Twice a Wish (GODDESS ISLES Book 2)

by Pepper Winters

  I needed to stop.

  Everything.

  But I only kissed her deeper, struggling to breathe. My body turned savage and weak all at once. My mind swam, lightheaded with need. Snatching her off her feet, I stumbled off balance.

  Our lips disengaged, and I automatically released her so I didn’t pull her down with me. The harness kept her standing while I fell to one knee.

  Somehow, I’d ended up doing what I’d fought against since she landed on my beach.

  I bowed.

  I bowed at her fucking feet and looked up at the most stunning girl I’d ever seen. A girl who wasn’t a goddess, after all, but a golden-hearted human who was even rarer than myth.

  Her lips were swollen and pink. Her gaze no longer filled with rain but lightning bolts. I needed to prepare her for Euphoria, but all I could do was stare up and ask the most damning question. A question I’d asked before but still didn’t have a fucking answer.

  “Who are you?” My tone had tangled with darkness and desire, weighed down with sand.

  Her swollen lips parted, perhaps to give me some cosmic answer delivered by fate’s arrow, or maybe to curse me with an even greater spell. Either way, I wasn’t prepared to listen.

  I didn’t have the goddamn strength.

  Wrapping my arm around the top of her thighs and clamping a hand on her hip, I dragged her forward. I gave her no room to argue or struggle as my mouth clamped down on an entirely different part of her body.

  The moment my tongue touched her clit, the harness creaked with her full weight. She went lax and locked tight all at once. “Ah…God. Sully—no.”

  No?

  I didn’t understand that word anymore.

  No was something you said about inconsequential things.

  This?

  Tasting her? Tonguing her?

  This was not inconsequential.

  This was fucking consequential. The biggest consequence of my life.

  My tongue drove inside her.

  She cried out, swinging in her binds. Wetness welcomed me to dive deeper; her inner muscles clutching around my invasion. Her body flushed with heat as I released her hip and brought my hand between her legs.

  While my tongue circled her clit and her desire made her pant, I pressed two fingers inside her. The second her body swelled and settled around my touch, she moaned so guttural and raw, my hips pumped into air.

  I couldn’t control the instinctual need to replace my fingers with my cock.

  Everything about this girl made me drunk. It made me forget my boundaries. My promises. It made me go rogue with the need to take everything I could. To steal her senses. Her sanity. To make her as tormented as me.

  My teeth unsheathed, biting her clit as I rocked my fingers deep. Her hips undulated against my face. I growled as she whimpered, her body releasing another silky wet welcome.

  My tongue lavished every part of her. She tasted of citrus and frangipani from her bath that all goddesses had access to before serving in Euphoria. She smelled wild and ripe with need.

  I thrust deeper into her, driving my fingers as far as they’d go. My knuckles pressed against her pussy lips. My tongue lashed and teeth teased.

  And I broke her into pieces.

  Her orgasm swelled and shattered in a single heartbeat. The force of it milked my fingers with tight pressure, rhythmic and primal. The beast inside me wanted to respond. It knew what the bands of muscles and the fading cries of Eleanor’s pleasure meant.

  She was at the pinnacle of passion. She’d come, but that only made her more receptive, more open to deeper claiming, harder fucking, rougher connection.

  She wasn’t pleasured.

  She was primed.

  Primed to be mounted and taken.

  The thought of removing my fingers from her still pulsing body and removing my tongue from her delicious taste almost kept me locked on my knees, but the feral hunger to thrust my body into hers jerked my hand from between her legs and forced me to scramble upright.

  She swayed in her harness. Eyes hazed and nipples hard. A trickle of her release glittered on her inner thigh.

  As my hands went to my belt and undid the loop, I made yet another colossal mistake.

  The worst one yet.

  I allowed our eyes to lock.

  I allowed myself to see.

  To see the same thing in her that had grown unavoidable in me.

