Page 38 of Unleash Hades
I should have asked him questions: What was he doing here? He didn't need to fight! He owned 25% of a very lucrative, and growing, Security Company. What had he said to the She-Bear? Did he know who ran the Underground Circuit?
But my brain was fried by the orgasm. The first in a long time that didn’t come from my right hand.
How easily I gave into feminine fancies when Hugo was near me.
His French accent reminded me of the home I turned my back on. A language I rarely spoke, even though I had been born to it. All because of Richard.
The hall was empty. The distant shouts told me that there was another match. Whatever it was, it must have been a good one.
I took a moment to catch my breath, and wiped at tears that were a mix of pain and pleasure. Incredible highs, and incredible lows all mixed into a single moment of my otherwise numb existence.
I turned the first corner hallway and, once again, almost smashed right into Rose Legaspi-Vasilieva-Green.
“Did you have fun?” She leaned back against the wall, one leg propped up. Her arms crossed beneath her ample bosom.
“I… yes. Yes I did.” I felt my ears heat with embarrassment.
I was used to being the frigid bitch. The woman who was cold and let her husband run around with mistresses. So to bethatwoman in the eyes of a stranger was… different.
Bellamy was right, I knew nothing about the Underground, or the woman in front of me.
This woman was strong. Stronger than me, certainly. Her shoulders were wide, her biceps bulging, and there wassomething about her demeanor that made me nervous. A certain stillness that I only ever saw in the faces of calm killers.
“I’m saying this because I care about my friend.” She pushed off the wall and squared up with me. “But whatever you’ve got going on, I don’t like it. So if you’re just leading him on because you’re some kind of…”
“I’m not leading him on.”
“You’re a married woman.”
“I am, but I amnotleading him on.” I clenched my jaw, and brought my voice down, whispering a secret that I barely allowed myself to acknowledge. “He’s the only man I love.”
I wouldn’t stand here and be questioned by her. I wouldn’t tell her more than I wanted to. I had already said too much.
I skirted around her, giving her a wide berth as I rushed past, back down the hall and into the arena, where the familiar tang of alcohol, human sweat, and the shouts for blood filled my ears. In the cacophony, I found comfort.
I could armor up here, and keep my secrets close to my vest.
It was a relief to walk down the aisle, and to my seat by Bellamy. My enemy.
I was more familiar with conflict than comfort. Lies had been my armor, and to live in truth with Hugo? With that Rose…? It was to be naked, and raw.
I loved and hated it.
Bellamy cheered as one man in the ring pummeled the other, and the smack of human flesh filled the room, punctuated by the hoots and hollers of the well-dressed audience. It was disgusting, really. Brutal, and bloody, the cheap entertainment was a testament to how many reveled in the sign of primal blood. Humans were cruel, and those who thought themselves above such things - the people like Richard and Bellamy - were the most brutal and callous of all.
“Well, you’re just positively glowing,” Bellamy said, taking a gold and diamond pin off of his ascot, then re-attaching it. Then he cheered as one man struck another so hard, the sound of it echoed around the room. “Good show!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
But I could barely put my back into the lie.
“There's a pub near here.” Bellamy’s eyes never left the fighting men as he clapped and whistled along with the rest of the audience. “Four Green Fields. Do you know it?”
“No.” Yes, I did. I had been outside of it with Gavin.
“We should go and have a pint. Or whatever your drink of choice is.”
“I’d rather break a leg.”
