“Evenly matched.” I nodded back.
“Least no one got eaten.” Jess chuckled. “No limbs lost.”
“Eh, sir?”
A captain appeared on the above deck, the brass buttons of his uniform glinting off the lanterns hanging from the back railings. “If you wish to make your appointments on time, we have to go.”
“Okay, Jolfer. Thanks.” Elder passed his towel back to a staff member before guiding Tasmin to the bottom of the stairs. Taking her hand, he turned to face us. “I hope you enjoy your new purchases, Mr and Mrs Sinclair.” He smiled at Eleanor before looking at me. “If you have any issues with Thimble, which has already docked in Rapture according to my crew, just email.”
Eleanor smiled and went to Tasmin, giving her a gentle hug. “Goodbye and congratulations in advance for your wedding.”
Prest stiffened, his face clouded as if that piece of news was private.
Tasmin remained frozen in Eleanor’s embrace, her shock hinting again at her past. “Thanks for the drink.”
“You’re welcome.” Eleanor pulled away. “Anytime.”
Clearing my throat, I waited for her to return to my side.
Jess strode forward and also hugged Tasmin, the two women whispering something that made Cal’s forehead furrow with curiosity.
What the hell had they all talked about on the beach to have this level of friendship already? Obviously deeper subjects than what Cal and I discussed with Prest while sharing a beer or two.
“Stay in touch.” Jess pulled away, going to Cal’s side. “And all the very best, with everything.”
“Thanks.” Tasmin nodded, her brown hair dancing a little in a sudden ocean breeze.
Elder’s captain waited as my family and I hopped into Singa Laut and cast off. Once we were no longer tethered to the Phantom, he waved goodbye and vanished into the helm. The soft purr of expensive engines sounded as he prepared to disembark.
Prest raised his arm as I started my own engine. “Nice meeting you, Sinclair. Appreciate your business.”
“Appreciate your craftsmanship.” I added power to the throttle. “I’ll be in touch after our maiden voyage to Tahiti. I’ll let you know how we find travelling on Calypso.”
“You do that.” He smirked. “You might trade land for the sea because you enjoy it so much.”
“Doubt it.” I pointed at the flickering lanterns and starlight illuminating Goddess Isles. “I like palm trees and waterfalls too much.”
“Could install those onboard.” Prest shrugged. “Anything is possible.”
I chuckled. “Imitations.”
“Improvements.” He slung his arm around Tasmin’s shoulder. “Goodbye, Sinclair.”
“Bye!” Eleanor and Jess waved as I turned the rudder and left a nautical home for our island one.
* * * * *
That night, with Eleanor fast asleep beside me, Pika snoozing on the sheet between my legs, Skittles nestled in Eleanor’s gorgeous hair, a Komodo dragon sleeping by the open doors to the deck, and the resident sugar glider blinking with nocturnal happiness, I cyphered a fantasy.
I used the code I’d designed to script common animals beneath the sea, along with a few mythical ones. I conjured magic for my wife and seasoned it with debauchery.
Tomorrow night, as we sailed on Calypso and travelled on the open seas, I would load us into an illusion that would guarantee a visit to Euphoria we would never forget.
Chapter Eight
“OKAY, I HAVE TO admit...this is a pretty fabulous way to travel.” I spun on the deck where Sully, Cal, and Jess sat in the sunken lounge next to the pizza oven that was currently smoking with handmade vegetarian pizzas. “No people. No airports. No germs or crowds or problems. Heaven.”
Pika and Skittles sat on the towel rack beside the mosaic glittery pool, preening each other and looking perfectly at home even though we’d left Goddess Isles six hours ago and now had no land around us.
We’d made the choice to bring them with us. The rescues on Serigala were cared for by trusted staff and numerous vets on call. Specific animal lovers had been hired just to provide cuddles and companionship to those creatures who needed it.
But Pika and Skittles were family.
Without them, we always felt a piece of ourselves missing when we travelled and rushed back as quickly as we could. This way...we could take our time. We didn’t need to worry because we had everyone we loved onboard and could truly relax and enjoy the adventure.
