Page 11 of The Trickster's Heart

“I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t have to.” Hermes shrugged. “I know how your cock feels against my tongue, though, and that’s enough for me.”

Hercules blanched. “Are you always like this?”

“Yes.” Hermes answered without hesitation, although something flickered across his eyes that Hercules couldn’t place. Hermes stalled for a second before his face lit up again. “Are you always like this?” He wiggled his staff in Hercules’s direction, as if it were a child’s toy and not an immortal’s weapon. “I don’t know if I’ve seen you smile.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

“Oh, but I can though,” Hermes winked, “as long as you need.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Hercules hissed, storming past Hermes and towards the pool of water at the cavern’s edge. “Can I wash all this god forsaken shit off me now?”

Hercules was feeling overheated; there were too many sensations underneath his skin. For the second time, Hermes’s impish attitude vanished and was replaced with a collected concern.

“Please do.” He kept his tone in check. “You can wash, and there’s a pitcher of water down there. Drink all of it, please.”

“Are you fussing over me now?”

Hermes shrugged. “I won’t have you passing out on me. It’s a long road to the Underworld, and you’re not a god yet, which means we’re walking. For purely selfish motives, yes, I’m fussing.”

Hercules narrowed his eyes at the god. “You aren’t going to make a comment about washing with me?”

Hermes laughed. “Now who’s flirting with whom? No, pet, it’s not fun when you’re not in full form to fight back.”

“Fight? I thought you were talking about flirting.”

“Ha!” Hermes turned on a winged heel and walked towards a separate entrance to the cavern. “A man like you? On a mission to defy the gods and seek some sort of revenge? Fighting, fucking, flirting… Those are all the same to you. Or am I wrong?”

Hercules didn’t respond, and Hermes’s low chuckle echoed off the walls.

“I thought so. Bathe, drink water, clear your mind. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us, and if you think I’m the one messing with your head, I should be the least of your concerns.” Hermes ducked under a low archway and disappeared, leaving Hercules alone.

Hercules grabbed the amphora that Hermes mentioned and walked into the cool water. He let it wash over him in an attempt to clean his mind and body, but some tension remained, especially when he thought about how utterly angelic and fuckable Hermes looked in his god form.

The task of stealing Cerberus now seemed minuscule to the task of surviving a journey to the Underworld next to Hermes—and now, Hercules wanted both.

Which meant he was going to have them.

A few more threads of Hercules’s control snapped.

Fuck it.

6

Hermes waited in the dimly lit hallway, just out of sight of the cavern, waiting for Hercules. He had been shocked to see Hercules waiting for him in Eumolpos’s caves and equally delighted. However, the reality that they were about to be stuck together for the next week, at least, was a sobering one.

Hermes didn’t spend a lot of time with people—he preferred to spend a little time with a lot of people. Crowds were safer for Hermes.

Hermes never wanted to give anyone an opportunity to figure him out. It was much easier when they assumed that he was the trickster, never serious, and always impish and jovial. It was so much easier than the truth; that Hermes was almost unfathomably lonely. It was a truth he avoided as much as he kept it from others.

Always leave them wanting more, right?

Hermes pushed back some of his nervous thoughts as he heard Hercules’s footsteps getting closer. Hercules’s large frame nearly blocked out all the light in the hall as he appeared, walking towards Hermes.

He looked less angry now but still delectable. Hermes was no stranger to attraction, but he didn’t like how strong a reaction the hero pulled out of him.

“I feel like now is a good time to remind you of the buddy system.” Hermes warned by way of introduction. “You can think whatever you’d like of me, but pay heed to this warning. Do you understand?” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Hercules.

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