Third a Kiss

I dared look up, catching his stern stare. “Would you? Would you stop?”

He gritted his teeth, avoiding that question and answering the easier of the two. “Seven. There are seven here currently…including you.”

I flinched. “And how many guests at any given time?”

He rolled his shoulders, popping a cherry tomato into his mouth. “Not many. Three at the moment. I don’t like crowds.”

I half-smiled. “Three isn’t a crowd.”

“Two is a crowd if I don’t like the other person.” He pinned me to the spot with his blistering blue gaze. Pushing his plate aside, he leaned forward. “Look, Eleanor. I will not apologise for what I am. I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again. Humans are not above treatment deemed perfectly humane for other creatures. I provide the best care, nutrition, and free range existence that I can. Their lives are most likely a thousand times better than they were when they didn’t belong to me.” His voice grew testy, sharp. “If you can’t accept that then…we have a serious fucking problem.”

My back locked in my chair. Goosebumps shot over my arms.

There’s the argument.

You brought this upon yourself.

I’d done this, but I wasn’t prepared to finish it. I wasn’t prepared to draw a line in the sand between us. Not yet. Maybe soon there would come a time when his morals would be a breaking point for me…but right now, I was too swept up on hormones and dopamine to put strangers I didn’t know before the monster I’d fallen for.

Sucking in a breath, I forced myself to say, “We don’t have a problem, Sully…not yet at least. I understand your reasoning, and I even agree with it to a certain extent. But I don’t believe any creature should live a life of captivity. All I’m requesting is some sign that you’re open to a different alternative. Possibly, maybe…sometime in the future.”

He scowled, leaning back in his chair. It took the longest few seconds of my life before he nodded once. “Possibly, maybe.” His lips twitched, ceasing our fight. “Sometime in the future.”

I exhaled with relief. “That’s all I’m asking.”

“How old are you?” he asked, his head tilting to the side with dark curiosity. “You’re younger than me…but by how much?”

I smiled, casting off the tension from before. “Twenty-two. You?”

He swiped a hand over his mouth, groaning a little. “Eleven years your senior.”

“You don’t look like a senior.” I peered at his hair. “No greys that I can see. Yet at least.”

He chuckled once. “Oh, they’re there. Stress-related mainly.”

“How can you be stressed when you live in a place like this?” I waved at the perfection of enjoying a candlelit dinner on a deck overlooking a waterfall.

His jaw clenched, reliving things I couldn’t see. “I’m not very good at putting things in the past.”

“What things?”

He narrowed his gaze. “Is this what I get for falling in love with you? Death by a thousand questions?”

I grinned. “Oh, don’t worry, Sully. I’ll find plenty of ways to murder you slowly.”

He laughed, the sound deep and gravelly—a sound that echoed through my heart and core, making me tingle and crave at the same time.

“Thanks for the warning.” His eyes danced. “I feel like I might’ve made a crave mistake.”

“Too late now.” I scooted my chair closer to his, no longer hungry for dinner. “What’s your biggest flaw? Tell me now so I’m not heartbroken.”

His mirth fell, leaving behind harsh reality. “You already know. I procure women and use them for my benefit.”

I waved that fact away. “No…a character trait. That’s a choice. Give me the flaw that’s ingrained in your very makeup. Something you will never be able to change…no matter how persuasive I am.”

His lips thinned. “Why? What does that prove?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Just…making conversation.”

“So this is an inquisition instead of dinner.”

“This is us getting to know the person our hearts have chosen. We feel something we can’t explain. We are connected in ways I doubt we’ll ever unravel. But I don’t know you. I don’t know—”

“You know me better than anyone.” His hand shot out, cupping my chin. “Literally anyone.”

“Even Cal?”

He winced, letting me go as quickly as he’d grabbed me. “Calvin—” He looked away, staring at Nirvana. “Cal has been there since the beginning. He knows more than he should. It could make him a liability if I didn’t trust him.”

“Ah, so you do trust someone.”

He scowled. “He earned it before I lost the ability to do such a thing. He was there when I—” His lips snapped together, shutters slamming over his eyes. If what he’d done matched the sudden grief and death swimming in his gaze, then I didn’t want to know.

Not here under a silver moon with the scents of jasmine and hibiscus nullifying the outside world.

“He’s your friend. I get it.”

He remained tight and tense. “I suppose you could call him that.”

“Just like Jealousy is your friend.” I paused, keeping a careful eye on his reaction. That was one anomaly I couldn’t figure out. Jess/Jealousy seemed to have my back. She’d given me the truth about Sully’s actions with the diamond and Euphoria. She genuinely seemed to want us together.

But why?

Was she truthful with her simple request to give Sully his freedom so the others could have theirs?

And how did she know so much about Sully’s mental state?

“Jealousy is someone I tolerate more than most,” Sully murmured. “She’s transparent and upfront. I’ve never caught her lying, and believe me…I’m pretty good at sniffing out lies.”

“You know she’s been spying on you, right? I agree she is upfront. She wasn’t afraid to tell me things about you that I’m guessing you probably didn’t want her to tell me.”

He smiled, his teeth sharp in the moonlight. “That’s the reliable thing about her. She’s a great little spy. She tells me things about the other goddesses. She listens and she watches. She’s made her loyalties known. She even told me she was going to tell you about the diamond and that I’d made her fuck Grammer and Slater as you.” He reached for his tumbler holding a splash of amber alcohol. “She gave me a few days’ warning.”

“So…she threatened you.”

“No, she encouraged me.” He sipped his drink, his throat working as he swallowed.

“Would you have told me if she hadn’t?” A shard of hurt poked my heart. It was stupid to be hurt that Sully had needed encouragement to pursue me. I should be thankful to Jealousy, not worry about her motives.

Sully jerked my chair into his, crashing us together with a smack of wood. “Get that pain out of your eyes, Goddess Jinx.” He swivelled me around until our knees pressed together. His large hands landed on my thighs, squeezing me with authority. “I confessed to you as there was no other way forward.” Grabbing a fistful of his borrowed shirt encasing me, he pulled me into him and kissed me hard.