Chapter 27

27

Persephone leaned against the giant window in the expansive living room of the most expensive penthouse in the most expensive hotel in New Olympus.

Far, far below, people scurried like ants down the narrow sidewalks. Cars crawled through rush hour traffic.

If Persephone waited long enough with her face pressed against the glass, would she see a woman, young and beautiful with stars in her eyes, step off the bus and spin in a slow circle, mouth parted in awe at the magnificent cityscape? Maybe the young woman would look up and imagine someone like Persephone, diamonds in her ears and hair sleekly coiffed away from her made-up face.

Would the young woman be wistful, wondering what it’d be like to live in the penthouse and float in the beautiful world above the streets? If she could hear Persephone whisper, Get back on the bus, run away, would the young woman escape before the darkness swallowed her whole?

Persephone backed away from the window, chest heaving. Only months ago, she’d been that young woman. The city had been beautiful, overwhelming and alien, a far cry from the blue skies and waving wheat of the farm she’d grown up on back in Kansas.

She’d been full of so much hope. She’d ascended the heights and now she lived in her husband’s penthouse, with everything she could desire. Diamonds and dresses, fine art decorating the elegant apartment.

Every morning someone delivered fresh flowers to a giant vase on a pedestal by the door. The blooms filled the open space with their delicate floral scent. The lilies of the field, plucked and cut and perfectly arranged to live one day at the height of their beauty. And tomorrow? Tomorrow they’d be gone. Thrown away.

Persephone crossed to the front door and ran a finger over the silky petals. Here was a rosebud, tightly furled. She could pull it out and place it in a cup of water. It wouldn’t look as grand, but it would still be here tomorrow. She could save one flower. It might be enough...

Crossing the room, she caught a glimpse of herself in a giant gilt mirror. A young face stared back at her, pale and lovely under layers of artful makeup. She’d spent all day at Hermes’s spa and every inch of her skin was plucked, smoothed, and polished. Her hair had been cut and styled as well.

When she’d lived on her mother’s farm, she’d wear old overalls, t-shirts, a farmer’s tan and freckles were her only adornment, and go months without examining herself closely in a mirror.

These days, every inch of her was scrutinized, first by her stylists, then by society when she went out on Hades’s arm. The wife of a wealthy businessman must look the part.

Especially if that man’s business had deep ties to the city’s criminal underworld.

Hades Ubeli, the ruler of New Olympus’ underworld. Her husband.

When he stood by the window, he only saw his kingdom. His abject subjects scurrying far below. They saw only what he wanted them to see, an elegant businessman, handsome and shrewd, with a new and pretty wife.

They applauded his philanthropy and patronized his legit businesses—and only half listened to the whispers about his dark dealings. Only the rich and ultra-powerful knew the truth about Hades Ubeli. He had a representative on every shadowy street corner. Cops, judges and juries were in his pocket. Even the mayor owed him favors.

By the time you learned the truth about Hades Ubeli, it was too late. He owned you, too.

And Persephone was his most prized possession.

Yes, she lived a grand life, far above the masses. Weekly spa visits, shopping sprees, meals in the finest restaurants, entry into the glittering nightlife of New Olympus high society. Beautiful clothes, a magnificent penthouse with its amazing view.

She preferred volunteering at the animal shelter downtown and curling up on a couch with a book, but it didn’t matter. She was a cut flower in a gorgeous vase, beautiful and elegant and dying a little more each day.

Oh yes, she played her part perfectly in exchange for this new life her husband had given her. Because that’s all it was: an even exchange.

Four months ago, she’d thrown herself in front of a bullet for him and saved his life. So now he’d given her all the freedoms she desired, even those that he himself had once denied her... She thought back to those days, miserable but also sort of wonderful through the haze of recollection. Because back then she’d been na?ve enough to believe her husband could one day love her.

He’d disabused her of those notions while she lay on her hospital bed after being shot, just coming out of a coma. He didn’t know she’d overheard him, which made it all the worse because it meant he’d been telling the truth.

Persephone was always a chess piece for me to play against the Titans. And she served her purpose… As an added bonus, wifey dearest made herself a shield and took a bullet for me. I’d say that’s mission accomplished as far as she’s concerned, better than I ever could’ve hoped for. Plus, she’s a great lay, so…

She was just a possession. That was all she’d ever be to him. He’d never loved her. He’d seen her as a commodity and a tool to use against his enemies. And as someone convenient to warm his bed at night. It was all she would ever be to him. He simply wasn’t capable of feeling anything more. At least not for her, a Titan.

