Third a Kiss

by Winters, Pepper

  I ripped off my blazer and yanked at my tie. “He can try.” Clawing at my cufflinks, I pulled up the sleeves of my shirt until muggy air caressed my forearms. “But I’ll be waiting for him, and the Java Sea can have another Sinclair to feast on.”

  Chapter Nine

  PERHAPS I DESERVED MY recent capture, trafficking, and messy existence. Maybe I was naïve and stupid, after all.

  How else could I explain why I attracted pain these days? How did I not see the repercussions for sleeping with Sully that came in the form of disgruntled goddesses and curse-dripping envy?

  After Jealousy left me last night, I’d spent a sleepless evening going over every conversation Sully and I had shared. I permitted myself to be brave enough to admit that some confessions had seemed heartfelt and real, despite his almost immediate denial of such a thing.

  But one question didn’t add up.

  If Sully was the caveman and it was his diamond resting in my bedside table, then who was Roy Slater? Had it truly been him I slept with or was that Sully too? And if it wasn’t him…that was even worse than him not being the caveman because how could he experience that with me and then pass me over to someone else?

  Those questions ensured I had no appetite when breakfast arrived and added to the uncomfortable obsession to confront him by afternoon. I was a shaky, jumpy mess, but I didn’t want to live in my nonsensical thoughts anymore.

  This second-guesser wasn’t me.

  This pining, whiny girl would not be tolerated anymore.

  So that was how I found myself prowling the orchid-lined pathways, squinting in hot sunlight, wearing a white dress with silver pinstripes glittering in the material. I didn’t bother with shoes, and the sand did its best to burn my soles, even with hopscotching on the shadows.

  I’d planned on heading to Sully’s office, to confront him, to demand to know if he was going to sell me or keep me. Either way, I needed to know so I could somehow find a way to accept my future.

  But as I’d neared the fork leading to his workspace, he suddenly appeared, stalking with balled hands and rumpled shirt in the opposite direction. His hair was wild, his eyes blue fury, his blazer missing to reveal a white shirt slightly translucent with sweat.

  Apart from yesterday with elixir running in his veins, I’d never seen him so unkempt, so volatile.

  Pika shot after him a second later, a little tornado on grass-coloured wings.

  Something commanded I stay silent and not call out. Instead, I followed him quietly, chasing his quick storm, hearing the faint rumble of his anger in the cloudless sky, until we reached the main beach.

  Skittles appeared from wherever she’d been, flitting beside me like a moth searching for moonlight. I smiled at her, hanging back and choosing to voyeur from my protective bush as Sully continued his stalk to the podium overlooking the helipad. The same throne where he’d stood and welcomed me that first day.

  Shoving his hands into his navy slacks pockets, he kept his eyes trained on the helicopter, his brow furrowed, his jaw set tight.

  A few moments later, Roy Slater appeared from the laneway leading to guest accommodations, his shoulders slouched and a pissed-off expression on his handsome older face.

  The second he appeared, Sully jolted as if he physically held himself back from launching from his royal ledge and smiting the poor guest into dust.

  Roy looked around, flinching as Cal appeared and gestured cordially at the helicopter. As the two men headed down the jetty, Cal glanced up at Sully who vibrated above like a demon that’d clawed its way through the tapestry of earth and mythology.

  Darkness surrounded him. Lust for death evident in the way the sun almost refused to touch him. Sully’s entire attention locked on Roy as he and Cal shared a few words before he climbed reluctantly into the helicopter.

  My heart leapt.

  He’s leaving…alone.

  My joy didn’t have time to unfurl and figure out what this all meant before a merciless hand grabbed my long hair and dragged me backward. Skittles squawked and shot into the sky.

  I went to scream, but a dainty hand clamped over my mouth.

  What the—

  I fought as the fight and flight instinct drowned my system, but Calico and Neptune were stronger. As one, they trapped me and hustled me away from the sun-drenched beach, pulling me deeper into the shady lane and into the lush jungle hiding us from view, away from Sully’s dominion, away from his protection.

