“I want to show you something.” River stood from his seat and held his hand out to me.
I took it and followed him out of the dining room. He walked down the other hall, the one that led outside, but instead of going to the backyard door, he opened the door to the left. He let me walk inside first, following closely behind and shutting the door. It was dark. Pitch black, not even a gas lamp to light the way.
“River?” I whispered.
“One second.” I heard him fussing with something, but I didn’t know what, until the light illuminated. He held a lantern between us. “You need to follow closely behind me.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, then paused when I heard a drip, then another. “What is that sound?”
The room was empty as far as I could tell. River walked and I followed and when we reached a rope hanging from the ceiling, he lifted his hand and pulled it down, bringing a staircase with him. He placed the lamp on the step in front of his face and looked at me.
“You’ll have to trust me.”
I stared at him. I didn’t trust anyone. Especially not after yesterday.
“You’ll have to at least trust me to ensure your safety.” He searched my eyes. “What I want to show you is up there. You’ll have to take your heels off, unless you trust yourself in them.”
I reached down and slid off my shoes, carrying them by the heel in my right hand. “Now what?”
“Now you climb.” He took a step back.
I swallowed and did as I was told. I was too curious not to and if the party wasn’t happening that meant I wouldn’t be seeing my friends tonight or leaving anyway. When I reached the top, I looked down and saw him climbing up behind me. Once we were both up, he pulled the stairs up and folded them flat. We were inside another dark room. The attic, I guessed. I’d never been inside of an attic before.
“Stay put,” he said.
I did.
He walked somewhere and suddenly there was light. I gasped. Small tealights were hanging everywhere in the room. Not the kind of lights the rest of the house had, lit by candles and gas. These were real, electric lights. I didn’t know why, but knowing that even this small part of the house was lit with electricity gave me hope. Not that I needed hope. I’d be leaving soon. I wouldn’t get stuck here the way Sarah had. I walked forward. A large, wide window covered the longest wall, and even though it was dark out, I knew the moon was out there somewhere. There was a mattress beside the window and a fluffy white comforter that looked like the one on his bed.
“What is this place?” I turned to face him, the heels still dangling from my hand.
“It’s my piece of the house.” He was standing there, watching me as I took it in. Waiting for me to say something, as if my opinion mattered.
“It’s lovely,” I said finally, smiling when I looked back at him, and then, he smiled. “You have a beautiful smile, you know?”
“Do I?” He smiled wider. I forced myself to turn away from him.
“Why are you showing this to me?” I walked up to the window, surprised I didn’t have to hunch over in order to stand there.
It was pretty tall considering. River walked up behind me, setting a hand over my hip. I tried to fight the electricity his touch passed through me, but it was no use. Instead of pulling away, I melted into him, my exposed back against the buttons of his button-down. I closed my eyes momentarily, just enjoying this moment, as if we were two lovers who’d known each other for years, who shared common interests, and hadn’t been taught not to trust each other. Up here, none of that mattered.
“None of that matters anywhere.” River’s voice in my head had my eyes snapping open.
There was nowhere for me to pull away, but he must have sensed I needed space, because he let go and took a step back before I turned to face him.
“You . . . ” I searched his face. “Can you read my mind?”
“Sometimes.”
“You said you were human.”
“I am human.” He tilted his head, his voice lowering slightly. “And I feel like we’re running out of time.”
“Out of time for what?”
“Everything.” He sighed heavily. “I want you to know me before you leave.”
“What do you want from me?” My heels fell out of my hands, tumbling onto the wooden floor beneath us.
“I want everything and nothing at all.”
“What does that mean?”
“I want you. It’s that simple. I want you.”
“Why?” I took a step back. “Why do you want me?”
“How could I not?” He let out a laugh.
“You don’t even know me. You say you want me to know you, but you don’t even know me.”
“I do.”
“You don’t.” I frowned.
He moved closer. I didn’t move; despite my wild heart, despite my raging pulse, I stood still. I let him close the distance between us, let him caress the side of my face with his palm, and shut my eyes to relish his touch. My lips parted when his thumb grazed my lower lip. I opened my eyes then, looked into his.
“We’re made of the same essence, little witch.”
“Why do you call me that?” I whispered.
“People call my family witches. They want to cast stones at us, burn our land.” His mouth pulled up slightly. “But you’re the one who’s bewitched me. From the moment I met you all those years ago, I haven’t stopped seeing you, fantasizing about you.”
“Why?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. Some things are inexplicable.” He dropped his hand from my face and looked over my shoulder. I traced his line of sight and saw that the skies were clear.
“How does that happen?” I looked at him. His gaze found mine once more.
“Sometimes everything lines up and the fog just lifts.”
I nodded slowly. I felt those words deep inside me, as if he’d reached in and planted them there, and when he leaned in and kissed me, I molded my lips to his, my tongue to his movements, let him breathe into my lungs. His hands were slow, soft, as he undressed me, his mouth following every place his hands touched. His tongue was hot against my skin, on my collarbone, over my chest, on my breast. I gasped when his tongue flicked my nipple, my hands fighting to take off his jacket. He pulled back from me and undressed, shrugging the jacket off first, ripping off the tie, then working on each button of his button-down and pants. My dress met the same fate as my shoes and the only thing left was the thin thong I wore. I left it on just as he’d left on his black boxer briefs.
