Page 62 of The Queen & the King

I roll onto my back, making her straddle me. “Break free. With me.” Don’t leave me behind this time.

“I love you,” she whispers again, her lips against mine. She shoves my pants off, positioning her cunt right above my cock. I arch, brushing the piercing in the tip against her pussy.

“I love you too,” I growl softly against her lips, gripping her hips but not yanking her down onto me. I know she needs this control.

She locks her eyes on mine, barely a breath away from my face. Then she slams her hips down. My claws dig into her hips, but the control remains hers, riding me like she needs, like I need.

I sit up, kissing her hard, biting her lip, moving our bodies together rhythmically. She squeezes me, her cunt like a wet, warm vice on my cock.

“You’re mine, Persephone,” I groan. “You’ve always been mine.” Just like I’ve always been yours.

She moans, running her fingers through my hair. I slide my hand up her back, cradling the back of her head, digging in, clinging to her. Everything is perfect at this moment. We’re just a man and a woman searching for a connection and finding it in each other.

“Give it to me. Give me everything,” I order her softly.

She presses tighter against me, her heartbeat syncing with mine, a single humming between two bodies bound by fate and love.

I flip us to put her beneath me, taking control. The thrusting turns frantic, and I lose myself in her. My glamor drops without conscious effort, and thankfully, the darkness moves to Persephone, continuing to heal her. My tail wraps around her thigh, lifting her leg to wrap higher around me so I can thrust deeper and harder. A rush of liquid heat fills her cunt, bathing my cock.

Her glamor drops, a silent response to mine. My heart lurches at seeing the short stubs of bone hiding in her hair. Myshadows swirl around her head, sensing the hurt and replacing the horns, giving her shadow horns until her real ones grow back.

She yanks my head to hers, sealing her lips to mine, fusing them as if she needs to kiss me in order to live. I need her in order to live, too. Her pussy squeezes me tightly. She is so fucking perfect. She’s close.

Come with me, my spring. Be free with me.

As if she hears my silent entreaty, she comes, squeezing my cock like a vice, robbing me of my orgasm, claiming my essence.

Panting above her, I press my forehead to hers. She reaches up, touching the horns I gave her.

“You… aren’t repulsed by them?” she asks, vulnerability flashing in her eyes.

“Repulsed?” I blink, shocked by the question.

Repulsed by her horns? The ones that mark her as an Underworld Goddess from birth? The ones that gave me myownhorns?

A tear slides down her cheek, and it all makes sense. I should have asked Nemesis to take Demeter’s hands instead.

I kiss the tear. “The only thing repulsive to me is that they were removed.”

She whimpers slightly, and I nuzzle her nose. I keep her close, wrapping her in acceptance, something she’s clearly lacked in her life before me, before Plutus, before everything. I thought this Persephone was a shell, a shade of the woman I love, but I realize now this is Persephone. Her deepest insecurities, the trauma she overcame, and the mother she broke free from. It is at this moment that I realize I’m in love with this version of her, too.

This Persephone is so scared of affection, cautious, and shy, expecting denial at every turn. I set out to make her fall in love with me, hoping her memory would return. Yet, I fell in love withher as well. This is the Persephone I never got to meet, the one who was convinced her immortal goddess form was repulsive and should be hidden.

It seems no matter the timing, no matter the aspect, I am meant to fall in love with her in every way. Memory or not. God or not.

She is mine, and I am hers.

Thirty-Nine

Persephone

ISMILE DOWN AT HIM SO WIDELY THAT THE ALMOST HEALED CUT ON MY LIP OPENS SLIGHTLY.I barely wince at the pain, too caught up in this perfect moment with him, my Hades.

Hades’ brows furrow when he sees the cut open. Seeing any injury on me is obviously something he finds unacceptable. He leans down, licking over the cut, and that action alone makes me moan softly, my whole body melting for him. I’m so acutely aware of my love for him. It runs so deep, so overwhelmingly. Almost like?—

“Hades?” I whisper into his lips.

“Yes?” Hades pulls back slightly, looking down at me.

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