CHAPTER XX: A GAME OF PASSION

CHAPTER XX – A GAME OF PASSION

Hades appeared in his office, hand still twined with Persephone’s. His body was tight with anticipation, and his mind whirled with the possibilities of this night. Why had she been so eager to know about his relationship with Minthe? If he answered, would she succumb to him?

They stared at one another for a moment, and Hades released her hand, fingers trailing her palm. He reached to untie her mask. The movement felt intimate but right, and he had never felt so much longing. It curled in the bottom of his stomach and made his throat feel tight.

“Wine?” he asked as he approached the bar, removing his own cumbersome mask.

“Please.” She spoke quietly, and his chest felt heavy as he imagined that word poised upon her tongue as she begged him to fill her.

He poured her a glass and slid it toward her. She took it, her graceful fingers curling around the stem as she sipped. Hades watched her a moment, distracted by her mouth and the way her tongue snuck out to moisten her lips. Her gaze burned his skin, eyes starved.

“Hungry?” he asked. “You barely ate at the gala.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You were watching me?”

“Darling, don’t pretend you weren’t watching me. I know your gaze upon me like I know the weight of my horns.”

She averted her eyes, blushing. “No, I’m not hungry.”

Pity, he thought, pouring himself a glass of whiskey.

They found themselves on opposite ends of a table before the fireplace, a deck of cards sat at the center.

“The game?” she asked as Hades reached for the cards.

“Poker,” he replied, opening the box and shuffling the cards.

She took a breath. “The stakes?”

At her question, the air thickened, and Hades offered a smile. “My favorite part. Tell me what you want.”

“If I win, you answer my questions.”

He knew it was the bet she would make.

“Deal,” he said as he finished shuffling the cards. “If I win, I want your clothes.”

If she was shocked, she did not show it. “You want to undress me?”

“Darling, that’s only the start of what I want to do to you.”

Had he imagined the quirk of her lips? “Is one win equal to a piece of clothing?”

“Yes,” he said, eyeing her dress—that glorious piece of satin fabric. He hoped it was the only thing she wore. Then her hand drew his attention, brushing the chain of her necklace where it dipped between her breasts.

“And…what about jewelry? Do you consider that undressing?”

He sipped his drink. “That depends.”

“On?”

“I might decide I want to fuck you with that crown on.”

There was no guessing at her smirk now; it curved across her beautiful face, full of mischief. “No one said anything about fucking, Lord Hades.”

“No? Pity.”

She leaned over the table, offering him a full view of her breasts. He groaned inwardly. “I’ll accept your bargain.”

His brows rose. “Confident in your ability to win?”

“I’m not afraid of you, Hades.”

Never, he thought. He would never want her to fear him, even in his darkest moments. The problem was, she had never seen him that way—angry and aggressive and violent. The truth of that statement remained to be seen.

Persephone shivered.

“Cold?” he asked, dealing the first hand.

“Hot,” she rasped and smiled, eyes full of passion.

Hades laid his cards down—a pair of kings.

It was the set of her lips that told him she had lost, and he had confirmation when she laid her cards down. He smiled, and lust ran through his veins, straight to his cock. He assessed her, taking his time scanning her body, deciding what he would take.

“I suppose I will have the necklace.”

When she reached to unfasten it, he stopped her. “No, let me.”

She dropped her hands into her lap as Hades approached. His fingers tingled as he gathered her thick hair in his hands, sweeping it over her shoulder. He unclasped the chain, letting the metal fall between her breasts, liking the way she inhaled as he kissed along her collarbone.

“Still hot?” he asked against her skin.

“An inferno.”

He could practically smell her sex.

“I could free you from this hell.” His lips trailed up the column of her neck.

“We’re just getting started,” she whispered.

His disappointment was heavy, and yet not as burdensome as the pressure building in his cock. He managed a laugh and pulled away, ready for another hand, already thinking of what he would request next.

Except that Persephone won.

She smirked as she placed the cards on the table.

Hades was not pleased, more impatient than anything. He wanted her naked, spread before him. He wanted to be balls-deep inside her. “Ask your question, goddess. I am eager to play another hand.”

He knew what she would say, and he wanted to get it out of the way.

“Have you slept with her?”

He hated this question because it reminded him of a different version of himself. One that felt hopeless and dispassionate. One that sought to rekindle any sense of belonging and need, and he had turned to Minthe. He was not proud, but he knew she would be willing.

It was a decision he regretted, not only because of his insincerity but because he had been unfair to her. He had given her hope when he had no intention of establishing a relationship with her, and that was exactly what she had expected and in the aftermath of their coupling, then he had told her she would never sit beside him as queen.

So he answered the question, a bitter taste on his tongue.

