Page 88 of Queen of the Underworld

His love.

Rather than leaving and shattering the moment, she leaned on the balcony, her fall of scarlet hair tumbling over her shoulders to hang before her arms.

The temptation to teleport to her and speak with her, to coax her into accepting another kiss was near overwhelming. Hades resisted it, slowly crushing the need, but it was strong. Consuming. He glanced at the ground and then back at her, not daring to believe she might burn with the same tormenting need that he felt. Her blushes last night were more likely to be born of shame rather than desire.

She had run from him after all.

When given the chance, she had fled.

His thoughts trod that dark path, taking him deeper into it until cold swept through him, the warmth of Persephone lost on him as doubts clouded his mind. Those doubts blotted out the affection Persephone had shown him, pulling him away from the truth and bending reality towards a colder, darker place, easily defeating him. Was he doomed to be alone for all eternity? Surrounded by many, but feeling as if he was the only one in this vast, dark realm?

Hades lowered his gaze to the black earth and stared at it, feeling as if his own shadows were swirling through him, slowly blotting out the light to plunge his soul into darkness.

And then a delicate green bud broke the surface of the dirt and blossomed into a bright red rose.

And by the gods, he should be furious that she had somehow found a connection to her power, but instead he stared at the flower, deeply aware that she had made it for him. It wasn’t an attempt to escape, just as her foolish failed run towards the gate to Olympus yesterday hadn’t been one.

That had been an attempt to protect him, something which was as foreign and strange to him as what she was doing now, with this flower.

The rose was an attempt to show him that he wasn’t alone, even when he felt he was, and it touched him.

Hades looked up at her and the ache to be close to her, to feel her soft curves pressing against his again, was too strong. He didn’t want to be alone. Not anymore. She had made him see just how lonely he had been, and he couldn’t go back to that life. He couldn’t live without her.

He needed her.

He teleported to her, ripping a gasp from her as he appeared behind her and she whirled to face him. He swept her into his arms, hauling her against him, and backed her into the stone frame of the door, his heart racing and fire surging through his veins. He ached to kiss her as she gazed up at him through bewitching green eyes, to know the taste of her again, but fought it.

She didn’t.

She punched her fingers into his black hair, pulled him down to her and claimed his lips.

His eyes widened as she slanted her mouth over his, her kiss bold and electrifying, shaking him to his foundations. A desperate little gasp escaped her as she tugged him closer, her kiss growing fevered and wild.

And then when he began to kiss her back, she planted her hands to his chest and shoved him back to arm’s length.

And shook her head.

Hades growled at her, rage burning up his blood to replace the desire she had roused, fury that she had reined in her passion just as his had claimed hold of him, stirring his body into a frenzy of need. He wouldn’t have it. He bent his head and tried to kiss her again, but she locked her elbows and braced her hands against his chest, stopping his attempt. He didn’t miss how her eyes darkened as she palmed his pectorals, or how his body burned to know the feel of her hands on his bare skin rather than his black leather shirt.

When he had ditched his armour during his visit to Tartarus, he had thought it a mistake to obey his need to remove the restrictive metal pieces and render himself vulnerable in order to feel he could breathe again.

Now, he was glad he had removed them.

Her eyes tried to fall to his chest as her small hands remained planted against it and a blush climbed her cheeks.

She liked the feel of his body.

If she asked it of him, he would let her explore it at her leisure. She could do as she wished with him.

Hades barely leashed the urge to say those things aloud, the side of him that wasn’t addled by her touch and her kiss holding his tongue. Courting her required a more delicate approach. If he tried to goad her into admitting she wanted him as fiercely as he wanted her, she would clam up again and bolt, and he would lose all the progress he had made towards winning her heart.

So rather than kissing her or convincing her to unlace his shirt, he murmured, “How did you produce a bloom in this realm?”

Her face pinched. “Because you sealed my powers?”

He shrugged, refusing to apologise for taking precautions.

Her features relaxed and then turned pensive. “I do not know. I saw you there… and you… and well, I… and then it just happened.”

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