by Mila Young
It only pissed me off more, even though I’d knew this would be the outcome. What about the families out there who had no hope but to rely on the cops for their absent loved ones? On the bright side, Catina’s parents were alive, so the cops could contact them to ask questions about her disappearance.
I was beating the living shit out of a punching bag at the training center. I hadn’t wrapped my hands; I’d barely warmed up, but so much pent-up anger and stress and sorrow burrowed inside me. And I had no idea how else to deal with the fiery anger burning me up. Grief surged with every exhale, and nothing I did soothed the agony and regret over the fact that I should have kept my distance from Catina. Then X wouldn’t have targeted her. The emptiness in my heart left me hollow, and numbness thundered in my head. Tears crammed in the corners of my eyes, and I wiped the moisture with a shoulder. But I kept hitting the bag. Harder. Faster. Until it hurt so much I felt nothing else.
“Are you trying to kill it?” Ares asked behind me. I stared at him in the full-length mirror behind the punching bag. He wore jeans and a muscle tee. It seemed that look was his thing. He also had a pair of wraparound sunglasses on his head that looked silly with his hair cropped so short. Ares had never fit in, yet it worked on him perfectly.
I ignored him and kept hitting. He couldn’t make this pain go away, so I’d do it myself.
“Elyse,” he said. “Stop.”
No fucking way. I slammed the bag harder and harder.
“Elyse.” Ares’s voice climbed, and suddenly he stood next to me. He grabbed my wrists to stop me from striking and held them so we could both see my hands. My knuckles were raw and there were smears of blood smudged across the bag.
“Fight me instead,” Ares insisted.
I frowned. “I’ll get blood on your shirt.”
“Yeah, I don’t care about that. Seriously. Fight me. It will help.”
I avoided eye contact with him. “I’m not going to hit you, Ares. I just need to blow off some steam.”
“And combat is how you do it. I get it. Trust me, if there’s anyone who gets it, it’s me. It helps when you’re battling someone. That poor bag doesn’t stand a chance, and you won’t feel better, anyway.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Why was he so nice? Then I remembered our kiss, and how incredible he felt, how he made me forget myself.
“I’m not here to look for trouble,” he said in a soft voice, as if he’d heard my thoughts. “You should know that by now.”
I was starting to know Ares a little better, and he was nothing like what I’d first thought. Of course, I still remained wary of him, but that worry was born from stories I’d heard from others, and from what the history books said about him. I was realizing they were all wrong.
“Fine,” I agreed. “But you’re not dressed for it.”
Ares pulled down his jeans.
“Jesus,” I said when he stood in front of me with just his jock strap on, his package as clear as day. Were my cheeks burning up?
“Better?” He winked.
I laughed despite myself. “If you win, it’ll be cheating. No distractions.”
“You won’t have time to stare,” Ares teased, and his fist shot out at me before the vibrations in the air carrying his words even stopped shaking.
I ducked, moving faster than I’d been able to before. I was getting used to my new strength, my speed, the power that flowed through my veins.
I retaliated, threw fist after fist, and kicked. We fell into a rhythm. It wasn’t a fight, it was more like aggressive sparring. And it could do enough damage if we hadn’t both known what we were doing.
But Ares was ready for me every step of the way. And he’d been right. It helped to let out the frustration, the bubbling energy, the grief. We fought for an hour straight. Maybe more.
When I threw a punch and as he ducked, my body followed the momentum. He swung around and looped an arm across my stomach, catching me and keeping me from falling over.
“Thank you,” I whispered, breathing hard, and we both collapsed on the floor, gasping for air.
But he was barely breaking a sweat. The gods really had all the good and none of the bad.
“Don’t mention it. Feel like talking about what’s going on now?”
I groaned. “The point of this sparring was so I don’t have to think about what’s bothering me.”
“Humor me,” he said. “I promise it will help. And I was right the first time, wasn’t I?”
