Page 10 of Winning Back Persephone (Jinx Paranormal Dating Agency #9)

PERSEPHONE

Standing outside Hades' front door made me hyper-aware of what a terrible idea this was. I should be keeping well away from a private space where there was no one to be a buffer between us, especially when there was no doubt that I wanted to touch him whenever we were alone together.

But he'd invited me for dinner, and it seemed rude to refuse, even if both of us knew that it would make more sense for us to stay well away from one another.

Despite that, I reached up and pressed the doorbell, letting him know that I was here. My heart raced as I waited for him to answer what used to be our front door, wondering whether he might have changed his mind and decided that he wasn't interested in having dinner with me after all.

My thoughts stopped as it swung open, and I found him standing on the other side in a button-down shirt. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had dressed nicely for the occasion, having selected a dress I knew he liked me in.

"Good evening," I said. "I brought wine." I held out the bottle, knowing that it was one of his favourites. Despite that, he rarely bought it for himself, and I'd seriously considered getting a crate of it just to make sure he had some in the house for when he wanted it.

"Thank you. Why don't you come in?"

I stepped past him, brushing against him as I did and making both of us pause. I opened my mouth to say something about the fact we shouldn't do this. That I should turn around and go home, but I was cut off by a happy bark and the scratch of paws against the floor.

A new flood of emotions filled me that had nothing to do with Hades.

Without even thinking about it, I crouched down. "Hey, Cebby," I said, ruffling the head of the dark grey dog. He sniffed at me, his tail wagging far too quickly. "You're going to hurt yourself."

Hades chuckled and took the wine from me. "He's missed you."

My heart ached for the life I used to have. The one that involved this man and our dog. His dog. Cerberus had never been mine.

The dog pushed his head further into my hands, and I fussed him more.

"If you let me come inside, we can have cuddles," I told him. Some of the urges I'd felt that brought me here were overpowered by the thought of curling up on the sofa we'd bought five years ago with Cebby on my knee and a glass of wine.

Hades watched me with a slightly sad smile on his face. "I can get drinks and check on dinner."

I nodded, still fussing Cebby and trying to ignore the sting of tears at the corners of my eyes. I'd missed the dog more than I expected to, and being here was already reminding me of everything I'd lost when Hades and I had called it quits.

"Come on, Cebby," I said. "Let's go to the living room."

The dog cocked his head to the side as if trying to work out what I meant. It seemed to click, and he bounced off, his bum in the air and a playfulness that was undeniable and very different from the way he protected.

I sucked in a breath as I stepped into the living room, finding it almost exactly the same as it had been when I left. Including the bonsai tree that I'd left because I knew Hades liked it, even if he never said as much.

And it was thriving. He'd clearly been taking care of it even though I knew gardening didn't come particularly easy to him.

Cebby barked, breaking through my thoughts.

"All right, I'll give you scratches," I promised, sitting on the sofa and patting it.

He wasted no time jumping up and rolling onto his back. I gave him the tummy scratches that I knew he loved. He let out a rumble of contentment, filling me with warmth and sadness all at the same time.

Sounds came from the door, and I looked up to see Hades entering with two glasses of wine in his hands. Cebby reacted too, turning so he could put his head on my knee.

"He really has missed you," Hades said as he handed me my glass.

Our fingers brushed as I took it and the reaction was instant within me, but I ignored it. "I've missed him too," I admitted.

He gave me a weak smile and sat on the other side of the sofa, with too much space between us, and yet not enough at the same time.

"I suppose it's a good thing that he didn't greet me with growling and all three of his heads," I mused as I stroked the silky soft head on my lap.

Hades chuckled. "You know the extra two heads can't do any damage."

"Of course. I'm not about to forget that two of Cebby's heads are just some kind of illusion. You've never even told me how that came to be."

"I don't know," he answered. "That's why I never told you."

I stopped stroking Cebby. "You don't know?" The dog reshuffled himself in a way that I suspected meant that I was supposed to keep giving him attention.

He nodded. "I always assumed that Typhon had something to do with it, considering that legend says that Cerberus is his child. He came to be with me after the disagreement with the Titans."

I laughed. "You're going to call a war a disagreement?"

"That's what they tried to pass off Troy as, and that involved the destruction of an entire city."

"Mmm, fair point." I scratched Cebby behind his ears.

"After the war with the Titans, I found him at the entrance to the god realm, and then he kind of followed me. It wasn't until Leuce visited for the first time that I saw his ability. He didn't like her at first."

"Mmm." Even after all this time, it was difficult for me to hear of Hades' first love, even if she'd been dead for a very long time, and his dog hadn't liked her.

Except that I shouldn't be giving any thought to my former husband's love life. It was none of my business.

"He didn't like Minthe very much either," Hades said.

I tensed. "He knew you should have been with me, not her."

Hades chuckled. "We were separated," he pointed out. "You can't get angry at me for trying to move on."

"Is that what you're doing now?" My heart raced as I waited for the response.

He shrugged. "It's what you told me to do."

I looked away, not wanting him to see how hurt I was by the statement. I didn't want him to move on, even if I knew it wasn't fair of me to ask him not to.

"You signed up for Jinx too," he said.

I wiped a single tear away. "My mother was pressuring me." I didn't add that it was also because of how hurt I'd been to run into him at a Jinx event in the first place when he rarely wanted to leave his club in the god realm.

"Ah, I should have guessed."

"She's pleased that we're..." My voice cracked.

"Sephie..."

"Let's not talk about this," I said. "Let's just have dinner and stay on safe topics."

"If that's what you want."

No . "Yes." In truth, I wasn't sure what I wanted. This was an unprecedented situation, and one that I didn't know what to do with. "Let's just enjoy dinner."

"We can do that. It should be ready in about ten minutes."

I nodded. "You've done well with the tree."

"It took some learning," he admitted. "But the internet was helpful."

"You didn't have to do that."

"I did. I wanted to keep it alive for when you..." He trailed off, but I knew exactly what he had been going to say. He'd kept the tree alive for when I came home. He believed that this was only temporary.

Pain lanced through my heart. What was I doing? Clearly he was willing to return to what we had before. The only thing standing in our way was me not wanting to admit that I'd been wrong and worrying that things hadn't actually changed so we'd be right back here again in another two years.

But those were thoughts that I should examine when I was on my own. Right now, I was with Hades, and we were going to have a nice dinner together. I should focus on enjoying that and nothing else.