by AJ Merlin
“It feels unfair to say,” I replied easily, moving to help her pull the blankets up and make them look messier.
“It’s Hades, isn’t it?” Ryann sighed heavily. “It’s always Hades. Anytime someone comes here to visit, they want to track him down and ask for him to sign something inappropriate.”
“I did not track him down,” I promised. “And I haven’t asked for anything signed.”
“He used to sign arms and stuff,” the woman told me, a sharp grin on her face. “Until one girl had him sign her chest and got his signature tattooed on her.”
“Wow.” I blinked, taken aback, and eyed her with bemusement. “Really? That seems extreme.”
“She said she had to,” Ryann replied with a sagely nod. “That he called to her and he was her soul mate.”
Something that felt uncomfortably like jealousy twisted in my stomach and I coughed to swallow a growl.
Shit. I was really getting weird. It was time to really look into finding a no strings attached alpha again.
And yet, that idea seemed weirdly unappetizing to me. Sure, I’d never been invested in fucking all the alphas that I could find. But neither was I opposed to casual hookups.
But now it felt off. The idea of it was strange, as if I was in a relationship and it was cheating.
That was not the case, however, and I was unsure of where my brain had gotten that idea.
“You okay?” Ryann had noticed my frown and the way I’d paused in what I was doing.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Just a bit off lately is all. Do you want me to move the camera to this side some? I think it’s going to be a bit off.”
Chapter Ten
Sorting dildos was the low point of my week, but that beat working at Uptown Grounds by a mile and a half.
As it turned out, most of my time was spent helping Ryann or Noah. Both of them were newer employees at Prowl, and they liked the company and someone to talk to before and after their shoots.
More than once, Ryann offered me a premium subscription to her channel, but I always politely declined.
“It’s for professional reasons,” she pointed out. “So you can tell me what you think.”
“Fair,” I allowed, sitting down across from her at the table in the kitchen. Both she and Noah had finished up around the same time, and now my best friend and I were looking at a weekend spent with ice cream and horror movies.
No parties, no weird guys, and no alphas.
I was excited.
“But I’d feel weird about you buying me a subscription,” I went on, speaking before she could argue.
Noah sat down at my left, snagging a donut from the box. “She wouldn’t have to buy it,” he informed me, words muffled around the donut he’d crammed into his mouth.
“We can give them away,” Ryann added, finger combing her white hair. She looked particularly tousled after her work today, and smelled overwhelmingly like sex and fruity lube.
While the artificial strawberry smell assaulted my nose like a bunch of small, dull pins, I didn’t mention it.
“To whoever you want?” I asked instead.
“Yeah.” Noah reached for another donut with reckless abandon, and devoured it in seconds.
Considering him, I snagged one as well. A jelly filled, sugar coated pastry that was half-stale from sitting out all day.
That didn’t bother me at all.
“We’re encouraged to give away a few sometimes. For events, or prizes, or to people we think will spread the word about us.”
“Oh.” I blinked, stuffing a third of my own donut in my mouth and nearly swallowing it whole. “Maybe that’s how I got Hades’ then?”
Ryann blinked, then traded a look with Noah. “Sorry-what? I figured you subscribe to him with the way you…you know.” She waved a hand at me, an apologetic grin ready on her lips.
“The way I…?” I took another bite of donut.
“You know….” Now it was Noah’s turn to wave a hand at me, as if I understood what that meant.
They traded a look.
“Whatever. I don’t want to hear whatever you know means,” I said, heat rising to my cheeks.
Sure, I may have stared at him rather frequently.
And yeah, I’d become acquainted with his Premium Content over the past week.
But I was good at being subtle, damn it.
“Anyway,” I went on. “I have a premium subscription to his account, but I didn’t buy it. It appeared as a gift on my account last week.”
Noah looked baffled, as he did every time we broached the topic of who had sent me the sub.
Ryann looked at her wrist, stroking a hand over the flowery tattoo that covered her from hand to elbow. “Huh,” she only said.
“What does huh mean?” I asked, sitting back in my chair and crossing one leg over the other.
“Maybe he knows you like him ,” Ryann said delicately. “Maybe he gave you premium.”
“Maybe just to be nice. Especially since he wanted to know what I thought on a professional level” While the idea of Hades gifting me his premium for reasons other than business-related would be filed away for later fantasies, I refused to even think about it now.
She shrugged again, and Noah followed suit.
“Do we need anything from the store?” Noah asked, changing subjects tactfully.
“I believe we have everything for tacos,” I affirmed. “Last time I checked, anyway.”
“Then I’m trusting you. It’s…” he glanced up at the clock. “Ten minutes until five, and I’m good to go when the clock strikes five.”
“Same,” Ryann sighed. “Next time, can I come to taco night too? I’ll bring my own vegetarian shit.”
“You can come to taco night now, “ I told her, surprised at my own excitement at the idea of her hanging out with us instead of being just a work acquaintance.
“I would,” she said. “But I have to go babysit for my sister tonight.” She scrunched her nose up at the words, but I knew it for the act it was.