“You look like an underwear model.”
“I’d say the same about you, but you’re not wearing much.” He smiled. God. That smile.
“You should be a sin.”
“Maybe I am.” He took a step forward, bringing both hands to either side of my face. “Would you pray against me?”
I shook my head. “I don’t pray much.”
“Hm. A sinner then.”
“Maybe.” I tilted my chin a little higher, asking, begging, and then, I froze.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve never done this before,” I whispered, my lower lip quaking slightly. “Not like this.”
“Like what?” He kissed my forehead, then each eyelid as I shut my eyes.
“Granting permission,” I whispered. I felt uneasy suddenly, but the expression on his face was devastation, comprehension, and compassion.
“You told me, remember? When you sat down in that chair,” he said. “I believed you. I believed every word you told me. I fought for you.”
A sob got trapped in my throat. I swallowed and nodded, tears stinging my eyes and trickling down my face. He had believed me and he’d been the one to take vengeance in my name. Not my father. Not my mother. Not my grandmother, but a stranger. A stranger I’d been told to stay away from, to be deathly afraid of. I wrapped my arms around River’s neck and pulled his face to mine, taking a kiss, desperate for him, desperate to forget, to remember, to feel, t
o just be. He kissed me with the same ardor and lay me on the bed as he explored my body with his mouth. I explored his with my hands, each rigid muscle, and when I wrapped my arms around his back, I felt a scar, then another, and another. I gasped, but it wasn’t at the feel of his imperfections, it was because he began moving down my body, settling his head between my legs. I shivered, feeling his mouth over my mound, his tongue on my clit. My head fell back.
This was better than my dream. Better than anything I’d ever imagined. And when he hooked his fingers into my panties and dragged them down my legs before bringing his mouth back to my pussy, I knew there was no way to have ever imagined this without the experience. Behind my eyelids, I saw colors flashing, the stars shooting to and from their place in space. With his tongue, he drew another constellation, a private one, just for me, and when I orgasmed, it was his face that I saw painted in all those colors. I was still panting when I opened my eyes and saw him kneeling before me, just staring at me with his underwear still on. I sat up on my elbows and reached for the elastic, looking into his eyes, asking, pleading.
“We don’t have to.”
“Am I not your prize? To do with whatever you want?”
“I . . . ” He let out a chuckle, glancing away briefly. “Having you here is prize enough, even if you will leave me, even if you will forget me.”
“How could I forget you?” I sat up straight now, until we were nose to nose. “How could I forget this?”
“You will.” His eyes were sad as he spoke and set a hand on the center of my chest. “You have before. You will again. It’s okay, little witch. I’ll settle for living inside of you. Deep in your bones. You’ll always feel me there, with every breath you take.”
I pulled him to me again, kissed his mouth with reverence, tugged his underwear off with his help. I pulled back and took him in, knowing my eyes were as wide as saucers. It wasn’t like I had many men to compare him to, or any, for that matter, outside of the occasional porn search, but River was huge. I wrapped my hand around him, tugging gently. He moaned deeply, falling upon me and setting his closed fists on either side of me as his mouth found my neck.
“You’ll kill me,” he whispered. “You’ll fucking kill me.”
“I’ll die if I do.” I met his gaze.
His eyes widened at that. I didn’t know where the words came from or why I said them. The only thing I knew was that in that moment, my chest felt like it would cave if I didn’t have him inside me, and I knew that welcoming him would certainly change my life. River settled between my legs then, sliding his fingers inside me to coax me, but I didn’t need to be further coaxed. He slid inside of me gently, slowly, keeping his dark eyes on mine as if to make sure I was okay, or maybe it was just to immortalize the moment. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The only thing I could do was feel. Feel River inside me, his girth stretching me as he filled me. Every time it seemed like he was going to pull out, I held him tighter, wrapping my legs around his waist, my hands gripping his strong arms, all the while keeping my eyes on his, unable to look away. Like my first orgasm, and my dream, I felt it creep down my spine and spread through me. For a few seconds, it was as if everything was perfect, everything was light, everything was in color, and then he said my name.
“Penelope.” He sighed, his forehead against mine as he pushed inside me deeper, faster. “Penelope.”
My legs started to shake again, and this time, I came with a scream, saying his name in a chant that I couldn’t imagine ever forgetting.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Can we just stay here?” I tilted my head to look at River, who was smiling.
“I don’t see why not.” He kissed the top of my head. “As long as you don’t mind the small toilet and lack of shower.”
I sighed heavily. “I can do with the small toilet. The lack of shower, not so much.”
“I thought so.” He chuckled, the sound making me smile wider.
