Wife (Betrothed 1)

He turned my way, slightly amused by my request. “Then let’s go.” He rose from the chair and grabbed my hand as he prepared to walk out. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Damien. And lovely to meet you.”

She smiled and waved to both of us.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and escorted me away from the table.

“I want all the details tomorrow, Hades,” Damien called after him. “So be ready.”

Hades kept walking and guided me outside. His car was parked at the curb, pitch-black with blacked-out windows.

“Didn’t know guys gossiped so much.”

He opened the passenger door for me. “I don’t gossip about you.” He shut the door then got into the driver’s seat beside me.

“You didn’t tell him about the woman you’re nailing at the Tuscan Rose?” I asked as I fastened my seat belt. “The girl that you ground up against when she was eighteen years old?” That sounded too juicy not to share.

“No.” He pulled onto the street and drove.

“And why not?”

“I don’t want to.”

“It sounds like you tell him about all your other girls. Why not me?”

He kept his eyes on the road and let my question sit in the air. He ended the conversation completely when he turned on the radio and allowed the music to cover the tension his rejection created.

I let it go.

After a few blocks, he pulled up to a large building with enormous walls for privacy.

“Why are we here?”

“Because it’s where I live.”

I glanced at the fortress before I turned back to him. “I don’t want to go to your place. I prefer the hotel.”

“Well, we’re already here.” The steel gate opened, and he pulled his car inside.

“It takes five minutes to drive back to the hotel.”

“This bed or that bed, what does it matter?” He parked in an underground garage and killed the engine.

“It matters because the hotel is walking distance to my place.”

He gave me a cold look. “We’ve talked about this already. You shouldn’t be walking at night.”

“I’m a big girl, alright?”

“And there are bigger men who would do terrible things to you.”

I didn’t need his protection or his advice, so I dropped it. “I just prefer the hotel. I don’t want to see your place or become acquainted with it.”

He looked out the driver’s side window and stared at the cinder block he parked in front of. “You say you aren’t interested in a relationship, but it looks like you’re doing everything you possibly can to avoid one. You’re too scared to get close to anyone, so you put up roadblocks at every turn.”

“That’s not true—”

“Then let’s go upstairs.” He got out of the car and left me behind.

I stayed in the passenger seat of his car and closed my eyes, wishing I’d never agreed to dinner in the first place. Now I was in a situation I didn’t want to be in. I finally pushed the door open and stepped out.

He was leaning against the trunk. “If you really want me to take you back, I will. But I won’t be joining you.”

“So, if I want to get laid, I have to stay here?”

“Yes.” He walked ahead of me and headed to the elevator doors before he stepped inside.

If I had any restraint, I would just go home and forget about this night. I would use my hand instead or find another guy to fill my nights.

But there was only one Hades Lombardi.

The elevator rose and carried us to the lower level of his home. He stepped out first into the empty house and headed for the circular stairway to the right. No servants popped out, and he didn’t offer to give me a tour.

Full of shame, I followed him.

His bedroom was on the top floor, with a private patio that had a perfect view of the cathedral. My house was visible from this angle, a building just a few miles west. His bedroom chambers were grand like his home was from the Victorian age, even though this place had to have been renovated in the least ten years.

Once the bedroom door was shut and we had our privacy, he pulled his shirt over his head and left it on the floor, probably because it was someone else’s responsibility to pick it up when he went to work tomorrow. He unbuttoned his jeans and got undressed, stripping down until he was naked—and hard.

When I looked at his sculpted physique, his explosive arms and his brick house of a chest, I forgot about that long dinner, forgot about the exchange between Hades and Damien. I even forgot about how he didn’t go to the hotel like I asked. In front of me was nothing but man, God’s perfect creation. Men weren’t bred this way. They weren’t constructed to be so hard and tough, but so damn beautiful at the same time.