Goddess isles boxed set, p.40
Goddess Isles Boxed Set, page 40
I didn’t know how long we stood there, but by the time we broke apart, I no longer cried.
So be it.
I would be summoned soon.
I would sleep with another stranger who wasn’t my boyfriend. A boyfriend who probably thought I was dead.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
Jealousy let her arms drop. Something flashed black.
Grabbing her right hand, I twisted it until her wrist faced me.
A matching tattoo.
Biting my lip, I aligned my own inked wrist to kiss hers. Two barcodes. Two girls stripped to merchandise and sold.
“Mexico?” I whispered.
“Brazil.” She stroked mine, tracing the small numbers that meant nothing but demoted me to a belonging. “I ran away from home. Got a job on a cruise liner as a cleaner. We docked in Rio de Janeiro. While at sea, we worked six and a half days a week. It so happened that my lousy five hours off was in port, and I jumped at the chance to explore a vibrant city.” Her eyes hazed over with memory. “I heard the ship’s horn sound, warning for passengers to be on board to depart, just as I was stuffed in the back of a van. They took me to some warehouse that smelled of old fish and...”
When she didn’t continue, I filled in the blanks myself. I’d lived those blanks and didn’t need her to speak. “I’m sorry.” I squeezed her fingers, looking again at our matching tattoos.
They might have been the same operation or totally different, but either way, our similar ink granted a strange kind of sisterhood. The oddest friendship bracelet any two friends had shared.
“I’m sorry too...” She moved back a little, giving me space to shrug into the robe, tie the belt, and grab a hairbrush. “That you didn’t make it to safety.”
“It was a one in a million chance I would.”
Backing up, she reclined against the wall. “I don’t know. You were pretty smart. The supplies you gathered would’ve lasted a week or so. You could’ve gotten far with that amount of time.”
My eyebrows shot up. “How...?” I stopped brushing. “How did you know?”
She smiled gently. “I know most things that go on around here.” Dropping her gaze to the tiles, she added, “Just like I know that Sullivan is cracking.”
“Cracking?”
“You’re not like the rest, Jinx.” Her eyes followed my arm as I struggled to drag the brush through my shipwrecked tangles. “Not to him at least.”
“Does that bother you?” I asked quietly. “That there’s something...between us.”
She shook her head adamantly. “Of course not. I’m not in love with him.” Her hazel gaze twinkled. “However, I suspect you might be.”
I dropped the brush. “Me?” I blushed, ducking to pick it up after clattering on the tiles. “No. Just...misguided. Misled. Stupid. Idiotic.” I sighed, resuming my brushing but turning my back so I faced the mirror. Not that it concealed any of my truth, the mirror reflecting my flush of shame.
“Why did you run?” Her gaze remained on mine.
“Didn’t you run, once upon a time?” I shot back.
She spread her hands in surrender. “Do I sound weak if I admit I never tried?”
“No.” I sighed, keeping eye contact. “Because I know your family didn’t treat you well. You found a better existence here, so why would you leave?”
“Others would ask why would I stay? Why allow men I have never met and will never see again to fuck me when I could be free.”
It was my turn to shrug. “Sex is the oldest profession in the world.” I forced a chuckle. “Some might say it’s a sound employment choice.”
She laughed too. “Perhaps. Or...I don’t see the sex as a deal-breaker when Sullivan gives us so much in return.”
With my hair sleek and long down my back, I placed the brush on the vanity and turned to face her. “I ran because I have feelings for him that I don’t want to feel. That I shouldn’t feel. That are totally moronic when I take into account how I met him, why I’m here, and the circumstances in which he keeps me.” My confiding revelation spilled out. “I feel like I’m some silly statistic in a newspaper. Girl gets kidnapped. Girl falls for kidnapper. Girl is blind to reality. Girl gets killed for being an idiot.”
Jealousy pursed her lips, nodding as if she totally agreed with me. “But what if it’s the same for him?”
I froze.
My heart ceased mid beat. “What did you say?”
