Out of the corner of her eye, Kat saw the woman bristle. She had obviously hit a sore spot. The woman wanted to be in Hades’ bed, but so far it seemed he had avoided her advances. Good, she wouldn’t have to beat the woman up. Sometimes Kat liked taking the diplomatic way out of things. So far, that had happened only once, but she had held out that one day another situation would arise.
Like this one.
“Mary, this is Kat.” His gaze stayed on Kat. “An old friend.”
“Oh.” Mary brought her hands down off the table and blinked several times. Kat thought it looked like she was about to cry. “Nice to meet you, Kat. Are you here for a visit?”
Pulling out the third chair, Kat sat and reached for Hades’ near-empty plate. There was still a small piece of bread on it. She picked it up and popped it into her mouth. Then she looked at Mary and smiled. “Something like that,” she said between chews.
Mary averted her gaze and then looked at Hades and smiled. “I’ll be going then.” She pushed to a stand. “Thank you for dinner, Hades. Once again you managed to make a delicious meal.”
Hades stood and accompanied her to the front door. As they walked, Kat noticed that Mary touched his arm and gazed up at him with adoration in her eyes. The girl was smitten, that was obvious.
Was Hades? He had better not be!
When he opened the door, Mary glanced past him toward Kat and nodded. “Good evening, Kat.”
“Yeah, right, you, too.” Kat waved her hand toward her.
Hurry up, and leave
.
Mary reached up on her tiptoes and kissed Hades’ cheek. “Good night.”
“Night, Mary,” Hades said and then closed the door after her. When he came back to the table, Kat had commandeered his cup and finished the rest of his tepid tea.
“This tastes like shit cold,” Kat complained as she set down the cup.
“Are you hungry? I made extra.” He moved to the counter and grabbed another plate from the cupboard. He scooped up some stew and slapped it onto the clay surface.
“She’s pretty.”
Hades set the plate in front of Kat but avoided her gaze. “Yes, she is.” He sat down again and poured more tea into his cup and into the one he grabbed for Kat. “You’re not jealous, are you?”
“Hell, no,” she remarked as she took a sip of her drink. “Got anything stronger than this?”
Nodding, Hades turned in his seat and grabbed a bottle from under the counter. Unscrewing the cap, he poured the amber liquid into Kat’s cup and then added to his own. “Whiskey.”
Lifting her cup, she tapped his and then took a hearty gulp. The spiked tea burned her throat on the way down. If it weren’t for her pride, she would’ve grimaced. But by the smug look on Hades’ face, she must have made some indication that the whiskey was difficult to swallow.
“It gets better after a few drinks.” Shrugging, he drained his cup.
Kat dug into her food. The spicy flavor exploded in her mouth. She couldn’t remember the last time something had tasted so delectable. Maybe it was the fact that Hades had prepared the food or that his own aroma, the flavor from his fingertips, had mixed with the medley of meat and vegetables. Abruptly Kat had a violent urge to lean over and lave her tongue over his hands and suck on his fingers one by one.
Pushing away her plate, Kat sat back in her chair and stared at Hades. Was her reaction to him purely sexual, or did she have other hungers on her mind? Maybe she had made a mistake coming here. The last thing she wanted to do was put Hades at risk to her raging hunger—again.
Over the months, she had learned how to control it. Nemo, of all people—the passive and diplomatic leader of the Neried tribe—had actually helped her with it. He taught her how to reach inside herself and calm the rage. She had spent many nights on the beach on the edge of his village meditating. Searching inside her body for the root of the virus, and mentally squeezing it in a tight fist. It worked, for the most part.
One horrible night Nemo found her in her hut breaking apart the wooden furniture with her bare hands and tossing the pieces around in a violent rage. He had promptly shot her with a tranquilizer dart through a wooden blower, laid her on her cot, and stayed by her side until the storm calmed and eventually vanished.
There had been one other time when she had let the beast loose. But she did so out of self-preservation. The man she had ripped apart deserved his fate. Or so she kept telling herself. He would have raped and murdered Leucothea if she hadn’t acted. Kat figured she had killed men for less in the past. But, somehow, tearing out that man’s throat with her bare hands sat differently with her. She had always used weapons to inflict wounds, but now the virus had turned
her
into an instrument of pain.
