by Vivian Wood
An hour before the Underworld opens, I head down to my suite to change and get my head on straight. I can’t afford to hesitate or doubt, no matter what the night brings. Any reaction on my part will feed into the conclusions people will draw. It’s important they come to the correct ones.
I haven’t been this nervous in a very long time. I find I don’t like it much.
I manage to nibble on half a protein bar before I give it up for a lost cause. To distract myself, I change into one of my favorite dresses. It’s a sleek black sheath that hugs my body like a second skin. I pair it with tall boots that hit mid-thigh, drawing attention to exactly how indecently short the dress is. I touch up my makeup, and there’s nothing left to stall with.
My phone rings before I decide that I need a drink. The sight of Hades’s name gives me a little flutter in my stomach, but I manage to keep it out of my voice when I answer. “Yes?”
“Come up to my office. I want to speak with you before we begin.”
That could mean anything and nothing. I frown. “Is everything okay?”
“Now, Meg.” He hangs up.
I mutter under my breath a bit, but it breaks the tension a little. I don’t have to think too hard when I’m obeying, though it doesn’t always work out like that. A few minutes later, I shut the door to his office and pause. Hades and Hercules sit next to each other on the couch, their heads close as they speak. They look… My heart skips a beat. They look so good. All youthful glow and well-aged whiskey. And they’re all mine. The thought barely feels real as I take a few slow steps toward them. “Am I interrupting?”
Hades crooks his fingers, motioning me forward. “We’re going to make tonight easier for you, love.”
I blink. “What?”
“Did you think we wouldn’t notice?” He waits, the ever-patient wolf, as I cross to him and tentatively lay my hand in his. Only then does he take in my body with a single sweep. “This dress is a gift. Don’t you agree, little Hercules?”
For his part, Hercules is looking at me like he wants to eat me up with a spoon. “Definitely a gift.”
I don’t understand this. There isn’t some silly rule about not spending time together before they scene, but they aren’t acting like I expect. It strikes me then that I was bracing for rejection, even after everything. I might laugh if I weren’t so damn ashamed of myself. I wet my lips. “So glad you like it.”
“Mmm.” Hades leans back, taking me a step closer to them until my legs bump their knees. “I would hate for you to feel left out tonight, so we’re going to give you a little something to remember us by until we can take care of you later.”
My mind whirls, but I don’t get a chance to do more than tense as Hercules runs his hand up the inside of my thigh. He urges me to take a wider stance, and I do so in a daze. Hercules slides easily to the floor between my spread legs. He gives me a happy smile. “I’ve been thinking about your pussy all day.”
I’ve been the recipient and giver of dirty talk for years. Nothing has made my legs shake the way his simple sentence does. Because of the words, yes, but also because of what they represent. I look up at Hades to find him watching with a hungry expression. No masks this time. Just sheer need. He combs his free hand through Hercules’s hair. “Get her ready.”
He doesn’t hesitate. He pushes up my dress until it bunches around my hips and then his mouth is on my pussy, licking me like he may never get another chance to. I can’t stop myself from moaning. My knees buckle as he sucks on my clit, and he catches me under my thighs. He lifts me and spins us, and for one dizzying moment, I think we’re going to end up on the floor, but then Hades is there, guiding me down onto his lap, my back to his chest.
Onto his cock.
I whimper as he stretches me, fills me. I try to shift to accommodate, but Hercules isn’t giving me an inch, he uses his hold on my thighs to keep me pinned in place, spread and open and impaled on Hades’s cock. He watches me with those big blue eyes as he drags the flat of his tongue over my clit. Hades presses his hand flat between my breasts and pins me to his chest. I’m trapped, unable to do more than take what they give me, and I’ve never felt safer than I do in that moment.
Pleasure rises in wave after wave, each driving me closer to oblivion. I lace my fingers in Hercules’s hair and writhe against them. “Let me move. Please.”
