In the Arms of Hades: A Sinful, Twisted Retelling Read online

  It’s only when he steps over the threshold that I notice he’s walked into my bedroom. The space is vast, with cream and pink furnishings. I shut the door with a soft click, then meet his curious gaze.

  “You should be afraid of being in here alone, blossom,” he says. The smirk he gifted me earlier returning once more.

  “I told you, my fear is not of you, my king,” I retort, lifting my chin in indignation, which earns me a dark, rumbling chuckle.

  He closes the distance, causing me to step backward, and a gasp falls from my lips when I find myself flush against the wooden door. His body towers over me, caging me in, and I realize there’s no escape. Not that I want to.

  A hand trails over my cheek, down my neck, then trickles down my arm. Goosebumps rise in its wake. He finally reaches my hip, gripping it painfully.

  “I could do things to you right here, and nobody will know,” he threatens darkly.

  Meeting his feral gaze, I respond, “Then do it.”

  Three words and his hands are bunching up the long skirts of my dress. With a gentle tug, the material of my panties is gone in an instant, ripped from my slim frame.

  “Is this what you crave, blossom?” he growls in my ear when his fingers reach my core. A gentle whimper tumbles from my lips. His chest vibrates against me with a rumble low in his throat as one digit strokes my slick heat.

  “Please,” I plead as my hips roll against the palm of his hand. The friction against my most intimate area seems to strike a match, lighting a fire in my center so fierce it heats my skin.

  My head drops back; my eyes flutter closed. When he dips his finger into me, I can’t stifle the pleasurable moan. In and out, he pumps the single digit and then I feel another join. My hands fly up, holding onto his shoulders as a release tightens low in my stomach.

  “So beautiful, sweet blossom,” he coos in my ear, sending gentle rivulets of desire over the bare flesh of my neck. “Unravel for me. Drench me in your juices.” His words add fuel to the flames dancing within me, and I can’t hold back any longer. My body shudders violently as I find release so euphoric I cry out as pleasure skitters through me, down my spine, and ultimately soaking his fingers.

  He pulls his hand from between my thighs, lifting both digits to my lips. With a dirty smirk adorning his handsome face, he paints my arousal on my top lip, then the plump lower one.

  “Exquisite.” He nods, crashing his mouth to mine. His tongue laps at the juices on my mouth, licking into me, tasting my very essence. One kiss and I know I’ll spend an eternity in the darkness with him. But before I can tell him, he vanishes as quickly as he appeared only moments ago.

  5

  Hades

  It’s only been seconds since I left her, but her scent still surrounds me. The taste of her, deeply intoxicating, sits on my tongue.

  “Brother,” Zeus calls to me when I enter the dining hall. He’s sitting at a long table, decked with the finest crockery, chalices filled with wine, and thankfully, he’s alone. Demeter, his wife, is nowhere to be seen, and I know this will be my only chance to ask for Persephone’s hand.

  “How are you?” I ask, settling beside him, knowing I need to do this quickly.

  He nods, offering me a drink, which I gratefully accept. “I’m well. We’ve been planning another meeting with suitors for Persephone. It’s time she marries.”

  Gulping the crimson liquid, I nod in understanding. I set the chalice down and meet his eyes. “I have just seen her. She’s . . . Intoxicating,” I tell him. Lowering my voice, I lean in. “I want her hand, Zeus.”

  “Over my dead body,” the voice of Demeter booms from behind me, causing me to snap my gaze toward her. “You will not take my daughter to that vile place. She is meant to live in the light,” she tells me, moving closer to her husband.

  Landing my stare on my brother, I try to read his schooled, emotionless expression. “Listen—”

  “No, you will not take her.” Her words are final as she marches from the dining hall, leaving Zeus and me in the wake of her anger.

  “You will love her?” he questions me a moment later, and I nod without hesitation. “Then you have one moment to steal her away. I’m doing this because we’re family. I will keep Demeter here. All you need to do is get Persephone out to the garden . . .” He doesn’t finish the sentence because I know the rear of the fields will allow me to open the gateway to the Underworld.

