Third a Kiss

by Winters, Pepper

  Glancing at Jewel, I tried to swallow back the words scalding my tongue, but I couldn’t.

  I turned as possessive as Sully toward me.

  I wanted them to know how wrong they were.

  How I’d found happiness instead of hell.

  How Sully was mine as surely as I was his.

  I opened my mouth and—

  Chapter Sixteen

  “MY NAME IS ELEANOR Grace, and I am a goddess on this island. I was bought by Sullivan Sinclair, and I serve at his command, but I—”

  “JINX!!!!” I boomed.

  My voice was a battering ram, a missile, a trebuchet with flaming hot oil and arrows.

  How fucking dare she?

  What the fuck was going on?

  Fucking hell, I was an idiot.

  A goddamn motherfucking moron!

  I thought she felt the same way for me, yet here she was, telling a goddamn guest her goddam name! Telling him how she came to be here. Telling him shit that would get him fucking killed.

  Eleanor spun to face me. Her hair whipped around in slow motion. I loved her hair. I loved her smoky eyes, her sexy voice, her soul.

  I loved her.

  And she’d just fucking betrayed me.

  I laughed at the absurdity of it. I laughed like a fucking imbecile because if I didn’t laugh…I’d fucking kill her.

  She was my karma.

  She’d lived up to the curse that I’d named her after.

  She wasn’t just a jinx but a fucking pandemic upon everything I had left as a man.

  “Sully!” Her eyes flared to silver orbs, her lips spread in utmost panic. “It’s not what you think. Please, let me explain.” All colour drained from her skin, all hope died in her eyes.

  I knew that look.

  I’d seen it in possums as they were shot for fur, in pigs as they waited to be gassed, in foxes as they ran from the hunt master.

  She knew she’d just signed her fucking life away.

  It’s over.

  Done.

  The cunt beside her—a guest who worked for a big-time Wall Street exec who’d told him to grow a pair if he wanted to join the big leagues—grabbed Eleanor’s elbow, stopping her from running to me. “Stop. I’ll protect you. I promise.”

  His hands on her.

  His face as he looked at me as if I was some despicable creature.

  His gallant act at saving my own goddamn possession from my brutality.

  It made my chest fold in on itself in a bloody, gory, agonising mess.

  It made me want to fucking slaughter him.

  “Get your hands fucking off me!” Eleanor screeched, scratching the man’s forearm, granting no mercy with her nails.

  The guest hissed in pain, recoiling backward. The second she was free, she bolted barefoot toward me and threw herself into the sand at my feet. She clutched my ankles, wrinkling my expensive charcoal suit, smudging my polished shoes.

  I wanted to be sick.

  I wanted to finish what the other goddesses had started and wring her fucking neck.

  “I didn’t tell him my name! I promise. You did. He heard you last night when we—”

  “Get up.” Squeezing my fists into boulders, I kicked her away from me. “Stop fucking lying.”

  “I’m not lying!” Her eyes blazed with terror, but no tears rained. This was beyond tears. Her treachery would not be forgiven with such pitiful, unbelievable excuses.

  I’d gone to her villa this morning to announce I’d done what she’d asked.

  That Calico, Neptune, and Jupiter had all been returned to loved ones.

  I’d planned on taking her out on the water. Just us. Just us and vast open waters where we could finally drop our protections and be real. To see if what we felt could be long-lasting. To see if I could trust what she offered me.

  A chance at happiness.

  True happiness.

  A date…the first date I would’ve been on because I’d never let anyone get close to me like I’d let Eleanor. I’d gotten my kicks from sex clubs around the world. I’d fucked women who’d remained faceless and distant because I chose that.

  I chose not to trade emotions, not to catch feelings that might end up destroying me.

  I’d been right to be wary.

  I’d been so fucking stupid to think Eleanor goddamn Grace could cure the burnout that’d steadily been creeping over me since I’d killed my parents.

  Not trusting anyone was exhausting.

