by Penelope Sky
“Does he sleep with you?” I slipped on my heels and followed him.
“No. He has a crib in the other room.”
I always had Andrew sleep with me, so I was surprised he didn’t scream when he was left alone.
We entered the room next door, which was painted gray and blue. There was a crib in the middle of the room, along with a changing table and other supplies. Whales were painted on the wall.
Hades gently set him in the crib where his stuffed animals were tucked in each corner. Hades quickly swaddled Andrew, keeping him safe in a cocoon. Hades straightened and gripped the rail as he looked down at our son.
“This room is so nice.” I hadn’t expected Hades to do something so thoughtful. I assumed he would just have Andrew stay with him during his short visits. If I were living here, we would’ve designed this room together. It wasn’t what I would have done myself, but I wouldn’t change anything in any way.
Hades turned toward me while he continued to grip the crib. “All Helena.”
I nodded. “I figured.” I came to the edge of the crib and looked at Andrew, who was the most handsome baby in the world. “I regret a lot of things…”
Hades turned his head toward me.
“But I don’t regret anything that led me to him.” My heart immediately slowed with peace as I looked at the little boy without a care in the world. “Even if we marry other people and have other children, I still wouldn’t change anything. He’s the single most important thing in my life. I wasn’t ready to have children, but when Andrew arrived…I was ready.”
Hades’s hands loosened on the rails, and he rested his elbows on the surface instead. His thoughts were a mystery as we stood together in the dark room, only Andrew’s night-light for illumination. Hades’s warm expression reminded me of the man he used to be, the man who wasn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. He’d disappeared overnight…but there were still pieces that remained behind. “You’re a great mother.”
I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my lips. “Thank you. You’re a good father.”
He continued to stare at me, his gaze growing more intense by the second. He pivoted his body toward me slightly so our faces directly faced each other. He towered over me, his chest stronger than the Great Wall.
I could feel the tingle in my fingertips, feel the vibrations of my pulse under my skin. My breathing changed because I knew what would happen before it happened. That magic was still here…that inexplicable attraction that constantly brought us close together. I could feel that special quality the night we met, and the sensation only grew as the years passed. A divorce and a series of mistakes couldn’t diminish what we felt for each other. I thought I’d have to try harder to demand his attention, but once the conditions were right, it just happened.
All on its own.
When he moved closer to me, I knew what was next. His large palm moved to the small of my back, and he gripped the fabric of my dress before he pulled me close to him. He lowered his face to mine for a few heartbeats as we gazed at each other. His hands slowly glided up my back until he reached my neck. Then his fingers gripped the warm skin, his thumb brushing over the pulse in my neck.
I wanted to reach for him, but I continued to restrain myself. I had to pretend to be resistant, like he was the one convincing me this should happen. But I knew it should happen…like I knew we should be together.
He brushed the hair out of my face before he leaned down to kiss me. This time, it wasn’t a heated embrace beside a dumpster outside a bar. This time, it was in our home, right next to the baby we made together. The world around us was silent, and there were no distractions to keep us apart. It was so quiet I could hear our lips move together and break apart.
When I felt that electric current down my spine, my hands moved to the crooks of his arms, and I gripped his biceps to feel those strong and sexy muscles. My fingers could feel the network of veins just underneath the skin. And he was warm, so warm that it reminded me of when he heated the sheets all night long.
I kissed him back heatedly. I moaned quietly even though it was far too soon for that. But this was what I wanted, a slow and tender kiss between two people who loved each other. The screw in the alleyway was fun, but this was what I really wanted.
I wanted to make love.
And it seemed like he wanted to make love to me.
We continued to kiss beside the crib, our eager mouths making louder noises as our speed quickened. We became braver by touching each other under our clothes, slightly yanking on the fabric if we wanted it to come loose.
Hades eventually took the lead and picked me up. His arm scooped under my ass and held me to his chest as he carried me out the door and gently closed it behind him. Then he carried me down the hallway, back into the bedroom that used to be mine. He laid me down on the bed before he grabbed the baby monitor on the nightstand and turned it on.
Instead of breaking the moment, it made me want him more. No matter what he was doing, he still put our son first. Now that I was a mother, that was the sexiest quality in a man.
He was wearing very few clothes, so all he had to do was push off his sweatpants and boxers, and he was ready to go. Tall, strong, and proud of his physique, he stood over me and gave me a fearless expression.
He grabbed my legs and pulled me to the edge of the bed so he could slide his hands up my thighs and pull my panties free. Just like in the alleyway a few weeks ago, he pushed up my dress and left it on.
I’d rather take it off, but I was too eager.
He stood at the edge of the bed and positioned me so he could take me in that position. His hands pushed my thighs open, then he gripped my hips for anchorage. With his eyes on me, he guided himself inside me and sank until he claimed me completely.
I closed my eyes and moaned.
He leaned over me so he could fist the back of my hair and take me gently. Sometimes he kissed me and sometimes he just stared at me, but it was the way he used to be. He was loving, gentle, affectionate.
