Goddess isles boxed set, p.22
Goddess Isles Boxed Set, page 22
Unsafe and unhealthy reasons because it made me thaw toward him just a tiny bit. To know he had a heart, after all.
“Jinx!” His snarl shot through the glass.
I dropped the brush, letting it clatter to the vanity. The noise made Pika squawk and launch into the sky, circling my head indignantly.
For a second, I allowed a glance at my reflection in the mirror. I’d avoided looking at myself much since I’d arrived. I didn’t want to see the girl I knew, trapped and alone, homesick and afraid. I didn’t want to see the pain in my eyes or the helplessness.
Balling my hands, I caught my gaze.
And once again, my heart scrambled to find a lifesaving beat.
Who was that girl?
Who is this total stranger?
As I touched my cheek with a trembling hand, my reflection mimicked me, but I didn’t recognise the woman staring back. Her skin glowed a golden hue instead of the permanent snow of white heritage. Her hair seemed longer, darker, coils and ropes protecting her back and shoulders. Her breasts seemed bigger, her limbs leaner, her stance like a warrior ready to battle.
But it was my eyes and mouth that betrayed me the most.
My eyes were wild but also surprising clear. Two grey crystal orbs full of bad omens and concerning premonitions. And my lips looked exactly what a vixen who served men would look like. Bright red, plump and bitten, thoroughly well used by a man who hadn’t been given permission.
I’d never been a superstitious girl. I’d always accepted facts and made conclusions based on reality, but standing there, with a parrot landing on my shoulder and a body I no longer recognised, I felt like a seer suffering some awful clairvoyance.
Sully Sinclair will change my life. My world. Me.
In so many more ways than I feared.
With a gulp and a shudder, I broke the trance between me and the mirror, squared my shoulders, and strode toward the door.
Chapter Thirty
THE DOOR OPENED.
A naked goddess stepped from the humid bathroom with her neck arched, her body braced, and a flitting little parrot flying beside her.
I had more than a visceral reaction.
I had a full anatomy incineration.
I didn’t know this girl.
We’d barely spoken.
Hardly touched.
Yet...fuck me.
She was different.
Different to anyone I’d ever met.
Only she made me act like a monster and a moron all at once. Only she made my pulse pound and sweat soak under my suit. Only she made me fucking rage at the weakness and sexual starvation she caused.
Why?
What made her special?
And most importantly...how did I fucking stop it?
I couldn’t speak as she padded toward me. Her jaw clenched and damp hair still releasing glistening droplets on the tips, allowing moisture to temptingly roll down her flawless skin.
Snapping my fingers, I backed away, guiding her toward the centre of the room.
Tearing her gaze from mine, she allowed curiosity to win, scanning the space, faster and faster as she noticed the pulleys and wires, the netting and strange contraptions.
To her credit, she didn’t try to hide her nakedness. She owned her flesh. She moved as if she wore a gown made of impenetrable silk.
Pika, the little traitor, remained by her side as she drank in the odd facilities. His little wings tucked up tight as he landed and stole the crook of her shoulder and neck as his new home.
It did things to me...seeing an animal I’d raised, loved, and told my every secret to glare at me from the care of another. It made me jealous that he’d accepted her when he was fussy on which people he liked. It pissed me off that he wasn’t as loyal as I believed.
And it made me angry...because what the fuck was I doing? What the fuck was I feeling? How the fuck did I stop?
“What is this place?” Her voice never rose above a whisper.
I swallowed the growl permanently living in my chest around her. “This is Euphoria.”
She looked at me, causing my cock to throb and heart to stop. “I don’t understand.”
Raising her hand, she waved at the equipment that looked better suited for a Cirque du Soleil troop rather than a sex destination. “Why do you have aerial harnesses? Wires? Pulleys?”
“A fantasy is a fantasy.” I shrugged as if it made total sense. “How can you fly if you’re stuck on the ground?”
Her forehead furrowed, unable to figure it out.
And she wouldn’t be able to.
Not until she’d experienced the essence of what I’d created.
The transformative power of this place.
She glanced at the bare tiles—sandstone for purchase with no carpets or rugs. “Where’s the bed?” She frowned. “You say this is where people come to...” She trailed off.
I finished for her. “My goddesses and guests come here to fuck. And they have the best experience of their lives.”
“But...” She frowned. “There’s nothing soft about this place.”
