SWNOVELS Neon Gods: Chapter 16
I’m still chewing over the new information as Hades carries me out of the room. I protest being hauled around like this, but a small, secret part of me really likes it. I like a lot of things about Hades, truth be told. He’s prickly and overbearing, but even after only a few days, I can see the truth of him.
“Hades.” I lay my head against his shoulder and let the steady beat of his heart soothe me. “I know your secret.”
He heads up the stairs. “What’s that?”
“You snarl and snap and growl, but you’ve got an ooey-gooey center beneath the crusty exterior.” I circle his top button with my forefinger. “You care. I think you actually care more than any of the other Thirteen, which is ironic considering the role you’ve been shoehorned into in Olympus.”
“What makes you say that?” He’s still not looking at me, but that’s okay. It’s actually easer to talk to him this way, without feeling like he can read my mind with a single intense look.
“You want Zeus to pay, but not at the expense of your people. And they are your people. I’ve watched how you are with Georgie, and again with Juliette and Matthew. It’s like that with everyone, isn’t it? They would all walk through fire for you, and you protect them with your big, broody presence.”
“I don’t brood.”
“You are the very definition of brooding.”
He snorts. “Surely I don’t care more than your mother. She’s the one who ensures the entire city is fed and supplied with necessities.”
“Yes, she is.” Impossible to keep the bitterness out of my tone. “She’s very good at her job, but she isn’t doing it out of the charity of her soul. She’s chasing power and prestige. The feeling of enough is always over the next horizon. She was going to sell me to Zeus. She won’t see it that way, but it’s what that engagement was—a transaction. She loves me, but it’s secondary to everything else.”
Hades doesn’t immediately respond, and I look up to find him with a strange expression on his face. He looks almost…conflicted. I tense. “What do you know that I don’t?”
“A number of things.”
I refuse to be distracted by that half-assed joke. “Hades, please. We’re in this together, one way or another, for the rest of the winter. Tell me.”
The longer he hesitates, the more anxiety starts to creep in around the edges. He waits until we reach his bedroom and the door is closed between us and the rest of the house to finally answer. “Your mother passed along an ultimatum of sorts.”
I don’t know why I’m surprised. Of course she did. She’s no more happy with me fleeing than Zeus is. All her careful plans wasted because of a disobedient daughter. She wouldn’t be able to let that stand, not if she knows where I am. I wiggle until Hades carefully sets me on my feet. It doesn’t leave me any steadier. “Tell me,” I repeat.
“If I don’t return you, she’ll cut off supplies to the lower city.”
I blink, waiting for the words to rearrange themselves into an order that makes sense. “But that’s… There are thousands and thousands of people in the lower city. People who have nothing to do with you or me or the Thirteen.”
“Yes,” he says simply.
“She’s threatening to starve them.”
“Yes.” He doesn’t look away, doesn’t do anything but give me the honesty I demand.
I wait, but he doesn’t continue. Surely this is the end of it. Surely we can’t move forward with this plan when so many people will be harmed. The barrier keeping Olympus separate from the rest of the world is too strong for people to leave for supplies, not to mention that part of Demeter’s role is to negotiate favorable prices to ensure everyone has access to resources for well-balanced nutrition, regardless of their income. Without those supplies coming in, people will go hungry.
I can’t believe she’d do this, but my mother doesn’t bluff.
I take a slow breath. “I have to go back.”
“Do you want to go back?”
I give a helpless little laugh. “The irony, if it can be called that, is that the one thing my mother and I have in common is the eye-on-the-horizon thing. All I want is to be free of this place and figure out who I am if I’m not Demeter’s middle daughter. If I don’t have to play a particular role to survive, what kind of person might I turn into?”
“Persephone—”
But I’m not listening. “I guess that makes me as selfish as her, doesn’t it? We both want what we want, and we don’t care who else has to bear the cost.” I shake my head. “No. I won’t do it. I won’t let your people be hurt for my freedom.”
“Persephone.” Hades reclaims the space between us and gently but firmly takes my shoulders. “Do you want to go back?”
I can’t lie to him. “No, but I don’t see how that—”
He nods as if I’ve answered more than that single question. “Then you won’t.”
“What? You just said—”
“Do you think I’m naive enough to trust the Thirteen with my people’s health and well-being? We were always one step away from pissing one of them off and causing a disruption like this.” His lips quirk, though his eyes remain cold. “My people won’t starve. We have plenty of resources in the lower city. Things might get uncomfortable for a little while, but no one will be irreparably harmed.”
What?
“Where are you getting supplies from?”
“Triton and I have an under-the-table arrangement.” He’s not surprised or angry or any of the emotions coursing through me right now. He’s not even worried.
The shocks just keep coming. “You…you negotiated with Poseidon’s right-hand man to get around the Thirteen. How long has this been going on?”
“Since I took over at seventeen.” He holds my gaze. “I know better than most that you can’t afford to trust the goodwill of the Thirteen. It was only a matter of time before one of them tried to use my people to hurt me.”
I look at him with new eyes. This man… Gods, he’s even more complex than I suspected. A true leader. “You knew this might happen when you agreed to help me.”
