by Helen Scott
“The necklace?” Her hand went to the silver and red pendant that hung from a delicate silver chain around her neck. It was shaped like a pomegranate, with the red stones in the middle being seeds. No one knew where it came from or how it came into existence, or at least, they weren't sharing. The only thing any of us knew for sure was that when it was found, it was always by the woman who was destined to be the next queen of the Underworld, and within twenty-four hours of being united with the pendant, she would ingest pomegranate in some way, shape, or form, and that would seal her fate.
I nodded at her. “Did you have anything with pomegranate in it recently?”
“Not that I can think of,” she said, screwing her eyebrows together in concentration.
“What about at the club? You and your friends were drinking mixed drinks, right?”
She nodded. “I guess the Cinderella Number 5 could have had some in it. All I know is that it was pink and a little bitter.”
“That was probably it. The combination of necklace and pomegranate is the signal that you are the next queen of the Underworld,” I said. She didn’t respond, and I hoped she was still doing okay with all the information. She didn’t knock, so I continued. “When Hades and Persephone first got together, she ate some pomegranate seeds while she was in the Underworld, forever tying herself to it and Hades himself.”
“If all the gods still exist, why aren't Hades and Persephone ruling?”
“That is a very complicated question. I guess the simplest answer is they grew tired of it and, over the last few centuries, have withdrawn further and further, spending ever increasing time in Mount Olympus.”
Poppy stood suddenly, as though everything was getting too much. Her bun bobbed about with the jerkiness of her movements as she seemed to be trying to collect her thoughts. The reaction was understandable; we had unloaded a lot of information on her in a short time, but we hadn't even told her some of the most important parts yet.
Chapter Five
Poppy
I paced in front of them as I tried to process everything they had told me. There were so many questions bubbling inside me. I didn't know where to start. What had happened to the last queen? Did that mean I had any special abilities? Was I partially immortal? What did they have to do with any of this, other than being the guards of the gates of hell? And why were they all looking at me like that?
I decided to ask two questions. The first one was a question that had been driving me crazy since they'd first started talking about all this. “Two things. One, I need to go home and change. I can't stand being in this get-up anymore. Can someone take me? Two, how old are all of you?”
“I can take you,” Emmett said, his eyes traveling hungrily down my form.
“As for how old we are, it's been what, over two hundred years since we found each other?” Hunter asked, looking at Emmett and then Knox. After he received nods from the others, he said, “So, probably close to three hundred? Personally, I stopped counting after a while.”
The numbers swam before my eyes. “How long have you been here? Looking for me?” I whispered the questions out, and suddenly, Knox was next to me, guiding me into my seat. His touch was warm and sent tingles all over my body. I wanted to turn into him, inhale his scent, and feel his body touching mine.
“Not yet,” he whispered in my ear before he stepped away. His voice sent another wave of shivers through my body. I turned to look at him and felt his scorching gaze lingering on me.
“We've been looking for the next queen for almost twenty years,” Emmett said, his eyes just as hot on my own as Knox's had been as he drew my attention away from the other man.
“And to answer your next question, we each take turns guarding the gates. This is one of the rare exceptions when we have all stepped away since we could feel the necklace. A hellhound does not abandon their duties,” Hunter chimed in, his tone almost making it seem as if he wanted the others to shut up and let him take control.
I hadn't even thought of the fact that no one was guarding the gates of the Underworld.
“Speaking of which, I should get back,” Knox said as he stood. “I trust you boys will behave while I'm gone. No scaring Poppy.” He looked at Hunter for the last part, as though he knew the man was a bull in a china shop, with me being the china shop.
“Emmett, can we go?” I asked as Knox disappeared through a different door, giving me a small bow before he vanished from sight.
The next thing I knew, we were speeding away from a quaint little Cape Cod–style house and back into the city. I had finally remembered to find my phone and message Rox to let her know that I was alive and well. The further we distanced ourselves from the house, the more my stomach seemed to tie itself in knots. I couldn't explain it, but I needed it to stop.
“What's wrong?” Emmett's voice sounded next to me even though I knew he wasn't looking at me.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. You've shifted in your seat more than three times in the last minute.”
“My stomach's a little upset, that's all.”
“You want me to stop?”
“No, I want to get home.”
I felt the vibration of the engine quietly revving move up through my seat as we wove through the streets toward my apartment. Rox was going to be furious with me if she was home and I brought a guy as hot as Emmett in with no warning. I couldn't help it, though. I didn't want to get into explaining everything if I didn't have to, so I hoped she was at work and I could have the place to myself.
By the time we pulled up outside the small apartment I shared with Rox, I knew two things—she wasn't home, and the pain in my stomach was getting exponentially worse. We were up the front steps and into the main building before either of us spoke.
“This is me,” I said quietly before unlocking the door and going inside. Rox and I had been roommates since freshman year in college, and we worked well together. The building was old but not ancient, and had been split into four apartments—two on the top, two on the bottom. The creaky floors sounded as I walked in. Part of me expected my roommate to jump out from a hiding spot and demand to know where I had been, but she didn't.
