Page 52 of Hercules

“I’m sorry,” she rushed out as fast as she could. “I really am. That was—”

“Fine,” Herc cut in, already adding emphasis of his soothing fingers across her forehead. “It was fine, Scribester. As a matter of fact, it feels good to talk openly about it.” His eyebrows scooted toward each other, and mild glints reappeared in the gaze he averted toward the path of his fingers. “My brother…well, his heart was in the right place, doing what he did.”

Lois jerked her head to the side, determined to keep her mind clear. Especially now. “The right place? As in stripping you of the chance to ever have a family again?”

For a moment, he was motionless. But breaking the freeze to scatter a new laugh on the air wasn’t exactly earning him new stars on her tote board.

“The god stuff…it came with a time limit,” he offered. “For the duration of the Labors only.”

She wheeled her sights back up to him. “A perk of the package, then? Hope you had him throw in a WiFi hotspot too.”

Another chuckle, rumbling from lower in his throat, melted her a little bit more. Perhaps more than a little. Why was this guy so effortlessly sexy?

“The Labors…well, there were a lot of layers behind Apollo assigning them to me, besides deleting them from his cosmic to-dos. Though the physical exertion was what my grief and guilt needed, Apollo already had some bonus tickets in mind.”

“Aha.” She gave a knowing nod. “Like helping to get broha’s mojo back on line.”

He balanced her offering by slowing shaking his head. “Shit. That poor idiot. He’s a mach five baller on the outside, but a jar of kumbaya honey at his core. Just wants the whole world to solve its differences by fucking it out.”

Lo succumbed to an obnoxious spurt. “And there’s something wrong with that?”

“Of course not,” he countered. “And if everyone’s gears grinded that way, it’d be the solution to a good many things.” At once, his humorous edges faded. Everything, including the darker cobalt middles of his eyes, was newly solemn. “But my equipment runs differently. I just didn’t have the fiber to tell that to my brother. Not back then, when he was beaming like a kid who’d hit his first wheat stalk with his piss stream.”

And here was the moment she thanked herself for fixating on what he said two sentences back. “You know, Mr. Hercules…your equipment feels perfectly functional to me.”

She stressed the adjective over the rest by joining its three seconds with a determined roll of her hips—though it was hardly necessary, considering everything she already felt from him down there.

No. Not just there.

From everywhere.

“And you know, Miss Lance, that I asked you not to refer to me as that.”

From as high up as that soft but suggestive snarl on his lips…

“Or you’ll do what, now?”

And from as low as those damn formidable toes, which helped him answer her soft taunt with a move she’d never forget.

Never.

Some vows were easier than others to pledge to the universe, and this was one of them. She already saw herself as an eccentric old lady in a bright blue kaftan, having picked the ensemble because it reminded her of the shade dominating Herc’s stare right now. The thick intensity in his gorgeous irises as he rallied the other parts of his feet to push his body tighter against hers…wedging himself fully at her central crux.

Which, within seconds, became her pleading pussy.

She struggled to translate the need into actual sounds on her lips, but once more, the magnificent man was at least three steps ahead of her. While securing her outer hips with his sprawling fingers, he locked in her stare with the universe’s most sensual smile.

“I believe I mentioned something about showing you my definition of respect.”

Lo laughed. At least attempted to. She did succeed at murmuring, “Ah, yes. Now I remember. But there was something about showing me your version of sweet, as well.”

He tensed. She felt it across his whole body while noting the shadows that encroached on his gaze: his silent way of commanding her back from the subject. But Lois intended nothing of the sort. She wanted more of it. All the tension. The darkness. The danger…

“Sweet hasn’t existed for me for a long time, Lois. Not the way you see the word.”

He concluded with a long breath, as if to embed the meaning with extra weight. Lois answered by matching it, second for every second, before clarifying her meaning with a defined rasp.

“Then show me your definition.”