Bride of Fire Read Free Page A

would go on as she always had.
    Persephone let her hands rest on his waist and pressed her cheek into the curve of his shoulder. She spoke to the column of his throat. “Will you undress for me? You saw all of me when you removed my clothing. I wish to see all of you."
    She felt his body react, felt his hands grip her with fierce strength. Yet it was tempered strength. He held himself in check for her sake. That unexpected consideration made her throat tighten. He had offered her a flower. A lover’s gift. And she had accepted the offering. She had invited this moment, and now she knew he would be gentle with her. That eased her fear, allowing her to relax in his embrace.
    “I say I will give you anything you ask for, and you ask for my nakedness,” Hades murmured. His hands molded her buttocks, gripped, and kneaded the soft flesh. The heat of his touch burned through the satin. The unaccustomed sensation of a man’s hands on that tender part of her arrested her attention. It felt decidedly pleasurable. It made her want something more. For those hands to slide lower, to cup her between her legs.
    “I did not think it too bold a thing for a mistress or concubine to ask,” Persephone said.
    “It pleases me that my queen would ask it.”
    She shook her head, a tiny movement but she knew he felt it. “I am not your queen. I will not be your queen. But I will be your bedmate.”
    “You lie to yourself if you believe I will be satisfied to have you one time.”
    His ornate, erotic carvings flashed through her mind. He was a man of broad experience and exotic appetites, by all indications. What might he demand of her? Things no other would, she felt certain. To all others, she was Demeter’s daughter. Untouched. Untouchable. Only he dared to touch her. To take her for his own. “Perhaps you will need more than one time to be satisfied.”
    She could hope for that much. Although it was dangerous to want him at all. Hades was not a man to trifle with. If he would not relent, if he demanded she take her place at his side and rule in hell with him, what then?
    If she accepted, she would be bound to him eternally. Bound to this realm forever. Shut away from the warmth of the sun, the ripe fields, the woods and waters teeming with life. Trapped until the end of time with a man who did not, could not, love her. The lord of death did not know love.
    She shivered, suddenly cold despite the heat of his body against hers.

Chapter Three
    “You’re chilled.” Hades held her closer, then swung her up in his arms in a motion so swift and sure her head spun. He cradled her across his chest and braced her with one arm. He pointed the other at the hearth. At his gesture, flames leapt up. The wall sconces caught and flared to life.
    “I’m all right.” But she clung to him and let him carry her to his bed. It was weak and foolish to swoon at this display of strength, to thrill at the power he wielded over the element of fire without thought. For now, this once, she could be foolish.
    He pulled the velvet cover back and lowered her to the bed. She wondered how she looked to him, draped in black satin and resting on more. Did he find her pretty? Would he compare her to the others he’d had here? Then his hands went to his clothing and she forgot everything else as he revealed himself to her. His shoulders were broad, his chest deep, his stomach ridged with muscles her fingers itched to explore.
    And below that, his hips and belly, long, strong legs, and between them, his cock, engorged and outthrust. She wanted to circle him with her fingers, to measure him with her hand. But when she reached for him, he caught her hands in his.
    “You will be my queen.”
    Persephone shook her head. She could not be his forever. She could be his now, however, and she wanted to be. That yearning that had caught her when she held the blossom that was not of her world rushed back. Aching desire. For him.
    “You deny me?” His face tightened and his