Chapter Eight
Irarely used the university gym. It was loud and harshly lit, full of pretentious dickheads admiring their puny muscles in the mirrors. When we took over Thanatos House this year after Bast was elected as Hades, we quickly converted one of the downstairs rooms into a gym. Instead of huge mirrors on every wall, one wall was glass, looking out into the peaceful green garden behind the house. The machines were the highest quality money could buy, there were hot working showers nearby, and best of all, it wasn’t full of knobheads. And yet, here I was. Waiting for her to show.
It wasn’t unusual for a room to go quiet when I entered. The noise of weights and chatter filled the large room, but the moment I walked in, it was like someone had hit pause on everything except the blasting radio in the corner. Eyes flicked up, then quickly away. A couple of guys shared nervous glances. Yeah, they knew who I was. What I was capable of. I knew my reputation spoke for itself. I had designed it that way. That way, no one ever bothered me. They stood around in little groups, not talking, not really looking, but still watching me.
I didn”t give a damn. They weren”t why I was here.
Moving past the rows of machines and benches, I made my way to the boxing area. The heavy bag was waiting, like an old friend ready for a beating. My wraps were on, knuckles primed. I started with a jab, feeling the satisfying thud against the worn leather. Then another. Harder. Faster. Around me, the other guys went back to their workouts. A few girls were lifting free weights in one corner, but she wasn’t one of those. Paige tended to keep to herself. There was a yoga class going on next door, but something told me she wasn’t really a yoga girl either.
Movement at the door had me glancing up, and there she was. Paige Matthews. When I’d laid eyes on her in that club, I had thought for a moment that Tris was having me on. There was no way this was the girl he wanted for Persephone. She was nothing like us. I mean, sure her family had some standing in society once, but that was really all she had going for her application. She was quiet, introverted, and not particularly social. Whereas the other girls were dripping in designer wear, and not high street designer either, Paige looked like she’d just walked out of an Abba concert, with that long curly blonde hair and her hippy clothes.
She definitely had Bast confused as well. It was traditional to follow the Persephone applicants around for a weeks beforehand, as well as random other girls in order to keep the students guessing what we were up to, but normally the Reapers were randomly assigned in shifts depending on their classes and sport schedules, so it was rarely one guy following one girl. Hence the skull masks. With Paige, Bast had insisted it was just us that followed her, and to mine and Tristan’s surprise, he’d included himself in the shifts. Hades never followed the girls. He was supposed to “meet” her at the Halloween Ball, but not this year. This year, Bast was doing most of the following. I wasn’t going to pretend I knew how his mind worked. We’d been friends since we were kids, and practically brothers from our later teens, but still waters ran deep, and Bast’s were Mariana Trench level.
I watched the girl who’d caught his interest - our interest - meander quietly through the machines, trying to take up as little space as possible. She didn’t want to be noticed. But she had been. I watched her move onto the mats near the mirrors, setting her water bottle down at the edge, and glancing around her. She started to stretch, and I set down the free weights I’d been lifting, shifting to one of the leg machines so I could get a better look.
I’d felt that body pressed up against me in that dark, crowded club, and it had felt pretty damn good, but to see her now, stretching out like some kind of feline goddess in those close fitting workout clothes, I could appreciate the shape of her much better. She moved through a stretching routine with an effortless flow that told me she’d worked out a lot. I deliberately slowed my movements, leaning forward and pretending to adjust my weights as she dropped to the floor. I watched as she laid on her back, feet on the ground and legs slightly parted as she began pulling herself into slow deliberate sit ups. I watched her leg muscles tense and contract, my eyes seeking the shadowed area between her legs. I could practically feel those legs wrapping tight around my head as I ate out her pussy.
I couldn’t wait until she took on the role,and yet at the same time, the thought unnerved me. I’d been reluctant to take on the position of DeathKnight, knowing what was expected, but Bast had insisted. He’d demanded I take up the role, arguing he couldn’t trust anyone else, and swearing I wouldn’t have to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with. Oh the irony. Not being comfortable with regular fucking, having to dive deep down into sheer depravity just to endure another human’s touch.
No, my interaction with Paige would be limited to duty only. She was probably too pure for what we did, too untouched. Not like she”d be into the darkness that I craved. I knew Bast had thought about it. He liked them innocent. Innocent and completely submissive. He was all about control, and I got that, but for me, control was just the start. The thought of breaking her... Shit, it shouldn”t have been appealing, but there was something about her innocence that fucked with my head.
