by C. R. Jane
I gasped.
Hades kissed me again, his tongue in my mouth, swirling around mine, tasting every inch of me. I could taste the desire of sex on his tongue, the urge to dominate me. And I longed for that. I needed him to fuck me like there was no tomorrow.
He pulled up my shirt without ceremony, his hand landing on my breast and pinching one of my nipples so that I cried out. I needed more of the delicious pain he caused.
Hades positioned himself over me, shifting my body with one hand on my hip as he lowered himself onto me. My legs opened for him and he ground himself against me, his erect dick pressing up against my pubic bone. With one hand on my breast, pinching and massaging, he lowered his head to the other and sucked my nipple into his mouth. I hissed when he scraped it with his teeth, just short of clamping down and nipping me.
I squirmed when he rubbed himself up against me, touching me in all the right places.
It didn’t take very long before he kissed his way down my torso. He licked a line down my stomach, lightly biting me right next to my hip bone, and I gasped again. His fingers curled around the waistband of my pants and he pulled them down in one smooth motion. My legs shut and he proceeded to pull the rest of my clothes off.
When the shirt was up above my breasts, under my arms, I pulled it off myself. And just like that, I was naked and ready for Hades to do with me what he desired.
“I want you.” Fuck, I longed for his dick deep inside of me. Buried until he reached the darkest part of me.
He gave me that cocky, bad-boy smirk. “Not yet. I’ve something else in mind first.” He kissed me on my pubic bone, and then he closed his mouth around my clit. I moaned when he flicked his tongue back and forth, waves of pleasure washing through my body as I squirmed and shivered.
I tilted my head back, my fingers digging into the mattress, and I gritted my teeth.
“Fuck, you’re so sexy.” He was teasing me, and I groaned in frustration. He loved doing this.
He kissed my thighs, around my hips, my lower stomach, everywhere but where I needed him to. I reached for his head, fisting his hair, nudging him to where I wanted him, needing him. He chuckled and simply blew on my clit, and I shivered again.
Before he took my sex into his mouth again, he drove two fingers into me and I cried out. He pushed in deep and pumped his fingers in and out, sucking on inner lips as I fell apart. My thoughts turned to mush, my breathing growing into gaps. I couldn’t even hold it together for a moment longer before the first orgasm shook through me. I squirmed beneath him, shaking as euphoria thrummed through me, the screams falling past my lips.
Hades let go of me and pushed up, pulling off his pants. They came off easily, his thick erection standing at attention.
“Turn around,” he said.
“Yes, please.” I liked it this way. Hades always seemed to understand what I needed. I pushed up on my hands and knees, waiting for him to grip my hips and fuck me.
But again, Hades had something else in mind. He positioned himself at my entrance and plunged into me, but as he did, he placed his chest against my back until I couldn’t hold his weight anymore. He forced me down so that I lay on my stomach and hooked a hand under my hips, hiking them up a little.
He lay on me and started moving in and out, and I groaned with pleasure. He went in deep. It was the second time in a row he was doing this position and I loved it. It was as dirty as doggy style, but it was sensual, too.
He curled his hand around my hair and tugged my head back to kiss me on my cheek before he twisted my head sideways, his tongue snaking into my mouth again.
The orgasm that rocked my world hit me so fast, my vision blurring. I trembled against him, his mouth claiming my moans. Something about Hades shoved me over the edge without much effort on his part. He was just that good.
“Give me another one, angel,” he said as he fucked me harder, his hand sliding onto my neck, holding me just enough to remind me of his strength, that he could break me if he intended to.
But he didn’t. He was gentle enough with me that it was pure pleasure.
And it propelled me over yet again, and so damn fast, I barely caught my breath, my body constricting around his hardness, and I adored the way I convulsed with pleasure, lost in my own world, my mind emptying.
Hades pulled out and nudged me to turn over. I turned onto my back and looked up at him. At his sexy smile, the lust in his eyes, the way he stared at me as if only I existed in his world. He crawled onto me again and kissed me.
This time, it was a lot more sensual. I sighed into his mouth when he thrust into me and I wrapped my legs around his waist as far as I could get.
He started moving in and out of me slowly, pushing in until he was buried deep inside of me and staying there until I rode out the shudder before slowly sliding out again. I moaned long and low as he did and the sex was suddenly so sensual. It was very unlike Hades.
It happened from time to time and I loved it. The way he loved me when he really showed it was special because it happened so seldom. I knew what Hades felt for me. He’d told me just before I’d defeated X and the only reason I had defeated him was because of what Hades had said.
My power had been a bonus, a beautiful combo.
But Hades wasn’t a man of many words when it came to his feelings and him saying what he felt or otherwise showing it was a big deal. So I lived with the knowledge of his love for me at my core, and when he showed me the way he did now, it took me to another level, one where I felt his power.
The moment I thought about the energy, my skin prickled and it felt as if the floodgates had opened and the fiery heat of his magic spilled into me. I cried out and my magic rose to meet his, making it a braid of power that wrapped around us and took me to a whole other place.
