Desperate Housewives of Olympus

by DeWylde, Saranna

  He’d taken Persephone because he hadn’t thought he could have her any other way. And she was too pure, too innocent. It was like he’d seen something in a shop, but didn’t have the money to pay for it, so he’d taken it, but he’d never wanted to do anything with it. It was a pretty bauble he wanted to have for the sake of having. He’d coveted her, yes, but he’d never truly loved her.

  All of those years of denial hadn’t only been for Persephone—they’d been for him too. He hadn’t wanted to spoil his prize.

  Hera was none of those things. She loved him with the heart of a goddess grown, of a woman. She knew it was almost time to give him her heart, in the literal sense. So he could understand. He’d feel all the things she felt and he’d know her feelings for him were genuine. She wasn’t worried about losing any of her devotion to him, or feeling any of the hungry shadows he’d whispered about in dark promise. For Hera loved him with her soul too—with every fiber of her being.

  “This means nothing to me, Hera.”

  “Are you trying to hurt me?”

  “No, I’m simply being honest.”

  “I prefer the hard truth to a pretty lie any day.”

  It was in that instance that Hera saw the truth for what it was—not the words from his tongue that were like acid, but it was in his eyes. The blue flame had died and it was replaced with the warm chocolate she’d longed to see. He would love her, only he didn’t know it yet.

  Hera reached up and brushed her knuckles over his cheek. “Don’t stop, Hades. Take what’s yours.”

  He growled low in his throat as if the very words she spoke had cut him somehow.

  “How can it be mine? I’ve given you no soft words.” His hands were on her hips and he held her flush against him.

  “I told you, it’s yours. Now. Forever. No soft words in payment, only honesty.”

  “Why?” he asked again.

  He’d already questioned her so many times before. Why, indeed. She’d told him. It was as if he didn’t understand the concept. For a smart god, he was being unreasonably obtuse. As if he couldn’t fathom her reasons, as if what she said couldn’t possibly be true.

  She didn’t speak the words again; he wasn’t ready to hear them. Instead she kissed him tenderly and said with lips all the things she couldn’t with her voice.

  A sound of desire spiked with the knives of despair was torn from him and Hades grabbed her hair and tilted her face back so he could search her face.

  “Deny me.”

  “No.” There was no defiance in her voice, only quiet resolve.

  “What if I bent you over this divan and had you right here?”

  “You can have me anywhere.” She turned from him carefully, his hand still in her hair and she bent over the back of the divan.

  Hera was fully clothed, but she’d never felt more naked. His sharp intake of breath indicated he liked it, but what would he do about it? His other hand slid down and cupped the rounded globes of her ass.

  “Anywhere? Are you sure about that, Hera?”

  “Yes,” she promised, with no hesitation. It didn’t matter if he was still testing her or not. She was his, body and soul. There was nothing he could ask to do to her that she wouldn’t allow. Except treat her as Zeus had, although she was beginning to think even if he did, it wouldn’t matter because she loved him. Being apart from him would be more painful than what any of his actions could bring.

  But surprisingly, she had faith he wouldn’t. She trusted him.

  Hera arched in to the caress and braced legs wide apart. “Anything, Hades.”

  He jerked her leathers down around her thighs and she gasped as the cool air hit her naked skin. She shivered with the chill as well as anticipation. Hades cupped her ass again, but his fingers gravitated up toward her hips and suddenly, she felt the warmth of his breath across her sex.

  He’d positioned himself beneath her, between her legs and he kissed her there, his tongue gently pushing at her seam. It shot waves of pleasure through her so sharp, she was thankful to be braced on the divan. His hot tongue was on her clit, flicking hard and fast—just as the sensation built to a fervor, he stopped to thrust inside of her again.

  She cried out and pushed against him—her need seemed to please him, to drive him. He focused on her clit again and Hera fisted the woodwork finishing on the back of the divan, her nails marring the soft cherry wood.

