Asterion (The Court of the Underworld #1; The Gods Universe #1)

by Alessa Thorn

"Have you been a naughty boy, Asterion? Oh my…it looks like it."

"What does it matter? You're already walking the road to Tartarus, so you might as well dance,"

Hmm, your skin feels nice," Asterion said, sitting down beside her. "Thanks, I moisturize."

A grumble of satisfied male echoed through his chest, not sounding remotely human.

"I have no pockets because of the patriarchy, so where else am I going to put them?"

"How did you know the Maserati was my favorite?" "Are you kidding me? Even my dick gets hard when I look at that thing."

"Is she fucking smiling right now?" Asterion said incredulously, leaning over the edge of the balcony for a better look. She was. A big fuck you grin now stretched from ear to ear.

Hades's phone binged. "Medusa is offering two million drachmae for her." Asterion glared at the Serpent Queen's cameras above him and lifted his middle finger.

"You're such a terror." Asterion made a quick retreat from the kitchen. It was going to be the fastest staff meeting in history.

"You need to get something into that bull head of yours. Ariadne is a capable, kick-ass woman. She's not like one of the ditsy club girls you usually sleep with. She has more experience wading through the filthy underbelly of Styx than the majority of your men. She was born into it, and has lived through the worst of it. You can't treat her like a damsel and expect to keep her."

"Do you think that despite the glorious fuck ups on my behalf that we could one day be lovers, Asterion?" Ariadne asked before she could talk herself out of it. Asterion rested his forehead against hers. "I think that is inevitable as the sunrise, sweetness. I've tried and failed to fight it, but I can't help that I adore your crazy, violent, smart ass self," he said with a sigh.

"Promise me, and I'll give you whatever you want. I'll burn the world to the ground, or I'll lay it at your feet, just promise me you won't run away and scare me again."

"You've ruined me, Ariadne. I don't want to live without you, and I'll kill anyone who tries to get in our way."