She pushed off from the wall, padding toward me. She wore a simple baby blue summer dress, short and floaty, making her seem young and far too innocent for our sensual subjection. “I mean...what if he’s fighting the same things you are?” She took my hand, urgency filling her pretty face. “Jinx...there’s something you should know. The diamond that he gave you...from the man you slept with last week—”
“Jessica,” a seethed snarl came from the door, ripping both our heads up. “I suggest you silence yourself before I do it for you.”
Sully stood with his arms crossed, glowering at both of us.
We jumped apart as if we’d been caught doing something illicit, our shared friendship that’d sprung from tentative to steadfast, a glowing string between us. I’d rowed away from an acquaintance but had flown back to find a trustworthy confidant.
A confidant who knew more than she let on.
What about the diamond?
The diamond I’d left in my bedside drawer when I’d run. The diamond I hated because it made me feel dirty and wrong whenever I looked within its glittering perfection. It made me remember the caveman who’d thrust inside me, made me orgasm countless times, and been both rough but gentle.
A man named Markus Grammer who I’d never see again.
“Calico is serving in Euphoria tonight,” Sully growled. “Make yourself useful and help her prepare.”
Jealousy bowed and slipped past him. She darted out of my villa without a backward glance.
The thin dressing gown I wore suddenly felt as inconsequential as air. Sully’s stare stripped me to the bone, to the bare essentials, to my broken soul beneath. “You’re clean. Good.”
I shivered at the rigid remoteness in his tone.
“Am I to serve in Euphoria too?” My hands fisted with false bravado.
His jaw worked, but he shook his head slowly. “Multiple goddesses can serve on one night, but no. You will be fucked tomorrow.”
Greyness feathered over my sight, faintness once again stealing the firmness of my world. So it was true. I hadn’t feared for nothing. I wasn’t his to keep for himself, just a toy to rent out.
Dropping my chin, I nodded, doing my best to keep any emotion from my face. I searched for something to say, but words were mysteriously absent.
Sully shifted, moving toward the exit. “Come with me.”
My eyes shot up. “But you just said—”
“I said you’re serving in Euphoria tomorrow. Not that you were free from punishment tonight.”
I gulped. “But—”
“No fucking buts.” He snapped his fingers. “Follow me.” His eyes narrowed. “Or I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you there.” He stepped threateningly toward me. “Which would you prefer?”
“I’ll walk.” I arched my chin, refusing to be intimidated even though every blood cell quaked.
“Fine.” He spun on his shiny shoes and stalked from my bathroom, through my lounge, and out the front door. He didn’t stop to ensure I obeyed him. He’d changed clothes since our last encounter, slipping into a black suit and black shirt, leaving his throat bare from a tie.
My eyes skated to my bed and the tie he’d wrapped around my throat on Serigala. I’d thrown it there when I’d stumbled into my villa an hour ago, and it lay against the virginal white sheets like a deadly premonition.
I had no time to change or grab any supplies—already he’d almost vanished down the sandy pathway.
With a muffled curse, I darted after him. Doing my best to keep my robe tight around me rather than loose and revealing.
He didn’t slow his pace, guiding me through parts of the island I’d already explored and into the jungle where I hadn’t. Orchids faded in favour of glossy banana plants and other fruit trees I didn’t recognise.
Darkness had descended, stealing the rest of coppery twilight and making everything monochrome. The sand still radiated heat beneath my bare feet, and my hair rapidly dried in the warm humidity.
The skies above, stencilled with palm fronds, were endlessly clear. No rain would fall tonight...not after the storm that’d ended my escape.
I continued chasing Sully until he turned down a side path, overgrown and not nearly as welcoming. Wariness ghosted down my spine as we entered a clearing within an enclave of thick bushes and silken foliage.
No Pika flew with him. No Skittles flew with me.
We were utterly alone as he marched toward the rundown villa sitting squat in the centre of the clearing.