  Not dropping my guard was beyond tiresome…it’d become debilitating to the point where I craved the ability to set down my grudges and guards, begged for a woman to love me for me…the dark parts, the dangerous parts, the parts that would go to fucking war in her honour and place my life at her feet.

  Eleanor could’ve been that girl.

  But she’d proven there was no such girl.

  No such angel worthy of a monster…no such goddess faithful to a god.

  My anger blended with heartache. I studied her bowing before me, drenched in my shadow, and I felt empty.

  Achingly furious and murderously mad, but beneath that heat was the ice-cold dagger of disillusion. Just like my dream girl, Eleanor had turned out to be a fiction of my idiotic hopes.

  Bending down, I wedged my knuckles under her chin.

  She shivered as I arched her throat up, not caring she winced from her bruises, not stopping even when pain flared in her grey gaze. She’d caused me untold misery, the least she could do was feel a little discomfort. “First, you make me release three perfectly trained goddesses. You cost me a fucking fortune. You use the power you have over me against my business and livelihood.”

  She swallowed hard as I cupped her chin, holding her firm with cruel fingers.

  “And now, now you want off my island, too?” I bared my teeth. “You tell a guest your name. You inform him of our little arrangement. You sign his death warrant as well as your own.”

  “Sully. Please.” She reached up to touch me, but I snarled in warning.

  “Touch me and you won’t like the consequences.”

  Her hand dropped into her lap. Her eyelashes feathered down, hiding the turmoil in her stare.

  “Are you determined to free all my goddesses?” I whispered. “You think you’re saving them from the cruelty I’ve caged them in?”

  She tried to shake her head, words tumbling from her lips. “I don’t want to leave. I fought him to stay. He tried to take me away. Ask Jewel. Ask him. I’m telling you the truth—”

  “The truth?” I shook her, making her eyes snap closed with a wince. “The truth is I think you believe you’ve got me so wrapped around your little finger that I’ll do whatever you damn well ask.” I kissed her cheek, not with affection but pure intimidation. “That you’re above my retaliation.”

  “No. I don’t think that.” More words spilled in a rush. “You arrived before I finished. I was going to tell him that yes he knew my name and yes we might’ve been brought here against our will—Jewel showed him her tattoo and told him about the traffickers—but none of that matters because I’ve fallen in love with you. That I have no intention of leaving because you are worth fighting for. I did fight for you. Ask him! Ask him how many times I told him to remove his touch. I was going to turn around and run straight to you the moment I said my bit, Sully. I swear.” Tears did start now, the cracking of her heart and soul in each crystal droplet. “I love you, Sully. I’m in love with you. You have to believe—”

  “Believe?” I ripped my fingers from her face. “I believe this is another trick. Just like you tricked me into removing three goddesses. You’re so determined to free everyone, Jinx? Fine, be my guest. You can do all their workload. You can serve every fucking night in Euphoria and see if I give a damn. And this time…it won’t be me.”

  “You have it wrong. Just listen—”

  “Leave her the fuck alone, Sinclair.” Adam Marks, the wannabe conman and Wall Street wolf, finally decided to step forward and stand up to me. “I
t’s true what she said. I saw you fingering her last night. I heard you use her name.”

  I froze.

  “You spied on us?”

  He scowled. “You were pretty hard to miss on the main pathway.”

  “Yet you stayed to watch.” I cocked my head. “Why? Thought you could fuck her after I was done?”

  He bristled. “No, I stayed because I needed to get past you to go to my villa. In the time it took to decide if I should find another way around, you’d finished.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t follow her. To see if you could sample what I had.”

  He shook his head. “You really are an asshole.” Pointing at Eleanor, he snarled, “She’s obviously telling you the truth. She did fight me. She went against all reason when I offered to take her away from here.” He rolled his eyes. “Personally, I think she’s been brainwashed to the point where she’s unsavable. Unlike the other girl here—” He pointed over his shoulder at Jewel who wisely stayed silent and still. “She was all for my rescue attempt. But not that one.” He sighed, looking pityingly at Jinx. “Whatever you’ve done to her…you’ve broken her heart and soul, Sinclair. She genuinely believes she loves you, and all you can do is threaten to let a thousand men rape her.”