I orgasmed yet again. But this time, Hades was right there with me. I wasn’t sure if he had been thrusting harder and harder, or as if our magic had pulled the strength out of the both of us, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter how we’d gotten here.
It just mattered that Hades and I were one, that the power we felt was stronger than anything I could do alone.
And that I really did love him just as much as he loved me.
When it was over, after what felt like forever, Hades slipped out of me. I groaned, my body tender after he’d taken every inch of me and turned it into mush. He moved to the side and I rolled against him. He put his arm around me, holding me tightly against him.
“Come home with me?” he asked, his voice so soft, I wasn’t sure I’d heard right.
But I nodded still the same. I understood what he was talking about. Not the place he lived in—an abandoned house on the outside, a palace on the inside here on Earth—but the Underworld. Despite how much he hated the place, he always called the Underworld home.
“Today?” I asked, flooded with a sense of uncertainty.
Hades glanced out the curtained window. Night cloaked the outdoors; we had come back from Mount Olympus sometime during the night.
“Tomorrow, after you get some sleep, little mortal.”
I giggled. “You don’t know that.”
He kissed my temple. “I know I want to hold you tonight, so we’re sleeping either way. We can think about the serious things again tomorrow.”
I curled into his arms, settling down. His words sounded like a plan to me. I didn’t want to think about anything right now. Not the guys and all their disagreeing, not Mount Olympus, and not what my future would or wouldn’t hold.
I closed my eyes and gave in to the sleep that pulled down over me like a blanket.
Chapter 6
When the sun rose, I felt better, flooded with warmth and a sense of cheer. Hades was still at my side and everything that had happened last night at Mount Olympus, including Hera’s statement that I belonged there, seemed like a dream that just didn’t make much sense.
As dreams usually did.
“Are you ready?” Hades asked, strolling into the kitchen
where I was drinking coffee.
He’d just woken up but was so damn sexy. I loved it when he looked like that—his curly hair a mess, his eyes a little sleepy and not quite as sharp. And his muscular body soft and easier to cuddle.
“Ready?” I asked. I’d been up for a while. Hades slept in on a good day. On a bad day, it was major insomnia. It changed from one day to the next. I’d realized that he slept when he stayed over at my place more often than not.
I put my mug in the sink and sauntered over to him, smirking. He took my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles, pulling me closer. With his eyes on mine, locked in a world that only the two of us existed in, everything went black.
Charon, the ferryman, was suddenly next to us. We were in Hades’s domain, and I’d been here enough times to feel comfortable… well, as at ease as one could be in the Underworld. Hades and I climbed into the long, wooden boat and Charon ferried us over the still and dark river Styx. We’d gone from my kitchen to the Underworld in a flash. I’d barely felt the shudder of our magic, and perhaps I should have brought my mug of coffee with me to enjoy.
“Home sweet home,” Hades said when we walked toward his palace of darkness. I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic, if he hated being back, or if this was the place he really felt at home in because it was all he had. I was still trying to figure out who he was.
We walked into the palace. The place was dark and dreary, decorated in black and red and even though it was luxurious, it was laced with death. From every window there was a view of the souls that floated around below, the reminder that this place wasn’t ever going to be somewhere that anyone could be happy.
“Elyse,” Hades said when I stood at the window, looking out over the dreary landscape.
I turned to him. He stood a few feet away and he looked solemn and regal, the god of the Underworld and not quite the guy I was dating, the guy who could be so warm when he wanted to be.
“What is it?” I asked.
He looked so stoic, it made me nervous. Since Death had returned to where he belonged, there hadn’t really been a reason to worry other than the small tasks I had to do to keep the humans safe from supernatural forces coming on Earth to take souls. But this… this looked serious.
“Stay here with me,” Hades said, his voice deep and meaningful.
I frowned. “I’m here until we head back.” A part of me screamed that he was asking me something else, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Or maybe I didn’t want to figure it out. Because a part of me knew exactly what he was asking.
“Permanently,” he finally admitted.
Fuck. There it was.
“So you’re not going to vote for me staying on Earth because you want me here.” It was a statement, not a question. I assumed he was on my side about living at Olympus, yet he only wanted me to live in his realm. I shook my head. This was bullshit.
“It solves your problems,” he said. “You don’t have to decide between either of those. You can be here with me and no one is going to tell you otherwise.”
“What if I don’t want to stay here?” I asked. “And the other gods will come and visit me, so will you be all right with them being in your home?”
Hades’s face darkened a little. “I want to be with you, Elyse. I want you here with me, at my side, ruling the Underworld together.” That time, his voice darkened.
I shook my head. “I’m not the queen of the Underworld, Hades.” No, because that was Persephone. “I can’t play this game with you.”
“It’s not a game.”