Hades sets his teeth against my neck and then soothes the spot with his tongue. “No.”
I try to hold on, but they’re too overwhelming. I come with a cry, shuddering into one of the better orgasms I’ve ever had. I slump back against Hades’s chest and for a moment, I think this is what they meant when they called me in here. I really should know better by now. Hercules leans back and holds my gaze as he licks me from his lips. “That’s a start.”
He lifts me and slams me back down on Hades’s cock. I try to help, but they’re not interested in my assistance. Hades’s hands at my waist. Hercules’s under my thighs. They use my body to fuck Hades, as if I’m a toy in human form, a pussy solely for his use. It’s so hot, I can barely stand it. Hercules pushes partially to his feet and shoves his tiny shorts off. Even damn near out of my mind with the lingering effect of my orgasm, I can’t help clenching around Hades at the sight of him naked. “Glorious, isn’t he?” Hades murmurs.
Nothing but the truth between us. “Yes.”
Hercules pushes me back against Hades chest and lifts me again, but this time it’s his cock that pushes into me. He gives me a quick kiss, and that’s all the warning I get before he braces one hand on Hades’s shoulder and starts fucking me in long, brutal thrusts. Like he’s trying to fuck me right into Hades. All the while, Hades holds me down, ensuring I can’t do anything but play the willing victim.
As if he can sense my thoughts, he begins speaking in that sinful voice of his. “Have to take care of our Meg, little Hercules. Fill her up so while she watches me beat you, the reminder of who she belongs to is dripping down her thighs.”
I come again, and I must black out for a moment because when I blink, Hercules has followed me over the edge and is pulling out of me. Hades topples him back onto the couch and shoves me onto his chest. Hercules bands his arms around me, keeping me pinned. “Fuck her like she needs, Sir.”
Hades rams into me hard enough to have a helpless noise emerging from my lips. Hard and rough and utterly perfect. He mirrors the rhythm Hercules took, fucking me just shy of brutally. And then Hercules’s mouth is on mine, swallowing my cries as Hades drives me toward another orgasm. I can’t handle it, don’t want it to stop, need them to keep fucking me until I’m marked as theirs forever. Hades presses down on the small of my back, grinding me against Hercules’s stomach. The friction against my clit is all I need. I scream as I orgasm. I’m distantly aware of Hades following me over the edge, pumping me full of come. And then he’s there, covering me with his body, he and Hercules holding me close between them.
I have never felt so loved as I do in this moment.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hades
I can feel the buzz of anticipation in the Underworld even before I leave my office. Earlier today, I instructed Tis to quietly put out word that I’d preside over a scene tonight. That always brings in the wolves from the outer boundaries of Carver City. Even the people who only darken my doorstep occasionally manage to make an appearance on the nights I take up a whip. Or flogger. Or any number of my toys.
Hercules shifts from foot to foot. It’s the first time he’s shown nerves since he agreed to this, and I find myself moved by it. “Come here, little Hercules.”
He pivots and immediately crosses to kneel by my feet. It seems beyond belief that he’s been mine for such a short time, and yet here we are. Being with him feels as natural as breathing. I trace the hard line of his jaw, allowing myself to linger. “Your safe word remains the same. Say Olympus and it all stops. Our having an audience changes nothing when it comes to that.”
“Okay.” He stares at me with blue e
yes that have somehow retained an element of innocence. It’s intoxicating. Hercules wets his lips. “Are you going to fuck me in front of everyone?”
“No.” I don’t know why I’m surprised to witness disappointment on his face, but it amuses me. “Greedy thing, aren’t you? Just as greedy as our Meg, wanting to claim me the same way I’ll claim you.”
He lifts his chin. “Can you blame me?”
“Not in the least.” He’s still holding back, though. Something isn’t quite right. “What is it?”
