Page 136 of Sinful Hearts

“No.”

I shiver at the low growl in his voice, turning to glance over my shoulder at him, sprawled against my headboard in boxers and a tight t-shirt, looking like original sin.

“No, I haven’t. And for the sake of them continuing to breathe and remain alive, there had better not have been any other men.”

There’s a lethality to his tone that simultaneously scares me and turns me right the fuck on. I suck on my teeth as I turn to him.

“There haven’t been,” I say quietly. “Other guys, I mean. You’re…” I press my lips together. “You’re it.”

Something savage, primal, and triumphant gleams in his eyes.

“Why hadn’t you, before me?” he asks, turning and letting his gaze pierce into me.

“How did I get to twenty-six without screwing anyone?”

His jaw grinds. “Yeah. I mean, I’m not judging, but you’re gorgeous, smart, successful…”

I shrug. “A boy I was sort of dating in high school was really aggressively pushy about us ‘taking things to the next level’. And it just totally turned me off. Then as I got older, casual sex never really interested me, and I never had the time for relationships, not with my job and my life. That, and most men are awful,especiallyif you’re—how did you put it?— ‘gorgeous, smart, and successful’.” My brow knits again. “And then you hit a certain age where youstillhaven’t done anything, and by then it’s become an issue. It’s either a deal-breaker when you meet someone. Or it’s the opposite. They fetishize it.”

His jaw tightens, like merely mentioning a hypothetical scenario of me meeting and dating another man has his fury rising. I can see the violence he’s feeling toward men who don’t even exist written so clearly across his face that it has my pulse tingling like a flame under my skin.

“The last time I actually tried dating was almost four years ago. I went on a couple of dates—”

“Definea couple of dates,” Hades rasps darkly, his blue eyes instantly turning stormy and vicious.

“Oh, strictly anal and gang bangs,” I shrug with a grin, obviously joking.

…Or not so obviously, given the way Hades suddenly looks like he’s planning summary executions in his head.

“I…that’s a joke?”

“I think I was clear before how I felt when it comes to you joking about things like that.”

I swallow, shivering with heat.

“Okay. For real. It was dinner out, three times. Except it turned out he was the kind of guy who fetishizes virginity. Like,that’swhat he was interested in. Not in me as a person, not in hearing about my career or other parts of my life in any capacity. Just in my worth as determined by whether or not I’d slept with anyone before. It was dehumanizing and gross. After a few dates, I told him it wasn’t going to work out, and he proceeded to stalk me for three years—Nora, too—until I got a restraining order. Then I moved continents.”

Pure, malevolent,rageexplodes behind Hades’ face.

“Name,” he snarls darkly.

“What?”

“Give me his fuckingname.”

My face heats as I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over and done with. I don’t think a public execution is needed to protect my honor, Hades.”

“It can’t hurt.”

I smile, shaking my head again. “I’d just like to forget about it, honestly.”

I turn to take a seat. But the reading chair in the corner of my room is currently occupied by a massive stack of legal documents and some folded clothes. And mybedis currently occupied by a reclining, nearly-naked, Greek god.

And this is a tough choice because…?

Because I’m embarrassed about what happened tonight, obviously. But also, I’m scared what it says about me that all I want to do is slide onto that bed next to him.

Into his arms, preferably.

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