by Penelope Sky
“I’m not uncomfortable because of the clothes…”
“They aren’t helping either.” I got to my feet and pulled off his shoes and socks.
“That’s the most you should do.”
“Come on. Your clothes are dirty. You don’t want that stuff in a fresh bed.”
“Well, Hades will kill me if I let you see me naked. He’s already pissed enough at me as it is.” He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. Every time he blinked, the white color around his eyes was a stark contrast to his bruised eyelids. He wouldn’t turn his neck to look at me. Any movement at all seemed too difficult.
“Relax. I’m not going to take off your boxers.”
“Doesn’t matter. He won’t like it.”
“If that’s really the case, he needs to grow up. You do too.” I undid his jeans then pulled them off his body, being as gentle as possible so I didn’t strain something already injured.
He winced a couple of times as I got the denim over his ankles and away from his body. I folded them up and placed them on the dresser. “The shirt is gonna be a little harder.” My eyes didn’t linger on his physique, but his muscle definition was obvious. He had muscular legs and a tight stomach.
He closed his eyes as he prepared for the worst. “Just get it over with.” He took a deep breath before he forced himself upright, cringing in pain as he lifted his arms over his head to get the clothing off.
I got it over his head as quickly as possible.
He fell back to the bed, breathing heavily in agony.
When I looked at his chest, I saw a chiseled body packed with strength and power, but I also saw endless bruises. His ribs had been wrapped with gauze to cover most of the damage, but the discoloration had spread everywhere. “How many ribs did you break?”
He held up three fingers.
“Did they give you any painkillers?”
He nodded to his jeans. “In my front pocket. But they aren’t strong enough to mask the pain entirely.”
“I’m sorry…” I grabbed the blankets and pulled them up over his body, tucking him in like a child going to bed. My fingers brushed through his hair to feel his temperature before I grabbed the remotes on the nightstand. “Want to watch TV?”
“No. I just want to lie here.”
“Alright.” I took a seat again. “Let me know if you’re hungry or need anything.”
“The last thing I want to do is eat…” He kept his eyes closed as he lay there, indisposed.
I watched him with sadness in my heart, but I also felt a twinge of guilt for my relief. Hades came home in one piece, not a single scratch. I was glad Damien was the one with broken bones instead of my husband. “It’ll pass, Damien. Just stay calm. The calmer you are, the less intense the pain will feel.”
“Yeah…” His hands rested on his stomach, and he was entirely still. “Is Hades home?”
“No. Went to the bank.”
“How pissed is he?”
“Well…he’s very upset. But he also allowed you to stay here, so he can’t be that angry.”
“Yeah. I guess that’s true.”
“And he wouldn’t have made the trade in the first place if you weren’t the most important thing to him.”
His eyes opened, and he chuckled. “I’m not the most important thing to him. You are.”
“Maybe it’s both of us.”
He stared at the ceiling. “I should have listened to Hades. I should have backed off when he told me to. Now we’ve lost our business…and I got my ass beat like a little bitch.” He sighed loudly, wincing when he took a deep breath.
“We all make mistakes.”
“But men like me don’t make mistakes.” He turned his head to the right; that way, I wouldn’t be in his line of sight at all. “I hope he forgives me someday, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he never did.”
“He doesn’t hold grudges.”
“Yes, he does. His whole life is based on grudges.”
“But not against someone he loves.”
He rolled his eyes. “We’re close, but we aren’t pussies.”
“I don’t think loving someone makes you a pussy.”
“Really?” He turned back to me. “Then why are you so scared to love him?”
The question put me on the spot, and it was so unexpected I didn’t know what to say. I held his gaze as I tried to think. “I’m not scared to love anyone. It’s a natural reaction that you can’t control. That means you can’t force it either. I just don’t feel that way…and I doubt I ever will.”
He held my gaze for a while before he looked at the ceiling again. “Why? You’re going to spend the rest of your life with this man. That’s a long time to be with someone without feeling anything.”
“I never said I wouldn’t feel anything. I feel a lot of things for him…like respect, trust, and affection. Those are more important to a relationship anyway. And I don’t understand why you’re concerned about it. This is a convenient relationship for both of us—nothing more.”
Damien was quiet as he soaked in my words. Seconds turned to minutes, and he still didn’t speak. The conversation seemed to be over.
Which was fine by me.
“Can I ask you something?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You can ask whatever you want. But I can’t guarantee an answer.”
“That’s fair.” He turned his head back to me. “Have you ever been in love?”
I had no idea how much Hades had told Damien about our previous relationship. Maybe he knew Hades had proposed; maybe he didn’t. But that was a long time ago and had nothing to do with our current relationship. “That’s a strange question for a non-pussy to ask.”
“Just curious.”
“Have you?” I tried to circumvent the question by forcing him to answer it himself.
“No.” The answer left his lips like a bullet leaving a gun. “And you?”
I crossed my legs and got comfortable in the chair. “No.”
“Never?” he asked incredulously.
I shook my head. “Keep in mind, I’m only twenty-four. That’s pretty young to know what love is.”
