Chapter 13

13

Persephone jerked out of her dream. A nightmare. She’d stood at her wedding, said her vows, and then Hades turned into a monster and carried her off. She’d screamed and reached out to the wedding guests for help but Hermes and all the rest only sipped their drinks and laughed.

She squeezed her eyes shut again and rolled to her side. Something tugged her ankle with a clink. The chain.

It wasn’t a dream.

The wedding. The wedding night when he’d filmed the whole thing and had been so cruel… But then he’d changed again. He was so tender after she’d broken the statue. Then the… punishment.

It had been humiliating to be taken over his knee like that, but she told herself she was allowing it because she needed to get underneath his defenses. Trying to make a run for it again had been just as stupid and useless as the first time.

She just needed to outsmart him. To play by his rules for a little while. Give him what he wanted and gain his trust. Already he’d made her leash longer. He couldn’t keep her here locked up forever.

He wanted her as a trophy and what fun was a trophy if you couldn’t show it off in public? If she played his games, maybe he’d give her more and more leeway, and then she could make her escape once she had a real shot at it.

The problem was, once his ‘punishment’ had started…

Her eyes all but rolled back in her head as she remembered. At first it was just a confusing mix of pain and pleasure while he spanked her.

But then…it went somewhere else entirely. She didn’t even know how to explain it. It was like she’d floated off the ground while still being in her own body. Like a timeout from real life where she didn’t have to worry about anything except sensation. And pleasure, oh gods, the pleasure. She hadn’t even known it was possible to come that many times.

She gave over her body to him, leaping off a cliff and knowing, just absolutely knowing that he would catch her.

What the hell was that about?

Her cheeks heated and her stomach went liquid at the memories. Every time he touched her, she melted.

She scrubbed her hands down her face and looked out the window. She didn’t know how long she’d napped. It looked like it might be nearing sunset.

She slipped off the bed, testing her new, longer leash. The chain let her go to the bathroom, if she sat with her foot outstretched. How generous.

The shackle around her ankle didn’t have a lock to pick, as far as she could tell. Same with the collar.

You won’t act like a wife, fine. You’re still my property.

She clenched her teeth, shaking off memories of the confusing pleasure. Fuck that. Just because he could play her body like a violin didn’t change anything.

“Yeah, I said ‘fuck,’” she said, looking around the room. “Get used to it.” Her mother taught her good girls didn’t swear, but where had being good gotten her?

Tied to her bed on her wedding night.

She spent long minutes testing the strength of the chain and the bedpost securing it before giving up.

She glared up again at the camera in the corner, red light still blinking at her. “I’m hungry,” she announced. She was only a little bit hungry after the filling breakfast earlier, but she had the feeling it was a request Hades wouldn’t ignore. He seemed to have a thing about taking care of her physical needs. She’d bet that in a minute, Hades would enter and tell her whatever humiliating task she had to perform for food. And she’d do it.

Submit. Survive. Escape.

“Any day now,” she muttered, flopping back on the bed. She was still naked. Her new husband seemed to like her like this. Helpless. Naked. Chained. The sick fuck.

She ran her hands over her arms and then her chest. She’d gotten through her first day of marriage. What would tonight bring?

More of the same, no doubt. He would come for her and she would bend, bow, and scrape. She couldn’t help it. Something in her responded to him. He held all the cards, but she’d do anything to stay in the game. So yes, she’d bend. But she wouldn’t break. She’d remain her own no matter what he did.

No matter how many times he called her, “Mine.”

Long minutes passed and he didn’t come. Was it because he knew she was trying to exert some small control over the situation? She crossed her arms over her chest but she couldn’t help her thoughts from straying where they always did. His body strong and beautiful as a god’s, powerful, all consuming. Thinking about it, her breath came faster and her nipples pebbled.

How could she resist his power over her?

Stroking her right arm absently, her wrist brushed her nipple. Heat shot from the tight bud to her awakened core. Whenever Hades walked into a room, her body came alive.

Maybe she could... No, she shouldn’t…

But what if she did?

She bit her lip. And then, easing back, she opened her legs. The first graze of her fingers was like the coming of spring, warmth breathing over the land. The heat unfurled and bloomed with a thousand petals bursting open. She’d never dared touch herself before. Her body was a secret garden and only one man held the key.