“Yet.” Snapping my fingers again, I clasped my hands behind my back as two staff members scuttled in. Two young men who kept their eyes averted from Jinx’s bareness and rushed to open the numerous cupboards bordering the room. Grabbing armfuls of furs, tawny and grey, white and speckled, they ran to us in the centre and tossed the armfuls at our feet.
Another trip and a pile of fur later, they vanished as seamlessly as they’d arrived.
I arched my chin at the scattered sea of furs and raised an eyebrow. “There is your softness.”
They were in keeping with Markus Grammer’s fantasy.
Props as it were.
She nudged a foxy looking pelt with her toe. “Fake, I presume?”
“Of course.” I nodded.
“But why? Why not linen and mattresses and the usual play dungeon that people expect in a whorehouse or club?”
I moved toward her.
She stepped back.
I advanced again, stepping onto the pile of plush fur. My sodden clothes stuck wetly to my overheated flesh.
This time, she didn’t move. Her stomach fluttered with breath, and she balled her hands as I touched her cheek. “Because that’s normality, Eleanor Grace, and I deal in myth.”
She flinched as I ran my thumb over her bottom lip.
Her breath caught.
And I almost broke my control again.
I bled with a need so vicious, I struggled to breathe.
I almost threw her to the floor of hides and fucked her.
But I wasn’t going to throw away everything I’d created. She’d stolen enough from me. She wouldn’t have anymore.
Backing away, I pressed a button on my phone.
A small whirring sound appeared as a fine wire attached to delicate harness descended from the ceiling. Catching it, I allowed one final study of her otherworldly beauty, then growled, “Come here. I’ll show you how Euphoria works.”
Chapter Thirty-One
I HESITATED.
I was off-balance from his kiss. I was confused by the bareness of the room. I was scared of what was about to happen.
“I won’t ask a second time.” His teeth flashed between shapely lips. His five o’clock shadow framed his mouth, narrowing all my attention there.
Against my will.
Against all common-sense.
Pika snuggled into my chin, rubbing me with his little head as a cat would their favourite person. He jolted me from my horrid fixation.
I swallowed hard and moved toward Sully.
Just the two of us.
No one else.
No Jealousy, no staff, no guests.
The aura between us hummed with anticipation. My heart collided with my ribs.
His jaw worked as I stopped in front of him.
He didn’t speak as he undid the small clasp of the harness then wrapped his arms around me, imprisoning the device around my waist. The webbing was soft but fortified. Strong and utterly tamperproof. Buckling it loosely around my hips, he brought two other pieces up and over my shoulders, positioning them between my breasts to cinch into the harness around my middle. With his teeth gritted, he bent and reached between my legs, bringing two remaining thin straps to loop around my inner thighs and attach to the centre buckle.
God.
My skin broke out in goosebumps from his touch. His breathing remained shallow and short as if fighting his own battles by having me so close. I dared look down, swallowing again at the tented arousal of his wet trousers.
I closed my eyes as he tightened the straps, brushing my nipples and pussy with his hands.
Unlike the other day when he pushed me against the boardroom table and threatened to make me wet, he didn’t have to make it a challenge to prove a point.
He’d succeeded in making my body a traitor the second his tongue had touched mine.
And I hated it.
I hated that I stood before him, nude and unprotected, and instead of scratching out his eyes and kicking him in the balls, I obeyed, I swayed, I wanted.
I’d become a horrendous clone of his brainwashed goddesses.
“Open your eyes.”
My eyelashes flashed open. Our gazes connected. I grew dizzy looking into him.
Piercing blue.
Suffocating blue.
Drowning, drowning, dead—
A door to the back of the room slid open. “Sir?” Jealousy stood on the threshold. Nervousness painted her face, but she held her ground. “Would you like me to finish the process?”
Sully looked over his shoulder at her, breaking our stare, allowing me to live again, reincarnating me into yet another traitorous existence. “I’m capable of preparing her.”
“Yes, of course. I didn’t mean—”
“Leave.”
She nodded and vanished.
Without looking at me, Sully strode toward the cupboard to our left. Opening it, he pulled out a trolley already stocked with whatever items he needed. Wheeling it to me, he locked the wheels beside me, then paused. He chewed on indecision before swallowing with determination.
Without a word, he scanned the trolley and its many boxes. Six in total. All black with a purple orchid stencilled on the top. Selecting the first, he pulled out a vial of glistening pearly oil.
I waited as he unscrewed the top, placed the vial down to put thin gloves on his hands, then poured a generous amount into his palm.