I couldn’t argue with him, especially when he sat next to me not wearing much, and I kept fighting the urge to lower my gaze.
“I feel helpless,” I admitted. “I wasn’t able to save Catina. X took her because of me.”
“X caught you off-guard,” Ares said.
“But that’s just it. When does he ever warn us he’s going to kill someone? That he took Catina is just proof I suck at my job. I’m all tied up about her disappearing when I haven’t been nearly this upset about every other soul X consumed. I’m supposed to look after humans, but what have I been doing?”
“What you can,” Ares responded, putting his hand on mine, his skin heated.
I lay on the floor and he did the same alongside me. I turned my head toward him. His eyes were like emeralds and so intense I felt as if he were staring right into my soul.
“It’s not enough,” I said. “All those innocents have families who are grieving for them, and I should have done more to help.”
“So,” Ares replied, rising up on his elbow next to me, “do more.”
It sounded so simple when he said it. And maybe it was, but the thought of doing even more never hit me this hard before. Catina’s kidnapping had messed me up, and I couldn’t find a way to stop the sorrow from shackling me.
“Do you ever lose?” I asked to change the topic. “When you fight?”
“I lost against you.”
I could see the flecks of silver in his eyes.
His angular jaw, distinct cheekbones, and tanned skin made him devilishly handsome.
I raised my eyebrows. “Sparring doesn’t count.”
“I wasn’t talking about training.” His voice was rugged and so sexy.
His eyes bored into me even deeper, and I realized what he was saying. He felt something for me beyond physical attraction. And if I had to be honest with myself, which I was trying to be these days, my feelings were growing for him, too.
And this time, there was no guilt that I was wrong about my attraction. Because underneath all that bravado and aggression, Ares was really a nice guy. And way too similar to me in ways that made me want to spend hours with him chatting about training and the universe—and one day, I’d be curious to know what the heck his deal was with Aphrodite. Only out of curiosity, in fact, not jealousy.
The atmosphere shifted around us, and my power flared, tingling over my flesh, bubbling in my chest like an inferno. A scorching heat surrounded us, pressing against me as if I wore a fur coat. When I met Ares’s gaze, his face was so close I could breathe him in. His nose tickled mine.
I let out a tiny gasp but didn’t move away. A light crackling sounded in the air as it had last time we’d come together, the excitement of having the God of War all to myself.
His hand moved to my hip as we lay on the training mats, his lips softly grazing mine. We’d done this before, kissing after fighting.
Now, I craved him like a drug, needing the escape he offered. His tongue slipped into my mouth, and I moaned. I thought about wrapping my arm around his neck, but I didn’t know if that was cliché. Ares was so different from the other gods.
Albeit just as attractive.
The kiss changed. He’d been tentative when he started. Now, he kissed me hungrily, sucking my lip into his mouth, his hand pushing under the loose shirt I wore. His touch trailed fire on my skin, and my body adopted the heat, warmth flushing through me.
One inhale of his musky scent turned me on. I loved the way he kissed me. Like nothing mattered. Like we coul
d fix the world. Like only I existed in his life. I’d come here for an escape, and if this was what freedom looked like, I was going to take it.
Ares pushed my shirt up and broke the kiss, studying me as he revealed my skin inch by inch. I lifted my torso, and he pulled the shirt over my head.
“I hate sports bras,” he announced.
I chuckled. When Ares shifted again, I noticed his dick in his jock strap. He stood rock hard and ready for me. I breathed deep. In and out. Time was forgotten. Everything was in that moment. My clothes were a hindrance, and I needed them off.
I shivered. I desired him. I craved all of him.
If he wanted the sports bra gone, I’d get rid of the garment. It wasn’t easy to take off, not for someone else, so I wriggled out of it. Ares’s eyes rested on my breasts, and I stared him right in the face. I was far from an insecure girl who wanted to cover up. Power rippled through me, and even though I wasn’t a goddess, I was damn close to feeling like one.
