Page 11 of Tempted By Hades

Persephone nodded, her mother’s wisdom grounding her. With one last glance at the ancient book, she followed Demeter downstairs. “Is there anything else that needs to be done at the shop, Mother?”

“Just the plants, my dear. Geri’s got a handle on everything else.” Pausing, Demeter took a deep breath. “I’m truly grateful we have her around now. What did we ever do without her?”

Laughing, Persephone said, “Drown in invoices and accounting ledgers?”

Goddesses of numbers, they were not. And while they truly had no need of profits or even money to survive, dealing with the Internal Revenue Service was more daunting than any of Hercules’s trials. Besides, they needed to keep up appearances, as they needed to “disappear” every few decades or so and start somewhere new to prevent anyone from noticing that neither of them aged. They had established this plant shop about five years ago, but previously they had run a quaint bed-and-breakfast in Colorado for nearly thirty years before they sold it and moved away.

“We must do what we can so she stays,” Demeter commented.

“You truly hate accounting that much?”

A grave expression passed across her mother’s face before she turned away and continued walking to the shop. It was fleeting, but Persephone did not miss it, nor the other times she’d seen it whenever their discussion turned to the subject of Geri. Despite their closeness, there were times that Persephone felt she didn’t know Geri at all—which was fair considering the wolf shifter had never disclosed anything about her past to her. Demeter, on the other hand, had to know everything because there was no way she would have allowed Geri into their close-knit circle of two. But, while she was curious, she respected her friend’s privacy and trusted that someday, the shifter would open up to her.

“Who hates accounting?” Adonis asked as they entered the main area of the shop. “Hello, Mother D. Looking fabulous as always.”

“Flatterer.” She received his double air kisses with a laugh. Demeter had always found him amusing and was one of the few people she allowed to be friends with Persephone. “What brings you here today?”

Adonis caressed the long leaf of a snake plant. “Oh, you know, the usual. But I’m more interested in the handsome stranger?—”

“Why don’t we get some coffee?” Persephone interrupted, before sending him a warning look. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t want Demeter to know about Hades just yet. Besides, she didn’t tell her mother about every single customer who came to the shop, so she saw no need to tell her about him.

Thankfully, Adonis seemed to take the hint as he quickly withdrew his hand from the plant. “Sounds fab. Do you want anything, Mother D?”

Persephone’s heart remained stuck in her throat as she waited for her mother’s reaction as she eyed Adonis. Would she question Adonis or Geri about the handsome stranger? Neither would lie to her if directly asked.

“No, I’m good with my tea. In fact, I’ll brew a pot now if you want.” She made a face. “I don’t know how you can stand that sweet, sugary stuff they call coffee nowadays.”

“I’ll have some of that tea,” Geri said as she looped her arm through Demeter’s and began to lead her to the break room in the back. “Can you put the Closed sign up on your way out, P?”

“Sure.”

As soon as Geri and Demeter were gone, Adonis turned to her, one eyebrow raised. “So, what’s the deal, girl? Why don’t you want your mother dear to know about your mysterious customer?”

“He’s not my customer,” she said, defensively. “But, you know how she is. How protective she is of me.”

Adonis tapped a finger to his chin. “That she is. You’d think you were a cloistered nun with the way she was guarding you.” He chuckled. “Or a vestal virgin, though I doubt that last part.”

Persephone’s entire face lit up like a flame. When Adonis’s eyes grew wide as saucers, she tried to laugh it off, but only a choked sound came out.

“No.” His jaw looked ready to unhinge itself from his skull. “Nada. Nuh-uh. No way!” He let out a shriek. “You—a virgin? How?”

While she didn’t think it were possible, her cheeks became even hotter. “Like you said, Mother is very protective.”

Or perhaps protective was an understatement. Now that she thought about it, Demeter seemed to always find excuses or reasons to keep any member of the male sex away from her. There was that time, about six hundred years ago, when they were living in Florence, the scion of a prominent family expressed a desire to court Persephone. The very next day, Demeter declared that they needed to flee Florence as some neighbors had grown suspicious of their presence, though they had only lived in the city for about three decades at that point. They left Europe and ended up in India where they stayed at the court of a famous Rao.

“B-b-but, you’re what? Twenty-four, twenty-five max? How did you manage to not have sex all these years?”

Try a millennia. It was not unheard of to be a virgin, especially from where they came from, though most were literally vestal virgins who devoted their life to a particular goddess, like Athena or Hestia.

“I just…I never thought about it.” She shrugged. “There was always something to do, especially since we started this shop. It’s not like I’ve never done anything.”

A few men had tried, and she had let them get pretty far, but her few encounters rarely progressed past kissing and groping. “I just never found anyone I wanted to have sex with.”

Except maybe?—

“Not yet,” Adonis said, interrupting her thoughts. “But maybe you will soon.” He looped his arm through hers. “Now come on, I need my double chocolate mochaccino with extra whipped cream.” He lowered his voice. “And you can tell me all about your handsome stranger when we get to the coffee shop.”

Persephone laughed. “Alright.”

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