Ryann loved her nieces and nephews. All six of them. She’d been talking about how much she liked spending time with them, and had gotten my opinion on what she could do to to keep them interested.
When I’d asked what was wrong with ice cream and movies, she’d looked at me like I was some kind of heathen and berated me on the problems of too much screen time for little kids.
“Next time, then,” I assured her. “You’re absolutely welcome to come.”
“Oh-you guys are still here?” The voice and accompanying smile still made my apparently-weak knees quiver, and the three of us looked up at the figure of Hades in the doorway.
He’d paused, hand on one side of the frame, and looked at us with a polite smile. “I thought you would’ve escaped by now.”
“We’ve got…” Noah looked at the clock. “Seven minutes left. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Hades dismissed. “Except that Rita left and took Harrison with her.” He’d named one of the other assistants, who’d worked here much longer than me, and who I knew helped out the more established performers.
“Do you need some help?” I found myself asking without even thinking.
You idiot, I chastised my brain. Of course he doesn’t want help from you. Not when he probably has a very certain way he does things, and–
“I’d love your help,” Hades replied, the tension leaving his smile. “But I don’t want to keep you, since you’re about to be off the clock.”
“She doesn’t mind,” Noah promised, yelping when Ryann kicked him under the table.
I glanced at her and she gave me a subtle thumbs up.
“I’ll help you.” It wasn’t that I minded-Noah had been right about that-but I hated that he was so quick to point out how much I didn’t.
“I’ll be quick, I promise,” the panther shifter promised, lifting a hand and beckoning me with two fingers.
Just like he had at the party.
My breath caught unexpect
edly in my throat and I nearly tripped over my chair as I rose.
He noticed-it was evident that he noticed-and his smile fell from polite to somewhere much closer to wicked amusement.
“She won’t be long,” Hades promised again, dipping out of the doorway and heading down the hallway.
I followed him, glad to take the few seconds of his back to me to recompose myself.
Yet again I questioned my reactions to this man. If Noah had done the same little finger-twist-beckon with that look, I’d punch him. Same with any other alpha.
Well.
Not Roman.
But that was a thought that wasn’t helping me at the moment, and I chased it away along with images of Hades on the throne in that room.
Get it together, Alek.
“Sorry to pull you away from them,” Hades voice had changed somehow, just slightly, as if underlaid with a slight purr.
It did nothing for my efforts of pulling myself together to not look like an idiot.
“That’s okay,” I replied, a bit too eagerly. He opened a door, leading me into a filming room I’d never seen before.
Well, at least not in person.
I’d certainly watched more than one of his videos that had been filmed in this dark, luxuriously decorated bedroom.
It was bigger than the ones Noah and Ryann used. The bed was huge, and piled high with satin silver and black pillows laid over a charcoal bedspread. My eyes drifted to the foot of the bed, which was a bad move, and landed on the ottoman that had been featured so prominently in the video I’d just watched last night.
Before my body could do more than grow slightly warm, I tore my gaze away to look instead at the two tables framing the bed, their soft light giving the room a very pleasant glow.
Keep it in your pants, Alek, I chastised. Or he’s going to know just how much you enjoy his videos real fast.
I busied myself by looking around the room, sure that there was very little about wall fixtures and light sockets that could get me going.
The curtains that Hades stood in front of looked to be the same material as the bed, and those, at least, were innocent enough to not invoke any images of–
He was staring at me. Again. His spring green eyes just waiting for mine to find him as I again called myself every idiotic name that I could muster.
“Damn,” I said, instead of sorry or I wasn’t thinking of all the videos of you I watch on a daily basis.
No, I’d gone with damn.
“I’d hate for you to take this as an insult, but you’re not that subtle when you look at me,” Hades said in a straightforward way.
“I’m not?” I asked, my voice rising about two octaves. “Wait. I don’t-I was appreciating the room and then you were just here. In it.”
He’d started to move towards the bed, but now he stopped to look at me with a flat, disbelieving gaze.
One brow arched, but he didn’t comment on my lie.
I guess I could only be grateful for small miracles, at this point.
“Hmmm.” He looked at the bed, snagging a pillow and throwing it to the floor. “Sit for me,” he requested, in a tone that was most certainly not asking.
“Why?” I asked, instead of moving. If Ryann had asked, I would’ve done it no questions needed.
But with him…
Well, some masochistic piece of me that I sure as shit wasn’t going to admit to wanted to see what Hades would do if I dug in my heels at his ‘request.’
The panther shifter glanced up, obviously surprised at my question. “Because I asked you to,” he replied, not a trace of irritation or anger in his voice.
“Well, yeah,” I linked my hands behind my back. “But why?”
I just couldn’t help myself, it seemed.
Did I even want to help myself?
As I watched, it was as if something in him changed. Nothing remarkable, exactly, but it was as if his attitude had shifted from pleasantness to something….different.
Something not at all unwelcome, in my eyes.
“Because I need to adjust the camera, princess,” he informed me slowly, a shiver going through me at the pet name. “And unless you know how to do that, you get to be on the other side of it while I do.”
