Page 29 of Hera

“How do you recommend we stargaze?” he asked.

Hera smirked mischievously. “Stand back.”

Augustine’s neck prickled as he felt Hera’s power assert itself. The dinner fixings vanishing, the table and chairs swishing to the side of the roof, and a soft nest of pillows and blankets appeared in the center.

“How’s that?” she said proudly, hands on her hips.

“Looks cozy,” Augustine said, swallowing hard. She was seducing him. He knew it. She knew he knew it. To be perfectly honest, he wanted to give in to his urges and take her, but the heavy truth of his secrets pulled him back. He sat awkwardly on the edge of the nest and took off his shoes before scooting into the middle.

“Why don’t you make yourself more comfortable?” Hera asked, situating herself beside him. Her fingers delicately traced his tie up to the knot at the base of his throat. Her eyes met his, a question behind them.

“You can undo it,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

She gave him a brilliant smile and deftly slipped the fabric out of its knot until it hung flat on either side of his chest. “Buttons, too?”

“A couple,” he said, and held his breath as the tight collar loosened.

“You don’t have to look quite so terrified,” Hera teased him. “We don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” She pressed a kiss under his jaw and another below his ear.

“Can you kiss me?” Augustine murmured, the back of his hand tracing along her bare arm.

She smiled. “I thought I was doing that?” Her lips tracked across his cheekbone to the corner of his lips.

He turned his head slightly, catching her lips with his and drawing her into a deep kiss. He groaned, Hera echoing him. He felt her fingers in his hair, prickles of pleasure singing along his scalp, and then her weight was in his lap.

“This okay?” she asked breathlessly, tilting his head back by her grip on his hair.

“Yes,” he managed to say, and then her mouth was on his again, soft lips and softer tongue dancing with his, a sensory contrast to her tight grip on his hair.

His head was spinning.

This felt so good, so right.

He smoothed his hands down along her sides, feeling the silky material of her dress under his fingertips. When he got to the furthest point he could reach, he retraced his path in the opposite direction, the material coming with him slightly. On the next downstroke, he felt soft, bare skin under the pads of his fingers. The temptation was overwhelming. Her skin was right there. His fingers trembled...

Her hips rocked and suddenly he was aware of exactly how hard he was underneath his pants. He gasped and broke the kiss, lifting his hands away from her bare hips. “Hera,” he croaked.

“Yes, August?”

“I need to tell you something.”

“Now?”

“Yes. I work... I work at this club—”

Hera smirked. “A strip club?”

“What? No, an underground fight club.” Augustine watched her face carefully in the dim light of the flickering candles. She looked confused, surprised, and then thoughtful.

“Valhalla’s Throne?” she asked cautiously.

Augustine was surprised to hear the name falling so easily from her lips. “Yes.”

“That’s not a problem for me, you know,” Hera said. “It’s not like it’s exactly unknown. I heard about it from Chloe, Lucifer’s wife.”

“Of course,” Augustine muttered. “It is the only place that my brothers and I could get work because they do not ask questions there. They do not ask for references, or—”

Hera cut him off again. “I don’t care about your past, only your future. With me.”

---