Page 37 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

“Wh—” My words falter as he pushes away. I am assaulted by the cold of the AC, my body mourning his heat. His closeness.

I’m little more than a wobbly stand of Jell-O, struck by the way he moves, as though entirely unaffected, to pull two plates from the cupboard. He serves the omelet I cooked, and somehow, we eat as though nothing happened at all.

But before I leave to meet my ride, Hades catches me around the neck to pull me close. He brushes lips seared in flame across my brow. “You are not crazy, Persephone.”

I don’t know why, but as I step into the elevator, my ravaged soul weeps and hot tears spill.

I’ve never been more confused in all my life.

More aroused.

Morelost.

Chapter

Nineteen

Persephone

The sun ishigh in a cloudless, blue sky. Sweat coats my skin, dripping down my spine. I fear my blood is a degree from boiling. Every grain of sand that touches my oversensitive skin feels as though it’s electrically charged.

I’m hot, but I have a feeling it’s not entirely the fault of the sun.

I’ve been bothered since this morning with Hades.

Even though it’s been hours, I’ve been unable to shake the aching need within me. The cord of want he struck has been humming deep all day,setting me on a frequency of annoyed arousal that I’ve never before played.

I want it to stop. I want to make it stop. To respond to it with what it wants. What it needs.

I’m in a mood because of it, and Addison’s relentless flirting is only making things worse. I’m not used to men flirting with me. Or really showing me any attention at all.

Back at home, I was the weird girl who, for the most part, failed to make friends. I was always a loner in school, focused more on my studies than I was on making connections. I attended church, and was polite to those who spoke to me, but the conversations I did have were mostly tag-along conversations my parents had already begun.

I was always justthere.

I’m beginning to see that I was never really present. Behind my parents, I was simply the shadow. The extension of them.

But here in Greece, I stand on my own. I’m forging friendships, nurturing relationships, and learning the intoxicating blend of what it means to be a desirable young woman who has needs and wants of her own.

I am awakening.

Or that’s what it feels like. I feel like I’ve lived my whole life without ever really experiencing anything. Maybe it was because I’d never really been free to experience.

Now, Mom and Dad aren’t here to stop me. Ihaven’t been hearing the voice, either in sleep or awake to deter me. Finally, for the first time in my life, I feel as though I’m a girl like all the others.

“Persephone,” Beth calls from where she works under the big white tent. Even with the distance between us, I can see the sheen of sweat on her tan skin. She waves me over. “Come here. Addison, too.”

“What do you think we did?” Addison asks low.

I look at him, and he chuckles at my frown. “Nothing.”

He drops his pitch to a whisper. “I think we’re in trouble.”

“For what?”

“Maybe we’ll get detention together.”

I scoff. “As if.”

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