Page 18 of Winning Back Persephone

"Mmm. I'm waiting on the final bags to ship, but other than that, I'm ready," she said.

"So it should be right about now that your dinners start transforming from proper meals to a glass of wine and cookie dough ice cream?"

Her cheeks flushed. "Something like that."

"You should make sure you eat properly," I said. "You know that there are meal services you can use now, right?"

"I know, I just haven't gotten around to doing it," she said. "But I promise, I'm looking after myself, Hades. I've even been doing some meal prep. Only simple things, but it's better than nothing, right?"

"It is."

"But it's hard. Looking after myself is much harder than looking after us both."

"Yes," I agreed. "Maybe when you come to see Cerberus, I could also make you dinner."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" She met my gaze.

"Probably not. But it would be cruel of me to let you starve."

A slight smile lifted at the corners of her lips, and my heart constricted, both at the sight of her being vulnerable and the fact she hadn't actually said no.

"All right. Dinner sounds nice."

"You know where I live," I responded.

She bit her lip and nodded.

There was a good chance this was a terrible idea, but I hated the thought of her getting lost in her work and not eating properly. And this was something I could do to help, even if she struggled to look after herself sometimes.

Chapter 10

PERSEPHONE

Standing outside Hades' front door made me hyper-aware of what a terrible idea this was. I should be keeping well away from a private space where there was no one to be a buffer between us, especially when there was no doubt that I wanted to touch him whenever we were alone together.

But he'd invited me for dinner, and it seemed rude to refuse, even if both of us knew that it would make more sense for us to stay well away from one another.

Despite that, I reached up and pressed the doorbell, letting him know that I was here. My heart raced as I waited for him to answer what used to be our front door, wondering whether he might have changed his mind and decided that he wasn't interested in having dinner with me after all.

My thoughts stopped as it swung open, and I found him standing on the other side in a button-down shirt. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had dressed nicely for the occasion, having selected a dress I knew he liked me in.

"Good evening," I said. "I brought wine." I held out the bottle, knowing that it was one of his favourites. Despite that, herarely bought it for himself, and I'd seriously considered getting a crate of it just to make sure he had some in the house for when he wanted it.

"Thank you. Why don't you come in?"

I stepped past him, brushing against him as I did and making both of us pause. I opened my mouth to say something about the fact we shouldn't do this. That I should turn around and go home, but I was cut off by a happy bark and the scratch of paws against the floor.

A new flood of emotions filled me that had nothing to do with Hades.

Without even thinking about it, I crouched down. "Hey, Cebby," I said, ruffling the head of the dark grey dog. He sniffed at me, his tail wagging far too quickly. "You're going to hurt yourself."

Hades chuckled and took the wine from me. "He's missed you."

My heart ached for the life I used to have. The one that involved this man and our dog.Hisdog. Cerberus had never been mine.

The dog pushed his head further into my hands, and I fussed him more.

"If you let me come inside, we can have cuddles," I told him. Some of the urges I'd felt that brought me here were overpowered by the thought of curling up on the sofa we'd bought five years ago with Cebby on my knee and a glass of wine.

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