Page 79 of For the Love of the Gods

“A name is a powerful thing, my dear. The comfort of a unified, constant identity inspires fierce loyalty.”

“I’ll consider myself lucky then, that my patrons have always prayed to Lady Death,” Rose retorted, bringing up the derogatory nickname people had come to call her over the years. One that used to fill me with satisfaction, even used myself, and now just felt grating.

Odell chuckled. “Right you are.”

Rose nodded tightly and then turned to Raiden. “We’re done here.”

“Great, release these,” Odell said, shaking his shackled wrists.

Rose was still facing Raiden, but said, “No.”

“You promised freedom, Rose,” Odell argued.

Rose kept her body facing towards the exit but turned her head to him. “I did and you’ll get it. But first you will sit here, in this rotting, stone cage until you understand the grace I’ve extended and know that I’ve run out of it.”

And with that threat, spewed in a voice I’d never heard her use, not even toward me, Rose fled the dungeons.

I looked to the three guards who all nodded in silent agreement that they would do their job and take care of Odell so I could follow my wife.

I widened my strides so that I was practically sprinting after her, and caught up to Rose just as the hallways turned back to the recognizable walls of our home.

I wrapped my hand around her shoulder, pressing down. “Rose.”

Rose stopped but didn’t turn to me. She wiggled her shoulder as if to shake me off. “Don’t, Dominic.”

I let her go but stepped further into her space, causing her to back toward the wall until I pressed her into it. I dragged a finger down the perimeter of her face. “And here I thought you found pleasure in my touch.”

Rose’s eyes lit with something light, teasing, bringing them up to the vibrant shade of green I’d come to associate solely with her. “You’re a jester, now?”

Jester. First use: Purgatory marketplace. One year ago.

I let my mouth twist up into a grin that felt natural, now. “Always have been.”

Rose narrowed her eyes and nodded her head, mocking me. “Just not around me.”

I pressed her further into the wall, static radiating between us. “That’s not the side of me you like, sweetheart.”

“I don’t like you, period.”

“I’d beg to differ.”

Rose puffed her chest out, but the move only sent her breasts pushing into my upper stomach. “Last night changed nothing.”

“Oh, it did,” I said, dropping my hand to the base of her neck. “Because now my hatred has a very effective, mutually beneficial outlet.”

“Does it no—” I crashed my lips to hers, shutting off any retort from that smart mouth. It was better served opening for a long sweep of my tongue. I quickly won the battle, feeling her conscious acquiesce of control and slipping into submission.

My stomach clenched at what that revealed of her tastes. And how that aligned with mine.

We attacked each other in the darkened hallway, and I pushed her into a corner where the scaffolding was just wide enough that I could hike her up and rest her ass on it.

I pushed her skirt around her waist, my hands seeking the silky smooth texture of her thighs, while Rose battled the buttons of my slacks. When she finally wrenched them open and her hand dove beneath the waistband of my briefs, there was no more thinking. Just feeling as I ravished her in the shadows, mouth planted on the junction in between her neck and shoulders and Rose’s nails raking against my scalp.

When we were finished, spent, I cleaned us up the best I could, but Rose still had to scurry off to the restrooms. I got twisted satisfaction from the thought of her walking any distance with the evidence of what we just did dripping down her thighs.

The thought almost had me following her down the hallway to pull her into another corner, but the remaining shadows I’d seen in her expression had me moving back towards the dungeons instead.

When I stepped into the space, the click of my boots jostled Odell from where he was napping against the stone wall.

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