“I’m going to be leaving tomorrow night.”
“Why?” Hades demanded.
Kat lowered her gaze and fussed with her belt. She couldn’t handle looking at him any longer.
Not without wanting to grab him and crush her body to his, to ease the ache between her legs and the one in her heart. “You were right. You
have
changed. I’ve no right to ask you to come with me.”
She stood, but Hades stood, too, and blocked her escape route. He moved into her personal space, forcing her to take a distancing step.
“You wouldn’t be much help to me anyway.” She smirked. “Stay here with your pretty girl. Get married, have babies. Make a life.” She tried to brush past him, but Hades grabbed her by the upper arms to still her movements.
Leaning down to her mouth, his lips twitched into a smile. “Maybe I don’t want her. Maybe what I want is too stupid to know that.”
Raising a brow, Kat questioned, “Are you calling me stupid?”
“Shut up, woman, and let me kiss you.”
He covered the distance between them in a second and crushed his mouth to hers. Sighing, Kat parted her lips and let him in. With every sweep of his tongue and nip at her bottom lip, she reciprocated in kind. If she could, she would’ve swallowed him whole. He tasted of smoky flavoring and herbs and the alcohol they had both consumed. New arousing tastes and old flavors she fondly remembered about him.
Now that she was here in his arms, her hands fisted in his shirt and her mouth exploring his, she realized how empty she’d been without him. She had spent many months denying it, but the man made her whole. During their last harrowing adventure together, she came to realize that he was the one person she had been searching for without even knowing it. The one who challenged her but accepted her for who she was.
On their last hunt, she had come the closest she’d ever been to love. The kind that was messy and complicated. The kind she didn’t want anything to do with.
Kat pushed him back, but he held on to her arms. It was obvious he had no intentions of backing off this time. She could hear his heart racing and smell the arousal floating off him. The blue of his eyes had darkened to slate, a color she knew meant he was hungry for her. Desire hot and hearty rolled over her, drowning her in its intensity.
“I won’t let you push me away this time, Kat.”
She met his gaze and fell helplessly into his eyes. No, she couldn’t push him away, not this time, not now. Fisting her hands in his shirt, she pulled him close. “Fine, but hang on for a wild ride.”
With one yank on his shirt, she rendered it in half. In seconds her hands were on his flesh, stroking his chest and stomach. Kat loved the feel of his muscled abs under her palms. She played her fingers over him as if strumming an instrument for pleasure.
His groans encouraged her, and she soon found her hands at the button on his pants. With a flick of her thumb and forefinger, the button popped open, and Kat was able to slide her hand between the separated fabric and over Hades’ pulsating erection.
While she wrapped her hand around his shaft, he buried his face into her neck and nibbled on her earlobe. “Ah, fuck, woman, I missed you.”
“Yeah,” she teased as she slid her hand up and down his cock. “How much?”
Growling, Hades slid his hand over her ass and squeezed. He picked her up and set her on the kitchen table. With his knee, he nudged apart her legs and settled between them. Kat continued to stroke him while he yanked up her shirt and feasted on her breasts.
Jolts of fervent pleasure zigzagged up and down her flesh as Hades sucked on her nipple. She gasped at the violent sensations battering her body. It had been far too long since she had indulged in the decadence of sex. She had taken only one lover since leaving Hades. Then, it had been when the need had been far too great to deny. When the lust had clawed at her physically and mentally, nearly spiraling her into madness.
But this need…It was different. Hades was different. And always would be. Kat could deny, avoid, and run all she wanted, but the truth was there, in six feet and three inches of hard muscles and defining character. She could take other lovers, but Hades would always be her one true love.
“Take off my damn pants!” she growled, not wanting to wait any longer for him to be inside her.
Hades needed no more encouragement as he popped the button on her leathers and unzipped them. Hooking his fingers under the waistband, he yanked them down her legs to her ankles.
When she was naked, he stepped between her legs once more, more than ready to slide his rock-hard erection inside.
Gripping his shoulders, Kat groaned loudly as he thrust into her throbbing sex. Dripping with liquid heat, she easily accommodated his wide girth. His cock fit perfectly inside her, making her think again about connecting puzzle pieces. As if God had sculpted them from the same piece of stone.