“You can hang out or whatever if you want, but I have to be at work by ten.”
“You aren't coming back with me?” Emmett asked, concern lacing his voice.
“I wasn't planning on it.” I shrugged.
“But what about everything we told you?”
“I can't just stop living my life to suit your needs. I have bills to pay, my roommate, friends, a job, the whole deal.”
“You think we didn't before we found out what we were?” He was irritated, and a fire seemed to blaze in his eyes. “Look, I'm not saying you have to abandon everything, but at least come back with me for the day so we can tell you a little more about it.”
“I don't know that I want to.” Unease was filling me, along with the painful twisting sensation in my stomach. Before he could launch into making a convincing argument, I said, “Look, I'm going to go change, and I'll think about it, okay?” I saw him nod from the corner of my eye as I turned and went into my bedroom.
I forgot what a mess my bedroom was. After what had happened at the bar, and then sleeping most of the day, I had been a tornado when getting ready for work the day before. Now, there were just the remains of my frantic dash to get to work on time strewn all over the place.
After picking up a few intimate items, I changed into some jeans and a black top with peek-a-boo shoulders. I re-situated my messy bun and threw on some fresh eyeliner and lip balm before going back out into the room.
“You know, I hadn't really expected you to stick around. I was planning on having a nice shower and relaxing before work,” I said as I headed into the bathroom to find some painkillers for my stomach.
“You can still have a shower. I'll wait, or join you, whatever you prefer,” Emmett said, his voice a rough sound that pulled at my skin. Part of me desperately wanted to go to hi
m, to take him up on his offer, but I barely knew the guy.
I opened the medicine cabinet and found Rox's sex bucket list staring me in the face. She was a wild child and liked to bring me along for the ride. I didn't mind, though. It let me live vicariously through her without having to take any of the risks, which she always scolded me for.
When I came out to the kitchen, filled a glass with some water, and downed the pills, a concerned look spread over Emmett's gorgeous face. “What's wrong?”
“I just have this pain in my stomach. It's weird. I've never felt anything like it before.”
He crossed the open space between us and placed his deliciously warm hand on my stomach. It was better than an ice pack and pain meds combined. “Can you describe it?”
His voice was sinfully sexy this close, and part of me knew all I would have to do is tilt my head up and the kiss between us would be inevitable. The sensation in my abdomen had other ideas, though. Almost as soon as his hand left my skin, a sharp pain twisted through me, and I threw my hand out to support myself against him. I wanted to curl up into the fetal position, protect myself from whatever was causing this, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. Whatever was making me feel this way was inside me.
“It's as if someone is trying to make my internal organs compress into one another while also spinning them in a circle,” I said finally as the wave of pain subsided slightly.
His hand came up and gently brushed away some of the strands of hair that had fallen loose from my bun. The pain stuttered within me before flaring back to life as he pulled away.
“Touch me,” I breathed, trying to confirm my suspicion. My face lifted of its own accord in search of his own. My idea seemed ridiculous, but I couldn't help but wonder at the possibility after everything I had learned this morning.
Emmett's hand gently caressed my face as he stared down into my eyes. The pain went quiet as I realized that his eyes were not just brown. In fact, they were a riot of color, mostly earth tones, but there were flecks of gold and even red in their depths. The red and gold colors seemed to be glowing, and I felt something pulse within me in response. Need washed over me, and as his thumb came around and traced the bottom line of my lip, I couldn’t help but open my mouth for him, wrapping my lips around his skin.
A groan escaped his mouth, and the sound entranced me. I flicked my tongue over the tip of his thumb, which earned me another groan, and I couldn't help but smile. He tasted salty and smoky, reminding me of my favorite barbecue. I just wanted to dig in and devour him.
The sex bucket list flashed through my mind. Maybe it was time for me to stop living vicariously, and actually start living, getting what I wanted and not being ashamed about it.
When his thumb left the warmth of my mouth, he slowly slid it down my neck all the way to my collarbone, leaving tingles and heat in his wake. I shoved all the thoughts telling me to be careful and not to trust him from my mind, and I focused on my instincts. Everything other than my rational mind not only trusted him but wanted to fuck the daylights out of him.
I pushed up on my toes and saw his eyes widen for a fraction of a second before he leaned down to meet me. My heart slammed in my chest as his lips connected with mine. At first, it was a chaste kiss, but when I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him to me, it seemed to unlock whatever smoldering desire he had been holding back. His tongue pushed into my mouth, and I welcomed it, twisting my own around it as I clung to him. Emmett's hands wrapped around me, slipping down my waist to my ass, where he cupped my cheeks and pressed my hips even more firmly against his own.
The pain had gone. The only thing I felt now was his body pressed against mine, his desire, his heat. I ran my hands down his arms, over the muscular shoulders and biceps that resided there. The mere shape of them under my fingers had my blood running as hot as hellfire. When his mouth pulled away, we were both gasping for breath. I could feel his chest heaving against my own.