“Once.”

She paled visibly and Hades suddenly understood the emotion Persephone had invested in this question. It meant something to her that he had been with this woman, but would it mean she would deny him?

“How long ago?”

“A very long time ago, Persephone.”

He could not ask her to wait another round for the answer. It did not seem fair when it was so important to her.

At hearing this, she looked away.

“Are you…angry?” he asked.

“Yes.” He was surprised by her honesty, surprised when she met his gaze and expressed her confusion. “But…I don’t know why exactly.”

He tried to imagine what must be going through her head, but when he found himself thinking of her fucking another man, he decided it was the wrong course of action. The thought only served to call up his violence. So he focused on the cards instead, dealing another hand.

This time, he won, and he reclined in his chair, considering the goddess before him. There was not much to commandeer, but it was not so much the taking he enjoyed. It was the tension that ignited the air between them as he considered, and she waited. Finally, he stood and Persephone straightened as he approached, neck straining to hold his gaze.

“I will take the earrings, my darling.”

She was not breathing. He knew because as he leaned toward her, her chest did not move, so as his lips brushed her ear, he whispered, “Breathe.”

And he was rewarded with her sharp exhale. He proceeded to wrap his lips around her earrings and pry them from her ears, catching the backs in his hand. Once they were out, he drew his tongue over the spot, and grazed it with his teeth, noting that her hands gripped the edge of the table.

As he returned to his seat for the next round, he prayed to the Fates who had gifted this woman, and could take her away, that this was the last round. Let me have her. Here, now, on this very table where they had agreed to bargain for clothing and answers and the rest of their lives.

Except the Fates granted no such prayer—or relief for Hades’ raging hard-on—because Persephone won.

“Your power of invisibility,” she began, eyeing him as if she expected him to be surprised that she knew. “Have you ever used it…to spy on me?”

Hades considered her question carefully, particularly the word spy. It was a word that, in this context, sounded like an accusation, and he had a feeling it didn’t come from this evening when he had lingered beside her as she explored the exhibit. That was a different sort of intimacy.

This question had its roots in the night when Hades had watched Persephone masturbate—when he, too, had pleasured himself at the sight.

In truth, he had not been using invisibility, but a different power that involved projecting the soul. Besides, could it really be called spying if she knew he was there?

“No,” he finally answered.

“And will you promise to never use invisibility to spy on me?”

It was not the only method he could use to keep tabs on her, and if he had to give one up, it might as well be invisibility. He hoped that soon, wherever she went, she would want his presence.

“I promise.”

His hands flexed over the cards as Persephone asked another question. “Why do you let people think such horrible things about you?”

As he shuffled the cards, he considered not answering, but decided he would entertain her…and distract himself from the source of his discomfort growing between his legs.

“I do not control what people think of me.”

“But you do nothing to contradict what they say about you.” She seemed irritated about this, which intrigued Hades.

He raised a brow. “You think words have meaning?”

A line appeared between her brows, and he dealt another hand.

“They are just that—words. Words are used to spin stories and craft lies, and occasionally, they are strung together to tell the truth.”

The world was built on words—the words of gods, the words of enemies, the words of lovers.

“If words hold no weight for you, what does?”

When he met her gaze, he felt the whole world shift and approached her. She held his gaze, the air between them morphing into something hot and heavy. Hades let his eyes fall to his cards as he spread them on the table before her—a royal flush.

“Action, Lady Persephone.” His voice rasped, a match igniting. “Action holds weight for me.”

She rose to meet him, their lips colliding, arms and tongues entangling. Their movements were frenzied, like they could not come together fast enough or hard enough. Finally, Hades gripped her hips and turned to sit, dragging her into his lap so that she straddled him. He had the fleeting thought that this dress she wore was made for sex as he drew the straps down her arms, exposing her breasts, kneading them until her nipples were taut. Persephone gasped, biting down on his lip, eliciting a growl from deep in his throat. Her hips rolled against his, and for a brief moment, he helped her move, enjoying the friction the movement elicited. But her breasts pressed against him, and he found himself drawn there, taking each perfect globe in his hand and devouring them with his mouth. Persephone offered a satisfying moan, her head lolling back and forth, her fingers running recklessly through his hair until it hung loose around his face. Soon, the only thing he could hear was her heavy breathing, her precious moans, her frustrated growls, and he moved, hauling her onto the table, hands on her knees spreading them as wide as they would go.

They stared at one another, Persephone elevated on her elbows, Hades bent over her.

“I have thought of you every night since you left me in the baths,” he said, pressing his erection into her heat, and his voice dipped, clouded with the desire he felt. “You left me desperate, swollen with need only for you.” He paused and pressed a kiss to her knee. “But I will be a generous lover.”

