scattered down my spine. I did not want to be here. The memories of these cages. The stories they told. The suffering that’d happened inside them. Some of the bars still held maroon stains of shed blood. Others clutched at tufts of fur like trophies with tight wire hands.
Where did these awful things come from?
Sully wrapped possessive fingers around my nape and marched me forward.
I shuddered from the scalding, sinning electricity that ricocheted from him to me.
It didn’t matter that we caused a blend of heightened energy whenever we touched. It didn’t matter that my heart went from worried to winging.
Everything about our connection was chaotic, including the absurdity that my core clenched from being held so primitively.
I’d read that humans had evolved from animals so long ago that we could no longer be classified as beasts. However, the instinct whenever a male clasped the nape of its lover triggered a feral response. An impulse to cower and obey. To submit entirely.
I fought against that instinct as Sully pushed me toward one of the large cages. Without a word, he threw me inside and slammed the metal door shut. With a padlock from his pocket, he locked me in.
My bare feet bruised from the wire beneath them. Claustrophobia rose, seeking desperately for a way out.
My breathing turned shallow, but I forced myself to stand there. To lock gazes with the man who’d just proven his point extremely eloquently.
His island might be a trap, but he granted our every whim.
This was true captivity.
A cage that I could barely stand up in. A box that wouldn’t allow me to lie down, nor held any comfort or kindness.
A true emblem of imprisonment.
For the longest moment, Sully stood on the other side of my cage. His jaw clenched and hands shook. He looked conflicted with regret but also cruel with resignation.
I wished I knew how to speak to his regret. To know the right things to say—to entreat to the part of him that did care. The man who held an otter with such sweet affection and who kissed a parrot on his head.
But for all my belief that I’d begun to understand him, I’d only made it worse.
Please think of me as an animal, so you’ll like me.
Ugh!
What a ridiculous thing to say.
I drowned in embarrassment, flushing with heat.
Shaking his head, dispelling the same pain I’d seen in him when Skittles had landed on my shoulder, he raked a hand through his hair and straightened his spine.
Holding out his hand, he ordered, “Give me your robe.”
I backed up until my shoulder blades clanged against the bars behind me. “Please…can’t I keep it?” I looked around at the bareness. The island temperatures ensured it remained warm, even in this horrific place, but the historic screams of the cage’s prior inhabitants turned the air icy.
I didn’t know how long he intended to keep me in here, but I didn’t want to be naked. I didn’t want to be so…vulnerable.
“Robe, Jinx. I won’t ask again.” His hand remained steady by the bars, waiting for me to obey.
I’d never been very rebellious as a child, but the inner brat inside me wanted to throw a tantrum. To rattle the bars. To bounce in the box. To scream and refuse. To turn as wild as this cage said I was.
But…decorum was my final threshold. Everything else had been stripped from me.
With a tattered breath and feeble rise of my chin, I undid the belt and slipped the softness off my shoulders. I winced as the wire beneath my toes hurt, moving toward him to press the only thing I had into his awaiting hand.
The moment it filled his palm, he yanked it through the bars and tossed it on the floor. Silently, he stalked to the back of the villa where yet more cages rested. Some long, some skinny, some rusted beyond use, and others scarily new.
He returned with a tray and a stool.
Every footfall of his expensive shoes echoed in the depressing place, bringing him back to me. I wrapped my arms around my breasts as he slammed the stool in front of my cage then unlocked the door and placed the tray at my feet.
Stepping out, he slid the padlock back into position before unbuttoning his blazer and sitting majestically on the stool. Legs spread with arrogance. Power dripping from his perfectionism. His beauty once again a monstrous sin.
He kept revealing parts of himself, keeping me walking a tightrope of hope and despair. One moment, I