Read Online Wicked Wonderland by Lisa Whitefern - Free Book Online Page B

stroked one of the mink rugs. There was a faraway look in her eyes. “There are still so many things that puzzle me about all this. If you two are fairies, why did you go to college with me? Why did you pose as mortals?”
    Nick smiled. “Well, we’re both part mortal. Dad thought we should have a mortal education as well as a fae one. And we loved it; we enjoyed living on campus, we loved the late-night parties and drunken philosophical discussions. We enjoyed buckling down and studying too.” He paused and made eye contact with her. “Most of all, we enjoyed meeting you.”
    Nick thought he heard Lilly’s breath hitch, but she shrugged and changed the subject. “So once you left college, what did you two decide to do? Do you have jobs?”
    Kris picked up a ruby-red throw rug that sat beside her on the seat and tucked it around her knees. “We run a business. That’s why we’re using the sleigh tonight. We have some deliveries to make.”
    She tucked a lock of golden-red hair behind her ear in a gesture he found adorable and suddenly opened her eyes a little wider. “You don’t really live at the North Pole, do you?”
    Nick tightened his hands on the reins. “We’ve lived with Santa at the North Pole at times. But now our business takes us all over the world, and we own properties in a few different countries.”
    “Wow! You have properties all around the world. I feel so ordinary now.” She gave what sounded like an embarrassed laugh. “I still live with my mother.”
    Nick bristled a little at the mention of her mother. He’d always thought of the woman as intensely selfish. In fact, a fight between him and Lilly about her mother’s constant “borrowing” of money had been what ended their relationship the first time, before she’d started hanging out with Kris, before she’d caught the two of them making love.
    Knowing she still lived with her mother and that her mother hadn’t intervened somehow to try to stop her from stripping made him even angrier. And he was still confused about it. How in the hell had such a clever woman ended up doing a job like that? He looked over at Kris, but Kris’s focus was on Lilly.
    Kris brushed a stray hair away from her face. “You’re anything but ordinary, sugar. You’re gorgeous.”
    Lilly gave a snort. “No, I’m not. You heard what that patron said. I’m a beached whale. I’ve always been too fat.”
    Nick clenched his fists on the reins, making the sleigh jerk, and Lilly had to grab hold of the handle bar. “Don’t remind me of that asshole. I would have loved to punch his lights out. God, Lilly, you’re stunning. Anyone who finds you unattractive would have to be brainwashed by the media. Too many skinny, airbrushed models out there. They look stupid.” He shook the bells on the reins in annoyance, and the reindeer made soft grunting sounds. “What I can’t understand, though, is how someone as clever as you could end up stripping for a living.”
    Lilly’s face went red. Nick wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment or both. “Why do you assume because I was stripping that that’s all I’m doing with my life?” She shook her head. “Just because someone works as a stripper doesn’t mean that’s all that defines who they are as a person.”
    Oh, it was anger, all right. Her eyes flashed fire. But anger simmered in his own blood and twisted his gut into knots. He’d kept quiet so far about how he felt about her “job”, but it was time to let her know what he thought. “What the hell happened to you? You were always so talented. You were a straight-A student, and the way you played the flute gave us all chills. Why did would you throw your life away like that? What possible reason?”
    “I still play the flute. I play in an orchestra, and I work for a nonprofit organization that raises money for charities on Long Island. I drive into the city on weekends to work at Venus Girls to make the extra money that Mom and I need, or at