The rest of the floor is much better lit with the circular bar acting as the main attraction. It showcases a wide array of alcohol options that border a giant marble sculpture that’s… I blink. It’s almost abstract, but I’m certain that it’s depicting an orgy.
What catches and holds my attention is the man lounging against the bar, his black-on-black suit somehow making him look ever more distinguished than the last time I saw him.
Hades.
What the hell?
He arches a brow at me. “Don’t look so confused. You honestly think you can come to my front door and ask after Meg and I wouldn’t know about it?” He gives me that same half smile that’s haunted me for days. “I think we both know you’re smarter than that.”
Maybe I am.
Maybe I knew it would come down to seeing him again.
I don’t know. My stomach is twisting in on itself, a toxic combination of anger and self-righteousness and desire making it hard to think. I clear my throat. “I’d like to see her.”
“So intent on my Meg.” He motions and a tall, curvy Latina woman appears behind the bar, deposits two drinks, and moves away. There’s no one else in the room, so she must be trying to offer some privacy. Hades picks up the glass, and I can’t help noticing the elegance of his hands, the graceful way he moves. He crooks his finger. “I promise I won’t bite. Unless you ask nicely.”
My blood rushes to my cock, and I don’t fucking understand it. I should want to knock this guy out, but something about him has my instincts misfiring. There’s no fight or flight. It’s flight or fuck, and even in my current confusion, I know better than to play into the latter.
I should know better than to play into the latter.
Hades sighs. “Fine, I’ll take on the role of the bad guy. Either you sit, have a conversation with me, and I decide whether or not I want my Meg around you, or I call in Allecto and she escorts you out. It’s really that simple.”
I don’t know who this Allecto is, but I’m too focused on the first part of his sentence to worry about her. “Meg is a person, not a pet. You don’t get to decide who she does or doesn’t talk to.”
“Meg is both a person and a pet.” There goes that smile again, the one that seems to say he’s enjoying a private joke that I have no access to. “Sit, Hercules.”
My body snaps to attention, obeying the sharpness in his command before I can decide if I want to. I stride to him, and his smile widens. “What a good boy you are.” He tilts his head to the side, studying me in a way that makes me feel like he can see beneath my clothes. “I wonder… Would you kneel if I told you to?”
“No,” I snarl to cover up the truth. I’m not sure what I would do. I can almost feel the bite of the floor through my jeans. The weight of his hand on my head the same way he touched Meg that night. It makes my chest ache, and I don’t understand why.
Another of those shrugs that means everything and nothing at all. “I suppose we’ll find out.”
“I want to see Meg.”
He takes a sip of his drink and raises his eyebrows. Reluctantly, I pick up mine and do the same. It’s scotch. Very, very expensive scotch. I lick my lips, going still at the predatory way he watches the movement. “I want to see Meg,” I repeat.
“Yes, yes. All in good time.” He leans back against the bar. “Let’s be honest between the two of us, shall we? You don’t want to see Meg. You want a whole lot more than that.”
How can he know that when even I don’t know what I want? I take another drink to cover up my mixed responses. “Why do you think that?”
“I have many talents. Reading people is one of them. You, my dear boy, got your head spun around by Meg’s pussy. I can’t blame you. She’s divine, isn’t she?”
“Don’t talk about her that way.” Even if I dream about her pussy. Even if I wish I hadn’t dicked around the first fifteen minutes of our acquaintance so I got more time with her taste on my tongue. It’s more than that. He’s making it sound cheap and dirty.
He’s making it sound like what happened that night is exactly what I’m afraid of.
He leans close, and I realize that he’s actually an inch shorter than me. He seems so much larger than life, it’s strange to look down into those dark eyes. Hades smiles slowly. “For such a smart boy, you’re awfully dense. I can talk about Meg however I damn please. She’s mine, Hercules. I own her. I told her to fuck you that night, so she did. If I stripped her naked and set her on this bar and lined up every member of the Underworld and let them fuck her one right after the other, she’d thank me for it just like she did after she fucked you.” He lowers his voice, still so close that our chests damn near brush. “I can do every single dark and twisted thing I want to our Meg, and she has no choice but to comply.”
Anger finally derails my attraction to him. If what he’s saying is true, and what little evidence I have supports it, then she truly didn’t have a choice that night. My stomach lurches and I clench my fists. “I won’t let you hurt her again.” I can’t go back in time and take back what happened between us, but I will do whatever it takes to ensure she’s not put in that position again.
Something flashes in his eyes, there and gone too quickly for me to identify. “I won’t let her go. I suppose we find ourselves at an impasse.” He finishes his drink, and I try my best not to watch the way his throat moves when he swallows. “What a shame.” He starts to turn away.
“Wait.”
“Yes?” Is he holding his breath? I can’t be sure.
I down the remainder of my drink, letting the alcohol buzz through my veins, though it doesn’t give me nearly as much courage as I’d like. “I heard you make deals.”
Hades turns fully back to face me and steeples his fingers. “You heard correctly.”
“I’ll make a deal with you to free Meg.”
He taps his fingers against his lips. “Meg is very dear to me, Hercules. I’m not sure what you could possibly offer that would make me give her up.”
I don’t possess anything of worth. Not anymore. If I were still in Olympus, I’d have access to resources and more money than even Hades could bring to the fore. Hades. Olympus. I stop short. I hadn’t even made the connection before now. Surely it’s not coincidence that Hades goes by that name. The one shared by the bogeyman in Olympus. Be a good boy or Hades will get you. It’s not a threat I’ve been on the receiving end of since I was a small child or I would have made the connection sooner. Hades isn’t supposed to be a real person, for all that he’s technically one of the Thirteen. If he existed, I would have known about it. “Hades.”
He seems to sense the change in me and raises his brows. “That is my name.”
“Do you have some connection to Olympus?”
Just like that, he goes as icy as he was the first moment we met. Cold. So fucking cold. “If you’re afraid of making a deal, then stop wasting my time. I have more important things to be doing at the moment.”
I have nothing to offer him. Not really. My trust fund is long gone, and even if it wasn’t, Hades doesn’t seem the type to be swayed by a series of commas and zeroes. No, he’ll want something more. Which is a damn problem. I have nothing except…