10. Aphrodite

10

APHRODITE

I’ve always been one to mix business and pleasure. Life’s too short to deny yourself, and if it has the added bonus of sending the men of my family spinning out? Well, I’m an overachiever like that.

This feels different.

Pandora is practically vibrating with tension by the time we pull up outside the club, and while part of me enjoys the fact that she’s obviously so deeply affected by me, the rest of me has the strangest urge to comfort her.

I don’t like it.

Sex is simple. It goes into a neat little box and stays there. Relationships are in a different box. With Pandora, there’s room in one box but not the other. I can’t afford to care. She came to the city with Minos and the rest of his fucked-up little family. If she’s not an active part of their plan to harm Olympus, she’s also not speaking up against them. She’s a passive enemy, but an enemy nonetheless.

I take down my enemies with a single-minded focus that they never see coming.

Except how am I supposed to focus when she’s climbing out of the car in that dress? We really do match. Hers is a fitted black creation that covers her from wrists to throat, but the fabric is sheer under its geometric pattern, giving tantalizing glimpses of a black bra and panty set beneath. It leaves her curvy body on full display and I fucking love it.

But the real kicker is the zipper. It runs from hem to neckline and she’s unzipped it enough to leave one soft, round thigh exposed. My fingers tingle with the desire to touch her there, to follow the line of that dress and undo the zipper with my teeth.

I take a shaky breath and follow her out onto the sidewalk. My body takes over, slipping my hand into hers. Pandora gives me a surprised look, but doesn’t snatch her hand back.

No reason to look into that, but my determination to seduce her is only rising with each charged moment that passes between us. I would do it even without the added bonus of it pissing off my dear husband.

She’s too sweet a fruit not to be plucked.

Tonight isn’t about pressing her for information; she’s far too smart to give away the goods so quickly. I have to seduce the information out of her, and I am only too happy to rise to the cause.

I tug her along with me to the entrance and then out of the night’s chill and into the club. It’s still relatively early as such things go, which was intentional on my part. I want time to get Pandora settled into a booth before the atmosphere of the place takes over.

Truly, I can’t believe Hades was hiding out here in the lower city and keeping this little gem tucked away from everyone on the other side of the river. It’s more of an open secret now, but the mystique hasn’t dampened. If anything, the way people whisper about this place has only added to its allure. Everyone wants an invitation and only a select few get one. Add in the fact that the press are not welcome in the lower city and even the most foolhardy of them won’t dare piss off Hades…

It’s a perfect setup for a little private fun.

Nothing stays secret for long in Olympus, of course. But the only thing that comes out of this club are verbal rumors. Hades doesn’t allow the rest of the Thirteen free rein, but I’ve convinced him to make an exception for me. The exception only lasts for as long as our alliance does, but that’s fine. I plan to take full advantage of it.

“Would you like something to drink?” I catch Pandora’s sharp look and smile. “No alcohol, but there are plenty of other options.”

She shakes her head slowly. “I’m good.”

I lean back in the booth, watching her watch the room. In the next thirty minutes, people will have taken seats on the variety of chairs and sofas and love seats scattered around the main floor and the show will begin. I would pay good money to witness one of Hades and Persephone’s coveted floor shows—they’re both sexy as sin and watching them fuck would be a true delight—but Hades curates those audiences. He’s overprotective of his little wife, even though she doesn’t need protecting. It’s cute.

Pandora studies the dais in the center of the room, a round stage that is a foot or two off the ground. Not high, but high enough to ensure everyone in the space can get a good look. “When the lights go down, it’s rather magical.” I don’t exactly mean to speak, but her curiosity is practically shouting and I want to hear those thoughts racing behind her big, dark eyes.

“The lighting is fascinating.” She eyes the ceiling, where the water reflections from the cleverly hidden trough circling the edge of the room paint glimmering ribbons of light against the black.

“You’re going to hurt Hades’s feelings talking about the lighting when there’s so much else to look at.” A playful edge works its way into my tone. “Did you know the first time he brought Persephone here, he fucked her on that throne right there?” I jerk my chin at the gleaming black throne positioned against the wall opposite of us. It’s empty now, and will remain so tonight, but it’s a showstopper. I don’t know if he meant to create this place as the polar opposite of my father’s domain—all gold, all the time, the tackier the better—but it’s hard not to compare the two.

