Page 52 of Curse the Flame

Oh, crap.

Okay. I know I’m playing with fire. Heck, considering Hades gives Aiden the ability to conjure hellfire in his palms and wield it, I mean that literally. But curse the flame and screw Persephone, too. He’s right. When it comes to me, it’s about what Willow wants.

But what about what Aiden wants?

I should have just left it at that. Finished the conversation now that he made it clear that he does want me to play my part and become his bride. Not because the myth says so, but because he has decided that he loves me and he wants me to love him.

Is that all, though?

“Do you want to?” I ask.

His brow furrows. “Do I want to what, Blossom?”

Oh, boy.

Here goes nothing. “What Hades said. Bed me? I mean, we sleep in the same bed every night together, but if he’s talking about the, um, physical act of sleeping together⁠—”

There’s that unexpected blush again. “He is.”

“Figured. Okay. So… do you want to?”

The stricken expression on his handsome face tells me that, while he does, it’s going to take a little convincing to get him to admit it.

And then he surprises me by blowing out a breath. “I’m from a different age. I think I told you that I was raised Catholic. Some fellas… they had their girl early. Not me. I was plannin’ to wait until I was married. And then Veronica found a different husband, and I was back stateside for a year before I… I stumbled through a mirror and found my way here, and I…”

This time, his voice trails to a close, and it takes me a second to understand what he’s trying to say.

When I do? My eyes go wide.

Virgin. Like me, Aiden is a virgin.

No wonder he didn’t try anything with me. It wasn’t because he didn’t find me attractive. Nope. He’s just a virgin from the 1940s who was waiting for his bride.

Heck, yeah. He was waiting for me.

Now, I’m not going to jump in with both feet and marry him right now. I’m not that impulsive. However, I’m impulsive enough to blurt out: “Did you kiss?”

He blinks. “Kissin’ was okay. So, yeah.”

Thought so.

Veronica kissed him. Suddenly, I can’t resist the urge to do the same.

“Can I kiss you?”

His eyes flicker again. “There ain’t nothing I want more. But… I have to tell you something. I haven’t had a kiss since Veronica. I might be a little rusty.”

That’s fine with me. I haven’t had a kiss since I was twenty and went on three dates with Ross Davies before he tried to hook up with Daph behind my back and she slapped him, told me he was a jerk, and I basically just gave up on finding a decent guy.

It’s almost as if I knew I was waiting for Aiden—and maybe I was. Maybe, with Persephone sleeping deep inside of me, she knew that I shouldn’t waste my time with anyone else.

Not when fate would one day bring me to him…

Look at that. I’m here. He’s here. And, before he can disappear or be called away because someone in the Underworld needs Hades, I grab Aiden by the lapels, pull him down so that he’s in my reach, and I kiss him.

There’s a spark where our lips meet, the same jolt that happens every time we touch almost electrifying my mouth. It happens again when I part my lips, nudge his with the tip of my tongue to do the same, then slip it inside his mouth. I tingle, though that might also be because I’m kissing Aiden and he’s kissing me back, and this? This is what a kiss is supposed to be like?

It’s frantic, messy, and ours. Though he’s still at first, as though he’s expecting me to reject him—which I will never do—he eventually bows his body over mine. He bends my back against the railing, his hands dropping down to my hips to pin me in place as he kisses me.