Page 62 of Learn My Lesson
I have never felt so loved as I do in this moment.
1 I love a romantic “Who hurt you?” but I love it even more when it’s friends doing it.
2 This is a fantasy/theme I return to in a few other books, but I still don’t think I’ve quite managed to pull it off to my satisfaction (I am rarely 100% satisfied with my books, no matter how much I love them).
HADES
I can feel the buzz of anticipation in the Underworld even before I leave my office. Earlier today, I instructed Tis to quietly put out word that I’d preside over a scene tonight. That always brings in the wolves from the outer boundaries of Carver City. Even the people who only darken my doorstep occasionally manage to make an appearance on the nights I take up a whip. Or flogger. Or any number of my toys.
Hercules shifts from foot to foot. It’s the first time he’s shown nerves since he agreed to this, and I find myself moved by it. “Come here, little Hercules.”
He pivots and immediately crosses to kneel by my feet. It seems beyond belief that he’s been mine for such a short time, and yet here we are. Being with him feels as natural as breathing. I trace the hard line of his jaw, allowing myself to linger. “Your safe word remains the same. Say Olympus and it all stops. Having an audience changes nothing when it comes to that.”
“Okay.” He stares at me with blue eyes that have somehow retained an element of innocence. It’s intoxicating. Hercules wets his lips. “Are you going to fuck me in front of everyone?”
“No.” I don’t know why I’m surprised to witness disappointment on his face, but it amuses me. “Greedy thing, aren’t you? Just as greedy as our Meg, wanting to claim me the same way I’ll claim you.”
He lifts his chin. “Can you blame me?”
“Not in the least.” He’s still holding back, though. Something isn’t quite right. “What is it?”
“Meg should be here with us.” He starts to drop his chin, but I tighten my hold on his jaw, forcing him to continue meeting my gaze. Hercules’s brows lower. “It’s not just you and me. It’s the three of us. It seems wrong to declare your intentions and not have her involved.”
He’s not incorrect, but I have a plan and it requires the two of us, not the three of us. “She’ll be feeling evidence of us for hours yet.”
“That’s not the same and you know it.”
Yes, I suppose I do. I sigh. “I’ve already compromised the better part of my plans. This isn’t something I’m willing to add to that list.”
He hesitates but in the end finally nods against my hand. “Promise me that someday it will be the three of us out there.”
“I promise.” Easy enough to do since that is my intention already. Not tonight, not when I need Zeus squirming and full of rage, but soon. Everyone knows Meg is mine, but it won’t do to have them speculating that she’s being replaced. Rumor may fly for a short time, but it’s something I’m willing to risk.
I nudge Hercules back. “How do you feel knowing I’m going to strip you down to your base level in front of a crowd?”
He blushes, a tinge of pink stealing over his golden cheeks and down his chest. “I want it.”
“Good.” I urge him up. “I got something for you.” I walk to my desk and pick up the wooden box that was delivered earlier. I turn to him and flip it open. Hercules’s response is everything I could have dreamed of.
His jaw drops and his eyes go wide. “That’s mine?”
“Yes.” A thicker twin to the collar Meg wears when we play. I set the box down and lift it out. “Kneel.”
Hercules instantly obeys. I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of seeing this man on his knees. He’s truly beautiful in a way that goes beyond his physical perfection. I fasten the collar around his neck and then take his hand and press it to the buckle at the back of his neck. “This removes it.”
“I won’t take it off until you take it off me.”
Power and desire curl through me. If I were a simpler man, this would be all there is to us—lust and love—and the only power games would be confined to the bedroom. I’m not that man. I don’t know that I ever was, but any chance at that kind of life was buried alongside my family. There is only the person I’ve become and the vengeance that has been a slow burn in my chest for too many decades. I don’t know how to be different than I am.
I press a soft kiss to his mouth. “It’s time.” I move to the door, and he falls into step behind me. We stride down the hallway and around to the back door into the lounge. I stop just inside the door, a king surveying my kingdom, at least in part. The more interesting things will be going on behind the door Allecto lounges in front of. She won’t let anyone through who isn’t meant to be there, but it won’t matter. Rumor spirals, and I have every intention that news of this night will reach Zeus’s ears before dawn.
As I suspected, there is so much power in this room, it’s only my dominion that’s kept it from being a bloodbath. Jafar and Yasmina lean against the bar, as wrapped up in each other as they always seem to be. Jafar pauses to glare at me, but he knows better than to push the subject, righteous revenge as motivation or no. Being banned from my club would cut his woman off from a significant resource and piss her off in the mix.?1 I had expected to see Meg with them; she adores Yasmina and tends to gravitate to them when they visit.
I survey the rest of the room. Hook with his second-in-command on the other side of the bar. The warring generals Gaeton and Beast who are never far apart, I’ve had to threaten with expulsion if they ruin yet another piece of my furniture with their brawling. The golden queen, Malone, who’s as untouchable as she is beautiful. Even the Sea Witch is here, dripping in jewels and watching the room with a predatory glint I recognize.
But no Meg.
Unease slithers through me. It’s possible she’s in the playroom already, but she doesn’t spend time back there unless she’s actually playing. I fully expected her to be here waiting. I can feel Hercules’s tension at my back, but there’s no telling if he’s noticed her absence and found it as unnerving as I have.