Thankfully, my brother has subtler taste.

“For a place that boasts no media, everything that happens in this club seems to find its way to the upper city.” Pandora’s lips twist, though the curiosity in her eyes doesn’t dim. “I’m not going to fuck you on that throne.”

I laugh. I can’t help it. “Honey, no one is allowed on that throne except them. It sits empty on the nights they aren’t down here.” From the rumors I hear, it sits empty more and more often lately. It’s enough to make one wonder if their honeymoon period has worn off so quickly.

The lights dim a bit and the small amount of chatter from the people gathered dies away. We all watch a pair of white men step up onto the dais. I’ve never seen them before, but that doesn’t mean anything; I don’t spend much time in the lower city as a general rule, and it is amateur night, so they don’t work here. They obviously know each other, though. They move in the easy way of a couple who’ve done this before enough times to know the steps by heart.

“I don’t understand.”

I tear my gaze away from the dais to refocus on Pandora. “What’s there to understand?”

“I’ve been in Olympus long enough to know the way things work here.” She tucks her long dark hair behind her ears. One curl immediately breaks free, and I find myself catching it and smoothing it back. Pandora shivers, but doesn’t move away. She narrows her eyes at the dais. “The upper city is very focused on their thin veil of purity. Then people act like this the moment they get a chance. It’s hypocritical.”

“How naive.” I shift a little closer and lower my voice so I’m speaking directly into her ear. “Power is a game. The shape of it might look different in other cities, but don’t pretend Olympus is unique in its hypocrisy.” Purity and innocence were two things my father tried to beat into my bones. He should have known it was a lost cause from the moment I turned fifteen and laughed in his face when he told me to change my dress before a party. My sister is more like our mother; she wants to believe the best in people, even when she knows better.

Me? I take after our bastard of a father. I’m stubborn to a fault and I will do whatever it takes to reach my end goal. It’s a silly twist of fate that it took me becoming Aphrodite for our goals to align, and by that point, he was dead.

What I do, I do for Olympus.

Even if he wouldn’t approve of my methods.

“It’s different,” Pandora whispers. “Everything about this place is different.”

“Not so different.” It’s difficult to remember that I need to keep a careful distance between us, to not push her too hard. Seduction is an art and I’m normally very good at it, but there’s something about Pandora that overrides my normal strategic instincts. “We’re human, you and me. No matter how different cultures dress it up or don’t, humans are…earthy.”

She turns her head, kissably close. “Earthy.” She shivers. “That’s one way to put it.”

I have a plan. It’s a very good plan if I do say so myself. I fully intend to edge her to the point where she’s panting after me and will do anything I ask. It’s worked in the past with other people.

But with her breath ghosting against my lips, the thought of maintaining the distance between us is abhorrent to me. Unnatural. “I’d like to kiss you.”

“Not so chaste.” She smiles a little, but it’s a real smile. It makes her eyes light up. They crinkle at the edges. I never noticed that before. Even in the low light, she takes my breath away.

I lift my hand slowly, giving her plenty of time to react, and cup her soft jaw. Gods, everything about her is soft. I want to drag my mouth over every inch of her skin and see if she tastes as sweet as she smells. “I’m Aphrodite. Chaste is for others. It’s not for me.” I run my thumbnail lightly over the dip below her bottom lip.

She shivers again, but she leans into my touch. “This is a bad idea.”

“Undoubtedly.” I grin. “But you knew that when you agreed to come here with me. Are you really going to turn away before you satisfy your…curiosity?”

She looks down, and it takes everything I have to hold perfectly still and let her come to the proper conclusion on her own. We both know tonight will end with my mouth on hers. I don’t need to rush her about it. She exhales slowly, and when she raises her gaze, her jaw is set. “Show me.”

I kiss her. I’ve seduced more than my fair share of people—it’s practically a hobby at this point—but this feels different. Pandora is no innocent, but kissing her almost feels like it’s my first kiss ever. I don’t know how to explain it. I just want more.

