Page 13 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

“It’s good to see you again, Persephone,” Leuce greets me in her smooth voice.

“You too. And, please, call me Annie.”

Leuce gives me a curious smile and an even more curious shake of her head. I can’t tell if she’s laughing at me or refusing to call me by my preferred name.

“This way.” With a hand on the small of my back, she guides me from the entrance toward a wall I hadn’t noticed the night before. It opens into an elevator. I step inside with her before shimmying out from under her touch.

She clearly notices, and I am left explaining shyly, “It’s hot out, and I walked from my apartment.” I cringe. “I’m sweaty.”

Leuce straightens her shoulders, and the result has her braless breasts pushing against her translucent shirt. I’m shocked as I catch a glimpse of dark nipples, and force my burning gaze to the cool floor.

I think she is amused, as a low and breathy sound falls from perfectly painted lips. “Sweat is normal, Persephone. As is admiring a beautiful body.”

Heaven help me.I’m so hot, I think I might melt.

I’m shaking with nerves. Clearly, I don’t know what to do with this confident woman.

“You can look,” she tells me gently. “I will like it.”

I do look at her, meeting her bold gaze. The overwhelming confidence has envy spikinglike a spear inside me. What I would give to be so sure within the skin I wear.

She pushes away from the wall to close the distance between us. As she towers over me, I swear I catch the scent of a crisp mountain breeze. Hear the rustle of leaves on the wind.

With a small shake of my head, I refocus on her face. Watching her as she studies me. She murmurs, “You are going to change everything.”

I have no idea what she means, and am unable to ask as the doors roll open into a private lobby. My steps stutter as she enters the very clearly private space with the same confidence she owns in every move she makes. Noticing that I don’t follow, she pauses to spin on one dagger-like silver heel.

“Come, Persephone. Hades waits.”

Swallowing my nerves, I do as she requests. I follow her into what kind of feels, terrifyingly, like my own damnation.

Hades sitsin front of an easel, perched on a black stool with both feet flat on the floor. There’s a tension in the way that he moves, the brush sweeping blood red paint across a canvas colored in deeper, countless shades of red. The painting isn’t near complete, and yet I get the terrifying sense that the very canvas is oozing blood.

His long, loose waves are pulled into a bun at the back of his head, but more than a couple strands have fallen free. Although he’s wearing black suit pants, he’s shucked his shirt to display a ripple of muscle stacked on muscle.

I got the sense the man was massive the night before, but I hadn’t expected him to bethisbig.

Really, if the man so wished, I’m confident he could crush me like a bug.

“Hades,” Leuce calls after a moment, startling me.

I don’t know how I’d forgotten her presence, but I feel my face turn pink with the realization that she definitely caught me checking out her boss. My potential boss.

Frick, frick, frick.

This day just keeps getting worse. I’m clearly sleep deprived.

Hades’ entire form stiffens. His shoulders and back expand in a way that makes me think he’s inhaled a big breath, before he places the brush into a holder and slides smoothly from the stool. For a man so large, he moves with a kind of lethal grace that feels just a little unnerving.

His eyes find and lock on me, never shifting as he dismisses in his deep voice, “Thank you, Leuce.”

Leuce gives him a small nod, flashing me a knowing smile. I wish I knew what she knew, I think, as she turns on her spiked heels and exits. The doorclicks closed behind her, leaving me entirely alone with Hades. I can’t help my flinch.

He lifts a rag, wiping at the paint that clings to his skin as he takes a step closer. Nerves shoot through my body, spraying buckshot into every corner of me. My body trembles.

One of two things happen when I’m extremely nervous or extremely uncomfortable. I babble or I shut down.

Today, as it would have it, I babble. A lot. “Don’t you think this is a little odd?” I don’t wait for him to reply before my tongue is wagging again. “I’m Persephone and you’re Hades.” I laugh nervously. “That’s just—it’s—well, what are the odds?” Again, I give no pause. “I mean, of course, I know we’re notthePersephone and Hades, because that would just be ludicrous. I’m insane, but notthatinsane.”Oh, God, I’m so not getting this job.“I mean, I obviously know that we’re not them. We aren’t going to?—”

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