Chapter 4

4

“We have to stop meeting like this,” Persephone joked nervously as Hades opened the door to his penthouse hotel suite and gestured for her to come in.

The edge of his mouth quirked up in a half smile. Was he laughing at her joke or at her? Not that it mattered either way. He was doing her a huge favor.

“I really appreciate this,” she said. “It’ll just be for the night.” She cringed. “Or maybe a couple of nights? As soon as I get another nannying gig, I’ll be out of your hair, I swear.”

Hades didn’t say anything, he just watched her with that inscrutable look on his face. He tilted his head, indicating she should come in. Well, further in than the foyer where she was babbling like an idiot.

“Charon mentioned you hadn’t eaten yet.”

“Oh,” Persephone said, surprised to see an elaborate table set up in a small dining area. The windows were still not darkened.

She took several more steps forward, awed by the glittering tableau. She’d seen it earlier, but had been too distracted to take it in properly. Now, she swayed as she faced rows and rows of skyscrapers, the entire city laid at her feet.

“I’ve never been so high up,” she whispered. She wanted to go right up to the window but kept back. Looking down on the skyscrapers made her dizzy. “I mean, I knew we must be up this high from how long the elevator ride took, but…” she trailed off, shaking her head.

When she looked back at Hades, his head was tilted, his eyes narrowed at her like she was a particularly peculiar species of zoo animal.

She felt her cheeks heat and lifted her hands to them. Gods, why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut? And not let every single thing she was feeling and thinking show on her face?

She moved abruptly to go sit down at the table. “Thank you, I am famished.”

Hades moved as she did, getting there right before her and holding her chair for her as she sat down.

His scent enveloped her, his arm brushing hers, and like earlier when he’d escorted her downstairs, the merest touch sent a jolt of electricity through her entire body.

She gasped and sat down, grabbing the seat of the chair and scooting herself in. “Thank you.” She ran a hand nervously through her hair as she smiled up at him.

Her plate was covered with a fancy silver plate topper. She lifted it off and steam wafted up. “Oh!” she said, surprised again. Hades chuckled as he sat down across from her.

“I hope you don’t mind but I took the liberty of ordering for us. Roasted lamb shank, corn and leek grits, ruby chard, roasted rutabaga, topped with goat cheese.”

“Oh,” Persephone said yet again, nodding and looking down at her plate, eyes wide. She didn’t think she’d ever seen such a large piece of meat. At least not on a plate set in front of her.

“You aren’t a vegetarian, are you?”

“No,” she said quickly. She and Mom did mostly eat vegetarian, but it hadn’t been due to any choice on Persephone’s part. That was the point of leaving, wasn’t it? So that she could finally have choices in her life?

Persephone smiled and reached for her fork…only to find there were several forks. She grabbed the one nearest the plate and smiled wider. “Cheers,” she said, lifting the fork like it was a wine glass she was toasting with.

Hades chuckled again and she averted her eyes to her plate, digging into the lamb shank. It was so well-cooked and tender, it melted off the big bone. Tentatively, she lifted it to her mouth.

And almost embarrassed herself even more by moaning out loud. She stopped herself at the last second, but holy crap.

Her eyes flew to Hades and as soon as she finished chewing and swallowing the bite, she couldn’t help saying, “Oh my gods, that’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.”

He sat back in his chair, brow wrinkled like he’d never seen anything like her before. He hadn’t touched his food yet.

“Aren’t you going to have yours? It’s delicious. Trust me.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” he said. “I’ll give your compliments to the chef.”

She nodded as she eagerly forked another big bite. “Please do,” she said before shoving the forkful into her mouth. Dear gods, this was what she’d been missing out on the last nineteen years of her life? Now she had even more to begrudge her mother. It was a crime to have never encountered food this good before.

Her mom was a fan of boiled vegetables. And rice. Plain white rice. Food was fuel, that’s what her mom always said. Just fuel.

“Wait till we get to dessert,” Hades said, finally taking a bite of his food, his eyes never leaving her.

“What’s dessert?”

“Chocolate mousse.”

Persephone fought against licking her lips. She adored chocolate.

“So tell me. What made you change your mind and come back?”

“Oh.” Obviously, her favorite word for the evening. “Well, I went by my former employers to pick up my, um, paycheck and my belongings, but there was, um…” Persephone looked toward the window. “…a little bit of an issue.” She glanced back Hades’s way and then down at her plate. “Anyway, I wasn’t able to get my paycheck or any of my things. They’d already thrown them out. And I lost my phone last night when that man… So I didn’t have anyone’s phone number because they were all in the phone and I didn’t know where to go without any money…”

She shoved another bite of lamb shank into her mouth if only to cut herself off from saying anything else. She hazarded another glance at Hades. He had his glass of wine in his hand, but he set it abruptly down on the table, frowning. “They didn’t give you the money they owed you?”

Persephone swallowed the meat and reached for her cup of water. All of a sudden she felt hot. She fanned herself with her other hand. Did he feel like it was hot in here?

Hades was still staring at her, obviously expecting an answer, so she shook her head, three quick shakes back and forth.

