hand. “I have never been as happy as I am in this moment. You are fucking divine.”
Hands on my hips from behind, Pan walks me over to the couch. “On your knees on the cushions,” he orders. “Facing the back.”
I do as he asks and it takes Bash no time at all to have ropes around my wrists, the ends tied to the support posts that hold up the upper platforms.
Someone, Kas I think, comes up behind me and ties a scrap of fabric around my eyes, knotting it at the back of my head.
“Let’s play a game, Darling,” Pan says. “If you can guess whose hands, whose lips are on you, you get a reward. Guess wrong and you get a punishment.”
I swallow hard, the excitement threatening to spill out my throat in a reedy little moan.
“Okay,” I answer and adjust on the couch, the ropes creaking.
They are silent behind me now and I wait and wait.
The first touch of skin is at my shoulder, the barest caress that sends shivers down my spine. The touch travels across my shoulder blades then down my ribs, and I suck in a breath as the hand comes around, grazing over my nipple, then back again for a hard pinch that sends pleasure and pain shooting down my body.
His other hand comes to my ass, gently kneading the soft flesh, and I’m so wet that just the barest touch makes my pussy buzz with need.
“Kas,” I blurt out.
The hand goes to the back of my neck and shoves me down, forcing my ass out.
“Wrong,” Bash says and smacks my ass hard.
I yelp in surprise as the sting fades, leaving just an excited tingle at my core.
One of the others takes Bash’s place when he steps back and my mind is reeling, trying to listen to the footsteps, trying to pay attention to the heat and the breath. I think I have an advantage with Vane because the shadow can feel him, but either he or it fools me with the second caress, this one rougher at my neck, forcing me still, the ropes digging into my flesh.
A press of lips at my back makes me shudder. The kisses sink lower and lower down my back.