Lady of the Underworld

by Skyler Andra

“No,” he said with such stubbornness, something so bound in tradition and so set in his ways, that he might not entertain a way out of it.

  “Will it throw things out of balance if you take her?”

  He didn’t answer that one.

  But then, God help me, I did. Hades was a man of deals. He made them, traded them, ensured they were delivered.

  “Take her,” I urged. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”

  He drew a quick breath, and his gaze sharpened like a predator finally figuring out where his prey had been hiding all this time. It made me go all shaky in a way that I didn’t have the words for. Defiantly, I lifted my chin at him.

  “Please.”

  “This is important to you?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, she is.”

  He considered this for a moment. “I’ll expect you to honor your word then.” He said it as if it were some kind of threat.

  I likely should have taken it as such, but my mouth dried out, and all I could do was nod. That was good enough for him. I realized I had promised an underworld god a future debt, something I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

  He brushed past me to talk to Tillie. They spoke together in what must have been her native tongue. At the first few words, she lit up like a lantern, and I realized with a pang that it must have been a long time since she had heard words that familiar. Together they talked for so long that I ended up sitting at the base of the tree, watching them through half-lidded eyes. God, I was tired and so cold. I rubbed at my arms. All this night work was killing me. What was with dead souls and nighttime?

  For a little while I must have dozed off because the next thing I was aware of was Tillie starting to glow. She laughed, a bright and crystal-clear sound, and then with a burst of light, she vanished.

  I blinked, letting Hades’ hand guide me to my feet.

  “So that’s it? She’s gone?”

  “We have come to a kind of agreement,” he said, his voice thoughtful. “It’ll work for the time being. She and I can revisit the idea, find another solution if need be.”

  “You’re a softie, after all,” I razzed with a slight smile that died away when he met my eyes.

  “I’m really not,” he said softly.

  Chapter 15

  Autumn

  After we got back into the car, Hades paused to watch me. It occurred to me as I fought back my sleepiness that I should have been genuinely weirded out if someone else stared at me like that, but with him, it was different.

  “I like it when you look at me like that,” I muttered.

  When he blinked at me, I gulped, realizing that I’d said it out loud.

  Junipers, Autumn, shut up now.

  This was what happened when I was sleepy. I just blurted out random stuff that got me in trouble.

  “You promised me anything I wanted,” he reminded, stirring trepidation within me.

  I nodded, knowing that while I trusted him not to abuse the vow, there was a long way between ‘okay’ and ‘abuse.’

  “What’s your price?” I asked.

  “I want twenty-four hours of your time,” he stated. “A full day and a night. You’ll obey me in every way. I will not do you any lasting hurt or real harm. But–” He paused, and I swallowed hard. It was likely the least objective thing to do at this point, but I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to him, from laying my hand over his. “But I want you,” he explained. “And this is a way for me to have you.”

  I shivered at the desire in the words. I could have pointed out that I was ready, willing, and able to repeat what we had done the night before, but that obviously wasn’t what he was after. No, this was something different, and right now there was absolutely no caution from me, not when it came to him.

  “I’m yours,” I said softly, and everything went dark.

  ***

  When I opened my eyes, we were on the floor, him holding me in his lap in the broad marble halls of his palace in the Underworld. He brushed my hair over and over and I moaned at how good it felt.

  “You were right. It was probably best we rode in the car,” I rasped, feeling woozy from the teleportation.

  “Yes.” He lifted me to my feet.

  He’d already changed into that robe that suited him so well. Some part of me wondered how I liked him best, whether it was in these robes or the suits that he seemed to prefer in my world. But before I could think much more about that, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me, deep, longingly and perfect.

  Oh, I thought as his immediate arousal poked through the loose fabric. I may concede that the robes have a certain appeal…

  The kiss took from me without offering anything in return. It couldn’t have been clearer that he was kissing me for his own pleasure, and that mine, intense as it was, was purely incidental. Somehow, that only turned me on more as I searched for my own pleasure. I clung to him, trying to deepen the kiss, but he threaded his fingers into my hair, holding me still as he continued exactly as he pleased. While I liked being handled like this, to be his to do as he wanted, part of it overwhelmed me and I sunk into the wonder of it. Someone else might have felt used by it, but a surge of power and heat burst through me. This was how much he wanted me. How much he needed me—what he was willing to bargain for.

  He broke our kiss long enough to look into my eyes. “Well? Do you wish to go back on our bargain?”

  Something in me bridled at the idea that he thought of me as weak. Did he really think that a simple kiss fazed me? Did he think me that frail? Tonight, I wanted to belong to him completely.

  “You don’t scare me,” I challenged, which honestly might have been just about the dumbest thing I could have said.

  Instead of growing angry, he leaned forward and sucked my lower lip between his teeth, nipping at the sensitive flesh. The momentary pinch made me cry out with shock, and then his mouth was on mine again, drinking down my cry and sliding his tongue into my hunger before I could protest.

  All that mattered was touching him, reaching for him, letting him make me feel as if there were nothing else in the world but him. I was starved for him in a way that I barely understood, and I scratched at his skin as I clung to him, but I didn’t care.

