Page 67 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

“Never.”

“Why not?”

His impossibly dark eyes darken. “You are mine.”

“Only for the next few months.”

I don’t know why I keep pressing this. Maybe it’s because I’m clinging to some semblance of control when I suspect I truly have none. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to press him into arguing, to insist that I give him more time. Give him more of me.

I don’t know.

I just know that when he grunts a wordless reply, I am disappointed.

My net is really doing very little for my heart.

We round a wall with a walkway that looks out over a sea of endless black broken only by the stars above, and the lights so far down below they, too, look like stars.

The view is beautiful, and yet I am incapable of keeping my eyes on it when the room he’s led me to comes into view. There is another small bar, and crafted into the stone holding up the far end of the gazebo-like structure is a fireplacecurrently lit with dancing flame. Between the bar and the fireplace sits a sprawling bed topped with white sheets and a thin white blanket. The view beyond the foot of the bed is a sprawling sea of stars.

The sheets are rumpled, the bed curiously unmade. I frown, my eyes landing on a door that sits in the wall, closed.

“Where does that lead?”

“My bedroom,” Hades answers roughly.

My eyes tear from the door to land on his. “Your room?” I look again to the bed. “Do you—do you sleep here?”

“Most nights,” he admits.

I look back to the bed. “It looks peaceful.”

His lips twist, but he says nothing. His hand on my belly, however, grows heavier as he shoves me gently but firmly closer to the bed. To his bed.

When the backs of my legs connect with the structure, I am helpless to keep from falling to my back on the soft mattress. A soft, “oomph” leaves my lips as my body gives one gentle bounce before I scoot up the bed. Nerves titter inside my chest, diving into my belly and back up again as Hades stares down at me, naked in his bed. He’s entirely clothed in his black-on-black suit. I can’t help but think he looks a little like a devil in the dark, cast in shadows, lit only by flame and starlight.

He's so impossibly, heartrendinglyhandsome. I am helpless against the throb of painful desire that clenches my core as I look up at him, every inch of my body painfully aware the path his dark gaze travels over mine.

I watch his nostrils flare as he inhales deeply, his eyes dipping to the v between my legs.

God, can he really smell my arousal? It shouldn’t be possible.

He drags his eyes reluctantly to mine. Suddenly, I need to tell him. He needs to know.

“Earlier tonight with Addison,” I begin and his jaw hardens. I press on, voice shaking. “You were right. I was aroused.” Hades looses a growl that really has no place sounding from the chest of a man. A beast, perhaps, but man? No. “I put on that red dress and stood in the mirror, wondering how you would look at me if you saw me in it. That was when I felt the first tingle. I had a few drinks and the girls got me on the floor. Minthe was dancing with Theodor and Addison—he—he danced with me. I felt nothing when he touched me. No flutter, no desire. But when I looked down and saw his hands on my hips, I imagined what it might look like—what it might feel like to have you holding me like that. My body got warm. I felt wet between my legs. I told myself maybe I could feel something for a man who wasn’t you because…”

I drift off, uncertain if it’s safe to admit something so intimate. Something that could expose just how vulnerable I am to this man.

Hades presses, “Because, what?”

My eyes flicker to his. Whatever I find there pulls the words from me, forcing a truth I’m not ready to tell. “You’re the only man who has ever made my body warm with need. The only man who makes me hunger for touch.” Shame tints my face pink. “At first, I thought it was an age kink. But there are plenty of older men in my life. None of whom I’ve ever felt any ounce of attraction for.” I wet my lips, watching as his eyes chase the motion. “I’ve been trying to find proof for myself that I can feel something for someone—anyone else—even a fraction of the attraction I feel for you. I thought tonight with Addison—I hoped…”

Hades cuts me off with a firm, “Stop trying.” He shrugs from his jacket, his hands making quick work of the buttons of his shirt. He bares his hard, carved-with-muscle-chest a second before he says, “You are mine, Persephone. Your desire is mine. Your body is mine. No one touches what is mine.”

God, he’s going to be the death of me. The butcher of my heart and tormentor of my soul.I swear, I see him flinch back in surprise as I agree softly, “Okay.”

I’m helpless to refuse this man.

Hades stands still for a solid minute. I’m not even sure he’s breathing as he stares down at me. His eyes are a pool of emotion too complex for me to decipher any single one. I know I’m crazy, but deep beneath the black I am certain I see the shadow of flames.

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