“Only a fool would look at another woman with you at his side.” Hades squeezed her hand, trying to convey the depth of his feelings for her.
“I never said my ex was smart.” She gave him a feeble smile. “Even though you’re being really sweet to me, I still can’t stay with you.” She returned the squeeze of his hand. “I’m mortal. I don’t belong here.”
She belonged with him. Why couldn’t she realize that? Desperate, he tried another angle. “Just give me time to win Zeus over to my side before you return to the upper world. A week, maybe two.”
“And then?” She raised her eyebrows at him.
“Then, you’re free to go.” But he planned to win her, both body and soul, before that time came.
He refused to lose her.
* * * * *
The thing she’d miss the most would be the flora.
Hyacinth picked an asphodel and inhaled its faint scent. Sighing, she tucked it behind her ear. She’d walked every inch of the castle grounds in search of something green and alive, and found nothing.
It was only her second day in the Underworld, but the landscape was already as familiar to her as the back of her hand. She’d managed to avoid getting lost in the castle, thanks to the constant presence of her ladies-in-waiting. But she’d dismissed them to go for a walk outside, craving the solitude she’d grown so weary of since her divorce.
The business of running his kingdom had kept Hades occupied all day, and when she found herself dining alone with Anemone in her private chamber for lunch, she felt a pang of disappointment she couldn’t dismiss, as much as she’d wanted to squelch it. The last thing she needed was to develop feelings for another man, not after what had happened with Riley.
It could only lead to another heartbreak, and she wasn’t sure it could take another blow without shattering into a million fragments.
“I thought I might find you here.”
She looked up at the sound of Hades’s voice to see him standing before her, looking more gorgeous than any man had a right to be.
“This is the closest thing I could find to a garden.” She swept her arm out. “Asphodel must be the state flower here.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid to ask about the state bird.”
He laughed, a sound that always made her want to laugh too, whether she got the joke or not. “This was Persephone’s grove. She had a taste for dark things.” He rubbed his chin. “I suppose she got her fill of color and blossoms during her time above each year.”
“I can’t imagine ever getting my fill.” She took the asphodel from behind her ear and fastened it to the buttonhole of his black shirt. “Flowers have been my best friends ever since I could remember.”
His arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “You’re named for a flower. It makes perfect sense that you’d have a close kinship to them.”
“My father was an avid ... actually, a fanatical gardener.” Her voice shook from the rush of emotion that came from being close to Hades. “He named me after his favorite bloom.”
“An excellent choice.” He bent down and nuzzled her ear. Her breath came in a dizzying gasp. “You’re as fragrant as any blossom of the field.” His lips did something to the spot just below her ear that made her knees buckle.
She lifted her hands and pressed them against the muscled wall of his chest, trying to still their trembling. No man had ever affected her like this. It made her wonder would happen if her hands dipped a little lower ...
Suddenly he released her. She managed to avoid whimpering in disappointment ... barely.
“Would you care to join me for dinner on my balcony?” His face betrayed no hint of arousal. Maybe she didn’t have the same effect on him as he had on her. Her heart sank like a leaky rowboat.
“Sure.” She took the hand he offered her and kept silent as they turned to walk the path back to the castle. How could she be so stupid? One minute she warned herself against having feelings for him, the next she could barely keep her hands off him.
Zeus had better find a solution to their problem sooner than later, or else she was in for another crack in her battered heart.
* * * * *
“That dinner was spectacular.” Hyacinth breathed out a sigh of contentment.
“There’s a reason why they call it ambrosia.” He twined his fingers through hers, feeling the same lightheaded sensation he experienced every time they touched. It had taken an effort worthy of Hercules to pull himself away from her in the grove earlier, but he’d done it despite his body’s throbbing objections. He wanted her to be sure of her feelings if he finally got the chance to make love to her.
When, he reminded himself. Not if.
“I thought chocolate was fabulous, but after tasting ambrosia, my life-long love affair with the Hershey bar may be in grave danger.” She laughed.
He considered her words. “Often your potential greatest pleasure is hiding in plain sight, waiting for you to find it.”
She bit her bottom lip and kept her eyes focused on the tapestries covering the walls of the hallway. “Sometimes the greatest pleasure is just hiding, period. You end up blaming yourself when you can’t find it, and disappointing everyone else in the process.”
Her ex-husband. He knew it. “You speak of that imbecile who left you for another woman?”
She’d apparently developed a feverish interest in tapestries. Without turning to look at him, she spoke. “I was a total letdown -- no pun intended -- in bed.” She twisted the fringe of the nearest canvas around her fingers. “He said I was frigid.”
Hades spat a curse. “You’ve already disproved him on that point.”
She tilted her head, her face filled with skepticism. “I felt free because we were in a dream state. Who knows what would happen in reality? I’d probably bomb out again like I did on my wedding night.”
He spun her around to face him. “If you ‘bombed out’ again, the blame would fall on the inept male who used you callously for his own enjoyment, with no thought for your own.”
She sighed. “I wish I could believe you.”
And he wished he could show her, a thousand times over, the heights of pleasure he could give her.