I bit my lip hard, tasting blood as she rolled onto her front, and dropped down into proper push ups. Hmm, she might be tiny, but the girl was strong for her size. Was her mind as strong as her body, I wondered? I liked it. Strong women always turned me on.
I slipped off the machine, returning to the punching bag, as Paige got up and made her way to one of the machines.
Then she started lifting, arms reaching above her head as she hoisted the dumbbells into a perfect shoulder press. Her muscles flexed, defined and strong, yet still so feminine. And just like that, my thoughts twisted dark. I pictured those same arms cuffed to the walls of the club house, wrists bound, leaving her helpless. I saw myself standing before her, taking what I wanted—what she secretly craved.
”Fuck,” I hissed under my breath, noticing how several other guys in the room were also watching her. She’d upped the ante, clearly pushing herself hard. Her top clung to her, soaked through with sweat, outlining the small curve of her breasts, and her leggings were close fitting and left nothing to the imagination. A couple of the guys moved closer, choosing machines close by where they could watch her, and I hit the bag again, harder this time, imagining their faces. They were like vultures, circling her and my heart beat harder as I was filled with a primal, protective instinct to smash those leering faces into the polished floors until they learned their place.
Soon, I thought. Soon she would be Persephone and the entire university would know she was off limits. They wouldn’t dare breathe the same fucking air as her. Until then, I would ensure the gym was empty when she arrived for her workout. Well, other than me of course.
My chest tightened as I suddenly saw her heading straight for me. This wasn’t the plan. Had she noticed me watching her? Clearly not. She turned off before reaching me, heading to the cable machine. No, please, if there’s a God, don’t let her choose… fuck.
She reached out, attaching the straps to the cable machine, and pulling them down as she took her stance. I could already feel my cock hardening as she let the cables slide back into place, spreading her arms out wide so her body formed a T shape. I couldn’t help it. My mind immediately began planning the way I’d walk over to her, wrapping those cables tight around her wrists, setting the weights so heavy they held her in place. More cables would attach to the bottom of the machine, weighted and tightened to pull her legs apart. She’d be completely at my mercy, defenceless against me. I pictured her there, spread out for me, looking up at me with those innocent eyes and pleading for mercy. My heart pounded in my chest just thinking about it.
I let out a ragged breath, my knuckles burning as I slammed them into the bag once more, imagining how I’d tear that ridiculous top from her body. Her sports bra too, yanking it down so I could get my hands on those luscious little tits, squeezing and biting them. How her muscles would strain against the cables, her soft cries for mercy only fuelling me further...
I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand, smearing both sweat and frustration away. I couldn”t let this slip. Couldn”t let her undo me. But damn if she didn”t pull at something inside me—a darkness I kept leashed.
”Get a grip, Nate. She”s just a girl,” I told myself, but even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. She was more than that, already carving out a space in my mind where I didn”t want her to be.
I threw another hook, my arm recoiling as I caught movement in the reflection—a shift in her stance, an adjustment of her position. And then, our eyes locked in the mirror. She was watching me back.
”Damn,” I breathed out, dropping my fists an inch. My guard lowered, not by the punch bag, but by a pair of eyes that shouldn”t have held any sway over me.
Her gaze lingered on my ink-stained skin, the black lines snaking up my forearms. There was a flicker of something in her expression—recognition? Did she remember me? I could have sworn she hadn’t seen my face, but maybe she remembered the tattoos? Her eyes moved up my arms, taking in my broad shoulders, the sweat soaked t-shirt that clung to my torso. The tip of her tongue snaked out over her bottom lip as her gaze dropped further down, and heat swept through me like a fucking desert sandstorm. Rage stirred at that. An ugly reaction straight from my fucked up past. No one was allowed to look at me like that. Not without my say so. If she’d been mine, she’d have been punished severely for even daring to raise her eyes.
”Seen enough?” I snapped. “Or should I spin for you?”
Wide blue eyes flashed up to mine, and I felt the shame and embarrassment in them like a punch to the stomach.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, her cheeks turning pink. Great. Now I felt like a fucking dickhead. Anyone else who upset Paige would be on my shit list, but I say one thing to her and I’m the bastard. I felt shit but at the same time, her reaction concerned me. Yes, Persephone was supposed to be pure, but she needed to be strong as well, or we really could break her, and not in the good way. We needed someone who could rule, who could be our queen and bring the Reapers to heel. Right now I wasn’t sure Paige could rise to the challenge.
She turned back to her workout, pretending to focus on the weight she was lifting, and I pretended to ignore her, until I saw one of the guys sauntering over to lean against the machine.
