Before, they overwhelmed me. It doesn’t feel like that this time. I feel utterly cherished between these two people I care about. Like the new corner we turned last night really means something and we could be waking up like this many, many times in the future. I want that more than anything.
Meg reaches between Hades and me for my cock and gives me a rough stroke that has my back bowing. Hades leans back for half a second and then cool wetness covers her hand and my cock and she picks up her pace. She jacks me as he fucks me and, god, has there ever been a more perfect pair than these two? I don’t know. I can’t think, can’t breathe, can’t do more than lie there and take what they give me even as Meg comes apart all over my hand. I try to hold on. I do. But it’s too fucking good. I come with a shout, coating my stomach and chest. Hades jerks and curses softly, and he pulls out of me in time to come across my stomach and chest too. I stare down at the mess and, holy shit, this is real. Maybe I shouldn’t be so turned on by the way we mix, but I am and I’m not sorry.
Meg rolls away and stretches her entire body. She doesn’t come close to reaching the end of the bed. “Shower time.”
Hades catches my mouth in a devastating kiss that ends all too soon. “Time to clean up, little Hercules. We have a long day ahead of us.”
Showering in Hades’s huge-ass bathroom feels so strangely domestic. There are enough showerheads for six people, but we linger together under the water. Hades washes Meg’s hair with the ease of someone who’s done it many, many times before, and I’m captivated watching his graceful hands work her dark locks. And then he gives me the same treatment, easing away the tightness in my temples and neck while Meg soaps up my body. I feel utterly cared for. This is what I wanted, but I had no idea their edges would come with this unexpected softness beneath. A true tenderness that makes the warmth in my chest bloom.
By the time we make it out of the shower and dry off, I’m grinning like a fool.
Meg drags a comb through her hair and smiles at me in the mirror. “Look, Hades. We’ve made our little Hercules a happy man.”
“Didn’t take much,” he murmurs, disappearing into the closet on the other end of the bathroom. It’s tempting to follow him, but I get the feeling that Hades isn’t even remotely comfortable with adding someone into his care the way he’s added me. He didn’t intend for this to happen, and I’m willing to wait him out until he comes to terms with exactly what he feels for me. I have all the time in the world, after all. When I made my bargain with Hades, I never anticipated this outcome. It feels so right, I don’t question it. Before, I gave him forever in that moment of pain and anger. Now, I’m choosing it. Choosing them.
I hop up to sit on the counter and watch Meg get ready. She moves about the space easily, but then that makes sense. Even if she has her own suite on the employee level, she must spend a lot of time up here with Hades.
She dries her hair and then twists it back and begins her makeup. I watch, fascinated, as she uses a variety of products to sharpen her already natural beauty, finishing with the bold red lipstick I’ve come to associate with her. She glances at me in the mirror. “Are you about to tell me I look prettier without the makeup?”
“I like you every way, Meg.” I shrug. “Whether you’re wearing makeup or not makes no difference to me.”
“Smart boy.” Hades walks back through the door. He’s once again dressed in a suit that’s black-on-black. He gives me a significant look. “I’ll have some of your clothes brought up here so you aren’t wandering the halls in a towel in the future.”
Another indication of the permanence of our arrangement. No, not arrangement. This is a fucking relationship. I grin. “And here I thought you’d want to show me off.”
“Trust me, little Hercules, I’ll do that and more tonight on the floor of the public play room.”
All my amusement disappears, replaced by pure heat. “Tonight?” I may not have worked at the Underworld long, but I’ve already heard about how rarely Hades plays in public—and what an event it is when he does. Even though I know what this must be—him continuing to prove a point to my father—I can’t quite catch my breath as anticipation lances me. He’s also claiming me as his for everyone else. The only one he publicly scenes with is Meg.
“Yes.” He stops and presses a kiss to Meg’s temple and then walks to me and does the same. “Behave, you two. We have a meeting with Allecto in an hour. You don’t have time to get distracted.” And then he’s gone, silently walking out of the bathroom and through the bedroom. I don’t exhale until I hear the door click shut.
“Why are we meeting with Allecto?”
Meg heads for the closet, and I hop off the counter to follow her. The closet is filled to the brim with black clothing, but there’s a section that’s obviously Meg’s for all that it appears to be menswear. She dresses quickly in a pair of gray slacks and a white halter vest thing that gives glimpses of her pale stomach and the curves of her breasts. Heels finalize the outfit, bringing her well past my shoulder. She finally looks at me. “Hades taunted your father last night. It’s possible Zeus will retaliate.”
He taunted my father last night. I pick apart the words and delve beneath to what she’s not staying. “He left our bed to go play power games with Zeus.”
“Yes.” She doesn’t bother to pretty it up, but then Meg isn’t one to mince words. “He’s brushing up the security in order to ensure his people remain safe. Allecto is already the best, but she can’t anticipate an enemy she doesn’t know exists.”
I should have known that reality wouldn’t wait long to intrude on this little paradise we created. Just like I should have known that Hades would be the one to invite it in. I scrub a hand over my face. “How Zeus responds will depend on what Hades did to provoke him—and how public it was.” My father has a mostly sterling reputation despite everything he’s done in the shadows and behind closed doors. It’s one of the things that tipped the scales against Leda, in addition to her being a virtual unknown and Zeus holding significant power. Zeus will fight to maintain his public persona.
“I can’t speak to that.” She stops in front of me and runs her hands up my chest. “I hope you were serious with everything you said last night, because there’s no turning back now.” She hesitates. “But if you do change your mind—”
“I won’t.”
Meg catches my chin, her nails digging into my skin. “If you change your mind, I’ll get you out.”
Shock floors me. “What?”
“It won’t be Olympus and it won’t be Carver City, but I have enough money set aside that you could effectively disappear as long as you aren’t an idiot about it. Say the word and it’s yours.”
What she’s offering… I hold perfectly still. I won’t brush this off, no matter how unlikely I am to take her up on this. If I know Meg, and at this point I feel I have an innate understanding of her, then this nest egg she’s gift wrapping for me is one she’s saved for herself. Her exit hatch to ensure history never repeats itself, that she always has a way out. “I meant what I said last night.” I take her hands. “I’m totally gone for you.”