Chapter Seventeen

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MY PSYCHE SPLIT DOWN the middle.

Part of me remained my own. It recognised my power, my rule, my right to hurt, humiliate, and harm the girl before me. It whispered monstrous things full of anger at being thwarted, temper at being denied, and rage at no longer having control over the situation.

The other part of me watched from a safe distance. The part that I’d always kept locked away because it was born from compassion, empathy, and rapport. Once upon a time, that part ruled all of me. These days, it had no sway in my decisions.

Yet, for the first time in forever, I had to admit I’d lost where this girl was concerned.

Only two weeks ago, my reign had been unmatched. This girl had landed on my shores, noticed my ownership of everything she touched, and began the journey to bow at my feet.

She’d walked to me.

But now?

Now, I walked to her.

Each footfall of my expensive shoes, each whisper of my custom-tailored suit, I recognised that something horrid had happened.

She owned this moment.

She could’ve hidden until we’d flown away.

She could’ve run the moment we landed.

Each time I thought I’d figured her out, she did the opposite, and it fucked with my head.

Unlike our first meeting when she stepped elegantly toward me, her head proud on her regal neck, her willowy body bruised from other men, this time she stood unquakingly fearless. Her hair salt-dusted and crinkled, seaweed braided in one strand and a vine with three leaves wrapped around another. A jasmine blossom tangled with the fine chocolate spun around her face, spilling white flowers down her cheek.

Her stomach rose and fell with each breath—the only sign of her panic. The black bikini hid the intimate parts of her but revealed swatches of delicate muscle and breakable bone. No longer alabaster, she glowed with an unhealthy red from sunburn. Her nose already peeled a little and her eyes were no longer a smoky grey but a brilliant, blazing silver.

The crown she wore hadn’t slipped from her adventures on storm-whipped seas. If anything, it had grown from a small tiara to a diamond-encrusted headdress. Heavy and uniquely tied to the untapped well of strength she possessed.

It only made me snarl.

I wanted to snatch her, scar her, and ensure she never looked at me the way she was now—a blend of terror and tranquillity. Of acceptance and anxiety.

Her gaze never left mine as I stopped in front of her.

For the longest moment, nothing moved.

The world stopped, the sea stopped, the wind stopped.

We stopped.

Her.

Me.

Two paths opened up. A fork in my destiny that became as visible as any true journey. Signs even blazed with deliberate destinations.

Turn left and accept kindness and this girl could be my ever after. She was my equal in every way. Smaller and younger, fragile and fearless, I could taste the eventuality between us.

The relationship. The bond. The forever.

But turn right and choose ruthlessness and I would ruin any chance of happiness. I would remain who I’d become. Untouchable and all-powerful, sovereign and safe.

My heart pounded as Eleanor licked her lips to speak. To destroy me.

I had a single second to choose.

A fraction of a life to make the worst or best choice of my existence.

My hand lashed out, fisting in her hair.

To kiss her or to ruin her.

I don’t know.

My tongue longed to taste, my cock begged to take, every part of me shook to claim her.

It fucking terrified me.

Our mingling energy electrocuted me.

Our connection screwed up my heart.

So...I chose the right path. I turned my back on the left.

With a surge of strength, I added pressure where I held her hair, buckling her legs, sending her kneeling into the grass.

Her eyes widened, looking up as I loomed over her, keeping her pinned, ensuring she crumpled in servitude. “I knew you’d have to try at least once to know the boundaries of your cage.”

She gulped as I wrapped my fist tighter in her hair, bringing her up until she teetered on her knees. “I only did what any—”

“What any creature would do in captivity.” I nodded. “I know.”

“Then why are you angry?”

“Angry?” I kept tightening my fingers in her strands, tugging at her scalp. I wanted to break her apart. To shatter her into pieces so she was no longer a threat. “I’m not angry.”

She scoffed, wincing as I held her. “Your temper is a visible thing, Sully.”

“Don’t.” I shoved a finger in her face. “You lost all liberties to call me that.”

