“I know. And I won’t hurt you. Or your world.”
As if in slow motion, she watched his palm come down over hers, sealing the flowers between them. The slight tremble in his fingers touched her heart. He waited a minute and then took his hand away. “It’s done.”
She looked down at the flowers, beautiful but innocuous. “That’s it?”
“Yes.”
The trust went both ways, she realized. He could very well have done nothing, and this could be trickery. No god would fault her for refusing to eat the flowers.
But she would fault herself. She quickly ate both of them as he watched her, eyes hooded. Nothing happened. “I don’t feel any different.” No, wait, was that a small burst of warmth in her belly? She pressed her hand against it.
“You may not. But you now have an all-access pass to the Underworld, Sephie. If you should wish to come back, ever, simply think of where you’d like to be, and your power should do the rest.”
She didn’t miss the qualifying
if
. “I will be back, Hades. Six mortal months to this day, at midnight, I’ll be standing here again.” Six months should give her time to figure out some way to calm Demeter and make provisions for the mortals who needed her.
“I’m so glad you’re having fun planning your next rendezvous, however you plan on accomplishing that,” Zeus spat as he stalked into the room. “I definitely won’t be helping.”
“I don’t need your help.” She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed Hades on his mouth. “Be good. Don’t flay too many souls while I’m gone.”
“They always deserve it.”
“I know.”
Hades grasped her hand. “Six months, Sephie.”
“Six months.”
“By the way, you were created from a shard of Gaia’s power.”
She froze. Gaia? The Earth? She was created from the freakin’ Earth? “What?”
“You son of a bitch. You promised,” Zeus squawked.
“I lied,” Hades replied easily. “They didn’t want you to know because they worried you would become too strong.”
“Gaia…” she said, touched by reverent awe. “Truly?”
“Truly.”
“That’s amazing.”
He squeezed her hand. “You’re amazing.”
“If we’re done here, can you move your ass, Persephone? I’m so fucking ready to get out of this place,” Zeus griped.
Hades tugged her closer, trapping her against his chest in a hard hug. “Zeus.” There was a trace of deadly menace in the one word.
Zeus did not appear to notice it. “What?”
“You talk to my lady in that tone again, I’ll rip into your cloud and shove your lightning bolt up your ass. Do you understand?”
Persephone bit her lip to keep from laughing, particularly when Zeus cleared his throat and muttered a very indistinct, “Fine.”
“And you will make sure the other gods comprehend that she’s not to be toyed with, right?”
“Yes, yes. Come on…Lady Persephone.”
Reluctantly, she let Hades go and walked over to Zeus. The other god slid his arm around her waist, and she could feel that little tug that would pull her out of this world and back to her own. Unable to resist, she turned around to catch a last glimpse of Hades’s face.
Six months
, she mouthed.
He nodded, but she knew him well enough to see the despondence in his face.
Six months
, she repeated silently to herself. There was no one on Heaven or Earth who could keep her away.
Chapter Nine
Six months.
Granted, six mortal months, so of course they’d flown by faster here, but still, each day had been brutal and grinding. His subjects had seen more of him than ever before. There were more than a few ghouls down in Tartarus who had heard of Persephone and were praying she would return almost as badly as he was.
Unable to take the stress, he growled and ripped at the choking noose wrapped around his neck. “What the hell is this tool of evil?”
“I believe it is called a tie, sire.” Cerberus’s middle head answered him as it critically studied the vase of flowers on a table. “Sire, please sit.”
Since sitting was no worse than standing, he dropped into his throne, propping his chin in his hand. “She won’t recognize me wearing a shirt.”
“Lady Persephone will be quite pleased.”
“Do you think she’ll play ball with me?” Bob wanted to know. Hades didn’t answer, because it was hushed into silence by Middle.
He glanced at the new gold watch he wore, yet another trapping of civility he’d donned for Persephone. A minute. There was only a minute left until midnight.
“I’ll leave you now, sire. Unless there’s anything else you require?”
“No. Wait, Cerberus.”
