Fifth a Fury (Goddess Isles, #5) Read online

  “I love you, Sully.” I snuggled into him, smashing the tension and hugging him close. “I love you with everything that I am.”

  His arms snapped around me. Shackles and sonnets. Chains and confessions. He squeezed me as if I could become a part of him. He shuddered as I hugged him back, inhaling his scent, imprinting him, not just on my heart, but on my forever.

  The hum that never failed to spark between us struck a smouldering match. Our linked souls sank deeper into their connection. We were joined, knotted and tangled.

  For always.

  “Sully...” I kissed the shell of his ear, struggling to breathe because he held me so tight. “Whatever you’re afraid of...tell me.”

  He quivered in my embrace, a tumbling growl echoing in his chest. “I’m not afraid.”

  “Then why—”

  “I’m grateful. So fucking grateful that I found you.”

  “I’m grateful too. I’m so thankful that you survived, and that you came, and that we can go home now, and—”

  He kissed me, deeply, thoroughly.

  The flat of his tongue massaged mine. His teeth scraped my bottom lip. His lust swept down my throat with a different taste of before. It wasn’t just lust he kissed with...it was sharper than that, scarier than that.

  It’s goodbye.

  Ripping away from him, I struggled in his arms. “What’s going on?” Narrowing my gaze at the painkillers still clenched in his fist, I added, “If you’re in such pain, let me get help. Let me—”

  “I hope you can forgive me...one day.”

  “Forgive you? Why would I have to forgive you?”

  He cupped my breast again, pinching my nipple and activating the faded thirst of elixir. My thoughts scattered; my worry evaporated.

  “I need you, Eleanor.” His grunt set fire to the liquid between my legs, ensuring I needed him just as much. No, I need him more. I needed him because he was scaring me, because he was hiding something.

  He wasn’t allowed to do that.

  There was no space for fibs or fakery.

  Not after everything we’d fought to overcome.

  “Sully...please, tell me what you’re hiding. How do I fix this?”

  “By letting me have you.” His mouth once again claimed mine. Swift kisses and violent hunger. Snatching me from the bed, he dragged me from the blanket and onto his lap.

  He groaned, and I moaned as our skin slid against each other, his chilly from sitting with no protection and mine toasty from the blanket. His erection nudged my belly as he gathered me close and spread my legs, wedging them on either side of him.

  He kissed me harder, all while the pings and bouncing chaos of pills as they fell to the floor became background noise. Both his hands swept through my hair, cradling the back of my head as he deepened our kiss.

  He kissed me until my mind swam and my heart curtsied, and I was a melted, molten puddle in his lap.

  He grunted as I rocked my hips, the natural need to mate overshadowing the skill of conversation. The heat of his stitched thigh pressed against my ass, and I froze. “I’m sorry.”

  He gritted his teeth as I tried to slip off his lap. “Don’t.”

  “But I’m hurting you.”

  “You’ll hurt me more if you deny me.” Grabbing my thighs, he spread them wider. Running his powerful hands down my legs, he locked them into position behind him, linking my ankles together as if binding us together. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “But you’re hurt—”

  His mouth plundered mine.

  His hands grabbed fistfuls of my hair, and he kissed me as if he’d been kissing me his whole life. Savage and smooth, sinful and sensual. His tongue licked me and made love to me and fucked me with every debased, divine way possible.

  I met his invasion with my own tongue, lapping at him, dancing, knotting everything that we were.

  The chill coating his skin vanished, leaving his body unbearably hot. I held onto his shoulders and let him kiss me. Sweat broke through his pores as another grunt of sheer agony rumbled in his chest.

  I tried to pull away, to get off him and go for help, but he wrapped his arms around me, keeping me prisoner, ignoring my denial.

  Our mouths slipped free as he buried his face into my cleavage, panting hard, steam almost rising from him in a mix of pain and need. “Let me have you, Eleanor. I’m begging you.”

  His hands spasms around me. Another low growl of discomfort made me mad. “But I’m hurting you—”

  “You could never hurt me.”

