9. Hades
HADES
Seeing Meg’s reaction to him is almost as satisfying. She’s so angry with me, my Meg. It doesn’t seem to register that her anger is a pure thing, untainted by so much baggage we carry around. An anger that only drives her desire higher.
I continue kneading the tight muscles in Hercules’s shoulders as Meg stalks naked to the door and opens it.
The woman who walks through is my personal favorite of the submissives on staff: Aurora.
She’s sweet and gentle and cries so prettily.
She’s beautiful in the way priceless art is beautiful.
Her light brown skin all but shines in the low light and her hair—pink this month—falls in waves that are almost curls around her narrow shoulders.
She smiles at Meg, and I give a smile of my own as Hercules’s breath catches. “She’s very beautiful, don’t you think?”
“They both are.”
It amuses me how loyal he is to my Meg, little though she deserves it. He wants to play knight in shining armor to her princess in distress, and he still hasn’t quite realized that she’s as much dragon as I am. More so in certain situations.
Meg takes Aurora’s hand and pulls her farther into the room until they stop in front of the chair directly across from us. It’s just high enough to bend someone over if you want to fuck them, and Hercules and I are low enough that we won’t miss any details.
He won’t miss any details.
Meg looks at me askance. “May I, Sir?”
Anyone else might miss the hint of disrespect that flavors those three little words.
I raise my brows, and she has the grace to flush.
On another night, I’d make her eat those words while she eats Aurora’s pussy as I flog her until she sobs.
That’s not on the agenda right now and she knows it, the little brat.
“Yes.” I wait for her to start to turn before I put a little snap in my voice.
“But first come give our little Hercules a kiss.”
Her brows slam down, and it takes her visible effort to recover. I’m not playing fair, but then she should expect it from me at this point. A punishment is still a punishment, even if it doesn’t appear to be one on the outside.
This boy got under my Meg’s skin. A mutual feeling if the way he tenses beneath my hands is any indication, but I knew that already.
He wouldn’t have effectively sold his soul to me for anything less than blinding lust. Meg kneels gracefully in front of Hercules and, after another arch look in my direction, leans forward and presses a kiss to his lips.
Because I’m still touching him, I feel him gravitate toward her to deepen the kiss.
I’m not surprised when she lets him. Meg is drawn to this man in an entirely different way than she’s drawn to me. It’s part of the reason he’s here.
I count slowly to fifteen, allowing them this, if only so I can be the one to take it away.? 2 “That’s enough, you two,” I say mildly. “You’re making poor Aurora feel left out.”
Aurora, at least, isn’t disobedient enough to contradict me.
She stands exactly where Meg left her, gaze downturned and her hands clasped before her.
All of my submissives have a style, and I allow them that freedom within certain boundaries.
Aurora wears a short silk slip that might appear virginal if it weren’t short enough to barely brush her thighs and didn’t have thin straps that appear as if they’d break under a harsh exhale.
The Dominants who contract with her eat that sort of thing up, and she’s become one of my biggest moneymakers as a result.
She also has a schoolgirl crush on Meg, so this scene serves to reward them both.
Meg rises gracefully to her feet and pads to Aurora. She uses a single finger to lift her chin, and I don’t have to see Meg’s face to know she’s smiling warmly down at the woman. “We’ll keep it simple today, okay?”
“Okay,” Aurora whispers.
“Safe word?”
“Thorn.”
“Good girl.”
As Meg begins, I turn my attention back to Hercules.
He’s so tense, he might as well be marble carved on the floor between my legs.
That won’t do. That won’t do at all. I knead the tight muscles in his shoulders.
The man may be nothing more than a pawn, but he’s no less beautiful than my Meg, albeit in a different way.
Hercules has the coloring and bearing of someone used to walking in the sun.
Whether he’ll wither living here in the dark remains to be seen.
I lean down until my lips nearly brush his ear. “First, you learn by watching. Then you learn by participating. You belong to me, and I won’t allow anyone else to hurt you.”
“Anyone else?” His voice had an edge of growl.
“I’m going to hurt you, little Hercules.
And you’re going to enjoy every moment of it.