“Meg should be here with us.” He starts to drop his chin, but I tighten my hold on his jaw, forcing him to continue meeting my gaze. Hercules’s brows lower. “It’s not just you and me. It’s the three of us. It seems wrong to basically declare your intentions and not have her involved.”
He’s not wrong, but I have a plan and it requires the two of us, not the three of us. “She’ll be feeling evidence of us for hours yet.”
“That’s not the same and you know it.”
Yes, I suppose I do. I sigh. “I’ve already compromised the better part of my plans. This isn’t something I’m willing to add to that list.”
He hesitates, but in the end finally nods against my hand. “Promise me that someday it will be the three of us out there.”
“I promise.” Easy enough to do since that is my intention already. Not tonight, not when I need Zeus squirming and full of rage, but soon. Everyone knows Meg is mine, but it won’t do to have them speculating that she’s being replaced. Rumor may fly for a short time, but it’s something I’m willing to risk.
I nudge Hercules back. “How do you feel knowing I’m going to strip you down to your base level in front of a crowd?”
He blushes, a tinge of pink stealing over his golden cheeks and down his chest. “I want it.”
“Good.” I urge him up. “I got something for you.” I walk to my desk and pick up the wooden box that was delivered earlier. I turn to him and flip it open. Hercules’s response is everything I could have dreamed of.
His jaw drops and his eyes go wide. “That’s mine?”
“Yes.” A more masculine twin to the collar Meg wears when we play. Thicker leather, fewer diamonds. I set the box down and lift it out. “Kneel.”
Hercules instantly obeys. I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of seeing this man on his knees. He’s truly beautiful in a way that goes beyond his physical perfection. I fasten the collar around his neck and then take his hand and press it to the buckle at the back of his neck. “This removes it.”
“I won’t take it off until you take it off me.”
Power and desire curl through me. If I were a simpler man, this would be all there is to us. Lust and love, and the only power games would be confined to the bedroom. I’m not that man. I don’t know that I ever was, but any chance at that kind of life was buried alongside my family. There is only the person I’ve become, and the vengeance that has been a slow burn in my chest for too many decades. I don’t know how to be different than I am.
I press a soft kiss to his mouth. “It’s time.” I move to the door, and he falls into step behind me. We stride down the hallway and around to the back door into the lounge. I stop just inside the door, a king surveying my kingdom, at least in part. The more interesting things will be going on behind the door Allecto lounges in front of. She won’t let anyone through who isn’t meant to be there, but it won’t matter. Rumor spirals, and I have every intention that news of this night will reach Zeus’s ears before dawn.
As I suspected, there is so much power in this room, it’s only my dominion that’s kept it from being a bloodbath. Jafar and Jasmine lean against the bar, as wrapped up in each other as they always seem to be. Jafar pauses to glare at me, but he knows better than to push the subject, righteous revenge as motivation or no. Being banned from my club would cut his woman off from a significant resource and piss her off in the mix. I had expected to see Meg with them; she adores Jasmine and tends to gravitate to them when they visit.
I survey the rest of the room. Hook with his second-in-command on the other side of the bar. The warring generals Gaeton and Beast who are never far apart, but who I’ve had to threaten with expulsion if they ruin yet another piece of my furniture with their brawling. The golden queen, Malone, who’s as untouchable as she is beautiful. Even the Sea Witch is here, dripping in jewels and watching the room with a predatory glint I recognize.
But no Meg.
Unease slithers through me. It’s possible she’s in the playroom already, but she doesn’t spend time back there unless she’s actually playing. I’d fully expected her to be here waiting. I can feel Hercules’s tension at my back, but there’s no telling if he’s noticed her absence and found it as unnerving as I have.
Something is wrong.