His servant turned. Hades swallowed. “If she doesn’t come…make sure I’m okay in a few hours, all right? Make sure I’m here. Keep me here.” Because if Cerberus didn’t come, Hades knew the only viable choice would be to drink himself into a stupor. And if he went that route, the next step would involve chasing after Persephone and abducting her in truth.
Middle nodded. “Very well, sire.”
Cerberus took its leave, and Hades was alone with his thoughts and with the silent tick of his watch. Thirty seconds.
Twenty.
Ten.
He grasped the arms of his chair so hard, he was surprised they didn’t turn to dust.
Five.
Midnight.
He closed his eyes and opened them again, hoping something would be different, but the room was empty.
He waited another minute, counting the seconds again.
Nothing.
With a low groan, he cradled his head in his hands, unable to believe that she wasn’t here. Unable to believe that he’d actually thought she would come back. Why the hell would she do that? Why would she care at all about coming back to an angry, foul-mouthed God who lived in an old dark palace with no windows, when she could go frolicking in a meadow whenever she felt like it? Hell, he could almost smell the scent of the flowers…
He stiffened at the same moment he heard her soft voice. “Hades?”
Raising his head, hardly daring to believe it, he found her standing there, as beautiful—no, more beautiful than—the day she left. Her hair was pulled back from her face, held by a thin circlet of gold flowers, the curls tumbling down her back. Her long gown was his favorite color, a dark red, cut low to show off her ample cleavage and cinched tight, reminding him of all the times he’d grasped that waist in his hands.
She raised her chin, and for the first time ever, he saw a split-second flash of the future instead of the past: a regal and intimidating Persephone ruling by his side. As he stood, she ruined her dignified mien by letting out a loud squeal and running straight toward him. He grabbed her up, glorying in the feel of her in his arms.
“You came back,” he said, and he realized that he couldn’t stop saying it.
You came back, you came back.
“Oh, silly.” She wrapped her legs around him and cupped his face in her hands. “You knew I’d come back.”
He kissed her desperately, thrilled when she responded. He had known, but there’d been a little sliver of doubt. When he allowed her air again, he whispered against the sweet-smelling curls at her temple. “You smell so good. You look so gorgeous.”
“You aren’t looking too shabby yourself. You look so handsome in a shirt.”
He suddenly didn’t regret Cerberus forcing him into the suit. “Don’t leave me. Not again.”
Persephone leaned back, and he knew she wasn’t going to be saying anything he liked. “Actually…”
“No.”
With that autocratic edict, he tried to kiss her again, but she avoided his mouth. “Hades, listen to me.”
“You’re going to stay here. With me. No arguments. Now, sex.”
Despite his best efforts, she unwrapped her legs from around him and squirmed out of his arms. “As great as that sounds, you need to listen to me. I had to make a deal to come down here.”
He froze. “Who? Who did you make a deal with? I gave you the power to enter and leave at will, Sephie. You shouldn’t have been making deals with anybody.” Deals with gods and goddesses rarely ended well.
“Demeter.”
He narrowed his eyes. “That…”
She covered his lips. “Hush. She loves me, and I love her, and whatever issues there may be between you, I won’t let you badmouth her in my presence.”
If the subject of this argument wasn’t whiny Demeter, who was still somehow fucking with his life, he might actually be turned on as usual by no-nonsense Persephone. “What deal?” he said, his words muffled by her hand.
She removed her fingers from his lips and sighed. “We had a long talk. The shard Gaia gave her only really works in tandem with me. Without me there, Demeter can’t ensure an adequate harvest for the mortals. I had no idea how much she, and the Earth, depended on my powers.”
“They’re important powers, Sephie.”
Pride had her straightening her shoulders. “Yes, they are, aren’t they? Even when I didn’t really know how to use them, I was doing something right. And that means I have to go back at least once a year. I agreed that I would go back to Demeter at the beginning of every harvest.”
He tugged at the knot of the tie, suddenly hating it again. “For how long?”
“We talked about six months, and then nine…” She held up her hand when he growled. “Three. Just three mortal months. I do my thing, and I come back here.”
“Three months is too long. Tell her a week.”
She smiled. “Even I’m not powerful enough to get everything done in a week, Hades.”