I saw Ares as an equal, and in his presence, he never made me feel anything less.
He kissed me again, rougher, the stubble on his chin chafing my skin. His hands roamed my body, tweaking my nipples, tugging at my skintight workout pants.
“We’re not going to be alone for much longer,” I said, breaking the kiss. “The training center is actually for other people, too.”
“Fuck ’em.”
I laughed. “Yeah, but I’d prefer not to put on a show.”
He stood, pulling me up. He lifted me with ease, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. I kissed him while he walked me across the training hall to a side office. When he tried the handle, it was locked. I squirmed, wanting him to let me down. He planted me on the floor next to him.
“We can’t go in there,” I said.
Ares kicked the door, and it splintered at the lock, swinging open.
“That’s destruction of property,” I pointed out as I swept kisses across his cheek and neck. Hell, he smelled and tasted like candy on a stick.
“They can bill me.” Ares dragged me into the office. He shut us inside and hauled the desk so it held the door in place. I giggled. This was a different side of him. Urgent, serious. But sensual.
I loved it.
When he turned, he was on me again. I worked my way up his chiseled body, noting how different he was from the other gods I’d been with. Lean muscle. He wasn’t as heavy built as Apollo or as tall as Poseidon, but he was a war machine, and every muscle that rippled under his skin was for fighting, not for show.
Ares tugged my pants down. I stood naked, while he kicked off his jock strap. There was little ceremony to what we were doing, no foreplay as such. But we didn’t need it. I’d been turned on by him from our last kiss, from the lingering arousal between us. Plus, fighting him drew me closer to him.
I was turned on as hell, my whole body buzzing, the heat between my legs so wet. Yep, I eagerly craved release. And I got the feeling that Ares was always straight to the point when it came to this.
He sat me on the desk, and I opened my legs. His cock was hard and bobbed when he stepped closer. He kissed me at the same time as his fingers found my clit, and I gasped into his mouth.
He only flicked his fingers over my clit for a short while, enough to make me beg for more, before pushing me back. I lay on the table while files folders dug into my spine, but I didn’t care.
When he positioned himself between my legs, I was more than ready for him. His cock speared into my wetness, and I groaned.
Immediately, Ares started fucking me with quick caresses that were as deep as they were urgent. He kissed me, his tongue probing my mouth for a moment before he lifted his head. He balanced on his arms, his legs wide between mine, splaying me open. I let out a moan as he stroked my pussy, relieving an ache I hadn’t known I felt.
He fucked me harder and faster, and my moans turned into cries. He bucked his hips against me, and the burning friction intensified. A fire might as well have been alight within me as I built toward a first orgasm. And it roared through me.
When I came, Ares pressed his mouth against mine to swallow my screams of pleasure, grunting when my insides clamped down on him.
I barely recovered before he started again. It wasn’t the kind of fuck that you just got off on. Every bit of this was connected and close, sensual, even though it was rough. I had the feeling this was just how Ares was. He didn’t do slow and careful.
And that was fine by me. I didn’t need slow and careful, not from him. Not now with my life being a shitstorm. I don’t know how long we rocked, but it felt like hours.
I orgasmed again. It was impossible to hold back with his onslaught and the way he made me feel. Ares didn’t kiss me this time. Instead, he threw his head back and growled like an animal, before his cock kicked inside me as he came, too. His lips probed mine, and he kissed me long and hard, and I loved falling under his attention, never wanting to come up for air.
But when we finally pulled apart, the atmosphere grew hot and sticky between us, my body a lot number than I’d ever been from training. We’d been in the office for almost an hour.
“We have to get out of here.” I pulled myself up, and yanked on my underwear and holding my pants, stared toward the exit.
The sounds of people training on the other side of the office door filtered in. I wondered how much they’d heard.
“You don’t have a top or bra on,” Ares pointed out, eyeing me while smirking.