Not after finding out that her mom, Demeter, had murdered his sister in cold blood. And come back fifteen years later to finish the job on Hades himself, no matter the fact that Persephone had begged her not to do it, to put the gun down, to stop.

Persephone had chosen Hades.

And taken the bullet meant for him.

She still had the four-inch scar on her stomach from where they’d had to operate to take the bullet out.

But after her recovery, what had there been to come back to? This life, stuck in the no man’s land between two rival gangs, shunned by one because of who she loved but never fully embraced by the other.

“Persephone.” Hades’s deep voice rolled across the room.

She jerked her head up in surprise.

Her husband stood next to the floral bouquet. When had he come in? She hadn’t even heard the front door open, she’d been so deep in her own head.

Hades was as handsome as ever, the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen, if she was being honest. His hands were in his pockets and his face was tilted into the shadows enough that she couldn’t read his expression. Not that she’d be able to read him even if the room were lit with a hundred blinding light bulbs. She didn’t even try anymore.

She knew who he was and what was in his heart. She’d heard him loud and clear. In the days and weeks following the coma, his coldness toward her only reconfirmed everything he’d said that day.

He was solicitous towards her. He provided the best medical care money could buy. He continued giving her countless gifts but he never delivered them himself. His driver, Charon, drove her to rehab every day for two months as she regained her strength.

But Hades worked dawn till dusk and she could go entire days, once an entire week, without seeing him. He was awake before dawn and back long after she fell asleep. Often he’d sleep in the guest bedroom, saying he didn’t want to wake her with his erratic hours.

He never came to any doctor’s appointments yet still seemed to know every last detail of her care regimen. When he did talk to her it was to remind her to take her supplements or to ask if she’d eaten enough. And the day the doctor pronounced her well enough to resume physical activity, he came to their bed at night and made love to her in the dark.

The sex was as intense as ever. Their chemistry in bed was undeniable. Some nights his kisses felt frantic as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him so tightly it was like he was afraid she’d disappear.

Sometimes it was fast, his mouth or hands on her working to bring her to a desperate, wild release, and then he’d bury himself inside her and spill within minutes. Only to wake her up hours later in the middle of the night with his need pressing against her backside, and then he’d take her slowly, so achingly slowly that she thought she might die.

But always in the dark. And when morning came, he was gone as if the night had never been.

Tonight he wore his signature suit, and he looked just as fresh and unwrinkled as he had when he first put it on the day before. His effortless, controlled perfection was as much a mystery to her as on their first day of marriage. His black hair fell across his brow as he looked her up and down.

She stared back out the window, unmoving. “You’re home early.”

“We’re going out tonight—remember? I thought you’d be ready.”

She had on makeup, high heels, and a coiffed updo fresh from the spa, but the rest of her was still wrapped in a robe.

She hadn’t forgotten but still she said, “We’re going out?”

“The concert at Elysium. New act. A big one.”

She looked Hades’s way again as he shrugged and she watched his face carefully. She found herself doing this more and more lately—poking the bear to see if she could get some reaction out of him, some proof that he was really human and could show genuine human emotion. As usual, though, his poker face gave nothing away.

“I always give a photo op on opening night,” he continued.

“I didn’t forget,” she said, turning fully towards him and letting the light christen her hair. He had to squint to try to see her. “In fact, I went shopping for just the right outfit.”

“Did you now?” He rubbed the dark shadow around his jaw, the only evidence of his long work day.

She undid her robe and let it fall in a rustle of silk. As she moved closer, she watched her husband’s eyes grow hot as they took in her body. A black lace camisole with built in bra cupped her breasts. A sexy garter belt was slung low around her waist, holding her sheer black stockings up.

Persephone felt satisfaction at the intense look on his face. “What do you think?”

This was all they had between them.

Sex. Fucking. That was how Persephone thought of it now—as fucking. Or at least how she tried to think of it.

Hades liked fucking her.

She was a good lay, after all, right?

Her teeth ground together at the memory. It was just another reason she’d chosen her outfit so carefully. Sex was a weapon that plenty of women used to control the men in their lives, right? No one would ever control Hades but if she could even get the slightest edge up on him, it would be something. She was determined that the next time they had sex, it would be on her terms. In the light where he’d be forced to see her face.