  Something that shouldn’t exist. A demon that began in the heart and slowly ate its way through mind, sense, and soul.

  Despite everything that I’d done. Despite our roles in each other’s lives…that demon had grown. Mirroring pieces that looked a lot like budding, unfurling, dangerous, treacherous love—

  No.

  No fucking way.

  I backed away.

  I tripped.

  My phone alarm went off.

  Announcing it was time for Eleanor to be fucked by Roy Slater.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I COULDN’T KEEP UP.

  Two moments ago, Sully had his tongue between my legs, his touch inside me, and a blistering orgasm—invoked purely by emotion and connection, instead of that cursed elixir—had ricocheted through me.

  Now, a stranger stood before me. A man with an unreadable face, black-blue eyes, and an ever blacker mood.

  Wrenching the trolley to stop beside me, he opened the boxes he’d used during my first preparation for Euphoria.

  My heart cracked as he poured oil into his hands and spread it over my body. Clinical and angry, no lingering over the parts of me that throbbed for his attention.

  Once the oil gleamed, he inserted the earbuds, the eye lenses, the astringent scent under my nose, and made me swill with whatever magic that changed my sense of taste. His hands were icy as he clutched my fingers and placed the sensor pads on each. His nostrils flared as he ensured the harness that another one of his staff had placed on me was locked securely.

  Part of me swelled with tears. The other part snarled with anger.

  How dare he kiss me? How dare he bring me to an orgasm? How dare he drag feelings I didn’t want to face to the surface and then witness those feelings bobbing like a capsized boat in my eyes, waving a white flag in surrender, begging him to save me.

  For a second, I’d thought he’d scoop me up and release me from my position of whore. I envisioned a conversation that unknotted the twisted, tightening, electrifying rope between us. I’d seen a mirroring boat in his gaze, packed full of similar feelings. But unlike mine offering surrender, his was a pirate ship ready to plunder.

  Raking a hand through his hair, he refused to look at me as he stepped back and pulled up an app on his phone.

  He’d prepared me so fast, I couldn’t see very well through the lenses. My vision hadn’t accepted them yet. My ears rebelled against the hushed world behind the buds. My fingers itched to feel truth not lies.

  I didn’t want to go into Euphoria like this.

  I didn’t want to go in at all.

  I didn’t want another man to touch me after Sully had made me come.

  It made me feel dirty and worthless. A coin passed from one billionaire’s pocket to another. Useless and unwanted.

  With the app open, Sully placed his phone onto the trolley, then swallowed hard and pulled the dreaded vial from his pocket.

  I cringed away, fighting against the imprisonment of the harness. “Sully…please. Don’t.” I searched his sea-blue gaze for any sign of what he’d shown before. Any hint that I might not be the only one drowning beneath such horrors. But his eyes were closed off, impenetrable, resolute.

  Stepping into me, he pulled the stopper out and cupped the back of my head.

  Wordlessly, he held the vial to my lips.

  I clamped them shut and shook my head, pleading silently to stop.

  His chest heaved as his fingers dug into the back of my head. He fisted a handful of hair, and with a sadistic yank, he pulled my head back, igniting pain over my scalp.

 
; With my lips open in a soundless scream, he tipped the elixir onto my tongue.

  I wasn’t fast enough to spit this time.

  His large hand clamped over my mouth, pinching my nose at the same time.

  Our eyes locked again, but unlike last time, our roles were very clear. No muddy guesses or tentative hope that this meant more. Just tyrannical clarity that I was his to use, rent, abuse.

  I swallowed.

  I swallowed the elixir, my stupid hope, my eternal optimism, and most of all, I swallowed any unruly affection until I could no longer feel its fluttering wings in my belly.

  I wanted it to die.

  Forever.

  With a tortured noise in his chest, he ran his thumb along the seam of my lips, gathering up whatever lingered. With a darkness etching his eyes, he placed his thumb into his own mouth as if tasting the residue of elixir he’d fed me.