I turn on my heel and jerk my chin at Hercules. “A small detour.” It’s easier—and faster—to check the cameras than to search this place for Meg. I don’t care that it may be seen as a weakness to retreat as soon as I enter the room. I’ve spent too long honing instincts to ignore them now. Meg intended to be in that room when we walked in. It’s possible she changed her mind, but even if she’s having doubts about us, she knows the value of a united front. We show a sliver of weakness to the people in that room, and they’ll crack us open without hesitation. Our strength protects us, yes, but it protects the people within our small domain as well. No matter how angry Meg gets with me, she takes her responsibility too seriously to endanger anyone.
So why isn’t she here as planned?
“What’s going on?” Hercules doesn’t lift his voice, but he doesn’t have to since we’re alone in the hallway.
I don’t slow down. “Meg should have been there.”
Just like that, he picks up his pace until he’s shoulder to shoulder with me. “You’re going to check the cameras.”
“Yes.” For all that Hercules is a shining near-innocent when it comes to our brand of fucking, he’s smart enough to connect the dots without my spelling it out for him. I veer around the corner and have to draw myself up before I open the door to the security room. Charging in there isn’t likely to panic them—they work directly under Allecto, after all—but I’ll get answers quicker if they aren’t scrambling to cover their asses. I take a slow breath and push through the door on the exhale.
The thin man behind the row of monitors jumps to his feet. Minh, a Vietnamese man who’s worked for me just shy of five years. “Sir?”
The urge to yell rocks me back on my heels. I have no reason to panic. No reason to fear. I’m overreacting, surely. I manage to keep my tone mild. “Find Meg.”
“Yes, sir.” He drops back into his chair and his fingers fly over the keyboard. The screens in front of him flicker as he cycles through them, almost too fast for me to follow. He frowns. “Uh, give me a second.”
Cold sinks into me. “Is there a problem?”
“I can’t seem to find her.” He doesn’t look from the monitors. “Give me a second to backtrack and figure out where she went.”
“Do that.”
A warm hand presses to the center of my back and Hercules leans against me. Offering silent strength, though his expression is as worried as the feeling curling through my bones. Something is wrong, terribly wrong, and standing here while we wait for bad news sends me hurtling through time and space to a room very different from this one. To my man, Andreas, shaking and pale, spilling forth words that no man wants to hear. My wife. My son. Both lost in a fire.
Meg was sheltered between my and Hercules’s bodies an hour ago. Safe. It never occurred to me that she wouldn’t remain so.
The two minutes it takes Minh to pull Meg’s image up on the screen take on the semblance of a small eternity. Finally, he sits back. “Here she is an hour ago.” The camera shows Meg walking out my office door. She’s a little flushed and has a small smile on her face. Happy. She looks happy. She rolls her shoulders and sets off down the hall.
“Follow her.”
I find myself holding my breath, and Hercules keeps rubbing small circles against my back as if that will change the feeling of the sword about to slice through my neck. As if I summoned trouble with my thoughts, Tink appears on the screen and hurries up to Meg’s side. Meg dips her head and listens intently to what the other woman is saying. She flinches.
My woman flinches.
Just like that, the joy is gone from her face, from her posture. She turns with a wooden expression I haven’t seen since that first few months when she lived under my roof. The memory steals my breath. The implication of what it means seeing it now? “No.”
The cameras follow her as she walks out of the lounge and takes the elevators all the way down to the ground floor. There’s a black car idling at the curb.
“Do you have sound for this?”
“Yeah.” A push of a button and we can hear soft traffic noises.
The door opens and a man’s voice says, “You came.”
“Let her go.” Meg doesn’t sound terrified, but I know my woman. It’s there in the line of her shoulders and the hardness of her voice. She’s holding onto anger to shield herself from fear.
“Of course. A deal’s a deal. You know all about that, don’t you?”
Movement within the car and Aurora spills onto the street. She rushes to Meg and wraps her arms around her. Meg smooths back her hair, checking her expression. “Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, Meg. So sorry. I didn’t know—”
She presses her fingers to Aurora’s lips. “Go.”
The man speaks again. “Remember, princess. You say a single damn thing to him and your mother pays the price.”