Third a Kiss

by Winters, Pepper

  I needed her light.

  I needed her dark.

  I needed to hurt us with the insane amount of need she created in me.

  I snarled as my pace turned manic. Nothing soft. Nothing gentle. I didn’t stop the savage noises falling from my lips, just like she didn’t.

  She moaned and screamed.

  She yelled my name while I fucked her.

  And Nirvana swallowed each and every one, hiding our fiery, bone-snapping releases. Keeping us hidden while we figured out how to exist in this new terrifying existence.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “HOW MANY GODDESSES DO you own?” I kept my gaze on the table laden with delicious food. His chef had been busy creating vegetarian fare that rivalled any five-star restaurant, using ingredients I’d never heard of, blending flavours that exploded on my tongue.

  After Sully had taken me ruthlessly hard in Nirvana, we’d spent the rest of daylight swimming in the cool embrace of freshwater. His villa’s deck had been designed to have access to the waterfall, providing steps from the pebbly bottom all the way to the cantilever platform with sun loungers and a table with a large white umbrella.

  Sully had climbed those steps twice while we swam, his ass clenching in perfect muscular symmetry as water sluiced down his skin. He’d returned with freshly squeezed apple and strawberry juice, piled high with ice and a slice of papaya wedged in the side.

  We’d drank the much-needed hydration while sitting naked on his deck, our legs dangling in the water.

  I’d never stayed naked this long. Never fully lost my self-consciousness being completely bare. But Sully made it so easy. So right.

  His cock hung heavy between his thighs as he watched me suck on the paper straw, drinking what he’d made me. With each breath, he’d grown harder until our drinks were abandoned for a different kind of thirst.

  He’d pulled me onto his lap and speared into me, the same way I’d taken him after he’d told me he was in love with me. We rocked together until we came together, and then he pushed off from the step and tumbled us deep into the water, sluicing our shared releases away, raking his hands through his hair as he popped to the surface.

  In all honesty, it’d been the best afternoon of my life.

  I’d never been so content, so cared for, so utterly in love with absolutely everything. From the sunset glowing fire through the palm trees, to the roosting sounds of birds all around us, to the serenade of cicadas, crickets, and frogs as night fell.

  Pika and Skittles never went far, preening themselves on branches while we swam, visiting us and stealing morsels of fruit and vegetables while we ate dinner.

  This truly was paradise.

  Yet…it wasn’t paradise for everyone.

  Sully stiffened in his chair.

  His hair had dried into a wild tangle of dark and bronze swept off his forehead. He wore a simple black t-shirt and cargo shorts, loaning me a blue and white striped shirt that I’d fastened with a belt around my waist, fashioning a simple dress.

  We’d shared a shower in his amazing bathroom, watching the waterfall turn silver in the rising moonlight, taking turns to soap and rinse, sharing a kiss when he passed me a towel.

  Our interactions were laced with lust but also so at ease with domestication.

  I didn’t understand how it could be so simple, so peaceful between us. I expected an argument, a ripple—something to disrupt the endless satisfaction I felt in his company.

  Maybe that was why I’d asked a condemning question after we’d spent the day making small talk about the animals around his villa, Serigala, and a few hush-hush drugs his scientists were working on.

  Maybe it was my turn not to trust him…trust us.

  Trust that love could be like this.

  “Why do you want to know?” Sully asked, his tone carefully guarded. He reached for a chargrilled mushroom stuffed with aubergine and drizzled in coconut cream.

  I mulled over his question.

  Did I want to know so I could berate him into freeing them? Did I want to know how many girls I had to share him with? Did I want to know for good reasons or for selfish ones?

  I settled on honesty and shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t agree with what you’re doing, but it’s hypocritical of me to say that as here I am, eating the food their services provided, willingly turning a blind eye to love you. I guess…” I sighed and finished, “I’m just glad Calico, Jupiter, and Neptune are gone.”

  “But that’s not enough for you.” His chair creaked as he shifted his weight. “You want to free them all.”

