“I do want to take care of you, Freya,” he murmured, eyes on my lips. “In every fuckin’ way possible. And I plan on doin’ that in every way I know how. Even though I’m not practiced, not in the slightest at taking care of another human being, I know how to protect you. Know how to avenge you.” His hand, the one holding my wrist between our bodies, suddenly let it go so he could skim the sides of my body until he palmed my ass.
I sucked in a breath, one that smelled and tasted exclusively of Hades.
“I know how to fuck you,” he continued, fisting my dress then yanking it upward so he could touch my bare skin.
“But I’m still figurin’ out how to take care of you,” he confessed, gripping my ass in his hands. “What I’ll tell you is I don’t give a fuck about your job. I’m not gonna ask you to change anything about your life except to make a little room for me in it. You want to keep stripping, I’ll support it.” His hand moved around my body to my hip and then farther, creeping inside of my panties. “I have one request, though. You can show off these magnificent tits, that magical ass, but this...” he slipped his fingers into the area that was already soaking wet. “This cunt, this is mine. Other men can see every inch of you, they can watch you, imagine what it would be like to touch you, to fuck you. But I’m the only one who gets to see, eat and fuck this cunt.”
He lifted me up onto the counter we’d just eaten at, shoving my legs apart.
“What you do with your body tonight is up to you,” he added, tearing my panties off. “But what I do with it right now is up to me. And I’m going to eat your cunt then fuck it. You’re not going to shower. You’re gonna go up there tonight smelling of us, still feeling me inside of you.”
Then he made good on his promise.
THREE DAYS LATER
I’d forgotten.
Throughout the wonderful, stimulating, overwhelming and arousing weeks Hades and I had been together—really together—I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten that the reason Hades was here, in my house, was because he was protecting me from my psychotic ex who he was sure was trying to kill me.
I wasn’t convinced that anyone was trying to kill me since all had been quiet on the Western Front for some time now.
Which was, of course, when everything went to shit.
I had known something was wrong the second I arrived home. I’d been out shopping with Marilyn, an event that would’ve lasted all day had it not been cut short by Marilyn’s sister unexpectedly coming to visit, and Marilyn loved Jed far too much to let him deal with her sister alone.
I’d expected Hades to be at the club because that’s where he’d told me he’d be when I left him this morning. But his bike was parked in my driveway which was why I’d sent the prospect still following me around home. After having to shop with us for the scant hour we’d been out, he looked incredibly thankful. Figured. These men could handle all sorts of scary, deadly, icky stuff, but they were complete babies when a few stores were involved.
Sirius did not meet me at the door, my first clue that something was really wrong. Although he was one hundred percent Team Hades, he still loved me. He always met me at the door with a wagging tail and the dog version of a smile. Even if he’d been out walking with Hades, I’d have heard him bark a greeting in hello from across the desert.
The only sound in the house was the closing of the front door. It echoed through my house and through my head. Alarm bells started to go off, my spidey senses telling me that something was wrong. Really wrong.
“Hades?” I called out, my voice shaky and low.
No response.
The inside of my home suddenly felt like a tomb, and despite the heat that I had turned on this morning, a chill crept into my bones. My hand shook as I got my phone out of my purse and fired a text off to Swiss. I had all of the emergency numbers on my phone now, and everyone had my number, but they were under the threat of death not to use mine for anything other than a complete emergency.
I’d felt silly texting him, telling him to come to my place because something felt wrong. He’d likely arrive and give me shit for being such a drama queen, then Hades would do his whole threatening glower thing, and I would roll my eyes and convince Swiss to stay for dinner.
Although I had no concrete reason to think that wasn’t going to happen, I had a strong feeling that there would be no dinner, no teasing.