by Vivian Wood
Hades shrugs. “I can’t be sure.”
“You don’t know what happened to him last night?”
“I told my people to take him where all trespassers go.” Hades sounds impatient, like I should have known all this in advance. Like someone should have taught me. “To work in the diamond mines until they’re no longer of use to me.”
I swallow a bitter fear. “So you’ll kill him eventually anyway.”
He flicks his eyes toward the ceiling. “The better question is, why do you care? Why would you want to run off with a man who blunders into situations with people like me? He’d last five minutes in the city. Maybe less, with you hanging off his arm.” Hades grins at me. “He’s lucky in a way. I didn’t take you from him on a busy street corner. Very few people got to see him be so thoroughly put in his place.”
“So I have to sign this. And if I don’t sign, you’ll kill Decker, and you’ll kill me too.”
His mouth tightens. “I doubt I’d bother. If you don’t sign, I’ll release you.”
“What?” Shock tunnels through me, twisting itself up with confusion. And, somehow, disappointment. A sick, wrong disappointment. I shouldn’t want this man to touch me, not ever again. “You’ll take me home?”
“I’ll release you,” he says slowly, drawing out every word. “If you can make it down the mountain and follow the tracks back to your mother’s house, then I suppose you could go back there. But no one here will give you a lift.” Hades rubs a hand over his mouth. “In all likelihood, you’ll just die alone in the wilderness, wearing... exactly what you’re wearing right now.”
I read the papers again.
Hades taps his fingers on the desk. “I don’t offer renegotiation of this sort as a matter of course, Persephone. Don’t make me wait. If you’re going to take advantage of it, do it now.”
I feel... small. Unworthy of understanding this contract in my hand. It has clauses guaranteeing I’ll be fed and clothed. It says he can discipline me at will. The more I read, the more I want to cry. Only I don’t know if I’m crying because there’s no way out of this or because I don’t want a way out of this. It doesn’t bother me as much as it should, his control over my body. It bothers me more knowing I’m giving up on my dream. I’m giving up on freedom. There will be no trip to the New York Public Library. I won’t check out a thousand books on every subject under the sun. I won’t do anything but exactly what he commands.
Hades holds out a pen, thick and black and shiny. “Make your choice.”
Why is he doing this? It… it was almost easier when he didn’t give me one. Now I’m confronted with all of it again. Decker. My mother. My own body betraying me. The cruelest, most beautiful man I’ve ever seen sits across his desk from me, watching with ice in his eyes. I squeeze my eyes closed and force myself to picture it. Being thrown out onto the mountain in bare feet, the rocks cutting into my flesh. The dull snap of Decker’s neck, if he’s still alive, and his body falling to the floor. My mother’s wrath. A pointless dream.
Everything I’ve done will be for nothing.
“I don’t want to belong to you,” I tell him. This might be the last moment I can say this.
He smiles. “Too late.”
“Give me the pen,” I whisper.
As I reach for it, I glance up into Hades’ face one more time and catch an expression I never thought I’d see—relief. He narrows his eyes, and it disappears. Relief? What could he have to be relieved about? And what would it have to do with me?
I don’t ask any questions. I know better than that. I just take the pen and sign my name.
It’s done.
Chapter Fourteen
Persephone
The moment I put the papers back on the table, everything changes.
Hades stands, towering over me, and leans down to put his own signature below mine. It’s a manly scrawl that runs over mine in places, as if he doesn’t really care where mine ends and his begins.
“They’re ready,” he calls. The man must’ve been standing outside the door all along, because it takes him no time at all to collect the papers from Hades’ hands. “File them with the rest. Get up.”
It takes me a moment too long to rise from my seat, which earns me a scowl that makes goose bumps rise up and down my back. What now? I allow myself to think it. I don’t allow myself to say it. The rest of me quakes as I stand waiting for Hades to do... whatever it is he’s going to do. There’s not enough air in the room. Now is when it happens, isn’t it? Now is when he takes whatever it is he wants from me. Whatever’s left. I steel myself for a hand around my throat and close my eyes. Soon, he’ll grab me there, and then... then he’ll be in charge. I won’t have to think about this anymore. I’ll just let it happen.