Fuck that. Her finger dipped into her wet channel, spreading silky slick over her inner folds.

Why had she waited so long to do this? This wasn’t shameful or indecent. It felt?—

“Oh gods,” she groaned, her legs tightening, her eyelids fluttering closed. The pad of her finger found a spot that sent electric sparks through her.

Forget Hades, she could please herself.

On second thought, Hades… His hard face filled her vision, silver eyes flashing, the points of his cheeks tinged red with anger and arousal. Mmmm, yes, right there.

Her back arched as her finger circled her clit. So good.

She blinked languorously?—

“Hades!” she yelped and scooted back, giving herself room to sit up.

Her husband loomed over her.

“Enjoying yourself, wife?” There was a world of tension in the word ‘wife.’

“Actually, I am.” Her voice came out an airy squeak, with nothing of the defiance she intended.

He followed her, a storm cloud dark with barely controlled violence. He gripped her wrist, brought it to his lips. He held her gaze as he sucked her fingers into his mouth.

She whimpered, pressing her thighs together. Who was she kidding? The pleasure brewing between her legs was a volcano now compared to the flickering flame of her earlier arousal. Hades cleaned her essence off her fingers, tongue curling around each delicate digit until she closed her eyes, dizzy with pleasure.

His left hand cupped the place between her legs. “This belongs to me. You feel pain and pleasure only at my command.” For a beautiful moment, the heel of his hand grazed her clitoris. A shockwave rolled through her.

He released her and it was gone. Persephone bit back a moan. Her body throbbed, mourning the loss.

“Well, excuse me, lord and master.” There was her defiance. Apparently losing out on an orgasm made her cranky and unhinged her brain from all survival instinct, because she kept snarking. “I didn’t realize you were going to take over all my body functions.”

“Everything, Persephone. All of you belongs to me.”

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Well, in that case, your stomach is hungry. Feed me.”

He moved to the bedpost and crouched next to the chain. His body blocked her view, so she didn’t see how the mechanism worked.

Next time. He had to slip up at some point.

He returned with the chain in hand and gave it a thoughtful tug. “I’ll feed you. But you’ll still be punished for touching what belongs to me.”

“How are you going to punish me this time? Tie me up? Humiliate me? Spank me?Oh wait, you’ve already done all that.”

“You think this is the worst that could happen?” He wound the chain around his wrist, tugging her upward.

She came to her feet, quivering at his closeness. She wanted to rage at him, to beat his chest and scream and rip out his heart like he’d ripped out hers. The rest of her wanted him to touch her, strong and sure and gentle, satisfying the hunger that beat inside her.

He drew her up on tiptoes. She gave him her best glare, but she was caught and at his mercy, a fish on a line.

He opened his mouth to say something and her stomach growled loud enough to echo through the room.

Hades closed his mouth, amusement glimmering in his silver eyes. “Hungry?”

“Already told you I was.” She could fight him better with a full belly.

Dinner was much the same as breakfast. Her on the cushion at his feet. Him feeding her filet mignon bite by delicious bite. Sometimes he didn’t use the fork. He made her suck the juices off his fingers.

And she did it, becoming wetter and wetter each time, especially when his thumb lingered in her mouth, caressing her bottom lip and dragging down her throat to her chest where he plucked at her nipples.

She moaned helplessly, so riled up she was sure that he could make her come with only a few swipes of his fingers. Or better yet, his tongue.

When dinner was finished, he didn’t lift her up on the table like before. And when he took her back to the room, he merely reattached her chain to the bed.

And then.

He.

Left.

“Wait,” Persephone said, “where you going?

He turned at the threshold and looked back at her. “Miss me already? Do you want me to stay?” There was a hungry wolf in his eyes as he asked it.

“No,” Persephone said automatically. “I hate you.”

“Well, your wish is my command,” he said, completely solicitous. The next second, though, the wolf was back, all predator. “But if I so much as see your hand brush that pussy that belongs to me without my say-so, believe me, you will not like the consequences. You’ll wish for the days when you were merely tied to the bed.” The ice in his voice sent a shiver down Persephone’s spine.

She lifted her chin and glared at him. “Get out if you’re going to go. I can’t stand to look at you another second.”

His mouth lifted in a half smile. “Beware what you wish for, little girl.”

And then he was gone.