Third a Kiss

by Winters, Pepper

  I rolled us over until she lay on the rocks beneath me.

  Water had rinsed us clean. No more sand. No more dirt. No more blood. I chose the illusion that I hadn’t hurt this incredible creature. That I’d only ever been gentle and worshiping and so fucking grateful for her creation.

  She. Was. Mine.

  Not because I traded cash for her life, but because she’d been born for me. The universe birthed me first, then listened to what my heart ordered—the complex desires I had, the unique wishes I held—and created her just for me to find.

  That was why I’d dreamed about her.

  Why I’d asked traffickers to steal her.

  Why I couldn’t stop myself as I kicked to propel us higher onto the shallows and swam on top of her. Why I groaned as my cock found her entrance. Why motherfucking tears came to my eyes as her heat and slippery wetness welcomed me to slip home.

  Home.

  Fuck, she was my home.

  Not this island.

  Not this planet.

  Her.

  This curse.

  This gift.

  This priceless, irreplaceable goddess.

  She squirmed beneath me, her grey gaze flaring with equal passion and terrible concern. “Sully, stop. You need to rest. You almost drowned.” She pushed at my chest, trying to pry us apart. “Stop.”

  She could never pry us apart as we were two pieces of the same whole. I belonged to her as much as she belonged to me. I’d told her that. When she’d asked me my name on our first time together, I’d told her, “I’m yours.”

  It didn’t matter I wore a different face to my own. That I went to her as a guest and hid behind a lie—

  My thoughts scattered as I claimed her mouth again. She tasted like a crisp waterfall and warm sunshine. She tasted like redemption.

  Her tongue fought me back. She tried shifting her head to dislodge our kiss, but I didn’t let her go. I threaded both hands through the hair that I found such a fucking turn-on and held her still.

  The water kept us weightless while I thrust into her. Our bodies floated but locked together, straining hard and needy.

  Leaving my left hand tangled in her hair, I slipped my right one down her chest, squeezed her perfect breast, then kept going, stroking her curves, finding her centre, rubbing against her clit so she felt a fraction of pleasure that I did.

  Her body bowed in mine, her lips parting, allowing me to kiss her deep.

  Her fingernails dug into my lower back, pulling me into her so my cock filled her until there was no space between us. No way to pull us apart.

  I’d fucked this girl.

  I’d mauled this girl.

  But there, in my private waterfall, I made love to this girl.

  Time lost all meaning as we rocked and grinded. Her legs wrapped around mine, her hips answering mine in an ancient language we’d both begun to understand.

  A language that belonged entirely to us, deciphered only when our hearts accepted what this disaster of a bond meant.

  I was falling for her.

  Fuck.

  I kissed her harder. I bit her. I crawled deeper into her. And she responded to my violence with her own. Her teeth punctured my bottom lip, her hips arching into mine.

  And the elixir allowed me to savour this moment, to live on that precipice of plummeting and pausing, surrounded by shards of pleasure, fully aware how excruciatingly brutal the release would be.

  We kissed.

  We fucked.

  And when I fell off that precipice, we fell together—groaning, moaning, clawing, biting—doing our best to break each other apart.

  Chapter Three

  SULLY JERKED IN MY arms, groaning with agony as his orgasm bled him dry.

  The waterfall splashed and sparkled, pounding into the deep blue pool. Heavy trees full of vines and flowers, misty rainbows, jewelled butterflies, tree frogs on leaves, and insects flittering in spiels of golden sunlight.

  I could be forgiven for thinking this was heaven.

  It was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen.

  Yet it had almost become a graveyard.

  My heart lurched with remaining panic. If I hadn’t sprinted after Sully. If I hadn’t arrived just in time to see him collapse into the water and vanish beneath the surface…he’d be dead right now.

  He would be dead because of me.

  Because I’d drugged him, broke him, reduced him to a single vocation.

  I clutched him to me, shivering as his head fell heavily on my chest. The crisp water kept us floating even in the shallows, my hair tickling my skin, the sensation of being sand-free a huge relief.

