Feeling frustrated, Persephone left her floor for Hades’ office. When she arrived, it was empty, and everything looked untouched. The desk was clear except for a vase of white narcissus and a picture frame. The narcissus were refreshed daily by Ivy, who, being a dryad, had a special talent for keeping flowers alive longer than usual.
Even in his absence, being in a space that smelled like him calmed her nerves, so she lingered, walking to the window to stare out at the wintery day. Below, she saw Helen waiting on the icy sidewalk, her arms were crossed tightly over her chest as she shivered noticeably. After a moment, a black limo arrived.
Persephone’s brows lowered, wondering who’d sent it for her. Helen usually took public transportation to and from work. Perhaps she was more tangled in Triad that she thought. The driver was no help. He left the comfort of his cabin dressed in a suit and no identifying markings. He opened her door and she slide inside before the vehicle crept down the road.
Suddenly, Hades manifested behind her, standing close. She expected him to place his hands around her waist, instead, he caged her with them, palms pressed flat to the window.
“Careful,” Persephone said. “Ivy will scold you for smudging the glass.”
“Do you think she will have an opinion if I fuck you against it?”
Persephone turned to face him and the teasing light in Hades eyes dimmed.
“What’s wrong?”
She told him everything. Including what she considered to be Helen’s threat—when Hades’ falls. Slowly, he peeled his hands from the window, and they settled at his sides. His brows lowering, his lips twisting into a grimace.
“Are you afraid for me?”
“Yes. Yes, you idiot. Look at what those people did to Harmonia!”
“Persephone—”
“Hades,” Persephone cut him off. “Do not diminish my fear of losing you. It’s just as valid.”
His features softened. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you are powerful,” she said. “But…I cannot help thinking that Triad is trying to bring about another Titanomachy.”
She hated to say it—hated to unearth what had caused such unrest within Hades—but she needed to speak the words, say them aloud. She thought that once they were in the air between them, they would sound ridiculous, completely improbable.
But they didn’t.
Because she was certain the Primordials and the Titans had felt untouchable and they had still fallen.
Hades placed his hands on either side of Persephone’s face.
“I cannot promise we will not have war a thousand times over during our lifetime,” he said. “But I will promise that I will never leave you willingly.”
“Can you promise to never leave at all?”
He offered a small, sad smile and then kissed her. His hands twined into her hair and then glided to her back and hips, exploring. She wanted this more than she wanted to think about how he hadn’t answered her question, so she rubbed his cock through his pants, eliciting a growl from somewhere deep in his throat. In response, he gripped her hips, grinding into her, but Persephone pushed against his chest and met his gaze.
“Let me have this,” she said.
“What do you want?” he asked.
She took his hands and lead him behind his desk where she pushed him into his chair and knelt before him. Poised between his thighs, she released the button of his slacks and unzipped them, his jutting sex rising, thick and hard, from the fabric.
She held his gaze as she wrapped her hand around the base of his cock, stroking him, increasing the pressure as she moved toward his head. If his gaze were fire, she would have burned happily beneath it. She smiled as he ground his teeth, and his fingers turned white as he held onto the arms of his chair. Then she bent, drawing her tongue along his crown. He tasted bitter and warm and smelled like spice.
A soft groan escaped his mouth, and then words.
“Yes,” he said. “This. I dream of this.”
She had questions—what had he dreamed, exactly? Her mouth? This act, performed like this? In his open office? But she asked none of them and continued, spurred by his breathing which pitched unevenly, ragged and labored.
“Lord Hades,” Ivy’s voice entered the fray and she felt Hades tense, his posture changing as he stiffened and sat up straighter. Her presence didn’t keep Persephone from continuing, she worked harder, lavishing every sensitive dip and arch of his cock with her tongue.
“Why are you sitting?”
She sounded perplexed and Persephone laughed despite Hades’ cock filling her mouth. His reaction was immediate. He twined one of his hands into her hair.
“I’m working,” he said.
“There’s nothing on your desk,” she said.
“It’s…coming,” he said, his fingers dug into her scalp.
“Right, well, when you have a moment—”
“Leave, Ivy. Now.”
Persephone heard nothing else from her. She assumed she was gone when Hades placed another hand on her face. For a moment, her eyes met his as he spoke.
“Take all of me,” he said and thrust into her mouth.
He went deep and her eyes watered, her throat full of him—but she wanted to be this for him.
“Yes,” he hissed. “Like that.”
He pumped into her and she choked but he stayed there, rigid in her mouth until he came, her throat thick with his come. She swallowed hard, feeling the burn of it in her nose. When he pulled out, she took in ragged breaths, her forehead resting against his knee. Hades’ hand smoothed her hair.
“Are you well?” he asked.
She looked up at him. “Yes. Tired.”
He brushed her lips with the tips of his fingers. “Tonight, I will make you come just as hard.”
“In your mouth or around your cock?”
He smiled at her question and replied, “Both.”
Hades restored his appearance and helped Persephone to her feet.
“I know you are having a hard day,” he said. “I hate to leave but I came to tell you I will be meeting with Zeus.”
“Why?”
She could think of two reasons.
“I think you know,” he said. “I hope to secure Zeus’s approval for our marriage.”
“Will you confront him about Lara?”
“Hecate already has,” Hades said. “It will take a good two years before his balls grow back.”
Persephone’s eyes widened.
“She…castrated him?”
“Yes,” Hades said. “And if I know Hecate, it was bloody and painful.”
“What good is his punishment if he can just regenerate?”
“It is a power that cannot be taken away, I am afraid. But at least, for a little while, he will be...less...of a problem.”
“Unless he denies our marriage,” Persephone said.
“There is that,” he agreed.
She wanted him to reassure her, to say that would not happen, that Zeus would not dare. Hades seemed to sense her unease, he secured his hands behind her neck and brought his forehead against hers.
“Trust, darling, I will let no one—not king or god or mortal—stand in the way of making you my wife.”
***
Persephone returned to her floor and found Sybil, Leuce, and Zofie at Helen’s desk. It was adjacent to Persephone’s and decorated simplistically—with marble and gold accents.