Flame's Embrace

by Pillar, Amanda

  I’d never felt more left out, more out of place, more judged. Which was ironic because for the first time, I should have felt like I was fitting in.

  Chapter Four

  “I need to get out of these clothes,” I explained after a while, still standing there, feeling stiff and uncomfortable, unable to be myself. Normally, I didn’t wear makeup or dresses and I didn’t ever doll myself up to look like a sex object.

  Because that was essentially what all the gods did. And that was what they wanted from me, too. How the hell was I going to survive with them? How would I live there and be one of them if I couldn’t be like that—sexed-up and full of myself? No thank you. I’d end up saying the wrong thing, probably fighting them, and they’d gang up on me. Maybe curse me. I’d read up on the Greek mythology tales and how nasty the gods were to one another.

  I dragged myself to my room and started undoing the ropes Heracles had spent time wrapping around me. I dropped the tunic on the floor—just a cloth without the rope holding it in place—and I pulled my hair out of the hairband that held it back. I got into the shower, turning the spray on hot and letting the water run over my body, washing away all the bullshit that felt like it still clung to me from Mount Olympus.

  Hades had been right when the gods had argued about me being on Mount Olympus or on Earth. I often complained about being around the humans, about always having to save them. There were days when I felt that everything, my life, my responsibility, was all too much. Days when I wished Heracles would come stay in Chicago with me rather than heading out to wherever he holed up now.

  But I didn’t want to pull him out of the new life he’d created for himself, now that he was free of the Lowe bloodline and having to train them. Since I’d realized my full potential, the hero Zeus had always intended for the Lowes to become, Heracles had been free to live the life he hadn’t been able to live for centuries.

  I wanted that for him. I wanted him to find love again, to just relax for a change.

  So I was going to do this saving-the-world thing alone. I wouldn’t get a break. And sometimes, that felt like a black hole opening up in front of me.

  Other times, I was fine with it. It was worth it whenever the humans were safe again and I could finally use my power for everything I was meant to do. I got a rush from being the one who could save them all, from being a hero, from being fulfilled in a way I hadn’t been before.

  Fuck, how was I going to decide what I was going to do? Living on Mount Olympus sounded awful. Except for the fact that I could step away from everything for a little while and just breathe.

  But to leave the humans behind? Catina and Oliver? My other friends? And the world where I’d grown up. It would feel like a betrayal if I did that.

  I trembled with anger. How could I even consider leaving? To live among the gods, away from the people whom I associated with, the humans I’d promised my dad to take care of whether or not they deserved it?

  Just because life had an expiration date, just because the humans were mortal, didn’t make their lives any less important than those of the gods. And I’d found my purpose in life, to look after them on a level I had never thought possible. I wasn’t going to turn my back on that just because I was tired once in a while, just because some goddess had told me that it was better another way. Besides, none of the gods, other than my four men, Heracles, and Persephone, had given two shits about me before. Now that I was the Goddess of Sanctuary, they suddenly wanted to have me join their clique. To have me pretend everything was fine and dandy and that mortals weren’t a big concern of mine anymore. Yeah, right.

  When I stepped out of the shower, my pulse still raged in my veins, but at least I was less confused. And I’d made the decision not to move to Mount Olympus. This was my home and where I felt comfortable.

  “What’s eating you?” Hades asked when I emerged from the bathroom wearing shorts and a tank top, a lot more comfortable in my own clothes than the robes the gods wanted me in.

  “I can’t just do that,” I said as if he’d been privy to the entire argument I’d had with myself in my mind. “I can’t just leave humans behind.”

  “You don’t have to,” Hades said. “It’s your choice.”

  “I grew up here.” He wasn’t arguing with me, but I felt like I had to make my case, anyway. I felt like if I said it enough times out loud, I would start to convince myself that a break wasn’t what I wanted. “I was a human. Maybe I still am, in a way. We don’t even know if I can die or not. And just because I’m something else now by definition, doesn’t change the core of who I am.”

  Hades nodded and pulled me against him. He stroked his fingers through my wet hair. It should have been reassuring. Instead, it felt condescending. Or maybe my anger was just so much that I couldn’t think straight.