Waiting for me to catch up, he pinned me to the spot with a sinister stare. “You ran from my generosity. Therefore, you must return to my unkindness.” Turning the door handle, he shoved the entrance open and threw me inside.
I tripped over the threshold, blinking in the blackness.
A switch clicked and lights rained from above, spilling into shadows, chasing away obscurity.
Once again, the villa had sweeping high ceilings, thatched roof, and exposed beams like its other counterparts, but unlike the animal hospital on Serigala, Euphoria and its fancy technology, or my cosy elegant villa, this one held nothing of wealth.
This one held cages.
Lots and lots of cages.
Some small and stacked on top of one another, cob-webbed laced and dust sprinkled. Others had fallen from their tower, laying on top of one another with opened wire doors and bent metal walls.
And two large ones sat in the middle of the room, large enough for a primate...or person.
The air smelled metallic and rusty with the faint whiff of cadaver.
Goosebumps scattered down my spine. I did not want to be here. The memories of these cages. The stories they told. The suffering that’d happened inside them. Some of the bars still held maroon stains of shed blood. Others clutched at tufts of fur like trophies with tight wire hands.
Where did these awful things come from?
Sully wrapped possessive fingers around my nape and marched me forward.
I shuddered from the scalding, sinning electricity that ricocheted from him to me.
It didn’t matter that we caused a blend of heightened energy whenever we touched. It didn’t matter that my heart went from worried to winging.
Everything about our connection was chaotic, including the absurdity that my core clenched from being held so primitively.
I’d read that humans had evolved from animals so long ago that we could no longer be classified as beasts. However, the instinct whenever a male clasped the nape of its lover triggered a feral response. An impulse to cower and obey. To submit entirely.
I fought against that instinct as Sully pushed me toward one of the large cages. Without a word, he threw me inside and slammed the metal door shut. With a padlock from his pocket, he locked me in.
My bare feet bruised from the wire beneath them. Claustrophobia rose, seeking desperately for a way out.
My breathing turned shallow, but I forced myself to stand there. To lock gazes with the man who’d just proven his point extremely eloquently.
His island might be a trap, but he granted our every whim.
This was true captivity.
A cage that I could barely stand up in. A box that wouldn’t allow me to lie down, nor held any comfort or kindness.
A true emblem of imprisonment.
For the longest moment, Sully stood on the other side of my cage. His jaw clenched and hands shook. He looked conflicted with regret but also cruel with resignation.
I wished I knew how to speak to his regret. To know the right things to say—to entreat to the part of him that did care. The man who held an otter with such sweet affection and who kissed a parrot on his head.
But for all my belief that I’d begun to understand him, I’d only made it worse.
Please think of me as an animal, so you’ll like me.
Ugh!
What a ridiculous thing to say.
I drowned in embarrassment, flushing with heat.
Shaking his head, dispelling the same pain I’d seen in him when Skittles had landed on my shoulder, he raked a hand through his hair and straightened his spine.
Holding out his hand, he ordered, “Give me your robe.”
I backed up until my shoulder blades clanged against the bars behind me. “Please...can’t I keep it?” I looked around at the bareness. The island temperatures ensured it remained warm, even in this horrific place, but the historic screams of the cage’s prior inhabitants turned the air icy.
I didn’t know how long he intended to keep me in here, but I didn’t want to be naked. I didn’t want to be so...vulnerable.
“Robe, Jinx. I won’t ask again.” His hand remained steady by the bars, waiting for me to obey.
I’d never been very rebellious as a child, but the inner brat inside me wanted to throw a tantrum. To rattle the bars. To bounce in the box. To scream and refuse. To turn as wild as this cage said I was.
But...decorum was my final threshold. Everything else had been stripped from me.
With a tattered breath and feeble rise of my chin, I undid the belt and slipped the softness off my shoulders. I winced as the wire beneath my toes hurt, moving toward him to press the only thing I had into his awaiting hand.
