Page 380 of The First Taste

“Like that, do ye?” Hades asks.

I slice him with a glance. I finish chewing, swallow, and then retort.

“I’m sorry. Did I miss something? The last time I checked, we were not exactly on speaking terms.”

He glares at me. “That was certainly not my intention. I just wanted to make sure that we were both on the same page about… what happened.”

“What happened,” I repeat, my voice sharp. “You mean how you fucked me and then acted like I went out of my way to personally harm you?”

His brow descends. “Dinnae be a child.”

“I would say I have acted completely appropriately, and you are the one being a little kid about this whole thing.” I smack my lips, glancing out over the coast. “We’re both consenting adults. We both?— “

The words snarl up in my mouth, stopped by what I see just up the shoreline. A few hundred feet down was an old parking lot, its pavement crumbling, its markings all but faded. A cheap little car stands there, its hood raised. A young man dressed in an expensive-looking outfit of designer denim and a Supreme hoodie leans over the engine, barking orders at a very young woman. The woman can’t be more than eighteen and wears a long, pink halter dress that falls to her sandaled feet. She looks terrified, nodding and jumping every time that the man barks something at her in a language I don’t understand.

Pressed against the woman’s legs are two children, girls that are maybe four and two, respectively. They are dressed in matching pink sweatsuits and they look at the man with something like terror written on their faces.

I don’t even have to say anything. Hades tenses, his hands curling into fists as he watches the scene for a few seconds. I watch the play of emotions as they filter to the surface; right now, it is easy enough to read Hades’ expression.

He’s near-violent, just watching this little operetta play out. The young man closes the hood of the car with a slam and points at the woman. Even from here, I can make out his vehement, angry words.

“Do you know what he is saying?” I whisper.

Hades shakes his head slowly. “No. They’re speaking a Slavic language, I think. Maybe Ukrainian or Russian.”

He hisses in a breath as the man bucks at the woman, a move meant to intimidate her. It works, because she takes a step back, dropping her head and holding up her hands defensively.

Just like that, Hades stalks toward the couple. I am not surprised in the least, but I still follow on his heels, my heart pounding.

I really don’t want him to beat the man to a pulp the way he did to that stranger back in Valencia. Maybe someone should intercede, stop the man from hurting the woman… but that’s a far cry from the energy that Hades is carrying as he approaches them.

Mayhem and violence are bleeding off of him, falling behind him in crackling waves. His expression is stiff and full of malevolence. Shoulders flattened, he storms up the beach, making it all but impossible to stop him.

I run, catching his hand and tugging on it.

“Hades…”

He freezes, turning his glare on me. When he speaks, his voice is gone to gravel and his teeth clenched. “Let go of me.”

“I’m not going to let go until you take a deep breath.” I grip his hand, beseeching him. “Please, Hades. You’ve got to take a beat.”

Hades stares at me, violence crackling in his very bearing. “Let. Me. GO!”

I’ve never heard Hades raise his voice before. My heart pounds, my mouth goes dry as the Sahara on a hot day. I flinch.

I know that this man has the strength to hurt me. Hell, Hades could easily kill me with his bare hands if he felt compelled to do so.

But I don’t let go of his hand. “Think about what you’re doing,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice from wavering. “One deep breath in is all I am asking…”

Against his will, Hades drags in a deep breath, his angry gaze still pinning me in place. The breath loosens his shoulders a fraction and he draws himself upright to his full, imposing, impossibly tall height.

His fists don’t unclench, though.

“Let me go, lass.”

I release him, having done what I could to mitigate whatever damage he might cause. Ahead of us, the young man takes note of Hades and I with mild interest. As soon as I let Hades go, the young man’s face grows red.

He barks something at the woman, who throws a look over her shoulder at us. She pales and hurries the two little girls toward the car.