He didn’t immediately answer as I shimmied out of my jeans.
“Hades?” I prompted. “I was hoping we could talk while we bathed.”
“Yes,” he said quickly. “Yes. Tell me how you can call me to Earth.”
“Persephone surrendered her powers so you would be bound to her mortality. That means you were bound to each one of her—my—reincarnations.” I kicked my jeans aside and tugged my shirt off over my head. “It created a new tie between us. Since the tie itself is infinite, I’m guessing that’s why you can only remain on Earth for a mortal hour from the time I last call you.” I smiled softly and shrugged as I reached back to unclasp my bra. “Everything has a price, right?”
“And what is the price for this?” Hades asked, his hungry gaze fixed on what I was doing.
“Patience and understanding,” I said without hesitation. “We’re both going to need to give a lot of it in the days to come, I think.”
He twitched when I tossed my bra to the side but didn’t close the distance between us.
“I’m feeling a little lonely right now and don’t like it,” I admitted. “I don’t want to be apart from you anymore, Hades. For at least a century. So get over here, and start touching me.”
The rest of our clothes immediately disappeared as he closed the distance between us.
“Much better,” I said, trailing my fingers over his skin. It made me a little sad that it didn’t glow, though.
“Why do you frown?”
“I miss the glowing,” I admitted. “I didn’t like the contracts, but they were pretty.”
An idea hit me.
“It should say, ‘Ashlyn loves Hades’ right here,” I said, tracing the spot over his heart. “And maybe here, it could say, ‘Hades belongs to Ashlyn.” His abs twitched under my fingers.
“Yes,” he groaned. The words immediately appeared, and I smiled.
“I’ll keep thinking of more to add.”
His mouth covered mine in a possessive kiss, and he picked me up. Willing, I wrapped my arms and legs around him, threading my fingers in his hair as one of his hands braced my backside and the other gripped the back of my head.
“Mine,” he rasped, walking me toward the water.
“Yours,” I agreed, going back for more kissing.
He groaned as I rubbed myself against his hard length. The heat inside me built, and when he pulled back and asked if he could taste me, I almost nodded.
“I’m willing to be caught swimming naked with you and even making out, but I don’t think I’m ready for public debauchery. Not yet.”
“Not public then,” he said before his lips reclaimed mine.
He let us sink deeper into the water, and I didn’t think anything of it until I felt his fingers caressing my folds. Knowing what he wanted, I didn’t try to stop him; I embraced it, allowing him to draw the sounds from me that he so loved. And when the pleasure ripped through me, and I cried out, he was groaning in my ear and leaving love marks on my neck.
“Father?”
The hesitant query was laced with concern. I lifted a limp hand from Hades’ back and threaded it into his hair again as I opened my eyes with a small smile. My face flamed with my embarrassment, but I ignored it as I met Hades’ heavy-lidded gaze.
“I love you, Hades.”
My words carried and bounced around the room.
The satisfaction in his expression was fleeting. He kissed me hungrily again as his fingers, still inside of me, began to move anew.
I knew whoever had asked for him wouldn’t linger when they realized he was busy and let myself enjoy the sensations.
My fingers were pruned by the time I screamed his name with my second release. Exhausted, I let my head fall forward to his shoulder. The water immediately vanished, and something soft tickled my skin as he carried me.