“What are you going to—”
His hands landed on my shoulders, dislodging Pika, who flew away with a snippy squawk, only to find mischief on the trolley, nibbling at the boxes, muttering to himself.
I stayed as stiff and as carved as the mermaids in his water fountain outside his office as his large, strong hands smeared oil over my shoulders, down my arms, over my hands, between my fingers, and back up to my throat.
He kept his eyes on my body, tipping more oil into his palm and going behind me.
I swallowed a moan as he massaged my back, ran his touch down my spine, staining every inch of me with the slippery stuff. My legs pressed together as he kneaded my ass. Dumping more oil into his hands, he ducked to his haunches and spread the coating down the backs of my thighs, my ankles, to the tops of my feet. When my back half was sufficiently covered, he returned to my front, kneeling in front of me to smear my front thighs, shins and bottoms of my feet.
Rising to his tall height, he smeared the remainder over my lower belly, up my ribcage, breasts, and collarbones, continuing his torture until my brow, cheekbones, and chin also shone.
Only once every part of me glistened a pearlescent hue did he place the vial back into its box and snap off his gloves.
My voice was rough and full of hunger. “What did you just put on me?”
“Something that will hijack your sensitivity.”
I scowled. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.” Taking the next box, he pulled out a sheet of skin-coloured dots. Peeling one off, he ordered, “Give me your hand.”
Hesitantly, I placed my palm in his. His long fingers kept me trapped while he very carefully positioned the dot right over my fingerprint. He continued until all ten fingers were covered with the fleshy toned sticker.
“Will you tell me what these do?” The latex-type material deadened my ability to feel when I pressed my fingertips together.
He gave a half-smile, tight and cool. “They change your sense of touch.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out.”
Swapping boxes, he opened the third. This one held a small bowl and a bottle the size of a travel mouthwash. Inside rested a blue liquid. Cupping my chin, he held me steady while he tipped the bottle against my lips.
Immediately, I reeled backward, only to remember I wore a harness locking me to the ceiling.
I couldn’t run.
I couldn’t refuse.
“It’s not elixir,” he murmured. “Not yet at least.”
“What is it then?”
His features turned dark with annoyance, as if he wasn’t used to being questioned. But he sighed impatiently, granting me an answer. “It warps your sense of taste.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “My answer will be the same for all your questions. You’ll see.” Pressing the bottle to my mouth again, he added, “Now, swill. Don’t drink. Just swish and spit.” Holding up the bowl, he waited for me to obey.
I allowed the liquid to splash past my lips. Swilling like I would after cleaning my teeth, I spat out into the little silver bowl he held. Placing both discarded items on the trolley, he brushed Pika away from the swirling blue liquid, giving him the lid of the bottle to play with instead.
He did it subconsciously. So comfortably. A flicker of a genuine smile on his face watching the antics of the tiny terror. It spoke of a relationship between man and bird far deeper than I’d thought.
Once again, something tenacious and vicious kicked my heart. Something that said he’s different. He’s not what you think.
Stupid kick.
Stupid thoughts.
Sully was exactly what I thought. A dealer in sex using bought and trapped women.
Don’t forget that!
Don’t be that stupid.
The fourth box opened. Sully pulled out a thin tube. Unscrewing the lid, he crowded close to me and cupped the back of my neck. I tried to lean away, but he brought the tube under my nose and smeared something cool and astringent under my nostrils.
It didn’t smell.
It didn’t destroy my olfactory abilities, and I still drowned in Sully’s unique scent of sea, sunshine, and coconuts.
“If that’s meant to ruin my sense of smell, it hasn’t worked.”
I didn’t know why I gave him a heads-up that it hadn’t done what I suspected. In fact, none of his tricks had. My skin still felt like mine. My sense of smell still operated. My fingertips didn’t like the coverings, but it didn’t truly stop my sense of pressure or heat.
“It will do. When you step into Euphoria.”
I scowled. “You said I’m in Euphoria.”
He tossed the tube into its box, opening the fifth. “You are. But it’s not what you think. You’re standing in the room where Euphoria takes place but...the location isn’t physical.”
“I don’t understand.” I wanted to keep repeating that phrase.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand.
You.
But Sully lost any magnanimity about answering my questions and held up two small buds. I guessed they were for my ears before his electrifying touch brushed aside my hair and inserted one into my ear canal.