  “When?” I question, my body alert and ready to kidnap a girl I’ve just met.

  “Make your way up to her now. I’ll ensure my wife is distracted long enough.”

  I nod, watching him rise. His footfalls sound on the marble floor. “Thank you,” I utter before he leaves the room, but he doesn’t respond. I move with haste, heading up the stairs to the bedroom I was in moments before.

  I don’t knock before shoving the door open.

  “What—?”

  I cut her off by grabbing her slight frame, covering my hand over her mouth. In my arms, I hold the woman who will become my queen. She struggles, but I don’t let go. Taking the corridor toward the back of the house, I find the exit and step out into the cloudy evening.

  “Mmm-hmm.” Her mumbles behind my hand are the only sound besides my breathing. Her body trembles, but I’m not sure it’s from fear. She doesn’t fight, and she merely allows me to steal her away.

  My heart hammers wildly, knowing I’m about to have a queen. Once we’re far enough away from the castle, the ground shudders and vibrates as the entrance opens. I watch as the earth yawns, and I leap into the darkness with Persephone.

  The lower we travel, the darkness envelops us more. My world appears before us, and that’s when I finally release the beauty.

  “What are you doing? My mother—”

  “Your mother will not know of this until she returns later to your bedroom to find you gone. You will be my queen,” I tell her adamantly.

  Fire blazes in her eyes, burning me more so than the raging fires of Hell. “This is unacceptable. You cannot walk into my home and take me without my consent.” Her words are spit with venom, which only serves to anger me.

  My hand juts out, gripping her slender throat. “You are mine.” I enunciate the words with adamant conviction. “Get used to this, sweetheart. It is your world now as much as mine.”

  Releasing her, I stalk toward the entrance of the castle and find Cerberus guarding the door. When his eyes land on Persephone, the questions he pins me with, in one look, makes me smile.

  Inside, I head toward the library, and I hear her soft footfalls behind me.

  “This is…,” she utters, words trailing into silence as she takes in the beauty of the darkness. The butler enters with the fruit I requested — freshly sliced pomegranates.

  “Eat,” I tell her, gesturing to the silver tray he sets on the small wooden table. “Once you do, I’ll show you to your chambers where you can dress for tonight when we wed.”

  Her mouth opens, then shuts. She flits her gaze between the fruit and me. Questions dance in her mind, but I allow her silence for now. My body is rigid with fear that she’ll deny me. That she’ll want to leave. But then, I watch in awe as she eats the fruit. Her lips turn dark pink. Exquisite. And I know I’ve made the right choice.

  6

  Persephone

  The room he’s put me in is beautiful. The darkness surrounding the castle is dreary, but it’s the desire he’s unfurled in me. From the moment he touched me to the second, he kidnapped me.

  Stalking to the window, I tug the heavy, velvet, deep red curtains open to find nothing but flames licking through the trees. However, they’re not burning. Instead, they’re black like coal from a fire.

  The demons who work for Hades stalk around the pathways, not caring if they get burned. But I know they won’t, they’re tarnished in ways that humans could never fathom, and even as each flame licks against them, they don’t even flinch. “They’re all souls sent down here because of their life on Earth. They’re mi
ne to control, to rule over. My army.” His voice comes from behind me. Shallow, yet dark and wary.

  “And you torture them?” I turn, facing him now. In the dim light of the house, he looks majestic. A king in his own right. The ruler of the darkness.

  “I do.”

  “Do you enjoy it?” I ask the question, but I know the answer. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t revel in the maiming.

  “There are times it becomes rather pointless, but it all depends on the soul that’s been sent down. Some crave the pain, but others” — he smiles, the sight stealing my breath — “those who beg for mercy, those are the ones I enjoy most of all.”

  “Inflicting everlasting pain on people makes you happy,” I say, stepping down from the window, closing the distance between us. “Why me, Hades? Why choose me?”

  “Your light is magnificent. I want to bask in it. Touching you, I find solace. My mind is no longer my own, but instead, filled with you.” He reaches for my face, lifting it toward his until our mouths are inches apart. The heat between our bodies causes mine to tingle. There’s a pull between us, electric, magnetic.

