Neon Gods (Dark Olympus 1)

He wouldn’t have chosen me if I hadn’t been Zeus’s before I was his.

He wouldn’t have even looked at me twice, a woman who’s the epitome of everything about the upper city that he hates. A walking sunbeam, a fake persona that I project to get people to do what I want.

I lean back and try for another laugh. It comes out broken, closer to a sob. “I…” What am I supposed to say? Nothing will change the course we’re on. A path shared for a short time while his need for revenge and my desire for freedom overlap.

It was never meant to last forever.

It should fill me with relief to know that Hades won’t ask me to stay, that he won’t muddy the waters around us with things neither of us should want. It doesn’t. Instead, a strange desperation claws its way through my body, up and up and up, until it spills from my lips. “Kiss me.”

He only hesitates for the briefest of moments, as if to memorize my features before he closes the minuscule distance between us and takes my mouth. Hades kisses me roughly, with none of the tender care he’s displayed time and time again. Good. I don’t want his tenderness. I want the memory of him woven into the fabric of my very soul.

He pushes to his feet and yanks me up with him, barely breaking the kiss. We use rough hands to drag off each other’s clothes, ripping my dress when the fabric doesn’t move fast enough, sending buttons flying from his shirt. I’m still kicking free when he walks me backward through the room to his bed.

“I can’t wait.”

I’m already nodding. I don’t need the slow seduction right now. I just need him. “Hurry.”

He lifts me and I wrap my legs around his waist. The smallest adjustment and his cock is pushing into me, Hades’s hands on my ass controlling my descent onto his length. Fast, fast, too fast. I don’t care. I writhe, trying to get closer. We haven’t stopped kissing, can’t get enough. Who needs to breathe when I have Hades? He’s my very air.

The thought should scare me. Maybe it will when I’ve had some time to think about this. Right now, all I have is need.

He lifts me and lowers me, using his strength to fuck me where he stands. It’s enough to make me light-headed. I pull my mouth from his long enough to say, “More. Harder.”

I expect him to take me to the bed. Instead, he turns and moves to the dresser to set me on it. Hades brackets my throat, pushing me back to pin me against the wall. “Watch.” He barely sounds like himself, his voice gone low and vicious. “Watch how much you need me in this moment. When you’re free and chasing that dream of a life you want, you remember how good it felt to be filled by me, little siren.” He slams into me and then withdraws, his cock glossy with my wetness. I can’t look away. I don’t want to.

Hades keeps seducing me with his words, entrapping me. “Someday, when you let some asshole seduce you and you’re riding their cock, remember tonight and know that they will never compare to me. You think of me when they’re inside you.”

My gaze flies to his face, the possessive fury there just as hot as what he’s doing to my body. I want to sink into it and never surface. I can’t, though. I can’t. “Don’t be cruel,” I gasp.

“I am cruel.” He slams into me again, sealing us together as closely as two people can be, and kisses me roughly. He lifts his head enough to say, “You’ve ruined me, Persephone. Forgive the fuck out of me if I want to return the favor.”

And then there’s nothing else to say. We devolve to our base selves, chasing our mutual shared pleasure. When I come, it feels like my orgasm has been ripped from me, like it’s something I can never take back. Hades follows me over the edge a few moments later, sealing us together and burying his face in my neck as he comes.

Stillness descends.

I cling to him and keep my eyes closed, unwilling to let reality intrude. It’s there, though, hovering at the edge of our fading pleasure. The coolness of the room against our sweat-slicked skin. The ache of various parts of my body from what we’ve done to each other. Hades’s rough breathing slowing out even as mine does the same.

He finally lifts his head, but he doesn’t look at me. “I’m sorry.”

I should let it end at that. We can circle all we want, but it changes nothing about our situation, about our deadline. Instead, I swallow hard. “I’m not.”

Chapter 25

Hades

I don’t sleep. Even after showering and crawling into bed with Persephone, holding her in my arms as her breathing evens out, sleep won’t come for me. I can’t shed the dread that’s risen with every minute from the moment when I pulled out of her, my harsh words still ringing in my ears. I crossed a line, and her being right there with me doesn’t change the fact that it’s done.