“Romeo and Juliet were still in their teens.”
“And they were naïve children who only knew how to think emotionally rather than pragmatically.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re cold as ice, aren’t you?”
“You just said you’ve never been in love, but I don’t judge you for it. Why are you judging me just because I’m a woman?”
“I’ve never been in love, but I don’t mock anyone who has been.”
“I wasn’t mocking.”
“It seems like you’re repulsed by the idea. I’m just trying to figure out why.”
I shrugged. “Maybe there is no reason why. I grew up watching my mother’s loveless relationships, and that’s all I’ve ever known. Friends who have fallen in love are always scarred by the relationship. Afterward, they’re never the same. People confuse romantic love for lust. Two people aren’t terrible for each other, but they have amazing sex. People can’t distinguish the difference. Half of marriages end in divorce, and those that don’t are still unhappy relationships. So, why would I be interested in that?”
Damien was quiet.
“I married Hades because I didn’t have a choice. In order to get what I wanted, I had to make that sacrifice. But being with him has made me see all the perks of marriage, like having a strong partner who can help you reach your goals. Having someone to protect you. Starting a family. Being with someone with a foundation of loyalty. It’s a great arrangement. Sometimes he pisses me off when he bosses me around, but I’ve learned to deal with it. And I’m getting good sex, so why would I complain? This is the best-case scenario.”
He watched me for several seconds before he faced the ceiling. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Do you ever think about getting married?”
“No. I’m not repulsed by the idea, but I can’t picture myself meeting
a woman I can’t live without. I’m in my thirties, and I’ve never met a woman who can keep my attention for more than a day. If I met someone really special, that would be a miracle. And if that happened…then maybe I’d go for it. But it sounds like you aren’t willing to keep an open mind about it at all.”
I was tired of explaining myself. “It doesn’t matter now anyway. I’m married, so it wouldn’t make a difference if I met a guy who made me feel that way…because I’m loyal to my husband.”
“How’s your friend doing?” Mother asked me as she sat across from me at the dinner table. She was on her second glass of wine while we waited for Hades to come home and join us for dinner.
“Terrible.”
“Maybe he would be more comfortable at the hospital.”
“He probably would be, but he’s too stubborn.”
“Men…” She shook her head then drank from her glass. “Good thing Hades was there to save him.”
Damien only needed to be saved because he was a drug dealer. If he did something legal, none of this would have happened. My mother was as enmeshed in the underworld as my husband, so I was just as immersed. I stopped fighting it.
Hades walked in the door a moment later, dressed in a deep blue three-piece suit. With his dark hair and shadow across his jawline, he was suave in appearance, both beautiful and deadly. “Good evening, Maria.” He greeted her with a partial smile and a hand on her shoulder.
“Hello, Hades.” Her face lit up at the sight of her son-in-law, visibly enamored of his presence. He was a man she loved having in the family, one she was proud to have under her roof. There was no one better to bring power to our family line. “Hope you had a good day at the office.”
“No complaints.” His eyes settled on my face, and he leaned down to kiss me on the mouth.
I kissed him back, feeling the warm affection in his touch. Our natural chemistry made us irresistible to each other. Our lust was combustive. Paired with our mutual trust and affection, it created a relationship that was addictive to both of us.
Once he pulled away, I felt cold, like summer had disappeared and the season jumped from fall to winter.
He sat beside me and poured himself a glass of wine. “How was your day?”
“Damien is in pretty bad shape,” I answered. “I tried to get him to go to the hospital, but he wouldn’t budge.”
He drank his wine, indifferent to what I said.
“How was the office?” I asked when I realized he wouldn’t talk about his friend.
“Just a bunch of bullshit and paperwork.” He watched Helena place dinner on the table. “This looks amazing. Smells amazing too.”
“Thank you, sir.” Helena flashed him a smile, giving him all her attention and respect because he was the person she admired the most. He’d been her employer for years before my mother and I came along. While she was polite to us, she didn’t bend over backward to assist us the way she did with him.
When she left, we settled into quiet conversation over wine and dinner. Hades was quiet, only answering direct questions that were placed to him. After a long day doing whatever he did at the bank, he was usually not in the mood for long-winded conversations, but he put up a front with my mother. The longer we lived together, the more I got to know him, and the more I understood his behavior.
When we finished dinner, we said good night then walked up the stairs to our bedroom.
Hades glanced at his watch to see the time as he walked down the hallway.
“You don’t like my mother, do you?” My heels lightly tapped against the rug that led down the long hallway. Side by side, we approached our bedroom, his height towering over mine.
“I’m always polite to her. What more do you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything. I’m just curious.”
He stopped abruptly and faced me. “After all the shit I do all day, I don’t want to come home to meaningless conversation with my mother-in-law. I don’t want to listen to her talk about her day and pretend I give a damn. I’d rather come home to a quiet dinner with my wife then fuck her. That’s it.” He held my gaze for a few seconds, livid, and then started walking again.
It took me a second before I followed him. “We don’t have to have dinner with her every night.”
“It seems like it.”
