“I do. I do need to know.” I splashed my fists into the sea. “Was it you? Were you the one who fucked me?”

Please say yes.

Please say no.

God…what is happening to me!

He bared his teeth. “You would know if I ever fucked you. I told you you’d never be the same if I did.”

“I’m not the same…not after last night.”

“You’re still the same maddening, dangerous girl I can’t seem to stay away from.” Swimming backward, placing distance between us, he added in the darkest, rawest voice, “Euphoria is a blessing and a curse, Eleanor. You’re free to be whatever you want…but that freedom means you’re at the mercy of being used by your greatest enemy or dearest friend. You’ll never know. Never know who hides behind the illusion’s mask. Never see the man whose body thrusts into yours. Never see past what I want you to see. You only see what they pay for.”

Taking a deep breath, he turned and duck-dived under the surface.

I waited for a hundred skipping heartbeats for him to reappear.

But he never did.

I sank beneath the surface…

…and screamed.

Chapter Five

YESTERDAY WAS MY LAST day of acting like a goddamn idiot.

I didn’t appreciate nor accept the threads of softness Eleanor cursed me with. I’d had enough of battling my thoughts, losing against my rules, and overall being a fucking moron.

I’m done.

She was just a girl.

A high-class commodity.

Nothing more.

After my swim, I’d buried myself in work, scaled Nirvana thanks to the excess energy I had after visiting Jinx, then forced myself to stay in my villa all night.

In bed.

Hard as a fucking rock.

I didn’t allow myself to skulk through the shadows, to enter a certain goddess’s room, to pin her down and force her to take my cock after she’d taken so much dick the night before.

I reminded myself of what Cal had been so adamant I recall. Why I didn’t do humans. Why I would never do her. And why I’d made such strict laws.

The highlight reel of my past left me sick to my stomach and a little afraid of what I was capable of when pushed to my limits.

It didn’t matter that it was me pushing myself to those limits—Eleanor would be the one to pay if I allowed myself to feel anything else for her.

The truth was…I would kill her. Not maliciously, probably not even intentionally, but I tended to act irrationally when forced to endure things I wasn’t equipped with. And…alone in the dark, with my thoughts thick with blood and history, I admitted I wasn’t equipped to deal with her.

Therefore, all interaction and communication had to cease.

For her own safety…and for mine.

The only human relationships I wanted were those bound by NDAs, huge sums of money, and an expiration date.

Cal was the one exception.

As the sun rose and dawn brightened to noon, I strode from my office. My inbox had been dealt with, a small issue with some new lab equipment resolved, and an online conference call with my head scientist completed. Thanks to the internet, I no longer had to physically be in many places. Only a few instances required my personal attention and I loathed those requests.

My islands had become a sanctuary I hadn’t been aware I needed, and when the outside world intruded, dragging me back into smog-filled cities jam-packed with self-centred, apathetic bastards, I struggled to keep my temper in check.

I’d probably done the wrong thing by cloistering myself away in paradise, creating my own personal Zion, pretending I’d achieved the impossible and eradicated the plague of mankind. These days, if I entered the main vein of population, I couldn’t focus on the tiny snippets of good, only on the mountains of disease and screw-ups that society had piled into shit mountains.

Not for the first time, I was tempted to create a drug that would eradicate the problems we’d caused…by eradicating us. But that would make my life’s work highly hypocritical.

I owned a company whose entire purpose was pharmaceuticals—both external and internal medicines—to extend the longevity of the people I couldn’t stand. I donated millions to cancer research and didn’t hide my breakthroughs—delivering my successes at affordable prices, despite the death threats from men who traded in fatality.

Before I’d started selling flesh and fantasy, I’d whored myself out for the masses, draining myself for humanity that no longer remembered what that word meant.

Striding down the sandy pathway, I raked hands through my hair, smoothed my navy pinstripe suit, and buttoned my hand-cut blazer.

Enough dwelling in the past.

I had a good balance in my life these days. I would keep it that way. And besides, talking of relationships with expiry dates…it was time to say farewell to Markus Grammer.

Gritting my teeth, I ignored the acid wash down my throat, splashing corrosive in my belly. Just once, I’d like to revoke my policy to greet and goodbye each guest, but part of me needed to see him gone. To be sure he no longer had access to what was mine.

Thinking of the devil must’ve conjured him as he appeared before me, turning off the fork in the path which led to his private villa. His luggage would’ve already been taken to the helicopter. His khaki messenger bag nudged against freshly pressed jeans, swinging with his every step. The shade of his baby blue polo highlighted the tan he’d earned while staying here. He still looked a little drained from being in Euphoria, but the swagger in his body said he’d never forget the week he’d spent on Goddess Isles.

Too bad for him he couldn’t regale his office buddies with stories of what went on here, unless he wanted the iron-clad NDA I made him sign to bite him with serious fangs in the ass.

I cleared my throat, preparing to put on my mask of suave and polished. He heard me, turning to look over his shoulder. He stopped immediately, a huge shit-eating grin on his face. “Sullivan.”

Fighting the urge to throttle him, I kept walking until I caught up beside him. Slipping both hands into my pockets, I nodded politely, all while wanting to murder him. “Mr. Grammer.”

He slung his messenger bag up higher, matching my pace toward the beach and helipad. “Wow, man. Fuck, I had no idea.” He wiped his mouth, letting his head loll back in memory of the fuck-fest he enjoyed at my expense. “You’re a god. Truly. I thought you were some smug bastard when I first arrived, but after Euphoria?” He waved his arms in dramatic surrender. “You, sir, are a fucking genius.”

My teeth threatened to crack, but I smiled and bowed my head graciously. “I’m glad you approve.”

“Approve?” He whistled under his breath. “Approve doesn’t come close. That girl…Jinx? God, I’ve never felt anything like that. With anyone. She was exactly like you said.” His eyes glazed with memory. “She was gagging for it. She wasn’t shy or ashamed. She basically slurped up everything I gave her and then got on her knees for more.”

I grinned, locking down every inch of violence inside me. On the outside, I was perfect. On the inside, I was chaos. “And how did you find your stamina compared to a goddess high on elixir?”

“Yeah.” He whistled again, low and long. “You were right, that one night is enough. I can’t remember the last time I had so many releases in one go. Maybe when I was sixteen, I could come multiple times, but that was a long time ago.” He chuckled, nudging my shoulder with his. “But with Jinx? I’m glad you don’t give that elixir stuff to the men…I honestly didn’t need it. Seeing how fucking drenched she was? How much she shivered when I touched her? How she came from my voice alone? That’s some serious magic right there.”