She didn’t see me.
But fuck, I saw her.
I saw everything about her.
I drank in the floaty purple dress she wore, scooped low to show pert cleavage and tied at the waist to reveal her willowy frame. Her hair draped over one shoulder, hanging with weight that begged for my fist, gleaming long and rich with starlight, casting it more quicksilver than chocolate.
Her gaze flashed like a cat’s as the girls laughed as a trio.
She scowled and shook her head as if she pitied them, then rolled her eyes as if she couldn’t understand them.
They laughed again.
She sighed and looked out to sea.
She looked through me to the horizon cast in midnight velvet.
She cupped her throat and dropped her touch to her heart as if the life-giving organ inside her was failing.
She looked fragile.
She looked lost.
She was the most intoxicating, provocative thing I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t stop myself.
I came.
I jerked and shuddered as cords of agony exploded from my balls and out my tip, spilling into the sea in thick white spurts.
Wave after wave of savage pleasure tortured me.
And still, she kept staring out to sea, wishing for a way free, totally unaware that she’d just sealed her fate.
She. Was. Mine.
The still pulsing cock I held in my hand would one day plunge inside her.
It was an inevitability.
A promise.
A decree written in the stars.
Chapter Twenty-One
I’D FOUND THE HAREM.
After no one came to claim me, and I grew bored of bobbing in the ocean, I returned to my villa, showered, dressed from the copious choices of summery things in the wardrobe, and then went for a stroll.
The island was a different dimension once the sun had set.
The sandy pathways were arteries leading to some slumbering black beast. The palm trees were sinister umbrellas blotting out the stars, and the roosting of birds was replaced with the steady buzz of cicadas and courting ribbits of frogs.
Without the flickering tiki torches, finding my way would’ve been impossible. Each puddle of light beckoned me forward, leading me in a direction I hadn’t been before. At each bend in the path, I braced myself to meet someone. To bump into a guest, to argue with Sully’s minion, or even battle with Sully himself.
However, I hadn’t come across anyone, and I’d continued my paint by numbers, padding in bare feet, travelling from torch to torch, lantern to lantern until the dense jungle of the gardens thinned out to the humid breeze of the shore.
I’d slammed to a stop.
Stunned and stupefied by awe.
This place…it was dazzling.
Every adjective to describe something that far exceeded extraordinary paled in the view before me. Of the way the sea sparkled with mirroring stars. Of the way far-off lights from other islands winked. Of the way my gaze soared skyward, making me sway at the endless infinity of it all. The sky wasn’t just black with night; it was alive with so many wondrous delights.
Stars and planets, milky ways and flickering clusters.
I’d never been a stargazer, but in one second, I went from confident in my worth as a human, aware that I existed and breathed air and ate food to survive, to not having a clue what I was.
How could I matter when faced with such vastness?
What inconsequential little thing was I when witnessing the untold magnitude of worlds outside our world? The solar system where we bounced around like a Ping-Pong ball, thinking we were absolutely important and special and real, when really…we were utterly insignificant.
I stood transfixed.
My neck ached from looking up. My feet sank deeper into still-warm sand. And tears came unbidden and trickled down my cheeks. Was Scott looking at this vista? Were my mum or dad? Had that guy in Mexico given them my note? Did they hate me for abandoning them or were they happy I’d left them for true love?
My heart hurt.
True love?
More like rotten hate.
Sully had trapped me here; he’d shown me the cosmos and surrounded me with Eden…all for one purpose.
To use, abuse, and ultimately destroy me.
I cried silently for a while.
I let the liquid tracks dry into sticky salt, and then I heard a female laugh.
For the first time since arriving, I was in the presence of women.
Normally, I’d run to them. I’d find solace in my sex and spill my entire tale. I’d ask them to help me escape, to band together and kill the men who thought they were boss, but these weren’t just any women.
They were goddesses.
They were his.
So I’d faded into the undergrowth and waited.
I watched as three stunning girls appeared with a bottle of champagne, cocktails, and the intention of indulging in a private party on the beach.
They moved with grace and freedom, totally content with their place in this strange paradise. They laughed and joked, their voices low and sensual. No shyness or body issues as one danced naked in her see-through dressing gown, and two stood sumptuously in tiny bikinis.
All were about my age or slightly older. One had dark hair, one fair, and the other skin so dark she blended into the night. They might never have met if they didn’t have one thing in common.
Ownership.
To Sully.
As they clinked glasses and swirled in the moonlight, I deliberated on what I should do.
Leave?
Stay?
Watch or grant them privacy?
I couldn’t decide, so I inched deeper into the undergrowth, turning into a spy. A spy who hoped by doing something dirty like eavesdropping, she might find a key to escape.
For a while, I couldn’t make out what they said. Their voices pitched low and interspersed with laughter. They seemed so carefree and loose. As if they’d never suffered stress or pain. As if they’d grown so accustomed to this life that they couldn’t imagine anything else remotely acceptable.
Slowly, the alcohol added volume to their conversation, and sex inevitably became a subject. Goosebumps scattered down my arms as the dark one muttered, “I’ve only got six months left. When I first arrived, I would’ve put a bullet in my brain to be free. Now…” She sighed dramatically. “Now, I’d give anything to have that man put something else inside me.”