He was the man I loved.
25
Hades
I had only been asleep for an hour when I woke up again.
An arm over my stomach shattered my dreams. I was used to sleeping alone, having the whole bed to myself, so a touch was jarring.
I opened my eyes and looked at Sofia beside me. I felt like I’d gone back in time to when she was beside me always. Her brown hair was stretched across the pillow, and her lips were still red from her lipstick. Her eye makeup was smudged, but of course, she still looked like a million bucks.
I was transfixed as I stared at her.
But then I was annoyed.
What the hell was I doing?
Why did this keep happening?
She wasn’t even coming on to me. I was instigating all of it, so I couldn’t even blame her. Every time I thought she would end up in another man’s bed, I did whatever I could to stop that from happening. I had no idea why.
I grabbed her shoulder and gently shook her so she’d wake up. “Sofia.”
She blinked her eyes a couple times before she was awake enough to understand I was talking. “Hmm…”
“You should go home.”
She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at me. She blinked a couple more times before she became focused enough to understand what I’d just suggested. Then she looked pissed. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here because I’m not some stranger you’ll never see again. I’m different from all of them, and you know it.” She got comfortable under the sheets again. “I’m sleeping here, and I’m going to fuck you in the morning before I go.”
When I woke up the next morning, she made good on her word.
I tried to get out of bed, but she grabbed me by the arm and pushed me down. She straddled my hips then sank down onto my hard dick and didn’t give me a choice in the matter. She took me like I was already hers.
Once I was inside her, I was defeated. My dic
k was in the best pussy I’d ever had, and my eyes had never seen a sexier lady. She had a little belly from her pregnancy, but I liked it. Her stretch marks were badass, and her hips made her easier to grab on to.
And her tits…damn.
I lay back on the pillow and watched her bounce up and down on my dick like a professional. She kept her promise and fucked me good, fucked me so good that I forgot our circumstances altogether.
She brought herself to a climax in just a few minutes, and I followed behind her as soon as she was done.
With her, I couldn’t last long anymore.
The second she was done with me, she got off me and grabbed her clothes from the ground. She pulled on her old underwear and pulled the tight dress over her head and down her body. After quickly fixing her hair in the mirror, she pulled on her heels and walked off.
She didn’t say goodbye.
I may not feel the same way anymore, but everything else was the same.
I got addicted to her quickly…just as I did years ago. I was hypnotized by her beauty and totally mesmerized by her. My dick fell in love with her pussy instantly, and now he didn’t want anything else.
In just a short amount of time, I was right back to where I was.
Not that I wanted to be.
What was it about this woman that made me so damn infatuated?
I used to be a man, but she turned me into a little bitch.
I left my office and walked down the hallway until I pushed in his door. I was in a bad mood, so I didn’t care if he was with clients or doing something important.
Damien was on the phone, and he kept talking as he raised an eyebrow.
I snatched the phone out of his grasp and slammed it down onto the receiver.
Damien raised both arms in protest. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Stay the fuck away from Sofia.”
He slowly lowered his arms. “Hades…”
“I mean it. Go near her, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Why the hell do you care anyway? You don’t want her, right? She’s free to do whatever she wants, as am I.”
The idea of the two of them together made me angrier than I’d ever been in my life. The idea of him between her legs and her calling out his name made me want to pick up his desk and slam it on his head. Her sweaty body, her sexy curves naked on his bed while she rocked with him, made me so sick. “Did you fuck her?”
Damien got to his feet. “How is that any of your business?”
“Answer. The. Fucking. Question.”
He slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks and gave me a bored look.
“Motherfucker, do you want to die?”
“You know I don’t kiss and tell.”
I grabbed the phone on his desk and slammed it down like a gorilla, and then I shoved everything onto the floor. His laptop snapped in half, and his coffee destroyed all his papers.
Damien glanced down at the pile of his things. “You owe me a new computer.”
“Answer me, or you’ll be broken too.”
He stared at me for a long time without answering.
This was eating away at me. Damien had an ownership stake in a winery and also had stock in a shipping company. If he was the one Sofia was seeing, my head would explode. If it was him, she would lie about it. I couldn’t handle that kind of truth.
“Instead of focusing on me, why don’t you just get your wife back?”
My nostrils flared at his lack of response.
“Alright, I’ll answer you.” He raised his hands slightly so I would calm down. “But regardless of my answer, you should get her back. You’re losing your fucking mind. I’ve never seen you lose your shit like this before. If it’s not me, it’s going to be someone else.”
“Just answer me.”
“No.”
“No, you won’t answer me, or is no your answer?”
He answered calmly. “No. I haven’t slept with her.”
Fucking hallelujah. My hands went to my forehead, and I slowly dragged them down my face in relief.
“But you clearly want to. So why don’t you go do that instead of wasting your time with these women you don’t care about?”
