Third a Kiss

He would always love me.

He would never stop.

He would never accept anything less from me.

I was his.

More so now that he loved me than I ever had been when he’d paid money for my life.

In his mind, my soul now belonged to him…not just my body, and that was something he would never give back. Even when I died.

That sort of dedication was petrifying.

But also immensely comforting.

He would never share me.

He would never hurt me.

He would ensure I was always happy because I was in charge of his happiness in return.

God.

How could I have known I’d find this level of intensity when I’d been kidnapped? How could fate have brought us together in such a way? How would we ever be normal?

A normal couple, sharing a life, creating a home and hearth when men paid money to fuck elixir-drugged goddesses? How could I stand by his side while women were purchased and trapped?

What do I need?

I need convincing that I have enough power over Sully that our joint future might be different than his singular one.

I need to do what Jealousy told me: I need to give Sully his freedom…so others might have theirs.

I caught his stare. “I know what I need.”

He tensed, wary but willing. “What? What do I need to do?”

Jealousy’s voice filled my head. “He will lie to your face if you ever ask him if he loves you. He will lie to himself until he almost believes he feels nothing. He will never admit that you’ve wormed your way past his defences because that would force him to confront his very existence as a man. By admitting he’s fallen for you, he’s effectively signing his own death sentence because there is no easy path from there.”

He’d already admitted he loved me, so that death sentence was signed.

“He was the one who gave you that diamond. He was the one who fucked you in Euphoria. He was the one who told you he was in love with you because he could use the disguise to hide the truth from you as well as him. I guarantee if you get him to where he thinks he can hide behind a mask, he will be far more lenient with the truth. He’ll admit what’s in his heart because he knows he can take it all away again and it won’t mean a thing because it wasn’t him admitting them.”

And that was what I needed.

He’d admitted he loved me while wearing yet another mask.

The only way I would believe him…trust him…would be to hear it from him.

Not this blond boy.

Not the island god.

Not Sullivan Sinclair.

I need to hear it from Sully.

I straightened my spine and commanded, “Remove my sensors. Stop this fantasy. Tell me it was you who fucked me in Euphoria as the caveman and again as the father in love with his daughter-in-law. Tell me you love me as you and—”

“Okay.” He nodded, cupping my cheek with a shaky hand. “Okay, Eleanor Grace.” Never looking away from me, he swiped his thumb beneath my nose, dispelling the scent deceptor.

Bending close, he kissed me softly, then arched his chin, pressing my face into his throat.

I inhaled deeply.

My heart went wild, recognising the scent of coconut, sea-salt, and sun. The irrefutable cologne of a man who loved the tropics.

Kissing my cheek, his fingers went to my ears, gently pulling out the buds lodged inside. A loud crackle, a hiss of white noise, a quick screech of feedback and then they were gone, tossed to the barn floor, sticking to hay and dirt.

“It was me who fucked you in Euphoria. As the caveman. And as Roy Slater.”

I jolted with lust as Sully’s true voice filled my heart with honesty.

He didn’t stop, taking off his shirt to wipe at the oil on my skin, each swipe of the soft material granted back the sensation of muggy island rather than dry summer. “I told you the truth when I said I was in love with you in those illusions. I could be honest, even while I still tried to believe a lie.” He continued to wipe off the oil, turning his care to my legs and feet. “Did you honestly think Markus Grammer would have that stamina?” The blond boy smirked even as Sully’s voice fell from his lips. “How many times did we have sex that night? Nine? Nineteen? You drained me dry, Eleanor. You drugged me as surely as I’d drugged you. I couldn’t get enough. I never wanted you to wake up. I wanted to stay with you in that cave forever…just the two of us.”

I shivered as he threw away his shirt, not caring that he sat half-naked before me, the hairless chest of the stable hand still masking the breadth and power of the man I knew was in there.

He shrugged. “The second time…I knew it was over for me. Twice, I put Jealousy in your place, transforming her into you, letting men believe they fucked you, when in reality, I would’ve torn their fucking heads from their corpses if they ever touched you.

“I was late to the illusion as Roy Slater...leaving you on that doorstep drowning in need. And when I opened the door to you in that cute restaurant outfit? Fuck me, I choked on a confession there and then. I wanted to tell you everything. To stop playing the charade of having a son and pretending you were untouchable. Of having the luxury of telling you I was in love with you and not hide behind a fucking guest. Christ…sleeping with you in that fantasy, I walked a tightrope the entire time. A few times, I worried I’d broken the illusion—that you knew exactly who filled you, that it was me admitting all my fuck-ups.”

Rising onto his knees, he came closer, cupping my cheeks again. “You’re right that it’s different when we touch. That bite between us, that painful kick of awareness has never happened with anyone before. When I touch you, I feel it. It hurts my heart and turns me hard. And no matter the tricks I employ or the code I use to blind…that chemistry can never be hidden.”

Smiling sadly, he added, “Oh, and the diamond was from me. I pretended it was from Grammer because how the hell was I supposed to admit that I’d fallen for you so quickly? I was jealous of myself. Jealous of the memory of being with you. Jealous of the freedom we’d found together. Jealous that I couldn’t have you in reality.”

Tears glossed my vision, making him dance and blur.

“Don’t cry.” He tutted under his breath, wiping the droplets away with a thumb. “Please, don’t cry.”

Pressing his forehead to mine, he swallowed hard, and murmured, “I created Euphoria from a dream. I had computer hackers and tech gurus transform a hare-brained idea into something that traded mundane into magic. I’d never used it until you. I’d never wanted to be tricked into feeling something I couldn’t afford to feel. But…I fell for you in the same way. I dreamed about you, Jinx. I dreamed of a brown-haired goddess with silver stunning eyes, and I fell in love with a figment of my imagination.”

He chuckled with awe, pulling away to look at me. “Imagine my surprise when you turned out better than my fantasy. When you overshadowed my dream girl. When you made me realise how much I fucking love you.”

Taking my hands, he slowly pulled at the sticky sensors on my fingertips. Deep in the illusion, I couldn’t see anything existed on my hands. I couldn’t feel the sticky sensors. I couldn’t pull them off on my own. But as Sully systemically removed them, I gasped as they appeared in his touch. The oddness of him peeling something I couldn’t see off my own body and then witnessing them appear out of thin air made the power of his creation even more dangerous.