He trailed kisses down the inner part of her thigh, following with his tongue until he reached her center. There, he pried her apart, exposing her sensitive pink flesh and her aching clit, and touched it with his tongue, circling it, before licking down her slit. She writhed beneath him, and reached for him, but he clasped her wrists and held them at her sides, looking up at her from his place between her legs.

“I said I would be a generous lover, not a kind one.”

He returned to her sex, skimming with his tongue, lapping at her heat, sinking inside her, all the while he held her hips in place, pressing into her, spurred on by her wicked moans. Soon, his fingers joined his tongue, sinking deep into her heat. She was a furnace, and her muscles clenched around him as he worked, moving in and out while he took her clit into his mouth until she came apart, calling his name.

He wasted no time dragging her to his mouth. He wanted her to taste her need on his lips. As their mouths collided, her hands went to the buttons on his shirt, but before she could work them free, he stopped her, drawing away and fixing her dress.

“What are you doing?”

For a moment, he saw fear flash in her eyes, as if she thought he might leave.

He was far too selfish.

“Patience, darling,”

He gathered her into his arms and strolled out of his study, into the palace halls.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To my chambers,” he said.

“And you can’t teleport?”

“I’d prefer the whole palace know we aren’t meant to be disturbed.”

It was a ridiculous display of masculinity, a primal show of his claim to her, but he wanted the whole castle in an uproar over this night, wanted to leave no doubt in the minds of his people that Persephone was untouchable

Once they were inside his chambers, he lowered her to the floor, keeping her close. He studied her, eyes searching, looking for any sign of hesitation. His greatest fear was her regret, and so he gave her an out.

“We don’t have to do this,” he said.

Her hands flattened on his chest, smoothing over his shoulder until his jacket slid down his arm. It took some maneuvering to tug it over his biceps. Once it was off, she met his gaze.

“I want you. Be my first, be my everything.”

He kissed her, sweetly at first, savoring the feel of her lips against his, but Persephone’s hands roamed, over his stomach and straight to his cock. She held him, and he kissed her harder, hand gripping the back of her head, prying her mouth open as far as it would go, until he could no longer stand being clothed.

He pulled away and spun her around, unzipping her dress and easing it down her shapely hips until she stood naked before him, wearing only her crown and heels.

He wasn’t sure it was possible, but his cock thickened, and his groan was audible. He walked a circle around her, his muscles clenched, fingers flexing. He could not wait to be inside her.

“You are beautiful, my darling.”

His hand cupped her neck, and he kissed her while her fingers fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. He took over when she gave a cry of frustration and yanked at the cloth, chuckling as he shrugged out of his shirt.

A hollow hunger erupted in the pit of his stomach, and he reached for her, but she stepped away. Hades halted, jaw tightening, mind jumping to conclusions. Had she decided she did not want this? But how could she look at him like that and still deny him?

“Drop your glamour,” she said.

He tilted his head, curious.

She shrugged her bare shoulder. “You want to fuck me with this crown; I want to fuck a god.”

Who was he to deny a queen? “As you wish.”

His glamour fell away like shadow, revealing his Divine form, a form he did not often take. It wasn’t that he disliked his true nature, it was that it seemed to make others uncomfortable. He was not ignorant to his size, and with his spiraling horns, he seemed even bigger. His eyes went from black to an electric blue that had been described as uncanny and unsettling, but that wasn’t how he felt when Persephone looked at him. When she looked at him, he felt powerful.

He lifted her from the floor and lowered her to the bed, covering her body with his. He kissed her, lips trailing her neck, her breasts, licking each hard peak as Persephone wiggled beneath him, hands seeking the button of his pants. He chuckled.

“Eager for me, goddess?” he asked as he kissed down her stomach and her thighs until he stood, removing each of her shoes and the rest of his clothes.

When he was naked before her, the air in the room changed, growing thick and hot. Persephone’s eyes looked like embers ignited among ash, and they burned his skin as they passed over his body, lingering on his swollen cock. She rose to her knees, fingers wrapping around his shaft. He inhaled sharply between his teeth, and she looked up at him as if to ask is this okay?

His hand tangled into her hair as she stroked him, her thumb playing with the moisture that gathered at the tip. Then she kissed him there and took him into her mouth. His fingers tightened in her hair.

“Fuck.”

His cock was sheathed in warmth that sent a rush to his head. Her tongue slid against his shaft, teasing and tasting, putting pressure in the right places. For a while, she paid close attention to the very tip, rolling her tongue there, and he gripped her head harder, his other braced against her shoulder. He had the fleeting thought that he hoped he tasted good for her, but she gave no indication otherwise as she moved him in and out of her mouth, teeth faintly grazing his girth. Soon, his hips moved, and he was pumping into her mouth, gripping her head and holding her gaze until he could take it no longer and pulled her away, keeping a hold on her neck.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

He chuckled darkly, staring into her eyes. “No.”