But not yet, not until she’d given him at least the smallest piece of her heart.
“I promise you ...” He cradled her face in his hands, stroking her petal-soft skin with the pads of his thumbs. “There will be a man someday who will show you ecstasy beyond your wildest dreams.” He tipped his head forward until his dark hair fell against hers. “A man worthy of you, and everything you have to offer.”
She placed her hands over his. He heard her rapid intake of breath and felt blood stirring below his belt. One more little sigh from her, and he’d be hard as the stone walls surrounding them.
“Don’t waste yourself on fools.” He brushed her lips with his. “You’re worthy of kings.”
He pulled away from her, watching her eyes widen with surprise. She touched her fingers to her lips in a gesture that finalized the painful erection he’d been developing for the past few minutes.
“I see we’re at your door.” He reached around her and turned the knob. “Thank you for your company this evening.”
She blinked. “You’re welcome.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her to go into her bedroom alone.
* * * * *
The whispers caressed her like the softest fingertips. Hyacinth rolled over in the gigantic bed, letting her sleepy brain sort through the sounds and sensations to determine if they were part of a dream or of waking.
But the sounds continued, the airy voices rushing around her like wisps of wind. They called her name in a singsong voice, an echo of a nursery rhyme.
“Hyacinth ... come with us ...”
She stirred beneath the silk sheets. Her emotions had run at a fever pitch that evening from her encounter with Hades. All she’d wanted was to sleep for a while.
“Hyacinth ... it’s time to wake up ...”
The breez
y chorus continued.
She hoisted her eyelids up, letting her sight adjust to the darkness of her suite.
The sources of the voices swirled around above her bed. They appeared to be female, these ghostly apparitions. Their beautiful faces were flanked with long windblown hair leading down to shapely figures. They were completely lacking in color, mere white outlines in the night.
They began their siren song again, urging her to come with them. Hyacinth dragged herself out of bed and threw her robe over her shoulders. These little poltergeists could be messengers from Hades, for all she knew. Her curiosity convinced her to go with them.
She followed them down the long hallway to the curving stone stairs that led to another floor below. They beckoned to her, gesturing for her with crooked fingers. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and tried to keep up.
They went down the stairs and then through another long hallway, through a set of double doors and into a small study. One of the spirits pointed to a bookcase.
“Take out The Odyssey.” She indicated a thick tome near the edge of the shelf.
Hyacinth yawned. “All right, but it’s a little heavy for bedtime reading.” She reached out and removed the book from the shelf.
Without warning, a panel opened in the wall.
“A secret door.” Hyacinth nodded to the spirits. “It’s like I’ve stepped inside a game of Clue.”
Their eerie laughter echoed through the room.
They urged her through the open panel, and she found herself in another hallway, this one dimly lit and undecorated. There were no doors and no windows until she reached the end of the hall.
A wide section of the wall had been cut away to make a half-partition. She stood against it, looking into the room on the other side. When her mind processed the view from the other side, her jaw dropped and her heart began to race. She’d seen erotic films before and had her share of fantasies. But nothing could’ve prepared her for the sight before her eyes. Every nerve in her body roared to life with sexual heat.
She couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to.
The first face she recognized belonged to Anemone. Her handmaiden stood near the back of the other room, her perfect body unclothed and her long black hair mussed.
Two men -- Hyacinth studied them and realized they were two of the footmen, Jason and Nicus -- stroked Anemone’s skin, running their hands over her as if she were a fine tapestry and they were merchants appreciating her value. The men were both nude, their hard muscles and firm bodies pressed against Anemone, one on either side.
Jason lowered his head and took one of Anemone’s nipples into his mouth. Nicus followed suit, taking care of the opposite nipple. He tugged at the nipple with such powerful suction that Hyacinth could hear his mouth working. The sound of his lips sucking Anemone’s nipple made Hyacinth wet.
She shouldn’t be seeing this. It was a private moment. She should turn away and go back to bed.
“These are the rites of pleasure,” one of the spirits whispered from some disembodied place. “It’s the privilege of royalty to witness these events.”
Hyacinth gasped when Jason released Anemone’s nipple and brought her to her knees in front of him.
She watched as the tip of the footman’s cock brushed Anemone’s lips. The dark haired girl moaned and snaked her tongue out to glide over the head of his erection. He snarled his fingers in her hair, drawing her mouth closer to his hardness. She complied, taking his cock into her mouth.
Anemone sucked him then let him fall from her mouth with a pop. She swished her tongue around the head and worked it up the length of his shaft.
Meanwhile, Nicus arranged Anemone on all fours. Jason stepped back, watching as the other man plunged his cock into Anemone’s wet sheath.
Hyacinth’s breasts ached with desire. Her nipples beaded to painful points. Without thinking, she stroked them through the silk of her nightgown, never taking her eyes from the scene before her.
While Nicus slid his cock in and out of Anemone, Jason stood before her, silently asking her to take him into her mouth again. She opened her red lips and welcomed his thick shaft, her tongue dancing around the head before he pushed it deep inside her mouth.
