Page 91 of Going to Hell
After reading the fifth one, I looked up at him.
“These are so messed up. You know that, right?”
“You know I cannot tamper with the contracts. They are in order.”
“Not what I meant. Where’s the one about the monsters chasing me around this place?”
He stood and dropped his pants to his ankles. His thickly muscled thighs shone golden in the lamp light. My gaze wanted to slide to the other thickly muscled piece of him, but I managed to tear my stunned attention from his lower half and look up at his chest.
Was it just me, or was it warmer in the room?
“Goddess, you know the contract is not there.”
Wide-eyed, I watched him point to his right hip crease. The writing was so tiny I’d never see it without leaning in.
I glanced at his smirking lips then to his dramatically animated equipment. Yeah, he knew I needed to get closer.
Taking a deep breath, I leaned in and started reading the contract. This one wasn’t as long as some of the other ones, which I was grateful for since I was face deep in his hips. There was no mention of what Hades got out of the contract, just that the monsters would need to chase Persephone every time she ran and Hades couldn’t order them to stop. It also said that if he did, he would forfeit his right to provide for her for two weeks.
The concept of the contracts was weird to start with. That all of them revolved around Persephone taking and Hades giving was even more messed up.
“What would it require to dissolve all of these contracts?”
“All of them? Never.”
“Okay, what about only this one,” I said pointing.
“Touch it, and I will end it.”
Touch it? Right. I knew exactly what would happen if I touched him there. My gaze shifted a few inches to the left. “It” bobbed, and my gaze flew up to his.
His gaze wasn’t filled with anticipation or angry hunger, things I’d glimpsed countless times already. He watched me with resolute mistrust, and I realized he expected me to do something horrible to him, just like I was thinking he’d do to me. But he wouldn’t do something awful to me, not when he thought I was Persephone. Right?
I quickly debated how badly I wanted the contract gone.
“Just…touch it?” I asked.
“Yes.”
With a steadying breath, I reached up and smoothed my fingertips over the words. His silky skin begged for more than a single brush of contact. Unable to help myself, I traced over each scrolling swirl, making sure not to miss a single one. His length twitched rhythmically, a sure sign I was tempting fate, and quickly withdrew my touch. He groaned and fisted his hands.
“So be it,” he said through clenched teeth. “It is done.”
The golden words separated from his skin, unraveling like a silken thread. It spooled and twined together, the string melting into one giant golden glob that threw off way too much heat. While I watched, it reshaped, turning into a thicker line before curving.
He held out his hand, and the golden bangle fell into his palm.
“For your collection,” he said, extending it to me.
I took the bracelet and turned it in my hands. The cool, smooth texture was a marvel as was the quarter inch band of solid gold.
“This is really pretty. Does this mean that they won’t chase me anymore?”
“They will not.”
“Good,” I said tiredly. “I don’t want to end up naked and running from monsters. We’ll work on reading the rest of the contracts tomorrow.” Or maybe never if we found my uncle. That would be the preferred route. But if that didn’t happen, I really needed to study the contracts. Hopefully, Hades would be willing to get rid of a few more.
With the gold still in my hand, I turned away from him and scooted back under the covers.
