Neon Gods: A Scorchingly Hot Modern Retelling of Hades and Persephone (Dark Olympus Book 1)

How am I supposed to focus on the “show” when Hades is touching me everywhere? His thighs are hard beneath mine, his chest solid at my back, his arm an iron band across my hips that I don’t mind in the least. I shift a little just to feel the tension of him holding me down without holding me down.

“Be still.”

I shift again just to be contrary and then live to regret my decision when I feel his hard cock against my ass. A temptation I am not allowed to indulge in, at least not yet. I thought I could entice him into changing his mind in the shower, but I should have known better. Hades hasn’t wavered. If I couldn’t convince him to take me while naked and wet, I certainly don’t have a shot now, intricate lingerie or no.

I’m temporarily distracted by two people stepping onto the dais. A white man and plus-sized white woman I don’t recognize. He’s wearing a pair of low-slung leather pants and she’s got on nothing at all. There have to be nearly fifty people in the room, but he’s only got eyes for her. I can’t hear what they say to each other from here, but she sinks gracefully to her knees as if the motion is pure muscle memory.

An answering pulse goes through me, a deep recognition. I relax back against Hades and turn my head slightly. “Who are they?”

“Does it matter? Eyes forward. Pay attention.”

I huff out a breath and turn back to the dais. The man presses his finger beneath the woman’s chin and tilts her head up. Whatever he says has a beatific smile pulling at her lips. He hasn’t done anything yet, but I’m enraptured despite myself. He moves a few steps away, and that’s when I notice there’s a bag at the edge of the dais. The man grabs a corded length of rope and begins to bind his partner.

It’s almost enough to miss the fact that heads are still turning in our direction. I can’t see most of the audience clearly because of the shadows, but there’s no mistaking a low murmur that started when we arrived and hasn’t abated. I catch my name spoken and have to fight not to tense.

There’s no going back now.

There never was.

I close my eyes for a long moment, fighting against the fluttering feeling in my chest. I chose this. I will continue to choose this. And a small, forbidden part of me enjoys the attention, enjoys the shock I know some of these people are experiencing. I want to keep shocking them.

I take a slow breath and refocus on the couple on the dais. He’s halfway through binding his partner already. Every twist, every line he visually cuts across her curvy body, has tension winding tighter and tighter through me. It’s like watching an artist create a masterpiece except the masterpiece is another person and the obvious desire between the two of them pulses with each minute that ticks past. My breath gets choppy, and I have to fight my body’s urge to shift against Hades.

His lips touch the curve of my ear. “Is it the bondage or the exhibition making you all hot and jealous?”

“Everyone is watching,” I whisper back. “We can see all of her.” At least we can now that he’s bound her legs wide and is working on a series of knots between her thighs. The flush spreading across her skin says that she’s enjoying experiencing it even more than I’m enjoying watching.

Hades shifts, moving to lightly drag his fingertips across my stomach. It takes me several seconds to realize he’s tracing the straps crisscrossing my body and another few seconds to make the connection between what I’m clothed in and the scene playing out before us. His breath ghosts against my neck. “I’m going to touch you now.”

“You are touching me.” I don’t know why I’m arguing, acting as if I’m not holding my breath to keep from begging him to touch me more.

“Persephone.” A tiny bit of censure mixed with amusement. “Tell me you won’t get off harder than you did last night if I finger you right here in front of everyone… Tell me and I’ll stop.”

I can’t say it without lying. I suddenly want him to take me onto that stage, to bend me over a chair or just throw me to the floor and fuck me right there with so many eyes on us. There are already eyes on us, even if they can’t see us any clearer than I can see them. Will they notice Hades slipping his hand into my panties? Do I want them to?

Yes.

I carefully shift back and move my arms down to press against his hips. The new position leaves my body completely open to him. I swallow and strive for a nice, contrite tone instead of a demand. “Please touch me, Hades.”

“You are singularly motivated with your pleasure on the line.” He chuckles against my shoulder. Despite my damn near begging, he doesn’t pick up his pace. He drags his middle finger along the strap spanning my waist. “Half the eyes in this place are on you, Persephone.”

