Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“What garden?”
“I used to go to this place in the garden when I was a child and wanted privacy. No one knows about it. Not even my mother. So I waited there with Hecate until the moon rose, and then—”
Then I know what happened. Hecate bends the crossroads to her desire. She moves between realms with her hounds. And she did as she has for centuries. Hecate, the mistress of the dead, came back to the Underworld with the sliver of the moon before it turned dark completely, and she brought my queen with her.
As I gaze into Persephone’s eyes, I fall into the depths of them. My need to love her turns ravenous. Hecate can take what she needs from this place, for at this moment, I am an absent king. I need my queen and that is all I know.
Persephone cannot speak anymore, although she doesn’t try to. I have my mouth on hers again, and I cannot stop tasting her. With one hand and a snap of my fingers, I form a silk blanket from the ashes on the ground and lower us both down so that I lie above her.
She blinks, her eyelashes fluttering, and strokes my hair that’s fallen again. One kiss is tempting and the sound of it fuels me for more. Her hair is spread out under her on the blanket like a halo. I kiss her lightly again and this time a flush rises from her chest into her cheeks. Light glows on her face. It is from sconces in the gardens around us, but it is a low, pleasant light and was not burning until she came. She brings light to my darkness.
Persephone searches my face, tracing her fingertips over my features. “It felt like forever,” she murmurs. “It felt like lifetimes.”
“Yes.” I lean down and kiss her again, trailing my lips along her jaw to the side of her neck. “Longer than forever. Eternities. I could not stand it.”
“Neither could I,” she agrees with a quiver in her voice. “I couldn’t…I…”
Persephone’s eyes widen as if she is awestruck by me. As if she has never seen anything more beautiful. As if I am the only man she has ever wanted like this. It is true—I am. There was no one else before me, and there will be no one else after me. I will not let her go. I will never let her go. “I…I need you.”
There is more she wants to say. I can tell. So I kiss her neck and suck softly at the flesh there, feeling her breathe faster. I drag my lips up to the tender spot just beneath her ear and suck there as well.
“Hades.” She breathes my name and my cock throbs.
I drag my lips over her skin now, down to her shoulder, pulling the neckline of her gown open to expose the tops of her breasts. “You are my queen no matter where you go. On Olympus, in the mortal realm, in some other realm no one has discovered…you would still be my queen. You will be my queen. Always.”
“Don’t—” She shivers as I pull her neckline down farther, until both of her breasts are exposed to the air and her rose colored nipples pebble. “Don’t you—oh.” Persephone gasps as I breathe above her right nipple, then directly onto it, then close my mouth over it. “You are my king,” she says in a rush. “Wherever I go. There is nothing that can stop you from being my king.”
A groan leaves me from deep in my chest. I nearly lose all composure. “Say it again.”
Persephone repeats “You are my king,” and I bend my head to hers to kiss the words out of her mouth. Deepening it and losing myself in her touch. She arches up to me, her hips rocking against mine, and I cannot hold back.
I need her now.
With rough fingers and a primal need, I push her gown up to her waist and kiss the insides of her thighs as I tear open my clothes. Persephone braces herself on the blanket, watching me, her lips shining in the garden lights, her eyes sparkling, and when I kiss her other thigh she reaches down and pulls her gown higher and higher until she works it up and over her head.
Then she is naked in the garden, and it is right—it is the place she belongs, in my realm, in my garden, underneath me, writhing with need.
She spreads her legs for me. I do not hesitate. I need to kiss her clit, too. Loving how she moans when I do. I suck her and in response, her fingers fly to the back of my head, holding me there with unadulterated greed. I need to taste her sweetness, even stronger between her legs, and lick her clit as she gasps. Her thighs press into my head once, then twice, and then she threads her fingers into my hair and pulls me away until I am back at her mouth again.