Page 5 of A Worthy Opponent
“You.” He reaches out and runs his fingers through my long blond hair, his many rings glinting between the strands. “On your knees. In my bed.” He catches my left hand, and I watch dazedly as he lifts it and strokes my knuckles. “My ring on your finger.” He gives a slow grin that has my stomach tying itself in knots. “I want everything,Tatiana. Absolutely fucking everything.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or knee him in the balls. For saying all this shit I definitely don’t want to hear. Forcalling me by a name I buried five long years ago. For all of it. “You’re joking.”
“Life would be easier if that were true.”
Yeah, it really would. But Hook’s similar to Gaeton in the way he moves through our world. His charm and devil-may-care personality makes people underestimate him. It always has. There’s no amusement in his dark eyes now. No, he’s serious as death.
I draw myself up. I have to. Standing this close to him is like standing in the eye of a hurricane. Scary. Powerful. Filled with promise of pain to come. I shiver. “You talk a good game, but it doesn’t mean anything. It never did.”
“You think I’m trying to … What? Seduce you?” He tugs on my hair. Not to hurt. Simply to let me know he could. It should scare me. I’ve lived through a relationship gone off the rails, the home I thought I’d claimed morphing through a funhouse mirror into a nightmare prison that tookeverythingI had to escape.
I still haven’t escaped. I simply gave myself a five-year hiatus.
Hook tugs on my hair again, his dark brows lowering. “Fine. Let’s be explicit. I will give you everything I said and more, on the single condition that you marry me.”
Shock has a laugh bursting from my lips. “Marryyou? You reallyaredrunk.”
“You know better.”
I hate that he’s right. Hook might have the appearance of a hard-partying asshole, but despite always having a drink close by, he’s never once been drunk enough to so much as change his speech patterns, let alone get sloppy. I could chalk that up to the Underworld’s strict two-drink policy for those who want to participate in scenes, but plenty of the others show up to drink in the lounge from time to time. Not Hook.
He releases me and takes a slow step back, every movetelegraphing that he’s choosing this, not me. “That’s the bargain. Take it or leave it.”
“I’m leaving it.” Bad enough that Hades is essentially kicking me out. But to voluntarily go back to the role as the little woman to the man who runs a territory? Been there, done that, bought a T-shirt, burned it to ash. I will not go back. Hook isn’t Peter, but that doesn’t mean a single damn thing. I’ve seen what it takes to hold on to power. It kills off a part of the person who wields it. If there was anything good in Hook—and that’s highly debatable—then four years running his territory are enough to have cut it out of him.
He watches me for a long moment and finally shrugs. “The offer remains on the table.” A plain black card appears in his hand as if by magic. I make no move to take it, but he catches my hand and presses it to my palm. “My personal number. Call it anytime, day or night, and I’ll come for you.”
I can’t tell if he means the words like a threat, but that must be what they are. I don’t believe in knights on white horses. Maybe I did once, but the only people out there searching for damsels in distress are more dangerous than anything said damsel leaves behind. Hook is just like the rest of them, always playing a deeper game.
I start to drop the card, but he catches my hand in his larger one and presses the card hard against my skin. “We both know you can’t afford to ignore a helping hand, Tatiana. No matter how distasteful you find me.”
He’s right. I hate that he’s right.
I reluctantly curl my fingers around the card, and he releases me. I can’t tell what I’m feeling. Everything is all jumbled in my chest, and the confusion makes it hard to wrap myself in my normal snark. “I’m not going to say yes.”
“Yes, you are.” He gives me a slow grin. “I’m feeling generous, so when you come crawling to beg for my help, I won’t even make you do it publicly.”
I can picture it all too easily. Hook sitting in that casually dominant way he does, sprawled in a chair with his big legs spread and arms outstretched. The hard floor biting my knees and palms with each movement. My body heating under the intensity of his gaze. And when I reach him …
It’s everything I can do to fight down a blush and keep my tone cool. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Hold your breath while you wait for that. At least if you pass out, the rest of us get a break from your startling wit.”
His grin doesn’t dim. If anything, it widens. “We’re going to have so much fun together, Tatiana. Just you wait.”
Chapter 3
Tink
There are times when forty-eight hours can stretch for what feels like weeks. Glorious nights spent playing the bratty submissive to my favorite Dominants followed by days working with Meg in the office and handling the various other duties that fall under my nebulous position as an assistant manager.
Not this time.
It feels like I blink and I’m in Hades’s office again, though this time we aren’t alone. Meg and Hercules stand at either side of him, a perfect little triangle of polyamorous love. It might make me sick if I didn’t like Meg and Hercules so much, mostly despite myself. Impossible not to resent the place they’ve carved out for themselves, for each other. I dislike Hades intensely, but no one can argue that he runs his territory like the others in Carver City. He doesn’t. I benefited from living under his rule.
He watches me with those cold dark eyes. “Our deal is now complete. Your price has been paid in full.”
My throat burns, but I muscle down the physical reaction just like I have countless times in the past. There are submissiveswho don’t mind crying in public. Or crying in general. I’m not one of them. I’ll give up control of so much during a scene, but not that. Outside of a scene? Forget about it. “I’d say thank you, but you’re kicking me out. Hard not to take it personally. I’m sure you understand.”
Hercules opens his mouth like he might jump in, but Hades anticipates him and holds up a hand. “As token of my appreciation for the time you’ve spent here, you’ll always maintain a membership here in the Underworld.”
