Page 36 of Bound to Death

Thanatos’s lips twitched, but he didn’t give me the smile I aimed to get out of him. Spoilsport. “You and I both know I don’t need to compensate for a fucking thing. But I’m happy to fuck you hard enough so that you’ll never forget it.”

Ugh.Whenever he slipped a growling curse and sexy taunt into his response, the thirsty animal between my legs throbbed with renewed lust. Guess even being on my death bed couldn’t curb my sexual appetite.

“So…Hades,” I said, voice cracking. My chest was tight again, and I coughed a little to relieve the pressure. My clever pivot had done its job. The mood was instantly snuffed out.

Brushing angry fingers through his hair, Thanatos sighed. “I guess I can’t expect you to understand if I don’t tell you why I came to you in the first place.”

My heart hammered against my breastbone, attempting an escape. “I might be a meaningless human to you guys, but even I deserve to know why I’m being hunted like a goddamn animal.”

I dared a look at him. His piercing eyes were already on me. “You’re not meaningless, Asha. Far from it. But you’re right. I owe you that much, and there’s no going back after I seek an audience with Hades. Whatever favor he asks in return…well, it’s important that this doesn’t fail.”

Searching his face, I finally relented. “Do you have any food or drinks in that grossly large castle of yours, or is this size just for show?”

Chuckling, he took me by the hand and yanked. I was suddenly lifted into his arms. “Sure, but you’ll have to satisfy my hunger first. I’ve been desperate to fuck you since we were rudely interrupted. You’ve kept me waiting long enough.”

“Hey now, I seem to remember you starting it,” I argued. Everything that happened in that alley was entirely his fault. Iplanned to lay into him, but he kissed me so possessively that all I could do was try to keep up with his mouth and tongue.

Before I had time to blink or get my bearings, we’d already entered the shadow castle. His movements didn’t follow the usual human pattern. As in, the gorgeous killer wasn’t walking at all. The dude was fuckingglidingover the floor. We ascended countless stairs and floors before reaching a door that looked like every other one we’d passed on our way to it. But when he entered, I got the sense this was where Thanatos spent most of his time. It felt like him. I couldn’t explain it. It just did.

Candle sconces fixed to the walls offered small breaks in the darkness every so often, but otherwise, I couldn’t make out much else about the room. The only thing I knew was that the bed was impossibly large and didn’t appear to take up much space. It could easily fit twenty-plus people on it, and I idly wondered if it had at some stage.

No shame in it. Death was…well, Death, and he’d probably explored every version of sex there was. I just had to hope that I hadn’t completely bore him up to this point. No matter what experience I had, I couldn’t be twenty people at once. Granted, he’d mentioned earlier that he hadn’t brought any humans here, so demon sex? Ghost sex? Who did the God of Death sleep with?

I was suddenly on a bed with him over me, staring down into my eyes. “Now, where did I put my cuffs…” he pondered with a smirk.

I huffed, suddenly worried that he’d lock me to the bed like promised. Or threatened, depending on who you asked. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

His thumb swept across my lips before he dropped a kiss on them. “So, my shadows are fine, but cuffs are where you draw the line?”

He had a point. “It’s different.”

“Ah,” he hummed, a devilish smile lifting his mouth. “If you say so.” His shadows crawled over the bed and latched onto my wrists, pinning them to the mattress. “As you wish, little raven.”

My pulse raced as I tried and failed to put up a fight. He still hadn’t told me why I was a target. I didn’t want to get lost to the sexual air again. I was weak to his touch, but I was determined to find out why we’d met that night. He owed me that much.

“You’re stalling. You promised to tell me the truth. I deserve to know why you came looking for me in the first place, Death.”

His eyes seemed to bleed color. “You’re right. It’ll change the way you see me, but I beg you to give me a chance,” he whispered, his thumb swiping over my bottom lip again. His other hand worked its way under my dress. “Whatever this started as, it’s different now. And whatever I have to do to keep you by my side, I will. Trust that much, Asha.”

It was hard to breathe with how intensely he was staring down at me, daring me to argue. But his hand worked the usual magic, and I’d already given in before the thought of fighting even registered.

“You act like the last two weeks haven’t been a supernatural upheaval of epic fucking proportions. So, go on, then. Whisper your sorcery, Mr. Killer.”

His eyes danced across my face, his hand already under my bra. My nipple was brushed, circled, and teased until I was forced to suck in a breath. I wasn’t given the chance to complain that he was trying to distract me again because Thanatos’s mouth was already moving over mine.

Our tongues twined, then chased back and forth. He kissed my neck and continued down my body, tearing through the fabric of my dress. He pulled pieces off one by one until my chest was exposed. His long tongue slithered out and traced my nipple. I moaned, legs falling open so he could fit between them. When his head lifted, his fangs caught the nearby candlelight. The inkyblack veins were back, already reaching his cheeks. I lifted my hand and traced several with my fingers, and he closed his eyes and moved his face into my hand.

It was so odd to think Death was here, clearly enjoying my touch. It was such a powerful feeling to have someone so terrifying reduced to a cute beast at my beck and call. Okay, so he wasn’t exactly at my beck and call, but I’d pretend he was.

“Don’t try to sidetrack me. You’re too good at it, buddy. What is it that you planned to say?”

Turning his face, he pressed a kiss first to my palm, then the mark wrapping around my wrist. “Hades is what you’d call a…brother of sorts.”

“Your brother?” I hadn’t expected to hear that.

Sighing, Thanatos lifted my butt off the bed, squeezing it a few times inside his hands, something I noticed he did a lot, before he fitted his waist between my legs. I swallowed a moan when I felt how hard he was for me. “Yes, in a way. We’re both the rulers of our respective realms. He rules the Underworld, and I oversee the realm between life and death.”

“Like…limbo?”

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