  Sully’s mania quietened for a moment as his body buckled beneath the insane urges of procreation. His lips glided to my nipple, kissing my breast, ducking his mouth and nose underwater to lavish me with sweet affection.

  “Don’t.” I cupped his chin and pulled him back into air. How did he still have energy to fuck me? He’d almost drowned.

  His gaze couldn’t focus entirely on me, hazy then clear, smoky then lucid. I didn’t know if he saw me or a fantasy, but terrifying things glowed behind his exhaustion. Emotions that chiselled open my chest and stuck a dagger deep inside my heart.

  Love.

  Awe.

  Possession.

  The world fell away as our eyes locked, muting the waterfall, removing the pool, and placing us in pure nothingness while we stared.

  No words were needed.

  No sentences were powerful enough.

  Our silence shouted the truth.

  Somehow, this violence between us had brought about something as rare and as mythical as Sully’s Euphoria.

  We’d fallen.

  We’d crashed.

  We lay at the bottom of a cliff, bruised and battered, broken and bloody, but instead of licking our wounds in private or hiding the depth of what’d happened, we lay in that broken jumble together.

  His cock still filled me, a dark spear of lust and need. But his arms slowly embraced me with utmost tenderness. His head lowered, his eyes blazed, and when he kissed me, the gates of a new future smashed wide.

  Love.

  It had a flavour.

  A texture.

  A smell.

  Love tasted metallic and fragrant, sweet and sour, spicy and forbidden. But it smelled of fresh rain and new beginnings, of shared lust and musk, of hard-earned truth.

  I didn’t know how long we kissed.

  Serenity didn’t exist with the shameless way Sully pinned my head to the stony shore and took everything he wanted from my mouth and body, but there was innocence, there was faith, there was softness.

  His hips began to rock again, filling me, conquering me, begging me. My pussy grew wet with an entirely different version of need. This didn’t come from instinct or raw, basic desire. This came directly from my heart.

  But I was also sore.

  Internal bruises and swollen extremities made me tighter than normal, driving Sully from sweetness into savagery.

  Water lapped and splashed as our gentle rock turned quick and questing. His teeth found my throat again, sinking sharp incisors into my flesh with no apology. He bit harder as his hips pistoned, but it was his endless groan that made me die.

  I died in his arms as he thrust into me and came.

  I didn’t know how many releases he’d had or how many he had to go before he passed out, but the ripple of his back and clench of his muscles seemed to drain him of everything he had left.

  He died in my arms, and I died in his.

  I just had to hope we’d both be reborn wiser when this was over.

  His heart pounded against mine as he slowly withdrew and stood. Bending down, he offered me his hand, pulling me with impressive strength from the pool.

  Without a word, we walked hand in hand, naked and soaking, down the pebbled pathway into the dense forest around his villa.

  So this was where he lived.

  Not on the beach with access to the sea h
e loved so much, but hidden in the shadows like the monster he thought he was. He kept himself away from his goddesses, from crystal horizons, from humanity, making a home within the animal kingdom he chose over his own species.

  A monkey crashed from a tree and onto the thatched roof as we followed the path to a heavy front door. An iridescent blue kingfisher darted by as Sully pushed open the entrance and pulled me inside.

  Two geckos shot up the wall where a massive piece of art hung—a mirroring masterpiece of the waterfall outside. A scaled and frightening looking lizard left its sunbaking spot on the black tiles and slithered to the deck outside. A pair of toucans that snoozed on the railing surrounding Sully’s home lifted their massive beaks to determine if we were friend or foe. And a flock of tiny sparrows fed on pineapple speared to a table outside a huge window.

  So many animals.

  So many content and trusting souls.

  None of them left as Sully carted me deeper into his personal sanctuary. A kitchen rested along the darkest wall, glittering with polished bamboo cabinets and white quartz. A long rattan chaise invited a book lover to curl up by the open sliding doors that led to a huge balcony, cantilevered over the very same pool where he’d almost drowned.

