He shifts to settle between my thighs. A breath later and his cock is filling me in the most perfect way possible. He pins me to the bed with his hips, his weight not allowing for any movement. I cling to him, even as I try to fight for more space to slide along his length. The pleasure and pressure and pain is almost too much. “I need…”
“I’ll always find a way to give you what you need, love. You know that.” His low voice is pure sin in the darkness. It doesn’t matter that we’re having what appears to be vanilla sex. It’s never vanilla with me and Hades. Not really. Not when every touch chains me to him more thoroughly, every word marks me as his.
Just when I’m sure I can’t stand it any longer, that I’ll start to beg and plead, he begins to move. He’s cruel in his gentleness, cruel in showing me how things could be if we were different people. If we hadn’t made the same choices to get to this place. I can’t breathe past needing him. He locks his grip around my wrists and pins them to the bed on either side of my head, and I could weep over the need to touch him. “Hades, please.”
He bites my bottom lip, and then I’m coming, fighting against his hold, fighting to take him in deeper, to hold him closer. It’s a lost cause. It always has been. For once, Hades doesn’t try to prolong things, he follows me over the edge, sharing this with me. He gentles his kisses and moves us back to our previous position—him on his back with me tucked against him. His hold around me tightens, as if maybe he needed this just as much as I did, but the moment passes too quickly for me to be sure. After ten years, this man shouldn’t be such an enigma to me. Maybe he always was. Maybe I just thought I knew him with the rash arrogance of youth, and time proved me wrong. I’m honestly not sure anymore.
He smooths my hair back. “It’s you and me, Meg. Forever.”
Threat or declaration of love? I don’t know. I’ve never known. I look into his dark eyes, and in this moment I can truly believe that this man loves me above all others. That it would hurt him beyond measure to lose me. That he would raze this city to the ground if it meant my happiness was on the line.
Then he blinks and I can actually see him retreating. Sorrow rises, a drowning wave that I have no defense against. I tuck my face against his chest, and he lets me hide this from him tonight, just like he always has in the past. Some truths are too difficult to bear. I close my eyes and let the relative safety of Hades’s presence around me lull me into sleep.
When I wake, I’m alone.
Just like always.
Chapter Thirteen
Hades
Things are going according to plan.
I should be delighted beyond measure. Victory. Revenge. It all lies just over the horizon. This is the moment I’ve wanted ever since that bastard in Olympus declared my sentence all those years ago. Exile. A punishment I may have admired if it weren’t leveled against me. Worse than the sweet oblivion of death. The moment you stop breathing, your heart ceases to beat… that’s the moment you’re beyond pain. Exile means to live with the agony of knowing you can never go home, that the people who you cared about the most continue to live on without you.
To know how replaceable you truly are.
If that was his only sin, I might have been willing to let it go. Not easily, but I know better than to waste time and resources chasing an old grudge. But no, exile wasn’t enough for \Zeus. He had to take everything from me.
I aim to return the favor.
I unbutton my suit jacket and sit behind my desk. The last few hours have left me tired, but certain business is best conducted before dawn. This call is one of them. I pick up the phone and dial from memory. Some knowledge never leaves us. It rings for several long moments before a man answers. “It better be good to be calling me at this hour.”
That tone reaches through time and space. For a moment, I’m that foolish twenty-year-old man-child who believes I’m immortal and that nothing bad could ever happen to me because I have power. I didn’t know what power was then, not in any meaningful way. “Hello, Zeus.”
The man who once proclaimed we were close enough to be brothers, even if no blood connected us, inhales sharply. That little sound pleases me greatly. I’ve managed to surprise him, which is a coup all its own. He finally says, “Hades. Have to say, you’re the last person I expected to hear from. Surprised to find you’re still alive.”
I suspected that the scattering of attempts on my life over the years could be traced back to him. Now I know for sure. Anger rises in a steady beat, but I throttle it back. Rage has no place in this conversation, not when one misstep means defeat. “I think we both know nothing as mundane as a hired hit is enough to remove me.”
“Maybe not you, but others aren’t so lucky.” Zeus laughs, the sound bright and happy. He’s always been able to do that, to fill a room with his joy—and to flip it off like a switch. “Why call me now? Surely you’ve not gone senile enough to think I’ll let you back into Olympus.”
I would burn that city to ash before I set foot in it again voluntarily. “Hardly.” I keep my tone light. So light. “I found something of yours that you’ve misplaced.”
“What’s that?” Caution now, as if he finally realizes that I’m still a danger to him.
I let the moment spin out for several beats, enjoying this. “I’ve hired a new employee. Someone I think you may know.”
“Hades,” he warns.
I ignore it. “He’s rather beautiful. Blond. Strong. Piercing blue eyes that remind me of someone…” I chuckle.
“Hercules.” Now all joy is gone from Zeus, leaving only the danger beneath. “What’s to say I didn’t exile him just like I did with you?”
“Come now. I know better, and you know better than to try that subterfuge with me. He may not be your heir, but he’s your son. A traitorous son is still a son. You never release the things you own, Zeus.” I smile. “He’s rather self-righteous, isn’t he? All he needs is a shining set of armor to go with his hero complex. I imagine he doesn’t approve of the way you do business and decided to try to muddle through on his own. He was doing a poor job of it. Truly, you should thank me for snatching him off the street.”
“That boy is coming home, and I’ll rip you to shreds if you think you can keep him from me.” There it is. The fury and rage that make Zeus the force to be reckoned with. Once upon a time, I admired and feared the man in equal measure. No longer.
In my part of Carver City, I am the monster others fear. I am the spider in the web I intend to draw my enemy to. Hercules is nothing more than bait. “You can try. You can fail. He’s mine now, Zeus. And when I’m through with him, maybe it will be enough to begin to atone for your sins.” I hang up before he can respond. The phone immediately rings, but I ignore it. Let him stew in his rage the same way I have for decades.
Exile. For nothing more than stepping into the role that was meant for me from birth. There is meant to be a balance in Olympus. A Zeus ruling on high. A Poseidon managing the middle and mundane. And a Hades seeing to the shadows. When I was young and just as foolish as Hercules is now, I thought that balance would persevere despite Zeus’s thirst for power. It never occurred to me that he’d break a treaty going back to the founding of Olympus and strike directly at the heart of me.