Hades loved Persephone. And he’s right. She loved him, too.
But his love, it condemned her. It could only take. It could only ever make her dark. She wasn’t the same even in the time she spent in the light.
Because once you let darkness love you, it won’t ever let you go.
And you won’t want it to.
11
Hayden
She places her hand inside mine and I help her out of the tub. I wrap a towel around her, dry her. Back in the bedroom, she opens a dresser drawer and steps into a pair of black satin panties, then pulls an oversized sweater over her head.
Her hair is damp. She goes into the bathroom and returns a moment later with it piled on top of her head in a bun.
I pull on a pair of sweats I’d brought with me. I don’t bother with a shirt.
“You brought an overnight bag?” she asks, eyeing the duffel on her bed.
“It’s here or the club. I told you I don’t want anything getting in the way of you and me in bed.”
“So, you’re moving in?”
I cock my head to the side. “Unless you’re moving into the club. I thought you’d want to be close to Lizzie.”
“Well, that was…considerate. Thank you.”
I look at her, see how she looks at me. She doesn’t quite trust me, but I think she wants to. She’s still naïve.
Out of her league, bastard.
I take the bottle of sleeping pills I’d found and hold them up to her. “If I see you taking these or any other drug like this, you’re going to answer to me.”
She reaches for the bottle, but I hold it out of reach.
“They’re not drugs. They’re prescription sleeping pills,” she says.
“Prescribed to Irina.”
“I just didn’t have time to go to the doctor.”
“I don’t care.” I walk into the bathroom and she follows.
“What are you doing?” she asks when I take the cap off.
“Getting rid of them.” I dump the remaining pills into the toilet.
“They’re not mine!”
I flush the toilet and turn to her. “Then you won’t mind.”
“I really just couldn’t sleep. You said so yourself, I looked a wreck.”
“You’re overwhelmed but that’s over.”
“How is it over?”
“Your father’s in a facility. Irina is gone. The house is sorted. You have a job.”
“All for the low, low price of my body.”
I grin, wrap an arm around the back of her neck and pull her to me. “Don’t forget your soul.”
She looks at me like I’m crazy and maybe I am.
I let her go and walk out into the bedroom. I check the fire, make sure the screen is in place then move to the door. “Is there food in the house? Storm’s too bad to go out.”
“I think so.”
“Let’s go downstairs.”
I follow her down the hall. “Where’s your sister?”
“Sleeping over at a friend’s house.”
I turn on lights as we go, looking into the empty rooms until we get into the kitchen. It’s a very large kitchen with Portuguese tile floors, a long, thick wooden counter, high-end stainless-steel appliances and a breakfast bar.
I open the refrigerator to see what she has. Not much but it’ll do. “Get me a whiskey and I’ll make you dinner.”
She disappears into what I know is the study and returns a few minutes later with a bottle of whiskey. She pours me a glass and takes a seat, tucking her legs underneath her.
I whisk eggs, add herbs and begin to make scrambled eggs.
“I never imagined you as a cook.”
I drink my whiskey, leaning against the counter and watching her.
“It’s just eggs.”
“Still.”
I study her, the fact that she was a virgin still baffling, especially considering she was engaged to Jonas. But that in itself is baffling.
“Why did you agree to marry Jonas? I mean, after that night.”
That night.
Halloween night five years ago.
She knows the night I mean, too. I don’t have to spell it out. Instead, I sip my drink and wait for her to answer.
“I don’t remember much of the party,” she says. “I’ve never felt so out of control and I’d only had one drink. I know that.”
“My stepbrother—your one-time fiancé—drugged you. You still refuse to believe that?”
“I remember when you came. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so grateful. So relieved.”
I look through two cupboards before I find dishes and plate the scrambled eggs. I put one in front of her and stand across from her to eat mine.
“Eat. Every bite,” I tell her, handing her a fork. “You realize what he would have done to you if I hadn’t shown up?”
She nods without looking at me.
“And yet, you accepted his proposal of marriage? Ares may be right. You have questionable taste and sense.”
“He was different after Nora’s death. At least I thought he was.”
“You protected him. The morning after, you protected him.”
She looks up at me. “I wasn’t protecting him. I was protecting myself.”
“From a would-be rapist you then agree to marry?”
She puts her fork down, weaves her fingers into her hair and closes her eyes. “I made a mistake, okay? Can you please just drop it?”
I narrow my eyes and study her. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She looks quickly away. “Nothing. And besides…” she shifts her gaze back to mine. “I have another question.”
“You ask but never answer.”
“What we…What happened afterward, when you brought me home…I don’t know if it was real.”
I arch my eyebrows.
“I mean, did we…”
I chew a forkful of eggs. “I cleaned you up after you puked. I then put you to bed.”
“I was naked when I woke up.”
“Because the rain soaked you. You were sixteen and I was twenty, Persephone. I didn’t touch you.”
Liar.
“The other night, you said you’d been in my panties.”
“I wouldn’t fuck an almost unconscious girl. Never mind a minor.” I finish my plate and reach for the bottle of whisky. “What about what Jonas did? Wasn’t that enough for you?”
She pushes the eggs around.
“Eat,” I tell her.
She does and once she’s finished, I collect our dishes and put them in the sink.
“Your back, Hayden.”
I don’t move. I let her take it in. Take in the consequence of hate.
When I turn around her eyes are still wide. I walk around the counter, standing so close to her I can smell her, a faint vanilla and something else, something soft and sensual at once. I pick up my whiskey and finish it.
“Your father did that to you. He was beating you while we were right here. Just steps away.”
“You grew up in an ivory castle, sweetheart.”
“Did he beat Jonas too?”
I feel my eyes narrow when I hear the way she asks it. Feel a hot rage bubble up inside me.