Page 342 of The First Taste

“Listen to me, lass.”

At the sharp tone of my voice, she makes eye contact with me and swallows.

“Ye dinnae make the decisions here. I took that right from ye the second I got ye out of that little nothing town in Louisiana. Now I get to dictate when ye leave. I decide where ye go, what ye do, and who ye talk to. Ye ken?”

Her chin juts out. “You can’t decide everything, Hades. You’re not god.”

Leaning down, I grab her by the elbows and jerk her to her feet. Her pupils contract as her hazel eyes go impossibly wide. Her breath leaves her in a rush.

I can’t help but shake her just a little to make sure that I’m making my point.

“God is dead. D’ye hear me?” I leer down at her face, which is mere inches from mine. “And that means I’m yer only hope now.”

She bares her teeth, her face livid. “Don’t touch me, Hades.”

“I’ll touch ye whenever and wherever I feel like it, lass. And ye’ll learn to like it.”

She fights against my grip, writhing. I pull her closer, gritting my teeth.

“Stop— “

“Let me?— “

For a split second, it seems as though she has enough strength to break my hold. But it comes and goes in a flash, leaving me the obvious winner. I grab her and toss her over my shoulder.

“Stop! Hades!”

I ignore her, heading back across the gentle sand dunes toward the trees.

She struggles against me, pounding her fists against my back again. “Let me go!”

“Never. I’ll never let ye go,” I tell her.

A scream erupts from her and her thrashing turns violent. But I just keep going, ignoring her jerky movements. And soon enough, her struggles subside. I release her and she runs away. I watch her as she goes, a dissatisfied frown tugging at the corners of my mouth.

Hades

In the moonlight, I slip into Persephone’s room. A bright strip of light illuminates her torso as I approach on silent feet. She’s stretched out on her back, one arm flung over her head, her face twisted away so that it lays in shadow.

Usually I would stop, take pleasure in the fact that the thin ribbed camisole she is wearing has slipped down ever so slightly over her breasts, nearly exposing her ripe nipples to my gaze. I would definitely at least take a moment to appreciate them, maybe even become silently aroused.

But tonight, I move stealthily through her room, one eye on her open window. I crawl onto the bed next to her warm, sleeping form and fit my hand over her lips.

Persephone comes awake in an instant, a protest rising on her lips, her hazel eyes already wide and fixing on my face. I bring my finger to my lips to shush her.

“Shh. Dinnae make a fuss. There are men with guns coming to the house.” I pause, glancing over my shoulder. Always alert, always listening. “We have to go.”

Persephone sits up, pushing my hand aside. She tugs her camisole up, casting a fearful glance at the window. “Who are they?”

“I dinnae ken.” I shake my head. “Maybe Constantine's men. Maybe someone else who wants to fuck with me. Ye get used to being on the run and not knowing exactly who is chasing ye after a while. Now hurry?— “

I get up, pulling back the covers and baring her body. She is wearing nothing but the camisole and a pair of lacy black panties. Again, at any other time I would be riveted by her near-nakedness.

But there isn’t time. It’s been about three minutes since my security system beeped, alerting me to two boats full of men dressed all in black, stealthily dropping onto the shore. Since they dropped anchor at the far end of the island instead of at the nearby dock, I am willing to bet that they don’t know the layout of the island.

“We have about twenty minutes to find our way off the island. Maybe thirty, at the outside. Which means we have to move now.”

She swallows. “How do you know?”