Fourth a Lie

And I’d rather break it by going back than by running away when he needed me.

I don’t care what you’ve done, Sully...I only care about what you are.

Swallowing back my hesitation, pushing away the nonsense of leaving him to bullets and his brother, I scooted my chair closer to the computer and typed: Sullivan Sinclair property purchases and locations.

* * * * *

Dawn.

I’d been up all night, going around in circles trying to find Sully’s islands.

Not one hint. Not a single whiff of his location.

The more time passed, the more a chill crept through me that Sully was hurt. I couldn’t explain it—I chalked it up to a racing mind and frustration at getting nowhere—but I had an awful, awful feeling that I was losing him, and there was absolutely nothing I could do.

Sully...why the hell did you send me away knowing I can’t get back to you?

Temper gave me a new surge of energy.

My stomach growled, reminding me this hotel wasn’t like Sully’s villas. Breakfast would not magically appear, all organic and grown on Lebah. Here, I had to call. I had to accept a menu drastically slim on vegetarian options after a smorgasbord of deliciousness.

Ringing the restaurant, I ordered a bowl of muesli and local fresh fruit. Once my requests had been noted, I hung up and stared at the phone.

A phone.

I’d wanted access to one of these since I’d woken in my villa the morning after Sully gave me elixir. He’d made me sign a contract that I’d sleep with one-hundred-and-ninety-two men, and here I was, ignoring all that by fighting to go back to him.

Snatching the phone, I dialled for an outside line.

I rang my father over my mother.

Ever since their divorce, my mother and I had slowly drifted apart while my father and I grew closer.

A ring sounded in my ear.

Ah, wait, I should’ve thought up a story!

What the hell am I going to—

“Hello?”

I flinched, ready for his tears, his shock, his anger at my letter sent from the traffickers, the note I’d asked them to deliver on my behalf that I’d run away for love and not to worry. How ironic that it’d become real. “Dad...it’s me. Eleanor.”

“Ellie!” His bark of surprise hurt my eardrum. “Oh, my word. What are you playing at? Leaving it over a month before calling your old man?”

“Ha-have the police been looking for me?”

“Police?” My father, Ross Grace, cleared his throat in suspicion. “Why in the world would the police be after you?”

I frowned. “You weren’t looking for me? You didn’t get a note from the traf—” I cut myself off. “From Scott?”

“Scott? Who the hell is Scott?”

I sighed. He knew who Scott was; he just never approved. Not that he’d ever met him. I hadn’t exactly reached the commitment stage of introducing Scott to my divorced parents. “You know full well who he is. The boy I was travelling with. The one you threatened to turn his testicles into earrings if he ever hurt me.”

“You calling to tell me I have a new pair of earrings?”

I laughed under my breath. “No, Dad.”

This was surreal. This was...normal.

My life had endured the biggest upheaval of my twenty-two years, and my father acted as if nothing had happened.

I felt adrift. No longer belonging to a boyfriend or parents who’d known the old me. Sully knew me. And I knew him.

And he’s in trouble...I know it.

Damn you, Sully, for making this impossible to get back to you!

“Dad, I know I literally just called, but I have to go.”

“So soon? But I want to know how your travels are. Where are you? What have you been up to?”

I swallowed against the truth, rolling my eyes at the absurdity.

Well, Dad, I was sold by traffickers who didn’t deliver my note like they promised. I fell in love with a man who rented my body to men your age, and now I’m about to lose my mind if I can’t find my way back to him immediately.

His world had stayed mundane while mine had strayed into magic.

I no longer belonged to him as his daughter.

I belonged to Sully as his...

Wife?

Goddess?

Friend.

“I love you, Dad. I’ll call again soon. I promise.”

“I love you too, Ellie Pie. Always will.” A smile sounded in the silence before he gruffed, “Just tell me where you are, so I don’t worry.”

“I’m in Indonesia.”

Privacy over Sully’s and my unethical romance made me stay quiet on details but instinct overrode it. Previously, I’d vanished without a trace and had no way home. If I allowed that to happen again, I was the biggest idiot in history.

My father was my insurance policy.

He was common-sense and safety.

“I’ve been staying on a group of islands called Goddess Isles. They’re owned by a man named Sullivan Sinclair. He owns a pharmaceutical company called Sinclair and Sinclair Group. If I...go missing for any reason. Please start there. I can’t give you an exact location but tell the embassy or call the local police if you don’t hear from me in a week or so, okay?”

“Ellie, what the hell—”

“Tell Mum that I’m okay. I’ll call again soon!”

I hung up, my heart racing and mouth dry.

Oh, my God.

What did I just do?

You were smart and told someone where you’ll be. It’s wise, Ellie.

A fist knocked on my door, announcing my breakfast had arrived.

Wise...but reckless.

My father might bring more nightmares Sully’s way.

If he reads the articles I just read?

I swallowed hard.

Oh, God.

A knock sounded again. “Room service.”

I shoved aside my nerves of my father researching Sully’s indiscretions and stood to answer the door.

I knew the truth about Sully, and I wouldn’t let anyone change my mind.

I would eat.

I would hunt.

I would not give up until I found him.

Don’t die, Sully...please, please don’t die.

Chapter Fifteen

HER LIPS LANDED ON mine—sweet with strawberry, sinful with lust.

I groaned and slipped my fingers into her long, delicious hair.

I loved her hair.

I loved her lips.

I loved her.

“I love you, Jinx.” I fed my admission into her mouth, loving the way she gasped and shivered. I ached with the need to fill her. To cement how I felt about her with a physical bond as well as an emotional one.

“Come here.” Plucking her from the sand where we lay watching the sunset, I rolled her on top of me. My fingers tugged at the bows of her bikini, removing the scraps of material hiding her perfect breasts and pussy.

She arched as I ran my nails down her back, grabbing fistfuls of her ass.

“Fuck, Sully.” She tumbled onto my chest, letting me spread her cheeks, graphic and erotic, rocking her wetness against the straining erection between my legs.

She moaned, jerking as I drove up, hitting her clit.

“Put me inside you.” I nipped at her ear, my balls tight and ready to fuck.

She shivered again as she reached between us, her delicate hand wrapping fierce and unforgiving around me.