“Yes?”
“You like making deals, right?”
He arched an eyebrow. “I do. Why do you ask?”
She exhaled—once, twice—like somebody working up courage. Then she looked at him directly with those pretty crescent-shaped eyes and asked, “What would you give me for my virginity?”
Hades froze in place, even as his head went up in flames. The plan had never been to actually take her virginity. Yes, he wanted her, but taking a woman forcibly was a line he’d never cross.
However, the idea of her willingly giving herself to him in exchange for something else…that idea filled his cock with lead.
Somehow, he managed to keep his voice level as he answered, “What would you want?”
“My freedom?” she suggested with a hopeful look that set his chest sparking.
“No,” he answered, nonetheless. Immediately.
That should have been the final answer. But she was right about him liking to make deals. A strange sense of justice flowed through him at the thought of their relationship taking a sexual turn. It reminded him there actually was one tactic that used to pay blood debts in full and end all sorts of other stalemate conflicts.
Taking the daughter of an enemy into your bed.
Even more than that, his cock was pulsating at just the thought of finally sliding in between her real legs, instead of just imagining it was her with other women when he came.
He wanted her. Just as badly, if not more so than when she emerged from that pool and revealed herself to look nothing at all like a Black Veruca Salt.
“Try again,” he suggested. “Give ol’ Hades something he can live with.”
Her eyes flashed, but she immediately came back with adjusted terms. “How about I give you my virginity and sex once a month? In exchange, no more dog cage and no more Russian Roulette—or any sort of gun violence ever again. Also, you’ll let me go after three years. That way, I’ll be able to live out my twenties. And surely, you’ll get tired of me by then anyway.”
He’d like to believe the same, but just in case, he countered with, “No more cage or guns. Five years. Sex once a week. Last offer.”
Her eyes fluttered down and away from him as she thought about it. And he held his breath, for once not sure what he’d do if the person on the other side of the negotiation didn’t agree to his final terms. Walking away didn’t feel like an option he was capable of executing with his cock raging underneath the water. Should he remind her that he always honored his deals, warn her that this—not some ball—was her best chance at eventual freedom?
Before he could decide how to play this, she whispered, “Okay. Five years. I can live with that.”
She could live with that.
Hades made a humming sound in the back of this throat.
Then he surged out of the tub and finally…
Finally, he claimed her lips.
CHAPTER 16
HADES
No more dealmaking.
Hades took her lips like he took his final revenge. Slow, deliberately. Savoring every moment as he devoured her whole.
She fell into his kiss with a little sigh, like she’d been waiting for this kiss just as long as him. Since they were standing across from each other at that pool.
But now, it was just the opposite. She was dry, and he was dripping water all over her.
She pulled back with a laugh. “Do you mind drying off? And I’ll get out of this dress.”
That dress…