But the only thing that brushes against my exposed throat is a shift in the air as he moves past me, Conor at his heels. They wait at the door.
“Come here now.”
I stub my toe on the chair leg in my hurry to get to him. My heart beats so hard and fast it’s like a horse given its head for the first time, racing across an open field. The dress—nightgown, whatever it is—rides up. It’s hard to keep it down in place and follow him at the same time. We take one hallway down to the big open area at the center of his private rooms and make another turn. Down another long hallway. At the end of the hall is a set of double doors, but he doesn’t go through them. He stops at another door, a single one, right before it.
Hades opens the door with the air of a man who has run out of time and patience.
“Go in.”
This time, I don’t hesitate. I’m a little proud of that.
“Your personal maid will be here soon. Don’t go farther than the end of the hall.”
He turns to leave.
“Wait.” I’m still turning when I catch Hades by the sleeve, and he pauses, staring down at my hand like I’ve shocked him. My heart has gone off-rhythm. I drop my hand and draw myself up to my full height, though I still feel unsteady. It was one thing to throw myself at him when Decker was dangling from his hands. It’s another to have our names scrawled together on what looks like a very official document. I don’t know what he plans to do with it, but dread pools at the base of my belly. “Where are you going?”
Hades looks at me, blue eyes questioning.
“I have business. Did you think I’d be spending every waking moment with you?”
His fingers in my hair, his laughter in my ears. “Did you think you were special?”
Yes. “No.”
He comes back across the threshold.
“Is this some kind of admission, Persephone? Are you admitting you need supervision in order to hold up your end of the agreement?”
My end of the agreement is to be here. Submission without limits. What else could I do?
“That’s not what I’m…. No.” I only thought you would keep me with you. I should be crying tears of joy right now, or tears of relief, if he’s willing to leave me alone. After the morning I’ve had, the last thing I should crave is a rough man’s touch. “I wondered. That’s all.”
“You didn’t wonder anything of the kind. That much is clear.” He’s taken up all the space between us, compressing the air down to nothing. “If you’d thought at all, you wouldn’t be wasting my time.”
“What was this morning for, then?” My voice rises, getting away from me. “You left me in that room with those people—”
“With Genie and her team.” It sounds like scolding, and it pisses me off. “You needed their services.”
“They took my dress, my clothes. Now I only have this, and you’re… you’re leaving?”
Hades puts his hands in his pockets, a heated expression playing slowly across his lips, making its way to his eyes.
“Are you angry, because they made you into something tolerable, or because I didn’t bother to inspect their work?”
“You don’t need to inspect—”
That’s all I get out before his hand c
omes down over my mouth, huge and immovable. He turns me as easily as a doll, walking me into the room and over to a four-poster bed. It’s the biggest bed I’ve ever seen. Compared to the twin mattresses we had at home, it’s huge. But Hades doesn’t use the space there. He marches me over to one of the posts and snatches both wrists in one of his hands.
“Up here. That’s it, sweetheart. Keep them up there if you’d rather avoid a punishment.” He laughs, the sound wicked and dark. “Though, if you insist on it, I can always rearrange my schedule.”
I gasp in a breath against his hand, and then it’s gone, leaving my lips open to the air. Words bubble up, a hundred questions, a jagged pulse of anxiety, but before I can speak, a length of cloth covers my mouth and slips between my teeth. A gag. Hades tugs it tight behind my head, sounding satisfied at his handiwork. When he’s got it tied off, he gives it a cruel twist, and I cry out against the cloth.
“That’s better.” He strokes down the back of my neck, lifting the extra fabric away from my skin so he can blow a breath against my spine. “Now that you can’t get yourself into trouble with that mouth of yours, you’ll finally be able to relax.”
