“Sorry!” Hecate’s voice came from the trees beyond.
Hades sighed, and Persephone giggled.
“Oh, a picnic!” Hecate said as she appeared in the clearing.
“Hades made cookies!” Persephone said. “Would you like one?”
Hecate did not hide her obvious surprise and looked him. “You…baked?”
He glowered, and Persephone, who was either oblivious to his obvious discomfort or did not care, said, “I taught him!”
Hecate laughed and took a cookie. Hades was a little relieved. Maybe she would leave, and he and Persephone could get back to kissing.
Except that Persephone had other ideas. “Sit with us!”
“Oh, I don’t want to intrude—”
No, you don’t, Hades thought.
“There is more food in the basket, and Hades brought wine!”
The two looked at him, and he sighed, relenting. “Yes, join us, Hecate.”
Persephone dug around in the basket, handing Hecate a variety of foods, while Hades poured the goddess of glass of wine.
Cerberus, Typhon, and Orthrus returned, the three fighting over their red ball.
They weren’t there long when Hades sensed Hermes’ magic.
“Fucking Fates,” he mumbled, drawing the attention of Persephone and Hecate.
“Oh, Hades!” Hermes sung as he appeared in the clearing. “Oh, a picnic!”
“Did you need something, Hermes?” Hades asked, his jaw tightening, frustrated that the evening he had planned for him and Persephone had turned into this…circus.
“Nothing that can’t wait,” he said. “Are those cookies?”
“Hades made them!” Persephone said.
Hermes sank to his knees on the blanket, and Hades watched Persephone offer food and wine, and smile and laugh, and his frustration at having their evening interrupted lessened because she was happy. He also found that he did not mind the company so much, though he could do without Hermes’ teasing.
They spent a long time in the woods together, until the Underworld’s light faded and Hades’ night lit the sky. When they left, he and Persephone walked side by side back to the palace. They did not touch.
“Thank you for tonight. I know it did not go as planned.”
Hades chuckled. “It was nothing like I had imagined.”
They came to a stop, shrouded by the garden just outside Hades’ fortress, and faced each other.
“If Hecate had not thrown that ball at our faces, I would have kept kissing you,” he said, and his hand came up to cup her face.
“Is it too late?” she asked. “To have it all?”
Hades stared at her for a moment, thumb brushing her cheek. He stepped closer.
“What are you asking for, my darling?”
“I’m not sorry Hecate interrupted us,” she said. “But I still want that kiss and everything that comes after.”
“I’m only sorry you didn’t ask me sooner,” he said, obliging her request. His mouth touched hers, and he drew her against him, making love to her beneath the stars in the garden outside his home.
CHAPTER XXIX – A TORTURE LIKE NO OTHER
It was a week later when Aphrodite arrived to see him unexpectedly. Granted, she never arrived with notice, but Hades thought she would come closer to the end of their six-month deadline, which was now weeks away.
Hades sat behind his desk at The Cypress Foundation, finalizing a few small details for the Halcyon Project before handing it over to Katerina He had a hard time concentrating, thinking that the last time he had been stuck behind a desk, he had been more preferably engaged with Persephone.
He’d have liked to have her here now and chuckled at the thought of teleporting her to him. Would she be in the middle of writing a story or in an important meeting? Would she be angry for long when he took her mouth in a searing kiss? When his hands skimmed up her thighs, when his fingers teased her opening and he finally gave her what she begged for—release.
“You win,” Aphrodite said. She looked more severe than usual. Even when she was angry, she didn’t have this…look. It was hard for Hades to place at first, but he soon recognized it for what it was because he had felt the same thing multiple times in the last six months.
Hysteria.
“She loves you.”
Hades’ brows knitted together.
“What are you talking about?”
“I visited her today, your little love,” the goddess explained.
His stomach suddenly felt endless. He rose from his chair, his anger coiled like a snake.