Reese is waiting for me, leaning against a brick wall, and I know the second I see him that me being here is a huge mistake. I should leave, but before my legs can process this command, he’s there beside me, and his smell hits me like simmering ambrosia. Intoxicates me.
He takes my hand, and though my mind screams at me to yank it away, I don’t, instead letting him hold it as we walk.
“I told you I wouldn’t wait forever, and now I don’t have to.”
His arm is next to mine, and I can feel the sweat from his bare shoulder mingling with my own.
I try to relax, but something about his voice sends shivers through my body. And his smell is amazing. I take another breath and let it course through me. It makes me think everything is normal—that everything will be okay.
Reese opens the door to one of the greenhouses, and we go inside and sit on a bench. It’s foggy from the humidity, and I can’t see the world outside through the glass. I sit there for a few seconds just breathing him in.
“My life started again when you opened the box, Persephone.” He slides closer to me, pressing his leg against mine.
I shake my head, still trying to sort out the truth—if there is any truth floating around the strange stories I’m hearing. It’s like I’m finally getting every answer I wanted, and it’s too much to process. “Why did opening the box matter so much?”
His breath is hot; it’s on my ear as he speaks. I don’t pull away. His finger traces the line of my face.
“Only you could open it,” he says. “Deceit made it that way. You opened the box and freed your identity. I felt it the second it hit the air. And I came to you the very next day.”
I remember the day I met Reese. The same day I met Shayne. Just after my eighteenth birthday. “Who gave me the box? Who is Melina?”
Reese shrugs, and his muscles harden next to me, and I want to reach and touch them. “Aphrodite, though I think she was trying to kill you.”
“Kill me?”
“She loves me,” Reese says. “She always has.”
“Do you love her?” I force the words out of my mouth. As absurd as the thought seems, I don’t want Reese to love anyone but me. But I also think I hate him.
“She’s nothing next to you.”
I can’t help but glance around. Can Aphrodite hear him? Will she smite me on the spot? “Reese—”
“Shhhh…” Reese whispers in my ear. “You can be with me forever, Persephone.” He puts a hand on my leg, and a jolt runs through me, making every thought in my brain run off to the shadows.
“Forever?” I repeat. And his scent hits me hard. I fight it for a second—it’s like a drug—but the smell is powerful, and it takes over. I inhale, and exhilaration moves into my lungs. It reaches every muscle in my body as his scent makes its way through my blood.
Reese nods, tickling my leg with his fingers.
I quiver under his touch and breathe deeply again.
His words are music in my ear, lulling me exactly where I want to go. “Forget about your mom. You can live in my world. We can be together like we should have been together so long ago.”
But I shake my head. “My mom will never let me.” And I’m not sure I will let me. Reese is lethal, but the thought of being near him for eternity empties my mind of every rational thought and makes my head spin. And there’s something else niggling in my mind, but it won’t take shape.
Reese smiles and rubs my leg sending a fresh wave of chills up me. “I’ll take care of your mom.”
I’m possessed, and the overwhelming urge to kiss Reese takes over me, and I lean into him. When his lips meet mine, I never want us to be apart. He separates his lips, and his tongue explores my mouth, and I let him and explore him, too.
His hands are rubbing me. Moving up my thighs. I want so badly to be with him. I want to feel this way for always. I tip my head back, and he kisses my neck, sending electricity down my chest and stomach. I spread my legs, and his hand begins to move, and I know I’ve felt this way before. I want to feel this way again. I ache to be with him. I want him to be a part of me. And when his fingers just barely reach me, I remember.
“Shayne.”
It’s like a whisper in my mind, but I say it aloud.
“No. Don’t worry about him.” And Reese’s lips are on mine again.
“Shayne.” I say it again this time, louder, and when the word comes out of my mouth, Reese’s hand stops briefly, barely grazing me. I want Shayne. Not Reese. It’s like a fog has been clouding my mind, but I’m trying to make it lift.
“Shayne tricked you, Persephone.” His hand retreats slightly though, and rubs my thigh again, willing me to relax my legs.
An ache inside me wants to. To let him take me. Like I let Shayne. But Shayne is who I should be with. “No. I want—”
Reese’s mouth moves to mine again, but this time it’s fierce. His lips press on me, and I can’t breathe. But I’m kissing him back all the same with equal ferocity to his own. His hand on my leg begins again, and his other hand moves up my stomach, sliding under my shirt, until it finds my nipple, hard and waiting.
I gasp when he touches it. But I know this is wrong. Why am I letting him do this? It’s so not right.
“I want you to stop.” I don’t want him to stop. I want him to keep going. At least right now I do.
But Reese doesn’t stop.
“I want you to stop.” Louder this time. I can’t do this. I won’t do this.
When he pulls back, it takes every bit of effort I have to not reach for him again. I’m breathing so hard, it comes out in gasps. And my heart is pounding with enough force I can see my eyes beating.
“Oh, gods, Persephone. Please just give me a chance. I can be everything and more to you than Hades. I can make you feel like a woman. To live above the earth. And what does Hades have to offer you? Life in Hell? Torturing and burning. Dead souls everywhere. Is that what you really want? If it is, I can give you that, too.”
I’m dying to be with Reese. To let him have his chance. But it’s all wrong, and my mind screams it at me over and over.
“I love Shayne.”
“Love! He’s lied to you. Tricked you.”
I shake my head. “Shayne wouldn’t do that.” But a fresh wave of Reese’s intoxicating smell enters my nose, and his words shift around and weave into something that makes sense.
“Why don’t you ask him what he’s been doing with Chloe? You think you’re the only girl Hades is looking at?”
“Chloe?” I can’t believe Reese’s words.
But he nods. “Why do you think she’s acting so strangely? She can’t look you in the eye. She’s sleeping with your boyfriend every chance she gets.”
“Not Chloe. She wouldn’t do that.” But I remember Chloe and her sheets. The ones she’d cut to shreds because they’d felt dirty. Not to mention how distant she’s been and her dates she’s told me nothing about.
“She would. Over and over. Why do you think Hades saved her?”
“Because he loves me.”
Reese jumps to his feet. “Wrong, Piper. Because he wanted to have her for himself.”
I get up and move away, turning around so my back is to him. “You’re wrong.”
I hear him coming behind me. His hands are on my bare shoulders, and he leans into my ear. “I’m not wrong. And you know it.” And he nibbles on my earlobe, sending a fresh wave of desire on top of the hurt I’m feeling from Shayne’s lies. The lies which all fit together now. I can see them burning clearly in my mind like a hideous jigsaw puzzle. Reese’s scent gives me perfect clarity.