hard length, the tips of her breasts barely touching his chest.
“Let me please you,” she whispered, and kissed him again.
His hands landed on her sides, and he rolled, pinning her beneath him. He took her wrists and guided them over her head.
“You please me,” he said, kissing her swollen lips a final time, reveling in the way her body arched against his, warmed with need. It was a reminder of why he had to stop this. “Sleep.”
The command came with a rush of magic that instantly sent Persephone into a deep slumber. Hades paused there a moment, suspended over her, before rolling off onto his back.
He sighed, full of frustration and rage, and growled.
“Fucking Fates.”
CHAPTER XVII – BREAKING POINT
Hades watched Persephone sleep while he tried to reconcile the contradiction of her words and actions. He reminded himself that she had been under the influence, not just of alcohol but of some sort of drug. He had tasted it upon her tongue—metallic, salty, wrong. She had not been herself, not in the limo or his office or his bedroom, which meant her words—the ones she’d written in her article—won his thoughts, and he turned them over and over again in his head until he seethed.
He sensed when she woke because her breathing changed. She bolted upright, holding his silk sheets to her chest, eyes bright and cheeks flushed. He would have liked to see her this way after a night of love making. Instead, he was watching her after a night of rejecting her drunken advances. He took a sip from his glass, holding her gaze, bright eyes trained on him, wary.
“Why am I naked?” she asked.
“Because you insisted on it,” he said, keeping his voice as devoid of emotion as possible. It took effort, because every other thought was a remembrance from last night—a memory of her desperation to hear him say he wanted her, the phantom press of her body against his, the heat of her lips urging his apart. “You were very determined to seduce me.”
Her already-flushed cheeks turned crimson. “Did we—”
His laugh sounded more like a bark. He wasn’t sure what he was reacting to, maybe it was the fact that she would assume he would take advantage of her in her inebriated state, or that he had spent the better part of her slumber agonizing over the words she’d used to describe him.
“No, Lady Persephone. Trust me, when we fuck, you’ll remember.”
Her features hardened, and her lips pressed into a thin line. “Your arrogance is alarming.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Just tell me what happened, Hades!” she snapped.
He met her ferocious stare with just as much venom before answering, “You were drugged at La Rose. You’re lucky you are immortal. Your body burned through the poison fast.”
She was quiet for a moment, processing the information he had shared. Her gaze left his, as if searching the middle distance for answers to her questions.
“Adonis,” she said suddenly, eyes narrowing in accusation. “What did you do to him?”
Hades ground his teeth and focused on the remaining liquor in his glass rather than her gaze. He downed the last bit before setting it aside. “He is alive, but that is only because he was in his goddess’s territory.”
“You knew!” She pushed off the bed, the sheets rustling around her. He wanted to take them from her, challenge her to stand bare and confident before him as she had last night. “Is that why you warned me to stay away from him?”
“I assure you, there are more reasons to stay away from that mortal than the favor Aphrodite has bestowed upon him.”
“Like what?” she asked, taking a step toward him. “You can’t expect me to understand if you don’t explain anything.”
What need have I to explain? He kissed you when you did not want him to, Hades wanted to say, but it was possible she did not remember.
“I expect that you will trust me.” He stood, swiping his glass off the table and refilling it at the bar. “And if not me, then my power.”
He was more than aware she knew of his ability to see what mortals tried to hide with charms and lies. It was a power she condemned in her article, claiming he used it to prey upon their darkest secrets.
“I thought you were jealous!”
The laugh that ruptured from the back of Hades’ throat sounded harsh, even to his ears. He was not sure why he mocked her either, but maybe it was because he just now realized his