been terrified of it being over because I already knew what would happen.
Cal is right.
Sully would never permit me to stay after what I’d done.
I’d just signed my own bill of sale by going behind his back and forcing a connection when he didn’t want one.
But he was familiar!
You recognised his body.
It was him in Euphoria.
It had to be.
I shook my head as Cal grabbed his cell phone and called for a doctor. My thoughts were in shreds, blended together with doubt and confusion.
I don’t know what to think anymore.
Exhaustion suddenly crushed me, begging me to rest. To close my eyes and forget about this whole sordid day. I needed to sleep, but I didn’t feel safe dropping my guard that much around Sully, even if he was unconscious.
Sleep was a precious thing. The most vulnerable a person could be. Sully slept beside me under false pretences. He’d never have been able to rest around me without elixir draining him of everything.
Unlike him, I’d kept my faculties while sleeping with him.
And now…I’m ready to go.
To lick my wounds in private and pretend the illusion of a door between us could keep me safe from whatever future he’d paved for me.
Cal muttered something and ended his phone conversation. He caught my gaze, arching his chin at the bag he’d deposited by my feet. “Painkillers, healing creams, and vitamins. Take what you need.” His green eyes trailed over my injuries once again. “I suggest you have a bath and put arnica on your bruises. They’re gonna look worse in the morning.”
When I didn’t climb off the bed, he muttered, “Use his bathroom. Heal whatever you can. I’ll take care of him.”
I didn’t want to move while Cal watched my every twitch, but the thought of washing away my sins and popping a few anti-inflammatories overrode the stiffness and soreness, slipping me slowly out of bed.
Refusing to make eye contact with him, I padded across Sully’s bedroom in my birthday suit. A sugar glider had made its home in the rafters, waking up too early for its nocturnal lifestyle. It watched me all the way to the bathroom with its gorgeous moon-size eyes.
Crossing the threshold into Sully’s personal bathroom, I paused for a moment to soak it in. Just like the other bathrooms on this island, part of it was open-air. Unlike the other bathrooms, this didn’t pretend to use any rocks or plants for privacy. A black vanity took up the only real estate against a wall with a simple mirror above it. A toilet hid behind a glass smoky door, and the rest of the space welcomed the waterfall and its pool to be the main form of cleanliness.
The bathtub rested right on the edge of the space, seemingly hung in place above the crystal blue pool, and the shower angled to spray the overflow directly onto the pebble tiled floor, draining and cascading through a carved river.
A stag beetle sipped on the last few droplets still resting in there.
This truly was utopia.
A utopia with a demon in its midst.
Twisting to look behind me, I drank in the sight of Cal as he strode to answer the door for the doctor, marched back to Sully, and crossed his arms while Dr Campbell treated his boss instead of his goddesses.
Cal looked up.
Our eyes locked.
Without a word, I turned and closed the door.
* * * * *
Night had fallen by the time I opened the door and stepped back into Sully’s bedroom.
I’d taken my time.
I’d drawn a warm bath, added generous splashes of some sort of fragrance that made my heart skip in remembrance of Sully, and sank to the depths of the humongous tub.
Resting my chin on the lip of the bath, I’d allowed my mind to drift while staring at the magnificent waterfall. Rainbow droplets fell in perpetuity, tumbling from its tower of rocks, and cartwheeling into brilliant blue below.
With my stillness and silence, creatures appeared from everywhere, going about their business in the undergrowth, the treetops, and in the liquid below.
Fish, herons, mice, a couple of monkeys, flocks of bright birds, and even a Komodo dragon slithered from the dense jungle and slipped, without a ripple, into the pool.
I didn’t know how many were native to Indonesia and how many Sully had brought with him, but all of them seemed perfectly content and at home.
He had a way with animals…pity he didn’t have the same intuition when it came to people.
To me.
If he did, perhaps things would be easy between