  “My weight on your leg—”

  “This is the only position I can have you.”

  “You’re in pain from the helicopter—”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I care.” I tried to push him away, my hands colliding with the brick wall of his very male chest. “I refuse to hurt you when—”

  “You’re hurting me more than I can stand by saying no.”

  “I’m not saying no. I’m saying you can have me in a few days...when you’re feeling—”

  “I need you now. I can’t wait.”

  “Why? Why can’t you wait?” I ran my hands through his damp hair. “You need to rest.”

  “Rest?” He snorted. “I can rest later.” He shoved my hands away. His temper appeared, fierce and flashing over his gorgeous face. “And I’ll tell you why I can’t wait. I watched my brother fly away with you. I arrived to you fighting him off. I came face to face with almost losing you, and it made me realise so many fucking things.” His nostrils flared. “I love you more than anything, and I’ve caused you the worst kind of pain. Multiple times over. I look at you, and I can’t stop seeing everything that I’ve done. Every hurt I’ve caused. Every drop of blood I’ve spilled. And I—”

  I kissed him.

  I shut him up as his chest seized and the thunder of his heart stuttered strangely.

  I kissed him because I didn’t want to hear the aggressive torture in his tone, but his heart once again thrashed behind his ribcage and jolted his whole body.

  I went to pull away, pressing my fingertips to the out-of-sync drumming of his pulse, but he dragged me close. So close. Too close.

  He inhaled me, devoured me.

  He dropped his hand between my legs and rubbed my clit with every electrical fire we shared. “Is elixir still in your blood?”

  I moaned as he pinched my clit, activating a million sparks. Didn’t he know he was my elixir? I didn’t need a vial of lust when he was the creator. “Faint...if any.”

  “The sedative kept your heart from giving out.” He tested my wetness, dipping the tip of his finger inside me, making me clench and shudder. “I’m glad it worked.”

  “You knocked me out?”

  “I wasn’t in the position to fuck you at the time.” One long finger dipped inside me, frustrating and provoking. “I couldn’t allow you to be in such pain. After last time...Christ, Eleanor, I would’ve done whatever it took to protect you.”

  His heart continued to thrum oddly, distracting me. “Sully...please talk to me. What’s going on—”

  “Stop.” His forehead pressed to mine. His glowing gaze so close, his face twisted with ardent need. “Don’t question me. Don’t stop me. Just...let me have you before...”

  I frowned, hearing a phantom sentence that wasn’t verbalized.

  Let me have you before ...before we go home? ...while it’s still dark?

  Horror made me shiver.

  Let me have you before ...I can’t.

  My eyes flared.

  Pain cracked my ribs.

  Fear made me snappish. “Sully, stop this. Right now. Whatever you’re not telling me—”

  “Hush.” He ducked his head again, breaking eye contact to deliberately keep his secrets. His mouth found my nipple, sucking my breast deep into his mouth. “Be mine...just for a little longer.”

  His voice vibrated along my sensitive skin. His plea doused the terror in my blood. All while his heart continued to
pound, strong if not regular, possessive if not normal.

  He came for you.

  He’s asking for one thing.

  Give it to him.

  His teeth teased my nipple. His nose pressed against my soft flesh. His fingers found my pussy again, driving two deep inside me.

  I wasn’t immune to him, no matter my worries. He’d always had the power to command my body without elixir deleting my proprieties. We had undying magic, a potion and alchemy that switched rationality into insanity.

  “Eleanor...give in.” He licked and nipped at my cleavage, inhaling hard before capturing my other nipple.

  I gave up.

  I gave in.

  I crumpled in his arms, totally at his mercy.

  He felt my acquiescence straight away, gathering me tight and suckling hard on my breast. He laved and bit, tugging on invisible strings connected to my heart and core.

  He’d been given my permission.

  But he remembered he wasn’t a gentleman who needed submission but a monster who took what he wanted, and he switched from sensual to primal, pulling deeper on my nipple, sucking blood to the tip, making my pussy clench with hunger.