Goosebumps sprang down my arms and spine, pebbling my nipples and ensuring he saw, rather visibly, what his touch did to me.
He chuckled under his breath as he moved behind me, pulling my damp hair over my shoulder and kissing the shell of my ear with exquisite tenderness. “I might have found your weak spot, Eleanor.” His teeth grazed the sensitive skin, clamping down on my lobe.
I shuddered.
A flush of wetness.
A knot of desire.
I shook my head in defiance as he inserted the second earbud. “Don’t fool yourself.”
He laughed again, rolling and velvety, black and unforgiving as he ensured both buds were tight and blocked my hearing.
They blocked my hearing as any earbud would, but I could still hear, still make out everything I needed to.
What was the point in all of this?
He’s masking your senses.
My attention shot to the final box just as Sully picked it up, cracked the lid, and lifted out a small container with two separate screwed dishes.
Contact lenses.
My sense of sight.
The final one.
Touch, taste, sound, hearing, and sight.
“I don’t want anything foreign in my eyes.” I backed up a step, jiggling the apparatus keeping me tethered.
“It won’t hurt you.” He unscrewed the left container, careful not to spill the contents.
“I still don’t want it.”
“You don’t have a choice.” Looking up, he presented the small holder to me. “If you have experience with inserting lenses, be my guest. Or...I can do it for you.”
“I’ve never put anything in my eyes.”
“Well then.” He reached in and plucked out a flimsy lens from the solution it bobbed in. Placing the other one down safely, he eyed Pika to make sure he was still entertained with a piece of cardboard he’d shredded from an empty box and moved closer.
His hand cupped my nape again, bringing me close to him.
I tried to fight it, but my stupid, stupid body tingled from having his so close. I struggled to breathe as he brushed aside some hair on my cheeks with his knuckles, then pulled my head back a little. “Relax.”
“Relax?” I sneered. “How can I relax in this place?”
“You’ll learn to.” His face stayed stern with concentration. I focused on his fingers as they came closer and closer, looming over my eye. “You’ll learn to love it here. You’ll beg to return.”
“That will never happen.” I wanted to close my eyes and refuse.
“Never is a challenge.” He repeated our previous conversation, and sensing my intention to disobey, he let my nape go and slid his control to my eyebrow and delicate skin beneath, holding my vision wide open. “Hold still.”
“Jinx!” His snarl shot through the glass.
I dropped the brush, letting it clatter to the vanity. The noise made Pika squawk and launch into the sky, circling my head indignantly.
For a second, I allowed a glance at my reflection in the mirror. I’d avoided looking at myself much since I’d arrived. I didn’t want to see the girl I knew, trapped and alone, homesick and afraid. I didn’t want to see the pain in my eyes or the helplessness.
Balling my hands, I caught my gaze.
And once again, my heart scrambled to find a lifesaving beat.
Who was that girl?
Who is this total stranger?
As I touched my cheek with a trembling hand, my reflection mimicked me, but I didn’t recognise the woman staring back. Her skin glowed a golden hue instead of the permanent snow of white heritage. Her hair seemed longer, darker, coils and ropes protecting her back and shoulders. Her breasts seemed bigger, her limbs leaner, her stance like a warrior ready to battle.
But it was my eyes and mouth that betrayed me the most.
My eyes were wild but also surprising clear. Two grey crystal orbs full of bad omens and concerning premonitions. And my lips looked exactly what a vixen who served men would look like. Bright red, plump and bitten, thoroughly well used by a man who hadn’t been given permission.
I’d never been a superstitious girl. I’d always accepted facts and made conclusions based on reality, but standing there, with a parrot landing on my shoulder and a body I no longer recognised, I felt like a seer suffering some awful clairvoyance.
Sully Sinclair will change my life. My world. Me.
In so many more ways than I feared.
With a gulp and a shudder, I broke the trance between me and the mirror, squared my shoulders, and strode toward the door.
Chapter Thirty
THE DOOR OPENED.
A naked goddess stepped from the humid bathroom with her neck arched, her body braced, and a flitting little parrot flying beside her.
I had more than a visceral reaction.
I had a full anatomy incineration.
I didn’t know this girl.
We’d barely spoken.
Hardly touched.
Yet...fuck me.
She was different.
Different to anyone I’d ever met.
Only she made me act like a monster and a moron all at once. Only she made my pulse pound and sweat soak under my suit. Only she made me fucking rage at the weakness and sexual starvation she caused.