  Wiping his mouth, he backed away, his face going slightly green. “You know what? I want off this place. I’m getting my bag, and I’m leaving. Right now.”

  My temper hissed and lashed in my veins, my voice a howling blizzard. “Great, I’ll arrange the helicopter for your departure.”

  His shoulders braced as he prepared to deliver an ultimatum. An ultimatum I’d heard before from men who’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for their goddess. Men who thought they could make a difference when they were part of the problem.

  Their morals might’ve suffered an awakening after they’d spent five hours fucking a girl out of their mind with lust, but they’d still paid, they’d still travelled countless miles to indulge in my paradise, they were still guilty as fucking sin.

  Human to the end. Selfish to others’ misery. Blind to others’ suffering as long as it benefited them.

  Smoothing down my lapels, I cricked my neck and let the blizzard in my tone fade into the aftermath of thick whiteout snow. “Before you warn me to stop my operations, Mr. Marks. Before you conjure some way of threatening me, allow me to remind you of a few things.”

  Stepping around Eleanor still quaking in the sand, I muttered, “You enjoyed yourself immensely with Goddess Sailor the other night. Your DNA is still in her body. I have footage of you fucking her. I have dossiers of your fantasies. I have a background check of who you truly are. I have enough evidence on you that if you tell the police about my enterprise, you will be equally implicated and arrested for similar crimes. The only difference is, I will get away with it, and I will ensure you do not. You will kiss goodbye to your climb up the shit-stained ladder of Wall Street. You will never have that private plane your girlfriend has already reserved online. Speak of what you did here, and I will fucking bury you.”

  I stepped into him, my height placing me at least three inches over his eye line.

  I looked down, smiling a cordial, gentile smile. “Oh, and by the way, another friendly reminder, you signed an ironclad NDA when you first arrived, remember?” I raked a hand through my unruly hair. “Not only do you stand to lose everything. I’m also fully within my rights to wipe you off the face of this fucking planet if you break it.”

  Adam Marks gulped. The sheen of sweat on his upper lip glistened. He tried to hold my stare but broke under pressure and glowered at the sand below. Slowly, he gave up his crusade; he stopped trying to liberate Jewel and Jinx, and nodded glumly. “You win, Sinclair. I’ll do what you want and return home with my tail between my legs.”

  “Appreciate that.” I smiled. “Your ride leaves in thirty minutes.”

  He left without another word or look at the two goddesses. The second the jungle had swallowed him up, I pinned my gaze on Jewel. Had Calico’s rot spread throughout all my stock? Did I have to replace them with new before anarchy rained, or could I talk sense into her later?

  Pointing at her, I muttered, “You and I are not done, Jewel. A little chat is in order. Find me tomorrow and I’ll deal with you.”

  She bowed her head; red curls cascaded around her cheeks. “Yes, Sullivan.” Blushing with fear, she bolted down the pathway, spraying sand on my purple orchids.

  When four people had been reduced to two, I turned back to deal with Eleanor.

  She’d stood, brushing granules off her knees, her simple dress looking like a robe upon a queen. That damn invisible crown had somehow adorned itself with yet more diamonds, frosting her in courage and transparency.

  Her silver stare repeated what she’d confessed.

  I love you.

  I’m in love with you.

  Despite what you are…

  She’d admitted something I’d guessed while on Lebah yesterday. Yet I still didn’t trust it.

  I didn’t trust her.

  I didn’t know if I ever could.

  Therefore, a game was in order.

  A final game where I knew all the rules, and Jinx knew none of them.

  A game that would prove her loyalty…once and for all.

  Snapping my fingers, I prowled around her, and growled, “You’re serving in Euphoria.”

  She gulped. “When?”

  “Right fucking now.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I PADDED BESIDE HIM.

  I didn’t say a word as he stalked mercilessly down the lane.

  My stomach ached.

  It burned and snarled corrosive with denial at how swiftly things had been destroyed between us and full of barbwire knots at the blistering betrayal in Sully’s eyes.