  His eyes snapped closed.

  My heart quickened.

  Maybe, he wouldn’t go through with it. Perhaps, he’d keep me—

  He snatched his phone from the trolley.

  And before I could speak, he pressed the button.

  The world went white.

  My system overloaded.

  I traded real world for illusion.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I WASN’T A MAN.

  I was pure rage.

  Rage and confusion and turbulence.

  Churning storms full of blurring lines and major fuck ups.

  A monster with a heart that’d suddenly remembered how to care.

  I cared about her.

  I wanted her.

  I love—

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

  Fuck!

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I STOOD ON A doorstep.

  A simple, suburban doorstep in a cookie-cutter neighbourhood. I glanced around, trying to figure out what the hell this meant. A potted pansy rested by the front door, bright red paint highlighted the entry, and a perfectly mowed lawn swept all the way to a snowy white fence and flamingo-shaped letterbox.

  I tried to stay focused on the strangeness of this normal world, but a dangerous bubbling had already begun in my blood. An insidious hint that the elixir Sully had poured down my throat had attached itself to my nervous system and begun its swift takeover.

  Biting the inside of my cheek, I fought it as best I could.

  I tried to understand this new universe.

  I didn’t know what I’d expected, but I’d braced myself for another cave. Another fire crackling, blizzard blowing, mildew painted prehistoric cave. I shuddered at the thought of another caveman coming to mount me without any introduction.

  A moan tried to claw up my throat as my nipples hardened and a flush of heat worked its way down my belly to my core. Wild need licked under my skin, searching for relief.

  Hugging myself, I tried to contain the bubbles and rapidly pinging lust within. I hadn’t prepared to find myself standing on some stoop with sun that felt so real beaming on my skin and the squeals of kids playing on their bike down the road.

  Where was the man I’d been sent to?

  Who would help me when I could no longer function as a girl and became a writhing creature instead?

  Please…

  My pussy clenched on nothing, sending another flood of heat through my insides.

  Oh, God.

  Sully might’ve given me an orgasm before my arrival, but it wouldn’t be enough. One would never be enough.

  I need…

  God, I need.

  No!

  Stop it!

  Sweat broke out over my forehead as heartbeat by heartbeat, my body became prisoner to its carnal wants.

  Ignore it.

  Just…ignore it.

  Another full-body clench squeezed every cell. I swear each atom and molecule died a tiny orgasmic death. I shivered as my clit swelled for touch.

  Not just any touch.

  Rough handling and brutal use.

  I wanted a man to cup me whole and let me grind on his palm. I wanted him to push me against this wall and fuck me.

  Oh—

  I jolted with gluttony. Sexual gluttony I couldn’t ignore but had to feast on. My hand dropped to press against my pussy.

  I tripped forward, losing my balance, and bracing myself against the doorframe.

  My palm hit a button, sending a shrill ring slicing through the quaint neighbourhood.

  My lust hiccupped, faced with a new threat.

  The doorbell echoed within the house, announcing my arrival.

  I waited to be found out. To be chased off this persons’ porch before I fell to my knees and tried to have sex with their doormat.

  When no one came, I buckled over as another wave washed over me.

  A hot and hungry wave, thick and cloying, filling my mind with sinning desire. As I swallowed hard, a horrendous thought filled me. If there was no one here. If Sully had sent me to a world where I was alone, I would resort to what I’d become when I’d first arrived. My fingers would ache from getting myself off. My wrists would snap from the pressure I’d use to pleasure myself.

  I didn’t want it.

  But…I couldn’t fight it.

  I tore at the tie around my neck.

  Tie?

  Glancing down, I gasped.

  What the—

  I wore…a restaurant uniform.

  White shirt, blue tie, and grey skirt. Black high-heels, white knee-high socks, and a cute fishtail braid completed my café worker look.

  Fear quickened my heart rate, tangling with my deranged lust.

  What sort of fantasy had I stepped into?