  “What if I don’t want to live on Mount Olympus?” I pulled away from him. He fought me for a moment, but then he let me go.

  “Then don’t,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Was it really that simple to reject the invitation, to throw it back in the gods’ faces? Was it right of me to stick it to the man?

  “Elyse, you’re beautiful. Inside and out. You’re not like them. I’ve been around those assholes for long enough to know that you’re everything they will never be, even if you’re a goddess now, even if they want you there. You’re not them and that’s what I love about you. You’re thinking of the right things.”

  “Am I?” I asked. “I feel selfish.”

  “How is choosing to stay and save the people who have been placed under your care selfish?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t know how to explain to him how unsure of myself I was sometimes, how there were days I wished none of this had happened at all. Sometimes I preferred we could turn back the clock and I’d head back to the training center to train with Heracles, to learn how to defend myself against centaurs and stupid mythical beings that didn’t even bother sticking their heads out anymore.

  Sometimes I just wanted to be normal.

  Whatever the hell that meant.

  “You know,” Hades said, sitting down on my bed and leaning back against the headboard with that nonchalant manner that all the gods possessed. “It’s never wrong to reject the gods. They might want something from you that you choose not to give. Look at me.”

  He was right. He’d rejected the gods and everything they were about for a very, very long time. Maybe he’d been tricked to end up in the Underworld, but it had been his choice to become so isolated from them, to be the stubborn son of a bitch that no one really related to anymore.

  It wasn’t what I wanted, of course, but it proved a point. I didn’t have to be what they expected of me. What were they going to do? Strip me of my power? I’d earned this all by myself—the gods hadn’t helped me with it. Maybe if they had, they would have been able to take it away again.

  But they hadn’t, so this was my power and they couldn’t do anything to me. Maybe staying here on Earth against the gods’ will wasn’t going to get me in trouble. Not any more trouble than I could handle. I mean, how long had Apollo stayed on Earth to get away from them? They’d left him alone.

  “Why are you being so nice about this?” I asked Hades, crawling onto the bed with him and putting my head on his chest. “The others are very opinionated about it. Or completely uninterested.” I shouldn’t have been that upset about Ares and the way he was acting, but I was.

  “Because there’s no point being a dick about it. You’re going to decide what you want in the end, anyway. And when you do, we’re all going to have to accept it. I accepted you a long time ago, so this just follows suit.”

  I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around Hades’ torso and listening to his heart beating. It hammered against my cheek, and I lost myself in the sound. Having him be like this was a relief. I loved the way Hades was making things easier for me, not harder. He was everything I’d ever dreamed he’d be, and my chest blossomed w
ith joy every day when I pinched myself to make sure this was real.

  “What will you do if I decide to live there?” I asked, lifting my head to stare up at Hades. “You hate the place.”

  Hades shrugged, his expression stoic, not revealing a single emotion. “Technically, I hate Earth, too. But it’s more tolerable because you’re here. Something tells me it will be the same on Mount Olympus.”

  I pushed myself up against Hades until I could reach his lips, and kissed him, adoring every single thing about him.

  Chapter Five

  The kiss was immediately fiery. I’d meant to kiss Hades to show him my gratitude for being amazing about everything, but the moment our lips touched, something between us exploded.

  The lust was suddenly thick in the air and Hades pulled me tightly against him. I gasped when his hard body rubbed up against mine, his erection immediate in his pants.

  His tongue was in my mouth and he probed me as if he were already inside of me, as if he wanted to consume me. I moaned into his mouth and his hand slid onto my breast.

  When he broke the kiss for just a moment and I looked up into his dark, curious eyes, they were drowning deep and filled with desire. The way he looked at me made me feel like he was going to devour me and I shivered. It was how he’d looked at me since the day we had met and even though we’d been together for a while now, and we’d fucked for much longer than that, I couldn’t get enough of him.

  I lay against Hades’ chest, but in one swift movement, with his strong arm wrapped around me and his able body powerful enough to break me if he wanted to, he spun me around and I was horizontal underneath him.

  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 af
ter 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 Six

  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.