The two pealed into knowing giggles.
The blonde one fanned her face as if she suffered heatstroke all of a sudden. “When I’m in Euphoria, I pretend it’s him. I mean…it could be. You never know.”
“Oh, yes.” The brunette swooned. “I’ve often pictured him. I don’t want to leave without knowing what it would be like…just once.”
The ebony girl tapped her on the shoulder. “Imagine slipping him elixir.” Her lips spread into a Cheshire cat grin. “All three of us could have him. There’d be more than enough to go around.”
The blonde spun in a circle, sloshing her fourth cocktail onto the sand. “Oh, can you picture it? He’s so suave and cool toward us. So tightly controlled. I bet you that’s not how he’d be with elixir running in his veins.”
“He’d be an animal.”
“Worse,” the brunette said seriously. “He’d be a demon.”
“A demon who can curse me any day.”
The trio laughed again, but their mirth was tinged with want.
Sully told the truth.
He’d been blatantly honest about these women wanting to bed him, all because they flourished in his captivity rather than suffocated.
I didn’t understand.
How did any of this make sense?
Sure, he was good looking, but come on, have some damn respect!
Unable to listen to any more of their nonsense, I looked out to sea once again. I rubbed at my throat when I found it hard to swallow their gossip, then massaged my ch
est as my heart pounded with fear that one day I might be like them.
I might drink from the poisoned well and somehow have my morals and self-worth stripped, leaving me a horny, helpless woman, who daydreamed about a monster who ought to be shot.
No.
That won’t happen.
I won’t let it.
My gaze danced over the sapphire stars bouncing off the tide. A blot of darkness just out of sight hinted something broke the surface and prevented mirroring galaxies.
A boat perhaps?
No, too small.
A buoy?
What does it matter?
The night had turned late, and no one had commanded I ‘entertain’. I didn’t have to hide anymore. All I wanted to do was return to my villa, lock the door, and hope that sleep could take me far, far away from here.
Closing my eyes, I sent a fervent plea to continue having strength and never forget who I was—so I didn’t turn into a clone of the girls teasing each other on the beach—then searched for a quiet way out of the bushes.
Ferns traced soft fronds along my naked arms as I backtracked. My feet welcomed the cushiony sand as I left the shadows and—
“Hey, Neptune…look.” The quick command of a tipsy goddess wrenched my head up. She sounded so eager, so awed.
“Is that….Ooh, my God. It is.” The brunette who I assumed was called Neptune shuddered dramatically. “Do you think he heard us?”
The dark-skinned girl smirked. “Doubt it. Unless he has sonar like a whale.”
“He spends enough time in the sea, who knows what talents he has.”
Neptune giggled. “With his flair for science, I wouldn’t put it past him to formulate a pill to give him gills or fins or—”
“The ability to fuck one of us on the ocean floor?”
“Calico, seriously.” The blonde flicked her a stern look. “Must you always be so crude?”
I raised an eyebrow at her sudden propriety, only to sigh in disgust as her stern look gave way to a lewd grin. “I bag the first sea sex!” She stabbed her forehead with her thumb, staking her claim. “I’ve never been with a merman.”
“And you won’t…because those don’t exist.” Neptune laughed.
“Hey, Sullivan is a myth all by himself, so he could be. I like mythical creatures.”
“God, you’re so annoying, Jupiter. I bag first with the man-mermaid!” Calico launched at her, spilling a glass of champagne and barely noticing a staff member as she dashed forward to refill.
“You know…if he can breathe underwater and we can’t, he’ll have to keep us alive while fucking us.” Jupiter swooned dramatically, ducking out of Calico’s reach. “His kiss wouldn’t just be erotic…it would be the only thing keeping us from dying.”
“God, you’re such a dreamer.” Calico smirked.
“Hush, both of you. He’s almost onshore.” Neptune pressed her finger to her lips. “Let’s not embarrass ourselves, ladies.”
The harem all nodded importantly.
Their giggles faded, but the lusty glow on their cheeks didn’t. As one, they turned to watch the figure silently prowling from the ocean. If eagerness could claim ownership over another and staring could force someone to do their bidding, Sully Sinclair would’ve been a slave to his very possessions the moment he appeared from his swim.
Lucky for him, the girls had no way of making him follow through with their fantasies and could only watch as water sluiced down a flawlessly masculine body, hunger for the impressive bulge between his legs, hidden demurely in black board-shorts, and lick their lips at the effortless power of flexing muscles, strong sinew, and the impressive aura of a man who knew he was above anyone.
Who was used to absolute control.
Goosebumps shot down my spine as he narrowed his eyes and stepped onto the shore, the sea reluctantly letting him go.
His beauty wasn’t fair.
It made a mockery of every other beautiful thing because it turned perfection into a sin. Prettiness was a weapon and a curse. In a woman’s case, it was mainly a curse. In Sully’s case, it was most definitely a weapon.
An annihilation.
Raking a hand through his sun bleach-tipped dark hair, he scattered another rainfall of droplets on his shoulders. He had no towel to wrap around his waist, no way of hiding how supremely toned his physique was.
