Page 55 of Tempted By Hades

Looking up, she stared into the deep pools of his onyx eyes, searching them. He gazed down at her, expression filled with lust and hunger.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting for this my entire life,” she whispered. “Make love to me, please.”

“Persephone, I—” Suddenly, he froze, his body seizing as he lay between her thighs. His expression fell, and the light drained from his eyes.

Something was wrong. “Hades?” She gripped his forearms. “What’s the matter?”

He sucked in a breath. “I’m sorry. I cannot.”

His words were like a bucket of ice thrown over her. “What?”

“Please…” He rolled off her, then sat at the edge of the bed, face in his hands. “This isn’t…we can’t…”

What was he saying? She lay there, unable to move as her body went numb.

“This isn’t right…I’m sorry.” He didn’t even bother to look back at her. “Forgive me…”

The mattress shifted under her, indicating his weight was gone.

He had disappeared.

Transported himself out of the room.

Away from her.

As the numbness seeped out of her, she curled onto her side, into a tight ball.

He left.

She should be sad. She should cry. She should blame herself, for being so inexperienced and naive. He probably didn’t want her. Or he just wanted a fuck, but changed his mind.

But no, she wasn’t sad.

She was too fucking angry to be sad.

Scrambling off the bed, she retrieved her panties, pulling them on as she righted the rest of her clothing. Walking over to the mirror by the bed, she checked her face and hair—not too bad. She wasn’t wearing any lipstick to smudge and her hair was a little mussed. She straightened it out the best she could with her fingers as she looked at the reflection straight in the eyes.

Never again.

She was not going to let that vlaca do this to her again, string her along and then bail out at the last minute.

I probably dodged a bullet.

She had no idea what his deal was—did he get his rocks off teasing women, thinking they had a chance with him, then enjoyed dropping them at the last moment? Or maybe she was right about Minthe all this time, and he was just enjoying Persephone’s attention. Glancing back at the bed, her skin crawled, thinking of the Naiad there with him, doing the same things she and Hades had done and probably more.

“Yeow!” Her fingers had caught in a bad clump of tangles, and she’d nearly yanked her hair out of her scalp. Huffing, she turned away from the mirror. She didn’t want to think of him anymore.

Or the fact that she was stuck here for another two and half months.

“I’ll figure it out later,” she said aloud. For now, she would go back to the party and have fun and celebrate all her hard work.

Hades could go fuck himself.

With a determined shrug of her shoulders, she pictured herself back in the center of the courtyard and used her magic to transport herself there.

“Persephone! There you are!” Adonis exclaimed as he rushed over. “Where have you been? Have you seen Geri?”

“I, uh, had to take care of some business with the palace kitchens,” she said quickly. “And what about Geri? Is she missing?”

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