She reaches a shaking hand up to sink into my hair and tug me closer. I use the shift to tilt her head back and deepen the kiss. I don’t even have to tease her mouth open. She parts her lips for me eagerly, her tongue sliding against mine in an almost teasing way that goes straight to my head.

A loud moan from the dais makes Pandora jerk back a little. We’re both breathing hard, our exhales shared in the minuscule distance between us. “We shouldn’t,” she whispers.

“I know.” I force myself not to kiss her again. She has to be the one to resume this. I had every intention of steamrolling her a bit…later on…but tonight I want her to choose this. To choose me. I lean forward and flick the shell of her ear with my tongue. “But that’s what makes it so hot, don’t you think? Knowing we shouldn’t…and doing it anyway.”

Her breath shudders out. A pause, barely more than a heartbeat, and then her hands are in my hair, sending it cascading down my back. Pandora kisses me like all the answers of the universe are on the tip of my tongue.

I don’t make a deliberate decision to move. One moment I’m awkwardly angling my body at her side, and the next I have one knee between her thighs and I’m pressing her back against the booth. She tugs my hair harder, kissing me deeper, even as my knee slides higher. Offering her what she obviously needs.

I brace one hand on the booth behind her and drop my other to the soft curve of her hip. The fabric of her dress infuriates me. I want it gone, want nothing between us, but this isn’t the time or place for that. I urge her to roll her hips and close the last bit of distance between us so she can grind on my thigh. I go still at what I feel. “Pandora.”

“Yes?” The word is barely more than an exhale.

I kiss her jaw, her throat, the spot behind her ear. “You’re so wet. Is that just for me?”

She shivers as if struck by a live wire. “Aphrodite—”

“Eris,” I say sharply. Adonis has been my only lover since taking the title, and he’s only ever called me by my actual name…but I can’t think about him. Not right now. Not ever again. The thought sinks into my chest, as heavy as an anchor. I have plenty of experience compartmentalizing, though. Dear old Dad taught me.

Not thinking about him right now, either.

“Eris.” Pandora’s little moan scatters all the thoughts in my head. She kisses me again, and then she’s moving against me, following my urging. Chasing her pleasure.

I want to give her more. So much more. Desire beats through me with a strength that makes me dizzy. I want to touch this woman with nothing between us, to taste her, to lose myself in making her orgasm so many times the world ceases to spin outside of us.

Hades’s club is not the place to do so.

Still…

I catch the back of her knee and lift her leg up and out the tiniest bit, opening her for me. I taste her moan and then she’s sliding against my thigh faster. She’s so wet, I can feel it through her panties on my bare thigh. Close. My pretty little Pandora is close.

In the end, I just can’t help myself. I tug the zipper of her dress open a few precious inches and delve my hand between her thighs. She gasps, but I don’t stop palming her pussy. I slide a hand under the silky fabric and… “Fuck, Pandora.” She’s slippery and wet against my fingers. My nails are too long, so I focus on her clit instead of pressing into her the way I want. “Come for me, beautiful.”

It takes less than thirty seconds for her to spasm against me, her cry loud enough that I kiss her again to muffle it. I can’t quite stop myself from sliding my fingers over her folds, exploring her carefully. I plan to do it with my tongue at the first opportunity.

Not yet.

Her head lolls against the back of the booth, and she blinks up at me as if she’s never seen me before. “Wow.”

“Yeah.” My voice is nearly as shaky as hers. “That about covers it.” I can’t stop myself from kissing her again, more lightly this time. “You are a gift.”

“Eris.” The lovely, glazed look in her eyes clears between one blink and the next. She licks her lips. “Don’t use this against him. Please.”

The plea is like icy water dumped over my head. Him. Hephaestus. My husband. The person I’m supposed to be seducing Pandora to work against. Except I wasn’t thinking about him at all once her mouth met mine.

“I won’t,” I lie. I like Pandora quite a bit more than I expected to, but in the end my only allegiance is to Olympus. I love Adonis and I still cut out his heart to sacrifice to this city. I’ll do the same to this woman, even if it pains me to think of dimming the soft happiness in her dark eyes.

It takes more restraint than I would have guessed to ease back and fix her dress. It takes even more to urge her out of the booth and walk through the dark room to the exit.

And putting her in a car to send home alone?

That takes the most restraint of all.