Hades studied her carefully, letting the silence lengthen between them. He smirked, the barest upward quirk of his lips.

“I think the paparazzi will eat it up.”

He prowled forward, put a commanding hand to the back of her neck, and drew her head to his.

She told herself not to open to him, to play hard to get—after all, what would entice the man who had everything more than being denied the one thing he seemed to crave?—but the second his lips touched hers, her body went liquid. Such was his power over her. Damn it all to hell.

How did he always manage to do that? To get the upper hand? She’d been so determined to master him for once.

But when Hades pulled back for a moment, his dark eyes catching hers, a jolt of pleasure shot through her.

“I like finding you like this,” he whispered. “Waiting so eagerly. Wanting.”

He lifted her up and settled her on the small makeup bureau. Kneeling, he parted her legs and leaned forward toinhale deeply, his teeth catching at the top of her lace panties. “I like smelling how much you want me.”

Persephone felt her face flame. For as calm, cold, and professional as Hades was on the outside to everyone else she’d ever seen him interact with, it was still shocking how crass and brutish he could sometimes be in bed. Or on the makeup bureau, as it were.

She rubbed her legs together but he wasn’t having it. He shoved her thighs open wide and stepped between them as he rose back up, the front of his fancy suit pants jutting obscenely. He made quick work of unbuckling and unzipping them. And all her plans went out the window. She just wanted him inside her now, whatever way she could have him.

She thought he might shove into her quick and harsh, like he often did in the dark. No matter how many times she told herself, not again, she always ended up welcoming him into her arms, clinging to him, and spending all day living for the half hour at night when his hands would reach for her in the darkness.

In those moments, it was so easy to let herself forget the truth of their situation. That to him, she was only a trophy of his latest victory. Because he had been victorious in quelling the brief insurgency the Titans had attempted on New Olympus. It had been months and there was no word from the gang her mother now apparently ran.

Hades had triumphed, as he always did. There was no point resisting him. He had a will unlike anyone she had ever met and that was saying something, considering that she’d been raised by Demeter Titan.

And yet still Persephone had to cling to her sense of self. She couldn’t let herself be obliterated by Hades completely. It was why she continued her futile campaign to gain the upper hand in this marriage. She might never escape him but it didn’t mean she had to be tormented forever by her unrequited love for him.

But wait, no, she didn’t love him. It had merely been infatuation.

And it was an infatuation she would cure herself of, one way or another… But she’d been trying for months with no success.

In the meantime, she meant to gain more of an even footing with him. It was why she’d thrown herself so violently into society life. She was determined to have a life apart from him. And maybe, if she asserted herself more in their bed play, then she wouldn’t feel so completely overwhelmed by him each time and so shattered in the aftermath.

She could only piece herself back together so many times.

Because while she knew in her head that to Hades it was only fucking, to her stupid heart it often felt like making love.

Which was why she’d put on her armor today and surprised him in a full-frontal assault.

But five minutes later, he had her on her back and one hand splayed ever so gently across her throat.

His dark eyes searched hers for a quick moment and her breath caught. He was so gorgeous, his face sculpted with sharp lines and commanding angles. Even through the tux she could feel the power of his large body, muscles bulging against the expensive tailored fabric.

She lifted a hand, reaching toward his cheek. How long since she’d seen him like this in the light of day?

But he grabbed her wrist before she could make contact and slammed her wrist to the bed above her head, pinning it there. She couldn’t help the whimper that escaped her at the commanding move. Everything he did turned her on. Everything he was.

She thought he would pull himself out and take her right there. She was only a few seconds away from begging for it.

Instead, though, he pulled back and flipped her over so that she was on her hands and knees. He didn’t make her wait long, though. He dragged her lace underwear down and immediately stroked inside her. She was drenched and his passage was smooth.

Apparently he wasn’t looking for smooth.

He pulled out and rammed into her roughly and gods, it felt so good. Like he was claiming her. Like she’d actually managed to rile him up for once.

She shifted her backside needily against him and he swore, clutching her hips in a punishing grip as he continued to pound into her.

She tried to look over her shoulder at him but he wasn’t having it. He put a hand on her neck urging her down to the bed, ass up.

