Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

P ersephone

Something is up with Hades. I've only worked for him for a week, but I can tell that something isn't right. Most nights, we sit at the table and talk about lots of nothing. Hades likes to hear about my uneventful life as a farmer's daughter, which, after four nights together, I swear he knows inside and out. I've come to note that he loves his dogs deeply, which makes him feel more human and less— massive —to me.

His boy and two girls, I've come to realize, are big teddy bears. They are named after the night and his night blooming flowers, which I find entirely too endearing. The boy, Nocturnum, is always between his girls, Jasmine and Primrose. Hades calls them Noc, Jas, and Prim, and as such, do I.

It doesn't take me long to clean up after dinner, packaging the left-over grilled fish into a container for tomorrow's lunch. I feel strung with nerves at the thought of spending my first full day with Hades tomorrow, leaving for my one night at the house with my friends on Sunday. I'd considered asking for Saturday to be my free night, but since I don't enjoy clubbing, which is a big Saturday thing with the others in my program, Sunday better suits my day off all around.

"Can I pour you a glass?" I shift to find Hades with a bottle of red wine in his hand.

I push the towel I'm drying my hands off on into the rail on the oven, and ask, "Are you trying to turn me into a lush, Hades?"

He arches one brow. "Hardly."

"You're always offering me a drink."

"Only with meals."

"And now, too." I gesture at the bottle. Since our first night, when I felt the wine we'd indulged in after dinner sway the rational flow of my thoughts, I'd been cautious about sticking to tea in the evenings.

His lips quirk, and something lightens the shadows that swirl in his eyes. The shadows that have been there since he got quiet over dinner, and whatever it was that happened to him during the day sucked his thoughts into a dark vortex that shifted his easy mood from comfortable to dangerous, fast.

"You are off tomorrow. I thought maybe you'd like to let loose a little." He swirls the bottle. "Have a glass or two of wine with me, Persephone," he dares, his voice dropping to a dangerous pitch that instantly pulls an unwilling, and dangerously sharp response from the depths of my core. I shift, squeezing my legs together in a way I desperately pray is imperceptible. I think, maybe I've failed, when his eyes snap to mine, dipping low and dragging hotly over the length of me. His nostrils flare and his throat works with a hard swallow.

Run . The word is shrill in my mind. A voice that is not my own, and I am helpless.

I am rooted to the floor.

Fear and something else, something I think, terrifyingly, might be arousal, thrums an intoxicatingly unwelcome tune within my body.

"Hades," I breathe, shuddering.

His eyes snap to mine and I swear, I see flames dancing in the depths.

What the hell?

He shutters his eyes, and when they open again the fire is gone. A mirage, I decide, of the heat that simmers in my own core.

His voice is rough, like thrown gravel as he dares again, "Have a glass with me, Persephone. I vow to you; your virtue is safe with me." There is a pause, before he adds, "For tonight."

I think his words are supposed to assure me, but instead, I can't help but read the underlying promise within them. The delicious threat. The dark assurance that it's only a matter of time before this man devours my virtue, corrupting all of me until I'm so wound up in the darkness of him, I won't be able to unthread the knots we foolishly weave.

When I fail to agree, he simply pours the wine into two glasses. "There is a pool on the rooftop. Why don't you go get changed into a swimsuit?" His dark eyes dance. "Join me for a swim?"

I manage, "I don't have a swimsuit."

"Yes, you do."

I frown, because I know the meager items I packed. The massive closet in the room Hades provided for me make my lack of personal possessions all the more glaringly obvious.

I shake my head. "I only have the four outfits, Hades. This—" I gesture down at what I'm wearing. "Is the last outfit I have. I'll need to do my laundry tomorrow before I get dressed."

I really should have done my laundry last night. But I'd been so tired after spending time with Hades after dinner, I'd fallen into bed and slept, as I'd been sleeping every night in the bed Hades provided for me, like the dead.

"Maya did your laundry this morning, along with the clothing I had delivered for you today."

"You—" I stutter, swallowing hard. "You had clothing delivered for me?"

"I did." He takes a slow sip of his wine.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Because…" I grasp for words. "It's expensive."

His lips twitch. "Hmm."

"Hades." I drop my hands onto my hips. "You can't go around spending money on me."

His voice drops to a low and dangerous warning. "I can do whatever I wish."

I ignore the warning. "Not when it comes to me, you can't."

That damn brow arcs. "Is that a dare?"

"It's a demand!" I huff. "I don't want you spending money on me. It's pointless and—and it makes me feel…"

He pushes away from the counter to take dangerous steps closer. "What does it make you feel?"

"I don't k-know," I stammer, hating that I do.

After a long pause, Hades says softly, "You deserve everything this world has to give. I am not only able to give it to you, but I want to give it to you."

Searching the dark pools of his eyes, I feel so terribly fragile. "Hades, I'm your employee."

"You are a beautiful young woman, and I am an affected man. "

My skin heats. "That's not what we are."

How does he always make me so hot?

He cocks his head slightly to the side. "I am aware of exactly what we are. Now, be a good girl and do as you're told, as a good employee should, and get changed."

There is a lot to unpack in his single command. I could dismantle it time and again and still have more to unravel in the aftershocks of the feelings his words strike inside me.

But I don't dismantle it, because then I'll have to face those aftershocks. I'm not ready for that. So, without another word, I spin on my heel and leave for my room with the three pups following close on my heel.