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“So what? Ma still chose not to take us. She didn’t contact us. She chose to start a new life here without us while we were still stuck in that hellhole. Is there really any way those facts can be interpreted differently?”
Her eyes narrow. “Context is everything. Besides, I feel like you’re repeating something that your dad told you guys when in reality, it may be untrue. I think your dad told you that in order to shift the blame from squarely on him to your mom. Since she wasn’t in the picture, she didn’t even get the chance to defend herself.”
I swear, for a second, all I hear is, it’s your fault, Hades.
“Of course you would say that! You women are all the same. My ma left because it’s what women do! They just leave and they don’t bother with goodbyes.” I am seething, lowering my voice to drive home my point. “Just wait. One day, you’ll leave too.”
Penny’s jaw drops. She puts her hand on my arm. “Is that what you think? That I’m just playing around? Look at me, Hades. Look at how freaking pregnant I am! I can’t just leave you without saying a word. Honestly.”
Looking away from her, I feel keyed up. “I think you would. If you get up the nerve, I think you would leave eventually.”
She’s quiet for a full minute.
“Look at me.” Penny turns my face towards her with a finger. “Does your work make you happy?”
“Does it… does it make me happy?!” I blurt out. “No, of course not. It makes me wealthy. It makes me powerful. It puts me on every government’s hit list. Happiness isn’t why I got into the business is the first place.”
She grabs me by the arms, pushing me until I square up to her, my mouth pressed in a grim line. Her hand trails down to rest on my chest.
“Can I tell you something?”
I grab her hand a little too hard and step up, so that her belly rests against me. “Can I stop you?”
Admittedly, I love her touch. I love the feeling of having her this close. It’s like a drug, luring me in. I lean closer, inhaling her delicate, innate scent.
She pushes me back half a step. “I need to know you’re listening.”
I grab her, pulling her against me. The inhale of her breath is sharp and quick. When I look deep in her eyes, bending her back in a dip, her pupils widen.
She feels drugged by my presence too.
Persephone starts speaking quickly, her breath coming fast. “When we first met, you scared me. I hated you. I didn’t feel like being around you was a safe haven for me. But now…” She tips her face up to mine, close enough to brush her lips against mine. She doesn’t though. She seems to be trying to make a point. “Now I think that we were meant to be together. Like the universe had a plan when it put me in your path.”
“Fuck, P,” I swear softly. I look deep into her eyes. “When you touch me like this… when you say these words to me… I know that you trust me…”
“With not just my life, but the life of our child,” she whispers.
Gritting my teeth, I scan her face. “I already know how I feel, which is that yer telling me the absolute truth. I’ve never felt that, not about anyone else.” I clasp her hand against my chest, moved by the sheer closeness of this moment. “I love the way ye touch me, Persephone. I haven’t been touched like this by anyone else in my entire life.” I hesitate before pushing forward. “I would do anything to feel you next to me forever.”
“You can have me forever,” she whispers, her eyes scanning my face. “All you have to do is ask.”
“What about my business?”
“What about it? It existed before you. I’m sure that your brothers will continue to run it after you’ve stepped back. You just have to make a decision. For once in your life, think about what would make you happy, rather than just considering what would add to your obscene piles of money.”
Without answering the question directly, I brush my mouth over hers. She sucks in a breath and I plunder her mouth, pulling gasps from low in her chest.
