Chapter 19 Persephone
Persephone
When I wake, I find Hades gone, his side of the bed cool to the touch. Judging by the sunlight slanting through the warehouse’s dingy, dust-covered windows, it’s only early evening.
My stomach rumbles and I think of my last meal. A hastily-chewed vending machine sandwich, a handful of mixed nuts, a can of sparkling water. It was the best that the gas station had to offer.
Now I look around the warehouse, pursing my lips and wondering where my next meal will come from. I stand and wander over to the worktables, my curiosity from earlier still piqued.
Heading to the stacked boxes of supplies, I bite my lip. My heart skips a beat as I tear into the first box. Despite having been literally torn from my life and kidnapped to be here now, I still feel it.
The thrill of opening new art supplies. Whether it be a new bright paint palette or fresh blank pages of paper or the crispness of unused charcoals, I still have the same giddiness. The sense of untapped potential, of materials needing only to be molded by my hands to be something great.
The first box is heavy and on the small side.
Ripping the top open, I find all varieties of inks in tiny plastic bottles, each labeled by hand with numbers corresponding to their hexadecimal code.
Some of the inks have more heft than others.
Those are quite old and might even be a little gunky, having gone a bit solid in extended contact with air.
Others are fresh and new, light and completely liquid.
I close that box, setting it aside. The next box I open is a heavy, wide, flat one. One of several such boxes, this one is thousands upon thousands of sheets of the thin clear plastic membrane that makes up contact paper.
My excitement begins to grow, tingling along my fingertips, making me smile almost reflexively.
The front door of the warehouse slides open with a loud thunk, making me jump. I turn to see Hades nudging the door closed. His hands are full of paper grocery bags and he walks them straight over to me, putting them down on the end of the worktable.
“You’ve been busy.” I amble over to him, pressing up on my tiptoes to peer in the bags. The aroma of buttery bread wafts up to my nose. “What did you bring me?”
He shoots me a quelling glance and reaches into one of the bags. “I got new phones for both of us. And I stopped at a boulangerie on the way back.”
“Oooh,” I say. As he hands me a phone and opens a box of croissants, I have trouble deciding which I want first.
“There are French macarons too. And a little pot of forest honey.”
He nudges the box of macarons toward me. I look at all the goodies for a long moment before I decide on a croissant.
In the end, I grip the phone in one hand and the pastry in the other, taking a huge bite. It’s maybe the best bite of anything I’ve ever had in my whole damned life.
Buttery, flaky, chewy. It melts in my mouth.
“Omigod,” I mutter, closing my eyes. “This croissant is better than sex.”
Hades looks at me sharply. “What kind of sex are ye having that is less good than a pastry, lass?”
Heat suffuses my cheeks. My mouth is too full of buttery goodness to speak, so I just glare at him. He starts to unpack the other bags and I turn my attention to the phone. Pursing my lips, I turn it on and scroll through the contacts.
“There is only one number programmed in here,” I say after a minute.
“Aye. That’s mine,” he says, holding up his identical phone. “What other numbers do ye need?”
“How very practical of you.” I roll my eyes. “I should email my brother. Let him know that I’m all right.”
“Lass…” He stiffens, pinning me with a hard glare. He prowls around the table, staring at me with an air of disbelief. “I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how our enemies came to know where to find us in Valencia. Ye wouldn’t have sent yer brother an email back there, would ye?”
My brows arch. My mouth opens, a quick retort on the tip of my tongue. I reply to him with all due venom.
“It’s not like I sent Lawrence a picture of the villa, our address, and the story of how you kidnapped me. I just emailed him a very brief paragraph letting him know that I was okay.”
Both of Hades’ hands shoot out, grabbing my upper arms and gripping me hard. His face contorts, looking as black as a thundercloud.
“Are ye a fucking idiot?” He pulls me closer, shaking me a little. “Ye went against my explicit instructions, lass. Anybody could have been monitoring his email. Ye might as well have lit a beacon and invited Ex-BF to come for us whenever he felt like it.”
“I… I don’t think so, Hades—” My heart starts beating fast.
“Ye feeble minded idiot.” He sneers, pulling me so close to his face that we are only an inch apart. “It’s a wonder they didn’t come sooner. The fact that we got away was sheer luck, ye know.”
I look up at him with wide eyes, swallowing heavily. “You don’t know that I was the one that tipped them off. You don’t even know who the bad guys were.”
My words cause him to rear his head back. “Are ye kidding me? I know that without me, ye would probably either be dead or sitting at Constantine's feet right now.”
