Time to get some work done.

Time to forget about my latest employee.

“That will be the last time you speak out of line to me.” Smiling tightly at Jealousy, I added, “Show her the ropes. You can finish the orientation on my behalf.” Turning to face Eleanor, I mockingly bowed at the feet of the long-haired girl who didn’t know the close call she’d escaped. I treated her like royalty because that was what she made me.

She made me a king because only a king could have such consorts at his beck and call.

But I was also a king who didn’t allow dangerous vixens into his bed.

Taking one last look at the girl I wanted to destroy, I left.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“SOOOO…THAT WAS STRANGE.” Jealousy smiled, moving closer so her voice didn’t chase Sully as he disappeared. “I’m doing my best not to ask, but I’ve not seen him act like that around a goddess before. Who are you, Goddess Jinx?”

I side-stepped away. I wasn’t opposed to friends, and definitely wanted a network of people I could talk to and plot a way out of here, but I didn’t trust she wasn’t like the other girls. Brainwashed and infatuated with their liege and master.

With a name like Jealousy, I doubted her sweet smile and welcoming appearance was real. She was probably a master manipulator.

“You know he’s never let anyone get away with being rude to him, right?” she added, when I showed no sign of joining in her conversation. “But then again…I’m guessing you’re not just anyone…are you?”

I shivered, still staring down the empty path where Sully had gone.

What the hell was happening here? To me? To him? To my stable, simple world?

“My real name is Jess.” Jealousy waved almost shyly even though she stood right next to me. “I won’t bite…honest.”

Sighing, I turned to face her, ready to explore another odd relationship if it meant it could rescue me from the mess I’d found myself in. “I’m Eleanor.”

She beamed. “Pretty name.”

“Not pretty enough seeing as he changed it.”

“Ah, Jinx and Jealousy, they’re just masks for us to wear so the guests don’t know who we truly are.”

I crossed my arms. “But if they knew our real names, they could look us up, contact our families…help us escape.”

Jess frowned and nodded slowly. “That’s true. I suppose that would be bad for business.”

I scowled. “You don’t sound pissed off about the fact that we’re prisoners here.”

She shrugged. “I’m happy. This isn’t a prison to me.”

“Don’t you want to be free, though? Free to go where you want? Free to fly away and be with your family?”

Her pretty face cast in shadow. “My family isn’t worthy of my company.” Her voice hardened. “If anywhere in the world is a prison, it’s in that house with them.”

Goosebumps scattered up my arms at the sudden knowledge that this girl wasn’t like the others. She wasn’t like me. She’d already suffered abuse, and our versions of mistreatment were vastly different. Without knowing her full story, I had no right to complain.

Whatever reason she’d been called Jealousy, I didn’t think it was because of any pettiness or envy on her part. She might be short and blonde with a pixy smile, but there was a pillar of pure marble inside her.

“I’m sorry.” I apologised for jumping to conclusions about her and for what she’d lived through. I didn’t need to ask to guess. The brittle vulnerability in her voice painted a vibrant enough picture, but it also told me the truth. She was happy here. She was content to stay because it was a thousand times better than wherever she’d been taken from.

This was her adoptive home while it was still my unwanted cage.

Her blonde hair bounced with loose curls as she moved forward, expecting me to fall into step with her. “Don’t be. It was a while ago, and I don’t ever have to go back.”

I walked with her, intrigued despite myself. “But what about when Sully lets you go?”

She looked at the sugary sand coating our bare feet as we moved toward the beaming sunshine and beach up ahead. “I’ll deal with that in two years.” She flicked me a look. “I wouldn’t say that to the pack but you…” She smiled sadly. “I’m sorry to say, you will be an outcast here like me. So we might as well skip the stilted getting-to-know-each-other and slip straight into friendship. And…because we’re friends, I can tell you the truth.” She plucked an orchid from its long stem as we passed, stroking the bright purple petals. “Sully can barely stand the other goddesses because they all want something from him that he’s not prepared to give. But me…he knows I want something different.”

My heart picked up speed. “What do you want?”

“To stay.”

“That’s exactly what the other girls want.” I didn’t mention eavesdropping the other night, but I couldn’t imagine that was news to her.

“No, they want to stay and be an equal ruler with Sullivan. They think of this island as theirs. They think of Euphoria as their own personal creation and can’t imagine life without it.”

I squinted as the sun grew steadily brighter as we left the shady heliconias, banana plants, and orchids behind, trading it for sparkling sea and the brightest turquoise I’d ever seen. In front of us rested a row of pristine, gleaming kayaks, oars at their sides, ready to be used. Loungers waited with crisp rolled-up towels for a guest, umbrellas dotted the scalding hot sand, and the sun caused heat mirages to dance around the array of small cabanas serving nibbles, drinks, and anything else high-paying guests could ask for.

Beyond that rested the helipad where I’d arrived. Black basalt lined the area of the manmade bay while the bamboo jetty looked glued to the calm tide.

Memories of arriving, just a few short days ago, had already faded under the intensity of this place. A view wasn’t just a view here. It didn’t just complete a backdrop for life to exist; it demanded your full attention.

It swallowed you up with all five senses, engulfing you with bird song, gentle breezes, and vibrancy. I felt the soft hish-hish of the sea upon the sand. I tasted the fragrant flowers on the air. The part of me that was terrifyingly aware of its own mortality drank in the island with gratitude because nature was absolutely surreal and granted a gift.

A gift of being alive.

Jess, or Jealousy—whichever name she preferred—pressed her shoulder to mine as we skipped over the hot sand and sighed in relief the moment we entered the shallows. Her touch drenched me in a sensation of kinship. Of belonging. I missed my friends from school. Ever since starting the travelling adventure with Scott, we hadn’t been in one place long enough to evolve single night acquaintances into long-term friends.

But there, standing in the warm, licking tide on the picture-perfect beach with our shoulders touching, I didn’t feel so trapped. So lost. So confused.

“I can understand why you wouldn’t want to say goodbye to this place,” I murmured, unable to tear my eyes off the horizon as a pod of dolphins broke the glassy surface, gliding past like ballerinas of the ocean.