  I dared look up, catching his stern stare. “Would you? Would you stop?”

  He gritted his teeth, avoiding that question and answering the easier of the two. “Seven. There are seven here currently…including you.”

  I flinched. “And how many guests at any given time?”

  He rolled his shoulders, popping a cherry tomato into his mouth. “Not many. Three at the moment. I don’t like crowds.”

  I half-smiled. “Three isn’t a crowd.”

  “Two is a crowd if I don’t like the other person.” He pinned me to the spot with his blistering blue gaze. Pushing his plate aside, he leaned forward. “Look, Eleanor. I will not apologise for what I am. I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again. Humans are not above treatment deemed perfectly humane for other creatures. I provide the best care, nutrition, and free range existence that I can. Their lives are most likely a thousand times better than they were when they didn’t belong to me.” His voice grew testy, sharp. “If you can’t accept that then…we have a serious fucking problem.”

  My back locked in my chair. Goosebumps shot over my arms.

  There’s the argument.

  You brought this upon yourself.

  I’d done this, but I wasn’t prepared to finish it. I wasn’t prepared to draw a line in the sand between us. Not yet. Maybe soon there would come a time when his morals would be a breaking point for me…but right now, I was too swept up on hormones and dopamine to put strangers I didn’t know before the monster I’d fallen for.

  Sucking in a breath, I forced myself to say, “We don’t have a problem, Sully…not yet at least. I understand your reasoning, and I even agree with it to a certain extent. But I don’t believe any creature should live a life of captivity. All I’m requesting is some sign that you’re open to a different alternative. Possibly, maybe…sometime in the future.”

  He scowled, leaning back in his chair. It took the longest few seconds of my life before he nodded once. “Possibly, maybe.” His lips twitched, ceasing our fight. “Sometime in the future.”

  I exhaled with relief. “That’s all I’m asking.”

  “How old are you?” he asked, his head tilting to the side with dark curiosity. “You’re younger than me…but by how much?”

  I smiled, casting off the tension from before. “Twenty-two. You?”

  He swiped a hand over his mouth, groaning a little. “Eleven years your senior.”

  “You don’t look like a senior.” I peered at his hair. “No greys that I can see. Yet at least.”

  He chuckled once. “Oh, they’re there. Stress-related mainly.”

  “How can you be stressed when you live in a place like this?” I waved at the perfection of enjoying a candlelit dinner on a deck overlooking a waterfall.

  His jaw clenched, reliving things I couldn’t see. “I’m not very good at putting things in the past.”

  “What things?”

  He narrowed his gaze. “Is this what I get for falling in love with you? Death by a thousand questions?”

  I grinned. “Oh, don’t worry, Sully. I’ll find plenty of ways to murder you slowly.”

  He laughed, the sound deep and gravelly—a sound that echoed through my heart and core, making me tingle and crave at the same time.

  “Thanks for the warning.” His eyes danced. “I feel like I might’ve made a crave mistake.”

  “Too late now.” I scooted my
chair closer to his, no longer hungry for dinner. “What’s your biggest flaw? Tell me now so I’m not heartbroken.”

  His mirth fell, leaving behind harsh reality. “You already know. I procure women and use them for my benefit.”

  I waved that fact away. “No…a character trait. That’s a choice. Give me the flaw that’s ingrained in your very makeup. Something you will never be able to change…no matter how persuasive I am.”

  His lips thinned. “Why? What does that prove?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Just…making conversation.”

  “So this is an inquisition instead of dinner.”

  “This is us getting to know the person our hearts have chosen. We feel something we can’t explain. We are connected in ways I doubt we’ll ever unravel. But I don’t know you. I don’t know—”

  “You know me better than anyone.” His hand shot out, cupping my chin. “Literally anyone.”

  “Even Cal?”

  He winced, letting me go as quickly as he’d grabbed me. “Calvin—” He looked away, staring at Nirvana. “Cal has been there since the beginning. He knows more than he should. It could make him a liability if I didn’t trust him.”

