64

64

See Beyond The Masks We All Wear

“Yes,” Hades says. “It hurts to talk about Persephone.”

I was right. I don’t like that answer.

“She was amusing and sweet.” He’s still talking. “Goddess of spring. How could she be anything but?”

That sounds like love to me.

“I didn’t fall in love with her, though.”

I blink, and he chuckles. “I can read your face like you’re speaking your thoughts out loud, my star.”

That’s a big problem. One for later. I reach over and unplug the heart monitor.

“I loved Persephone,” he says, taking the cord from me and draping it across the top of the machine, “but like a sister. Like a daughter, even. Hers is the softest, most caring heart I’ve run across in all my years as King of the Underworld. Losing her devastated us all.”

The more he talks, the more I can see it now. The difference in the sadness coming from him. She was precious to him in her own right. Not as a wife or a queen or a lover but as herself. I wonder what it’s like to love someone that way.

“I’m sorry she’s gone,” I whisper. “Is she why you’re participating in the Crucible this time?”

Hades doesn’t look away, but something in his face shifts. “I need to become King of the Gods. It will give me a certain added power.”

“To do what? Take revenge? Unleash the hells?” I don’t think he would, but I need to know that much.

“To set certain things right, but no. No unleashing.”

“I believe you.”

“You believe me.” He echoes my words with a hint of displeasure in his voice. Hades leans into me, eye to eye, his sinful scent winding in and around me. “You trust too easily, Lyra.”

“Maybe,” I agree. “But you definitely avoid your feelings too much.”

I’m starting to learn this about him. That cold veneer he presents to the world is exactly that. A front. It’s not that he doesn’t care—he just doesn’t want that caring to be used against him.

Something I understand all too well.

Now he’s glowering again, but I’m not frightened. Not of him. Maybe of me. Of the way I feel, sure, but of him? Not even a little.

“She was your friend,” I say. “Like a daughter. Would she want you to hurt like this?”

Hades’ glower falls away, and his gaze meets mine. “You don’t want me to hurt?” The words come out as a guttural whisper. His voice is sandpaper and bass, rubbing at my own emotions until I feel raw.

“No.” Maybe I shouldn’t be this honest. “I don’t want you to hurt.”

“Why?”

“Because…” I say slowly. Then sigh. “This is how I’m a friend.”

“A…friend.” He says the words slowly, like he’s tasting them.

“Yes.” Charon said Hades needs one. “And a friend would say that underneath all the intense, godly bluster and the need to be in control all the time, and despite making me compete in the Crucible like an asshole, I still see who you are, and…” I shrug. “I like you.”

His eyes turn molten, swirling with a hundred shades of silver and gray and even black. “Who do you think you see, my star?”

Forget sandpaper. His voice is raw silk again, and my belly turns squishy at the sound.

I smile. “I see the same person you saw in Persephone. A soft heart that cares too much. More than the world sees, because you make sure of it. Because the world should never know, or they’ll take advantage of you.”

He snakes his free hand upward, brushing lightly at my throat before threading his fingers in my hair to cup the back of my head, drawing me toward him.

“And you, Lyra?” he asks. “Would you take advantage of me?”

He’s so close, lips a whisper away, eyes swirling with a heat that reaches in and around and through me. And I’m suddenly very aware that I’m in a bed, wearing flimsy clothes. Thank the gods I undid that monitor, because it would be beeping wildly about now.

“Not if I could help it,” I whisper back.

“Damn. I wish you hadn’t said that.” On a groan, he dips his head, claiming my lips in a kiss I’m more than willing to give him. Freely offered.

That one touch tumbles me into a vortex of sensations—the softness of his lips sweetly sipping mine, the warmth of his hand in my hair, which tightens against my scalp on a twinge of pain that only feeds the heat. As if that previous kiss marking me to wander the Underworld unhindered is still there, in my skin. My lips tingle, and I moan.

He pulls back slowly and puts his forehead to mine, eyes closed, heart pounding under my palm. “Falling for me is dangerous,” he whispers.

I stiffen. Is he reminding me of my curse or that he’s a god? Pride snaps into place. “Who said anything about falling for you?”

This is not that. I don’t know what it is. Attraction, obviously. Curiosity, definitely. What would it be like to simply find pleasure in someone just for the sake of pleasure? Knowing even friendship can’t really happen, wanting anything more would make me a fool.

I already have the jester’s hat after years of crushing on Boone.

He opens his eyes, staring into mine, doubtful.

I grin and hope I’m hiding the small amount of panic fluttering around inside me. “I just like the way you kiss.”

Instead of laughing, he narrows his eyes. “You don’t know—”

“Well, well, well,” a distinctly feminine voice interrupts from the doorway. “Isn’t this…lusciously naughty.”

I freeze, then duck, burying my burning and likely bright-scarlet face in his neck. He’s blocking me from view, the way he’s leaning over me. “Go the fuck away, Aphrodite,” he growls without turning around.

“I would, my darling. You know I would love to let you get back to whatever this is with joy. I’d join in if I thought you’d let me, but alas, I can’t.”

“What do you want?”

Irritation enters Aphrodite’s voice. “Zeus never did like to play fair, and we all heard Lyra’s healing was going slowly. I wanted to give her enough time to be ready.”

“For what?” Hades snaps.

Pressed up against him, I can feel frustration vibrate through his body. Subtle, but it’s there. I made him feel that. I smile into his neck. He is still so hard against me, and if he’s anything like me, right now his body is screaming to finish what we started. I shift against him, press into him just a tiny bit, and he grunts. I smile wider.

“Oh my,” Aphrodite breathes, and I can picture her fanning herself. “I might orgasm just from the energy wafting off the two of you. Better not let the others catch you, though.” That’s a warning from her. Dead serious.

“What did you want to give Lyra time to be ready for, Addie?” Hades asks through clenched teeth.

“I’ve been informed by Zeus that I must start my Labor in one hour.”

Oh gods. My stomach pitches. The Labor that involves someone I love the most.