“A fantasy is a fantasy.” I shrugged as if it made total sense. “How can you fly if you’re stuck on the ground?”
Her forehead furrowed, unable to figure it out.
And she wouldn’t be able to.
Not until she’d experienced the essence of what I’d created.
The transformative power of this place.
She glanced at the bare tiles—sandstone for purchase with no carpets or rugs. “Where’s the bed?” She frowned. “You say this is where people come to…” She trailed off.
I finished for her. “My goddesses and guests come here to fuck. And they have the best experience of their lives.”
“But…” She frowned. “There’s nothing soft about this place.”
“Yet.” Snapping my fingers again, I clasped my hands behind my back as two staff members scuttled in. Two young men who kept their eyes averted from Jinx’s bareness and rushed to open the numerous cupboards bordering the room. Grabbing armfuls of furs, tawny and grey, white and speckled, they ran to us in the centre and tossed the armfuls at our feet.
Another trip and a pile of fur later, they vanished as seamlessly as they’d arrived.
I arched my chin at the scattered sea of furs and raised an eyebrow. “There is your softness.”
They were in keeping with Markus Grammer’s fantasy.
Props as it were.
She nudged a foxy looking pelt with her toe. “Fake, I presume?”
“Of course.” I nodded.
“But why? Why not linen and mattresses and the usual play dungeon that people expect in a whorehouse or club?”
I moved toward her.
She stepped back.
I advanced again, stepping onto the pile of plush fur. My sodden clothes stuck wetly to my overheated flesh.
This time, she didn’t move. Her stomach fluttered with breath, and she balled her hands as I touched her cheek. “Because that’s normality, Eleanor Grace, and I deal in myth.”
She flinched as I ran my thumb over her bottom lip.
Her breath caught.
And I almost broke my control again.
I bled with a need so vicious, I struggled to breathe.
I almost threw her to the floor of hides and fucked her.
But I wasn’t going to throw away everything I’d created. She’d stolen enough from me. She wouldn’t have anymore.
Backing away, I pressed a button on my phone.
A small whirring sound appeared as a fine wire attached to delicate harness descended from the ceiling. Catching it, I allowed one final study of her otherworldly beauty, then growled, “Come here. I’ll show you how Euphoria works.”
Chapter Thirty-One
I HESITATED.
I was off-balance from his kiss. I was confused by the bareness of the room. I was scared of what was about to happen.
“I won’t ask a second time.” His teeth flashed between shapely lips. His five o’clock shadow framed his mouth, narrowing all my attention there.
Against my will.
Against all common-sense.
Pika snuggled into my chin, rubbing me with his little head as a cat would their favourite person. He jolted me from my horrid fixation.
I swallowed hard and moved toward Sully.
Just the two of us.
No one else.
No Jealousy, no staff, no guests.
The aura between us hummed with anticipation. My heart collided with my ribs.
His jaw worked as I stopped in front of him.
He didn’t speak as he undid the small clasp of the harness then wrapped his arms around me, imprisoning the device around my waist. The webbing was soft but fortified. Strong and utterly tamperproof. Buckling it loosely around my hips, he brought two other pieces up and over my shoulders, positioning them between my breasts to cinch into the harness around my middle. With his teeth gritted, he bent and reached between my legs, bringing two remaining thin straps to loop around my inner thighs and attach to the centre buckle.
God.
My skin broke out in goosebumps from his touch. His breathing remained shallow and short as if fighting his own battles by having me so close. I dared look down, swallowing again at the tented arousal of his wet trousers.
I closed my eyes as he tightened the straps, brushing my nipples and pussy with his hands.
Unlike the other day when he pushed me against the boardroom table and threatened to make me wet, he didn’t have to make it a challenge to prove a point.
He’d succeeded in making my body a traitor the second his tongue had touched mine.
And I hated it.
I hated that I stood before him, nude and unprotected, and instead of scratching out his eyes and kicking him in the balls, I obeyed, I swayed, I wanted.
I’d become a horrendous clone of his brainwashed goddesses.
“Open your eyes.”
My eyelashes flashed open. Our gazes connected. I grew dizzy looking into him.
Piercing blue.
Suffocating blue.
Drowning, drowning, dead—
A door to the back of the room slid open. “Sir?” Jealousy stood on the threshold. Nervousness painted her face, but she held her ground. “Would you like me to finish the process?”
Sully looked over his shoulder at her, breaking our stare, allowing me to live again, reincarnating me into yet another traitorous existence. “I’m capable of preparing her.”