Page 31 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

My thoughts fracture.

My heart flips in its cage. A whimpered breath spills from my lips as I steady myself with a hand to his breast. Under it, I can feel the rapid-fire dance of his quickening pulse.

God, what am I doing?

Hades swallows, and his voice sounds rough as he asks, “Good?”

I nod, pushing myself from his chest. “I’m sorry, I—I…”

“Tripped?” Hades provides for me and I nod, even though we both know it’s more. “Let’s get you into the hot tub so you can warm up.”

Again, I nod, but I say nothing. I don’t trust my voice right now. I don’t trust my body or my emotions or this yawning hunger that is growing within me for something I can’t allow myself to take.

I wonder if it’s just Hades or if I let myself, I could feel this same want with Addison. He’s impossibly attractive, and entirely opposite to Hades. He’d flirted shamelessly with me all week long, but I hadn’t reciprocated, even though I could admit his attention felt good. Sort of.

And Addison ismyage.

Still, every time I think of flirting back with Addison, something ugly balloonsinside me. Something that makes me feel hideous and wrong. Thoughts of Hades plague me in the moments I am away from him.

This crush is ridiculous and inappropriate. I need to get a handle on myself, like…yesterday.

I wish I knew what was happening to me. I wish I could explain away this wicked craving for my boss that I try so desperately to hide. To bury deep within me where not even I can find it.

He awakened something within me that first night we stood shoulder-to-shoulder, staring into the devastatingly captivating horror of his art. He spilled fuel to the spark of hunger his darkly intense gaze ignited within me, and I’ve been burning up ever since.

I don’t want to admit it, but I can’t refuse it either. I’ve tried.

I’ve lied to myself and to him, desperate to keep the lines between us sharp and clean.

Hades lowers into the bubbling water of the hot tub, gesturing for me to do the same. My knees knock as I shimmy to the ledge. Under his breath, Hades says something to himself as he reaches up to close his hot, hard hands around the small of my waist. I gasp a breath of still night air, as he lowers me into the water before him. I’m so close to him, I can smell the scent of woodsmoke and sin and cool, refreshing earth.

He removes his hands from my body, giving me the space I so desperately need before I’m incinerated bydesire. He lifts a glass of wine from the ledge, passing it to me.

I take a deep drink of the dry red, praying for reprieve from the heat and devastated to realize it’s only fueled the fire that rages in the depths of me. The heat of the wine is like spilled magma as it moves through my body, swimming into the desire that surges like a tremulous sea of fire and sin in my belly.

I need to get a handle on myself.

“I’ve been meaning to speak with you.” Hades settles himself onto a seat, resting one arm over the ledge as the other lifts his own glass of wine.

“Oh?”

“You recall when I hired you, how I said I may require you to accompany me to functions?” I nod, but say nothing. He continues, “There is a gala at the end of the month in celebration of the opening of the new hospital we’ve built.”

“You built a hospital?”

“Myself and some other large investors, yes.” He watches me closely, and I struggle to keep from shifting under the heavy weight of his gaze. “This gala will help to fundraise once again, for the patients.”

I nod.That must be what all the gowns in the closet are for.“You want me to come with you?”

“I do.”

“As your assistant?”

He shakes his head. “As my date.”

My lips part, and to help my cough go back theway it came, I take another deep swallow of wine. “But—we can’t—I’m not…”

He doesn’t let me finish. “I am tired of these events, Persephone. Women eligible for marriage attend, attempting to hook their claws into men of stature and wealth by any means. It is exhausting fending them off time and again.” He gives me a rueful grin. “I am asking that you accompany me as my date so that I do not have to fight quite as hard.”

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