Page 17

Chapter

Sixteen

H ades

Her green eyes are filled with light as I hook the leg of her chair with my foot, dragging her closer. Not looking away from her eyes that dance with those shimmering veins of malachite, I bend, hook her feet, and lift them into my lap.

I delight in the little sound of surprise that falls from between her lips. Settling back in my own chair, with my woman closer to where I want her, I run the pad of my thumb over the arch of her foot with just enough pressure to pull a full body response.

During one of the many times Persephone had devoted herself to gaining Aethon’s forgiveness for abandoning him on the white mountain, I’d visited Asphodel city.

Pregnancy is not something I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing up close. Being the God of the Underworld, it can’t be surprising that I’m not experienced in the welcoming of new life. Such an event is for the living realm.

Still, most of the souls I care for in the Underworld remember their living lives. I’d sat for hours listening to the women speak of their pregnancies. Their ailments and their joys. The pleasures in which dulled the discomforts. In resounding agreement, foot rubs were mentioned again and again.

Rolling the pad of my thumb over the ball of her foot, Persephone lets her head fall back as a tiny little sigh of pleasure slips free.

I make a mental note to visit again soon. Clearly, the advice I’ve received is invaluable.

“Who would have thought I’d be getting a foot rub by the God of the Underworld?

” She moans, sinking her teeth into her lip to fight a sigh she loses the battle to contain just seconds later.

Her eyes flutter open to half mast, her gaze sliding over the mess of the table.

I deepen the pressure just slightly on her foot and she moans again. “God, that’s so good.”

I am helpless to fight my smile. Bringing this woman pleasure brings me pleasure. “You enjoy this, then?”

“Sooo much.” She groans. “I think I’d agree to sell my soul to you in exchange for these on a daily.”

The God inside rises to attention, ready as always, to make a deal. I swallow hard, but my words still sound guttural when I speak. “That could be arranged.”

Persephone laughs, not realizing just how serious I am. How ready I am to take her soul and ensure that she will forever be mine. Here. In the Underworld. Safe .

She reaches for a cookie, sliding it off the plate and taking a nibble. I bite back an amused smile. It’s clear the little ladies in her womb have a liking for sweets. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Persephone indulge in so much dessert as I’ve seen her indulge this last week.

There is also a small swell in her lower belly.

It’s hardly noticeable, but I would notice any change in her.

She doesn’t know it yet, but Gods and Goddesses arrive at mature term sooner than human gestation, developing quicker.

Matings between God and human that result in a child can go either way, depending on if the child is more God or human.

It appears our daughters are more God, as they are clearly developing faster than the average human baby.

If I had to guess, I would say they will arrive full term in about seven or eight months.

They will be spring babies. May or June birthdays. If I had to bet, I’d bet on them being Gemini’s.

The realization brings with it a sharp nip of awareness. Pain.

It comes too soon.

I switch to her other foot and am awarded with a new moan of pleasure that lights a match in the magma of my blood.

“What inspired dinner tonight?” I ask, doing all I can do to take my mind off the pain of the loss we will soon suffer, stilling the urge the God under my skin has to strike a deal for her soul.

“I just—” she sighs heavily. “I just wanted to go back.”

“Back?”

“To when it was simple.” Her smile is sheepish. “Just you and me. Man and woman. Normal.”

“We have never been normal, Persephone.”

She narrows her eyes on me. “You know what I mean.”

“We have always been us, even when you didn’t know who you were. Who we were together.”

“I know, but—I guess I just wanted to go back to the basics. I wanted to remember what it felt like to just be a woman falling in love with a man.”

Inside my chest, my heart burns. I ask softly, slowly, “Are you falling out of love with me, little goddess?”

“God, no.” There is only truth ringing in the words that sink deep inside the God I harbor.

She pulls her feet from my lap, straightening in her chair. Her gown is a lovely shade of lilac that only makes the deep red of her hair appear richer. She pushes the fall of waves over her shoulder as she wiggles to the edge of the chair, her eyes never leaving mine.

