Page 125 of Hell On Earth
For a moment, my realities overlapped. I felt the longing for Hades then and my longing for Hades now as I lay in the snow, shaking with pain. White light pulled me under again.
The earth trembled and parted in my mother’s garden. Hades emerged, his eyes blazing as he strode toward me.
My mother screamed her denial when she saw him. Vines lashed out of the ground, wrapping around his arms and legs, but they all quickly withered and broke. When he reached me, he held out his hand.
“Persephone.”
His name on my lips set my heart racing.
“Do not touch him, my child,” my mother yelled, running toward us.
I looked from her to his hand, hesitating. Why didn’t my mother want me to be with him?
“Forgive me, my love,” he said. Then he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
He leaped into the gaping maw, and I looked up to watch it close as we fell. My mother’s tear-stricken face was the last thing I saw.
We didn’t land but appeared in a massive hall that reminded me of Mount Olympus. I barely paid it any attention.
“I want to go back to my mother,” I said.
Hades stroked my cheek, his expression a mix of anguish and need.
“Of course. Before I return you, may I show you my home?”
I hesitated to agree. Then his fingers wrapped around mine, and I nodded my acceptance.
The first room he led me to was a beautiful bathing chamber. A table sat near the water's edge, boasting every fruit known to the gods. I popped a pomegranate seed into my mouth and enjoyed the burst of sweetness and tartness as I dipped my fingers into the tempting water.
The pools at Mount Olympus tempted me, but Mother had never let me bathe with the others.
I looked at Hades. “May we enjoy the water before we return?”
“Yes,” he breathed as his clothing disappeared.
He was beauty itself, endowed with a size that would have Aphrodite lusting after him. I smiled as the idea that I could have a god that other goddesses craved pleased me.
My skin heated at the hunger in his gaze as I allowed my gown to drop to the tile.
“Do you wish to bed me?” I asked.
He closed the distance between us and kissed me with a passion he’d withheld in his previous kisses. It consumed me. Heated my blood. My hands wandered to his chest. His drifted over my limbs.
He picked me up and carried me into the warm waters, then backed me toward the edge. His kiss became more demanding, and his teeth caught my bottom lip.
My breath caught at the discomfort, and my hands stopped petting his chest. They started to push. I turned my head.
“I want to go home,” I said.
“You are home, my love,” he said.
He reclaimed my lips with a heated kiss that had me forgetting my mother and any reservations I had. I kissed him back, and he made an animalistic sound.
“Do you swear to be devoted to me?” I asked against his lips.
“I swear.”
I bit his lips like he’d bitten mine and felt him shiver with desire.