  “Ah, so you do trust someone.”

  He scowled. “He earned it before I lost the ability to do such a thing. He was there when I—” His lips snapped together, shutters slamming over his eyes. If what he’d done matched the sudden grief and death swimming in his gaze, then I didn’t want to know.

  Not here under a silver moon with the scents of jasmine and hibiscus nullifying the outside world.

  “He’s your friend. I get it.”

  He remained tight and tense. “I suppose you could call him that.”

  “Just like Jealousy is your friend.” I paused, keeping a careful eye on his reaction. That was one anomaly I couldn’t figure out. Jess/Jealousy seemed to have my back. She’d given me the truth about Sully’s actions with the diamond and Euphoria. She genuinely seemed to want us together.

  But why?

  Was she truthful with her simple request to give Sully his freedom so the others could have theirs?

  And how did she know so much about Sully’s mental state?

  “Jealousy is someone I tolerate more than most,” Sully murmured. “She’s transparent and upfront. I’ve never caught her lying, and believe me…I’m pretty good at sniffing out lies.”

  “You know she’s been spying on you, right? I agree she is upfront. She wasn’t afraid to tell me things about you that I’m guessing you probably didn’t want her to tell me.”

  He smiled, his teeth sharp in the moonlight. “That’s the reliable thing about her. She’s a great little spy. She tells me things about the other goddesses. She listens and she watches. She’s made her loyalties known. She even told me she was going to tell you about the diamond and that I’d made her fuck Grammer and Slater as you.” He reached for his tumbler holding a splash of amber alcohol. “She gave me a few days’ warning.”

  “So…she threatened you.”

  “No, she encouraged me.” He sipped his drink, his throat working as he swallowed.

  “Would you have told me if she hadn’t?” A shard of hurt poked my heart. It was stupid to be hurt that Sully had needed encouragement to pursue me. I should be thankful to Jealousy, not worry about her motives.

  Sully jerked my chair into his, crashing us together with a smack of wood. “Get that pain out of your eyes, Goddess Jinx.” He swivelled me around until our knees pressed together. His large hands landed on my thighs, squeezing me with authority. “I confessed to you as there was no other way forward.” Grabbing a fistful of his borrowed shirt encasing me, he pulled me into him and kissed me hard.

  Our teeth clacked as he fed me the taste of sharp liquor, sweeping his tongue over mine, biting my bottom lip. When he stopped making me lightheaded and wet, he whispered, “I’m surprised I didn’t fall to my knees the second you arrived and fucking proposed. That’s how wrapped up in you I am.”

  A stupid smile spread my lips. I swooned into him, kissing him again, taking my time to tangle my tongue with his, deepening the kiss, making our hearts race to the same chaotic beat.

  I pulled away, drunk on him and loose-lipped with honesty. “I wanted to travel to Asia. Malaysia and Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. When I agreed to travel with Scott, I thought we were on the same page with our itineraries, but instead of flying to Asia, he convinced me to go to Mexico.”

  Sully bared his teeth. “I suggest you don’t talk about another boy in my company, Eleanor. Not when my cum still fills you. Not when I can’t handle—”

  I kissed him, stealing his sudden anger and his fiery possessiveness. Only once his fists unclenched did I pull away and continue, “I think I wanted to fly to Asia because you were here. There was something inside me. A tug. An impatience. Something I couldn’t describe, telling me I needed to explore this part of the world. I couldn’t explain it because I’d never been here, so why was I so adamant I needed to travel to exotic places I couldn’t name...” I traced my thumb over his damp lip, cupping his stubble-covered jaw.

  Just the wonder of being allowed to touch him like this shot another dose of agonising love through my bloodstream. “I like to think we would’ve met…under different circumstances. That I would’ve been on some cruise around your islands, and you would’ve felt me close. We would’ve met and sparks would’ve flown, and we’d be on equal footing. At least, I would’ve come to you as a free woman and not a slave you bought from a shopping list.”

