everything I had not to moan. Not to turn my head and meet his lips with mine.
His nose nuzzled my ear, his breath hot and sinful. “I jerked off to you this morning.” His voice fed confessions into my ear, secret and soft. Jealousy didn’t have a clue, and I didn’t stand a chance.
His hold tightened, burning my scalp where he held me. “I tried to stop myself. I ignored the unbearable ache in my cock.” His teeth slipped threateningly around my lobe, his breath caught, struggling to inhale, just like he’d stolen all the air from me. “I don’t masturbate to a goddess. Ever. Yet…fuck, I couldn’t help myself.”
Biting my ear, he murmured, “Want to know why? Why I fisted myself? Why it only took me seconds to come?”
I shook my head, swallowing and panting, trying to tug away. My mind swam with images of him spread on his bed. Naked. His belly clenched. His fist wrapped around his massive erection.
My bikini briefs became embarrassingly damp.
I struggled harder to get away. I needed distance, but he held me firm, kissing the highly sensitive skin behind my ear. “I couldn’t stop because another man told me that you’re the best he’s ever had. That he’ll never forget fucking you. That he gave you a piece of his heart.”
His voice turned angry and frostbitten. “I got…jealous.” He bit the word into pieces, ripped out its entrails, and threw the rest into a fire. A fire that licked down my neck and over my nipples, scratching deeper into my core.
Throwing me away, he stood to his tall height and wiped his mouth with a shaky hand. He didn’t shake from weakness. He shook from undiluted, raw need.
He infected me with it.
He cursed me with it.
I shuddered as he snatched the box from the table, ripped it open, and tipped something bright and blingy into my lap.
The teal of my dress caught it, spinning rainbows and unblemished glitter.
A diamond.
A huge rock of a gemstone that shimmered with expensive splendour.
I didn’t need to ask if it was real. The brilliance of such a stone couldn’t be fake.
“That’s from the man who fell in love with you three nights ago.” His handsome face twisted with a savage sneer. “First time in Euphoria and you’ve earned a forty-thousand-dollar diamond. Four days until your next serve, Jinx. Let’s see if every man falls in love with you…or if it’s just one.”
With a sadistic, spiteful look, he spun and stalked away.
Only once he’d vanished down his immaculate orchid-frosted pathway did I manage to breathe. To look around. To notice Jealousy had gone. The other goddesses had disappeared.
And I sat all alone, in a wet patch caused by his voice, clutching a diamond worth more than I’d ever earned in my life.
A diamond given in lieu of a man’s heart.
Chapter Seven
A SHRILL RING REACHED into my sleep and clawed apart my dreams.
Not that I dreamt anything good. Just goddesses and diamonds and the endless pain of not taking the girl I wanted.
Another ring and I shot awake.
An echoing sound followed, just as piercing, just as annoying.
My cell phone vibrated across my bedside table, the screen lit up, its noise crashing the serenity.
Reaching for it, I fumbled to accept the call, groaning at the time.
Four a.m.
Another ear-splitting ring ricocheted even though the call had already connected, wrenching my attention behind me. Pika hopped across the spare pillow, screeching his head off, mimicking the ring—or trying to.
Caique parrots weren’t known for their vocalization skills. Their mischief, intelligence, and teenage sense of calamity, yes. But their ability to talk as easily as macaws or other feathered cousins, no. The fact that Pika knew a few words and figured out what context to use them was outstanding in and of itself. However, his imitation of a cell phone definitely wasn’t his forte.
“Sinclair? That you?” A man’s voice popped into my ear as I held the mobile close.
Pika let out another painful screech.
I lunged across the pillows, trying to grab his beak to shut him up. He just eyed me with rascal impishness and fluttered into the rafters.
Silence reigned again as I settled back on my bed, rubbing my eyes from haze. “Yeah, Sinclair speaking. Who’s this?”
“It’s Peter Beck, sir.”
“Peter.” I sat up, instantly alert. “Why are you calling me at four in the morning?” The darkness of my villa suddenly seemed full of threats. The heavy stillness of the tropical jungle oppressive outside. The ceiling fan above sent licks of cooler air, ensuring