“Yeah, it’s not bad.” Sully held up his beer bottle, the setting sun catching the glass.
“Not bad?” Jess threw an olive at him from the snacks that we’d been served by the inconspicuous and ever attentive crew that Elder Prest had provided along with his perfectly crafted yacht. “It’s insane. I’ve worked on cruise ships, Sullivan. I’ve seen giant vessels and cleaned the most expensive suites to rent. Believe me, nothing compares to this. It’s in a league of its own.”
Cal sipped his beer, his eyes covered with aviators. “I don’t even feel seasick, and normally, I’d be green as fuck by now.”
“He did say it had stabilisers for stopping sickness.” Sully glanced at Cal. His black board shorts and shirtless chest still twinkled with droplets from the dip he’d taken in the swimming pool. Pika had joined him, sitting on Sully’s finger and splashing his feathers, taking a bird bath while squawking in joy.
Padding toward the pizza oven in my sarong and dusky pink bikini, I pulled the board holding four pizzas from the charcoal to check nothing was burning.
“That smells so good,” Jess moaned. “I’m hungry.”
“How can you be hungry?” Cal chuckled. “You’ve been eating all day.”
Jess sighed and stretched, showing off her toned body in her teal bikini, no longer self-conscious about the wicked-looking scar across her lower belly courtesy of Drake’s bullet. Dr Campbell had worked miracles keeping both her and Cal alive, and I was glad that Sully and Jim had been able to bury the past. Dr Campbell was still our resident physician, and his family regularly visited, now that Goddess Isles wasn’t an illegal sex trade but just a tropical home for humans and rescues.
“I’m on vacation and plan on eating my way to Tahiti.”
“We live on a tropical island.” Cal rolled his eyes. “Every damn day is a vacation.”
Jess shrugged. “Won’t stop me from eating far more than normal while on this ship.” She blew him a kiss. “You’ll just have to provide me with extra exercise so I don’t get fat.”
“I’m sure I can come up with something to work off those calories.” Cal smirked, leaning toward her and kissing her hard on the mouth. “By the way, what were you and that Tasmin girl talking about when we said goodbye? I heard Q’s name. It’s not the same bastard who threatened Sinclair, is it?”
Sully sat bolt upright. “What the fuck? Why were you talking about that French prick?”
Jess waved her hand impatiently. “It’s not what you think. Q is helping Elder and Tasmin with something.”
“Helping with what exactly?” Cal asked.
Jess looked away, her face flitting with nervousness.
I helped her out by blurting, “With adopting children.”
Sully barked a feral laugh. “Q? The same vigilante who likes to email strangers and discuss their upcoming murder? What does he have to do with children?”
“He saves women who’ve been trafficked. Some are pregnant. Some die and leave orphans. Some aren’t capable of looking after the products of a forced relationship.” Jess rubbed her arms. “Elder and Tasmin are adopting a little girl through him. A mute. She mentioned that there might be more...umm...children who need supporting, loving homes.” She swallowed hard. “She might’ve mentioned she could potentially suggest us as one of those homes...”
“Wow.” Sully leaned back, his intelligent gaze racing and already latching onto the same conclusion I had. Cal and Jess might get their dream of a family after all.
Cal froze and watc
hed Jess with the intensity of a man who didn’t trust what he’d just heard but wanted to with every fibre of his being.
Judging by his reaction, that family might arrive sooner rather than later.
Cal suddenly stood and grabbed Jess’s hand. Yanking her from the couch, he guided her away from us, their heads tilted together as their voices travelled back over the sound of purring engines.
“Guess we better get building another villa on a different island.” Sully put his beer down, coming to help me remove the pizzas and plate up. “Tikus is free and a decent size with a good beach and fresh water source. It’s not too far but not too close either.”
“Tikus?” I rolled the cutting blade over a decadent pizza, creating slices.
“Mouse in Indo.” He pressed a kiss to my cheek. “As much as I love Cal and Jess, I have no intention of sharing our island with screaming kids.”
