‘Oh, what – because I was supposed to say, “No, you idiot, I really find you very attractive and would like to kiss your stupid face!”’
‘Yes, that’s exactly what you should have said! Well, notexactlybut –’
I mutter something Hades doesn’t find particularly pleasing and he’s coming up with excuses again.
‘Not to mention the fact you were drunk at the time,’ he protests.
‘So were you.’
‘Exactly. Hardly rational decision-making on anyone’s behalf.’
‘You know what, while we’re at it, you should probably know I proposed to you because I was scared they’d hurt you if they thought you’d ruined me for marriage.’
‘What?’
‘I was protecting you.’
‘That’s terrible logic.’
‘It’s literally no different from you marrying me to protect me.’
‘How have we actually managed to turn this into an argument?’ Hades fumes.
And he’s right so I do the only thing I can think of and suddenly I’m kissing his stupid face.
Every rational thought in my head is chased clean away. It’s just him and me and that simplicity has returned. He’s kissing me. His hands are on the small of my back, pulling me closer, and mine are on his neck, his pulse racing beneath my fingers. His lips press against mine with urgency, with hunger, and it’s so much more than everything I dreamt it to be. I feel it this time like I didn’t before, everything he’s saying without using words, all that love.
When we finally gasp apart he stays holding me and I’m still holding him and suddenly we’re kissing again until the Heavens must be spinning.
I tug down the sleeve of his chiton and he lets me go,staggering back and panting like if he doesn’t put enough physical distance between us I will be all over him again.
And I might. My need for the sight – thefeel– of his skin, my desire to press myself against every inch of it, is like a physical thirst.
‘Tell me what your mother said.’
I’m so shocked I forget how to use words.
‘Is this your idea of foreplay?’ I finally manage.
‘I care about you too much to … to take advantage of your emotional state if she said –’
‘Why don’t you let me worry about my emotional state?’ I ask but … it just makes me want to run to him more. I can’t believe the thought of being known has always terrified me when this is what it is instead: knowing that if I fall I will be caught.
‘Persephone.’
‘She said she’s going to keep killing the humans unless I go back to her,’ I say. ‘Can we kiss again?’
‘Persephone!’
‘What do you want me to say, Hades?’ I ask. ‘She said she is the only one who will always love me and if I want the crops to flourish I’ll go back. I would have told her to go to Hell if that weren’t the opposite of what I was hoping for.’
‘Will you?’ he asks. ‘Is all this some elaborate way of saying goodbye before you sacrifice yourself to her?’
‘You’re too smart to ask such questions, Hades,’ I say.
Why are his lips still not pressed against mine? I don’t want to talk any more. I’ve already processed these emotions, already locked them away. It’s all very healthy.
‘Persephone, Iknowyou. You care an awful lot for thosehumans,’ he says. His voice is too stable, too grounded, when I feel like I could hardly string two words together.