“Just like I’ve lost the liberty of my freedom?”

“Precisely.” Eyeing up her bikini, I untangled my hand from her hair and undid the bows on her hips. “You own nothing. Not even your right to decency.” My quick decision to strip her came from both a punishing and protective mindset. I scanned her body with desire and clinical inspection. No blood. No obvious injury. “Are you hurt?”

“Don’t—” She scrambled to keep the scrap of material together, but I swatted her hands away.

“Obey me.” Reaching between her legs, I yanked the lycra from her thighs and tossed it to the side.

She glowered but answered my previous question, even though I’d stripped her. “No, I’m not hurt.” Her pussy remained hidden, thanks to her kneeling position, but it didn’t stop my mouth from watering with excruciating need. “I’m thirsty and tired but not hurt.”

“What happened?”

“Why do you care?” Planting her hands over the V of her thighs, she hissed, “What are you going to do to me?”

I swallowed a wash of fury. Her well-being was my concern, and she’d thrown that in my face. She’d stolen a kayak, most likely capsized in the storm, then exposed herself to the elements. I was fully within my right to be pissed. “Your lesson will come soon enough.”

“Will I still be breathing after it?” Her eyes blazed with rebellion but also regret.

“Depends how teachable you are. How sorry you are.”

“I’m not sorry that I ran. I’m sorry that I failed.”

“And that is why I’ll ensure you’ll learn your lesson exceedingly well.” I had my methods to curb unruly goddesses. I had a room back on my island where all troublemakers went. Most only lasted a night. Eleanor...she’d be subjected to a week.

A week of imprisonment and intense education on required behaviour.

I would personally see to her demotion from a woman who defied me to a possession who accepted her place.

Tears sprang to her grey eyes but she didn’t stop me when I reached under the mass of her hair to undo the bow at her nape then brush aside the seaweed weaved in her strands to undo the one in the centre of her spine.

Her true lesson would have to wait until we returned home, but here...alone...I couldn’t keep my goddamn hands off her. No Calvin to stop me. No goddesses to watch. Just pure and utter freedom to bruise what was mine.

To break what is mine.

Her head bowed as the black triangles fell away, revealing her breasts. The skin that’d been protected by the bikini still glowed white, etched with unsightly pink. “You deliberately hurt yourself. How am I supposed to achieve top dollar with your skin so burned?”

She gritted her teeth and didn’t reply.

Dragging my finger around her nipple, I kept my voice low and provocative, tormenting both of us with the vein of wildfire crackling beneath the surface. “You surprised me.”

Her chin tipped up, fight all over her face. “Surprised you? How?”

Pinching her nipple, I murmured, “You got farther than anyone else. You made it to Serigala, which no one has before. I’ll give credit where it’s due.”

“How far?” Her throat rippled as she swallowed hard. “How much farther until I would’ve been free?”

I squeezed her breast, then swooped to my full height, shadowing her. My hand still tingled from cupping her. “You would never have made it.”

“I might have if the storm hadn’t—”

“There are always inconveniences. Just like you’ve inconvenienced me.”

Her teeth bared. “How have I inconvenienced you? Did I ask for you to rip me from my life and hook me up to some machine for bastards to fuck me?”

I shuddered. What I wouldn’t do to be that bastard right now. “Your skin is burned. Your system is depleted. I’m surprised you’re not fainting at my feet like last time.”

“That will never happen again.” Her hands balled. “I’d never fainted before in my life.”

“What a compliment.” I forced a savage smile. “I make you weak.”

“You starved me.”

“I’ll starve you again for running.”

Her head bowed, her hands clenching with insubordination. She wanted to argue. She still had courage to wage battle with me, but self-preservation was equally as strong. She battled herself, just as much as me.

I respected that. I admired her passion and her poise. I wanted both sides of her—the fiery parts that couldn’t help clashing with me and the other that shielded herself in ice.

“At least you’re alive.” I ignored the residual ache around my heart. Thinking she’d died had scarred me with truth. I did feel something for her. Something I refused to accept. Something I wished would die. And that vulnerability only amplified my need to be cruel. To keep her far away from the parts of me that could one day belong to her.