“I’m sure they only scream occasionally.”
His eyebrow cocked. “You saying you want ten of the damn things running around wild on Batari?”
“No.” I laughed. “But I doubt they’ll get ten. That’s like an entire football team.”
“I have no idea how many it takes to make a team. I just know that they won’t stop at one, and one is too many for me.”
I looked over to the railing where Jess and Cal remained deep in conversation. “They do look pretty committed already, seeing as they haven’t even emailed Q yet to see if they’d be ideal candidates.”
“Of course they’d be ideal. Whatever kid they adopt will want for nothing.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up into his incredibly handsome face. “And they’ll have the best uncle around.”
“And the sexiest aunt.” His head came down and his lips pressed to mine. “I’ll call the building firm I used to design my previous villas. I’ll get them to begin work immediately.”
I didn’t bother telling him that our thoughts had aligned once again. I’d had the same opinion about them needing their own island the moment Tasmin had mentioned Q’s help.
“Think they’ll mind being kicked off Batari?”
“Don’t really care.” Sully kissed me again. “You made me a better man in many ways, Jinx. But when it comes to humans—regardless of age—I can only live with so many before I lose my mind.”
I kissed him back, whispering, “I agree. Give me a thousand animals and I will share every inch of our island, but put a few children on there and I think we’d both be moving.”
He hugged me close, the pizzas forgotten. “I knew I married you for a reason.”
“More than one, I hope.”
“I can think of a few.” Kissing the tip of my nose, he glanced at Cal and Jess who were still oblivious to everything else but their discussion of a parental future. “I’m suddenly not hungry. Fancy going to bed?”
“Seeing as the sun is still shining, I’m guessing it’s not to sleep.”
“No.” He shook his head and nuzzled into my neck. “It’s definitely not to sleep.”
“What do you have in mind?” I shivered in his arms as he cupped my breast and pinched my nipple.
“I have an urge to swim.”
“Swim?” I tried to pull back. “Well, you might need to stay on deck then and enjoy the swimming pool.”
“Not that kind of swimming, Jinx.” His blue eyes flashed. “The kind that comes with bendable rules and mythical realms.” Dropping his fingers from my breast, he took my hand and tugged me toward the door that led to the elevator and the bedrooms below. “Come along my kinky wife, it’s time I delivered your fantasy.”
Chapter Nine
“FUCK, YOU LOOK GOOD.”
Eleanor shivered, her skin reacting to the dark lust in my tone. “Are you going to touch me or just stare at me?”
“Depends how much you like me staring.” I looked between her legs. “You’re wet, so you can’t deny that you enjoy being on display.”
“I’d enjoy it more if you touched me.”
“Patience, dear Jinx.” I strolled around the bed for the second time, standing on the mattress to check the harness was well and truly secured to the ceiling. I’d had one of the engineering crew who looked after the technical stuff on Calypso to install two heavy duty anchor points above the bed.
He hadn’t asked questions. He knew better.
“How do you feel?” I asked, glancing down at a trapped and gorgeous Eleanor. Her ankles, calves, thighs, waist, chest, wrists, forearms, and biceps were cuffed with spider webs of a harness designed to hold her weight, allow her to move in any direction she wished, and give the illusion of absolute weightlessness.
Her face twisted with concentration as she waved her arms and legs, pretending to swim in the air. Hovering a few inches off the bed, she could touch the mattress if she bent her legs or continue lying on nothingness if she wanted.
“Strange but free.” She laughed under her breath as I fisted my cock while standing over her. Her grey eyes flashed with need. “I particularly like the view from down here.”
“Like me naked, Jinx?”
“Always.” She licked her lips. “And I’m guessing you like me naked and bound, judging by how hard you are.”
“Very fucking much.” I stroked myself, giving her a show. “I like having you at my mercy.”
She licked her lips. “Reminds me of the sex swing you made out of those vines in your fantasy back at Hawksridge Hall.”
I smiled, squeezing the tip of my cock, doing my best to control my lust. “You’re right. I do love an excuse to tie you up.”
