Page 32 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

I’m not sure he’s seeing the big picture. Cautiously, I ask, “You aren’t concerned what people will say?”

“About what?”

“Hades,” I say his name, exasperated. “I’m nineteen and you—you are thirty-six!”

He pauses. “How do you know I’m thirty-six?”

“Google.”

He arcs that brow. “YouGoogledme?”

“EveryoneGoogleseveryone,” I huff.

He tips his head, only slightly, in thought. “When did youGoogleme?”

“When you hired me,” I admit, blushing. “I was curious.”

He is quiet for a moment. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

I wet my lips, considering. “Not really.”

“And what was it you were looking for, Persephone?”

I shake my head slowly. “I—I’m not sure.” I snap out of the spell he’s put me under, and say tiredly, “Ican’t go with you, Hades. It will ruin your reputation.”

“How so?”

“I already told you. I’m too young to be your date.”

“You are nineteen, and will soon be twenty. In the eyes of the law, you are legal. How is that too young?”

I tip my head back to the sky, pleading for deliverance. When I look back to Hades, I find a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “You are almost seventeen years older than me.”

“Age is just a number.” I make a noise, and he continues, “All that matters is we are two consenting adults.”

“You’re really willing to risk your whole reputation to avoid a night of women throwing themselves at you?”

“They really are vicious creatures,” he says, but there’s a mocking tease to it that has a reluctant smile pulling at my lips. “Say you will, Persephone.”

“What exactly do you want from this, Hades? For me to simply be a barrier between you and thevicious creatures?”

He laughs, and it is—it affects me. In a way it shouldn’t.

I shift in my seat, waiting.

He replies, “I want them to think that you are mine, and I am yours.”

I feel my lips part. “But…”

“It doesn’t have to be real.” He sighs. “It simply must look real.”

“Look real?”

“As though we are a couple.”

I swallow my shock. “You want me to be your fake girlfriend?”

Darkly, with a touch of ominous amusement, he says, “For now.”

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