  The constant splash of the waterfall filled the high ceilings and exposed rafters with serenade while his bedroom beckoned to the left.

  That was the direction he took me.

  Our feet left puddles behind as we bypassed his living room and entered the one place where I never thought I’d be invited.

  His bed was big but stark. No headboard. No expensive linen or cushions. Just a single pillow and plain white sheet. A mosquito net hung from the rafters, haphazardly drawn and tucked into the mattress to create a small entrance.

  Driftwood side table, calico lampshade, and a sea-grass woven mat on the floor.

  His villa wasn’t big, but it was airy and light and wasn’t just home to him but also to the countless creatures he loved.

  Nervousness filled me. Fear that this was all too good to be true. That he’d shown me his world, and soon he’d kick me out of it.

  Sitting backward on the bed, he manhandled me until I stood between his thighs. His cock stayed upright and thick with need, but the satiny skin held marks from our constant pleasure.

  We’d hurt each other with lust.

  It was time to stop.

  Time to rest.

  But he pulled me into him, curling his spine to press his mouth against my pussy.

  “Oh, God.” My fingers dug into his hair as his tongue teased my clit and lapped at my sore parts. The dexterity of his attention and unforgiving exploration of every piece of me made me sway and stumble.

  He held me up, digging his tongue past my folds and inside me.

  I winced.

  I moaned.

  I squirmed to be free.

  Instead of letting me go, he reclined onto the bed, dragging me with him so I had no choice but to crawl on all fours over him. His mouth controlled my pussy. His head between my legs as I sat over his face.

  The bed shook as his hips arched into the air, seeking the very same thing he suckled on. My eyes snapped closed as he shoved the entire length of his tongue inside me. The intimacy of being taken like that, and the knowledge that he’d been inside me in so many ways, brought another reluctant release to the surface.

  My hips began to rock. I clutched the sheet, allowing indecent moans and groans to spill from my lips and scatter around his head. Each whimper and mewl I made, increased his speed and desire. His fingers kneaded my ass, slipping between my crack to press against the hole he hadn’t tried to invade yet.

  I jerked.

  I tried to get away.

  He snarled and speared three fingers inside my pussy while his other hand continued seeking a way into my back door.

  I fought him.

  He just held me tighter, his mouth latching onto the sensitive flesh of my inner thigh, his teeth sinking deep.

  The fear of him taking me in a way I hadn’t been violated before, coupled with the tingling high of him eating me, and the ferocity of his fingers fucking me…I couldn’t stop it.

  My elbows buckled, and I collapsed face first onto the bed as I came.

  Over and over, bliss and brutality. I surrendered to the painful squeezing of my inner muscles, milking the final shreds of my endurance.

  The moment I’d finished coming, Sully shoved me off his mouth, pressed me onto my stomach, then thrust inside me.

  He fucked me ruthlessly hard.

  The mosquito net shivered with every rut. The bedframe squeaked. His grunts blended with the waterfall.

  I cried out as pain overtook pleasure, and still, he fucked me. I twisted to look over my shoulder, imprinting him to memory. Determined to remember his undoing, to remind myself he was only human, even if he treated me like a beast.

  His eyes were demonic. His drugged desire riding him ragged. He strained and fornicated, driving me deep into his bed, trying to crawl inside me, doing his best to murder me with sex.

  My breasts bruised into the mattress, my lips burned as he bent and kissed me. Our tongues slip-sliding, our finesse totally obliterated until we licked and nipped like animals.

  I lost all other sensation apart from being used by Sully Sinclair.

  And when he finally reached that brick wall, when he ran headfirst into blistering fatigue, his entire body bowed into mine. His jaw locked and his eyes snapped closed. His frame jerked and jolted as every cell, every breath was consumed by his orgasm.

  It didn’t look pleasurable.

  It didn’t grant relief.

  It looked as if I’d tortured him worse than anyone.

