A Game of Fate (Hades Saga, #1)

by Scarlett St. Clair

She is yours, a voice echoed in his head, and something inside him snapped. Claim her.

“That woman, I want to know if she leaves with anyone.” Silence followed Hades’s order, and when the god looked at Ilias, he was staring back, brow raised. “Is she in danger, my lord?”

Yes, he thought, she was in danger of never leaving this place. Something inside him wanted to disregard every civility and possess her.

He was the last person she should trust. Finally, she seemed resolved and relaxed, lowered her lashes as she spoke in the

most erotic voice he had ever heard, “Then teach me.” I will. Everything, he thought.

“But I don’t have anything to bet with,” she said, glancing down at herself. I would happily take the dress.

This was Persephone, the goddess who would be his queen, and she was everything.

“You are full of surprises, darling.” He was too arrogant, he realized, unprepared for his body’s reaction to her. Her scent sunk into his skin, igniting his blood. He grew heavy and hard at the thought of wrapping his arm around her waist, pulling her against him, consuming her.

He would pry the bars from around her body, free her from this self-constructed cage of hate, and in the end, if she did not love him, at least she would be free.

Keep her safe, he thought as he grasped her shoulders, sealing the space between them. He had thrown her off-balance, and her fingers clenched the front of his shirt, nails scraping his chest. He pressed his lips to her forehead, and the heat from her skin rushed to the bottom of his stomach, making his cock throb and his thoughts turn chaotic. He wanted to tilt her head toward his, to kiss her mouth and taste her tongue.

“No one prays to the God of the Dead, my lady, and when they do, it is already too late.”

This burning desire, this desperate wish to claim and protect and to love.