The girls practically drooled in the sand, never ripping their eyes off him.
Sighing heavily, he stalked toward the treeline, nodding courteously at the goddesses. He didn’t speak, almost as if he had no tolerance or desire to torment.
However, that didn’t stop them.
The ebony girl, Calico, purred, “Well, if it isn’t the Emperor of Sin himself.”
Sully didn’t pause. His smile was polite but cool. “Goodnight, girls.” His long legs ate up sand, prowling closer toward me and the undergrowth.
A flickering tiki torch bathed him in golden flames, highlighting ridges and valleys of his chiselled belly.
“Sullivan…we were just talking about you.” Neptune sidled in front of him, stopping his journey, cocking her hip suggestively and licking her bottom lip. “Care to join us? We’re a few drinks ahead of you…but you could catch up.”
The sexual invitation was so rife in the humid air, I almost choked on it.
Sully shook his head warningly. “Maybe another time.”
“Maybe in Euphoria?” Jupiter fluttered her eyelashes, moving closer to him. “Is it true you’ve never sampled your own creation?”
His jaw worked as if he chewed on his temper. His eyes flickered to the darkness where I hid, almost as if he knew I was there.
He couldn’t, though…could he?
Tension rippled down his back as he diplomatically replied, “This business demands all work and no play from me. Euphoria is for you and our guests.”
“It could be for you too,” Neptune murmured. “All of us. Tonight.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Tomorrow?”
His eyebrows came down sharply, shadowing intense blue eyes. “Ever.”
Calico visibly deflated, then moved to his side with sinuous grace. “But don’t you want to know what it’s like?”
Sully paused for a moment, tasting her question and teasing a reply. Finally, he whispered harshly, “It’s best for everyone that I don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t fuck my staff.”
Calico bristled. “We’re not just staff. We’re—”
His hand lashed out, locking around her chin. “Don’t mistake our relationship, Goddess Calico. You are mine to do with as I please. What I please is for you to obey me, to satisfy our guests, and to stop fantasising that I will one day fuck you.” Jerking her close to him, he bit out, “That will never happen. I have been perfectly clear about that from the start, so stop this charade and save your lust for someone who wants it.”
Pushing her away, he bowed with all the elegance and sovereignty of a paladin. “Now, goodnight. Nep, you’re in Euphoria tomorrow. I expect you to be well-rested and not hungover.”
Neptune lowered her head, staring into the dregs of her cocktail. “Yes, Sullivan.”
“Good.” With a harsh nod, he skirted around them and continued his stalk to the treeline.
Time to go.
Scurrying from my hiding spot, I broke into a tiptoeing jog down the sandy pathway. I got to the first turn, but before I could disappear, his voice lassoed around my waist.
“Stop.”
I skidded in the sand, partly from shock at his command and partly in horror that he’d known I was there all along.
“Turn around.”
I didn’t.
I might’ve behaved and halted, but I wouldn’t turn around. Not while he was mostly naked and dressed in liquid salt. Not while my heart still raced after listening to his stupid goddesses. Not when my insides no longer knew what was up or down, right or wrong, real or myth.
The soft f
ootfalls of his steps sent chills down my back.
The next time he spoke, a gust of his breath tickled my nape. “Looking for something?”
I swivelled around, hating the sensation of him behind me. The vulnerability of it. The submissiveness of being open for an attack.
Our eyes locked. Grey to blue. His skin shimmered with dampness in the dancing fiery torches. His jaw clenched as a breeze swept down the pathway, catching my hair and making it whip over my shoulder.
His lips thinned, his powerful throat rippled as he swallowed, and his thick five o’clock shadow twinkled like tinsel, trapping ocean droplets with tiny prisms.
I straightened my spine, forcing myself to hold his stare even though it felt as if he reached both hands inside me and squeezed all the air out of my lungs with his fists. Even though it reminded me of my abominable behaviour, the fact that he’d seen me naked and unhinged…that I’d seen him equally naked and raw.
No matter how much I wanted to deny it, something linked us.
The unwanted aftermath of need. The unhealthy challenge of hate.
His nostrils flared as our stare became an eternity, creating a painful bond, a strange understanding, a terrifying future. “Well?” he growled, his voice gruff and gravelly.
“Well?” I trembled in the sand. My knuckles ached from clenching my hands so hard. What would he do if I hit him? If I let go of all the snapping, howling fury with physical violence instead of just verbal?
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
Why?
Did you?
His question lingered for far longer than a typical query, almost as if it held far more weight than first heard. Almost as if the hidden message was beyond his or my control.
Did you find what you were looking for?
Is it you?
Is it me?
Who are you?
Despite the tropical heat, my blood cast with snowflakes, and I hugged myself. Raising my chin, I replied, “No, as a matter of fact, I didn’t.”
No, it’s not you.
It would never be you.
Scott was my boyfriend. Scott was family and home.
This man…he was my enemy.
We were polar opposites, destined to clash, foreordained to doom the other.
“Oh?” His voice darkened. “And what is it you wanted to find?”
Once a Myth (Goddess Isles Book 1) Page 16