  I tripped as they shoved me against a palm tree. The rigid bark bit into my spine, snagging on my hair. A flash of being pressed up against a similar tree yesterday came and went. Yesterday, all I’d felt was pleasure as Sully filled me, even as lacerations coaxed blood from my cheek. Today, all I felt was fear and a quickly burning hate.

  Jupiter appeared from behind the palm tree, waiting for Neptune to feed my wrists to her, effectively becoming human handcuffs so I couldn’t wriggle free.

  The moment I was prone, the goddesses grinned with victory. Calico ran a hand through her sleek black hair, her lips twisting in spite. Her dress of sultry burgundy once again set off her ebony skin, making her glow with otherworldly beauty. “Well, well, if it isn’t the Plain-Jane who fucked the emperor of sin.”

  I shivered as Jupiter’s nails dug into my wrists, and she hissed into my ear, “Little slut.”

  Neptune kept her hand planted over my mouth so I couldn’t call for help, all while Calico ran her finger along my scratched cheek—a lover’s caress filled with the threat of destruction. “I saw you, you know. I watched him shove you against a tree and fuck you as if he’d rather die than not have you.” Her touch slipped to my throat, tracing the bruised fingerprints of Sully’s consuming lust. “I heard you both, grunting like animals.” She traced the bite marks imprinted in my skin. “I watched him throttle you all while he drove that long, thick dick inside you.” Her hand suddenly lost its lazy petting and shot between my legs. “That dick doesn’t belong to you, bitch.”

  I winced and moaned behind Neptune’s hand as Calico cupped my sore and swollen sex. “How many times did he use this, huh? Are you so greedy to drain him dry for the rest of us?”

  I tried to shake my head as she deliberately hurt me. A vicious grip that bruised already bruised flesh.

  Neptune grabbed my throat while Calico continued to cup me indecently. The skirts of my dress offered no protection, loose and floaty with summery joy. I gulped as female fingers tried to follow the shadows of where a male touch had been. “Did you like it, plain Jinx? Did you like it when he pile-drove you into the sand?”

  I moaned as she pressed hard on my larynx. “How did you get him to be so unhinged, huh? What makes you so damn special?”

  Calico shoved Neptune aside as she grabbed my cheeks with both her hands. Her dark eyes searched mine, rifling with pickaxes and machetes. It physically hurt having her stare at me, it hurt because I saw past her envy and witnessed the panic within her. The need to be acknowledged, to be known. She was just a plaything here, nothing to the man she’d stupidly fallen for.

  I pitied her because I saw a lot of myself mirroring back, but despite our similarities, I would never go to the lengths she had. I would never hurt another just because they’d been chosen and not me.

  I bared my teeth, biting at Neptune’s hand. She gasped, letting me go with a squeal.

  Inhaling and doing my best not to hyperventilate, I snarled, “Let me go, Calico.”

  She snickered. “I don’t think you’re in the position to give orders, do you?”

  “And you’re not in your right mind if you think hurting me will make him want you.”

  Her gaze turned sniper sharp. “He does want me. I know he does.” She glanced at her fellow conspirators. “He wants all of us. He needs to keep us, to love us. All we need to do is get rid of you so he remembers that.”

  I turned cold. “Get rid of me?”

  Jupiter’s fingers tightened on my wrists. “You didn’t think we could let you stay, did
you? Not after you fucked him. You’ve had your turn. It’s ours now.”

  Calico pressed her fingers into my cheeks until they turned hollow and dug painfully into my teeth. “How did it feel? To have him inside you?” Her question was borderline manic. A girl who’d been traded and used for almost four years. An addict force-fed elixir and lust. A woman broken by Sully’s so-promised paradise.

  I allowed my fight and retaliation to bleed from my pores, to speak from the heart. Ripping my face from her painful grip, I murmured, “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I’m sorry that you’ve been trapped here and no longer remember the outside world. I’m sorry—”

  Her strike shut me up.

  Blood bloomed in my mouth from where she’d hit me. My temple pounded, and a headache brewed instantly.

  “Don’t you dare feel sorry for me, bitch. Feel sorry for yourself because you might have been the first to have him, but you won’t be the last. Unlike you, you greedy slut, we’ll share. We’re sisters. We know what it’s like to be a family, and Sully is our family. You’re the outsider who doesn’t belong.”