Ice slides through my veins at the very thought. I start trembling. “Don’t.”
“Dinnae what?” He grits his teeth, his slitted eyes scanning my face. “For all I know, ye wanted to be caught by Constantine's men.”
I struggle in his hold, baring my teeth.
“Fuck you, Hades.”
“Ye little idiot.” He lifts me off the ground, looking ready to kill me. “Ye have to be punished, Persephone.”
I open my mouth to retort. But Hades throws me over his shoulder and starts carrying me toward the bed.
“What? Let me go!” I howl, flailing. My fists hit his solid back, my feet kick at his thigh.
He silences me with one incredibly brutal slap to my ass. It’s so hard that I cry out, my eyes widening, breath sputtering.
“Shut the fuck up, lass,” he grates out. “Ye won’t make the same mistake again. Not after this.”
He tosses me onto the bouncy mattress with a thud. I’m panicked, sweating, my heart pounding loudly in my ears. I try to scramble away but he grabs me by the ankle and jerks me back with a growl.
“Behave yerself, Persephone. That’s the only way ye are going to ever fucking walk again.”
I whimper as he turns me over to face him.
“Let me go!”
He shakes his head, his gaze dropping to my lips, then my heaving breasts, then lower.
“No. I have to punish ye. It’s for yer own good.” He darts his tongue out to swipe across his lips. His expression is haughty and defiant. “Ye pushed me to this point. Yer making me touch ye like this.”
Keeping his iron grip on my ankle, he skims his touch up from my other ankle to my hip, taking my dress with it.
“Stop!” I cry out. I try to twist away from him, but he’s too strong. “Please, Hades… I won’t talk to anyone! I won’t say anything!”
Hades doesn’t even seem to notice my struggles or how afraid I am of him at the moment. He completely ignores the fear in my voice. His gaze is caught on the skin he’s currently exposing at my hip.
“What will it be?” he asks absently. “Ye fucking tease. Do ye want to suck my cock? Hmm? Or would ye rather be stripped naked, bent over my lap, and have yer ass paddled?” There is a glint in his eye as he finally makes eye contact with me.
“Or maybe ye would rather I truss ye, turn ye on yer stomach, and fuck ye until ye scream for me?”
At his distinct threat, something low in my body clenches. He arches a brow as he flips my dress up past my navel, exposing my quivering legs and dark silk panties. My heart pounds in my throat, a bass note.
“Hades…” I plead. “Don’t.”
He looks at me, a little smirk of satisfaction flitting across his mouth. He adjusts his hard cock in his slacks and leers at me.
“I think I heard ye asking me to tie ye up.”
“No!” I protest, pressing my legs together. “Hades, please— “
He gives me a measured smile as he skates his touch up my thigh once more. This time he deviates and brushes the black silk triangle of my underwear at the vee created by my legs. I clench and jerk away from him.
Hades leans down, suddenly thundering at me. “Look at me!”
My gaze jumps to his. My mouth opens. He runs his fingers down my mons to the cleft of my pussy. I release a noise from my throat, a whimper and a gasp. My cheeks are already a deep pink, but I can feel my face get hotter as he rubs my pussy and flicks his fingers against me hard.
It’s wrong. Everything about this moment is terrifying and I certainly don’t want to be forced to spread my legs…
But I still feel a tendril of moisture slipping from my pussy. I may resist, but my body has its own ideas.
I stare up into Hades’ face, paralyzed, my heart rate blindingly fast. He leans over my body and smirks.
“Oh, lass,” he says, his voice gone to gravel. “I think it’s been a very long time since ye’ve been touched.”
A denial is on my lips. But when I start to say no, he forces my legs apart, moves my panties to the side, and rubs my clit. My entire body buckles. Fists clenching, back bowing, legs jerking.
He lets go of my ankle and continues rubbing my clit as he grabs my hip. He slides my ass down the bed so that I’m practically bumping up against his groin. He flicks my clit hard, and I gasp, trying to pull my thighs closed.
Hades smirks down at me, lifting his hand in the air, showing off his glistening fingertips.
I pant, staring at his dark figure as he bends over my body and forces me to look at the evidence of my excitement. My breasts tingle and I wish I were alone so that I could touch myself, make myself cum. It wouldn’t take much, I’m sure.
“Ye wanted this,” Hades rasps. He pops one of his wet fingertips into his mouth, mmming at my taste. “God, that is sweet. Ye need my touch, do ye not? Ye want me to keep going, to make ye cum, to fuck ye until ye scream. Just admit it.”
My breath catches in my throat and I give my head the tiniest shake. “No.”