Chapter 6

Chapter

Six

P ersephone

“What do you mean, I don’t know you?” He allows me to push away from him just enough to allow a sliver of cool water to slide between our heated bodies. “Of course, I know you.”

“You know only what I’ve allowed you to see.”

“I don’t understand.”

He winces. It’s small, but there.

My heart begins to race for an entirely different reason. When he doesn’t speak, I call hesitantly, “Hades?”

“There is a side to me I’ve yet to introduce you to.”

“So, introduce me.”

He shakes his head. The look in his eyes says it’s not that simple, but he promises, “In time.”

His eyes, no longer blazing, drop to my lips when they part. “What does that even mean?”

“It means I want to know that you’re ready for me when I finally let you see.”

“See what?”

“Me.”

My body stiffens against his and his arms pulse, tightening as though to keep me here with him. To keep me from fleeing. My voice shakes, reflecting the way I feel shaken inside. “You’re scaring me.”

“I would never hurt you.”

I study his eyes. Where minutes before I’d been so certain I could see flames, I now only see shadows. Even in the darkness, I know that I want to know this man. Even in the absence of flame, I know I’d step into the shadows if it meant stepping into him .

Firmly, with a bravery I shouldn’t feel, I tell him, “I want to see you. The you that you think you’re hiding from me.”

“I’m not hiding anything from you.”

I tip my head to the side. “No?”

He shakes his. “No. I’m simply protecting you from seeing too much at once.”

I smirk, but it’s bitter. “Funny.”

He frowns. “How so?”

“I feel like everything is coming to me in pieces. Who I want to be. Who I am. How I’m going to get there. If I’m going to like it when I do finally get there, wherever there is. My entire life is in shambles, Hades. I’m in an archaeology program trying to figure out if I like it enough to spend my entire life making it a career. I’m lying to my parents about where I spend my nights.” I laugh. The sound is unhinged even to me. A little broken. Hades holds me tighter. “They think I’m cooking in a restaurant. They came to that conclusion on their own, but I never corrected them. They think I’m over here digging in the day and cooking at night. They have no idea what I’m really doing. The rules I’m breaking.” My voice turns lower, softer. I feel like I’m swimming in shadows as I stare into his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Hades.”

I don’t know when he did it, but he’s moved us to the shallow end of the pool. Water licks at his collarbone, so it would be well above my head if my feet were to connect with the floor. Still, I don’t have to cling to him to stay above water. The man’s hold on me hasn’t lessoned. If anything, it’s even tighter.

He lifts me higher on his body, severing the contact of his arousal against my entrance. Although my period is over, I’m clearly still a mess of hormones. I’ve never felt so emotionally fragile as I do now. So mentally unhinged. So physically distraught.

Losing that simple contact has salty tears pricking my eyes. A shuddering breath escapes from between my lips as Hades asks, “What do you mean when you say you don’t know what you’re doing, Persephone? ”

My breath hitches. My fingertips curl into the hard muscle of his shoulders. “I don’t know what I’m doing with you .”

I’m not sure if it’s possible, but I think his eyes darken. His hard jaw hardens. His voice deepens. “With me?”

“I told myself it would be simple—you and me. I told myself I’d explore with you. Explore myself with a man. Explore what it meant to be a woman.” I sever my gaze from his, looking to the side where blue water glitters under a dark expanse. The little bulb-like lights that hang from the beams of the shelter covering the hot tub have been snagged like gems locked in the tiny waves that ripple around our bodies. Emotion burns in my eyes, blurring it all. “When we started, I told myself that I wouldn’t feel anything for you.” My lip quivers, and I bite down on it a moment to stop the tremble. I shudder. “I promised myself I wouldn’t feel—for you.”

“But now?”

“Now—I feel too much, Hades. I’m torn between wanting more than I have a right to ask from you, and wanting to end this tonight for my own safety.” Breath spills from my lungs when he squeezes me tighter. “This feels dangerous. You feel dangerous to me.”

“I am the most dangerous creature you will ever encounter.” His words are terrifying, but even as he says them, I think his eyes beg me to stay. “But you will always be safest when you are with me. ”

I can’t stop the shiver that rolls the length of my spine, pebbling my flesh and hardening my nipples against his chest.

“I think you’re wrong,” I whisper.

His eyes search mine. “How so?”

“Falling for someone can’t be safe. Not when it’s the thing to make you the most vulnerable.”

Hades’ body stiffens against mine. Around my waist, his arms are an inescapable band of iron. I try to squirm, but he pins me in place. His arms are a prison I don’t really want to flee.

There is a wickedly dangerous lilt to the words he speaks that sparks a thrill deep inside me. “Are you falling for me, Persephone?”

I shake my head. Inside my chest, my heart is rioting.

I whisper, “I don’t know.”

God, but I do know even though I wish I didn’t. I’ve already fallen for this man. But that only means it’ll hurt that much more when I leave at the end of summer.