I let out a wild laugh. Relax? Like this? Holding onto the post of the bed like it could possibly save me? I won’t relax. I would never be able to.
“Now. You were upset I didn’t pause to appreciate Genie’s work. You’re right about one thing; she does excellent work, even on tough cases like you.” He reaches down and jerks up the hem of the nightgown. It’s thin, unsubstantial, but having it raised lets the slowly circulating air caress the naked skin underneath. I have nothing left to protect me. Nothing to keep me from him. He can see everything. Hades twists it into itself, so it stays lodged at my shoulders. This is so much worse than being naked. I’d rather be naked. No… I wouldn’t. At least he’s letting me keep this. Which is it? Why can’t I decide?
He gives a sharp slap to the back of my thighs.
“You know better than that.”
At first, I don’t know what he’s talking about, and then I realize I’ve clamped my thighs together so hard the muscles are already trembling. I manage to inch my feet apart, caught between wanting to avoid the punishment he’d be so happy to give me and wanting to cling to the very last shreds of my modesty. There are practically none left. I don’t know why it matters, only that it does.
Hades has no patience for this. He pushes one foot between my legs and shoves them apart. Wide. Conor makes a sound, almost disapproving, and appears at my side. My side. Hades turns my face to the side so the dog can see.
“I’m not hurting her,” he snaps. “She’s fine.” Is this what fine is? Hades snaps his fingers. “Go lay down.” Conor grudgingly pulls away. He finds a fireplace. My heart slows a little bit.
“Keep your legs here. Do you understand?”
I nod frantically, feeling the tears leak one by one out from under my eyes. Only… I’m not crying out of fear. I’m not even sure why it’s happening. I could be wrong. It could be fear. Maybe I’ve stopped feeling it. Maybe this last day has done that to me. Maybe he’s done that to me. Hades works a hand down over my ass and squeezes.
“Good.” His hand is slightly rough and calloused. Every ridge is obvious against my skin as he tests my other ass-cheek then unceremoniously spreads them apart. I lean my forehead against the post of the bed and try to keep breathing. My stomach sinks down to my toes, knees weakening. It’s hard to keep my legs spread like this. My thighs ache from the position. He’s looking at me. He’s looking at me there. I thought it was bad before, in the elevator, when he touched me. That was nothing.
The moment goes on and on, stretching out into eternity.
Hades is being awful.
And the longer it goes on, the weaker my knees get. A strange warmth arcs across my chest, twisting itself up with an ache that feels like wanting. The drop of shame melds with a fluttering anticipation until it’s hard to tell one sickness from another. This can’t be happening.
He strokes one finger over my most sensitive, secret place. My head falls back and a sound escapes me, a sound so sultry I don’t even recognize my own voice.
Hades rewards this by letting go and grabbing one of my hips with another light slap.
“You are a fucking liar,” he murmurs in my ear, the heat of his body covering my back. “You’re such a wide-eyed, innocent little liar.” One of his hands comes up to grip my jaw, pulling the gag even tighter. “I’d say I would train it out of you, but that would be such a waste.” His lips brush my cheek, which is wet with my tears. He braces my head against his chest, or somewhere near his shoulder; I don’t know. All I know is I’m still upright, and it’s a miracle.
Then his other hand traces a path to the front of me, circling each nipple with the sharp edge of his nail. I can’t stop the sounds any more than I could let go of the post. This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. The chant goes around in circles in my mind until it’s a meaningless song.
His hand moves downward.
Inch by inch by inch.
He circles my belly button.
He goes lower.
I can’t breathe.
I’m doing nothing but breathing, sucking in air through the fabric between my teeth. The sound is harsh compared to Hades’ even breathing.
His hand stops moving.