“I”ve seen you in here before,” he said.
Paige looked up at him, but said nothing.
“My name”s Tom,” he continued, undeterred by her silence.
”Paige,” she replied, her gaze flickering to me for a moment before darting back to the machine. I clenched my jaw as I returned to punching the bag, acting as though I hadn’t noticed.
”You need a hand?” Tom asked, reaching out as if to adjust her posture.
”I got it,” she said, stepping away from him and his helping hands
“You work out often?”
The sight of him standing so close to Paige, trying to chat her up, sent fire burning through my veins. The guy was way out of line. She was clearly not interested.
”I go when I can,” she murmured, barely glancing at him. Good girl, don’t encourage him.
”Think I could join you sometime? You could use a spotter.”
”No thanks,” she said curtly, turning back to her machine.
”Come on, let me show you a few things,” he smirked, leaning closer. He ran his fingers up her bare arm, and I saw her tense.
I was moving before I even knew it, my fists clenched and my heart pounding in my chest, fuelled by a possessiveness I had no right to feel, but before I got there, I heard a high pitched yelp and he jerked back, clasping his hands between his legs as Paige lowered her knee.
“What the fuck was that for?” he demanded.
Paige glared at him. “You weren’t getting the hint. I figured biceps don’t necessarily mean braincells and I figured you could use a clearer hint. Now, in case that wasn’t clear enough, fuck off, and stop putting your hands on women you don’t know, you creep.”
I stopped, stepping back before they noticed me, a grin spreading across my face. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she did have some fire after all. Tom strode off in a huff. When I say strode, I mean limped. He should be really fucking grateful she’d amused me. The last guy that laid his hands on her when she didn’t want it was now zipped up in a body bag in a morgue somewhere.
I had been supposed to keep my distance, but when that prick had put his hands on her at the club, the anger had surged, hot and uncontrollable. I should have held back, let her deal with it as she was clearly capable of doing, but when I’d seen the look of panic on her beautiful face, something primal had stirred within me, roused by her vulnerability. The way she flinched under his touch had clawed at my mind. I knew that feeling that crept under your skin, that slimy, shameful monster that wrapped its bony fingers around your heart and squeezed. Our Persephone would not be subjected to that. I had intervened, calmly of course. Bast would never have wanted me to make a scene.
I”d moved without thinking, driven by an instinct I didn”t know I possessed, compelled by the need to shield her from harm. And then, amidst the chaos of my mind, we’d danced. Her body against mine, fitting like she was made to be there. It was wrong, it was reckless, but damn, it felt right.
I’d allowed myself one dance, before walking away to find the creep who’d made her flinch. He’d been completely pissed, both from alcohol and at me, but the promise of some blow to make it up to him had him following me out of the club and into the nearby alley. No one saw us, except some loser who looked like he was jerking himself off in some rust bucket across the street, but I doubt he’d paid much attention.
My knuckles, encased in worn leather wraps, made satisfying thuds against the bag”s surface. How dare that guy think he could touch her? He’d deserved everything that happened in that alley. I closed my eyes, remembering the shock on his face as my knife had slid into his belly like butter. I’d been quick, though I would have preferred to take my time, explaining why arseholes like him should keep their hands to themselves, but it was growing closer to closing time and people would be starting to leave. I’d let my rage take over, that darkness shoved deep down inside that I fought constantly to control. I’d walked out that alley still shaking from anger. I hated men who thought they could take what they wanted without any consideration of the mind inside the body, the mind they would break without even realising it.
Yes, I liked my women restrained and helpless, completely at my mercy, but I would never put them in that position unless I knew they wanted to be there.
I felt a familiar tightening around my chest, and I shoved the thoughts away as the panic started to build. Not here, not now. Not in front of her.
The bag swung lightly now, the earlier fury subsiding as I watched her finish up. My gaze followed her every movement, each stretch and lift, all while battling the rising tide within me. She wasn”t meant for this—for me. Too pure, too damn light amidst our eternal night. But God, how she made me want her. I knew, despite all of Bast’s plans and the masks we hid behind, Paige Matthews was becoming a different kind of obsession—one I wasn”t sure I could control.
”Finish up, Matthews,” I muttered quietly. She couldn”t hear me from across the room, but as if she”d sensed my impatience, she dropped the weights with a final clang and reached for her towel. Heading for the female changing rooms, she slipped out of sight, and relief washed over me.
My shift was over and I was free. Bast would take it from here. I knew he’d be waiting outside, mask in place, ready to follow her home or wherever she went next. His play now.