“Oh, yeah?” I gritted my teeth. “And what exactly is it? Because I’m pretty sure you asked Persephone the same thing once. But she said no, and then you tricked her into staying with that shitty curse that forced her into the darkness for half a year. Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
Hades’s face reddened, and his nose wrinkled like it did every time he got mad. I didn’t blame him. But I was pissed off, too. Who did he think he was, that I would choose him over all the others? Who did he think I was, that I would give up everything I was and everything I had for him? I wasn’t a damsel in distress. And I had a job on Earth. Why didn’t anyone seem to recognize that?
“You’re being pathetic,” Hades snapped at me.
I let out a surprised laugh. “You have to curse women to stay with you and I’m the pathetic one?”
I hadn’t meant to hit him with such a low blow, but the words were out there and I was too angry to apologize right away. But Hades paled a little before his eyes shot fire at me.
“You have no idea what the fuck is going on here, do you?” Hades bellowed.
“I know exactly,” I cried out. “Everyone wants a piece of me, but no one can be bothered to ask me what I want. And now I’m stuck, torn apart between the four of you, and I’m supposed to make a choice that doesn’t rip me up.”
Hades came toe to toe with me. We had done this so many times. We could dance, he and I. He was one of the four gods who’s gotten physical with me like this, that used to fight me like I was a man, like the fight was equal.
But instead of letting it come to blows like we would have done before, Hades took a step back again.
It turned out that we had grown, after all, even though we were still arguing. But I doubted Hades and I would ever get to a point where we didn’t fight at all. We were very close, especially lately, but we got stuck as a general rule. The fact that we handled it differently now said a lot.
“Look, you didn’t know what you wanted, so I thought I would give you an out,” Hades said. “If you don’t like it, just say no. It’s not necessary to be a bitch about it.”
“Don’t be a dick, then,” I said. “Everyone is putting pressure on me and you know that I’m conflicted about this. What did you think was going to happen if you made it that much worse for me?”
Hades shook his head and stepped away, putting more distance between us. I wasn’t sure if it was because we would end up fighting if he didn’t, or if we would end up fucking.
That happened too when we fought, more often than not. And I’d enjoyed the idea of both with Hades.
“I was trying to help. But take it however you like. Just, for fuck’s sake, don’t be a martyr.”
“I’m not playing the victim!” I cried out. How dare he think that of me? I was in a tough spot and I damn hated it.
Hades shook his head and walked past me to the window, looking out over the souls outside. “You’re not the only person with a hard life.”
“Don’t compare my pain to yours,” I snapped.
Hades stared at me with eyes that were void of life. I hated it when he looked at me like that. It was a new thing he was doing and it reminded me of a time when he hadn’t given a shit about me. Or rather, hadn’t wanted to admit that he did.
“I am so tired of your shit,” I said. “I’m leaving.”
“Yeah, do what you do best, sweetheart,” Hades said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Just run away. Maybe even give killing yourself a shot again. You’ll be able to garner some sympathy that way.”
I glared at him, so fucking angry, I could attack him. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of winning this round. Instead, I turned around and marched out of the palace. I had to cross all the way back to the River Styx and then have the ferryman take me to the other side before I was able to vanish my way back home. Being a goddess now meant I didn’t have to pay him to cross the river. I wasn’t sure how to do it any other way, the way Hades or any of the other gods would have been able to do it.
But it was proof that I wasn’t like that, that I wouldn’t fit in with them, no matter where they wanted me to be. I was, at my core, still just a human being.
And sometimes I still felt so alone, removed from everything, and like none of them would ever understand me.
Chapter 7
I stood on the roof of a building the city, looking out over the place I had to protect. The wind blew past, swee
ping my ponytail over my shoulder. Chicago seemed to be the hub of all supernatural activity. Why the hell the gods and all the monsters and other troubles chose to zone in on this place was beyond me.
But it was why this place had become home. It was where my family had been settled for centuries, to do what Zeus had appointed us to do. And now that I was a goddess, I was here to do exactly what I was made to do, too.
It just all seemed like such a mess now, though. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I didn’t want to leave and live on Mount Olympus. But I also didn’t want to be the maid who just cleaned up the mess. No one even knew who I was and what I did. No one knew why they were being saved or that they were even being saved.
People didn’t even believe in the Divine Beings anymore. Most of them didn’t give a flip about the gods and what and who we were. So I had come into the picture in an era where no one would even know there was a new one who had joined the team. Go figure.
I could disappear and no one would know. I could leave and not even give a shit and no one would be any wiser. They would just die again outside of their time.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. I had never felt so useless and so alone. I couldn’t even talk to anyone about it. Who was I going to ask? The gods were torn about it—Ares didn’t give a shit, Poseidon wanted me on Mount Olympus, Hades preferred me in the Underworld.
Apollo hoped I stayed right here, which was exactly where I intended to be. The problem was that he didn’t wish for me to be here because it was what I desired. He asked me to stay in Chicago because it was what he wanted. But if either reason ended in the same outcome, did it make a difference?
It did to me. I was going to lose something no matter what I chose. And what if I lost them on top of it—one, or two, or maybe all? Was I ready for that? Why did making a choice have so many consequences? Why did not making a choice seem to have more?