“I knew it was a distinct possibility.” He shifts his hands up to cup my face and drags his thumbs along my cheekbones. “A long time ago, I promised myself that I wouldn’t let those assholes in the upper city harm anything of mine ever again. There’s little they can do, short of war, that will overly affect things here.”
What would it be like if Hades ruled Olympus instead of Zeus? I can barely wrap my mind around the very concept. Hades truly cares.
I kiss him before I realize I’m going to do it. There’s no plan, no ploy, nothing beyond the need to show him… I’m not even sure. Something. Something I can’t put into words. He goes still for half a breath, and then he shifts his hands to my hips and pulls me against him. He kisses me back with the same level of ferocity bubbling up in my chest. A feeling bordering on desperation, on something more intricate still.
I pull away enough to say, “I need you.”
He’s already moving, backing me toward the bed. Hades looks down at my mostly bared body and growls. “I want you naked.”
“I hope you’re prepared to wait.”
“I’m not.” He reaches into his jacket and comes up with a small knife. “Don’t move.”
I hold still. I hold my very breath as he slips the blade between my skin and the first strap. It’s surprisingly warm, likely from being so close to his body. The strap gives easily beneath the sharp edge. And then another, and another, and another, until I’m standing before him completely naked. He snaps the blade closed and takes a step back, sweeping his gaze over me from my head to my feet and back again. “Better.”
He stalks to the light switch and flicks it, ignoring my wordless protest. I want to see. Hades moves past me to the windows and shoves the heavy curtains open. My eyes adjust quickly enough and I realize I can see, at least a little. The lights from the city bathe the room in a low neon glow.
Hades strips as he walks toward me. Jacket and shirt. Shoes and pants. He stops a few feet away and I can’t help reaching for him. He might be giving me the view I crave, but I need something even more vital—his skin against mine.
Except he catches my hand before I make contact with his chest and guides it up to his neck. He finishes closing the distance between us, bringing us chest to chest. I get the faint impression of rough scars against my skin, but Hades kisses me again and I forget anything else but getting him inside me as quickly as possible.
He lifts me, and I wrap my legs around his waist. The new position has his cock nearly lined up perfectly where I need him, but he moves before I can lose my mind enough to take advantage. My need is an all-consuming thing that’s been building since the moment I laid eyes on him. Having sex in front of the crowd was one thing, but it barely took the edge off. That was about reputation. This is about us.
Hades walks us to the bed and climbs onto it. He takes my hands and guides them up to the headboard. “Keep them here.”
“Hades.” I’m panting as if I’ve run a great distance. “Please. I want to touch you.”
“Keep your hands here,” he repeats and gives my wrists a squeeze.
He doesn’t have to say it again. I’m already nodding. Anything to keep this going, to prevent this moment from ending. “Okay.”
Hades shifts back to kneel between my spread thighs. His front is in shadow, but I have the feeling that he can see me in detail from the light through the windows. He cups my breasts, but he doesn’t linger long before he slides down my body and presses an openmouthed kiss to the sensitive spot just below my belly button. And then he’s at my pussy. His breath shudders out against my clit as if he’s just as affected by this moment as I am. Maybe more so.
“I’m going to have you, little siren. In every position, in every way.”
I don’t know if he’s talking to me or talking to himself, but I don’t care. I grip the headboard hard and fight to stay still. “Then take me.” An echo of what I said to him on the throne, but it means something different now. I can’t pretend I want this solely for the benefit of our mutual reputations.
No, I just want him.
My desire to hear Hades’s dry, rasping laugh is becoming a serious addiction. It’s a thousand times better when he’s making the sound against my pussy. He drags his tongue over me. His growl is the only warning I get before he grabs my thighs and presses them up and out, holding me completely open. There is no savoring, no teasing, no tempting me. He goes after my pussy like he’ll never get this chance again. Like he needs my orgasm more than he needs his next breath.
Each exhale sobs out. I can’t think, can’t move, can’t do anything but obey his order to hang on and take the pleasure he has rising with every movement of his tongue. I start shaking and can’t stop. “Hades!”
He doesn’t respond, just keeps up the same movements that have desire coiling tighter and tighter through me. It’s too good. I want it to last and want the promised finale and just flat-out want. Hades sucks my clit hard into his mouth and pushes two fingers into me. I come so hard, it feels like every system is shutting down.
It’s as if that orgasm took his edge off because he takes his time now, dragging his mouth over my stomach, kissing the curves of my breasts. I’m still spinning, but each touch, combined with the weight of his body on mine, slowly draws me back to earth. I lick my lips. “Hades.”
He pauses. “Yeah?”
“Can I touch you now? Please?”
His breath shudders out against my neck. “You are touching me.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it.” I don’t release the headboard, won’t break his command without permission. This feels like an important moment, like we’re poised on the brink of something big. It doesn’t make any sort of sense. This is only sex, an act that can be simmered down to its basic components. I desire him, so naturally I want to touch him. I don’t want this to stop, so of course I won’t disobey his order.
