Would the caveman disappear, and I’d wake up in Sully’s arms on his Indonesian Islands? Would I still be his prisoner?
I ran my hands through my hair, pulling on the length, trying to hasten the process. Now I was no longer the elixir’s wanton slave, I blinked with remembrance…and shame.
Scott.
Oh, my God.
Scott.
I’d slept with another man.
No, not just slept.
I’d devoured another man.
We’d explored each other’s bodies to the point where I’d memorised every inch of his erection, his belly, his chest, his face. He’d tasted me, been inside me. He’d claimed me more thoroughly than anyone before him.
And I’d done it willingly.
Gratefully.
Oh, no.
I buried my face into my hands, shaking my head.
What have I done?
Hands snatched my waist, jerking me into a tower of muscle. “Don’t wake up…not yet. I’m not finished with you.” Fisting my wrist, he flung me against the cave wall, smearing my skin with icy water and muddy residue.
I gasped.
I sank under the elixir’s spell again as he grabbed my face and kissed me recklessly, ruthlessly, desperately.
I kissed him back.
My mind flickered with images of Scott, Sully, and this stranger.
I preferred it when my mind was quiet. When my body was master and everything inside was silent. This time, it was hard to shut it off, drowning under rights and wrongs as I burned through the last few drops of elixir.
“Not yet. I don’t want to give you up just yet,” the man snarled into my mouth, hoisting me up until my legs wrapped around his hips. With our eyes locked, he impaled me on him, pinning me against the wall, his forehead knotted and gaze wild.
All softness and gentleness vanished.
He rode into me, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
How horrible that I’d been with this man for hours—that we’d shared a level of intimacy that I’d never known. Yet now that the drug that’d made me pliant had faded, I squirmed to get away. “No…I’m—”
His mouth plundered mine, his hips pistoned faster, he shoved me headfirst into another blistering climax.
“Not yet. Not yet,” he chanted, pressing his forehead to mine as he drove faster, deeper. In a rush of power and speed, he ripped me from the wall and carried me back to the pile of furs, still inside me. There, he dropped to his knees, withdrew for a moment to plant me on all fours before surging back inside me. “Stay mine. Fuck.” He rutted into me, disrupting the visions of my life before this, scattering my shame over Scott.
Silence crushed my worries as I rocked back, mewling with renewed need and spreading my legs for deeper penetration.
His fingers found my clit, rough and unforgiving, ripping yet another lacerating release through my core. My arms gave out, and once again, I found my cheek pressed into fur while my hips stayed high for his use.
I looked back, hypnotised by the way his face scrunched up with fury, driving both of us into agony, bruising me internally and externally, frantic to spend what final time we had together.
And, in a moment of horrifying, mind-crippling yearning, I wished it was Sully.
The second his sculptured, cultured, stunning face entered my thoughts, my body detonated with every stick of dynamite left in the world.
I screamed as wave after agonising wave splintered me apart.
I couldn’t rid myself of Sully’s voice, his scent, and his achingly blue eyes. I climaxed with his name on my tongue, his creation all around me, his punishment within me.
In my haze and floating down from the soul-searing orgasm, I barely noticed when the man jerked and jettisoned inside me. I flinched as he stroked my spine. I mumbled with burnout as he withdrew and laid me gently on the furs beside him.
“Thank you, Jinx. For the best fucking night of my life.”
I curled up tight, no longer wanting to be touched.
He kissed my forehead, smoothing back sweat-tangled hair.
“You’ve captured my heart.” His voice wavered with frustration and fury. “I’m afraid I’ll never get it back.”
I should say something.
I should do something.
But…I’d finally reached my limit.
Elixir let me go.
My eyelids snapped closed.
My body shut down.
And I slept.
Chapter Three
RAKING MY FINGERS THROUGH my hair, I wedged my elbows into the desk.
My eyes hurt from the bright sunshine spilling in through my open driftwood doors. The base of my skull throbbed from dehydration. And the lactic acid in my limbs from last night had stuck around, tormenting me even after a full eight-hour crash.
I never usually slept that long. Normally, I was up with the sun, annoyingly attuned to the lightening world, and unable to ignore the call to work.
Not this morning.
This morning, I had the hangover from hell, thanks to far too much physical activity.
I blinked and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to wrangle my erratic concentration into paying attention to my emails.
Skimming my inbox, I placed the correspondence relating to my lab and questions from my team of scientists into one folder, deleted the junk and propaganda I had no interest in, and went to log off.
A swim would help.
The cool, salty water could wash away the dregs of my pain.
Afterwards, perhaps I wouldn’t feel like shit.
My mouse hovered over the shutdown button. My gaze snagged on a new email that flashed with fresh delivery.
The traffickers.
From: [email protected]
Subject: New Addition
We have received your employment request. However, due to unforeseen complications, we are pausing our recruitment services for a few weeks. We will resume business as soon as possible.
I groaned.
Fuck.
Even the scum of the underworld had sentenced me to suffering. I couldn’t even order a new girl to distract me from Eleanor. Then again, the way my body hurt this morning, the last thing on my mind was sex. Plus, I had an entire island of willing, beautiful goddesses…I could just choose one of them.
Perhaps, Jealousy could be a good alternative? She was the closest thing I had to a female friend in this place. She was honest about her intentions toward me. I had no sixth sense that she said one thing but meant another—unlike I did when Calico came sniffing around. Jealousy had already asked if I could keep her past her four-year contract, regularly helping my day staff in the kitchens and willingly hosting water sports and other guest activities. She’d gone above and beyond just being a goddess in Euphoria.
She’d proven she would be an asset to my team in other ways, not just selling sex. Maybe she’d be an asset in my bed too?
Fuck.
I dug my fingers into my temples, massaging the agony pulsing there. Jealousy was pretty, kind, and honest, but…the idea of keeping her as my own? Of sharing a bed with her?
Nope.
I couldn’t do it.
There wasn’t a…spark.
Not like with…
Shut up.
Don’t think about her.
Sitting straighter in my chair, I threw back a glass of cucumber-iced water that a staff member had brought in an hour earlier then resumed my task of working.