“We can cut it down to Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
“Then make it happen.” He passed Damien’s door without glancing at it, then entered our bedroom. He kicked off his shoes and stripped off the pieces of his suit, letting the jacket slide off and then popping the buttons of his vest.
“For what it’s worth, she thinks the world of you.”
He loosened his tie then turned back to me. “I never said I disliked her. I just don’t like the fact that she gets in the way of my time with you. I want to have dinner just the two of us so we can cut out the mediocre conversation and just be real.” He unbuttoned his collared shirt and stripped it off until he stood in only his slacks. Unlike Damien, Hades had the most beautiful, unblemished skill. Tanned, with a strong tightness over his muscles, he had a physique that made any woman forget the last thing she said. “I want to walk in the door and fuck you without saying a word.”
“You could have that every night if you came home on time.”
He undid his slacks and let them fall open. “I come home whenever I come home. Period.” Despite the aggressive tone of his voice, he pushed down his pants to reveal a definitive bulge in the front of his boxers. Those came down too and displayed a cock rock hard and ready to fuck.
“How can you be hard when you’re in such a bad mood?”
He toed his socks off, then stared me down like I was his enemy rather than his lover. He took a few steps toward me, his chin tilting down to stare at me with hard possessiveness. “Look at you. That’s why.”
He had one of my legs over his shoulder, while his hand kept my thigh pinned to the side. He moved inside me with forceful thrusts, slamming deep and hard with the occasional moan. His face hovered above mine, his jaw tight and his eyes filled with desire and satisfaction.
I’d already had my climaxes for the night. My body was spent and fulfilled, so now it was just about him. My pussy had no problem staying slick, not when he magically turned me on over and over again. My arms rested around his neck, and I held him close to me as he pounded into me, my pleasured sighs filling the room to the top of the high ceiling. “It’s your turn.” My fingers slid into the hair at the back of his neck, and I kissed him slowly, felt his deep breathing enter my mouth because he’d exerted himself enough. Coated in sweat, with fat muscles filled with blood, he looked like he’d been lifting heavy weights in the gym for the last hour.
He brought his body closer to mine and ground into me, getting his entire dick inside me as he made his final pumps. He rocked me into the bed with each motion until he reached his breaking point. He rested his face against mine and came with a loud moan, all the muscles in his body tightening as he let his seed explode inside me. “Fuck…” He ground against me as he finished, giving me his heaviness.
It was my favorite moment, feeling my husband come deep inside me. My fingers fisted his hair, and I moaned because it felt so good. It made me feel like a desirable woman, letting my husband claim me in such an intimate way. No other man had ever had the honor of filling me with as much come as he could fit.
After a few seconds of rest, he pulled his semi-hard dick out of me and rolled over. His heavy back hit the mattress, and his body relaxed as he closed his eyes. The sweat was shiny on his chest, reflecting the light from the lit candles. His breathing slowly wound down, gradually turning to a gentle rhythm.
I had been repulsed by the idea of this marriage, but I began to realize it was exactly what I wanted…even if I hadn’t realized it at the time. The sex was good, better than I’d find anywhere else, so that alone was a good enough reason. But my husband was also an honest and loyal man. If he weren’t, he would have left Damien
to his fate.
After a few minutes, he opened his eyes once more. A foul presence followed him everywhere he went, a cloudy sky that was ready to storm at any moment. Ever since he’d brought Damien back, he’d been abrasive and cold. Now that bitterness had returned even though it had nothing to do with me. I could just feel it.
He got out of bed and pulled on a fresh pair of boxers before pouring himself a drink. It was late, and he should be getting to sleep. But instead, he grabbed his phone and his laptop and prepared to move to the patio through the double glass doors.
I propped myself up on my elbow. “What are you doing?”
His muscled frame slowly turned around to face me again, a bottle of scotch in his grasp. “I’ve got work to do.”
“It’s almost nine…”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ve got shit to do.” He turned around and kept walking.
“Hades.” I pushed back the covers and sat upright.
He slowly turned back to me, not hiding his irritation.
“I’ve noticed you haven’t visited Damien since he’s been here.”
All he did was stare.
“I know you’re angry with him, but maybe you should—”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” His deep tone caused a terrifying vibration in the air. Instead of looking at me like I was his wife, he looked at me like I was someone who’d crossed him…like I was Damien. “If I want to talk to him, I will.” Instead of turning away, he waited until he was certain I had nothing else to say.
“He’s sorry. And he’s been punished enough—”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said coldly. “He got his ass kicked because that’s exactly what he deserved. That’s not punishment. He hasn’t been punished yet…but he will.”
I was surprised Hades was this cold to his own friend. “Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?”
His eyes narrowed, like I’d just crossed a line. The cord in his neck became visible because his body stiffened so tightly. The red tint to his face indicated that I had gone too far and should have kept my mouth shut. “I lost my business because of his stupidity, Sofia. I told him to back off, and he didn’t listen to me. This is all his fault—because he always thinks he knows better. You’re exactly the same way—and you don’t know a goddamn thing.”