He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her to his chest. Pressed as close as she was to him, she could hear the frantic beat of his heart and the rush of his blood through his veins. He smelled like nature. Trees, wood, and grass. The scent reminded her of when they had found salvation in the grove outside Atlantis the last time they had been together. Salvation. That was what Hades smelled of. Salvation, security, and safety. In his arms, she knew she would always feel safe.
Digging her nails into his back, she urged him on. To go faster, deeper. Maybe then she could keep her hunger at bay. Maybe if they fucked fast enough, she wouldn’t feel the bloodlust bubbling to the surface. The desire to sink her teeth into his flesh and feed from him pounded at her head like a spike. Squeezing her eyes shut, she forced it back down into the part of her soul that harbored her dark emotions.
“Ah! Harder! Faster!” She moaned, pushing her pelvis into his on each of his thrusts.
He didn’t disappoint. Trailing his hands down to grip her ass, he rammed into her again and again. Could he feel her need? Did he remember how they had beaten the beast last time?
She didn’t know and didn’t care. All she could think of was his body on hers, his cock buried deep inside her sex. Her orgasm was close. She could feel the pressure of it, vibrating inside her and along her thighs. One more deep thrust and she would come.
As if reading her mind, Hades rammed into her, burying his cock to the base. Groaning, he emptied himself. Within seconds, Kat followed him down. Like free-falling, her stomach flipped over, and her head reeled as she climaxed. It felt like this with him every time, as if she were spiraling off a high cliff into oblivion.
When Kat found her breath, she opened her eyes and met Hades’ gaze. She could tell he needed to say something. To tell her words he found just as difficult to express as she did. Although Kat was as hard as they came, with a heart of stone and an empty soul, she desperately needed to hear those words.
He opened his mouth….
A hard knock came at the door. “Hades! It’s Mary.”
Cursing, Hades took a step back and tucked himself back into his pants. He discarded the rest of his shirt, reached for his jacket hanging on the back of the chair, and slipped it on as he cracked open the front door. Kat imagined he did this so the blasted woman couldn’t see into his kitchen, or, worse, see Kat lying half naked on the table like a well-prepared meal.
Yanking her shirt down, Kat slid off the table and pulled up her pants.
That Mary has great
fucking timing!
“What’s the matter?” Hades asked.
“Come quickly. There’s an intruder in the village square.”
Kat perked up at the quiver in Mary’s voice and marched toward the door. Something was definitely wrong.
“Who?” Hades pulled the door wide open, his privacy no longer an issue. Kat sidled up next to him.
Mary shook her head. “I don’t know who or what. But a few of the men have ‘it’ cornered in the square.”
Kat frowned at Mary’s use of “it.” Could a Dark Dweller have found her here? Impossible. She would have felt one the moment it entered the village. Or had she been too involved with Hades to sense anything but her own insatiable desires?
Hades glanced at Kat. She could tell he was thinking the same things that swam in her mind.
Kat turned and rushed back into the bedroom. She grabbed her belt with the throwing stars, strapped her knives to her legs, and picked up her sawed-off shotgun from the floor. She cocked it and chambered a round.
When she came out, Hades was fully dressed and prepared, looking sexy and dangerous. He cocked his shotgun with one hand and grinned like a kid at Christmas. “Just like old times, hey, Kat?”
W
hen they arrived at the town square, it seemed the entire village population was milling about, excited whispers passing from one ear to the next. As Hades and Kat entered, their black leather jackets flapping in the cold, brisk wind, the square fell into an eerie silence. All eyes watched as the crowd moved for them and made a straight path toward three men with guns huddled in a corner by the village pub and the metalsmith.
While she followed Hades through the winding path the villagers were making, Kat could hear the hushed whispers as if they were spoken plainly. The people were scared but curious. By the looks and the silent nods when Hades passed, they were a little of both about him.
She imagined it hadn’t taken him long to gain respect and fear when he first appeared in the village. A man didn’t walk around looking as he did without gaining a little of both. And by the appraising looks from some of the women, he also managed to invoke desire. That didn’t surprise Kat either. Her own insides still throbbed deliciously with the memory of him buried between her legs.