Why?
What made her special?
And most importantly...how did I fucking stop it?
I couldn’t speak as she padded toward me. Her jaw clenched and damp hair still releasing glistening droplets on the tips, allowing moisture to temptingly roll down her flawless skin.
Snapping my fingers, I backed away, guiding her toward the centre of the room.
Tearing her gaze from mine, she allowed curiosity to win, scanning the space, faster and faster as she noticed the pulleys and wires, the netting and strange contraptions.
To her credit, she didn’t try to hide her nakedness. She owned her flesh. She moved as if she wore a gown made of impenetrable silk.
Pika, the little traitor, remained by her side as she drank in the odd facilities. His little wings tucked up tight as he landed and stole the crook of her shoulder and neck as his new home.
It did things to me...seeing an animal I’d raised, loved, and told my every secret to glare at me from the care of another. It made me jealous that he’d accepted her when he was fussy on which people he liked. It pissed me off that he wasn’t as loyal as I believed.
And it made me angry...because what the fuck was I doing? What the fuck was I feeling? How the fuck did I stop?
“What is this place?” Her voice never rose above a whisper.
I swallowed the growl permanently living in my chest around her. “This is Euphoria.”
She looked at me, causing my cock to throb and heart to stop. “I don’t understand.”
Raising her hand, she waved at the equipment that looked better suited for a Cirque du Soleil troop rather than a sex destination. “Why do you have aerial harnesses? Wires? Pulleys?”
“A fantasy is a fantasy.” I shrugged as if it made total sense. “How can you fly if you’re stuck on the ground?”
Her forehead furrowed, unable to figure it out.
And she wouldn’t be able to.
Not until she’d experienced the essence of what I’d created.
The transformative power of this place.
She glanced at the bare tiles—sandstone for purchase with no carpets or rugs. “Where’s the bed?” She frowned. “You say this is where people come to...” She trailed off.
I finished for her. “My goddesses and guests come here to fuck. And they have the best experience of their lives.”
“But...” She frowned. “There’s nothing soft about this place.”
“Yet.” Snapping my fingers again, I clasped my hands behind my back as two staff members scuttled in. Two young men who kept their eyes averted from Jinx’s bareness and rushed to open the numerous cupboards bordering the room. Grabbing armfuls of furs, tawny and grey, white and speckled, they ran to us in the centre and tossed the armfuls at our feet.
Another trip and a pile of fur later, they vanished as seamlessly as they’d arrived.
I arched my chin at the scattered sea of furs and raised an eyebrow. “There is your softness.”
They were in keeping with Markus Grammer’s fantasy.
Props as it were.
She nudged a foxy looking pelt with her toe. “Fake, I presume?”
“Of course.” I nodded.
“But why? Why not linen and mattresses and the usual play dungeon that people expect in a whorehouse or club?”
I moved toward her.
She stepped back.
I advanced again, stepping onto the pile of plush fur. My sodden clothes stuck wetly to my overheated flesh.
This time, she didn’t move. Her stomach fluttered with breath, and she balled her hands as I touched her cheek. “Because that’s normality, Eleanor Grace, and I deal in myth.”
She flinched as I ran my thumb over her bottom lip.
Her breath caught.
And I almost broke my control again.
I bled with a need so vicious, I struggled to breathe.
I almost threw her to the floor of hides and fucked her.
But I wasn’t going to throw away everything I’d created. She’d stolen enough from me. She wouldn’t have anymore.
Backing away, I pressed a button on my phone.
A small whirring sound appeared as a fine wire attached to delicate harness descended from the ceiling. Catching it, I allowed one final study of her otherworldly beauty, then growled, “Come here. I’ll show you how Euphoria works.”
Chapter Thirty-One
I HESITATED.
I was off-balance from his kiss. I was confused by the bareness of the room. I was scared of what was about to happen.
“I won’t ask a second time.” His teeth flashed between shapely lips. His five o’clock shadow framed his mouth, narrowing all my attention there.
Against my will.
Against all common-sense.
Pika snuggled into my chin, rubbing me with his little head as a cat would their favourite person. He jolted me from my horrid fixation.
I swallowed hard and moved toward Sully.
Just the two of us.
No one else.
No Jealousy, no staff, no guests.
The aura between us hummed with anticipation. My heart collided with my ribs.
His jaw worked as I stopped in front of him.
