Today I was on my back with my ass hanging over the edge, and he pumped into me deep and hard until his seed was resting between my legs. There was a distinct feeling of superiority about him, that he viewed this as an arrangement more than a marriage. He had never been this bossy with me years ago, but that was probably because he didn’t see this as a relationship.
That ship had sailed.
When he was finished, he walked to his closet and pulled out a navy suit.
I lay there and relaxed, the endorphins swirling in my bloodstream from that climax. The sex was good, so maybe I should stop fighting him. Maybe I should be grateful I had a powerful businessman as a husband who knew how to fuck a woman. We would never love each other, but we could definitely respect each other. “You just got home. You’re leaving again?” I sat up and pressed my knees together, feeling his heaviness inside of me.
He picked out a tie and tossed it on the table. “We’re leaving.”
“We?” I asked. “And where are we going?”
“Having dinner with a big client.”
“That sounds like work…and I have nothing to do with your business.”
“You’re my wife. You need to make appearances.” He opened my closet and picked out a black dress. “Wear this.”
“I can pick out my own clothes, thank you.”
He gave me a cold stare before he turned away. “Then get dressed.”
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.” He started to get dressed, not even washing off his dick before he pulled on a fresh pair of boxers. He put on each article of clothing then secured the tie around his neck. “Hurry and pick something.”
I glanced at the closet then looked at the black dress. That seemed like the best option, especially since I was short on time.
Hades glared at me like he was trying to prove a point about what had just happened. He knotted his tie and then pulled on his jacket.
I refused to admit he was right, so I looked away.
“If you stopped being sensitive about everything, this would be much easier.”
“Sensitive? I just don’t like being told what to do.”
“Then you need to start. You married a powerful man who gets shit done. If I tell you to do something, I’m right about whatever it is. Stop fighting it and see it as an asset. You don’t need to think. Just listen.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Unlike your other girls, I actually like to think.”
“Think on your own time.” He grabbed a new watch from his drawer and clasped it around his wrist.
“How many watches do you have?”
“Too many.” He sat in the chair and put his shoes on.
“Why do you collect them?”
“Most of them are gifts. Some are collectibles. It’s something I’ve been doing since I can remember.” He tied his laces then stood up, looking like he hadn’t gotten hot and sweaty just minutes ago.
I pulled on my black dress and zipped up the back. The shoes that killed my feet came on next.
His hands rested in his pockets as he watched me. “You can wear flats.”
“No. Doesn’t look right.”
“You’ll still look beautiful in an ugly pair of shoes.”
Sometimes I liked this man. Sometimes he drove me crazy. And sometimes that happened at the same time. “Who’s the client?”
“He owns a shipping company. Has a high revenue and needs to launder millions.”
“Someone else can’t do that?”
“Not as well as I can.”
I straightened in my heels then grabbed my clutch off the dresser. “So, it’s just the three of us?”
“Five.”
“Who are the other two?”
“His wife and Damien.”
I’d never really talked to Damien before. There’d never been the opportunity to exchange more than a few words. But he was close to Hades, so he should be close to me too. We couldn’t be strangers forever. “And what is my purpose in all of this?”
“To be beautiful.”
I stared at him, unsure what that meant.
He explained further. “I want to show you off.”
“Like a trophy?” My mother had explained this before, that a powerful man wanted the most beautiful wife he could possibly attain.
“Exactly. Except I don’t want other men to want you.” He moved until our faces were close together, our lips nearly touching. He loomed over me like a king stood over his subject. “I just want them to know that I have you.”
I sat wedged between Damien and Hades in the back seat of the car.
“Why do I have to come to this?” Damien asked, looking out the window in annoyance. “Aren’t you enough? I could be at the whorehouse right now or—”
“Damien.” Hades quickly silenced him.
Damien glanced at me before he looked out the window again. “Sorry.”
“You don’t need to censor your conversation because of me.” I didn’t want to hear all the details of their criminal empire or their adventures in the brothel, but I wasn’t offended by it either.