  Hades entered her with his fingers and tugged lightly on her clit with his teeth while he worked it with his tongue. She tightened her channel around his fingers as her orgasm rocketed through her. Hera was still riding the waves of pleasure, her knees weak when she felt him behind her.

  She knew from experience how big his cock was and she stiffened when he pressed himself against her. Did he really mean to take her there? Hera tried to relax as she awaited his next touch.

  His long, solid body covered her and he placed a soft kiss at the base of her neck. He grasped her hips and angled them so that she was splayed even wider before him and then he thrust into the wet heat of her slit.

  She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed, but she couldn’t think about it now, not with him inside of her. He filled her and held her angled for maximum penetration.

  He thrust into her roughly and his hands moved from her hips to her breasts.

  “Don’t love me,” he whispered raggedly.

  “Why?” she managed before she bit down on her lip to fight the sensations he wrought in her.

  He slowed his rhythm; kissed her neck again and then brushed his lips against the shell of her ear. “Because then Fate will take you away.”

  She bucked against him, matching his pace; pleaded with him to give her more. His confession had made her soar—he needed her for more than this heat between them. Hades’ body went rigid, he was about to come.

  “I don’t love you,” he said tenderly as he spilled inside of her.

  But he did. She didn’t know how, not with his heart in a wooden box, but his words had been a sweet confession. Hera knew it in her soul.

  “I don’t love you too.” Oh, gods, if she were wrong…

  He teleported them from behind the divan, to on the divan, and Hera was atop him, her leg thrown across his thigh and he held her with her head on his chest. It was then she saw his scar was gone and she could feel his heart beating beneath her cheek.

  “How?” she asked and traced a nail down his sternum.

  “I heard it beating thunderously loud when we got back. I went to look and it shot itself into my chest, the bastard. Like one of those face huggers from Alien.” He was silent for a long moment and Hera was contest simply to be in his arms. “I knew it beat for you,” he said more quietly as if he were afraid someone would hear.

  “Did it hurt?”

  “Worse than prying it out. It tore my scar wide, I could see my ribs. I thought for sure you’d heard it happen.”

  “Your thirty-four headed shower is kind of loud and you’re more than a little bit of a hardass.”

  He loved her! His heart beat in his chest and it was of its own accord. Hera was almost giddy with the joy that was a starburst inside of her. She splayed her hand over his chest beneath her cheek and she was happy to simply feel its beat.

  “I gave you a way out, Hera.” His heart was beating faster now. He was afraid? Or was he angry he felt something for her?

  “I don’t want a way out.”

  “Silly goddess.”

  “Silly god,” she corrected. “Don’t you know how perfect you are to me? Maybe not the world, but me?”

  “You have to stop saying these things, Hera. Fate will—,”

  “Fate will nothing!” A woman began to take shape and Hera recognized her voice. It was Thalia.

  “Uh,” Hera indicated her nakedness.

  “I don’t care. I’m sick and tired of being blamed for everything that you think is a bad thing. Tell your woman you love her. Right now!” Thalia stomped her foot.

  His p
oor heart was doing an Irish Jig in his chest. He clamped his mouth shut and shook his head in the negative. Even when Thalia narrowed her eyes. He obviously thought it was some kind of test.

  “I’m not kidding,” she warned and pulled out what looked to be an embroidery sampler. “I will cut your thread…”

  “Thalia, I thought you were the Muse of Comedy?”

  “I am, but it’s my turn to sit in the Fate chair. And isn’t Fate supposed to be funny?”

  Fate was funny like that.

  “You know, Hades, I really ought to cut your thread this very minute. Do you have any idea how much work it’s been to get you to this very moment? Everything you thought was a shit sundae, to borrow Hera’s terminology, was a calculated move on my part to get you here. Now you’re telling me you don’t trust me? It’s bullshit. Unless you don’t want Hera?”

  “It’s okay, Thalia. I don’t love him either,” she said with a soft smile.

  “You two assholes deserve each other. Really. After that long heartfelt confession about the sun in the sky and dying stars and you’ve been reduced to giggly little middle school games? Ungrateful wretches.”