” I dig my thumb into the trigger point at the top of his spine.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a knot there, and I work it ruthlessly until he lets out a little pained sound.
I exhale carefully against his ear, enjoying the way it makes him shiver.
Does he realize he’s leaning back into my touch, ever so slightly?
I doubt it. “Meg is a woman of varied tastes. She’s also one of the best Dominants working in the Underworld. Aurora is one of the best submissives.”
While I spoke to Hercules, Meg guided Aurora to bend over the arm of the couch and brace her forearms on the cushion.
She’s a little shorter than Meg, so her toes barely touch the ground.
Meg runs her hands up the other woman’s legs, starting at her ankles and working her way up to her thighs.
She slides Aurora’s slip up over her hips, baring her ass. “Paddle or the flogger?”
“Paddle, please.”
“Good girl.” Meg smiles, and it’s as if we’re not in the room.
I’ve always loved watching her work like this.
There’s a reason why every single submissive in Carver City will crawl over broken glass to her the second she crooks her finger.
Hercules will become one of them. He already is if the avid way he watches the scene unfold is any indication.
Meg walks to the chest behind my desk and comes back with a wide wooden paddle. It could potentially break bones in the wrong hands, but she’s a master of our craft. She gives it a few experimental swings, building the anticipation.
I murmur in Hercules’s ear, “Do you see the way Aurora’s toes curl? She wants that first strike.” I glance down Hercules’s chest and allow myself a smile to find his cock standing at attention. “Meg will warm her up with pain, and then if she’s a good little submissive, she’ll allow her to come.”
“How?”
I doubt Hercules realizes that he’s voiced the question, but I answer anyway. “Knowing my Meg, she’ll eat her pussy. She’s got a taste for it, and Aurora is so pretty when she orgasms through her tears.”
Meg delivers the first strike across the lower curve of Aurora’s ass, right where it meets her thighs.
The other woman jumps, but then obviously fights to hold still, to obey.
Meg smacks her again, falling into a rhythm I recognize intimately.
I force my attention back to Hercules, who’s breathing hard as if he is the one being beaten. “I’m going to touch you now.”
He gives a shaky nod, his gaze glued to the swing of the paddle.
It won’t take much to send him into subspace when we begin to play, not if he’s dancing on the edge of it simply from watching.
He’s like a child who’s never seen Christmas, and the sheer splendor of it overwhelms him. At least at first.
I slide my hand down his chest and delve into his shorts. I’ve seen his cock, of course, hard and wet with Meg’s desire. I still take a moment to enjoy the way he fills my fist. I give him a hard stroke and then lift my hand. “Spit.”
“What?” He’s hoarse as if he’s been screaming for hours.
“I won’t repeat myself.”
It takes him a moment to respond, to obey, to coat my palm with his saliva.
Against my better judgment, I’m moved by the purity of him.
I want to break him into a thousand sharp pieces, to drag him down into the dark with the rest of us, but I can’t help appreciating the very thing I want to ruin.
I take his cock again. There will be a time to tease, a time to torment.
Tonight’s not it. He needs to know exactly who he belongs to.
I jerk him roughly, relentlessly, until he’s lifting his hips as best he can and fucking my hand.
His gaze is pinned to where Meg beats Aurora, and while I appreciate the sentiment, that won’t do.
I dig the fingers of my free hand into his hair and turn his face to mine. “I own you, little Hercules. Say it.”
His blue eyes are glazed as he licks his lips. “You…you own me.”
“Now be a good boy and come for your master.”
One stroke. Two. And then he gives a guttural curse and does exactly as commanded, coming in great spurts across his own chest. I give him a few more pumps before I release his cock.
I don’t move back. Not yet. I simply maintain my position, bracketing him in as he shakes, allowing him to lean on me while he finds his balance again.
It won’t last.
I won’t allow it to last.
But I can’t quite help running my fingers through his hair and guiding his face to lean against my thigh as I settle back to watch Meg work.
1 ? I think I made Hades softer later in the series because, damn bro, you’re enjoying this a lot.
2 ? Reading back through this has me wanting to write another head-fuck character. I don’t do it very often, but I’m over here gasping at how much he’s messing with them, and there’s so much delight in that.