The moment it filled his palm, he yanked it through the bars and tossed it on the floor. Silently, he stalked to the back of the villa where yet more cages rested. Some long, some skinny, some rusted beyond use, and others scarily new.
He returned with a tray and a stool.
Every footfall of his expensive shoes echoed in the depressing place, bringing him back to me. I wrapped my arms around my breasts as he slammed the stool in front of my cage then unlocked the door and placed the tray at my feet.
Stepping out, he slid the padlock back into position before unbuttoning his blazer and sitting majestically on the stool. Legs spread with arrogance. Power dripping from his perfectionism. His beauty once again a monstrous sin.
He kept revealing parts of himself, keeping me walking a tightrope of hope and despair. One moment, I believed he was redeemable...lovable. The next, I wanted him to die a horrible, miserable death.
His stare travelled over my body while his voice gravelled with aggression. “This is what’s going to happen. You are going to obey my every request. If you do what I ask, we shall negotiate your length of residence in this cage. If you don’t, then I’ll decide how long you need to be punished.” His ocean gaze darkened. “And believe me, Jinx...you have a lot to be punished for.”
Twice he’d called me Jinx.
Not Eleanor.
Tonight, it seemed he wouldn’t slip between names. He was resolute with his torture, teaching a runaway a lesson.
Fine.
I would obey. Purely because I wanted out of this place as soon as possible.
“That bottle with the cream label.” He arched his chin at the tray. “Apply that to your skin.”
I cringed at the thought of putting on a show for him. Of dropping my arms from my breasts and revealing everything. I also shivered with the similarities between the horror movie of a psychopath who made women rub lotion into their skin to make a suit out of their stripped carcasses.
Sully was a man with murky morals, but surely, he wasn’t a psychopath.
Keeping my eyes from his, I bowed into obedience, regardless of my thoughts.
Needs versus embarrassment.
I chose the need for freedom. Just as I had with the kayak and potential death.
Ducking, I collected the bottle he’d mentioned. The label held scientific mumbo jumbo. A recipe or ingredient list, rather than some fancy stickers of cosmetics. The only thing I recognised was the SSG logo on the bottom corner. A logo that I’d seen on stationery in his office.
I didn’t know what it stood for, but I popped the lid and squirted a generous amount of clear looking serum onto my palm.
Not looking at Sully, I liberally applied the ointment. My belly, legs, arms, and face. Every inch covered with odourless, colourless salve. Almost immediately, a cooling sensation overtook my tingling sunburn, actively removing the heat, and soothing my skin from the outside in.
My eyebrows rose at the seemingly impossible magic.
“A human tested after sun cream.” He narrowed his gaze, drinking me in. His trousers had tented, revealing he’d grown hard watching me apply it. “Proven to reduce the longevity and pain of sunburn.”
I swallowed back the stupid wash of desire knowing he was hard. Knowing I’d made him hard. Even in this damn cage, I was still being an idiot with lust.
I almost wished he’d poured elixir down my throat...then I had a scapegoat for the tiny trickle of wetness that’d gathered.
“Tomorrow night, you’ll be touched by a man. At least now your skin won’t smart when he puts his hands on you.” His voice had turned black. His face brooded with hate. Hate at me or the guest he’d sold me to?
Pointing at the tray, he growled, “The tube. Apply the contents to your hands.”
Doing my best to keep from revealing too much of my nakedness, I deposited the bottle and collected the tube. Again, the packaging wasn’t pretty or marketed with bright labels designed to allure shoppers with a miracle cure. Bare and basic, but if Sully’s scientists had created these products, I had no doubt they were the best available.
The contents of the tube were thick and gluttonous, refusing to squeeze out until I applied pressure. The small blob sat in my palm as I returned the ointment to the tray and rubbed it thoroughly into the backs of my hands, fingers, and palms. The open sores and still oozing blisters stung a little, but just like the sunburn cream, relief followed almost instantly.
I looked up, expecting him to tell me how he’d created such things, but he only stared back with fierceness.
I held his stare even though it cost me. “You knew about my hands.”
