I Accidentally Seduced Hades novel · Chapter 26 of 32

Chapter 26: Second Shot

I thought, for one stupid second, that he was proposing.

My heart went up into my mouth.

Then he held the key up to me, flat on his palm.

"You throw it," he said.

"Me?"

"You were right. I'm bad at the job alone."

The bells were still ringing, faint, through the water.

"I don't want to be able to do it again. Not when I'm frightened. Not for anyone."

"Even me?"

"Especially you."

I took it.

It was still warm.

I walked to the end of the stone dock, where the river ran out under the bronze gates into the gray.

A boat slid past me with an old woman in it, a hospital bracelet on her wrist.

Her eyes were closed.

I held the key out over the water.

"It's going to be very embarrassing," I said, "if this floats."

"It won't float."

I opened my hand.

It went into the black river without a splash and sank, glowing red, until I couldn't see it.

The next boat came through the gates.

And the next.

Hades got up off his knee.

He didn't say anything, and I couldn't see his heart anymore, so I had to look at his face to know.

His face was enough.

"Take me home," I said. "Your home. I want to sleep."

He took me down the hidden stair.

The blue lamps came on one by one ahead of us.

At the bottom, in the doorway of his room, I stopped and turned around.

"You said after Saturday," I said. "When I can fall asleep after."

"I did."

"It's Sunday. It's been Sunday for twenty minutes."

He loosened the black tie with one finger.

"I know what time it is," he said.

He pulled the tie free and let it fall.

"You've been fighting sleep for eighteen days," he said. "You're going to sleep in my bed, and I'm going to make sure you stay asleep."

I stepped backward into the room.

The blue lights from the river moved over the stone floor.

"That's not what I asked for."

His mouth curved.

"That's what you're getting."

He came toward me.

Slow.

Like he had nowhere else to be and nothing else to do.

His hands found my hips.

Not grabbing.

Just resting there, heavy, like he'd already decided where I was going.

He turned me around.

One hand stayed on my hip, the other found the zipper at the back of my neck.

He dragged it down.

The silk went loose over my shoulders.

"Step out," he said.

I did.

The gown pooled on the stone.

Cool air hit my skin everywhere.

His mouth came down to the side of my neck.

Not gentle.

Open, hot, the scrape of his beard over my shoulder.

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