I still resented her for what she did to me, but these feelings were pouring in again. It happened so quickly, I couldn’t believe it. I was so jealous, I turned into a psychopath. What the hell was wrong with me? “I’ll handle the meeting with John tonight.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So…you’re just gonna pretend this little tantrum didn’t happen?”
I glared at him.
“And you better buy me a new computer. I’m not kidding around about that.”
“If you care about your shit, don’t go sniffing around my wife.”
He grinned.
“What?”
His smile only grew. “Ex-wife.”
Most of my meetings took place in bars because rich and powerful men liked to show off just how rich and powerful they were. Their wives already knew what they were worth and were entitled to it, so they wanted to impress somebody new.
John was dull and stupid. He handed his money over for other people to manage, but he did it blindly, which was incredibly dumb. Good news for him, I was actually an honorable man when it came to business. But he hadn’t realized I was one of the few.
When we stopped talking and he became distracted by an admirer, I excused myself to the bar and got another drink.
I kept thinking about what Damien said.
Ex-wife.
I’d called Sofia my wife when she hadn’t been my wife in eight months.
Was that an honest mistake? Or was it an indication of my real feelings?
One thing was for sure—I was so fucking happy she hadn’t fucked Damien.
I probably would’ve killed him.
A brunette came my way and placed a drink in front of me. “Hi, I’m Veronica.” She was young and perky, with a high-pitched voice and a bubbly personality. She was the talkative type. You could tell just by looking at her.
“Hey.”
She pushed the drink toward me, a vodka cranberry. “I thought I’d buy you a drink before someone else does.”
I’d stopped being flattered by advances because they’d stopped meaning anything. They were just another person, another stranger. I knew there were women I’d slept with whom I wouldn’t recognize if I came face-to-face with them again. I wasn’t ashamed of my decisions, but now I found them pointless.
The best sex of my life had happened with one person.
I started to feel like shit, to feel ashamed of what I’d done.
Veronica began to talk about herself, her hobbies, like reading and rock-climbing.
I faced her head on, but I didn’t really pay attention to anything she said. I kept thinking about the way I’d screamed at Damien. I kept thinking about the way Sofia had told me off when I’d tried to kick her out of my bed. I thought of the way she’d fucked me the next morning.
My imagination must’ve run wild because Sofia appeared right before me.
In a tight purple dress, she placed herself in front of Veronica so she blocked her from view. She looked up at me with confidence, not anger or jealousy.
It took me a second to realize my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.
Sofia grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled my lips to hers to kiss me.
As if I was under a spell, I didn’t resist at all. I kissed her back and closed my eyes like we were alone.
When she pulled away, she spoke so only I could hear her. “Do you want to go home with one of these dumb girls? Or go home with the only woman you actually want?” She stared at me possessively with those beautiful eyes, her hand still gripping the front of my t-shirt.
I didn’t want to cave. I didn’t want to lose. “We just slept together. I’m sorry if I misled you.”
Her confidence didn’t wane. “I think you only misled yourself. At least that’s how Damien made it sound when he to
ld me you ransacked his office today…” She looked at me with victory in her eyes, like she knew she’d beaten me. “Do you usually call me your wife by accident?”
That fucking rat.
She smiled slightly before her fingers relaxed on my shirt. “Let’s go home.”
Veronica didn’t take her loss with grace. “Bitch, I was here first. Move.”
Sofia ignored her. “Come on.”
I wanted to fight my way out of this, but I knew there was no escape. She had me by the throat, and she knew it. We both knew I didn’t want to go home with anyone else. She knew I felt all those old emotions every time we were together. She knew she was the only woman I wanted to fuck.
Veronica didn’t give up. “Bitch, don’t make me ask again.” She grabbed Sofia by the wrist.
My reflexes were quicker than a striking cobra. I grabbed her hand before she could make contact. “Don’t touch my wife.”
All Sofia did was give me a smile, but that smile said everything.
It was the middle of the night.
I’d ended up exactly where I didn’t want to be, but I wasn’t surprised by it either. Fighting got me nowhere, and it sucked to lose over and over again. I went outside on the terrace and sat at the table. The end of summer was here, but it was still hot and humid like fall was nowhere in sight. In just my sweatpants, I sat there and looked at the lights from the city. A slight breeze moved through my short hair, and I rubbed the scruff on my jaw and realized I hadn’t shaved in days.
Sofia was right… I hadn’t wanted to go home with that girl.
Any girl.
But I didn’t want to be here either. I sat there for a long time and reflected on how much my life had changed. My biggest adversary was gone, and I was a man running the streets once again. But everything was different because everyone in the shadows knew I was the one who’d overthrown Maddox.
The terrace doors opened behind me, and Sofia joined me in the darkness. “Can’t sleep?”
No. I just didn’t want to sleep.
She moved to the seat across from me, wearing one of my oversized shirts. Since there was a slight breeze, her nipples hardened through the thin fabric of my t-shirt. When she sat down, her long legs stretched out before her, beautiful and tanned from the long summer. There was no baby monitor because Andrew was with his grandmother.