Third a Kiss

He’d told me to run for my benefit, not his. I’d offered myself. He’d refused. He’d proven something fundamental in that moment.

He cares.

He cared if he hurt me. He’d care if he killed me. He cared too much…that’s why he was going to sell me.

That thought was brighter than lightning.

Was that true?

Could he feel the depth that I did? Could he be battling everything I was?

If that was true, then running would destroy our single chance at honesty.

This was my only opportunity to make Sully see. To make both of us admit we couldn’t keep doing this.

Whatever we were, whatever we felt…it ends…today.

And maybe, just maybe, if we survived each other, it could be a beginning and not the ending he’d chosen. We could talk. We could just…be.

Bracing myself, I gathered up my dress and stepped back the way I’d come. I wouldn’t back down from this. I would suffer the consequences and the climaxes. I wouldn’t punish him the way he’d punished me.

I’d give him what he needed.

I’ll give him me.

“Jinx.”

A dark, deadly growl. A snap of a snarl.

My head swooped up. My eyes caught his as he slammed to a stop, blocking the path. His suit hung in tatters. His blazer had been thrown off behind him. His shirt flayed open, torn buttons hanging off broken threads, his belt slinging haphazardly from belt loops, his fly unzipped, and feet bare from his normal pristine shoes.

For the first time since I’d arrived, Sully Sinclair glistened with sweat. His cold-blooded persona had succumbed to the island heat, dousing his skin in moisture.

My heart threw itself into torment, racing, and smoking, growing its own pair of legs and begging to run. I massaged my chest where it kicked and coughed, doing my best to stay calm.

I’d done this.

I’d applied makeup and dressed in a gown and stared at my reflection, knowing I was sacrificing myself to a ruthless, rabid beast.

Yet committing to an idea and then coming face to face with the ramifications were very different things.

Sully took a step toward me.

A single step.

Slowly.

Ever so slowly.

As if still fighting the vapid manic urges. “Get to your villa. Lock your fucking door.”

I licked my lips at the brokenness of him, the filthy greed and feverish longing. “You came after me.”

He shook his head, squeezing his eyes closed as another wave of lust buckled his body. When he opened his gaze again, the blue glowed otherworldly, sickly, dementedly. “No. I’m—” He groaned. “I’m trying to get to my villa before…” His fists clenched. “I can’t be close to—” He raised his gaze, snarling, “Go! What the fuck are you waiting for? I told you to run. So run!”

“I’m done running.” I spread my hands. “I was coming back…for you.”

He buckled over, wedging one hand into his belly and another on his cock. “Fuck you and your broken self-preservation.” With a growl, he stood up straight. His hand never left his cock, though, throttling it with white knuckles. “This is my last warning. I’ve fought as long as I can. I’m seconds away from giving in, and you’re still goddamn here.” He stumbled as he pumped himself, coaxing a release. Knowing he couldn’t stop it, he chose to chase it instead. “Run away, Eleanor. Get as far away from me as you can because—” He groaned again, low and hungry as his belly clenched. “If you don’t, I will tear you limb from motherfucking limb. I will crawl inside your body. I will fuck you until you scream.”

Elixir must live in his voice because my body liquefied instead of froze.

I wore no underwear beneath my gown.

I knew better than to place an obstruction between us, so I felt the unquenchable desire squeezing my core, releasing a bead of need, wetness slipping down my inner thigh.

I tried to speak—to tell him I was strong enough—but air had turned thin and useless.

Sully took another step toward me, his face blacker than midnight. “Why won’t you run? Are you that stupid to think you want me? To think you want this?” He jerked his cock, wincing in pain. “You think I’ll be gentle? That I won’t fucking bite you, throttle you, bruise you, and then come all over your goddamn face?” He tripped sideways, groaning like a dying bear. “Stand there another second, Jinx, and my fingers will be so far in your cunt you’ll gag on them. You’ll be on your goddamn knees while I use every hole you have. You’ll beg me to stop, and I’ll just keep going.” His hips thrust into his hand, reaching a pinnacle. His jaw clenched, and his skin lost its island glow, etching with sickly white. “One last chance. One last fucking chance.” His teeth bared with every violence he drowned under. “Stay and I won’t be responsible for what I do. I gave you a warning. I told you to run. I’m crippling beneath urges to do such bad, bad things to you.” His head tipped down, shadowing his eyes with brows tugged low and vicious. “Please don’t make me hurt you because I will. I’ll find pleasure while you’ll only find pain. I promise you if you don’t fucking run, I’m giving up.” His nostrils flared. “Right here. I will fuck you right here, and I don’t fucking care who sees.”

His lust had stripped him of humanity, revealing the true animal inside.

He wasn’t a gentle creature beneath those immaculate suits. He wasn’t sweet and endearing like the parrot he adored.

He was one word.

Honest.

Viciously, hellishly honest.

And it made me wet, made me breathless, made me want.

“Sully, I—” I raised my hand as to save him, to drag him from the darkness and be his saviour, but my silly little ego that convinced me I could control this situation shattered the second Sully moved.

Shutters slammed over his eyes; a mask slipped over his face. A disguise made up of poisonous passion. He ripped off his shirt and threw it to the sand. His belt hissed through the loops and joined it. And then Sully cricked his neck, crouched into a pounce, and smiled. “Fuck, I’m going to enjoy this.”

My heart leapt into my throat, filling with prey-drive, drowning my system in vulnerability and fear. Turned out, decisions and irrational choices held no sway when raw instinct kicked in.

And instinct said I was in danger.

Terrible, terrible danger.

Sully exploded from his panther-crouch, running toward me as hungrily and as mercilessly as any predator.

And my body hijacked my mind. My hands snatched my dress, I feigned to the side, and I ran.

Oh, my God, I ran.

I didn’t know I could be so swift, leaving my hair like a flag fluttering behind me.

Sully laughed.

He laughed.

And I ran harder.

Chills shot over my body. My stomach fisted with true terror. The pounding of his feet behind me made me embrace my inner gazelle, and I bolted.

I couldn’t look behind me.

Couldn’t bear to see a man who’d reached the end of his limit chasing me. Not chasing me for fun or flirty play. But chasing me with only one purpose. A purpose that would ensure I would never be the same. He was a man who I’d drugged and deleted everything inside him apart from the need to fornicate.

It wasn’t Sully chasing me.