Though I’m a partner at Crown and Black, in my spare time I moonlight as the Drakos family’s unofficial attorney. Ares, the oldest brother and king of the empire, is professional and courteous in our dealings. Kratos, the third Drakos brother, is also fine in my books, and Calliope, the baby of the family, is a sweetheart with a fantastic sense of humor.
But Hades? Hades is the fucking devil himself.
He’s made it his apparent mission in life to be a thorn in my side. A pebble in my shoe. A constant, needling presence, always looming just out of sight, ready to fuck up my day.
He’s arrogant. Reckless. Cocky beyond measure. Andpainfullyaware of his looks and their effect on the opposite sex. He’d be a harmless, clichéd, trust fund fuckboy brat playing at being a gangster if he wasn’t, well,actually dangerous.
Viciously ruthless.
Dripping in violence and dark energy.
And the thing is, I could ignore all of those things. After all, it’s Ares, not Hades, whom I officially report to. And Hades could be just one more sinfully good-looking if jaw-grindingly annoying and cocky man one could observe from a distance, and then forget about.
Except for the fact that I am wholly incapable of actuallydoingthe second part.
I can’t forget about him. I can’t ignore him. And despite how very,verybadly I want to be immune to his charms, apparently I am not up to date with my Hades vaccinations.
As much as I want to pretend he doesn’t even exist, I simply can’t. He’s the central character in every single dark fantasy I have once the lights go out at night.
It’s bullshit.
It’s completely unfair.
A full-body, malignant, systemic takeover with no known cure.
Hades is living proof that what the mind wants and what the body wants arenotin alignment. Because he makes me want to scream and tear my hair out. But he also makes me want to screamfor him, whilehepulls my hair.
“I know who you are, you know.”
I flinch, ripped from my stewing, stormy thoughts by a woman’s voice. She’s on Hades’ other side: brunette, model-tall, tits for days, gorgeous, and dressed to fuckingkillin a little red number that makes what I’m wearing look like a nun’s habit.
“Do you, now?”
She giggles, slapping a hand against his chest. I scowl.
“OfcourseI do, Hades,” she gushes coquettishly.
I roll my eyes under my mask.
“Ahh, but I don’t know you. Perhaps we should change that.”
She grins widely. “I don’t think my boyfriend would like that very much.”
“I don’t think you care, though, do you?”
She explodes in a frenzied giggle that makes my jaw grind.
“You’re sobad,” she gushes, slapping his chest again, and this time leaving her hand there.
Oh, just get on your knees and blow him right here, Little Miss Obvious.
I roll my eyes again, turning and slugging down three huge gulps of my second vodka soda.
“You know, you had a thing with my friend once.”
“Did I really?” Hades growls, shoving his hair back from his face again.
“M-hmm. Krista Pryce. She said you literally redefined sex for her.” The girl giggles obnoxiously again. “She also said you had a magic dick, not to mention huuuge.”