“Will I stay that way?” she murmured, keeping her gaze on the grass.

My hands balled by my thighs as I weighed my answer. I’d always been merciless, but I’d never been unjustly heartless. I would punish her, but I wouldn’t kill her. Not for this. “Of course.”

Her gaze caught mine. “You don’t sound happy about it.”

“I’m not happy that you’ve proven to be a bad investment.”

Her chin snapped upward, her temper gnashing against mine. “Bad investment? I told you I wouldn’t bow to you. I warned you I would curse you every day that you kept me.”

My control snapped. I snatched her jaw, digging my fingers into her cheeks. “Oh, you cursed me all right. You’ve cursed yourself too. Do you honestly think you can keep playing this game with me? Fucking teasing me, making me want something I can’t have, and then running away instead of facing what you caused?”

She fought to get free. “What? You’re blaming this on me?”

“I’m blaming all of this on you.” I squeezed hard, then backed up, dragging a hand through my hair. “I wish I’d never requested you.”

She sat up on her knees, still bowing but taking back her power one piece at a time. “Let me go then. I’ve offered before, and I’ll offer again. I’ll pay. I’ll give you any figure you want. Let me buy my freedom, and you’ll never—”

“Never what? Fuck you? Hurt you?” I stepped into her until my shoe nudged her knee, threatening to crowbar her legs apart. “Never fall for you?”

She sucked in a breath, her voice turning into a squeak. “Fall for me?”

I froze.

Shit!

The smart thing would be to send her away. The only way to stay sane was to get rid of her. So why did the thought of never seeing her again do such monstrous things to me? Why had I flown thousands of miles with my goddamn heart bleeding out? Why did I stand here, trying to belittle and demean when I’d always been above such treatment?

I kept my girls in line without raising my voice. Without revealing my temper.

But her?

Jinx.

Goddamn Eleanor...she’d changed me, and I did not like who I’d become.

Her tongue licked her lips, her thoughts racing wildly in grey eyes. “Do you...eh...” She swallowed hard, goosebumps scattering all over her. She shifted as if afraid to ask, terrified to hear my answer. “Do you...feel it too?”

That question.

Shit, that question.

It hung between us, dangling on a fishing rod, waiting for me to take the bait and reel us together.

In five words, she’d hinted that she felt something for me. That I wasn’t alone in this madness. That she hated the hostile takeover of her heart just as much as I did. Perhaps we were allies in that, not enemies. If she felt a tenth of what I did, then it must kill her. Destroy her to want the man who’d paid money for her soul. Who looked upon her as everything he owned—disposable and finite.

My knees unlocked, breaking my frozen state and making me pace.

She kneeled there quietly, waiting.

Once again, I faced a fork in the road, giving me another chance to choose a different path. And yet again, I refused.

Forcing myself to stop in front of her, I crossed my arms. Threateningly, aggressively, all the while fighting the debilitating urge to shove her onto her back and climb inside her.

The sunburn only added another dimension to her. It made the hidden parts of me want to soothe her, heal her, be responsible for her happiness as well as her pain.

“If you feel something for me...why did you run?” I struggled to say such revealing things.

“I didn’t run.” She held my stare even though she trembled. “I waited for you in full view.”

“I’m not talking about this afternoon.” I ran a hand over my mouth. “And you waited for me to land because you knew you had no choice.”

“I did. I had a choice of you or death.” Her teeth bared, a spark replacing the sudden softness. “I chose you.”

I swallowed my snarl, but it still echoed in my voice. “Wrong decision.”

“Is it?” She cocked her head. “I’m not so sure.”

“All I’m sure about is you ran the moment my back was turned.”

“I had no choice.”

“Of course you had a fucking choice!”

Her eyes glossed with more tears, but she refused to let them fall. “I had to try, don’t you see? You talk of value. You speak of money. But what about the cost of my own self-worth?” She went to stand, but I clamped my hand on her shoulder, keeping her bowing before me.