  “I . . . I’m not sure I belong here,” I utter ever so quietly. There’s more I want to say, but I’m unsure how to approach it.

  “I want to claim you, sweet princess. I want to feel your body connecting with mine,” he murmurs calmly. The temptation of his silver tongue trickles down my spine like hot liquid, searing my flesh, causing the heat between my legs to become uncomfortable. “Do you want me to touch you once more, my queen?” he asks. There’s no mistaking the man. He’s utterly vicious — vile and dangerous — but the more he speaks, the more I find myself under his spell.

  “I’d like for you to show me more of who you really are.” I’m confident when I respond when I tell him what I need and want. “I crave the pleasures of the flesh.”

  “Then I’ll gift those to you,” he informs me confidently. “I want to bathe in your essence, to mark you with my tongue, my body.” His words ignite a fire within me so fierce I’m utterly breathless. “Your porcelain flesh will wear the bruises of our love,” he promises.

  He lifts me against his solid form. I feel his hardness pressing into me. He needs me as much as I do him. He lays me down—gently as if I were a glass figurine. The long skirts of my dress are ripped away, torn from my delicate frame.

  I watch in awe. My gaze drawn to him as he undresses before me. My cheeks heat in a blush so deep and warm my skin tingles. My rapt attention is what he basks in as he stands before me a man. The monster he hides is raging within him; I see it in his dark gaze, but he restrains it for the moment.

  “Open your thighs, my queen. Show me what I now own,” he orders. The command jolts me, alighting my nerves with currents of electric need as I splay myself lewdly for a man who’s too old for me, far too dangerous, my core pulses.

  He drops to his knees, his mouth peppering gentle kisses on my thighs. His hot tongue lapping at the flesh that turns molten. I’m hot, needy, and wet. He blows on the entrance to my body, the place no man has ever seen.

  “I trust you’re pure. You smell it.” I nod. “The innocence you have is causing me to hunger for you, Persephone,” he tells me with adoration dripping from every word. “Such beautiful, pink petals that remind me of the orchid.” His fingers open me to his hungry, feral gaze. His tongue darts out, lapping at the heated flesh of my pussy.

  I cry out, my fingers fisting the sheets beneath me as Hades himself devours my flesh. His fingers probe me. They open me as he scissors two long digits into my virgin body. Back and forth, in and out. I’m about to come apart when he reaches my resistance.

  Dark eyes glare at me, watching for my ascent that he can take it. That it’s his to claim. The pressure he ignites deep within my core feels heavy, and my body quivers with want for more.

  “Tell me, my queen, is this mine?” he questions as his fingers probe deeper without breaking the thin layer of my innocence.

  “Yes, my king. It is yours to claim, devour, and own.” I open my legs farther, wanting him to make me his, finally. To call me his Queen. I want to rule beside him in the darkness.

  Suddenly, pain shoots through every nerve in my body. I’m alight as pleasured-pain makes me whimper, my nails digging into the mattress as his mouth lands on my core, suckling away my innocence. I should be shocked at his action, at what he’s doing, but I’m not.

  When he finally pulls away, his mouth glistens with a mixture of my arousal and my virginity that I’ve bathed him in. As he pulls both digits from my core, he brings them to his lips, suckling my essence from them with fire dancing in his eyes.

  “Now, my sweet, you’re completely mine.” He rises, fisting the thick shaft jutting from between his muscular thighs. “Taste my need for you,” he commands. I find myself on my knees, eager to please the king. My mouth tentatively circles around the tip of him, tasting the salty-sweet juice that trickles onto my tongue.

  His fingers tangle in my long waves, holding my head steady as he takes what he needs from me. His hips piston to my face, the thickness of him driving into my warm, wet mouth as he uses me for pleasure. My eyes peek up at him, watching his own pleasure as it plays on the handsome face of the king. My king.

  “Yes,” he hisses as I choke on the tip of his cock. The thing I know he’ll soon enter me with. He’ll connect us physically, and I want nothing more than to feel full of him, of all he has to give me.