I shiver, pressing my hands harder to his hips in an effort to keep still. “Well, we’re sending a message, aren’t we?”

“Yes. Look around.” If he were a literal demon on my shoulder, he couldn’t be more tempting. Hades drops his hand another inch until his pinkie finger brushes the top of my panties through the front of the skirt.

Sure enough, he’s right. Despite the low light, I can clearly see that half the people in the room are watching us and not the couple on the dais. It almost feels like they are here to boost my pleasure. Didn’t I imagine eyes on me when Hades had me strip yesterday? When we stood on that same dais and he made me come so hard my legs shook? It turns out the real thing is exponentially hotter.

Hades’s beard tickles my bare shoulder. “Sheer skirt. Lace panties. They’re going to be able to see everything I do to your pretty pussy. Are you prepared for that?”

Am I prepared for it?

I’m pretty sure I might expire on the spot if he doesn’t follow through on the lustful spell he’s weaving about me. I lick my lips and fight not to lift my hips to guide his hand lower. “Yes, Sir.”

He presses a kiss to my shoulder. “Say the word and this all stops. No harm, no foul.”

For someone so determined to be labeled a monster, he’s incredibly invested in my pleasure and consent. A thrill of power licks through me. I’m not in charge. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But the knowledge that no matter what Hades does to me, I am choosing it? It’s beyond sexy. “I know. I trust you.”

The barest hesitation, as if I’ve surprised him. “Good.” Still, he moves slowly, gliding his hand down to cup my pussy through the skirt. The fabric is so thin as to not exist at all, and I can’t help a small jump at the heat of his palm. He gives a low curse. “I can feel how wet you are.”

“Do something about it.”

He tightens his grip, holding me in that intimate place like he owns me. “One day, you’ll learn to stop trying to top from the bottom.” He moves his free hand to my right breast and yanks the lace down, baring me to the room. I jerk back, but his chest gives me nowhere to go and his hand between my legs follows me, pressing my body more firmly against his. Then Hades repeats the treatment to my left breast. I’m still covered in the silk straps, but my nipples are bare and on display. He makes a low tsking sound. “Just for that defiance, I’m going to make you come, loud and messy, right here in front of them.”

It doesn’t even occur to me to cover my breasts. Instead, I spread my legs a little wider. “Do your worst.”

“My worst, Persephone?” His voice gets lower, almost a growl. “You dip one toe into the water and think you’re ready to swim the length of the River Styx. You can’t begin to handle what my worst has to offer.” He finally moves his hand up, only to shove it into my panties and spear me with two fingers. The contact bows my back, but his other hand is there, bracketing my throat and holding me in place. “Can you feel their eyes on you?”

I want to keep defying him, but my brain has gone all fuzzy with pleasure. He’s not even fucking me with his fingers. He’s holding me down, possessing me in a way I’ve never experienced before. Like he’s staking his claim in front of an entire room of witnesses in the most primitive way possible. No, the most primitive way possible would be to bend me over this chair and fuck me until I scream. I shiver. “Yes,” I gasp. “I can feel them watching.”

“Do you know what they see?” He doesn’t move, just pins me to him. “They see a monster about to devour a pretty princess. They see me taking one of their own and dragging her down into the dark with me. I’m ruining you before their very eyes.”

“Good,” I whisper fiercely. “Ruin me, Hades. I want you to.”

“You’re clenching around me.” His voice has gone deeper yet. “You like this.”

“Of course I do.” Hades shifts his hand, his palm rubbing against my clit, and suddenly words are pouring from my lips. “I like you staking your claim on me.”

“Is that what I’m doing?” He finally begins to move his hand, his searching fingers finding my G-spot and stroking it lightly.

“Isn’t it?” I have to fight not to lift my hips, fight not to moan. “Staking your claim. Tarnishing me. Warning off everyone else.”

“Persephone.” He says my name like it’s a song he’s recently memorized. “Who said anything about warning off everyone else?” He nips my earlobe lightly. “What if I want to share? What if I pull your panties to the side and let whoever is interested come over here and fuck you against my chest?”

My entire body clenches, but I’m too dazed to decide if it’s in protest or desire. “You’d do that?”