From behind Nicus pumped harder, his hips thrusting like a piston. The entire lower half of Anemone’s body shook from the power of his thrusts, while Jason cradled the back of Anemone’s head to hold it steady and slammed his cock in and out of her mouth.
Hyacinth panted, slipping a hand into her panties. She found the hub of her pleasure and rubbed it, timing it to the dual thrusts being performed on Anemone on the other side of the wall.
As her pleasure built, she stared at the two cocks going in and out of her handmaiden, both slick and shiny from the wetness of Anemone’s mouth and dripping cleft. Nicus reached around and found Anemone’s clitoris. When he began to stroke it in tandem with his thrusts, moans erupted from deep within the girl’s throat.
Then Anemone came. Her face and breasts flushed, and her entire body quivered with the pleasure of it. Jason pulled his cock to the very edge of Anemone’s mouth and came. Hyacinth watched her handmaiden’s throat work as she swallowed the footman’s essence.
From behind her, Nicus thrust deeper inside Anemone, so deeply that Hyacinth groaned from vicarious pleasure. Finally, when it seemed he could go no deeper, he palmed the handmaiden’s clitoris. Nicus came, taking Anemone over the edge again, their cries reverberating off the walls of the empty room.
Hyacinth found her own orgasm at the same time, almost weeping from the power of it, the spasms shaking her until her knees threatened to buckle.
The smell of desire hung thick as fog in the air, and Hyacinth suddenly realized what she’d seen and done. Ducking, she turned and ran out of the room and down the hallway before the threesome, currently collapsed on the stone floor, could recover and see her there.
She rushed into her bedroom and shut the door, bolting it behind her. She’d just had another orgasm, this time with no help from anyone but herself.
Well, maybe not entirely by herself. When she’d fallen over the edge of sensation, Hades’s face had been the only image burning in her mind.
Chapter Five
Hyacinth had just finished her breakfast when a knock sounded at her door.
She hesitated before rising from her seat at the small table in her bedroom and going to the door. She hadn’t seen Anemone that morning, and wasn’t sure how she’d hide her embarrassment over what she’d seen and done the night before. But to her relief, it wasn’t Anemone on the other side of the door, but Hades.
After giving her his customary kiss on her hand, his gaze roved over her from head to toe. “You look especially lovely this morning.”
She glanced down at her simple white robe draped in classic Greek style. “Thank you.” She smoothed the skirt with her hand. “I prefer simple clothing like this.” Realizing her potential blunder, she continued. “Not that I haven’t enjoyed all the silks and velvets you’ve given me.”
He dismissed her apology with a wave of his hand. “No, you’re quite right. I prefer this style on you. Your beauty has more room to shine against a simple gown.”
Flushing with pleasure, she lowered her eyelids. He looked even more handsome than usual, as well. His modern-cut black jeans and simple v-neck black shirt showed off a physique that would’ve made the greatest works of Michelangelo weep with envy.
“I have a bit of a surprise for you, if you’re done breakfasting.” He leaned on the doorframe and folded his arms over his chest.
“What is it?” She slipped white sandals onto her feet and joined him in the hallway.
“It’s outside, around the back.” He offered her his arm, and she took it, shyly wrapping her hand around his thick bicep. Something about touching him always felt so ... so ... right. His presence made her feel safe, protected, even cherished. She’d never had such a comfortable rapport with any man before. She flipped through her men
tal photo album of life with Riley. He wasn’t the affectionate type, or so he claimed when she’d tried to take his hand in public.
She couldn’t help but compare Riley’s behavior to that of Hades, who never failed to take her hand or offer her his arm. She’d envied other women whose husbands showered them with the kind of attention that Hades gave her.
It could be habit-forming. Her stomach turned over at the thought. She couldn’t get used to this kind of thing.
They wended their way to the back of the castle, and Hades pointed out a white lattice trellis in the distance. “It’s through there, beneath the arch.” He looked down at her, mirth sparkling in his dark eyes. “I’ll race you there.”
“You’d lose.” She grinned up at him.
“That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but he’d already broken into a run down the hill, toward the archway.
Gathering up the skirts of her white robe, she sprinted behind him, overtaking him before they both came to a stop at the archway.
“You’re rather fast, for a florist from Harrisburg.” His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths.
“I was on the track team in high school.” She pushed a stray lock of hair back from her forehead. “Did I forget to mention that?”
“Yet another thing I didn’t know about you.” He plucked a blade of grass from her robe. “I can hardly wait to discover your other secrets.”
Tension zinged back and forth between them like a current. His dark gaze bore into hers, and her thoughts tangled into an unreadable jumble.
This had to stop. “Where’s the surprise?” She broke the almost unbearable eye contact by turning her gaze to the trellis.
“Right this way.” He ducked his head and went through the archway, disappearing between the cypress trees on the other side.
She followed, passing through the cypress grove. On the other side, surrounded by classical Greek statuary, she found the most exquisite garden imaginable.
Wild roses of every shade grew around the perimeter, filling the soft breeze with their fragrance. Daffodils flanked the stone walkways cutting paths through the garden. Their yellow tops waved in the air like the hands of old friends greeting her.
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