Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Alaric

Ipull Ursa’s dress over her head even as I bear us down to the mattress. I learned a long time ago that sex and submission are the only comfort she’ll allow me to offer, and so I push away any dissatisfaction that she’s shutting me out once again. How can I be unhappy when I have this woman naked in my arms?

The rest will come later. Once I’m out of the Underworld, out from under Hades’s thumb. Once I’m Ursa’s in truth, once we’ve enacted our revenge and set the past firmly in the past. Then she’ll let me in. I’m sure of it.

Until that moment, we still have this, and I’ll never pass up an opportunity to provide us with the escape we both need right now.

I move down her body, stroking her curves, spreading her thick thighs. She’s one of the toughest territory leaders in Carver City, but when it’s just us, she gives me glimpses of the woman behind the impressive walls she shows the rest of the world.

It’s a heady thing to kneel between the thighs of the Sea Witch. She’s the Dominant in this scene, in our relationship, but sometimes I wonder if she realizes how much trust she displays in moments like this. When she lets me close, when she allows me to bring her pleasure.

I dip down and drag my tongue over her pussy. I fucking love how she watches me when I go down on her. She doesn’t lose control, not until the very end, and I crave those little slices of vulnerability more than I want to admit.

I let go of my guilt over what comes next. It doesn’t matter. Not here, not now, not with us right on the cusp of a future I’ve barely let myself contemplate. Instead, I give myself over to the taste of Ursa, the feel of her, the sound of her breathing picking up. She indulges me for a few minutes before she digs her fingers into my hair and pulls me up to her clit. “Stop teasing, Alaric.”

I almost test her. Almost disobey and see what she’ll come up with as punishment. In the end, I need this too much to play. I lick Ursa’s clit just like she loves, adjusting a little as her thighs tense against my hands. I know exactly what touch she likes, and as much as I want to drag this out, I’m intensely aware that she could stop me at any moment. I don’t want to stop. Not until I’ve made her come all over my face.

Ursa orgasms with a low moan that’s almost my name. She lets me ease her down, and then her fingers tighten in my hair and tug me upward. I rise eagerly and she takes my mouth. She let me guide the first kiss. This one is a reminder of who truly has control. Ursa. Always Ursa. Just the way we both like it.

She bears me down to the floor and straddles me, all without breaking the kiss. By the time she lifts her head, I’m breathing hard and struggling to stay still. Ursa’s brows pull together. “I owe you a beating.”

“I don’t care. I need you.” I love the pain she gives me, but feeling her wet pussy slide against my cock is enough to shelve the desire for anything but sinking deep inside her. Her little smile tells me she knows it, too. I fight for control. “Please.”

“You’re so pretty when you beg.” She snakes a hand down my stomach and wraps it around my cock. “I’m inclined to give you what you want this time, love. You deserve it after you’ve pleased me so greatly.” She guides my cock inside her and then takes my wrists and pin them on either side of my head.

I could get free if I wanted. That’s not what this is about. I choose submission time and time again, but it’s different with Ursa. She’s not holding me down. She’s anchoring me. Keeping me tethered to this place, this moment, as she rides my cock in agonizingly slow strokes. Letting me feel every inch of her, reminding me that every inch of me belongs to her.

Time ceases to have meaning. Every nerve in my body is focused on the tight squeeze of her pussy, on the even tighter grip she keeps on my wrists, on the slow slide of her skin against mine. A preview to the moment when we can have this any time we want, when it doesn’t require a set schedule approved by Hades and his people.

I dig my heels into the carpet, fighting not to thrust up into her. “I’m close,” I grind out.

“Come for me, lover.”

At her low command, I stop fighting the pleasure coursing through me. One stroke. Two. On the third, I curse and orgasm, driving up into her and emptying myself. She leans down, pressing her breasts to my chest, and kisses me. “Good boy.”

It takes a few moments to drift down from coming, but she eventually climbs off me and we both end up on the bed, Ursa tucked against my side. It’s a token of how far we’ve come that she allows this. When we first used to scene, she would get dressed and wrap me up in a blanket, only holding me until I was steady enough to leave. Now, the aftercare lasts almost as long as the scene does.

I lay there for a long time as she traces patterns on my chest with her nails. Gentle. So fucking gentle when she wants to be. It doesn’t make her any less devastating.

I should keep silent, but I can’t quite manage it. “She’s actually going through with it?”

Ursa smiles. “Of course she is, darling.” I know what’s coming even before she sits up and reaches for her dress. “She thinks she’s in love with you.”

Guilt rises again, gaining teeth and claws. I made my decision when I went to Olympus and effectively seduced Zurielle Rosi without ever fucking her. There’s no going back now. The die is cast. All that matters is riding this to the bitter end. It doesn’t matter that I already know the outcome of the auction, that Ursa is setting this up with only one end result. Something could go sideways. No matter how powerful she is, she can’t tell the future. If someone comes in and blows the plan out of the water, we could be putting Zuri in actual danger. “She needs to be safe.”

“Safe is not the word I’d use.” She takes one look at my face and lifts an eyebrow. “Are you having an attack of conscience?”