He didn’t speak as he undid the small clasp of the harness then wrapped his arms around me, imprisoning the device around my waist. The webbing was soft but fortified. Strong and utterly tamperproof. Buckling it loosely around my hips, he brought two other pieces up and over my shoulders, positioning them between my breasts to cinch into the harness around my middle. With his teeth gritted, he bent and reached between my legs, bringing two remaining thin straps to loop around my inner thighs and attach to the centre buckle.
God.
My skin broke out in goosebumps from his touch. His breathing remained shallow and short as if fighting his own battles by having me so close. I dared look down, swallowing again at the tented arousal of his wet trousers.
I closed my eyes as he tightened the straps, brushing my nipples and pussy with his hands.
Unlike the other day when he pushed me against the boardroom table and threatened to make me wet, he didn’t have to make it a challenge to prove a point.
He’d succeeded in making my body a traitor the second his tongue had touched mine.
And I hated it.
I hated that I stood before him, nude and unprotected, and instead of scratching out his eyes and kicking him in the balls, I obeyed, I swayed, I wanted.
I’d become a horrendous clone of his brainwashed goddesses.
“Open your eyes.”
My eyelashes flashed open. Our gazes connected. I grew dizzy looking into him.
Piercing blue.
Suffocating blue.
Drowning, drowning, dead—
A door to the back of the room slid open. “Sir?” Jealousy stood on the threshold. Nervousness painted her face, but she held her ground. “Would you like me to finish the process?”
Sully looked over his shoulder at her, breaking our stare, allowing me to live again, reincarnating me into yet another traitorous existence. “I’m capable of preparing her.”
“Yes, of course. I didn’t mean—”
“Leave.”
She nodded and vanished.
Without looking at me, Sully strode toward the cupboard to our left. Opening it, he pulled out a trolley already stocked with whatever items he needed. Wheeling it to me, he locked the wheels beside me, then paused. He chewed on indecision before swallowing with determination.
Without a word, he scanned the trolley and its many boxes. Six in total. All black with a purple orchid stencilled on the top. Selecting the first, he pulled out a vial of glistening pearly oil.
I waited as he unscrewed the top, placed the vial down to put thin gloves on his hands, then poured a generous amount into his palm.
“What are you going to—”
His hands landed on my shoulders, dislodging Pika, who flew away with a snippy squawk, only to find mischief on the trolley, nibbling at the boxes, muttering to himself.
I stayed as stiff and as carved as the mermaids in his water fountain outside his office as his large, strong hands smeared oil over my shoulders, down my arms, over my hands, between my fingers, and back up to my throat.
He kept his eyes on my body, tipping more oil into his palm and going behind me.
I swallowed a moan as he massaged my back, ran his touch down my spine, staining every inch of me with the slippery stuff. My legs pressed together as he kneaded my ass. Dumping more oil into his hands, he ducked to his haunches and spread the coating down the backs of my thighs, my ankles, to the tops of my feet. When my back half was sufficiently covered, he returned to my front, kneeling in front of me to smear my front thighs, shins and bottoms of my feet.
Rising to his tall height, he smeared the remainder over my lower belly, up my ribcage, breasts, and collarbones, continuing his torture until my brow, cheekbones, and chin also shone.
Only once every part of me glistened a pearlescent hue did he place the vial back into its box and snap off his gloves.
My voice was rough and full of hunger. “What did you just put on me?”
“Something that will hijack your sensitivity.”
I scowled. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.” Taking the next box, he pulled out a sheet of skin-coloured dots. Peeling one off, he ordered, “Give me your hand.”
Hesitantly, I placed my palm in his. His long fingers kept me trapped while he very carefully positioned the dot right over my fingerprint. He continued until all ten fingers were covered with the fleshy toned sticker.
“Will you tell me what these do?” The latex-type material deadened my ability to feel when I pressed my fingertips together.
He gave a half-smile, tight and cool. “They change your sense of touch.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out.”
Swapping boxes, he opened the third. This one held a small bowl and a bottle the size of a travel mouthwash. Inside rested a blue liquid. Cupping my chin, he held me steady while he tipped the bottle against my lips.
Immediately, I reeled backward, only to remember I wore a harness locking me to the ceiling.
I couldn’t run.
I couldn’t refuse.
“It’s not elixir,” he murmured. “Not yet at least.”
“What is it then?”