  Suddenly, he pulls me from his body.

  “Time for us to finally consummate this marriage.” He chuckles, and I know it’s because we’re not yet married, but I don’t care. I need this now, right here, as he offers it to me.

  He leans in, a looming figure over my much smaller one.

  “You’re utterly exquisite,” he murmurs once more, and I lift my body to his, wanting him to enter me and devour me, piece by piece. The movement of his hips causes me to gasp. A smirk tilts his mouth into a knowing smile. “How I hunger to taste your sweet crimson.”

  “Then do it,” I beg.

  7

  Hades

  She’s temptation in human form.

  She’s beautiful, intoxicating, delicious.

  I lean in. Her body shudders beneath mine with every inch I push into her. Tight, wet, warm. Nothing could’ve prepared me for her body, her innocence, and virtue that I tasted from my fingers.

  My mouth suckles the flesh on the curve of her neck. She begged for me to devour her, and I plan to. I bite down hard, my teeth scraping against the creamy, smooth skin.

  “Hades,” she utters my name like a siren song. Calling me to my death, I’d gladly spend eternity in Hell with her. My fingers press into her hips, holding her down as I plunge into her depths. Wanting to crawl inside her, to burrow myself in her soul. I need to feel her break beneath me so I can renew her once more.

  “Cry for me,” I urge her, my body slamming into her harder, faster. She gasps at the brutality I use her with, but I crave this. Her nails scrape down my back, clawing my flesh. I know she’s drawing blood, and I don’t care, because I’ll soon feast on hers.

  “Please, please,” she pleads, the words falling from her mouth in short gasps of air as I steal her breath. I find purchase on her neck, my teeth severing the smooth skin. The crimson liquid of her drips into my mouth, over my tongue, sending pleasure roaring through my veins.

  I suck harder. I’ll bruise her. I’ll mark her as mine. When her mother comes for her, she’ll see that I’ve defiled her daughter. I’ve claimed her already, and there’ll be nothing she can do about it.

  “Oh, god!” Persephone cries out beneath me as her body tightens around my length, soft, quickened flutters of her orgasm pull me in deeper. I won’t last much longer. I can’t. Not in a body this perfect.

  “My seed will bathe you, my queen,” I growl in her ear. Her blood dripping from my lips, I feel it shooting through me as I empty myself inside her womb. I trust soon she’ll bear my children. We’ll form
an army. I’ll keep her swollen and warm, near me, so she can’t offer herself to anyone else.

  “I knew I was meant for something in this life,” she speaks, her voice almost too quiet for me to hear her. “I’ve dreamed of you.” Her words ring true. The years I’ve spent down here have offered me glimpses of a nymph, a beautiful woman who would become my queen. I just didn’t know when she’d arrive. But now, in this moment, I’m convinced.

  * * *

  I’m waiting at the altar.

  We will be married tonight.

  A gentle stirring of my army from the pews alerts me there’s a flutter of excitement. My dark robes meld into the dimly lit room. Music plays in the background, some classical melody I don’t immediately recognize, but that’s not where my mind is.

  I’m thinking about the moment I tasted her virtue. The instant I sank myself into her. The moment I marked her as mine. All the images race through my mind as I recall with clarity how she cried out, how her nails raked down my back, and how the tightness of her enveloped me.

  The music changes, and when I glance up, I notice the girl at the door. She’s dressed in an off-white gown. Long, flowing, yet tight, hugging her curves ever so beautifully. Her long hair hangs down her back in soft waves, with curls framing her heart-shaped face.

  I watch in awe as she closes the distance. An aisle set up for this purpose, for me to have my fill of her in this moment. As soon as she’s beside me, we start the ceremony. As on earth, so it is in Hell. The only difference is that as soon as we kneel for our communion, we’re offered a chalice of blood instead of wine.

  She lifts it to her mouth, taking a tentative sip. The crimson on her lips causes me to want to take her once more. To claim her as mine. But I need to refrain for a moment. We nod in understanding, we speak our promises and vows, and then, we’re announced as King and Queen.