  The way he’d looked at me?

  The pain.

  The absolute horror.

  It’d been a gunshot right into my useless heart.

  Snatching his phone from his pocket, he called Cal as we continued walking in nasty silence. Cal answered straight away, his voice echoing loud enough for me to catch what he said.

  “What’s up?”

  Sully’s body was a coil. An explosive spring ready to detonate at any moment. “Tell the pilots they’re due to taxi Adam Marks back to Jakarta. He has a plane to catch.”

  “Sure. Consider it done.” A pause before Cal asked, “Anything else?”

  Sully narrowed his eyes, shooting me a glare. “Finalize the fantasy for Conrad Smithy.”

  “I just finished the coding. But he’s not due in Euphoria until tomorrow.”

  “I expect it to be loaded within twenty minutes.”

  “Okay…” Cal’s voice changed to suspicion. “Why? What’s going on? He getting stroppy and wants an earlier fuck-fest?”

  “Tell him I have a goddess ready and willing.” Sully’s hand tensed around his phone. Blackness filled his blue eyes as he bared his teeth in my direction. “She’s willing to work a double shift this week. Triple if there are guests requiring special care.”

  Cal stayed silent for a moment before guessing far too much. “This goddess…it’s not Jinx, is it?”

  Sully tore his furious gaze from me, striding faster.

  I trotted to keep up with him. Partly because I didn’t want to make him any angrier than he already was and partly because I wanted to continue listening to their conversation.

  “The one and fucking only,” Sully hissed. “She just volunteered.”

  I wedged a fist in my belly.

  Somehow, even if I hadn’t served a guest yet—thanks to Sully’s tampering—that seemed like it was all about to change. His temper was a monstrous entity clouding the sky, tainting the air with another thunderstorm. Electricity crackled between us, but this time, it wasn’t full of lust but rage. Shards of power crackled over his suit, his movements jerky with fury.

  He wouldn’t forgive or forget.

  Not until I’d sufficiently paid in pain and disg
race.

  Cal muttered, “You let him fuck her and you’ll severely regret it.”

  “Don’t tell me what the fuck I’ll regret, Calvin,” Sully snarled. “Have the cypher ready and keep your goddamn thoughts to yourself.”

  “You’re the boss, sir. Consider it done.” Cal hung up.

  Sully shoved his phone into his pocket and picked up his pace.

  I jogged faster, running to my demise, my death, my doom.

  * * * * *

  “Go stand in the centre,” Sully snapped, shoving open the door to the Virtual Reality playroom of his Euphoria villa.

  I didn’t try to argue or attempt to persuade him otherwise. The Sully who’d dropped a little of his barriers, allowing me to witness pieces of himself, had well and truly frozen me out. He’d returned to the ruthless bastard who’d force-fed me elixir, then made me sit on his fingers in delirious intoxication.

  He’d shown no empathy then. He had no empathy now.

  I swiftly made my way to the centre, standing beneath the delicate metal harness hanging from the ceiling.

  Sully turned and closed the door behind him. Silence fell thicker as he kept his back to me, inhaling a huge gust of air before curling his hands and spinning to stalk toward me.

  My mouth was dry as the beach, my tongue pierced by tiny shells and throat lodged by poisonous coral. If I had words to speak, I doubted I’d be able to give them sound.

  I’d tried to convince him.

  Even the guest who’d been the reason for this awful mess had vouched for me. Yet Sully’s ability to believe me was broken. Any faith I’d earned had just vanished like smoke from an extinguished candle. All that remained was the soot of our strange relationship and the waxy shards of consequences.

  Without speaking, he pulled out his phone and pressed a button. Immediately, the harness descended, whirring gently to swing behind me.

  I tensed, waiting for Sully to step into me and truss me up in the imprisonment. Maybe if his skin touched mine, if his body thought for him—rather than his battered ideals—we could stop this before it was too late.

  However, unlike the other two times in Euphoria, he didn’t reach out to equip me himself. He didn’t take away my choices and dress me in sensors that stole my taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell.