Chapter Seven

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ALL YOU HAVE TO say is that you faked it.

You don’t love her.

You don’t want her.

She means nothing.

Say that.

Only that.

And she’ll go.

I sighed heavily, my heart in fucking pieces on the floor.

We’d run out of time.

I’d already gambled her life by giving in to the desire between us. Our sex had been unhealthy. An act that had left us both scrambling in the dark for our stolen souls.

And now, I was supposed to find the strength to take away her choices all over again. I didn’t have time for a proper negotiation. I didn’t have time for a load of bullshit about tattered love and stubborn goodbyes.

Drake had given me three hours.

Those three hours were rapidly spilling through my fingers and I needed her gone.

I’d named this island Batari, thanks to the Indo word for goddess. Serigala hadn’t been protected by deities or demons...but this island was. I would fight till my dying breath to ensure Drake never stole another goddamn thing from me.

And I’d start by sending Jinx home because I couldn’t offer her what she deserved.

I eyed Eleanor as she dressed.

Leaning against the doorframe of her walk-in wardrobe, I remained naked from our war. I crossed my arms, cursing the well-spent cock between my legs.

I’d known if I’d touched her, I wouldn’t have the strength to go through with this.

But now...now we were no longer joined, no longer fighting, and our energy had depleted to a tense surrender...perhaps I could finish it.

Maybe I stood a chance at saving her.

Tell her.

Tell her you feel nothing. That it was all an illusion.

Tell her anything you fucking want apart from the goddamn miserable truth that you’re a sad, pathetic bastard who can barely breathe at the thought of saying goodbye.

Clearing my throat, I dug my fingers into my eyes, rubbing away the sudden sting, activating images of smoking pelts and the rancid stench of seared meat.

I doubted I would ever get such smells and memories out of my mind.

Use them.

Wield them.

If I continued drowning in death, perhaps then I would have the endurance to kick Eleanor from my shores before Drake arrived.

Dropping my hands, my gaze caught Eleanor’s.

She stood in a simple teal sundress that skated around her knees. Her hair hung in seaweed coils over her shoulders. Her lips were swollen from mine. Her nipples still pebbled beneath the dress.

But it was her eyes that gutted me.

Those incredible silver eyes that’d once haunted my dreams and now doomed my future.

She knew.

She always knew.

She knew the moment she met me that I was hers just as I knew she was mine.

No matter what lies I fed her. No matter what fiction I tried to sell as fact, she would argue and defeat each one.

We could battle for hours, days, years.

We could battle until we found ourselves at a fucking altar, promising to live and die together.

The flash of her in a white dress with bare feet and an orchid in her hair, walking in the shallows of my shores, coming to marry me on my beach.

Fuck, I could barely stand.

My stomach fisted into an agonising ball.

She couldn’t hate me for this.

After all, I had warned her.

I warned her so many fucking times that loving me was not a wise choice.

Her dress swayed around her knees as she moved toward me. My own knees threatened to send me crashing to the floor. The fact that she wore clothing and I wore nothing kept me extra exposed: a man with nothing else to play but still determined to somehow win.

“Sully...” Her eyes sprung with tears, knowing without words everything I thought. “Stop.” She cupped my cheek, making me flinch. “Stop torturing yourself with lies you know are pointless.”

I captured her wrist, pulling her touch away. “They’re not pointless if they achieve what I need.”

“What you need is me.”

I huffed miserably. “What I need is for you to be free.”

“I am free.” She smiled sadly. “I’m free because I’m with you.”

Skittles and Pika flew into the wardrobe, bravely venturing to see if the aggressive lust between us had dispersed. The aggression might’ve faded, but our lust would never dim. It existed between us in every stare, sigh, and stroke.

Fuck...I can’t do it.

You have no choice.

Arming myself against the perfect image of Eleanor as Skittles descended trustingly onto her shoulder, I swallowed back my heartbreak.

Pika chirped, sensing my despair, and landed on my head despite my wet hair. He tugged at my strands, making my heart bleed harder.

I would still have one thing that loved me.

I’d survived my entire life with just a parrot’s love.

I could survive again.

Balling my hands, I said as coldly and as carefully as I could, “Our time is over, Eleanor. I won’t disrespect you by lying. I won’t stand here and attempt to make you believe I never loved you. But I will demand loyalty and obedience. I’m not asking, I’m telling. You are leaving tonight. You may remember me, but you will never see me again.”

I braced myself for her tirade.

I held an invisible crutch so I wouldn’t fall into a worthless beggar at her feet.

But a fist hammered on the door, real life intruded, and the clock finished its final countdown.

Tearing my gaze from hers, I cupped my cock for decency and stormed to face my fate.