He goes still for one endless moment. Then Hades curses and pulls me up so I’m sitting crosswise on his lap. He grips my hair with one hand and knocks my legs wide with his other elbow. Then he stops messing around. Each stroke of his fingers drives me closer to the edge. “No, little Persephone. Sharing isn’t my kink. I’ll be the only one touching you. Your pussy is mine until it’s not, and I’m not wasting a single moment by gifting it to someone else.”

Crude words.

Sexy words.

I reach up with a shaking hand to cup his neck. “Hades?”

“Yeah?” He slows his strokes, adds his thumb into the mix, tracing devastating circles around my clit. “You want something.”

I forget to be coy. I forget the rules. I forget everything but the edge of pleasure bearing down on me, a wave I’m suddenly certain will drown me if I’m not careful. There’s nothing left but perfect honesty. “I want you.”

“You love your words so much. Use them.”

“Fuck me,” I breathe. “Fuck me in front of them. Show every single one of them who I belong to.” I need to stop, to keep the words in, but I can’t with him touching me like this. “Yours, Hades. Not Zeus’s. Never his.”

Something like conflict dances across his face, there and gone as quickly as moonlight flickering across choppy water. “I haven’t decided if you’ve earned it.”

I might laugh if I had the air. I drag my hand down his chest to press against his cock. “Punish me later if you want to. Just give us what we both need now.” I’m distantly aware of the sound of sex coming from the dais, the slapping of flesh against flesh, but I only have eyes for Hades. “Please.” I kiss him. He tastes of whiskey and sin, a temptation I want to embrace fully. My reasons for agreeing to this bargain start to feel distant in this moment, with lust pounding through my body. I need him. I need him more than food, more than water, more than air. I lightly drag my teeth over his bottom lip. “Please, Hades.”

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he mutters.

Before I can come up with a response for that, he withdraws his fingers. There’s a rip and the front of my skirt is gone. Another vicious yank and my panties follow. I blink up at him and he gives a wicked grin. “Second-guessing yourself?”

“Not in the least.” I don’t need his urging to move to straddle him. I’m in danger of grinding away at his cock through his slacks like a sex-drugged monster. I barely, barely manage to hold myself off him. “Condoms?”

“Mmmm.” He reaches down the side of the chair and comes up with a foil package. I expect… I’m not sure. I should know better than to try to anticipate Hades at this point. He presses the condom into my hand and nudges me back enough for him to undo his slacks.

I rip open the condom as he draws his cock out. I lick my lips. “Promise me that soon I get to have you naked.”

“No.”

I glare, but it feels half-hearted at best. I’m too eager for him. It takes less than no time to roll the condom over his hard length. He grabs my hip with one hand, holding me in place until I look at him. “What?”

“No going back if you do this. If you ride my cock with them watching, they’ll really believe you’re mine.”

The words feel serious, full of layers I can’t delve into with my body practically weeping with need for him. Tomorrow. I’ll figure it all out tomorrow. “Yes, you’ve said that.” I’m suddenly afraid that he’s going to change his mind. I suspect there will be an orgasm for me either way, but I want his cock inside me too much to play fair. I lean down until my lips brush the shell of his ear. “Take what’s yours, Hades. I want you to.”

“You aren’t a princess. You’re a fucking siren.” He yanks me forward and then he’s inside me. I can barely breathe as he drags me down his cock, filling me almost uncomfortably full.

“Oh, gods.”

“They have nothing to do with it.” He looks furious and turned on and yet he’s still nowhere near as rough as I suddenly need him to be. “This is what you wanted, little siren. My cock inside you.” Just like that, he releases me and drapes his arms over the chair, looking every inch the indulgent king. “Ride me, Persephone. Use me to make yourself come.”

Shock stills me. Having sex in front of a roomful of people is one thing when he’s right there with me, but he’s forcibly putting distance between us even if he hasn’t moved an inch. Suddenly, I’m the one on display, rather than us being on display.

I…like it.

Not a single person can watch this scene and think that I’m anything but an enthusiastic participant. Hades has to know that, has to know how much that will matter. Fucking him here, like this, is as good as screaming to all of Olympus that I truly am his.