  I meant for my revelation to be sweet and romantic. Instead, Sully shot to his feet and dragged me into his villa. He didn’t stop until he’d carted me through the simple lounge and into his bedroom.

  The sugar glider leapt from its perch on a floor lamp in shock, its parachute-like body sailing across the room to the sideboard by the open doors to the deck. It vanished outside just as Pika and Skittles flew in, swooping to a halt on the rafters in the ceiling.

  Animals scurried left and right, geckos and moths, even a bat appeared from the bathroom. All creatures felt so safe in his presence that they made their home in his home, yet I was absolutely terrified.

  What have I done?

  Sully’s tight grip let me go as he abandoned me on the woven flax mat at the foot of his bed and marched toward his bedside table. Ripping it open, he fisted a few pages, then stormed back toward me.

  “First, there would be no cruise around my islands. No one has the exact coordinates or maritime permission to enter my waters.” He shook the papers in my face. “Second, you weren’t ordered from a shopping list. I told you I dreamed about you. You wormed your way into my head, and I couldn’t get you out of it.”

  Grabbing my hands, he wrapped my fingers around the paper he held. “And third, you fight so hard for the other goddesses’ freedom, but you don’t fight for your own. Here. Take it. I hoped you’d never fucking ask for it, but at least this way, it’s done. We both know where we stand. Both know the other isn’t trapped in this if they don’t want to be.”

  Dropping his hold, he let me study what he’d forced me to take.

  A contract.

  A simple email between him and the bastards who’d stolen me.

  A description of me.

  A reply that they’d found me.

  A receipt of funds exchanged in my honour.

  Five-hundred-thousand dollars.

  I gulped and looked up. “I’m worth half a million to you?”

  He laughed once, cold and angry. “You’re fucking priceless to me.” Snatching the paperwork, he tore it down the middle, then again and again until confetti fell from his hands to the floor.

  Breathing hard, he splayed his fingers and stepped into the pile of paper. “You need to be on an even playing field? Fine. You’re free. I rescind any ownership I have over you. You are no longer a goddess or a slave. You are just a girl who I happened to fall madly fucking in love with. And if that’s not enough fo
r you, then…once again, we have a serious fucking problem. Because, Jinx—” He stepped into me and scooped me into his arms.

  Carrying me to the bed, he placed me in the middle and climbed onto the mattress, crawling over me like a beast ready to mount and maul “—you asked me what my greatest flaw is. Well, listen closely because you’d do well to heed it.”

  He kissed his way along my jawline, his hand sliding my shirt-dress away from my bare pussy, then quickly shoving his shorts down to his thighs.

  I had no warning as his cock speared its way deep inside me.

  My back arched. My mouth opened. I gasped at the dominant intrusion and the lace of delicious pain.

  He ground his hips into mine, filling me, owning me.

  “My greatest flaw is when I love…I love without end. I am overprotective of those I care about to the point of obsession. I go out of my way to protect them from everything—real threats and perceived. I’ve killed those I’ve tried to keep safe…purely from not being able to stop. I’ve killed those who have lied to me, double-crossed me, and betrayed those vulnerable in my care.”

  He dug his elbows into the mattress, driving deeper and harder into me. “I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. Any methods required. Any bloodshed needed. I will never allow you to be unsheltered by me. If that scares you, it’s meant to. I know my limitations, and I have none when it comes to those I love. Animal or human. I never let go.”

  He rutted into me, seeking my mouth and kissing me. His lust blended with apology, almost as if he knew how manic he sounded, how many triggers his disclosure should ignite.

  And it did.

  He basically gave me my freedom but took it away in the same breath. He once used money to own me, now he used love.

  And I didn’t know which was scarier.

  What debt was worse?

  And why didn’t I care?

  Why did I moan under him? Why did I spread my legs wider and dig my fingernails into his ass, jerking him deeper into me? Were we as insane as the other?

  Have I lost my damn mind?

  Sully growled as his cock swelled inside, stretching me, hurtling me straight toward a ricocheting release.