A Game of Retribution (Hades Saga #2)(64)

“Different?” She pushed away from him. “What does that even mean?”

Hades’s frustration was acute, pounding through his head. He gritted his teeth. “I thought we’d established this. You mean more to me than anyone

—anything.”

“What does that have to do with keeping this place from me?”

Aside from the fact that it was dangerous?

She might not like what she saw—what it made him.

“Everything here is illegal, isn’t it? The Magi are here. What else?”

He stared at her, knowing that he could not escape answering but wondering if he could prolong it.

“What else, Hades?” she demanded.

“Everything you’ve ever feared.” Or perhaps thought to be impossible.

“Assassins, drug lords…”

He housed crime families and madams, relic dealers and thieves, arsonists and smugglers. Anyone and anything that could benefit him was within the walls of this club, but as he watched Persephone’s face pale, he questioned just how much she was ready to learn.

So he trailed off, and after a brief silence, Persephone whispered, “Why?”

“I created a world where I could watch them,” he said.

Watch and control.

“Watch them do what? Break the law? Hurt people?”

“Yes,” he said, his frustration at a breaking point. Why did it feel so impossible to introduce her to the scope of his world? How was he supposed to illustrate lifetimes of work, built to reach both the heavens and the depths of depravity?

“Yes? That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

“For now.” He was at a point where he did not want to explain. If she wished to think so poorly of him, then perhaps he should let her.

“Who brought you here?” he demanded.

“A taxi.”

It was not the answer he sought, and she knew it. Someone had told her about this place, fed her the information on how it worked. Hades narrowed his eyes. “You think I won’t find out?”

In fact, he thought he already knew.

“I have free will. I chose to come here of my own accord.”

Hades’s eyes darkened, and he touched her again, drawing her closer. His body felt rigid, run through with wire. He felt too agitated, and he wasn’t

going to get through this if he didn’t find some kind of way to release this energy. He needed to fuck, and he needed it to be unkind and ugly, and Persephone was primed to offer it.

Except that she pushed his hands away.

His gaze hardened as he stared back at her.

She could not say she did not know his intentions. His cock pressed firmly into her stomach, and despite her initial rejection, her body bowed to his desire.

“Are you telling me no?”

Truly, if she did not want him, he would release her, but she shook her head once and his resolve crumbled. He spun her around and guided her forward so her hands pressed flat against the mirrored wall, hiking up her skirt and shoving her legs apart. He brushed his palm over her round ass before giving her a light smack, which caused her to yelp. For a moment, he thought he might have hurt her, but when he met her gaze in the mirror, she offered a small nod, and he continued, bending to kiss the skin he had touched while guiding her underwear down.

Once they were off, he placed them in his pocket and turned his attention to her center. Slipping his hand between her thighs, he let his finger trail along her entrance, slick with her arousal. She groaned and arched, her stance growing wider with the hope that she would soon accommodate more of him.

And as much as he wanted to be inside her, he wanted to prolong her pleas for pleasure more.

“So fucking wet. How long have you been like this?”

“Since I got here,” she offered in a whispered moan. He liked the way she pressed into the mirror, how exaggerated her back arched and elevated her ass. “I wanted you on the dance floor. I willed you to manifest from the dark, but you weren’t there.”

“I’m here now,” he said. Rising to his feet, he kissed her shoulder and down her back before drawing his tongue over her round ass. All the while, his fingers continued their exploration, curling inside her, isolating her pleasure. Another hand worked her clit, and beneath him, she hummed and sighed and cried.

Sweat broke out across his skin, and his head felt hot. There were so many parts of her he wanted to touch and taste, and his cock grew thicker and heavier, desperate to sink into her heat, to feel her clench around him, to fill her to bursting with his come.

This was possession, and right now, he wanted to own all of her.

“Hades…please!” She gave a guttural, breathless sob, looking at him from under her arm, and he knew she was just as desperate to come. He could see it in her eyes, feel it in the heat of her skin. He withdrew, fingers sticky with her arousal, and chuckled at her cry of frustration. When she started to straighten, he held her hips in place.

“Stay,” he ordered, an edge of darkness to his voice.

She offered an angry glare, and he knew she did not like the command.

Still, he smiled.

“It wouldn’t be punishment if I gave you what you wanted when you demand it.”

Her lips slammed into a hard line. “Don’t pretend you don’t want me.”

The sound of his zipper followed his reply. “Oh, I’m not pretending.”