Stalking to the window, I tug the heavy, velvet, deep red curtains open to find nothing but flames licking through the trees. However, they’re not burning. Instead, they’re black like coal from a fire.
The demons who work for Hades stalk around the pathways, not caring if they get burned. But I know they won’t, they’re tarnished in ways that humans could never fathom, and even as each flame licks against them, they don’t even flinch. “They’re all souls sent down here because of their life on Earth. They’re mine to control, to rule over. My army.” His voice comes from behind me. Shallow, yet dark and wary.
“And you torture them?” I turn, facing him now. In the dim light of the house, he looks majestic. A king in his own right. The ruler of the darkness.
“I do.”
“Do you enjoy it?” I ask the question, but I know the answer. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t revel in the maiming.
“There are times it becomes rather pointless, but it all depends on the soul that’s been sent down. Some crave the pain, but others” — he smiles, the sight stealing my breath — “those who beg for mercy, those are the ones I enjoy most of all.”
“Inflicting everlasting pain on people makes you happy,” I say, stepping down from the window, closing the distance between us. “Why me, Hades? Why choose me?”
“Your light is magnificent. I want to bask in it. Touching you, I find solace. My mind is no longer my own, but instead, filled with you.” He reaches for my face, lifting it toward his until our mouths are inches apart. The heat between our bodies causes mine to tingle. There’s a pull between us, electric, magnetic.
“I . . . I’m not sure I belong here,” I utter ever so quietly. There’s more I want to say, but I’m unsure how to approach it.
“I want to claim you, sweet princess. I want to feel your body connecting with mine,” he murmurs calmly. The temptation of his silver tongue trickles down my spine like hot liquid, searing my flesh, causing the heat between my legs to become uncomfortable. “Do you want me to touch you once more, my queen?” he asks. There’s no mistaking the man. He’s utterly vicious — vile and dangerous — but the more he speaks, the more I find myself under his spell.
“I’d like for you to show me more of who you really are.” I’m confident when I respond when I tell him what I need and want. “I crave the pleasures of the flesh.”
“Then I’ll gift those to you,” he informs me confidently. “I want to bathe in your essence, to mark you with my tongue, my body.” His words ignite a fire within me so fierce I’m utterly breathless. “Your porcelain flesh will wear the bruises of our love,” he promises.
He lifts me against his solid form. I feel his hardness pressing into me. He needs me as much as I do him. He lays me down—gently as if I were a glass figurine. The long skirts of my dress are ripped away, torn from my delicate frame.
I watch in awe. My gaze drawn to him as he undresses before me. My cheeks heat in a blush so deep and warm my skin tingles. My rapt attention is what he basks in as he stands before me a man. The monster he hides is raging within him; I see it in his dark gaze, but he restrains it for the moment.
“Open your thighs, my queen. Show me what I now own,” he orders. The command jolts me, alighting my nerves with currents of electric need as I splay myself lewdly for a man who’s too old for me, far too dangerous, my core pulses.
He drops to his knees, his mouth peppering gentle kisses on my thighs. His hot tongue lapping at the flesh that turns molten. I’m hot, needy, and wet. He blows on the entrance to my body, the place no man has ever seen.
“I trust you’re pure. You smell it.” I nod. “The innocence you have is causing me to hunger for you, Persephone,” he tells me with adoration dripping from every word. “Such beautiful, pink petals that remind me of the orchid.” His fingers open me to his hungry, feral gaze. His tongue darts out, lapping at the heated flesh of my pussy.
I cry out, my fingers fisting the sheets beneath me as Hades himself devours my flesh. His fingers probe me. They open me as he scissors two long digits into my virgin body. Back and forth, in and out. I’m about to come apart when he reaches my resistance.
Dark eyes glare at me, watching for my ascent that he can take it. That it’s his to claim. The pressure he ignites deep within my core feels heavy, and my body quivers with want for more.
“Tell me, my queen, is this mine?” he questions as his fingers probe deeper without breaking the thin layer of my innocence.
“Yes, my king. It is yours to claim, devour, and own.” I open my legs farther, wanting him to make me his, finally. To call me his Queen. I want to rule beside him in the darkness.
Suddenly, pain shoots through every nerve in my body. I’m alight as pleasured-pain makes me whimper, my nails digging into the mattress as his mouth lands on my core, suckling away my innocence. I should be shocked at his action, at what he’s doing, but I’m not.
When he finally pulls away, his mouth glistens with a mixture of my arousal and my virginity that I’ve bathed him in. As he pulls both digits from my core, he brings them to his lips, suckling my essence from them with fire dancing in his eyes.
“Now, my sweet, you’re completely mine.” He rises, fisting the thick shaft jutting from between his muscular thighs. “Taste my need for you,” he commands. I find myself on my knees, eager to please the king. My mouth tentatively circles around the tip of him, tasting the salty-sweet juice that trickles onto my tongue.
His fingers tangle in my long waves, holding my head steady as he takes what he needs from me. His hips piston to my face, the thickness of him driving into my warm, wet mouth as he uses me for pleasure. My eyes peek up at him, watching his own pleasure as it plays on the handsome face of the king. My king.
“Yes,” he hisses as I choke on the tip of his cock. The thing I know he’ll soon enter me with. He’ll connect us physically, and I want nothing more than to feel full of him, of all he has to give me.
Suddenly, he pulls me from his body.
“Time for us to finally consummate this marriage.” He chuckles, and I know it’s because we’re not yet married, but I don’t care. I need this now, right here, as he offers it to me.
He leans in, a looming figure over my much smaller one.
“You’re utterly exquisite,” he murmurs once more, and I lift my body to his, wanting him to enter me and devour me, piece by piece. The movement of his hips causes me to gasp. A smirk tilts his mouth into a knowing smile. “How I hunger to taste your sweet crimson.”
“Then do it,” I beg.
Chapter 20
Hades
She’s temptation in human form.
She’s beautiful, intoxicating, delicious.
I lean in. Her body shudders beneath mine with every inch I push into her. Tight, wet, warm. Nothing could’ve prepared me for her body, her innocence, and virtue that I tasted from my fingers.
My mouth suckles the flesh on the curve of her neck. She begged for me to devour her, and I plan to. I bite down hard, my teeth scraping against the creamy, smooth skin.
“Hades,” she utters my name like a siren song. Calling me to my death, I’d gladly spend eternity in Hell with her. My fingers press into her hips, holding her down as I plunge into her depths. Wanting to crawl inside her, to burrow myself in her soul. I need to feel her break beneath me so I can renew her once more.