Page 112 of Bride of Death

My heart skips a beat as he undoes my work and gently secures it at a different angle, one that’s a lot more comfortable.

I swallow when he lowers my foot back to the floor, only to grab my opposite ankle and bring it up to his muscular leg.

This feels… intimate.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” I whisper.

His gaze lifts to mine, and I realize that we’re the same height like this—with him down on one knee and me seated on the couch. “We’re soulmates, Serapina. That means you’re mine to care for. And I haven’t been doing a very good job of that lately.”

That’s twice now that he’s used my real name and not called me Persephone.

Does that mean he’s starting to believe me? To understand that I don’t know anything about their history?

He studies my expression for a moment before returning to his task. He’s just finished securing the heel when Maliki shadows in wearing a suit that matches Hades’s.

Fae. I’m pretty sure I just swallowed my tongue.

I… I don’t know what I’m supposed to say or do right now.

Fortunately, Hades saves me from having to speak as he sets my foot back on the floor and stands. “Thank you for joining us, Maliki.”

“You promised popcorn,” Maliki replies. “I love popcorn.”

Hades snorts. “We both knowpopcornisn’t why you agreed to be here.”

Maliki merely smiles, then looks around Hades to meet my gaze.

And promptly stops smiling as his eyes run over my dress. “Bloody shadows, Sera…”

My lips twist as I glance down. I’m not at all surprised to see the slit has run up to my hip—thanks to my squirming on the couch while trying to sort out my shoes—and my boob is half out of my gown, too.

“In my defense, I didn’t pick this dress,” I mutter as I force myself up off the couch. “Hades?—”

I cut off on a yelp when I twist forward, the heels even higher than I realized. My arms fly up to brace for landing, only to be caught in a masculine grip instead and spun before I could accidentally punch him in the face with my flailing hands.

Yeah, this is going really well,I decide.I’ve never felt more graceful in my life.

The sarcastic thoughts make me wince as I go limp in Hades’s grip. He holds me from behind, his lips at my ear. “How about you sit down again and I take those shoes off, hmm?”

“Feel free to take the dress off, too,” I grumble.

Then I stiffen as I realize what I just said.

“That is not what I meant,” I say quickly as I try to push myself away from him. But his grip is too tight.

“Calm down,” he tells me, his torso suddenly rumbling with a sound I know very well now.

A purr.

It’s different from Morpheus’s reverberations, though. His are almost like a low hum, the kind that lulls someone into sleep.

Hades’s purr is a deeper growl, one that instantly steals my fight.

Instead, all I want to do is roll into him and rub myself all over his chest.

Because wow.

Wow.