Hitting the enter button, I dug my elbows into the desk. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I tried to squeeze out the headache I’d had since draining my system dry thanks to elixir. My lungs still felt odd from inhaling so much water. I overall needed a reboot from the shit in my system.
I meant to email Peter Beck and his team of scientists to potentially scale back its potency. It was never meant to be a date rape drug on steroids. More like better stimulation than Viagra. To make the user beg to be fucked but not be so out of their mind they’d literally choose death if it meant the nightmare could be over.
I’d almost drowned thanks to its obsession.
If Jinx hadn’t pulled me from the bottom of Nirvana, I would be dead, and she’d be free.
And what had I done?
Stuck my cock inside her the moment I could breathe again.
Goddammit.
Raking both hands through my hair, I peeked at my overcrowded inbox. One a.m. and I’d done my best to clear new bookings for guest stays, read complicated in-depth text on another scientific recipe Beck wanted to try, and go over invoices for the copious amount of animal feed I brought in each week for Serigala.
The words blurred.
I’d done my best to stay busy, so I didn’t find myself at Jinx’s door, ignoring the fact that she was sore, I was sore, and stuffing my body back inside hers before we were fully healed was not recommended.
But I’d gone past sex and become delirious with exhaustion.
Pika zipped into my office, his black eyes beady with temper.
The second he landed on my keyboard, he stomped around like the mini dictator he was, cawing and carrying on like a madman. “Sleep. Tired, Pika!”
I groaned, scratching at my longer chin-stubble from not trimming for a few days. “Came to get me, huh? Don’t like sleeping alone?”
He puffed up, eyeing the letter Z and launching at it with his sharp beak.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Picking him up like a fuzzy tennis ball, I kept him cupped in my hand, letting him grumble and growl. “Fine. I’m tired too. We’ll go.”
With my free hand, I went to turn off my laptop.
A reply arrived from my goddess request.
Huh, that’s strange.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Three staff required
Your email has bounced due to an incorrect address.
Please check and try again.
First, they advised their operation was on hold.
Now, their address was no longer operational?
Chills darted down my spine.
Either they’d had a complete change of ethics…or they’d been caught. By the police? By a disgruntled client?
Either way, my encrypted internet would protect my location, but I wouldn’t take any chances.
Doing a search on their email address, I deleted every single trace of communication.
My supermarket of endless goddesses had seemingly shut down.
Now, where would I hunt?
Chapter Fifteen
FOR THE FIRST TIME since arriving, I ate breakfast in a different location to the room-delivered feast on my deck.
As dawn sent eager fingers of light through the sky, I gave up the pretence of sleep and headed for a long shower. I shared the cascading water with two frogs, courting each other on the rocks, catching doomed flies and the odd mosquito with their sticky tongues.
While I shampooed and conditioned, I did my best not to think about Sully. To wonder what he did last night. To try to find him this morning and spend more time with him.
Simple time.
I wanted simple.
I wanted to be two people talking about mundane, normal things…if that’s even possible.
After I rinsed, I stepped from the shower and turned my back on my reflection. I flatly ignored the purple slashes on my throat from a scarf pulled far too tight, and I didn’t bother drying my hair, preferring to leave it loose and long, draped down the back of a simple cotton maxi dress.
No jewellery, no make-up, just me.
Vulnerable but also strong.
Naïve to have fallen for a man I should despise but willing to accept the consequences. Brave enough to embrace the war wounds of disgruntled goddesses to move forward with my life.
The island had a hush about it as I stepped from my villa and padded barefoot toward the Divinity building. The wariness of another attack kept me on my toes as I peered suspiciously into bushes and flinched when Skittles arrived from the golden sky, chirping in welcome and landing weightlessly on my shoulder.
Her presence might be minuscule, but knowing I had a friend who had my back made my steps stride bolder and my skittishness fade. The girls who’d tried to kill me had been released…I hope.
Sully had said he would, and I didn’t see him as a man to break a promise.
I’m safe.
I rolled my eyes as I left the pathway and climbed the decking covered steps of Divinity.
Safe?
How strange that I considered myself safe when women had been kicked off the island—the very same island where men came to fuck drugged goddesses. Not only had my morals leaped off a cliff of comprehension, but it seemed my concept of health and safety had too.