  “Oh, no. We’re grateful. We’re beyond grateful. Thank you, Thalia.” When Hades didn’t say anything she elbowed him. “Aren’t you thankful?”

  He still looked like a kid whose mom had asked if he had anything he needed to tell her and his brain was filing through the catalogue of fuck ups and he was deciding what to tell her that would get him in the least trouble if it wasn’t the thing she already knew about.

  He snapped out of it. “Very thankful.”

  “Yeah, you better be. You and your brother have been the biggest pain in my ass since I took the job. I’m glad to be done with you. Him, I don’t know if I’ll ever get there.”

  “I guess the job is pretty stressful. You never used to speak so harshly.”

  “Trying to manage spoiled petulant gods will do that to you. Nothing tarnishes a muse faster than being smacked with the banality dick.”

  Hera giggled. “Sorry. I wasn’t difficult was I?”

  “Oh no, you even asked for my help, which I was happy to provide. Listen, let’s do lunch later this…century, probably is when I’ll be free. But I have to run.”

  “Great. Maybe you’ll stop in to Jean Pierre’s. It sounds like you need a girl’s day.”

  Thalia sighed, “I do.” Then she looked at Hera again. “Sorry about the whole, well, naked.”

  “It’s good. Really. Nothing could spoil this.”

  “Are you sure?” She raised a brow. “Sorry again. The nature of Fate again.”

  “See! I knew I shouldn’t…” Looks from both women quelled him and he closed his mouth.

  Thalia disappeared.

  “I’m still not saying it.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I don’t want you to say it.”

  “What?”

  “It was weak of me to want to hear it, it’s better than ambrosia on your lips. But don’t say it.”

  “Fine. I don’t love you. I don’t love you. I don’t love you. I don’t love you. What about that? Can I say that?”

  “I don’t love you either, Hera. Not until the universe itself goes dark and quiet. Forever.”

  Who knew saying I don’t love you could be so romantic?

  “Forever,” she echoed.

  He was quiet again before he asked, “Stay?”

  “Yes.”

  “For always?”

  “Always.”

  “You don’t need any time to yourself to find out who you are?”

  “Have you been reading my Cosmo?” She looked up at him.

  “Maybe.”

  “Do you want me to take time away?” After all they’d been through, did he really want her to go gallivanting off on some quest to find herself when what she wanted was right here?

  “Never.” His reply was fierce and strong. “I don’t want you to feel trapped or…I don’t want to be the rebound.”

  “Oh please. Zeus and I may have just gotten divorced, but our marriage has been dead for centuries. I know who I am. I know what I want and it’s ‘not loving’ you and being with you for all eternity.”

  “Do you want a proper wedding?” Hades asked softly.

  “You didn’t ask me to be your wife,” she teased.

  Oh gods! Did she want the wedding? Hera was getting her happily ever after and suddenly, she was afraid if she closed her hands around it, she’d fuck it up. She hadn’t planned on what to do after I love you. Or don’t love you, as the case happened to be.

  “And I don’t have to either. You already said you were mine. Mine involves…” he paused as if he didn’t have a good explanation. “Being mine. You can choose the flowers and the cake, but we’re doing this.”

  She’d rather he’d pressed the anal sex issue than demand a wedding. Her mother had taken a century to plan her wedding to Zeus. A CENTURY. Why couldn’t they just keep being together the way they were? Shit, if she kept thinking this way, she was going to have to turn in her Chick Card.

  “How about something small?” she conceded.

  “How about not? Don’t you want to be the princess and do the carriage and whatever else females like to have at these things?”

  She couldn’t believe he was serious. “There’s no point in having the whole shebang unless it’s a coronation ceremony too.”

  “Whatever you want, Hera.”

  Damn. She’d thought that would put him off. It didn’t matter, Hera realized. Hades was her forever and she’d deny him nothing. If he wanted her to be a fairy princess in a white dress on their wedding day, she would be. This didn’t matter. She didn’t need a ceremony to tell her where her heart lay.