I slide my hands up his chest, wishing I was feeling skin instead of his shirt. Another time. And there will be other times. I grip his shoulders and begin to move. No matter how frantic my pulse beats through me, I want this to last.

Because it’s a show, yes, but more importantly, because it’s our first time. I don’t want this to end too soon.

I ride him slowly, working myself up and down his cock, winding my pleasure higher and higher. It’s not enough and yet is too much at the same time. More. I need more. Endlessly more.

As much as I want to close the distance and kiss Hades again, the way he’s watching me is too intoxicating. His gaze travels over my body in a sweep I can almost feel against my skin. Drinking in the sight of me fucking him even as his hands clench the arms of the chair. He might have the cold mask in place, but he’s fighting not to touch me.

I hold his gaze and lean back, bracing my hands on his thighs and arching my back, putting my breasts on display. A distant part of me is aware that I’m putting on a show for more than him, but right now, he’s the only one I care about. “See something you like?”

“A mouthy brat.”

My orgasm dances closer. I feel like Hades and I are playing a game of chicken, barreling toward each other to see who will bend first. I’ve always, always bent in the past. With my family, with the Thirteen, with everything. Bend so they don’t break me, keeping my eyes on the horizon.

I won’t do it now. I refuse.

I bite my bottom lip and slow down further, circling my hips in tiny, agonizingly good rotations. “Hades.”

“Mmmm?”

My breathing hitches and he watches my breasts rise and fall with the move. It takes me two tries to find the words. “You have a threat to follow through on.”

“Do I?” He arches that damn eyebrow. “Feel free to remind me.”

“You said you’d make me come, loud and messy, right in front of everyone.” I can’t quite dredge up my normal sunshine smile. “That you’d take me in a way that shows everyone here that I’m yours.”

His body tenses beneath me. “I did, didn’t I?” He has me up and off his cock before I register his movement. I don’t get a chance to protest before Hades turns me around and guides me down onto him again. With my legs on either side of his thighs, I’m facing the room and spread wide open. His hand is at my throat again, thumb stroking the sensitive skin as his voice growls in my ear. “Would hate for them to miss the rest of the show.”

On the dais, the man has the woman facedown on the ground, tied and helpless, as he fucks her from behind. The blissful expression on her pretty face is matched only by the look of utter concentration on his. It’s sexy as hell.

But most of the people I can make out are turned our way. They’re watching me fucking Hades, watching him touch me as he drives my pleasure higher.

Hades skates his hand down my stomach and lightly circles my clit. “Don’t stop. Take what you need.”

My exhale comes out almost like a sob. It’s a little harder to ride him like this, but I make do. Every move has his fingers sliding against my clit, but he’s forcing me to do all the work. In this position, there’s no ignoring how many people are watching us. The attention only makes me hotter, more desperate. “Hades, please.”

“Don’t beg me for it. Take it.”

I’m having an out-of-body experience and yet I’m suddenly sure I can feel every single nerve ending individually. His strength at my back, his arms anchoring me in place as I fuck him, the attention of so many people… It’s all creating an experience unlike any I’ve had before. I brace my hands on the chair and roll my body, riding his cock, rubbing my clit against his fingers. Pleasure coils tighter and tighter through me, so intense I have to close my eyes. A held breath, a feeling of being tipped over the edge, and then I’m coming harder than I ever have before. Words pour out of my mouth, but I’m too overwhelmed to understand what I’m saying. All I know is that I never want this to stop.

Nothing lasts forever.

The cresting waves slowly recede, Hades’s gentle touch bringing me back to earth. He slides out of me and shifts me enough to tuck his cock away, but I’m incapable of doing more than allowing him to move me to his will. When he finally gathers me into his lap, I rest my head against his chest and exhale slowly. “Um.”

His laugh rumbles my cheek. “Yes?”

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say. Thank him? Ask him if he dosed me with some magical aphrodisiac because I’ve never orgasmed like that before? Accuse him of playing dirty? I cuddle closer. “You didn’t come.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Something like insecurity winds through me, dampening the deliciously weightless feeling in my bones. “Why not?”

He strokes a hand down my spine. “Because I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”