Third a Kiss

Shoving his hands into his navy slacks pockets, he kept his eyes trained on the helicopter, his brow furrowed, his jaw set tight.

A few moments later, Roy Slater appeared from the laneway leading to guest accommodations, his shoulders slouched and a pissed-off expression on his handsome older face.

The second he appeared, Sully jolted as if he physically held himself back from launching from his royal ledge and smiting the poor guest into dust.

Roy looked around, flinching as Cal appeared and gestured cordially at the helicopter. As the two men headed down the jetty, Cal glanced up at Sully who vibrated above like a demon that’d clawed its way through the tapestry of earth and mythology.

Darkness surrounded him. Lust for death evident in the way the sun almost refused to touch him. Sully’s entire attention locked on Roy as he and Cal shared a few words before he climbed reluctantly into the helicopter.

My heart leapt.

He’s leaving…alone.

My joy didn’t have time to unfurl and figure out what this all meant before a merciless hand grabbed my long hair and dragged me backward. Skittles squawked and shot into the sky.

I went to scream, but a dainty hand clamped over my mouth.

What the—

I fought as the fight and flight instinct drowned my system, but Calico and Neptune were stronger. As one, they trapped me and hustled me away from the sun-drenched beach, pulling me deeper into the shady lane and into the lush jungle hiding us from view, away from Sully’s dominion, away from his protection.

I tripped as they shoved me against a palm tree. The rigid bark bit into my spine, snagging on my hair. A flash of being pressed up against a similar tree yesterday came and went. Yesterday, all I’d felt was pleasure as Sully filled me, even as lacerations coaxed blood from my cheek. Today, all I felt was fear and a quickly burning hate.

Jupiter appeared from behind the palm tree, waiting for Neptune to feed my wrists to her, effectively becoming human handcuffs so I couldn’t wriggle free.

The moment I was prone, the goddesses grinned with victory. Calico ran a hand through her sleek black hair, her lips twisting in spite. Her dress of sultry burgundy once again set off her ebony skin, making her glow with otherworldly beauty. “Well, well, if it isn’t the Plain-Jane who fucked the emperor of sin.”

I shivered as Jupiter’s nails dug into my wrists, and she hissed into my ear, “Little slut.”

Neptune kept her hand planted over my mouth so I couldn’t call for help, all while Calico ran her finger along my scratched cheek—a lover’s caress filled with the threat of destruction. “I saw you, you know. I watched him shove you against a tree and fuck you as if he’d rather die than not have you.” Her touch slipped to my throat, tracing the bruised fingerprints of Sully’s consuming lust. “I heard you both, grunting like animals.” She traced the bite marks imprinted in my skin. “I watched him throttle you all while he drove that long, thick dick inside you.” Her hand suddenly lost its lazy petting and shot between my legs. “That dick doesn’t belong to you, bitch.”

I winced and moaned behind Neptune’s hand as Calico cupped my sore and swollen sex. “How many times did he use this, huh? Are you so greedy to drain him dry for the rest of us?”

I tried to shake my head as she deliberately hurt me. A vicious grip that bruised already bruised flesh.

Neptune grabbed my throat while Calico continued to cup me indecently. The skirts of my dress offered no protection, loose and floaty with summery joy. I gulped as female fingers tried to follow the shadows of where a male touch had been. “Did you like it, plain Jinx? Did you like it when he pile-drove you into the sand?”

I moaned as she pressed hard on my larynx. “How did you get him to be so unhinged, huh? What makes you so damn special?”

Calico shoved Neptune aside as she grabbed my cheeks with both her hands. Her dark eyes searched mine, rifling with pickaxes and machetes. It physically hurt having her stare at me, it hurt because I saw past her envy and witnessed the panic within her. The need to be acknowledged, to be known. She was just a plaything here, nothing to the man she’d stupidly fallen for.

I pitied her because I saw a lot of myself mirroring back, but despite our similarities, I would never go to the lengths she had. I would never hurt another just because they’d been chosen and not me.

I bared my teeth, biting at Neptune’s hand. She gasped, letting me go with a squeal.

Inhaling and doing my best not to hyperventilate, I snarled, “Let me go, Calico.”

She snickered. “I don’t think you’re in the position to give orders, do you?”

“And you’re not in your right mind if you think hurting me will make him want you.”

Her gaze turned sniper sharp. “He does want me. I know he does.” She glanced at her fellow conspirators. “He wants all of us. He needs to keep us, to love us. All we need to do is get rid of you so he remembers that.”

I turned cold. “Get rid of me?”

Jupiter’s fingers tightened on my wrists. “You didn’t think we could let you stay, did you? Not after you fucked him. You’ve had your turn. It’s ours now.”

Calico pressed her fingers into my cheeks until they turned hollow and dug painfully into my teeth. “How did it feel? To have him inside you?” Her question was borderline manic. A girl who’d been traded and used for almost four years. An addict force-fed elixir and lust. A woman broken by Sully’s so-promised paradise.

I allowed my fight and retaliation to bleed from my pores, to speak from the heart. Ripping my face from her painful grip, I murmured, “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I’m sorry that you’ve been trapped here and no longer remember the outside world. I’m sorry—”

Her strike shut me up.

Blood bloomed in my mouth from where she’d hit me. My temple pounded, and a headache brewed instantly.

“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me, bitch. Feel sorry for yourself because you might have been the first to have him, but you won’t be the last. Unlike you, you greedy slut, we’ll share. We’re sisters. We know what it’s like to be a family, and Sully is our family. You’re the outsider who doesn’t belong.”

I glanced up through a black-spotted haze just as Calico nodded at Jupiter behind me. My hands were released, my imprisonment replaced by something silky and strong slipping around my throat.

A sinister garrotte ready to strangle me like Sully had.

Only difference was, his strangulation had been potent with desire and orgasms. This was buried in decay and tombstones.

I choked as Neptune disappeared behind me, adding more weight to the scarf or sash around my neck.

My nails clawed at the entrapment, scratching my own skin in desperation for purchase. My nape dug into the tree, the beads of my spine crying out in agony. My hair clung to my sweaty shoulder blades as panic roared to life.

I kicked and wriggled. I squirmed and clawed, doing my best to get free.

I croaked a scream.

I cried hot horror.

And Calico watched it all. Her face smoothed out the more mine twisted with terror for air. She lost her mania, switching into a sympathetic witch. “It’s okay, Jinx. You’ll go to sleep soon, and you’ll be free of this place. We’re doing you a favour, don’t you see? You’ll be free while the rest of us will still be here, fucking men we don’t want, begging for sex we don’t need.” She had the audacity to lean in and kiss my cheek, her breath skating over my skin as my energy quickly depleted and my lips gasped for air. “We’ll take care of Sully, don’t worry.”