It was embarrassing enough experiencing it the first time around, but now having to tell Hades seemed like adding insult to injury. She didn’t know what was worse, him knowing all the details of her pathetic situation or thinking she was a mooch, eager to eat his fancy food and sleep in his fancy penthouse hotel suite.

“That’s not acceptable.”

The dark look that crossed his face on her behalf both pleased and scared her a little.

She quickly waved a hand. “It’s one of those things that happens, I guess. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“But surely you have some money in the bank?”

Gods, could she die of embarrassment?

“I don’t have a bank account. I kept it all in cash.”

She could feel his eyes on her even without looking up. “And, well, I don’t exactly have an ID either. Or a social security number. My mom’s kind of…intense, I guess is one way to put it. I grew up way out in the middle of nowhere on a farm and my mom homeschooled me and everything. Mom wanted to be off the grid.”

Persephone fiddled with her fork in her grits. “Like, really off the grid. Apparently she even gave birth to me at home and never, you know, got a birth certificate or social security card or anything for me.”

Persephone braced herself and finally looked up at Hades. But she couldn’t read a single thing from his features. It wasn’t that his face was blank—his eyes were lit with interest, but he didn’t look as shocked or appalled as she’d expected. It gave her the courage to go on.

“So when I left home and came to the city, I didn’t have any paperwork. I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t know you needed that kind of thing to get a job. But it turns out it’s really important.”

“But you still got the nannying job.”

She shrugged. “They were fine with paying me cash.”

“And they didn’t require references?”

“They told me they’d have a nanny cam on me at all times and I got along really well with Timmy during our trial play date. Plus, I wasn’t asking for as much money as other nannies, I learned later.”

And it had been Paul who’d interviewed her, not Diane. Persephone shuddered. Was that the real reason he’d hired her? Because he found her attractive and had hoped to have an affair with her?

“Well, first of all, we need to start the process for getting you a social security card. You’ll be crippled for life without one.”

Persephone’s mouth dropped open. First by the we and second by how confident he sounded that she could actually get a social security card. She’d looked into it on the internet a few times but almost everything that came up was only for how to get documents for babies born at home while they were still babies. Not when they were nineteen.

She’d thought about going to the social security office and asking but had gotten afraid. What if she got in trouble for not having the documents? She couldn’t actually prove she was who she said she was. She couldn’t even prove she was a citizen and with how crazy everything had been with immigration lately, what if they tried to deport her to a foreign country? Yes, she was good at thinking in terms of worst-possible-scenarios. After living with her paranoid mom all her life, it was usually her knee jerk reaction.

Besides, she’d gotten the nanny position so it didn’t seem so important and definitely not worth the risk.

Feeling stupid even as she asked it, she couldn’t help herself. “Doesn’t that seem, I don’t know…risky? How do I prove that I am who I say I am?”

“I’ll have my lawyer look into it, but I imagine it will involve a series of affidavits by your mother and people who knew her while she was preg?—”

“No,” Persephone said sharply.

Hades’s eyebrows went up.

Crap. How to explain this? “My mom and I didn’t part on the best of terms, is all.”

Hades nodded, looking thoughtful.

Persephone took another bite of her food if only for something to busy her hands with when Hades asked, “Have you ever done any modeling?”

Her eyes bulged and she choked, grabbing for her napkin and dabbing at the red sauce she was sure was all over her mouth.

She hurriedly chewed and laughed. “Ha ha,” she said. “Funny joke.”

He wasn’t laughing, though. His features were set with their stone intensity again. “When I’m telling a joke, you’ll know it, Persephone.”

She scoffed. “I don’t look like a model.”

How many times had her mother picked on her appearance? Why won’t you let me cut bangs again? Your forehead is obnoxiously huge. It needs to be covered. And what have you been eating? I’m surprised you can make it through the door with those hips.

Hades’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be one of those girls who pretends she doesn’t know she’s beautiful.”

Persephone’s cheeks flamed. Oh gods, did he think she was fishing for compliments? She waved a hand at him but he persisted.

“I have a friend who’s a fashion designer, Hermes, and I know he’d love to get his hands on you.”

Her mouth dropped open again, the second time in as many minutes. Get his hands on?—

“Not like that.” Hades tilted his head, his grey eyes turning dark. “No one will ever lay hands on you again.”

The way he said it had a quality of finality that probably should have disturbed her. And was it just her or did she read an implicit, “Except me,” in his eyes in the silence after his statement?

“But it would be work I think you’d enjoy,” he went on. “You’d get to meet people your age.” He smiled in a way that made her feel every one of the years between them. “And wear pretty clothes.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’d feel more comfortable in overalls and flannel. Farm girl, remember?”

Although more than once, she had snuck into her mother’s closet and tried on the heels hidden in a box at the very back. She’d about broken her ankle the first few times she tried walking in them but had eventually gotten the hang of it. She’d dreamed about the sort of life Hades was describing, but in the same way she dreamed about knights and castles from her books. Not as anything that could ever be real.

“You own businesses, right?” she asked. “Why can’t I work for you?”