She was perfect. She was everything, and he kissed her again, tongue reaching deep before he pulled away.

“Tell me you want me.”

He needed to hear her say it, because he had not completely told the truth. Words did matter, and the only ones he had heard since the night before were the ones she’d spoken on the steps of the baths. I don’t want you.

“I want you.”

He guided her to her back and stretched out over her, her thighs cradling him, his erection pressing into her stomach. He searched her eyes, his fingers brushing her lips as he whispered. “Tell me you lied.”

“I thought words meant nothing.”

His mouth closed over hers, and as he kissed her, he pressed into her until his shaft ached, until her lips felt raw and swollen against his.

“Your words matter,” he said, nose brushing hers. “Only yours.”

Her answer was to wrap her legs around his waist and draw him against her heat.

“Do you want me to fuck you?”

Her eyes gleamed, desperate, and she nodded.

“Tell me. You used words to tell me you didn’t want me, now use words to say you do.”

She spoke, voice low and husky, and it was the most erotic thing he’d ever heard.

“I want you to fuck me.”

He kissed her again, hand going to his cock as he teased her opening. Beneath him, Persephone arched, heels digging into his ass.

“Patience, darling. I had to wait for you,” he reminded her.

She paused, the pressure of her heels lessening as she offered a quiet apology.

“I’m sorry.”

Then he thrust, filling her completely. He groaned as her body clenched around him, and he paused a moment, fully sheathed, head resting in the crook of her neck. When he lifted himself, he found Persephone’s hand covering her mouth and removed it.

“No, let me hear this,” he said, pinning her wrists over her head.

She was tense beneath him, but after a moment, relaxed, but the pressure on his cock remained. Her sex held him in a vice-like grip, and as he started to move, he never wanted to stop. She spread her legs wider, and he pushed deeper, as if their souls might meet.

“You left me desperate,” he said, pulling out until only the tip of his sex remained. She glared at him, her teeth clenched together until he thrust inside, the ridges of his cock sending pleasure straight to his brain. This is bliss, he thought.

“I have thought about you every night since.”

He could feel her heart beating, smell the vanilla in her hair, taste her sweat on his tongue as he managed to suckle one of her breasts.

“And each time you said you didn’t want me, I tasted your lies.”

This is what it is to be a god.

“You are mine.”

This is humbling. She let him into her body.

“Mine.”

He could feel her come around his cock, a gush of warmth, a convulsion of muscles. He gripped her wrists hard, moving faster, pounding into her harder, until he began to pulse. He pulled out, finishing on her thigh before collapsing on top of her, breathing hard. For a while after, he was lost in the euphoria of the moment. His thoughts tangled with the memories of how they had gotten here—their teasing and touching, bodies coming together, the sounds of their orgasms. Then he began to feel tired, mind numbing from the high.

He met Persephone’s gaze and kissed her eyes, cheeks, and lips.

“You are a test, goddess. A trial offered to me by the Fates.”

He shifted to leave the bed and was surprised when Persephone reached for his hand.

A line appeared between his brows, and he leaned to kiss her, promising, “I will come back, my darling.”

He disappeared into the adjoining bathroom, cleaned himself up, and then wet a cloth for Persephone. Once she was washed, he laid down beside her again, pulling her warm body against his, and they fell into a deep sleep.

***

Hades woke instantly, his cock hard.

He groaned and rocked into Persephone’s warm body, his arousal nesting against her bottom perfectly. He gripped her hips and kissed her neck, and when she turned into him, he climbed on top of her, pinning her wrists over her head so he could tease her with his teeth and lips, reveling in sounds of her breathy moans.

He parted her legs and drank her heat, using his fingers to give her pleasure until she called his name. It made him desperate to be inside her, and he loomed over her body, entering her in one swift push. He moved inside her, and the harder he thrust, the tighter her muscles gripped him.

When he felt close to coming, he switched positions, leaning back on his haunches and bringing her with him. He grasped her hips and helped her move while she held him, her breasts bouncing. Their mouths collided. It was a messy kiss, all tongue and teeth, but it was a mark of the pleasure they shared.

They did not speak, the only sounds coming from their quiet and sleepy lovemaking—breaths and moans and the keen cry of orgasm.

They collapsed, arms and legs tangled, repeating their earlier ritual of washing and burrowing into each other’s warmth, and as sleep descended upon Hades, he had the thought that he would tear this world apart if anyone tried to take Persephone from him.