He loved the mantle of subtle confidence she wore now. “How long are you going to keep up this back and forth, Persephone?”
She sobered. “I guess…for however long you want me.”
“Forever.” There was no uncertainty in his soul, so there was no uncertainty in his voice.
Her throat worked. “Even knowing that I’ll have to go back to Demeter every year? Because it’s not only that I can’t abandon the mortals. I need to soak up the sun and the elements of the Earth to sustain myself. Which makes sense, now that I know I’m a part of it.”
“Yes. I don’t like that, I’ll be honest, but I’ll figure out how to deal with it.” Because she wouldn’t be the goddess she was if she didn’t agree to do this. In her shoes, he would do the same. So even though it went against his territorial nature, he’d work out his own issues and kiss her goodbye on her little trip home every year.
And he’d try to keep his cursing at Demeter in his head.
He nodded to the new smaller throne next to his. “The Underworld needs a queen, Persephone. And I need you. Will you rule by my side?”
Her eyes widened as she took in the addition to the room. “Really?”
“Truly.”
“Oh, Hades. Of course I will.”
“You’ll have to put up with my temper and jealousy and possessiveness.”
“You’ll have to deal with my disappearances…well, really just that, I’m perfect otherwise. Ouch!” she yelped when he smacked her ass, but she was grinning. “Thank you for my throne. It’s beautiful.”
“I told them to carve flowers instead of skulls into it.”
“That’s so thoughtful, my darling.”
“Can we have sex now?”
She blinked up at him, and just like that they were both naked. She pressed up against him, and his cock found a happy place between her legs. He growled as they kissed, pulling her back until he was seated in his throne and she was straddling him.
He muttered a curse as she slowly took him in. “I love you, you know.”
Those slumberous emerald eyes beamed up at him. Somehow her lush body simultaneously held him captive and was at his mercy. “Of course. I love you too.”
And as she took him to heaven, Hades knew that no matter how much she traveled in and out of his world, Persephone would never leave his heart.
Note to Readers
Usually when people ask me where I get my ideas, I have no response for them that won’t somehow sound emo. Not this time. I’ve always had a passionate interest in mythology, and it was recently rekindled when I toured the British Museum. As I stood in front of a relief of Hades abducting Persephone, I started to daydream about the infamous couple. After I left the museum, the daydreaming wouldn’t stop. Yet my romance-author brain had issues with Hades and his hero viability. Abduction? Rape? Trickery to force the girl to stay? Plus, it had always skeeved me out that Persephone was technically Hades’s niece on both sides, since she was the daughter of his sister and his brother. No, that wouldn’t do.
So I changed all of those things, and some other stuff too.
If you’re familiar with the myth, I’m sure you noticed, and I hope you appreciated and will forgive my reworking of the tale. If you aren’t, well, just know that I indulged in some artistic meddling.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed my adaptation.
About the Author
Alisha Rai has been enthralled with romance novels since she smuggled her first tattered Harlequin home from the library at the age of thirteen. There is nothing she loves more than penning sexy, emotional contemporaries and paranormals with larger-than-life heroes and smart, capable heroines.
After a lifetime spent bouncing around the States, she is content to call sunny South Florida home for now. When she’s not reading or working, Alisha loves to hang out with her close-knit family. She happily lives in a chaotic house filled with clutter, laughter, good food, boisterous kids and very loud relatives.
Alisha loves to hear from her readers. You can send her an e-mail at
[email protected]
or visit her on the web at
www.alisharai.com
.
Look for these titles by Alisha Rai
Now Available:
Glutton for Pleasure
Cabin Fever
Never Have I Ever
Veiled Series
Veiled Desire
Veiled Seduction
Coming Soon:
Night Whispers
The higher the stakes, the hotter the game.
Never Have I Ever
© 2010 Alisha Rai
Reynolds Pack, Book 1
Ana Hudson enjoys her picture-perfect marriage to the love of her life. Everything is pleasant, easy—and satisfying. Then an anonymous e-mail arrives filled with lurid pictures of Taylor’s youthful exploits, leaving her wondering if she really knows him at all. More importantly…does she know herself?