Oh. Well. That made a lot of sense, actually.
And I was here to help. Since that was my job, and all.
“Ah. That’s fair, then.” He gestured dramatically to the bed, prompting me to roll my eyes and step forward.
A tug of disappointment pulled at my insides, but I pushed it to the floor with some difficulty.
I sank down on the edge of it, surprised at the softness and silently a bit put out that none of his scent clung to the soft blanket.
Well, he wasn’t the only one that used this room, after all. And I knew that the company obviously changed the bedding after every actor’s shoot.
Hades rewarded me with a smile, and walked to the side of the room to stand behind the laptop and camera that were posed there.
If his smile made me so internally pleased, as this one had, what else would I do for a private grin courtesy of Hades Ahlleron?
The possibilities were endless.
“I noticed the focus was off when I was in here earlier,” Hades explained. “And I can’t be on the bed and back here, so you get to be me for a minute.”
“Do I get to do the signature poses too?” I laughed without thinking.
He paused, then looked up at me again. “Signature poses?”
Oh fuck.
It was out there now. The admittance that I watched him enough to know that he had some things he did more often than not.
Hades didn’t break eye contact. With nowhere to go and unable to hide from my admonition, I continued to speak without caution. “Well, yeah. You know. There are those things you do a lot.”
Oh god. What if he asked me–
"What things?” There was no hiding the amusement in his voice, nor the fact that he was no longer focused on the camera at all.
“You know…” I raised my brows and lifted a hand, as if that meant anything.
“No. But now I need to know.”
Well. Not much I could do now when he’d asked and I’d admitted to knowing.
I cleared my throat and stood, knowing my face burned at the thought of replicating movements of his right in front of him.
“I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” I admitted, grabbing one of the pillows and sitting back down. I laid on my stomach, the pillow under my chin as I looked up at him pointedly.
“You uh, talk to the viewer like this…a lot,” I admitted, batting my eyelashes at him in an attempt at copying his sultry gaze.
He nodded sagely, not even trying to hide his amusement. “You have to do the eyes,” he said. “Tilt your chin up a little and give me the puppy eyes.”
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. But I did it. Tilting my chin up and slightly to the side, I looked at him through my lashes as my hair fell forward and into my face.
“Signature pose,” I replied, rolling to my feet a second after I’d done as he asked.
“You said poses,” he pointed out. “With an S.”
I had, hadn’t I?
But hadn’t I embarrassed myself enough?
I wasn’t doing the other one. There was no way I was going to get on that bed, on my back, and stare up at the camera the way he did.
Hell, I wasn’t sure I could even do that. I didn’t have his natural-born allure that I was sure he’d never needed to practice a day in his life.
“I’m pretty sure I won’t do it justice,” I told him with a half-smile tugging on my lips.
I wished he’d stop grinning. It was sexy, and inviting, and drew me in too much for me to think straight.
“Well, I could use another,” he admitted, looking at the laptop again. “I need to make sure I have this set right. I haven’t done it in awhile, since Harrison focuses it for me now.”
Damn it, Harrison. Why did h
e have to leave early?
We are not upset about this, a treacherous part of my brain whispered. At all.
Clearing my throat, I dropped the pillow back to the top of the bed and sat back down. “Okay. Well…I mean there’s only one more I can think of. But you don’t do it that much,” I dismissed.
“Well apparently I do, if you’ve noticed it enough to mention.”
Yeah, he did.
Throwing caution to the wind, I laid back down on the bed, my head at the opposite end to the pillows so I could tip my head back and gaze up at him and the camera. My left foot pressed to the bed, knee arched and relaxed slightly to the side.
“Something like this,” I murmured, feeling the betrayal of a flush rising to my cheeks.
Hades watched me, his eyes nowhere near the laptop screen.
“No,” he said, walking around it and kneeling on the bed beside me. I started to rise but he pushed me back down with a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve got it wrong,” he informed me, drawing his hand down my arm to lift my wrist and push it over my head.
I let him, eyes fixed on his as I leaned my head back just slightly more without his prompting in a sign of unconscious submission.
Hades didn’t miss it. This close, I could tell when his scent changed, becoming darker around the edges, and I could see very clearly when his pupils thinned to cat-like slits.
Holy shit.
“I don’t really have the smolder, though,” I whispered when he caught my knee and rearranged it slightly so that my thighs were ever so slightly parted.
“It’s all in the eyes,” he said, still acting at ease even though his reactions said otherwise. “And personally, I think you’ve got a smolder of your own going on here.”
It was impossible not to imagine grabbing him by his t-shirt and tugging his down so I could see just how his full mouth felt against mine.
It was absolutely unthinkable not to instantly consider all the ways I wanted his hands on me, and just what it might feel like for him to straddle my waist and bury his fingers in my hair–
When his breath caught in his throat, I realized that my body was making it clear how I felt, and that he knew it too.
However, unless my brain was deceiving me, I wasn’t the only one getting a bit worked up. He’d closed some of the distance between us, though his arms were locked into position, holding him almost a foot away from me.