“How do you read my mind?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” He shifted, turning so we were face-to-face. “It only happens when I’m on the property. I can’t go around reading minds when I’m anywhere else.”
“I want to hear the story.” I ran a finger over the side of his face, marking each perfect bone contour. “I’ll believe you.”
“I’m not sure you will.”
“Your mother drowned, didn’t she?” I asked. “Is that what it’s about?”
“In part.” His smile faltered.
“We don’t have to talk about it.”
“I’ve never spoken to anyone about it before.” He reached over and tucked a strand of loose hair behind my ear. “She wanted . . . she needed to get to one of the big islands, to Pan, or the DR or PR or Cuba, but Pan was closest and Pan was where her doctor was, so that was where she needed to be. My father, as you know, isn’t allowed to step foot there. It’s not so much that he doesn’t want to go. He’s tried, but he can’t seem to move past a certain spot.” River chuckled lightly. “A man who owns so much property and has so many investments, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and he can’t step foot on the one piece of land that calls to him, that gave birth to him.”
“It’s a little sad when you say it like that,” I whispered.
“Just a little?”
“Well, it’s kind of difficult to feel sad for successful moguls.”
“Your father, by all accounts, was a successful mogul.”
“And I never felt sad for him.” I raised an eyebrow. River smiled.
“My mother was allowed on Pan. She could get through whatever the invisible barriers were with no problem and visited her doctor there and even went out for dinner with friends. She wasn’t a true Caliban, after all.” He took a shaky breath. “She was pregnant with a baby girl. My little sister. That night . . . ” He swallowed. “That night, her contractions were getting stronger and because her delivery with me, just ten years prior, had been so quick, she decided to go to Pan.”
“My God. You were ten when it happened?”
He nodded gravely. “I went with her. I knew my way around the boat, knew how to drive it. I was ten, but I’d grown up on all kinds of boats, sailing, fishing. Besides, my father was away on business and my mother was my . . . well, she was my best friend, really. We did everything together.” He smiled sadly. “She called me her little sidekick and you’d think I’d be jealous about the child she was carrying, but I was excited. Finally, someone to play with, even if she would be an entire decade younger.”
“River.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued to listen.
“The fog wasn’t heavy that day. The tree was blooming, the grass was green up until the spot where the grass turned to sand and then ocean water. It was nice out. Until it wasn’t.”
“What happened?”
“From what I remember, which is my ten-year-old memory, the winds suddenly picked up. I remember the fog, which had been clear just a second before, wrapping around us like a thick, dark blanket. I remember my mother screaming, yelling for me to secure my life vest. Hers wouldn’t . . . she tried to put it on, but her belly—it just wouldn’t budge.” He shook his head. “Her body was never found.”
“My God.” I sat up with a gasp.
“When I came to, I was lying on the Devil’s Chair.” He was looking so intently at me, as if he needed me to pay close attention. “He asked me what I wanted. What my wish was. I said my mother, my baby sister. He laughed. Laughed.” River shook his head in disbelief. “Then he told me that dead people couldn’t resuscitate other dead people.”
“What?” I blinked, trying to make sense of the nonsensical.
“So I asked to be brought back. I asked for life. Just life. I thought if I was alive he’d let me bring back my mother.” He swallowed, glancing away, out the window, where the beautiful, clear skies had turned into a sudden torrential downpour. “He didn’t. In exchange for my life, he tied me to him, to this island. To this house. I h
ave bouts of freedom here and there, but I always have to come right back here.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent. What could I say? That I was sorry? That I wished I could make it all better? I did, but I couldn’t. I set my hand on his and squeezed.
“Sarah came along shortly after.” He looked at me again. “I was in boarding school by then. I spent most of my life away from here, buried in books, parties, women. Anything to escape the memory and what I’d done, but every so often I . . . it’s like a magnet. I feel like if I don’t come home my body will be ripped apart.”
“So that’s why you came back? That’s why you didn’t finish medical school?”
“You can’t really be on call at the hospital and also on the Devil’s beck and call.” He smiled softly. “It’s not all bad, but still, I want the curse to be broken. I want it all gone.”
“You want to be free,” I whispered.
He nodded. “When my father sent word that I’d been chosen as Carnival host this year, I was once again magnetized, forced to come back, but all along, I knew who I’d pick.”
“You couldn’t have known I’d be here.”
“But I did.”
“Because of the accident.”
“Unfortunately,” he said, and looked genuinely sorry.
“How’d you know my grandmother told me to get the leaves?”
His eyes gleamed. “Your expression gave it away the minute you set eyes on the tree. Besides, I’ve heard stories about your grandmother’s teas and potions.”
“Good or bad?”
“My mother wasn’t a fan. When she was pregnant with me, your grandmother wouldn’t help her with a natural way to relieve back pain.”
I sighed. “I’ve never understood the feud between our families.”
“Most feuds are misunderstandings that feed off of other misunderstandings.” He shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not our problem.”
“Why do you have so many scars?” I brought a hand up to his back and let my fingers run over them. His back was a mixture of scars and welts, some deeper than others.
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