  His mouth opened wide with a silent roar as he crested the final clutch of his climax. Then his eyes rolled back, his body went slack, and he tumbled into unconsciousness beside me.

  Chapter Four

  I’D FALLEN.

  I’d broken.

  I slept.

  But restful slumber didn’t find me, nightmares did.

  Nightmares of family betrayal, vicious lies, and why I’d forgotten how to trust.

  I sank into horrors and reminders.

  My sins crept from the darkness to maraud and mock, revealing how far I’d gone to wage war on those who’d deceived me.

  I had blood upon my hands.

  Revenge upon my soul.

  And now Eleanor was unlucky enough to have trapped my heart.

  This won’t end well…

  Chapter Five

  MORNING LIGHT GRADUALLY SWITCHED to late afternoon.

  I hadn’t moved.

  I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I had no clothes, no painkillers, no food or water.

  I only had a man who’d purchased me from traffickers, used me more thoroughly than anyone, and then passed out beside me. A man I couldn’t stop looking at because I couldn’t come to terms with the carnage inside my heart.

  I should loathe him.

  I should stalk to his kitchen and grab the biggest knife I could find. I should sink it into his chest and let him bleed until dead. I should end him now, while he lay so trustingly next to me, and save countless other girls who would one day become his goddesses.

  He might have black and white rules on the trading of services—likening it to the industries that humans had turned into torture devices—but it didn’t make it right…or wrong. He respected all life, any life. He stood up for those who didn’t have a voice, and in turn he reversed the rules onto his own kind.

  He was complicated.

  He was simple.

  He was ruthless and unreadable, and as much as I’d like to think things would be different now that we’d slept together—that something special bound us—it didn’t mean he wasn’t the same arrogant asshole who’d stolen my future and farmed me out to his high-paying guests.

  And yet…

  I sighed.

  I sighed and studied the way his black hair cascaded over h
is forehead, clinging to his damp skin with its bronze-bleached tips. The way his lips stayed parted, his jaw relaxed, and eyes closed.

  He ought to look tranquil and free. However, stress lines never left his tanned skin. Sully ought to be in a healing sleep, but occasionally, he’d twitch as if he fought dragons in his dreams. As if he’d traded one hell for another.

  Had I looked that tormented after Euphoria? Did I look so scrambled and uneasy when staff had removed the sensors and carried me back to my villa?

  I’d tried to wake him. I’d curled up beside him and brushed aside his hair to kiss his feverish cheek, but he remained unconscious. His lungs rattled a little from inhaling so much water, his breathing laboured and loud.

  I should be glad of his struggles—he’d caused more than enough to others—so why did my heart revolt and beg to find a doctor. To help Sully even though he refused to help other two-legged beings.

  As time ticked onward, and I stayed vigil by his side, I allowed my mind to run riot. My common-sense was disgusted at me. Its scalding and snappish remarks, its condemning disappointment made me blush and cringe.

  You fucked a man who trades in women.

  You fell for a man who doesn’t hesitate to use others for his own gain.

  You stopped trying to escape because you stupidly believed he might be the one.

  You’ve forgotten all about Scott because he’s not Sully.

  You’ve cheated on your boyfriend.

  I bit my lip at that one. Before, in Euphoria and all the other sexual experiences Sully had put me through, I could semi-justify my involvement and participation.

  This time?

  Nothing could spare me from the truth.

  I’d drugged Sully, knowing this would happen. Hoping this would happen. I’d gambled with my own body and heart in order to win his in return. I hadn’t thought about what Scott would say as I let another man fuck me. In fact, just thinking of Scott seemed so distant now. A different time, place…a faraway galaxy.

  I’d been a kid then. An adolescent girl with a puppy-affection for a mediocre-traveller.

  I didn’t feel like a child now.

  I felt every one of my twenty-two years. I felt worldly and guilty and fully aware of the mess that today would’ve caused. But I was also grateful to finally know what sex with Sully Sinclair would be like.