  I glanced up through a black-spotted haze just as Calico nodded at Jupiter behind me. My hands were released, my imprisonment replaced by something silky and strong slipping around my throat.

  A sinister garrotte ready to strangle me like Sully had.

  Only difference was, his strangulation had been potent with desire and orgasms. This was buried in decay and tombstones.

  I choked as Neptune disappeared behind me, adding more weight to the scarf or sash around my neck.

  My nails clawed at the entrapment, scratching my own skin in desperation for purchase. My nape dug into the tree, the beads of my spine crying out in agony. My hair clung to my sweaty shoulder blades as panic roared to life.

  I kicked and wriggled. I squirmed and clawed, doing my best to get free.

  I croaked a scream.

  I cried hot horror.

  And Calico watched it all. Her face smoothed out the more mine twisted with terror for air. She lost her mania, switching into a sympathetic witch. “It’s okay, Jinx. You’ll go to sleep soon, and you’ll be free of this place. We’re doing you a favour, don’t you see? You’ll be free while the rest of us will still be here, fucking men we don’t want, begging for sex we don’t need.” She had the audacity to lean in and kiss my cheek, her breath skating over my skin as my energy quickly depleted and my lips gasped for air. “We’ll take care of Sully, don’t worry.”

  I can’t breathe.

  I can’t breathe!

  My knees buckled as my body boycotted the impossible, tasting death and howling for it to wait, to not take me, to choose a different victim.

  But slowly, systematically, it slipped around me.

  It muted the outside world.

  Amplified by chugging, failing heartbeats.

  Blindness feathered around my vision.

  The last thing I saw was a falsehood granted by my dying subconscious.

  A final farewell to a future I’d tried so hard to claim.

  Sully stood in a gap of the jungle, two parrots winging crazily around his head.

  Forearms bare, shoulders braced, legs spread in savagery.

  And then, I saw no more.

  Chapter Ten

  SKITTLES ATTACKED ME ON Serigala because she believed I hurt Eleanor when we’d been so, so close to having sex. She did the same thing as I stood on my ledge, keeping myself in place with sheer willpower as the helicopter blades slowly gathered speed and yanked Roy Slater from my island.

  The tiny parrot, who was normally so passive, arrived with a cyclone of feathers, bites, and claws. “Hey!” I threw up my arm as she tore at my ear, shooting away in the direction of the path before repeating her dive-bomb attack.

  Pika tried to intercept her carnage, only for her to turn vicious on his playful antics.

  Either Skittles had suffered an aneurysm and had a total personality switch, or…

  Eleanor.

  I bolted in the direction Skittles seemed desperate for me to go. She squeaked and cawed, soaring ahead of me now that I’d gotten the message. I could barely keep up as sand flew from my shoes, Pika joining us in our hurry.

  I would’ve missed them if it hadn’t been for Skittles. If the tiny, loyal beautiful bird didn’t zip into the undergrowth where a few purple orchids had been crushed by women’s feet.

  Thanks to her, I stumbled on a murder in progress, and the rage I’d done my best to eradicate, thanks to talking to my brother, sprang into an uncontainable miasma.

  I saw red.

  I tasted blood.

  I shut down.

  Skittles didn’t wait for me to kill the goddesses; she took it upon herself to shoot forward, pecking at the eyes of the two girls trying to strangle Eleanor with a goddamn scarf.

  Neptune winced and ducked her head, keeping her focus on pulling the scarf with all her weight.

  Skittles kept them distracted while I followed with measured footsteps, my fists curled until my knuckles popped, my heart beating both wildly and not at all.

  I was fire and ice. I was monster and man.

  I was afraid of what I’d do because all I wanted was their chests ripped open, their entrails on the dirt, and their mouths open in pitiful screams.

  A twig broke under my shoe as I closed the distance between us. Jupiter looked around the tree, her gaze snagging with mine. Instantly, her complexion turned snow-white, all pigment in her flesh retreating inside, as if fortifying the organs I was about to massacre.