His features turned dark with annoyance, as if he wasn’t used to being questioned. But he sighed impatiently, granting me an answer. “It warps your sense of taste.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “My answer will be the same for all your questions. You’ll see.” Pressing the bottle to my mouth again, he added, “Now, swill. Don’t drink. Just swish and spit.” Holding up the bowl, he waited for me to obey.
I allowed the liquid to splash past my lips. Swilling like I would after cleaning my teeth, I spat out into the little silver bowl he held. Placing both discarded items on the trolley, he brushed Pika away from the swirling blue liquid, giving him the lid of the bottle to play with instead.
He did it subconsciously. So comfortably. A flicker of a genuine smile on his face watching the antics of the tiny terror. It spoke of a relationship between man and bird far deeper than I’d thought.
Once again, something tenacious and vicious kicked my heart. Something that said he’s different. He’s not what you think.
Stupid kick.
Stupid thoughts.
Sully was exactly what I thought. A dealer in sex using bought and trapped women.
Don’t forget that!
Don’t be that stupid.
The fourth box opened. Sully pulled out a thin tube. Unscrewing the lid, he crowded close to me and cupped the back of my neck. I tried to lean away, but he brought the tube under my nose and smeared something cool and astringent under my nostrils.
It didn’t smell.
It didn’t destroy my olfactory abilities, and I still drowned in Sully’s unique scent of sea, sunshine, and coconuts.
“If that’s meant to ruin my sense of smell, it hasn’t worked.”
I didn’t know why I gave him a heads-up that it hadn’t done what I suspected. In fact, none of his tricks had. My skin still felt like mine. My sense of smell still operated. My fingertips didn’t like the coverings, but it didn’t truly stop my sense of pressure or heat.
“It will do. When you step into Euphoria.”
I scowled. “You said I’m in Euphoria.”
He tossed the tube into its box, opening the fifth. “You are. But it’s not what you think. You’re standing in the room where Euphoria takes place but...the location isn’t physical.”
“I don’t understand.” I wanted to keep repeating that phrase.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand.
You.
But Sully lost any magnanimity about answering my questions and held up two small buds. I guessed they were for my ears before his electrifying touch brushed aside my hair and inserted one into my ear canal.
Goosebumps sprang down my arms and spine, pebbling my nipples and ensuring he saw, rather visibly, what his touch did to me.
He chuckled under his breath as he moved behind me, pulling my damp hair over my shoulder and kissing the shell of my ear with exquisite tenderness. “I might have found your weak spot, Eleanor.” His teeth grazed the sensitive skin, clamping down on my lobe.
I shuddered.
A flush of wetness.
A knot of desire.
I shook my head in defiance as he inserted the second earbud. “Don’t fool yourself.”
He laughed again, rolling and velvety, black and unforgiving as he ensured both buds were tight and blocked my hearing.
They blocked my hearing as any earbud would, but I could still hear, still make out everything I needed to.
What was the point in all of this?
He’s masking your senses.
My attention shot to the final box just as Sully picked it up, cracked the lid, and lifted out a small container with two separate screwed dishes.
Contact lenses.
My sense of sight.
The final one.
Touch, taste, sound, hearing, and sight.
“I don’t want anything foreign in my eyes.” I backed up a step, jiggling the apparatus keeping me tethered.
“It won’t hurt you.” He unscrewed the left container, careful not to spill the contents.
“I still don’t want it.”
“You don’t have a choice.” Looking up, he presented the small holder to me. “If you have experience with inserting lenses, be my guest. Or...I can do it for you.”
“I’ve never put anything in my eyes.”
“Well then.” He reached in and plucked out a flimsy lens from the solution it bobbed in. Placing the other one down safely, he eyed Pika to make sure he was still entertained with a piece of cardboard he’d shredded from an empty box and moved closer.
His hand cupped my nape again, bringing me close to him.
I tried to fight it, but my stupid, stupid body tingled from having his so close. I struggled to breathe as he brushed aside some hair on my cheeks with his knuckles, then pulled my head back a little. “Relax.”
“Relax?” I sneered. “How can I relax in this place?”
“You’ll learn to.” His face stayed stern with concentration. I focused on his fingers as they came closer and closer, looming over my eye. “You’ll learn to love it here. You’ll beg to return.”
“That will never happen.” I wanted to close my eyes and refuse.
“Never is a challenge.” He repeated our previous conversation, and sensing my intention to disobey, he let my nape go and slid his control to my eyebrow and delicate skin beneath, holding my vision wide open. “Hold still.”
