said I could have a cat if I win.' Hades cocked his head at me, the tension easing from his face.
'As long as it's a scary, Underworld-appropriate cat.'
'Woah now, there were no caveats before! I want something cute and fluffy.' He scowled at me.
'No cat is cute.'
'That is simply not true.'
'Hmmm. I remain unconvinced. You'll have to win in order to prove it to me.'
I grinned at him, forcing the nerves and pressure down. If he couldn't watch the Trial, I wanted him to be as confident in me as possible.
'No problem. I'm a badass goddess now, in case you hadn't noticed.'
'Persephone,' he said, touching my cheek. His silver eyes changed, the teasing gleam replaced with that heart-breaking intensity I had seen when I first laid eyes on him. 'I won't watch your light go out. Ever.'
'And I won't watch the darkness take you. Together we will be strong enough.'
His lips moved to mine, gentle and hot. He scooped me up, standing. He carried me to the bedroom, then sat down on the bed, his lips never ceasing their caress, his tongue teasing me. Heat was pooling inside me as the intensity of the kiss grew and my head filled with what I knew was coming.
My feet found the floor and I pulled away from him, standing up breathlessly. I tugged him to his feet and reached up to his shoulder, slowly pulling at his toga. It didn't move, and he smiled a delicious, predatory smile.
'You know, these aren't easy to take off.'
'Well, I need you to. Take it off. I need you to take it off,' I said thickly. 'If there's the slightest chance this is the last time I see you, then you need to be naked for as much of it as possible.'
With a small shimmer, his toga was gone. I sucked in a breath, biting down on my lip as my eyes flicked straight to his arousal. Good gods.
'Your turn,' he breathed, and I felt a whisper of air across my body as my own clothes vanished.
I stepped into him, and he wrapped his arms tightly around me as we fell backwards onto the bed, lips locked in a kiss more hungry than the last.
'I will never get enough of you,' I told him, as he rolled me over, so he was on top of me.
'I want you to see what I see,' he said, his eyes dark and his voice thick with desire. I tugged my hand out of his hair, and a gold vine crept from my palm. Slowly, it reached his muscular arm, coiling around his hard bicep. Gold vine tattoos began to spread across his skin, and heat and desire and love rushed into me.
For a moment I saw myself as he did, glowing with glittering light, skin like honey and face perfect. A beacon in the dark. Then I felt him push against me, and every muscle in my body clenched with desire. Passion, his and mine, exploded inside me, concentrated between my legs.
'I love you,' he said, and then he was inside me, and the pleasure that rocked through him wasn't just mirrored in my own body, it flowed into me through the gold vine.
Being with me was more than physical to him, it was as deep, and as real and true as it was for me. Knowing how much he wanted me, loved me, needed me, was the most intense aphrodisiac I'd ever experienced. Our bodies moved together, utterly in sync, slowing when we got exquisitely close, speeding up when passion overwhelmed us. I lost myself not just in the pleasure, but in the shared feeling, the knowledge that we were made for one another.
The pleasure, the power, the bliss grew until it filled us, each touch of his lips on my skin, the feel of his hot breath on my neck, his fingers on my ribs and breasts as intense as his thrusts, until it was too much to contain. We let go at the same time, and there was nothing but him and sensation, my body part of his.
He held me as I shuddered against him, my nails digging into his back as he pressed his face against mine.
'You are mine, and I am yours,' I breathed into his hair.
'Always, my Queen.'
Eighteen
Persephone
'Why can't you just show me a map?' I asked Hecate as she tried to explain to me what the Judgment Hall was and what it looked like. She'd been trying to teach me the key