Page 62 of Raising Hell
“Goddess,” he breathed.
“No. Ashlyn.”
“Ashlyn,” he said immediately. “Allow me to taste you.”
I shook my head, knowing that, if he did, I would be lost. But wasn’t I already? I couldn’t seem to stop myself as I worked my way up his throat and left little marks behind. Yet, I knew my actions were my own. He wasn’t controlling me.
I simply wanted Hades.
All of the times I’d told myself to feel nothing for the tormented god lying still beneath me hadn’t done a thing to stop my feelings from growing. Although I knew that Hades believed I was Persephone, I cared about Hades. Me. Ashlyn. And I wanted to know what it felt like to be adored by him.
Not the way he wanted to adore me. At least, not completely. But I still wanted a taste of it.
Distracting him with another nip, I tugged up my skirt to my knees and straddled his waist.
Stunned, he looked up at me, one hand pressed against my side and the other hovering between us like he wasn’t sure if he should reach for me. I took that hand and brought it to my waist.
“No sex,” I said before settling my hips over his. Pleasure unlike anything I’d ever felt before zinged through me at the contact, and heat exploded in my middle.
His breath rushed out of him in a groan, and his eyes almost rolled back in his head.
“More,” he pleaded.
Agreeing, I leaned forward, kissing his throat while slowly rotating my hips over his hard length. The sound of our mingled breathing filled the clearing. His hands kneaded where he held me, and heat pooled in my core, hinting at something just out of my reach. Something I desperately wanted to discover and explore.
Leaning back for more contact, I braced my hands on his chest and stared down at his red, glowing gaze.
“You are life itself,” he said, his words raw, broken by his need. “Without you, I am nothing.”
I was so focused on the desire in his eyes and how his hands guided my slow slide over his hips that I didn’t notice the movement in front of me until it was too late.
I looked up just as a knife flew from the trees straight at me.
CHAPTERELEVEN
My eyes went wide,and my hands twitched on Hades’ chest. That was all I could manage in the second it took for the blade to reach me. But not Hades. His hand whipped up faster than I could see, and he caught the blade a centimeter from my chest.
Just over my heart.
In a blink, I went from straddling him to standing behind him, staring at his red back and black wings.
“Who dares?” he roared.
His torso heaved with each furious breath as his head swiveled to survey the clearing. After resting my forehead on his back for a second, I risked peeking around him. However, the space by the trees where someone had been was now vacant.
Hades fisted his hands, and the ground started to tremble as badly as my insides.
“Please don’t,” I said, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Don’t make the world shake.”
He snarled and gently pried free of my hold. Facing me, he tipped my chin up with a claw-tipped finger.
“I will damn the entire world for the being who dares attempt to harm what is mine.”
“You’re not that cruel. It’s not the entire world’s fault. Just one man’s.”
“Not cruel? I allowed you to torture my eldest son as I watched. For you, there is no depth to my cruelty.”
I believed every word he said, and it equally terrified and mesmerized me.