  Hades pulled back, taking me by the hand, leading me down the hall. I suspected he might be taking me to bed, but he opened the door to a bathroom—if your standard bathtub was marble, stood on clawed feet, and big enough for three people.

  “Ooh,” I awed in spite of myself, making him grin a little.

  “So glad you are impressed,” he said. “Clothes off.”

  He spoke the words naturally as if he had every right to tell me to get out of my clothing, but for the next twenty-four hours, he did. He must have read my astonishment as reluctance because he took a step closer.

  “Do you need help?” His question contained the barest amount of menace, and I stepped backward even though a part of me wanted his hands all over me. I wasn’t ready for that yet, and something at the very core of me wanted to stretch the tension out.

  “As you command.” My own voice sounded shaky to my ears.

  I stripped quickly until I got to my underwear, hesitating. No matter how brave and easygoing I might be, some things were new. We’d been all over each other just the night before, but tonight was different. I hadn’t been standing in front of him with his hungry eyes on me last night.

  “Looks like you need the help after all,” he murmured, closing the distance between us.

  I opened my mouth, but whatever I said was lost in my gasp as he tore my bra and my panties away from me with two quick motions. One moment I had at least the scanty protection of my underthings, and the next, they were gone and I felt almost achingly vulnerable in front of him. In my haze, I was dimly aware of my things dropping to the ground, and then being wrapped in his arms as he kissed my face with an intense sweetness.

  “Oh, good girl,” he murmured against me. “I’ll teach you to like that.”

  Too late. I al
ready did.

  “I believe you owe me two pairs of panties,” I murmured breathily. “And a bra.”

  My reward for speaking out was a sharp slap to the rear. I cried out with both shock and delight.

  “I get to do what I like, remember that.”

  A shiver ran up my spine at his words, reminding me I was totally at his mercy.

  Ah, what the hell. I was one hundred thousand dollars richer and could easily replace the bra and underwear. He could tear off as many panties as he liked so long as he was paying!

  Again, his lips claimed mine, soothing away any pain and misgivings. I sunk into him with a mix of need and a strange calm.

  While he stopped to run the bath water, I rested with my head against his shoulder until he pulled away from me to help me into the tub. I whimpered at the heat of the water but adjusted after a moment, sighing and leaning back against the marble side. I expected Hades to come in with me, but he took a seat next to the tub and started to wash me.

  “This is what you want?” I asked.

  “Exactly what I want,” he said.

  Every stroke of his hand along my skin felt incredible. I lost the words to describe it. For years, when I washed myself and I thought I’d done a relatively reasonable job of it, but this was something different. He took his time, ensuring every inch of me glowed. I wasn’t sure what he used in my hair, massaging it in with firm motions, but it left it feeling soft and perfumed. By the end, some timeless space later, I was utterly boneless, letting his fingers turn me to nothing but pleasure and need.

  That now-familiar heat rose between us again, this time with absolutely no urgency to it. I’d been put into a place where the timing of release was going to be on Hades’ schedule.

  “Up on your hands and knees now, darling,” he ordered me.

  I purred at being called his darling, and without thinking about it, I rose up into the position he’d commanded. The water only came up to my chin in this position, and I shivered as he gently blew on the skin of my back.

  “Cold!” I panted.

  “Of course.” He pressed a warm rag up between my legs.

  “Oh, you can’t,” I whined, and his laugh—low, soft, and utterly without mercy—made me moan.

  “Of course I can.” His absolute authority had me letting go of everything but the arousal building from the strokes between my legs. “Stop thinking. Just feel.”

  I sunk into his touch and the pleasure he gave me. His caress was the only thing that mattered, and I chased the bright sparks of need flying through me at the speed of light.

  How can anything in the world feel this good?

  I didn’t know the answer to that. Only Hades knew, and he was using that answer to make me see stars. All I needed to do was brace myself in the warm water, eyes closed, legs spread, and react to what he was doing to me—making me shake and whimper with need. He used the same slow rhythm that he had used to wash me, acting as if he had no concept of time and no need to be doing anything else. His attention was solely focused on me, but it did so without being imposing.

  Tension kept growing in me until I rocked in the water, sending ripples across the surface. Heat built up, up, up, and just when it became unbearable, when I was sure that I would spill straight over… he stopped.

  “Hey!” I protested, which he rewarded with a brisk slap to the thigh. That made me cry out again, but my tone was entirely different from simply being startled.

  Huh. Learn something new about yourself every day.

  “You’re on my time right now,” he murmured just as he started touching me again, so I didn’t have the wit or the will to protest.

  I only wanted what he offered, and lots of it. In another time I might have been shocked at my own wanton greed, but as Hades had said, I was on his time right now.