She shivered at my touch.

My fingers blazed with biting, burning fire.

I let her go, shaking out the agony.

She shook her head, confusion and calamity ripe between us. “I couldn’t stay without at least attempting to escape. I could never have lived with myself—despite what I may or may not feel.”

I stood upright, crossing my arms. “And what do you feel?”

“I don’t know. What do you feel?”

“I’ve already told you.” My voice lowered with a growl. “All I feel is inconvenienced.”

“Liar,” she hissed.

“Be careful, Jinx. Be very fucking careful.”

“Just like you’re careful around me? I see two sides to you, Sully Sinclair. I know there’s something between us—”

“There is something between us. It’s called a fucking contract, and the fact that I bought you.” Punching myself in the chest, I snarled, “That’s it, Eleanor Grace. Don’t romanticise this situation. Don’t mistake my islands for a backdrop of some fairy-tale. You work for me. You belong to me. I will do what I please with you, when I please it. If I want you in my bed, I will have you in my bed. If I want you to serve my guests, then that is what you will do. That’s all that’ll ever be between us. Understand?”

She clenched her teeth, glaring at the grass cushioning her naked body. “I will never understand how you can treat animals with such kindness yet hurt your own kind with such contempt.”

“Oh, believe me.” I chuckled blackly. “That part is easy.”

“None of this is easy!” She swiped at a lonely, glittering tear. “Why can’t you admit that—”

“I admit that I’ve been moronic when it comes to you. But this, whatever this is, ends. Right here. Right now. Accept that I will never treat you any different. Accept that whatever exists between us is over. I own you. That is the extent of our connection.”

A defiant whisper tumbled from her lips. “I don’t accept.”

I leaned closer, taunting her. “I’m sorry? I didn’t catch that.”

Her eyes locked on mine, blazing with smoke. “I said, I will never accept that you own me. You don’t own me. You will never own me.”

“Oh, no?” Ripping at my tie, I yanked it off and, with quaking hands, collared it around her throat. Pulling on the remaining length, I growled, “I paid money to receive you. I have the bill of sale. You eat my food. You sleep in my bed. You sunbathe on my goddamn beach. And now...now you wear my leash.” My nose almost brushed hers, our breaths mingling, our chemistry igniting. “If you aren’t a paid pet, then what are you?”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“So why are you trembling?”

She panted as my gaze locked on her mouth. Her sweet, perfect, delicious fucking mouth. “Why are you?”

“Because I’m seconds away from either fucking you or killing you, and I don’t know which will win—”

Swooping up, she crashed her mouth to mine.

The second her lips touched mine...everything I’d fought for collapsed.

My control.

My willpower.

Gone.

Dust.

Desire.

Digging two handfuls in her hair, I jerked up. She rose to her knees, completely at my command. Deepening the kiss, giving her no leniency or kindness, I took and fucking took.

Her fingernails dug into my wrists, holding onto me as I plunged my tongue into her mouth.

Just like our previous kisses, there was nothing soft or sweet. It was war. Vicious and fiendish, sending lust licking like a whip.

She moaned and tried to stand, but I kept her hovering, subservient and submissive, trapped and tormented.

Our teeth clacked together. She fought back. Her tongue swiped against mine. Everything else vanished. The fact that I had to be back later for a guest’s arrival. The fact that I’d commanded the pilot to collect us after I’d disciplined my goddess. The fact that I’d flown halfway across the goddamn planet, only to turn around again the moment I thought I’d lost this girl.

All of it. All my mistakes and downfalls disappeared as I turned the kiss into raw violence.

She cried out as I crashed to my knees and kissed her harder. She tried to get free, but I held her firm, sucking out her oxygen, her soul, taking everything she refused to give me.

I’d bought her, yet I couldn’t control a fucking thing about her.

I can’t control myself.

That had to change. She had to understand she couldn’t say no to me. No to my authority, my requests, my guests. No to anything I wanted.

And what I wanted was her.

No matter how much I denied it, refused it.

I want her.