When he opened his mouth to speak, I put a finger to his lips, terrified that whatever he was about to say would ruin the moment, a moment I was fully living in, a moment that had stoked a fire within my soul. I was burning brightly for him, and in that moment, I never wanted to stop.
Slowly, between kisses, I walked Emmett backward into my bedroom. I knew in the back of my mind he was letting me do it, that if he didn't want to be moved, I wouldn't be able to move him. When we got close to the bed, I was going to push him down onto it, but his arms simply wrapped around me and picked me up as if I weighed nothing, before he spun me around and eased me down onto the bed, showing such care with me that it left me breathless.
Those warm hands of his moved back to my stomach as he pushed the silky black material higher. His fingertips grazed my skin, sending bolts of lightning through me straight to my core. I never reacted this way. I never did anything like this. But there was something about Emmett that I found irresistible, not to mention Knox and Hunter, so long as Hunter kept his attitude under wraps.
When hot breath skated over the sensitive skin of my belly, I gasped, and when his lips followed shortly thereafter, I couldn’t help but let that gasp turn into a moan. Emmett kissed a trail up from just above my pants to just under my bra. Each time his lips touched my skin, it felt as if I were being branded as his, and I loved it.
Emmett didn’t remove my top; he just skipped right over it and began kissing his line of fire up from my collarbone to my ear, gently nibbling on the lobe, while his hands cupped my breasts, squeezing and massaging them in a way that had me writhing on the bed underneath him.
His kisses resumed, and suddenly, his mouth was on mine once more, and I was moaning and grinding my hips into him. The need I had for him was rising to a fever pitch. If I was honest with myself, I knew I had wanted him ever since I’d seen him in the club. The eye contact I’d had with him there was just as hot as the way I felt him move against me while his tongue delved into my mouth.
I pushed on his shoulders, and he moved back to the point that I could roll him over so I was on top. As soon as I settled on him, I wanted to rip all our clothes off and feel him inside me. I was like a caged animal that had finally been set free.
My hands slid under his shirt as his body tensed under what I was sure was my cool touch. As the material moved under my guidance, it revealed the slope and ridges of his stomach and then the flat plains of his chest. The darker brown skin of his nipples and the smattering of hair in the center that led down to a tantalizing line of fine hairs that disappeared into his pants had my mouth watering. I nipped at the V-line that cut through his abdomen, and began kissing my way up to his nipples. The shivers and groans erupting out of him were enough to give a girl an ego boost.
“Poppy.” He sighed as if he were caught between pleasure and pain.
I smiled against his skin, kissing it a few more times before I sat up and whipped my T-shirt up and over my head. The bra I had on wasn't particularly sexy, but I wouldn't have guessed that by looking at Emmett's face. The man was looking at me as if I were Aphrodite herself. His hands moved over my skin like satin, cupping first my breasts and then moving down to my ass. I rolled my hips, and he groaned.
“Poppy, we can't . . .” The words barely made it out of him as he pulled me down to him.
It was odd, but I felt better than I had in ages. I felt energized and full of life. “What do you mean we can't? We're both consenting adults, aren't we? I have condoms if that's what you're worried about.”
He sighed, clearly regretting that he’d spoken up. “No, it's to do with the whole hellhound Underworld thing.”
“Oh.” I got off him and grabbed my shirt, only to fall to the ground in excruciating pain. My stomach felt as if it were full of barbed wire and were trying to twist itself in knots. The feeling radiated out from my center to my arms and legs, even up my neck. I fell to the floor, whimpering like a child.
Chapter Six
Poppy
“Poppy! What's wrong?” Emmett's voice see
med to come from far away even though I could feel the warmth of his body next to my own.
“The pain is back,” I panted between waves. “It's worse.”
He placed a hand on my back, and it receded. “Can I do anything?”
“Don't stop touching me,” I breathed as the longer his hand stayed in place, the more the pain receded.
“I, uh . . .”
“It helps with the pain. This isn't a sex thing.” I ground the words out, anger flaring in me. Did he really think everything had been going so well that I couldn't think about anything but sex even though I was in pain?
“Okay, I'll just leave my hand on your back, then.” He moved down to the floor so he wasn't leaning over me anymore.
“Could you try touching somewhere else so I can put my shirt back on?”
He nodded and slipped his other hand under the cuff of my jeans before letting go with the first. The moment both his hands were on my skin, the pain lessened even more. I knew instinctively that if I wanted it to go away, then I needed to stay in contact with him, but how the hell was I supposed to go about my day, live my life, attached to this deliciously sexy hellhound?
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” I asked, my body acutely aware of where his hand rested on my ankle. It seemed that once the level of pain was low enough for me to have other sensations, then my desire for Emmett came back full force. I didn't want to act on it, didn't even want to acknowledge it, but it was as if a fly were buzzing around my head. I could ignore it, but I was constantly reminded of its presence.
After my shirt was back on, I felt a little more stable, more in control. We sat there in silence as I tried to come up with some way out of this mess and figure out what the hell was going on. It wasn't as if this were normal, after all.
“I need to get back to the house, so I vote you pack a few things and come with.” He shrugged as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.