She glanced at the second harness hanging behind me. “Going to join me then?”
“Yep.”
“Need help?”
“I can manage.” Backing up a step, I let my cock go and bent to begin the process of wrapping the cuffs around the areas needed.
“The harnesses back at Euphoria—when you had guests who stayed....” Eleanor waited until I looked at her. “Is that why they were suspended? For these types of fantasies?”
I nodded. “Fantasises with anti-gravity persuasions work best when your body feels the freedom and not just the mind.”
“What kind of fantasises did you code?”
With my legs strapped in, I wrapped the harness around my waist, my cock bobbing with each imprisonment. “Space was one. A guy who won the lottery had a fetish about women on Venus. He didn’t win enough to buy a spaceship, so I coded an illusion that he was an astronaut and got to fuck a goddess from another planet.”
“Wow.”
“Angels were another. It’s surprising how many men have a hard-on for women with wings. Almost as if they know their souls are doomed and try to find salvation where they can.”
“I might have to try that one. I like the thought of being otherworldly. The fantasy you made with the castle in the clouds after our wedding was particularly enjoyable.”
“I agree.” I dropped to my knees between her open legs. The tethers of my harness stopped me from fully connecting with the mattress, keeping me suspended and hovering as if I truly had the power of flight.
Stroking her inner thigh, I teased my way, higher and higher. “I love any fantasy where I get to fuck you.”
“Oh, God. Me too.” Her head tipped back, spilling gorgeous fucking hair all over the bed beneath her.
My cock jerked. A droplet of precum oozed.
Instincts to mount and plunder filled me.
I needed her.
I needed her on my cock.
Now.
But...I’d planned on touching and tormenting her all night. I wanted this fantasy to wring her dry and make her utterly drunk on sex. I wanted the foreplay to be off the fucking charts. If I touched her now, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.
Gritting my teeth, I reached for the bottle of cinta. We’d already inserted the eye lenses and earbuds. My phone and the app were all ready to go. I could have her...soon.
“Open.” I unscrewed t
he bottle and squeezed the rubber stopper, sucking up a few droplets of the orchid-extracted aphrodisiac.
She obeyed, her tongue peeking out just enough to make me growl. “Teasing will only get you in trouble.”
“And what delicious trouble it will be.” She smiled, opening again, her eyes never leaving mine while I placed a droplet onto her tongue before doing the same to myself.
Swallowing, I secured the bottle and tossed it to the side. My hands shook slightly with anticipation as I grabbed my phone.
“Ready?”
She stretched in her binds, revealing her beauty, her strength, her sex appeal. “Hell yes, I’m ready.”
“Fuck, I’m going to make you scream tonight, Jinx.”
“Promises.” She winked. “Press the damn button, Sully.”
My thumb came down.
The fantasy deleted reality.
We left a yacht floating on water and sank to the bottom of shameless sea where every dirty depravity existed.
Chapter Ten
BUBBLES OBSCURED MY VISION while colour splashed and a new existence loaded. My lips automatically parted in panic as I blinked in crystal clear water. Instinct said I couldn’t breathe here, but the virtual reality said I could.
I inhaled substance thicker than air, feeling the tickle of sea in my lungs before dispelling a gentle current through my lips.
I was more than human here.
I was amphibious. A sylph. A naiad.
Water surrounded my limbs, my hair danced in the gentle eddies, and the crushing perception of a million tonnes of ocean above me provided a roof even though no beams or thatch existed.
As my mind settled deeper into the illusion, everything exploded around me.
The colours.
The detail.
The depth of perfection that Sully had gone to in his cypher.
I sat in a crevice as big as a cathedral. An amphitheatre that looked born from molten lava that’d dried into cracks and pillars. Within the shadowy spaces of stone and sand rippled sea grass, anemones, and rainbow coral. Fish darted with sapphire, ruby, and amethyst fins. Dolphins zipped above, followed by the slow sailing of lazy turtles.
Jinx's Fantasy (Goddess Isles, #7) Page 6