Neon Gods (Dark Olympus 1)

“As you said, I am touching you.” There it is, that sliver of delicious amusement. He goes still, his hand resting on my lower stomach. The weight feels like it’s the only thing keeping me tethered to this world. He traces one of my hip bones. “This is how it’s going to go. Listen closely.”

I’m trying, but every bit of my concentration is wrapped up in not spreading my legs and trying to contort myself to get his hand where I desperately need it. I settle for a shaky nod. “Yes, Sir.” Funny, but calling him that hardly feels strange at all.

“I will give you every fantasy you’ve dreamed up in that ambitious brain of yours. In return, you follow my every command.”

I frown, trying to think past the feel of his body against my back, his hard length pressed against me. I desperately want to get up close and personal with this man, to strip him down and touch him as intimately as he’s touching me now. “I have a lot of fantasies.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.” His lips brush my temple. “Are you shaking out of nerves or desire?”

“Both.” So tempting to leave it at that, but I need him to understand. “I don’t hate it.”

“And the thought of people actually filling this room and watching me touch you like this?”

“I don’t hate it,” I repeat.

“I’m going to make you come, little Persephone. And then I’m taking you upstairs and changing the bandages on your feet. If you’re very good and manage to restrain from complaining, I’ll let you orgasm a second time.” He gives my stomach another slow stroke. “Tomorrow, we’ll get you clothed appropriately.”

It’s so very hard to focus with his fingers drifting closer and closer to my pussy, but I try. “I thought we were negotiating orgasms.”

“This is about more than orgasms.”

I only understand this game in broad strokes, but I recognize that he’s asking for permission in his way, as if I haven’t given him the green light half a dozen times today alone. He’s not exactly throwing me into the deep end to wait and see if I sink or swim. He’s drawing me carefully, inexorably toward a single destination. I don’t believe in fate, but this moment feels like we’ve both spent years barreling down our respective paths to this point. I can’t turn away now. I don’t want to.

“Yes. I say yes.”

Chapter 9

Hades

I’m wrong about Persephone. Every time I push her, test her, see if this will be the thing to send her scurrying home to the upper city, she steps to the line. But it’s more than that. I think going around with each other excites her as much as it does me. Every time her lips curve and she embodies a human-shaped sunbeam, I know things are about to get interesting.

And now?

I have no words to describe what I’m feeling now, not with her naked in my home, her tanned skin flush with desire for my touch. I skate my hand over her stomach, hating her mother and the rest of the upper city for creating circumstances where this woman is so focused on surviving and getting out that she ignores her body’s needs. She’s too thin. Not breakable, exactly, but she as much as admitted that she doesn’t take care of herself the way she should.

“Hades.” Persephone presses back against me, leaning her head against my shoulder, giving herself to me entirely. “Please.”

As if I could stop now, even if I wanted to. We’re on this road to the Underworld together, well past the point of no return. I don’t waste any more time. I cup her pussy, and I can’t help my growl when I find her wet and wanting. “You enjoy these games. Enjoy being on display.”

She nods. “I already said I did.”

I concentrate on moving slowly, because the alternative is to fall on her like a starving creature and undo all the fragile trust I’ve built. She’s soft and wet and hot as fuck. I work two fingers into her and she lets loose the most delicious whimpering sound and clamps around me. I explore her slowly, looking for that spot that will make her go molten, but it’s not enough. I need to see her. See all of her.

Soon.

I reach down with my free hand and hook her thigh, lifting it and spreading her wide to give me better access. Putting her on display for an audience of none. I’ve always liked to play publicly, and I can’t deny how intensely I anticipate claiming her like this in front of a crowded room. Her response tonight indicates that she’ll get off on it just as hard as I will.

I stroke her clit with my thumb, experimenting until I find the right motion that has her whole body going tight. I lean down until my lips brush her ear. “Tomorrow night, this room will be filled with people. Everyone showing up to get a look at your pretty pussy, to hear how sweetly I can make you come.”