Page 10 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

She blushes, giving me a small, somewhat shy shake of her head. Her pink tongue pokes out to wet her lips. “No.”

Restraining myself from the things I desperately want to do is getting incredibly difficult. Because when she licks her lips like that, I want to doa lot.

I do nothing but continue to hold her. I don’t steal that touch I’m desperate to steal. That taste of her mouth I ache to take. I study her face up close as I ask, “Then what’s stopping you?”

She peers up at me, her body still imprisoned in my arms. She is so deliciously warm, like the sun.Fucking Demeter and her deceptions.

She inhales a breath, her chest brushing against mine in the rise. Heat liquifies the marrow in my bones, traveling south.

She speaks. “Did you sleep at all tonight?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I was worried about you. I want to be,” I pause to consider my next words. “I wanted to be present if you needed me.”

“You need to sleep, too.”

Her eyes track my smirk. “I need less sleep than you think.”

She studies me. “Do you have insomnia?”

I almost tell her no. I don’t. I simply don’t requirethe kind of sleep her vulnerable human body needs. Instead of the truth, I give her another lie. All the while I curse Demeter and this place she’s put us in. This place of half-truths. “Yes.”

She pulls in another breath, wiggling free from my arms. Then she says, “Okay, then. Let’s go upstairs.”

That liquid heat in my marrow begins to simmer as I follow her onto the rooftop patio.

Chapter

Five

Persephone

When I left my room,the last place I expected to end up had been the rooftop patio with my boss.

Boss with benefits.I snicker at the thought and feel Hades’ eyes slide to me curiously.

I swing my legs over the side of the pool and cast my eyes to the sky. Starlight flickers in a deep ebony. Up here on Hades’ rooftop tower, I’ve never felt closer to the sky. Even in airplanes, flying through the clouds, the sensation I feel now, bathed in starlight is exclusive to Hades’ Tower. Or maybe it’s just the man himself. Maybe it’s the darkness that radiates from thecore of him to cocoon me in woodsmoke and wicked decadency.

Or maybe I’m just obsessed with my boss.

Hades lifts a hand, the tip of his pointer finger not far from the little smile that plays at the corners of my mouth. “What’s that for?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.”

My breath snags somewhere in my lungs. I look at him.Reallylook at him. Sometimes I think I could get lost in the shadows that dance in his eyes, burned by the flame he harbours deep within.

“You’re about the only person I don’t lie to, Hades.” I dip my chin, feeling exposed and vulnerable. “That sounds awful. I don’t mean it the way it came out.”

“How do you mean it?” There is never any judgement in Hades’ voice. At least not for me.

“I don’ttryto lie. I don’t like lying. I hate it, actually.” I watch the water swirl as I kick my feet in the blue. “Sometimes lying just feels safer.”

Beside me in the water with his pants rolled to below his knees, Hades is still. Quietly, he asks, “Do you mean because of the voice?”

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