  I bowed in his arms.

  He was killing me.

  Killing us.

  “I love you so much, Eleanor, so fucking much. I need you to remember that. Remember me.”

  I stayed quiet.

  I choked on my tears.

  I allowed my awful suspicions to sweep me into pain all while he granted me pleasure.

  He didn’t have the strength for this.

  I wouldn’t survive whatever waited for us at the end.

  But I wouldn’t stop him.

  He wanted me.

  He would have me.

  Always.

  Three of his fingers speared inside me.

  “Oh, God.” I clung to his head, all while his teeth sank into my shoulder and his chest thudded with peculiar beats. He held me as if he used up every remaining bit of strength to stay with me. His fingers bruised me. His lust scorched me. He drove his fingers deeper, stretching me, corrupting me, making me ready to fuck.

  His thumb pressed against my clit, conjuring an unwilling release, proving once again he was the maestro and I was his silly conquest, a sheep bowing to the wolf.

  I didn’t let the orgasm shatter me. Not yet. I was afraid of it. Afraid of what it represented and the end it promised to deliver.

  “Sit on me.” His fingers withdrew, and his cock replaced them. His hands clamped onto my hips, pushing me down, down, down his impressive girth.

  My lips parted on a silent scream.

  His groan echoed in the silent room.

  Our bodies rejected the pressure, overwhelmed with the suddenness, the sweetness, the savageness.

  I shuddered as he plunged inside me, filling every space, spreading me to take more. No one else had ever made me feel this consumed, this taken, this owned.

  He owned me.

  And it hurt because I didn’t think I had that same right. Whatever ownership I’d had over him was fading, and I couldn’t stop it.

  Couldn’t stop missing him even as he filled me. Couldn’t stop worrying that this was all I’d ever have.

  I clung to him as we sank into each other. Only once we were sheathed tight and together did he look up.

  And my heart fucking shattered.

  His blue eyes sparkled with wetness.

  A wetness that glittered with diamonds as he pushed me up and pulled me back down. Smearing my lubrication over him, reacquainting my body with his hard possession.

  His jaw clenched as he felt my every ridge and ripple.

  His hips drove upward, followed by a full-body spasm and heavy groan. His heart went haywire, shaking his body with peculiar pulses.

  “Sully!” I tried to climb off him.

  His lips pulled back in a snarl. “Don’t. You’re mine. I’m having you.” He shook his head as if struggling to stay coherent. Pain chiselled his face until each stark angle looked like blades. He coughed, his voice less violent than before. “Move for me...please.”

  Such a profound perforating request.

  “Move. Fuck me, Jinx.” He kissed me, our eyes wide open and so close. Understanding rife between us but words too afraid to make it true.

  It’s not my heart in trouble this time...it’s his.

  No...

  His hips rose again, making him tremble and almost black out.

  “Stop.” Suffocating on silent sobs, I placed my hands on his scorching shoulders and pushed away. “Please, stop.”

  “I can’t.” He gathered me closer and sighed heavily, his messy bronze-tipped hair sticking to his sweaty forehead. His head tipped as he looked at where we joined. He bit his bottom lip as he watched the graphic impalement of his flesh within mine. “Make love to me, Eleanor.”

  Tears rained down my cheeks as I followed his stare and looked at where we were linked.

  I witnessed the raw and fundamentally basic connection between lovers.

  The glisten of me and the steel of him.

  And I did what he requested.

  I moved.

  I didn’t have the strength not to.

  We never looked away from our joining. Of the heavy veins of his erection as I slid up, and the spreading of my folds as I sank low.

  It was hypnotic, entrancing—doing its best to trick us that this was ordinary sex between ordinary people when really...it was rife with unsaid, unmentionable things.

  His hands caressed my breasts as I settled on a rhythm.

  Deep and drawing, a rocking that confirmed ownership over each other.