  Looking back at the curb, I debated running and knocking on all the doors. To try to find someone who could help me. Someone who I could tell my true name and had the power to pull me from this virtual program and save me from molestation.

  But if I did that, I would provide them with a show.

  A one-woman peepshow where all my inhibitions faded and the only thing that mattered was bliss. I wouldn’t care if they watched. I’d probably invite husbands to join me. I’d become someone I despised, all because I couldn’t stop the licking, hissing, snarling need in my blood.

  I yanked at my hair.

  No!

  I don’t have to give in.

  I don’t!

  Even as I cursed my weakness, I pressed my thighs tighter, adding friction to my throbbing clit. My breasts ached beneath my shirt. I fidgeted and fumbled, desperate to remove my clothes but still sane enough to fight.

  I probably had another minute before I’d be reduced to masturbating on this doorstep.

  Please!

  I crumpled over, hugging my traitorous body as the door swooped open.

  Instinct ordered me to move away.

  I tripped backward, swallowing a groan at the delicious whisper of clothes over sensitive skin.

  I straddled the border of climaxing and being severely tormented by a release that refused to shatter. I gasped as sweat ran down my spine, my body in the throes of passion when doing something as simple as standing on a stoop.

  Feet filled my vision.

  Bare, masculine feet that belonged to long legs encased in faded jeans. Wrapping my arms tight around my roiling belly, I dared look up.

  My gaze locked on the face of a roguishly handsome man in his early forties. Trimmed dark hair swept off a handsome face. Lips full but still uniquely male and piercing blue eyes.

  Sea eyes.

  Sully eyes.

  My heart flopped and suffocated, not knowing if it wanted to pump with passion or die with hate. I could still feel his tongue between my legs. Still feel my wet shame on my inner thigh.

  Another smear had joined the wetness Sully had given me.

  Soon, I would be drenched thanks to a drug that attacked my brain, twisting me from complex human into mindless animal.

  Tears sprang to my eyes as my mind played a highlight reel of Sully on his knees before
me, his head between my spread legs, his tongue diving inside me.

  God.

  He’d successfully made me come without elixir.

  He’d been the first male to do that.

  In our five-month relationship, Scott had never made me come. I’d had to help myself along, if I’d felt inclined, while we’d slept together.

  But Sully…it’d taken him mere minutes. He’d driven his fingers and tongue deep inside me until I—

  I buckled as a repeat orgasm spindled and threatened to burst me apart.

  Yes.

  No.

  Yes—

  “Hello.” The man smiled, interrupting my release, freezing me with mortification.

  For a blissful minute, the elixir gave me a break, and I stood upright instead of hunched like a crippled thing.

  His smile never slipped as his eyes ignited with matching lust. Seemed my need was contagious. We stared for a long moment, sparks crackling and desire flowing from his body to mine.

  At least I wouldn’t have to self-administer my antidote.

  This man would help.

  He was the one I’d been sent to.

  I didn’t know who he was.

  I didn’t recognise him, but he would help me because I would willingly shed my clothing right here. I’d beg him to put me out of my misery if necessary.

  He backed into his house with a shadowy stare, opening his arm in invitation. “Come in. You must be hot out there.” His body moved with elegance, his legs long and torso broad with muscle.

  His invitation reeked of sex.

  If I entered, I wouldn’t be getting out untouched.

  This stranger and I would be on exquisitely intimate terms by the time I left. If I could leave. If I could walk after he’d finished with me.

  “Come in…please.” He bowed; a strand of dark hair fell over his forehead. “My son won’t let me hear the end of it if I let his girlfriend die of heatstroke outside.”

  His words were innocent.

  His voice was not.

  Pure potency brewed with darkness and yearning.

  I shook my head, trying to clear the elixir steadily creeping back over me. This stranger might be unknown to me, but he was a guest on Sully’s island. This was his avatar to hide behind, a long-held perception of himself who he’d always wanted to become.