He followed, his body dominating hers as his relentless thrusting continued. “Next time you think to tempt me with such slinky little underthings, goddess,” he hissed in her ear, “remember to be careful what you wish for. You only make me want to remind you who you belong to.”

She’d been on the edge since he first thrust into her but his words sent her over. He was hitting that perfect spot deep inside. Yes, oh gods, yes.

In order to stop herself from howling Hades’s name as she came, she thrust her face into the pillow.

But he knew her too well. He pulled back and stopped thrusting right as the first astounding bloom of her orgasm hit.

She cried out with the loss of it and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her still. “Say my name,” he commanded in a low, guttural voice. “Say who you belong to.”

She shook her head in an attempted denial but he just gripped her tighter and gave her a slight shake. “Say who you belong to.”

His cock teased at the edge of her entrance, tormenting her, her pleasure was so close and yet so far away.

“Hades,” she finally wailed and he slammed back into her, immediately lighting her back up. She screamed his name again as her pleasure ramped higher and higher and then exploded like a night full of firecrackers.

Hades thrust himself to the root right as she clenched and spasmed around him, his grip on her body never lessening an iota.

Together, they came, as the light of sunset streamed through the window.

As the pop and sparkle of her orgasm finally dissipated, she panted, short of breath, her entire body alive but languid with satisfied pleasure. And Hades still held her from behind, though he rolled them so that they lay on their side. Him spooning her, his cock still hard inside her and every few moments he’d thrust again, like he wasn’t ready to let go no matter the fact that he’d already spent.

His fingers trailed the back of her neck. “I missed this.”

Her heart was heavy, full to bursting with the things she wished she could say. “You can have it anytime you want.” You can have me.

“Oh, I know.” She could hear his arrogant smile in his words.

She was glad she was faced away from him. It made her braver somehow, so she continued. “You’ve been so busy lately.”

“Miss me?” She thought he sounded pleased.

“As much as you missed me.” She rocked against his hardness. His cock shifted and swelled. His fingers found the back of her neck, no longer stroking but clamping down on the sensitive points.

“I have a weakness when it comes to you.” He pulled out of her and left her side to clean up. When he returned, she was still huddled on the bed, back to him.

He came around the bed and his fingers lifted her chin. “What’s wrong?”

She was done bottling her frustration. “Only you would describe it as weakness.”

“What would you call it?” No sarcasm, just curiosity.

“I don’t know…” His honest expression made her bold. “Affection?”

Her heart pounded through the silent seconds. His hungry gaze dropped to her lips and she felt it like a kiss.

His hands cupped her cheeks, and then he kissed her for real.

“Affection,” he agreed. He stroked her hair, petting her like she was an adorable kitten he allowed to sleep on his bed. And her stupid, stupid heart leaped up like he’d declared his love from the rooftops.

“What if we…” Persephone’s breath hitched but she continued, “what if we just stayed in tonight?” She felt her vulnerability stretched raw, right out there for anyone to see as she asked it. But she didn’t take it back. “I— I could make it worth your while.” She reached out and placed a hand on the front of his pants, where his cock stirred.

His hand shot down and firmly clasped around her wrist, though, stopping her. She felt her heart sink as he stepped back. He was about to reject her. Again.

“Orpheus is the hottest music act on the East Coast. The press will be there to catch the celebrities attending the concert, and I want them to see you with me. I need you there by my side.”

Aha. Of course. He needed Mrs. Ubeli on his arm for a photo op, a distraction to the cameras. Tonight she’d be her husband’s arm candy, dressed to dazzle, drawing the camera’s eye to the scandalous slit of her dress or her long bare leg exiting the car.

She squeezed her eyes shut to stop a stupid tear from escaping. She legitimized his business, she knew, with her innocent looks and role as the dutiful wife. Like the magician’s assistant, she took the focus off him and left him free to whatever quiet business he had in the background.

It was their unspoken arrangement, as contractual as the rest of his business dealings were. She played the role of Mrs. Ubeli and in return he did her the great honor of not killing her and to the best of his ability, pretending she was not a Titan.

But she would never truly be family and she would certainly never be anyone he could ever love. Men like Hades didn’t understand that emotion. They understood power, and in this relationship, he had it and she didn’t.

She’d been an idiot yet again, showing even an ounce of weakness by asking him to stay in tonight.

She turned away from him and forced her voice to be steady and cool. “I’ll be ready in an hour.”