I wasn’t about to argue with him about wanting to buy me clothes. But a part of me hated needing anything from him.
“Thank you. When I get my inheritance, I’ll pay you back for any expenses you—”
“Not fucking likely.”
I swallowed at the hard tone in his voice. “Excuse me?”
He took another sip of his liquor before responding. “I don’t need or want your money, Princess. As your legal guardian, it’s my job to provide for you.”
I shivered. I had no clue why my body reacted at hearing him say he was providing for me, but here I was, feeling pretty damn uncomfortable by the visceral reaction Hades arose in me.
“And because you need items, we’re going to get them for you. I have some pressing business to attend to over the next couple of days, but after that, I’m all yours.” He said that with a smirk in his voice and one curving his lips.
“I don’t need you to be mine.”
He finished his liquor, set the glass aside, and started running the pad of his finger over the rim. For a second, that sight transfixed me. I noticed for the first time that he had tattoos on his knuckles, the backs of his hands, and I could see dark ink snaking up his wrists and disappearing beneath his dress shirt.
“You hate me,” he said matter-of-factly. It took me a little off guard. “You could lie.” It was like he’d read my mind. “But I’d prefer if you didn’t.” Hades leaned forward and braced his forearms on the table, his hands clasped.
His skin was a dark shade of tan, and I noticed his knuckles were a little scuffed up on his right one. “So go on.”
He was pushing me, wanting to get his way. I wasn’t about to oblige him.
“I don’t have time for stupid games.” I pushed the chair back and stood, knowing I probably looked shaky as hell. But when he narrowed his eyes, I threw a smile right back at him. “You may be my legal guardian now, and I have no choice but to tolerate you for the next three years, but I don’t have to like it. I don’t have to likeyouor the situation, or give into your psychotic demands.”
I turned to leave when the sound of his chair scraping across the hardwood floor stopped me.
I turned just as I saw him making his way around the table and right toward me, his expression so cold and hard that I moved backward until the wall stopped my retreat.
I felt something I didn’t want to explore too deeply. I pressed myself to the wall, and as Hades crowded me, I felt this intense heat settle right between my thighs.
“Zachariah never disciplined you, isn’t that right?” He stared hard into my eyes.
I tipped my chin in defiance and stayed quiet.
I heard him grind his teeth as he slapped a hand on the wall beside my head and leaned in. “I think you need a different kind of daddy to teach you manners, sweetheart.”
I didn’t have time to grasp what he meant by that because, a second later, he had his hand curled around the back of my neck. He jerked me toward his chest until the motion forced me to place my palms on his pecs. And then he led me out of the dining room, up the stairs, and into my bedroom.
He was rough, but not painfully so. It was more demanding, dominating, as if he were used to getting his way and there was no getting around that.
“Hades…” I gasped. “What are you—” My words lodged in my throat when he sat on the edge of my bed and pulled me over so I was draped across his lap.
He had a thick forearm braced on the center of my back, keeping me in place. I looked over my shoulder and parted my lips, the shock of how inappropriate this was filling me with unsurmountable rage.
And then he yanked down my sweats so my ass was in full view. I gasped, and our eyes locked. I watched as he lifted his hand.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I whispered, not caring that I used coarse language with him. I struggled, but he held me down easily, effortlessly.
His nostrils flared, his jaw muscles flexed, and while he held my gaze with his, he brought his hand down on my ass so hard and swiftly my back bowed and a cry ripped from my throat.
“I bet your daddy never did this to you, did he, Princess?”
I screamed out and thrashed, but he just spanked me again.
“This is what happens when you run that pretty little mouth of yours.”
He spanked my ass so hard I felt something shift in me, something dark and devious uncoil in my body.