me, licked me once with its sandpaper tongue, then continued to purr thanks to Sully’s petting.
“All this...” My voice scratched with lust. I cleared my throat, adding, “This fantasy: the animals, the jungle, even the treehouse, it’s all similar to Tarzan...apart from one thing.”
“Oh, and what’s that?” Sully asked smoothly.
“A gorilla. You’re missing a—”
A branch snapping whirled me around just as a silver and black monkey appeared from the shadowy leaves all around us.
A damn gorilla.
I laughed under my breath as the primate dropped from the trees and thudded against the deck. The jaguar didn’t flinch or try to kill it. Its eyes closed in utmost contentment beside Sully.
The gorilla blinked at me, its long eyelashes catching the sunlight and its silvery black hair so fine and soft. A female. Not fully grown, inquisitive and sweet, studying me as curiously as I studied her.
How did Sully do it?
How did he conjure a creature just from code?
How did he get every nuance of her movements and every filament of her hair so perfect?
I locked my knees as the gorilla reached for my necklaces, her black hands heavily padded for jungle climbing and thick with power. The beads and shells clacked as she tugged one of the cords.
I removed it and handed it to her.
She grunted and dropped to her butt, studying her new possession.
Sully stood, leaving his hand on the jaguar’s head. “You’re going to ask if I summoned that gorilla, aren’t you?” He smirked. “That I elaborated on the Tarzan theme and deliberately cyphered her to prove you’re correct. That I have a thing for a childhood storybook.”
I padded toward him, awed by the two animals just happily hanging out with us. “You have to admit, it’s rather coincidental.”
“Or the fantasy felt what you were thinking and delivered.”
“Can a computer program do that?”
Sully shrugged, his naked chest once again distracting me with his chiselled strength. “Programs evolve. There are updates and new editions.”
“So, yes or no?” I rested my palm over his heart. He shuddered at our connection, hissing between his teeth as electricity fired between us.
“I don’t know.” His tongue ran over his bottom lip. “Along with the creatures I created previously, I tweaked a line of code to create animals known to be found in jungles. I didn’t state what animals. I just let the program decide.” Grabbing my wrist, he jerked me closer.
It was my turn to hiss as his body pressed against mine. Hot and slightly tacky with sweat and hard in all the right places. “Think of another animal, Jinx. Let’s see if you have the ability to summon an aardvark or a buffalo.”
My mind went blank as he tipped my chin up with his knuckle, holding me still as he looked deep into my eyes. “You know I love you more than any other person, before or since. You know that I always will, but I don’t think you fully understand why I fell in love with you in the first place.”
I swayed in his control, my breasts growing heavy and a trickle of want on my inner thigh. “Why?” My question was a gentle puff of air as the jaguar stood, stretched, and leapt off the deck, vanishing stealthy and sleek into the trees.
“I fell for you because of Skittles.” His lips pressed against mine. He kissed me slow and deep, distracting me, corrupting me. I clung to him, opening wider, permitting him to guide me wherever he wanted.
Pulling away, I asked breathlessly. “Skittles?”
“She showed me who you were beneath the beauty, the fight, the goddess I’d purchased. Because of her trust in you—when she’d never trusted anyone—I knew without a shadow of a doubt that you were good. Kind. The exact opposite of what I’d become.” He kissed me again, his tongue slipping past my lips and completely stealing me from conversation.
The deck shuddered as the gorilla followed the jaguar and abandoned us to our lust. Sully backed me toward the railing where vines dangled like living ribbons.
With our tongues dancing and bodies burning for more, he pressed me against the balustrade. One hand remained on my waist, kneading me, pulling my hips into his, but the other let me go, the slight breeze of air hinting he did something I couldn’t see.
Breathing hard, I nipped his bottom lip, needing to know.
His eyes glowed sapphires as he wrapped a vine around my wrist, trapping me.
The moment he’d tied me, he stepped back and raked his hands through his hair. “You did say