  The coiled tension rose up in me faster and more powerfully this time, likely because I was chasing it. I braced myself, afraid that he might pull away as he had last time, leaving me gasping and wanting. In my delirium, I didn’t know if I could bear that a second time. In the corner of my mind, I almost felt sneaky, getting away with something that he wanted to keep out of my control for a little longer. I figured that there would be consequences or that I wouldn’t get away with it for very long given the fact that I could still feel the burn from his spank on my thigh, but at least I would have…

  That train of thought was derailed and then subsequently set on fire as I realized that Hades wasn’t stopping. In seconds, I couldn’t contain it any longer as my climax swept over me, consuming me with a speed that made my mouth drop open, my uncontrollable cries echoing off the marble walls. Shame and decorum were shoved straight out the door as his hand stilled on my flesh, letting me ride out the pleasure. By the end, I was left trembling and panting, almost shocked by how good it felt—having that rough fabric pressed against my clit, having him hold me open so he could reach the parts he wanted.

  “Wow, that was–”

  I was cut off by my own sharp gasp when his fingers started moving again over my sensitive spot. Unlike the gentle and almost indolent stroking that had come before, now he used a businesslike touch, as if this was a means to an end.

  Wait, what end…

  “What was it, dearest?” Hades inquired softly. “You were saying something.”

  “You’re… you’re touching me.” I shuddered when he inserted one finger inside me, exploring, giving my more sensitive flesh some time to recover, but still arousing me as intensely.

  “Yes?”

  “Why?”

  “I should think it would be obvious,” he said, and another finger joined the first. I felt none of the pain from the last time we’d done something like this, no shock and disruption. Only a sweet and smooth slide of pleasure, something so good that my eyes closed and my mouth fell open once more.

  “You’re beautiful,” he began slowly, “you’re mine, and I want you utterly exhausted with pleasure…”

  My ears registered him still talking, and I did my best to listen, but it was difficult above how my body tensed again, spiraling and plunging toward something that made me shiver with an indistinguishable need besides the obvious one. When I went over the edge a second time, it was with a wavering cry and a full body twitch that sloshed water all over Hades and the floor. But he obviously didn’t care because he didn’t stop. I didn’t know how much more I could take!

  “I… I can’t…” I cried.

  He paused, and I peeked up to meet his dark eyes. Something about his look shook me again to my core. One of complete and utter possession, but with so much depth to it that I thought I could have drowned in it. The palace could have burned down around us, but he might not have cared because it didn’t stop his penetrating gaze.

  “Does it hurt?” he asked.

  “What?” I could barely get a word out.

  A smack to the rear this time made me groan indulgently.

  “Does it hurt?” he repeated with more force.

  “No… no.” I recalled my dream, and the memory of him tying me up, and what he’d done to me… in another lifetime. I didn’t know why I was remembering these things like so or who I was in them.

  “Tell me if it does.”

  And that was all. Maybe it should have pissed me off, but all it did was send a delicious lassitude through my limbs. The only thing Hades asked of me was to tell him if it started to hurt, allowing me to just enjoy what he was doing without worrying about anything else.

  Things got a little fuzzy after that. I got lost in what he did to me, my climaxes lighter and shallower, but repeatedly coming. Rolling over me with the inevitability of the tides, exhausting me until finally I had to reach back, shaking my head.

  “No… no more.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “It’s starting to.”

  Hades pulled his hand away, stood up, and retreated. For a moment, I stupidly worried that I’d pissed him off somehow. Before I could do or say something silly,
he was at the edge of the bathtub again with an enormous fluffy towel. Lifting me, he wrapped it around my body. The pure luxurious delight of the cotton and his embrace as he scooped me up in his arms calmed me more than anything in the world could. I pressed my head against his shoulder as he carried me out of the bathroom.

  I murmured with pleasure as he gently kissed my forehead. I couldn’t remember a time when I had ever felt this good. Hadn’t even known it was possible. It felt like some kind of strange and rare treat to be so exhausted and saturated with need and desire. And still, I wasn’t quite satisfied yet.

  When he laid me down on a bed outfitted with black silk sheets, I clung to a fold of his robe, refusing to let him leave.

  “Not done yet,” I said, aware that my voice was hoarse from crying out.

  In the dim light, he raised an eyebrow. “No?”

  “I want…” I made some kind of strange gesture in the air with my hands. “You. Want you.”

  He leaned back, his posture tall and proud, which told me that my request hadn’t been in the plans. I imagine he probably intended to let me sleep for a bit, because yeah, I was worn out. Then perhaps he might continue where we left off.

  But I wasn’t done yet—at least not until he was—so I propped myself up on my elbow, looking at him. “Please?”

  Hades swore, and a thought in the back of my mind wondered when he had learned Russian, or something that sounded a great deal like it.

  “Look at you,” he said, already stripping off his robe. “You can barely move.”

  “So move me,” I returned with a grin. The way he threw his shoulders back made my stomach clench with renewed desire.

  “At a future time, you are going to pay for that,” he warned, crawling over me.

  “Not now?” I teased, wishing for him to tie me up like he had in the memory in my dream, or spank me again. That way he could have his way with me and I didn’t have to do a thing.

  He answered in the form of pulling a few pillows from the head of the bed and throwing them at the center. Then he picked me up and threw me over them with the same strength. I whimpered, and then he was on me, spreading my legs, his weight draping over me like something I’d been wanting for years.