Beneath me, beside me.

I need her.

She gasped as I kissed her so deep, our noses pressed into corresponding cheeks. I suffocated on her, and she suffocated on me. We tried to inhale, but all we could steal was each other. Sharing air. Partaking in the other’s lust.

Because it was lust that drove this battle.

She couldn’t hide the way her nipples pebbled to hardened stone. She couldn’t silence her cries as my hands slipped from her hair and fisted her breasts. She couldn’t disguise the way her body turned to liquid as I shoved her backward, spreading her out on the grass as I crawled over her.

One hand dug into the earth by her head while the other swooped from her breast to cup around her throat.

Her pulse pounded against my thumb. She arched up as I kissed her deep, deep, deep. She spread her legs as I lowered myself between them.

Our argument and denial shredded any illusion that this potency, this wicked punishment, wasn’t filled with things we refused to admit. We had chemistry. Chemistry that only appeared when two corresponding pieces met. A hum. A force. A link that vibrated at a frequency that knitted blood to blood, bone to bone, soul to fucking soul.

A groan ripped through me as her hips rocked against mine. She didn’t just lay there, waiting for me to hurt her. She participated. She encouraged.

My cock physically throbbed to be touched, to be freed, to be inside her.

I drove into her. My suit into her nakedness.

She moaned and accepted my ruthless kiss.

I yanked on the leash around her throat, reminding both of us of our places in this war. The dominant and the dominated. She was my conquest. She had not won. This was me taking what I should’ve taken the moment she landed on my island.

Maybe then I wouldn’t have my heart tangled with my desire.

Running my hand down her body, I arched my hips, fumbling at my belt and zipper.

My knuckles grazed her pussy, coming away with wet streaks of her need. My lust amplified to dangerous levels. My goddamn trousers refused to come undone. I needed to stop thrusting against her to get my cock free, but I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t deny the friction I needed. She needed. The inferno that consumed both of us.

I’d come in my boxers at this rate. I’d fucking cover myself in cum all because I couldn’t wait to climb inside this girl.

Our kiss turned deadly as her hands vanished to my belt. My brain short-circuited. Why would she help me ruin her? Why would she willingly let me take her final piece?

Because she feels it too.

It’s inescapable.

I grunted as her tiny hand cupped me.

I bit her lip so hard, metallic blood bloomed between us, sending our kiss from violent to feral.

I rolled onto my back, keeping her plastered to me, driving up with my hips, fucking desperate to be balls deep inside her.

She dug her hands into my chest like she had when she’d been high on elixir and struggling to get off. She rocked over me, her mouth lax, her skin luminescent, her hair totally wild.

A part of me cracked and fell.

Fell into an abyss that I daren’t fucking label.

But my heart knew what it was.

Death.

Death by a thousand acknowledgments that this girl would one day not only destroy me but also own me, kill me, consume me.

We both grunted like beasts, clawing to remove my clothing to finish this disaster. Our hands fought to rip my zipper down. Our chests panting for breath.

My back crushed grass, releasing the tart greenness into the air, the scent mingling with our musky desire. When my trousers finally released, a rush of savage need catapulted through my bloodstream.

I reached up and grabbed Eleanor’s throat, ready to throw her onto all fours. Ready to mount her. Fuck her. Kill us both with rapture.

But a dive-bomb of sharp beak and vibrant feathers aimed straight toward my eyes.

The sharpness almost punctured my pupil as I turned my head and threw my hands up to protect myself. The missile came again. And again.

I rolled, shoving Eleanor off me. The attack kept coming even as I stood and ducked the flurry of ferocity.

“Stop. Hey! Don’t do that.” Eleanor tried to help me despite everything I’d done.

Bracing myself for blindness, I blinked and locked gazes with my attacker.

And the world stopped for entirely new reasons.

“Skittles?”

The second I said her name, the tiny caique stopped her mission to murder me, squawking indignantly and flying to land proudly on Eleanor’s shoulder.

My mouth fell open.

What.

The.

Ever.

Living.

Fuck.