“Out of the question,” he snapped and Persephone shrank back from the table.

Hades swiped at his mouth with a napkin. His eyes were on her again. “I own bars. Hotels that aren’t in the best parts of town. Not where an angel belongs.”

Persephone frowned a little. She wasn’t sure she liked being thought of as an angel all that much. The more she got to know Hades, the more she thought she might like to be right down here on the earthly plane with him. For him to see her as a woman.

A chair scraped and Hades’s shadow fell over her. “Persephone,” he took her hand and it happened again, the electricity, but far more intensely this time. Warmth pulsed up her arm, her blood simmering, the flush spreading over her chest and rolling down. Persephone gasped and Hades’s forehead crinkled. “Persephone?”

She stared at him as her body throbbed, her lips tingling and breasts swelling. From his touch. One touch. She never even knew that was possible.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Yes.” Her mouth still worked even though her throat had gone suddenly dry. A miracle. “I’m good,” she whispered.

Hades narrowed his eyes a moment before his face softened. His thumb stroked over her pulse. Her limbs turned liquid.

“Angel,” he said softly, and the way he said it sent thrills through her.

He didn’t say anything more, and he didn’t have to. Did he… Was he... feeling it too? He had to know how he affected her. And he didn’t pull away.

His grey eyes gleamed. Oh gods, he was. He was interested. In her.

Very interested, if the way his nostrils flared were any indication.

This was nuts, totally nuts. But it was happening. It was, wasn’t it? She wasn’t just making things up in her head? She searched his eyes, feeling desperate from all the sensations he was stirring inside her.

“Why are you helping me?” she blurted the question that had plagued her since she’d woken this morning. “I’m no one.”

A final squeeze, and his tall, powerful frame moved gracefully back to his seat. She felt breathless, all the nerves in her body still firing from his touch.

He looked down at his plate, his expression shadowed. The silence stretched.

“It’s just, you’re doing all these things for me. And I’m so grateful, don’t get me wrong. But if I could understand why?—”

“You remind me of someone,” he said, eyes still on his plate, and she didn’t miss the way his jaw worked. “Let’s say helping you is paying a debt I owe.”

“Oh.” Persephone’s stomach sank to the floor, all the lovely feelings dissipating. She was a debt to him? So much for him seeing her as a woman. She felt so foolish. Like a schoolgirl with a crush.

“And this city is a dangerous place. I know better than anyone. I had a sister who was a little younger than you when I lost her.”

A sister? And he’d lost her? Persephone immediately felt like a witch for being so self-absorbed. Schoolgirl indeed.

“I’m so sorry. Hades.” She reached across the table and laid her hand on his. “What happened? No, gods, I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me.” She gave his hand a squeeze and he exhaled a huge breath, finally lifting his grey eyes to hers. She couldn’t look away. In front of her was a man, not a boy. He was a man who’d lived through things and survived them, things she couldn’t even comprehend. She suddenly wished she was more…well, just more, so she might be any sort of comfort to him.

“I want to tell you.” His eyebrows were drawn together and she could see a deep grief in his eyes that time obviously hadn’t healed. Persephone felt his pain cut straight through her own chest down to her bones. “She was my sister and I loved her more than anything else on earth. When she and my parents were taken from me, brutally, violently,” his hand shook under Persephone’s, “for a long while, I wished I’d died with them.”

“Hades,” Persephone whispered, barely able to get the word out, her throat was so thick. She reached her other hand out and clasped his, both of her small hands only barely surrounding one of his huge ones.

She didn’t know why he’d chosen her to share this with, but from her limited interactions with him, she felt sure this wasn’t common for him, that he was a man who rarely if ever wore his heart on his sleeve. He was too in control of himself, too measured in everything he did. Whatever his reasons, she could only feel honored to have this peek beneath the mask to glimpse the genuine man.

“But I vowed to do everything I could to take the city they loved under control so that the monsters who killed them would never have free reign again. So you understand why I can’t let you go,” he said, gaze more direct than ever. “This city is a beast. A beast in a cage. Violent. Brutal. Innocents fall and the criminals go unpunished if left unchecked.”

He believed everything he said and he believed it passionately. Absolutely. It sent a shiver down Persephone’s spine.

“But what about the cops?”

“What about them?” he sneered. “The police do nothing. They’re either corrupt or have no power. There’s no law and order, just violence. The strong crush the weak, and death walks the streets. There’s a reason they call the part of the city where you were clubbing The Underworld. But it’s not just the south side. The whole city balances on a knife’s edge. And it’s men like me who keep it from going over and falling into chaos.”

It’s not safe. The world out there isn’t safe.

How many times had her mother told her that? She’d repeated it over and over. Not safe. Not safe. Not safe.

“I don’t want to live my whole life in fear,” Persephone whispered.

Hades shook his head. “You won’t have to.” He flipped his hand and this time it was him squeezing hers.

She felt the strength of his grasp all the way down to her toes.

He leaned in, the burning intensity of his eyes flipping her stomach again as he vowed, “You’ll live among the angels where you can’t be touched.”