My skin goes warm beneath his gaze, and I know I must be blushing a brilliant red. “I don’t know.” It strikes me that Hades might order me to fuck other people the same way he orders Meg to fuck other people. Before coming here, the idea felt foreign and almost repulsive. Now that I’m beginning to understand the parameters and push and pull of their—our—relationship, my feelings are less concrete.
“Guess I’ll have to keep my eye on you then.” He gives me another flash of bright white teeth against his dark beard. “You’re a pretty thing, little sub. And you blush so nicely.” He doesn’t touch me anywhere but the ring, which hardly counts as touching me, but it feels like he’s run his hands all over my body when he uses that tone of voice. It’s disconcerting to say the least. I can’t stop fucking blushing. Hook chuckles, the warm sound somehow making this whole conversation more unbearable in the best way possible. “What’s your name?”
“Hercules.”
He gives the collar one last tug and drops his hand. I note that he’s got three rings on his right hand and another two on his left. “Don’t look now, but you’re about to be rescued from big, bad me.”
That surprises me enough to glance where he jerks his chin. I follow the movement to see the last person I expect to be bearing down on us. “Tink?”
“I told you to stay out of trouble.” She’s wearing a bra, panties, and a garter belt that attaches to thigh-high stockings, all in green. Her heels give her a few extra inches and she uses to them to her advantage to step between me and Hook. “And you. You know better than to terrorize new subbies.”
“Hey, Tink.” He’s still grinning, but his eyes have gone intense with something like hatred. Or lust. I’m not really sure. Hook leans back and makes a show of taking her in. “Long time, no see.”
“Not long enough.” She points a finger at him. “Act right.”
“Brat.” He says the word like he relishes it. “You want to keep me away from your precious Hercules? You could come play.”
“Pass.” She laughs in his face. “I’d rather chew off my arm.”
I tense, expecting him to… I don’t know. React badly. Puff up. Some guys take rejection like it’s a personal challenge. Tink might be my superior, but she’s still a woman who’s a good foot shorter than both of us. The Underworld’s security is too far away to step in if this goes sideways.
But Hook surprises me. He laughs, a great booming sound that turns heads around us. “One of these days, you’ll say yes.”
“Hold your breath. Please. It would leave more air for the rest of us.”
Another of those big laughs and Hook tips an imaginary hat to both of us. “Be seeing you.” He ambles off toward the other end of the bar.
Tink immediately turns to me and glares. “What the hell are you doing?”
“We were just talking.” I sound defensive, but I can’t help it.
“You were blushing when you were just talking with him and you’re blushing now.” She gives me a long look. “Hook is trouble.”
I gathered that from the file, but meeting him in person is something else altogether. “He’s more charming than I expected.”
“Yeah, he is. When he wants to be.” She pokes my chest with a single finger. “Go find Meg. It’s about time for the first part of your shift to be over, and I’m not going to be able to relax and enjoy myself if I’m worried about you doing something stupid.”
“Aw, Tink, I could almost believe you cared.”
She glares harder, but her bright red lips curve up a bit at the edges like she’s fighting a smile. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
She swats my arm. “Meg. Now.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I laugh a little at her responding curse and turn to survey the room. I know Meg is in here somewhere because I caught a glimpse of her earlier. She avoided me and I had drink orders to fill, so I haven’t hunted her down to talk. I still don’t know what I’m supposed to say. Hades gave an order, and I followed it. I don’t understand her feeling hurt over that, but maybe it’s all tied up in him more than it is in me. Either way, we have to talk about it, and now’s as good a time as any.
I find her in a corner booth with a couple. I know these two too. Jafar and Jasmine. She’s the head of one of the territories in Carver City, and he’s her right-hand man and lover. Jafar has medium brown skin and a close-cropped beard, and he sits in the booth as if he owns the entire thing. His relaxed posture doesn’t cover up the predatory look in his dark eyes, but you’d have to be paying attention to notice it. He watches Meg and Jasmine, but seems content not to participate.
Jasmine is gorgeous in a flawless kind of way that makes me almost uncomfortable. I never would have the balls to walk up to her if we met under different circumstances. She’s got light brown skin and a mass of wavy dark brown hair. She’s sitting between Meg and Jafar, and leaning hard on Meg, her lips are parted and her breasts about to fall out of her tiny red dress with each ragged inhale. Even before I reach the table, I know what I’ll see, and sure enough, the proximity reveals Meg’s hand up her skirt.
Meg barely looks at me as she keeps finger-fucking Jasmine. “Hercules.”
I don’t know where to look. It seems rude to ogle the movement of Meg’s hand under the red fabric, but my gaze keeps dropping there despite myself. Meg makes it worse when she leans back and uses her free hand to tug down the top of Jasmine’s dress a little, just enough that I can see her brown nipples. I clear my throat and jerk my gaze up. Right to Jafar’s amused dark eyes. His lips quirk. “And they call me cruel.”
For a second, I think he’s talking to me, but Meg responds easily. “It’s because you’re a man. No matter what I do, they like to see me as nurturing.”
“Silly them.”
She gives me a sharp smile and then focuses on Jasmine. “Come for me, pretty girl. I have a long night ahead of me, and your pussy clenching around my fingers when you come is going to get me through it.”
I’m blushing again, but it’s not desire. It’s a toxic combination of embarrassment and anger. Meg might not be putting this show on for me—I’m not delusional—but she’s allowing it to be punishment in its own way. I cross my arms over my chest. “By all means, take your fucking time.”
For the first time since I walked up to the table, she lets what she’s really feeling filter into her blue eyes. Anger. Hurt. Desire. “Don’t worry, little Hercules. I will.”
Chapter Seventeen
Meg
The words barely leave my mouth when Jafar intervenes. He catches my wrist and carefully extracts my hand from between Jasmine’s thighs. “That’s about enough of that.” He gives me a long look. “Go deal with your shit, Meg. She’s not your toy to use to prove a point.”
I start to protest that I know that, that Jasmine’s special to me, even if it’s a friendship that occasionally allows for insanely hot fucking. But ultimately, he’s her Dom and he’s right. I might have started this little tease with her at the center of my motivation, but the second Hercules walked up, everything shifted.