He’s inches away from my clit. It throbs just from the proximity, painful and wanting and bad; it’s bad. It’s so bad. The prickling sense of being in trouble runs over my skin like a cascade of hot water, dropped from above by a woman in a dark uniform. I wish he would touch me. Please, please touch me. Bring an end to this torturous anticipation. The waiting is the worst thing by far. My knuckles tighten on the bedpost.
He doesn’t move his hand.
He’s so close, the buttons of his jacket brushing against my spine, but he keeps his fingers splayed low on my belly.
Why?
He waits.
Hades is the king of waiting; that’s what he is. He pretends he has no patience, but he has enough to torture me. What does he want? What do I have to do to get him to touch me, to finish this? My body is already bent for him. But I push my hips out another inch.
“It’s terrible, what I’m going to do.” That voice in my ear is enough to make my knees give out, but I don’t let it. “Do you remember, Persephone? I promised I’d make you beg.”
But I can’t beg. I can’t say anything, not with this gag in my mouth. The whimpering sound I make next embarrasses me more than everything that’s come before it.
“Please. Of course you can beg. You’ve done it just now. Only that’s not enough for me to give you what you want. It’s not enough for me to give you anything you want.” His lips brush against the side of my neck—the shadow of a kiss. “I could decide to give you something you want. It wouldn’t go against our agreement.”
Another sound. I can’t stop it. And the heat and want have grown so powerful that my mind clouds, hiding the sharp mortification of this moment behind something dirty and hot. No, I can’t do this. I can’t give in to him. It’s very, very bad, and it’s very wrong.
It’s not up to me now. It’s not my rational mind that moves my hips again, rolling them. I can’t move far. I can’t move much. But it’s enough. I do it again and again. It’s obscene. I’m fucking the air, with his hand on me and his gag in my mouth and my name on his papers. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.
He slips two fingers down between my legs, down into the wetness that’s already waiting for him, and pulls them back up to circle my clit. I’m nothing now, an animal, a bundle of nerves that don’t know what to do with themselves. The noise that comes out of me is barely human, and if anyone ever heard it, it would be the end of me. But Hades hears it, and his hand goes still.
“No,” I cry into the gag, but it’s muffled and distorted.
“If you want more, you’ll have to get it yourself.” He sounds completely detached. “You’ll have
to admit that you want it. You’ll have to prove that you want this.”
And God help me, I do.
I work my hips up into his hand, legs spread wide, dripping down my own thighs. Sweat beads on my forehead. I can’t let go of the post. I can’t let him let go of me.
I’m almost there, on the brink of something obliterating… when he takes his hand away and steps back.
I howl into the gag, sagging against the bedpost.
Hades leans down over me.
“Almost, but not quite.” He reaches forward and wipes his hand against my back then presses the ghost of a kiss to my shoulder. “I almost believed you, liar.” His footsteps retreat toward the door. A snap of his fingers, and Conor goes too. “Oh.” Every cell in my being bends to him, calling him to come back across the room. “Not Genie’s best work. But like I said, you were a difficult case.”
Chapter Fifteen
Persephone
Hades leaves the room.
I hear his footsteps retreating in the hall, each one softer than the last, and hold tighter to the bedpost. Surely, surely, he’s coming back. Surely, he wouldn’t leave me like this. I’m nearly at death’s door, only it was the most pleasant death I could have imagined. Even thinking about his touch sends new sensations zinging between my legs. I’m so focused on it that time goes by without me marking it. I couldn’t have kept track if I tried, but I’m not trying. I’m busy imagining his fingers where they were and trying to get there on force of fantasy alone.
So when the footsteps come down the hall, I’m too far gone to notice I should be doing something other than clinging to a bedpost with my dress hiked up to my shoulders, rolled around itself, and a gag in my mouth. Like rearranging my clothes, anything. But I’m not. I’m still frustrated and overheated and lost to myself.
Where is he? Why would he do this to me? What do I have to do, run naked through the hallways to get his attention? Do I even want his attention? I’m used to dreaming of empty fields, without a single person looking at me, and now—him?