Indifferent to my mother’s presence, he slipped his hand into my hair and gave me a deep kiss. “I’m always safe.” He rubbed his nose against mine before he turned and walked off.
I returned to my seat, prepared for whatever comments my mother was about to make.
“Now that is how you treat your husband.” She added more sugar to her coffee and stirred it. “I’m glad you’re warming up to him. He’s a good man. I like him a lot.”
“You hardly know him.”
“He’s gotten you to go soft—so he must be pretty damn remarkable.”
I didn’t want to roll my eyes at my mother, so I didn’t.
“And he invited me to live with you. He’s charming.”
I kept my mouth shut about the truth. “He wanted to make me happy.”
“Exactly. You have a good man. Appreciate it because not too many women can say the same thing.”
I was beginning to realize that. Not only did he not hurt me, but he defended me. He gave me the independence I needed to be happy. He treated me as an equal…at least in a professional setting. And it was better that he wanted to have sex with me instead of every other woman in town. “Before Hades and I got married, a man came to my office because he was interested in marrying me.”
“Another suitor?” she asked.
“Yeah. He said Gustavo had mentioned it to him before he passed away.”
“Who is he?”
“His name was Maddox Stine. Never heard of him.”
“Huh…I’ve never heard of him either.”
“Really?” I took my coffee black, but I was a slower drinker so it was already lukewarm before it was halfway finished. “You didn’t approach him before Hades?”
She shook her head. “Hades was the first and only man on my list.”
“You think Gustavo would have gotten involved?” Gustavo wasn’t my father, so I’d be surprised if he’d participated in planning my future marriage.
“He never mentioned it. The only thing I could think of is he was doing business with this man and mentioned you were single. Maybe this Maddox person decided to pursue it on his own. That must have been what happened because I can’t see Gustavo shopping for a husband on your behalf.”
“I can’t either…”
“I’m guessing you didn’t like him.”
“He was young and fairly handsome…but he had a weird vibe to him. Kinda creepy. I told him I was marrying Hades, and he seemed pretty annoyed by the revelation. The whole encounter was strange.”
“Does Hades know him?”
“I…I never mentioned it to him.”
“Oh.”
“I just didn’t see the point. I picked him, so what does it matter if another man wanted to marry me?”
“Might make him jealous…and sometimes it’s sexy when men get jealous.”
“Mom.” Now I did roll my eyes.
“Come on. You don’t think it’d be hot to see Hades get jealous of another man?”
No. Because someone would probably die. “Hades isn’t like that. I’ve never seen him jealous. He’s too…confident to be jealous.”
“Hmm…that’s interesting.”
“What?”
“Then why haven’t you told him?”
It was three in the morning when Hades came into the bedroom. His clothes fell on the floor, and his shoes were kicked off. The heavy sound of his metal watch echoed as he set it on the dresser.
I opened my eyes and stared into the darkness, seeing his muscular silhouette. He stripped down until he was naked then got into bed beside me. “You alright?” I mumbled, still half asleep.
He grabbed my arm and rolled me to my back so he could get on top of me. “I appreciate your concern, but you don’t need to worry about me.” He lifted up my pajama shirt and pulled my panties down my legs so he could get inside me. He separated my legs then pushed into my entrance, slowly sinking until he was completely sheathed. “You’re always wet, aren’t you?”
My hands dug into his hair as I pulled his face close to mine. “For you.”
I stepped out of my office with a folder of papers that needed to be scanned and stored on our server. I’d made the mistake of wearing the shoes that killed my feet, and since the day wasn’t even halfway over, it had been a really stupid idea to choose them.
I’d been staring at my feet, so I didn’t notice the man I practically ran into. “Oh, sorry.” I dropped the folder on the ground, the papers scattering everywhere. “I was looking at my stupid shoes and didn’t notice.” I bent down to gather everything.
The guy helped me. “Why are your shoes stupid?”
I recognized him right away—Maddox Stine. It was spooky because my mother and I had been discussing him just days ago. Now he was in front of my office again, even after our last tense conversation. “Because they’re beautiful…but painful.”
“That seems to be how everything is.” He rose to his feet and handed me the papers he’d grabbed.