Except it doesn’t feel that simple.
Hades is very intentionally hiding from me. By sight, by touch, by everything. I shouldn’t resent that last bit of distance between us, not when he’s so invested in my pleasure. But I do. I want everything, just like he’s demanding from me. My chest goes tight. “Hades, please.”
He hesitates so long, I think he’s going to deny me again. Finally, he curses and reaches over my head to take one of my hands and bring it down to press against his chest, and then repeats the motion with my other hand. The skin is marred, too smooth in some places and raised in others. Scars. I’m feeling scars.
I don’t say a single thing as I slowly stroke my hands down his chest and back up again. Hades holds himself perfectly still. I’m not sure he’s even breathing. Something—someone—hurt him, and badly. Even without seeing the extent of the damage, I can tell he’s lucky to be alive.
Maybe one day, he’ll trust me enough to let me see him fully.
I arch up and kiss him. We don’t need more words right now. He instantly relaxes against me, and I have the distant thought that he expected me to reject him. Silly man. Every piece of him I discover, every little nuance and mystery, just makes me want him more. Hades is a puzzle I could spend a lifetime exploring and never quite have the whole picture.
It’s a shame I only have three months.
He breaks the kiss long enough to reach down into the nightstand and come up with a condom. I grab it from him and nudge him back with a hand on his chest. “Let me.”
“You’re terrible at submission,” he murmurs, but he’s got that raspy laugh in his voice.
“Wrong.” I tear the condom open. “I am really excellent at submission. I’m equally excellent at communicating what I want when I want it. It’s called being adaptable.”
“Is that so?” His breath hisses out as I stroke his cock, so I do it again.
“Hades?”
He gives a strained laugh. “Yes?”
“Promise me that I can give you a blow job soon. Really soon. I need you inside me too much right now, but I want that.”
He reaches up and drags his thumb across my bottom lip. “Whenever you decide you need my cock in your mouth, kneel and ask nicely. If I’m feeling agreeable, I’ll even give it to you.”
I nip his thumb. “Okay, I deserved that.”
“Put the condom on, Persephone. Now.”
It turns out I’m not in the mood to tease him further, either. I roll the condom down his length. I barely get my hands out of the way when Hades pushes me back down onto the bed. Before being with him, I would have said I’m not into being manhandled, carefully or otherwise. Turns out I just needed the right man handling me. He pushes me onto my side and lifts one leg to wrap over his arm as he kneels between my thighs. It’s a strange position, but I don’t have time to comment because half a breath later, he’s inside me. He sheaths himself to the hilt and we exhale in tandem.
Hades barely gives me a second to adjust before he starts fucking me. Long, thorough strokes that have me completely pinned to the bed. “Touch yourself,” he growls. “I want to feel you come around my cock. No witnesses. No audience. This time, it’s just for me.”
I do as he orders, sliding my hand down to stroke my clit. It feels so, so good. It seems like everything we do together feels good. Being with Hades is like being in a fever dream I don’t ever want to wake up from. I never, ever want this to stop.
Hades adjusts his angle and picks up his pace, sending pleasure rising in a wave that I can’t hold back. “Oh gods.”
“Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop.” It’s like he’s pulling the words right from my chest and speaking them back to me.
I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Words slip from my lips, forming into his name, over and over again. He leans down, bending my body to his will, and claims my mouth as I come. His strokes get rougher, less even, and then he’s following me over the edge.
My bones turn liquid even as I fight not to break the kiss. It’s gone from fierce to something gentle, almost loving. As if he’s telling me without words how pleased he is with me. It’s not something I would have thought I needed before now, but it settles a jagged piece in my chest.
Hades finally pulls away. “Don’t move.”
“Couldn’t even if I wanted to.”
His rough chuckle trails behind him as he walks into the bathroom. A few seconds later, he’s back. I watch him stalk toward the bed, wishing for better light. He barely looks human like this. It’s almost as if he’s an incubus sent to fulfill my dark desires and he’ll be gone with the morning light. “Stay.”
Hades stops short. “What?”
“Stay.” I sit up, something akin to panic fluttering in my throat. “Don’t leave.”
“Persephone.” He reaches the bed and climbs up to pull me into his arms. “Little siren, I’m not leaving.” It takes some maneuvering to get us both beneath the blankets, but Hades doesn’t stop touching me the entire time. We end up on our sides, him spooning me from the back.
It’s only when I’m fully wrapped up in him that I can breathe again. “Thank you.”
“Where would I go? You’re in my bed.”
I want to laugh, but I can’t. Instead, I stroke my hands down his arms. “But you’re leaving eventually. Or I am, rather.” Eventually, no matter how good this is, it will end.
“Yes.”
I close my eyes, hating how disappointed his answer leaves me. What did I expect? We’ve known each other less than a week at this point. The entire reason I pushed this deal so hard was so that I could be well and truly free. Jumping from an engagement with Zeus into this bargain with Hades… That’s not freedom. I know that, and yet there’s still a strange burning in my eyes at the thought of this being over.
Not yet.
I have a little longer yet, and I plan to enjoy every moment to the fullest.