The only thing missing for the elephant—for me—was choice.
Hades had taken me captive without my permission, and he’d also provided me with an escape hatch out of the life I secretly couldn’t stand. Both were true.
I wanted to kill him, and I couldn’t ever kill him. Both were true.
He kept me a virgin against my will for crazy, nefarious reasons, and he was the only man I’d ever truly desired. Both were true.
All those contradicting truths came out of my mouth as, “Hades, I hate you. I’ve hated you for so long.”
No more hiding his emotions from me. His face fell, clearly devastated.
“Ma belle—” he started to say.
“But I…I also have feelings for you,” I concluded. For both him and myself. “And that’s the real reason I couldn’t shoot you.”
Hades went utterly still. “You have feelings for me?”
“I’m also suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Clearly,” I pointed out sternly. “Both are true.”
But then, I smiled up at him and added, “But yes, I have feelings for you. So, if you want me, take me. Because I’ve also been wanting you like you wanted me from Day One. Even when I shouldn’t have. Deal or no de—”
He cut me off with a fierce kiss. We had a deal in place, and this had nothing to do with that deal. Both were true.
Making a ragged sound in the back of his throat, he slammed me up against the living room wall. Our bottoms came off in a blur of loosened buttons, undone zippers, and shorts shoved down hips.
“Need you…need you…” he said on a rough pant, lifting me up to wrap my legs around his waist. “Need inside you.”
We were too desperate to deal with underwear. He just yanked my panties aside and pulled his erection out….
Then he shoved inside of me. So roughly. I gasped at the burn, and I loved the sensation of being filled by his thick shaft. Both were true.
“Too tight,” Hades bit out with a French curse. “I’m hurting you.”
He started to pull out, and I scratched at his shoulders. Because it hurt to have him there or because I couldn’t stand the idea of not having him there. I didn’t know. Either way, I whined, “Hades…”
“Non, it’s okay, ma belle. Don’t get upset. I’m just…” He eased off, then rolled back into me with a guttural sound, opening my legs wider. He ground his hips in circles, helping me adjust until my sex became slippery enough to stretch around him and take him even deeper.
“Do you understand how good it feels here inside you?” he asked, his voice serious like it truly was a question he needed answered.
I shook my head helplessly. “Not as good as it feels to have you there. But please, more. I need more.”
He didn’t give me more. Cruel Hades, he actually stopped moving.
“Look at me.” It wasn’t a request. He grabbed my face with one large hand, pressing his thumb into my cheek, so I had no choice but to do as he said.
“I thought you were going to shoot me.” His eyes were back to glittering. But not with malice and cruelty. With emotion, all his emotions, concentrated and intense. “A few minutes ago, I thought getting shot by you was how my life was going to end.”
Three years of captivity. It made perfect sense what I did, what I tried to do.
Yet, in that moment, it made none at all. Guilt ripped through me at the thought of almost ending his life.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”
He let go of my face. “Non, don’t you apologize, cher bèbè. The point is, you didn’t shoot. A life for a life…” Hades pressed his forehead into mine. “Your part of the blood debt is done.”
His Cajun accent grew thicker as he informed me, “Punishment ain’t how we going to do this from now on. I’m gonna take care of you. I’m going to take care of us. Make it all right till my last breath of air. You didn’t shoot, so now we can be together, just like I wanted from the first moment I saw you. Here’s more. Take more from your man. It’s all yours.”
With those words, he started driving into me with a deep primal rhythm—rutting me, claiming me, like an animal. It didn’t hurt anymore. The burn of him turned sweet in an instant as needy sensations spread across my loins.
