Page 15 of The Professor (Seven Sins MC 5)

I just needed to know what kind of home I might be returning to if Lucifer was out and Hades was in.

“He’s such a fan favorite, right?” Charlotte said, giving me a smirk that was alarmingly appealing. Especially from a human. “I mean, that whole Hades and Persephone thing has had people swooning for ages. Him and that damn pomegranate seed,” she added, and the smile turned a little softer, a bit sweeter, and damn if it didn’t do even more attractive things to her face.

“The pomegranate seed thing,” I repeated.

“Right. Well, in short, Hades saw Persephone one day and liked her so be brought her down to the underworld. And, you know, being a smart girl, she didn’t want anything to do with his evil ass. Even if he was hot.”

“He’s hot?” I asked, getting a snorting sort of laugh out of her.

“I mean, yes. Anyway. He wants Persephone to say with him as his woman. But she knows if she eats or drinks anything, it binds her to the underworld. So she doesn’t. Until, on her way back to the earthly plane, she eats pomegranate seeds that Hades offered her. And they tied her to the underworld for six months out of the year. Fall and winter, actually. That is the origin story of how the seasons work.”

“And people like this story? About Hades?”

“Well, yeah. See, they’ve turned it into a lot of romance books. And romance readers, they love a evil hero who turns out not to besoevil, just misunderstood and lonely and needing the right woman to show his soft side too. That is what they get with that story.”

“Do you read those books?” I asked. “The romance ones,” I clarified.

I didn’t really understand the concept of them.

Sure, I knew that humans liked to write stories down for others to read. Ones with fictional storylines they made up in their heads.

I just hadn’t read any.

I was too busy reading up on history and how the human world worked. I couldn’t even wrap my head around the concept of stories that weren’t real.

Why would that even be interesting?

“Oh, ah, sometimes, yeah. I read all different genres,” she rushed to add.

Was it just me, or were her cheeks looking a bit pink?

There was a reason for that, wasn’t there?

A flush? Which meant they were overheated.

Or, no, there was another word just like that.

Blush.

A blush.

That was when humans were embarrassed about something.

What would she be embarrassed about? Those types of books?

“Do you have a recommendation for one?” I asked, finally flipping open my notepad, realizing that I should have been taking notes all along. If for no other reason, than to look like I was being a professional about the whole thing.

“For a Hades and Persephone romance?” she asked, brows pinching together like I wasn’t making any sense.

“Yes.”

“Oh, ah, yeah. Sure. I mean… it’s… it’s very… explicit,” she said as that blush of hers got deeper.

It was strangely appealing.

Enough that my fingers itched to reach out, to run over the skin to see if it was as warm as it looked from afar.

What the fuck was that about?

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