Shit. I’d left them in the training hall.
“Wait here,” Ares said as he opened the door, pushing the desk out of the way as if it weighed nothing. I hopped off and pulled on my pants, letting the material soak up the aftermath of our sex without cleaning up. I’d shower at home. Right now I was freaking out about how someone could have busted in on us having sex. My worry was more that kids were out there.
Ares returned a little while later with my bra, my top, and my duffel bag.
“Some of the students looked at me funny,” he said with a grin.
I laughed and pulled the clothes on, grateful to be able to cover up. When I was dressed, Ares kissed me.
“Let’s go,” he stated. He pulled me against him, and we left the office so fast, I hardly saw who was in the hall. Somehow, we weren’t spotted by the people training. Maybe they were too busy with their burpees to notice us leaving from the office with the busted lock.
Or he’d done something to cloak us somehow.
Either way, he was a hell of a lot of fun, and I definitely wanted more.
Chapter 9
Hades
This was some ridiculous bullshit. Sometimes you just can’t win, right? In my case, I never won. I’d somehow drawn the short straw when it came to life in general. Shit kept snowballing my way no matter what I did.
And considering I was immortal, “life” was a fucking long thing to trudge through. All those years when I thought I’d found the real thing with Persephone, I embraced my role in the Underworld, loved waking up next to her every day for half the year, and believed I’d found the secret to happiness. What a fucking load of crap. I’d fallen under a curse and been a laughing stock, and now the burning anger rose through me like a volcano ready to explode.
Plus, I was pissed off about Poseidon’s visit. He came to tell me Persephone was here. What the hell was she doing on Earth? It was my turf now. She wasn’t welcome. I’d left the Underworld so we didn’t have to stare at each other every day when we obviously didn’t fit together anymore.
Anymore? Try never. The whole fucking relationship had been a joke, anyway. A curse from my bitch of a sister, with Persephone trying her best to do something she just didn’t believe in because I’d trapped her into spending eternity with me.
How fucking romantic.
I was so over this shit. I was over the stupid breakup, and I sure as hell wasn’t ready for any sympathy. Especially not from my brother. Because he wasn’t sympathetic toward me, he was just nosy. He wanted to
know what Persephone was doing here, too. And he had to know if I knew.
It wasn’t hard to find her. Centuries together meant I recognized her power signature better than I knew my own. It was just a case of tuning into the right vibes and following it until I found her. Her energy flowed like silk over my flesh, and I grabbed that connection and trailed it, vanishing from my home and tracing Persephone’s power source to a hotel.
She stayed in the Ritz-Carlton, as if she were some kind of royalty. She’d probably charmed herself into a free suite.
“What are you playing at?” I demanded, materializing into her room. “Do you think this is funny?”
“Hades,” Persephone said with a sigh, standing near the grand window but turning away from the picturesque view of the city below. “I thought I’d see you sooner or later.”
“Damn straight you’re going to have to answer to me. What the fuck do you think you’re doing looking up people in my life?”
“You don’t have some kind of monopoly when it comes to Earth.” She gripped her hips, reminding me of all our past arguments where she’d dug her heels in, and glared at me like she was preparing to send an army of the dead to hunt me down. As if she could.
“And it’s a pity because I’d get rid of scum like you,” I sneered, hating that I let my anger take control. But I couldn’t stop the fury raging inside me.
An expression of exhaustion danced across on her features. I’d once considered her adorable with her petite nose and plump lips, but now they just reminded me of my humiliation. Of how I’d been played.
She drew in a sharp breath, releasing it before speaking. “I’m not here to fight with you, Hades.”
“Well, I’m here to fight with you,” I said, cutting off whatever else she was going to say. “You involve yourself in business that has nothing to do with you.”
She returned her attention to the window and looked out over Chicago, a place I’d called home for the last couple of months. It wasn’t her world. She could go right back where she’d came from.
