Though, I did love Gavin’s washboard. It was fun to lick and watch contract when I played with his cock.
Hades was puffing on a cigar, the red and orange fire igniting when he drew a smoke. He looked over me coolly, and I couldn’t tell if it was a disapproving gaze or just his regular look.
“Hades,” I managed, clutching my chest. “I didn’t realize you were here. Wait. How did you—“
“I’m Hades, love,” he said. “I don’t wait.”
I almost smiled.
He moved his chin to the seat next to him, and I hesitantly sat beside the God of the Underworld. Absolute power radiated off of him, so much that every breath I tried to take came up short, and I cleared my throat just to continue living.
“How are you finding things?” he asked.
“A little weird,” I admitted. “Three weeks ago, I almost thought Gavin was being untruthful about being a god.”
What looked to be a smirk rose on his lips. “I should have removed the glamour from Cerberus that day. It would have helped.”
God, that day seemed like a lifetime ago.
My being engaged to another man felt like a lifetime ago.
“You’re just like you were back then,” he said, and my ears perked up. No one had talked about the ‘me’ whom they’d known, other than Hermes vaguely mentioning it.
“Curious. Mildly cautious,” Hades continued. “The first time you came to the Underworld, I thought, this girl is fearless.” He puffed again on his cigar. “Here you were, a mere mortal girl, performing tasks for one of the most ruthless women I knew, all for the love of her son.”
“Do you know how to get my memory back?” I asked, hoping he might.
“You’ll need to find who took you first,” he replied.
“Do you know?”
He shook his head as he blew out an ‘O’ of smoke. “I only know how upset my wife was that day,” he answered. “Some of your lapses could be because of the trauma of what happened, not just because Aph attempted to protect her son. I think you’ve pulled so far away from that memory because of the pain that you’ve locked it away from yourself.”
I stared into my cup of coffee and considered his theory. Maybe he was right. Perhaps I had stuffed it away in some chamber, never to be thought of again.
An audible sigh left him, one that made me glance his way. “That’ll be the rest of the calvary,” he said with an upward nod to the headlights in the distance—more gods waiting on the sun to rise so that they could also enter. He lifted his coffee mug to me and pushed out of his chair, groaning as he did. He cracked his neck once, then padded off toward the opposite side of the pool where I knew the villa was that Persephone had chosen for them.
“Let yourself breathe, Chloe,” he called back. “You’ll find it.”
My phone lit up before I could give his suggestion a second thought. A picture of Lana and me from the wedding came on the display, making me smile as I hit the green button to answer.
“Good morning, gorgeous,” she said, smiling widely. “Fuck me. Is it still dark?”
“Barely purple,” I said, looking out at the skyline. “Guess who I just had a conversation with?”
“Zeus?” she asked, and I think she thought she was teasing me.
“Hades, actually,” I answered.
She sputtered up her tea. “Like Hades, God of the Underworld, Hades.”
I sipped my coffee. “He’s hot, too.”
“Oh, fuck me,” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “I hate you.”
I laughed. “God, I have so much to tell you,” I said.
“So, spill.”