  We lost ourselves to the beat. Our lips sought each other’s, and we kissed and fucked and made love and promised and vowed and fought every farewell and miserable goodbye.

  The bed creaked as my pace grew faster.

  His breath scalded my cheek as his nostrils flared, kissing me deeper.

  Our tongues tangled and our hands touched and worshipped, memorizing every scar and imperfection, cataloguing it all because we were perfection.

  Together, we were exactly what we were meant to be. Precisely who we were meant to find.

  I sank deep, hitting the top of him with the top of me.

  He quaked and tore his mouth from mine. “Jesus Christ.” His arms wrapped tight around me, holding on or holding me close—I couldn’t distinguish anymore.

  I rode him and climbed the mountain of a climax that promised suffering instead of ecstasy.

  He rocked me faster.

  I fucked him quicker.

  We clawed and thrust, gasping and begging for reprieve.

  I closed my eyes and memorized what it felt like to have his body inside mine. The hardness, the heat. I savoured every touch and tingle. I swooped up and sank down, over and over, taking him, riding him.

  I loved his mind, his soul, and his body. I loved the feeling of tenderness and threats in his arms. I treasured the sensation of his thirst for me and the swelling of his pleasure.

  But most of all, I loved the way his love was a tangible, touchable thing. It glowed in his eyes, it scalded his skin, it set fire to the room with commitment and calamity.

  I rode him harder, punishing both of us.

  His entire body trembled, his heart continued to flounder, and his groans of need welded with his grunts of misery, finally punctured with a howl that made my tears turn inward and flood me.

  Sullivan Sinclair reached his pinnacle and let go. His cock spurted inside me. Wave after wave as if his body knew it only had one last chance to come. His back rolled, his arms spasmed around me, and his teeth found my throat as I chased him.

  My release focused more in my heart than in my core—a transmuted, diseased orgasm that offered no release, only a series of rapid clenching and palpitations.

  It was the worst release of my life because it wasn’t a release...it was a cruel incarceration into whatever was about to happen next.

  We clung to
each other as the pulses of our shared climax faded.

  Only once we could breathe again did I pull away from Sully, slip my leg over his lap, and disconnect us.

  He winced as I disengaged and sat beside him.

  I did my best to keep my stare off his mottled injuries, the black stitches in his leg or the new bumps that he refused to acknowledge.

  This wasn’t the time to bring up my fears.

  It wasn’t my place to get angry with him when he had no energy to fight back.

  But...

  We had no more time.

  And it was my right to worry.

  I’d done what he’d asked...now it’s my turn.

  With his seed trickling out of me, I wrapped the blanket and my temper around my shoulders and prepared for war. I allowed my suspicions to whisper truth in my ears. I stopped being blind. I let logic reveal everything he’d hidden.

  He thought I wouldn’t guess? That I wouldn’t remember?

  Stupid man.

  Stupid, idiotic man.

  “You’re on borrowed time because of that injection Dr Campbell gave you...in the cage back on your island, aren’t you? Your heart is beating abnormally. You’re struggling to catch a proper breath. You wanted me, not because you needed affirmation that I’m okay after what Drake did, but because you’re afraid you’re about to pay for whatever you injected.”

  For the longest moment, he didn’t reply.

  Silence turned thick and tormenting.

  “Answer me, Sully.” I crossed my arms, unable to stop shaking. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  His shoulders tensed, and he dropped his head into one hand. And then the faintest laughter shook him. “And that’s what I get for falling in love with someone vastly more intelligent than myself.” He looked up, dropping his hand and wincing again as he tried to shift his weight. “Your quick thinking would scare me if I had the chance to marry you as I’d hoped. I would never get away with anything.”

  “You can still marry me.”

  “You’re smarter than lies, Eleanor.” He smiled sadly. “And yes, you’re right...it’s Tritec that’s killing me.”

  Killing...?

  I winced. “But...he said it would kill you in a few days if it was going to. It’s been more than a few...” I stopped myself, cursing him for the shadows filling his face. “Goddamn you, Sullivan.”