“I’m in love with you, Hades. I’m all the way in love with you.

” She reaches for my hands, and I curl them around hers.

“I just want it to sometimes be just me and you. No one else.” There’s a bloom of color rising into her cheeks when her eyes cut to the side.

“I want time to know you, because I don’t, not fully. Not the way I want to know you.”

“Persephone,” I begin, but she stands.

I watch, unable to take my eyes off her as she shimmies closer. Her hands hike the soft material of her dress up to expose shapely legs my body instantly responds to. Inside my veins, the magma flows hotter. Faster.

She lifts one knee to slide it around my waist, pulling the other up until she’s straddling my lap. My hands respond with her nearness, settling on the curve of her hips.

Her eyes, so lovely, fix on mine. “I feel like the future is so ominous.” Her hands drift up the column of my neck to cup my face. “But I want to dream with you, Hades.”

My fingertips pulse against her hips. She scoots closer until I can feel the warmth of her sex against the swollen shaft of my cock.

Her breath, sugar sweet, drifts over my lips.

“I want to look into the future with you and dream about us. About the love we will always share. I want to flirt and tease and fall more and more in love with you every day. I never want to fall out of love with you. I never want to stop feeling all the things that I feel for you.” Her lips touch mine now.

It’s not quite a kiss, and still my blood surges through my veins.

“I just want you. I want to know, in the end when all is said and done, that it’s still going to be me and you. ”

“It’ll always be us, little goddess,” I promise her. “Always.”

Emotion rattles her breath. “I love you.”

“I’ve always loved you, Persephone. I will always love you.” I kiss her now, claiming her lips and tasting her soul.

My hands drift over gauze until I find the hot skin of her thighs. I push under the material of her dress, palming her naked ass. She never returned the panties I tore off her before I fucked her on the counter.

Even now I can smell the seed I spilled inside her mixing with the scent of new arousal. It only turns me on more.

I growl into the kiss, nipping at her swollen bottom lip.

She whimpers a sound that nearly strips me of control.

“I need to be inside you,” I say against her throat when she throws her head back on a sigh.

“Yes.” Her hands sink into my hair as I kiss a burning trail down her chest, tugging at the material that covers her breast with my teeth before I pull her into my mouth. Her moan is music.

I am so in love with this woman. She is the family I’ve never had and always longed for. The soul who was always meant to stand against the test of time with mine. She is my mate, my other half. It matters not the terror we will face, for we will face it together always.

I move to her other breast and suck. Her cry is sharp and decadent and so fucking sweet.

I want more. Need more. Licking a trail up the length of her chest, her throat, I take the lobe of her ear between my teeth and revel in the sharp gasp that escapes from between kiss-swollen lips.

“Fuck,” I hiss when she rocks against me. “I can’t wait. I need to be inside you. Now.”

“Please,” she gasps as I shove at my pants, pulling my dick free. Already, I’m seeping with need. The tip is red and angry, starving. “Hades.”

I line up as she sinks down, taking every inch of me deep inside her. A shuddering moan spills from her lips as I palm her ass once more to keep her there. Madness swirls inside me, urging for movement as she begins to beg for the same.

I don’t move. I stay rooted where I am, home.

Taking her lips, I kiss her deeply before I pull back to vow, “It’ll always be me and you. There will be pain and there will be war, but we will end our days like this. Me inside you. Connected as one. Like we were always meant to be.” I kiss her again and rasp, “Always.”

“Yes,” she accepts my vow hungrily. “Yes, Hades.”

With her hips in my hands, I begin to move her over my shaft. Slowly at first. Up and down. I want to drive her mad with need. Shaking with desire. Quivering with hunger.

Her lips part and her bright eyes are heavy with lust as they search my face. I tell her, “You’re so beautiful.”

“So are you.”

I grin against her lips, helpless against the quickening of my thrusts.

Soon, her body is tightening around me again, and I am spilling into the deep of her.

I think she takes more than my seed. If I didn’t know better, if it didn’t need to be the other way around, I’d think she’s stealing pieces of my very soul.