  Skittles flew into the branches above, sitting next to Pika, ready for me to deliver the messy consequences.

  Neptune was next, releasing her hold on the scarf around Jinx’s throat, removing the barrier that kept her upright.

  Eleanor tumbled to the ground. Weightless, elegant—a folding waterfall of legs, torso, and arms until she lay sprawled and eyes closed in the bracken.

  Seeing her like that?

  Seeing the redness around her throat and the paleness of her lips, it smashed through yet another wall around my heart.

  It destroyed my lies that what I felt for her would fade. It obliterated my assurances that I would get over her. It forced me to admit that I would do anything for her, be anything for her, I would fucking slaughter every-fucking-body for her.

  Starting now.

  Up till that moment, everything had seemed in slow motion. The world had been replaced with molasses and mud, but with that arrow of self-truth, it turned into quicksand. Cascading through an hourglass, tick-tocking the wasted time that I needed to save her.

  I didn’t remember much after that.

  Skittles screeched as I snatched Calico’s hair and ripped her backward. She yelped in surprise as I spun her around, wrapped both hands around her throat, and squeezed with no fucking mercy.

  She hung in my hold, her sharp fingernails leaving crimson furrows on my knuckles. Her eyes bugged, the gristle in her neck gave way under my strength, and her body went from fierce to floppy in a heartbeat.

  Breathing through flared nostrils, I let her go the second she turned lifeless in my grip. She flopped to the ground, a matching marionette to Eleanor’s unconscious form.

  Unlike Eleanor who stayed in the front of my mind—a glowing sacrifice I had to get to, had to save—I forgot about Calico the moment I stepped over her and prepared to punish the other two.

  Jupiter burst into tears as I closed the distance between us.

  Neptune fell to her knees, her hands in prayer, her lips white. “Sullivan, please. Please, don’t hurt us. We’re—”

  I backhanded her.

  Hard.

  So fucking hard.

  Her head whipped to the side and her body flayed in rhythm, crashing her to the ground.

  Jupiter stayed standing, swaying with terror, her tears raining.

  My blood-raged spluttered a little, allowing mercy to filter through the murderous haze. I snarled through gritted teeth. “Why?”

&
nbsp; She blinked, sending another gush of tears to stain her cheeks. “Because…because you never looked at us like you look at her.”

  Neptune slowly pushed herself from the dirt, cupping her swollen cheek and daring to look up at me while weaving on her knees. “We love you, Sullivan. Please—”

  I laughed mercilessly. “Love? You think this is love?”

  “We’d do anything for you. We obey your every command. We’re yours, through and through.”

  Eleanor moaned as oxygen filtered back into her body, keeping her alive.

  Love.

  I’d refused it my entire life. I’d ignored its insidious pull toward Jinx. But she was right. It might not have been instant-love when we’d met, but it had been instant-something. And for the first time, I wanted to fight for that instead of killing it.

  My hand lashed out, pushing on Jupiter’s slim shoulder until she kneeled beside Neptune. Both goddesses trembled, but they never looked away from me.

  Good.

  I had their full attention.

  With explicit lewdness, I grabbed between my legs. I fisted the bulge that I’d caught them staring at, I activated pain from sleeping with Eleanor. I waited for their eyes to skate down to my grip before inching nervously back to my gaze.

  With their full concentration burning holes in my flesh, I growled, “This is what you want? This cock that you think has the power to grant your happiness?”

  Their shoulders rolled and shame dotted their cheeks. “We just want you to love us.”

  “There’s that nasty word again.” My arm shook as I squeezed myself harder. My gaze fell to Eleanor, and a supercharged, thousand-wattage electrical bolt stopped my heart when her grey eyes opened. Her eyebrows furrowed as she slowly returned from death, blinking away lethargy and strangled smog.

  While she still danced on the border of awake and dormancy, I locked eyes with the two murdering goddesses. I jerked my arm, my cock still throbbing in my grip. “This belongs to her. It was always hers. You didn’t stand a goddamn chance before she arrived, and now that I’ve found her, you’ve lost forever.”

  Neptune bowed her head. Jupiter stopped crying, her despair quaking until her teeth rattled.