Page 27 of His in the Dark

“You can’t?—”

“I can save you from your fate if you give in.”Thump. Thump.The air turns tense between us, a flash of heat and a knowingness that this moment was meant to be.

Persephone swallows again, the movement delicate under my hand. Ever so delicate. I will think of this when I’ve left her again. I will think of that gentle movement, and how her bare throat calls for me to squeeze.

If only she knew what pleasures can be had from submission. If only she would let herself understand.

She watches my face so carefully, like she used to do when I came to her in dreams.

“There are things I can teach you, that you could use for your own survival. For your own reign.”

Her chin comes up a little. The barest of bits. Our faces are so close that I could take her mouth without the slightest effort. At this range, with my hand around her throat, I can read the truth in Persephone’s heartbeat and even the set of her lips.

I want nothing more than to bury myself within her. The pleasure builds within me.

The tension between us is thick and strong, like the currents that pull the spirits to the Underworld. They are connected to the earth and to the Gods from the moment they are born, and they never see the threads that bind them to the beginning and the end of their lives.

Her neck is hot in my grasp. I cannot take my attention from her pulse. My mouth waters with the nearly uncontrollable urgeto feel her skin beneath my lips and teeth. Persephone is like a storm about to break. She has no idea how beautiful she would be in her submission, and her power. It is only a matter of time until she bends to my will.

She must be able to feelthat. It is the pull of the thin golden strings. I’ve tied the two of us so closely together. She cannot escape it.

I want her cold body, warming under my touch. Blood throbs in my cock, but I ignore it, choosing instead to breathe her in. To study her as closely as she is studying me.

The will in her eyes is mesmerizing. I stay very still. Persephone could accept me in this moment. She wants the power I can offer her, and the knowledge. If she would only let those desires guide her.

I hold my breath in anticipation. It's so close. The moment is within reach.

If she would only give in to it. If she would only give in to me?—

But then Persephone's chin comes down. She does not pull her neck out of my hand. She does, however, change the angle—it’s a subtle resistance.

"No," she says, and lowers her eyes. That’s not a subtle resistance in the least.

Disappointment chills my heated needs.

Perhaps shedoesknow what she’s doing to me. Perhaps even her tears and her hunger are purposeful and calculated. That sends a frisson through my body. It’s not doubt. More a recognition of how powerful Persephone could be if she would give me a fraction of her trust. I wouldn’t need much to awaken what I’msurelies within her.

I wouldn’t need much at all. Only a sliver of an opening. In all honesty, I had thought Persephone would break quickly. I want to know how long she can resist—the curiosity grows everyminute—but I want to be finished with the facade that she’s not going to give in at all.

She will.

She has no other choice.

I shouldn’t give her another chance to change her mind. I shouldn’t find myself willing to bend at all. This game we’re playing won’t be won more easily if she sees me as someone weak myself.

I cannot be weak. It is not the God I am. And I certainly won’t be weak with her.

“No?” I question, in spite of the strongest instincts telling me to remain silent. To give hernothingthat would make her think?—

Persephone lifts her eyes to mine. For a moment, it’s there—that fire, that light.

But just as quickly, it fades back into bleak darkness.

“No,” she says, and refuses to say anything more.

PERSEPHONE

Surely he did not capture me so that I may perish. The Lord of the Dead knows more than others what is to become of a Goddess who no longer has life within them. Nothingness. That is what I offer him if he merely offers me this. He can turn me into nothing and that is what he will have. I will offer him nothing more.

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