“No, of course not.” It’s almost the truth. We’ve worked long months to get this into place, to irk Triton even as we pave the way for me to pay of the remainder of my bargain with Hades. If Zuri is the one to ultimately pay the price? Well, the worst she’ll deal with is a blow to her fragile heart. Really, I’m doing her a favor. Anyone else would throw her to the wolves for their freedom instead of ensuring the auction has the proper end result.

Or at least that’s the narrative I’ve spun.

I’ve always been good at lying to myself to get what I want.

Still. I swallow down the uncomfortable feeling in my throat. “She’s an innocent.”

“Please. She’s from Olympus. Her father might not be one of the Thirteen, but he’s close enough. Or do I have to remind you what he’s done to both of us?”

“You don’t have to remind me.” Triton would have killed me if I wasn’t able to pay that debt, and he wouldn’t have lost any sleep over it. Fucking his favorite daughter is the least I could do for revenge. “She’s a good girl.”

“Mmhmm.” Ursa taps my under the chin with one blood-red nail. “And after the auction, she’ll be our good girl.”

Heat surges through me at the thought of Zuri here, in bed with us. If I was a better man, I’d have found another way. I’m not. I want my freedom. I want Ursa. And, yeah, I want Zuri, too. Not forever, but the idea of playing with her hot little body? I’m selfish enough to want it all. “You really think she’ll be into it?” The Zuri I spent time with in Olympus was painfully sweet. I can’t imagine her wanting what’s coming. I’m not sure what it says about me that I’m not sure if I care. She’s agreeing to it. That’s enough.

“I think you underestimate her, but then you’re a man. Of course you do.” She taps my chin one last time and stands. Even as I tell myself not to, I watch her get dressed. I love these moments when I get to see her like few other people do. It feels like a secret, and there’s nothing so addicting as a vulnerable moment shared with someone who is otherwise so fucking untouchable.

Ursa finishes pulling on her dress and smooths down the skirt. She catches me watching and shakes her head. “Stop that. We don’t have time for another round.”

“You sure about that?”

“Alaric.” Even after several years, I still can’t quite tell if the fondness in her voice when she says my name is feigned or truth. I kind of enjoy that I can’t tell.

I stand and give her a mocking bow. “Yes, Mistress.”

Ursa shakes her head and moves to the door. “She’ll be in the Underworld until the auction tomorrow night. Do what you need to do.” She’s gone before her words fully penetrate.

When they do, I sink back onto the bed.

She’s in the Underworld.

Zuri is here.

She’ll be here until the auction. In the same building I live in.

If I’m smart, I’ll stay away from her. One conversation, that’s all it will take to cement her motivation to go through with this. Seeing her more than that is tempting fate—tempting my self-control. No matter what Zuri thinks, I’m no Prince Charming. I want her. I’ve wanted her since I set eyes on her, wearing that cute little sundress and walking through the gardens like she’d never seen anything so beautiful as flowers. I didn’t realize then that she looks at all new experiences that way, soaking them in and memorizing them as if she’ll never get another chance.

Will she look at sex the same way?

I’m dying to find out.

And that’s the crux of the matter. If I were any less selfish, I’d get Zuri out and find a different way to enact my vengeance. But I want her, and Ursa has paved the way for me to have her. For both of us to have her.

I manage to keep my shit locked down for the rest of the night, spending most of my time in the lounge with a short reprieve to play out a scene with Hook and Tink.

As much as I want my freedom, I really do love my job. Who wouldn’t? I get to fuck and scene with the most powerful people in Carver City. It’s a dream—or it would be if I didn’t have my debt to Hades hanging over my head. The man might not ever force me to do something I don’t want to do, but knowing that I owe him is a festering wound I can’t treat until I’m free of it.

By the time the club closes and it’s time for our nightly round up, I’m weaving on my feet. I peel off my slacks in the employee locker room and take my third shower of the night. Around me, the rest of the employees on shift are doing the same. As I dry off and pull on jeans and a T-shirt, it strikes me that most of the faces are new. Aurora is the only employee who’s been here as long as me—longer, even. She’s also the only one with a deal with Hades that hasn’t wrapped up yet. The rest of them are actual employees, people who came here for a job and go home at the end of their shifts.

We gather in the room off the locker room and rattle off any interesting information we picked up while Aurora takes notes. There’s been plenty of power shifts in Carver City in the last couple years, but it seems to have stabilized a bit recently. There’s nothing of note, with the exception of the rumor of another auction coming in a few days. A virginity auction.

But then, I already knew that.

Aurora finishes her last note and looks up. “That’s everything. Good work tonight.” She beams at us. I don’t know the terms of her bargain any more than she knows mine, but I don’t have to in order to recognize that it’s different. Rumor has it that Aurora came to the Underworld seeking safety for herself and protection for her comatose mother. Regardless of what price Hades asked of her, it’s different than my situation.

My bargain isn’t driven by anything as noble as keeping someone I love safe.

No, it was pure selfish greed that drove me to be one hell of a thief in Olympus, and it was an equally selfish need to keep my skin intact that had me bargaining with Hades. Now, it will be selfish desire that drags Zuri down into the depths with me.

I’m nothing if not consistent.