Free Hades by Larissa Ione Page B

nothing funny about this anymore. Her flirtation had been cute and flattering, but it had to stop. For both of their sakes.
    “Yes,” he drawled, reaching for the cockiness that had served him well when things got too serious. “But to be fair, all females do.”
    A slow, seductive smile curved her mouth, and it took a lot more restraint than he cared to admit to keep from dipping his head and kissing her senseless. “I’d tell you that you’re arrogant, but I’m sure you already know that. And I like it.”
    Man, he had no idea how to handle this little vixen. She seemed both innocent and experienced, and he wasn’t sure which was the truth.
    Maybe it was time to find out.
     

Chapter Nine
    Cat’s heart was pounding so hard that she wondered if the surrounding tissue was going to be bruised. After months of trying to catch Hades’s eye, she had him all to herself. She had his ear, his eye, and with luck, she’d have him in that coffin-bed.
    Yes, there were pressing matters to attend to, but in this moment, they were in background because all she cared about was the foreground. And what a foreground it was.
    The problem, she realized, was that she had no idea how to proceed. Things with Zhubaal had gone disastrously wrong, so she didn’t want to repeat the mistakes she’d made with him. She just wished she knew what, exactly, she’d done.
    Gods, this had better not be a replay of her incident with Z.
    Closing her eyes, she let herself feel Hades’s unique blend of good and evil on her skin. She’d made the comparison of good feeling like sparkling wine, while evil felt like whiskey, and Hades was a swirling mix of both. Carbonated whiskey. Might taste funky, but her skin felt alive with a tingling heat that spread to her scalp, her toes, and everything in between.
    It was especially concentrated in her feminine parts.
    So delicious.
    “Hades––” She’d barely gotten his name off her tongue when his mouth came down on hers.
    “Is this what you want?” he growled against her lips. “I’m not one to question motives when it comes to females who are willing to fuck me, but you have me confused as shit.”
    She wasn’t confused at all. Zhubaal...he’d been an experiment. A means to an end. Oh, she’d liked him, she supposed. He was gruff and rude, but he was never cruel. At least, not that she’d seen.
    But Hades was unique. From his clothing to his hair, he blew other fallen angels out of the water. And where most other fallen angels were all serious and dour, Hades was playful, even silly at times. Once, when Thanatos, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, had come to Sheoul-gra with his toddler son, she’d watched Hades chase the squealing boy through the courtyard before tackling him gently and then tickling the boy’s belly with his Mohawk.
    She’d been fascinated to see a legend like Hades, a male whose job it was to make life miserable for millions of demons, handle a child with such tenderness. And he did it with such exuberance, without a care who was watching. How many times had she seen male pride get in the way of fun, as if enjoying life and showing emotion was wrong or weak?
    No, it took strength to live the way Hades did and still be able to laugh at a joke or enjoy a child’s giggle.
    That was the fatal moment in which Cat had decided that she needed to get to know Hades a little better. It was also the moment in which she decided she wanted to feel that blue stripe of hair tickle her sensitive spots.
    Before she could tell him as much, he spun her, put her hard into the wall, his body against hers. She gasped at the feel of his erection as it pressed into her from her core to her belly. Oh, sweet Heaven, how was that going to feel inside her?
    “Most females want me because I’m a monster.” He arched against her, and she moaned at the erotic pressure against her sex. “Is that your game? Fuck the underworld’s most notorious jailor and earn some bragging points?”
    A