Page 37 of A Touch of Chaos

“I’m right here,” he said. “With you.”

She shook her head, her vision blurring with tears.

She knew otherwise.

“Darling,” he said, his voice a low rumble, his fingers in her hair. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. She closed her eyes tight, focusing on the feel of his kiss, warm and heavy.

Real.

When he pulled away, he let his nose drift along hers.

“It was just a dream,” he said, and she opened her eyes again.

“You speak as if you live inside my mind,” she said.

Hades stared at her and frowned, his eyes drifting to her lips, and she was suddenly aware of a keen hunger tightening her stomach.

“What will it take? To prove to you this is real?”

“Nothing you do will convince me,” she said. “Unless you can tell me where you are.”

He was quiet, watching her.

Then he leaned closer, and the air between them felt heavier than his weight on her body.

“Lost,” he answered before his mouth dropped to hers.

His kiss was like a brand that seared her skin. She opened her mouth against his, and his tongue slipped inside.

He tasted different, his mouth devoid of that smoky, sweet edge, but he smelled the same, sharp and earthy, like long shadows cast by firelight. She tried not to think about the change and what it meant.

He pulled away again, but she could still feel the brush of his lips against hers as he spoke. She kept her eyes closed as he whispered, “Live in this moment with me.”

Her resistance melted away, broken by the same plea she had made before. Her mouth collided with his, and her arms went around him, hands pressing into his back, bringing his entire body flush with hers.

As they kissed, Hades moved against her and shelifted her hips, needing to feel him where she ached the most. Each lush stroke coaxed a fire beneath her skin and stole a little more of her breath. By the time he left her mouth, she was ready for him, so aware of how empty she felt.

“Hades.” She breathed his name as his lips trailed along her jaw and down her throat before he buried his face between her breasts, hands gripping. Her fingers sifted through his hair, tightening when his teeth grazed one nipple, then the other through the fabric of her dress.

Finally, he looked up.

His eyes were dark but just as brilliant as they were when he was in his true form. They possessed a fire of their own, a liveliness that only erupted when he was looking ather. She felt as though a void had opened in the pit of her stomach, and somehow, she became even more hollow.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Fuck me as a god,” she said.

“If you wish it,” he said.

“I wish it.”

Hades’s gaze was unwavering as he bent and pulled one of her nipples into his mouth before sitting back on his knees. She did not like the distance, but she liked watching him undress. When he was naked before her and he had dropped his glamour, she sat up and pulled her dress over her head.

His gaze on her bare skin made her feel primal and possessive. It ignited her with a will to dominate. She moved onto her knees, and Hades took her into his arms, lifting her up the incline of his thighs until she was seated against his length.

“Drop your glamour,” he said, “so that I may make love to a goddess.”

From this position, she was elevated slightly above him, and she used that to her advantage, teasing him as she brushed her mouth against his.

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