  “Okay, Hades. I’ll wear the dress and we’ll have a grand ball.”

  “Make sure you give me enough time to prepare for war with my brother before you send your invitations. He won’t take this coronation thing lightly.”

  He’d really go through with it. For her. Hera knew she couldn’t ask him to do that now. Not over something that didn’t matter so much to either of them. “I know you don’t want it and you don’t want to fight with him. What about if I quit my job and ‘stayed home’?” She smiled against his shoulder.

  “Abdicate your crown? To who?”

  “Abstinence.”

  “You love being queen.” He pushed her hair behind her ear and continued to touch her hair.

  “I think I’ve had enough of it, actually. I’ve been thinking on it since Abstinence told Zeus that a crown didn’t make him who he was. And she was right. I only want to be with you. That’s my job now.”

  “Now and forever,” he reiterated as if he still couldn’t believe this had happened.

  Hera couldn’t either, but she wasn’t going to question Fate.

  ABSTINENCE

  Her first instinct had proven to be the winning horse right out of the gate. She immediately regretted rescinding her demand that Zeus leave her in peace. He wasn’t even trying to make her fail and just looking at him was enough to make her yearn for things she knew could never be hers. He would never truly love her. He might think he did, but Zeus was too selfish to love anyone as deeply or completely as he loved himself. Making love with him without the returned emotion would definitely be indulging herself. It would be fucking, not making love.

  Then she’d be back up shit creek with half a paddle and a hole in her boat. Or maybe just a capsized kayak? Either way, it would stink.

  Right now, he seemed content to cook with her. Which was just weird. The King of the Gods was in her bare kitchen whipping up lasagna. When he’d asked to cook, she thought for sure he would try to make something in truffle oil, oysters or something else associated with sex. Lasagna pretty tame compared to what she was expecting. For which she was eternally thankful. Oysters made her want to blow chunks. She’d never had them prepared in any way that tasted like anything other than slimy vomit.


  He was also humming La Donna E Mobile. Damn if that wasn’t sexy as hell watching his hands work the dough. Yeah, he even made his own noodles. That made her knees weak and her thighs quiver like nothing else. Worse? Her mouth was watering. She felt like a slobbering bulldog.

  She didn’t know how well this boded for her previously slender figure. Abstinence had been eating like a pig. Well, it was piggery for her. Probably normal for everyone else. Zeus always loaded her plate up like it was for a starving family of seven so she could eat her fill and there would still be more than half left on the plate.

  Abstinence wondered how long that could be considered abstaining and if she were cheating Fate. She knew no matter what she thought she was getting away with now, if she were cheating, it would come and take a big bite out of her ass sooner or later.

  Truthfully, she hoped she was doing the right thing. Abstinence loved the taste of food, but she wouldn’t make herself ill for it. So far, there’d been no repercussions, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Part of her said she should abstain from ingesting food completely, but he loved to cook and she loved to eat.

  It was probably a good thing she’d gotten this gig or she’d be a million pounds and they’d have to roll her out of her house. Or cut out a wall. She licked her lips in anticipation as he dropped the noodles into the boiling pot. Her favorite part of the lasagna was actually the cheese. The more cheese the better. Actually, if there wasn’t enough cheese to stop an elephant’s heart, she didn’t want any. The same with pizza. She especially loved the hard, crusty bits of cheese that crisped on the edges. Yeah, that was nowhere near abstaining because she could eat that stuff with a steam shovel instead of a fork.

  Zeus poured another glass of wine and handed this one to her. “So, have you thought any more about what I said?”

  Not this again. “We’ve been over this before. Let’s not ruin a nice evening, okay? I like spending this time with you, but if you’re going to pressure me, I don’t think we can see each other,” Abstinence snapped. She knew it had been too good to be true, he would never leave it alone. For self-preservation, Abstinence was going to have to break her promise to him. Every time he asked her, she was a little bit closer to breaking. He almost had her convinced she wouldn’t die. He could sell a litter box to a dog.