I can’t help holding my breath. “Really?”
“Yeah.” His attention tracks down to the remaining two pups. “He’ll be awfully lonely without his littermates.”
“Um.” I’m pretty sure my eyes are in danger of popping out of my head. “What?”
Instead of answering directly, he raises his voice. “Gayle?” When she reappears, he nods at the puppies. “We’ll take them all.”
She presses her lips together. “I’m not one to tell you how to do your business.”
He arches a brow. “When has that ever stopped you?”
“Three dogs is a lot, Hades. Three puppies? You’re biting off more than you can chew.” She points at the puppies. “And they will chew the shit out of your expensive shoes.”
He’s undeterred. He’s put himself on this path and he won’t be dissuaded. “I’ll give the staff hazard pay. It will be fine.”
For a moment, I think she’ll keep arguing, but she finally shrugs. “Don’t come crying to me in a week or two when teething really sets in.”
“I won’t.”
One final look and she shakes her head. “Better call some of your people to come help fetch and carry. You’re not set up for puppies, so we’ll need to load you up.”
“Consider it done. We’ll get whatever you think is best.”
She walks away, still shaking her head and muttering about stubborn men. I turn back to Hades and can’t stop from grinning widely. “You’re buying three dogs.”
“We’re buying three dogs.” He pushes easily to his feet, the pup still cradled in his arms. “You should know by now that I can’t say no to you, Persephone. You turn those big hazel eyes on me, and I’m putty in your hands.”
I snort. I can’t help it. “You’re so full of shit.”
“Language,” he murmurs, mirth lighting up his eyes.
I burst out laughing. The giddiness soaring through me is pure, undiluted happiness. A feeling I have no right to, not with everything hanging over our heads, but somehow that makes it more precious. I want to cling to this moment, to shove reality away and let us have this time uninterrupted.
Because no matter what he says, these dogs aren’t really mine. They’re his, the way it should be. I’ll get them for the rest of the winter, but that’s it. Then I’ll leave and they’ll be Hades’s little pack. Companionship that he’ll hopefully allow even if he holds the humans around him at a distance.
My little bubble of happiness deflates instantly. He deserves so much more than the hand life has dealt him. He deserves to be happy. He deserves to be surrounded by friends and loved ones who will fill his giant house with laughter and experiences. He’s such a good person, even if he’s a villain as far as Olympus is concerned—at least the parts of Olympus that even believe in him.
It takes a solid thirty minutes to get everything we need and for Hades’s man Charon to show up with two guys to help haul it all back home. It’s not until I walk through the front door that I realize I was thinking of this place as home before just today. That it feels more like a home than the high-rise penthouse my mother owns ever did, my sisters’ presence or no.
A sliver of panic spears through me. No matter how much I’m enjoying my time with Hades, this can’t be home. I’ve sacrificed too much, asked my sisters to sacrifice too much, to not follow through now. I have to leave after I turn twenty-five, have to take my trust fund and power my way out of Olympus. If I don’t… What was even the point?
I’ll have traded one beautiful cage for another.
And that’s one thing I can’t allow.
Chapter 23
Hades
“Hades, we’re going to be late.”
I sit on the floor while the three black pups play in and out of my lap. It took them most of the day to warm up to the space, and we decided to clear out a room near the interior courtyard so we have easy access to the outside for potty breaks. So much to consider, it almost distracted me from what’s coming.
Almost.
I look up and my breath catches in my throat. Persephone is beautiful in everything she wears, but she’s stunning in black. The stark color sets off her golden skin and blond hair. It doesn’t exactly cover up her brightness but gives the feel of a stray sunbeam that’s somehow found its way to the Underworld. The dress clings to her skin like oil, pouring over her breasts and down her hips to fall to the floor around her feet.
She looks like a fucking queen.
“Hades?”
I give myself a mental shake, but I can’t take my eyes off her. “You look beautiful.”
She glances down at herself and smooths her hands over her hips. “Juliette outdid herself with this one. It’s deceptively simple, but the cut and fabric are just masterful.”
I carefully move the pups off my lap and rise to my feet. “It wouldn’t look nearly as masterful on anyone else.”
“Now you’re just teasing me.” But she’s smiling as if my compliments make her happy. I have to rein in the impulse to promise to compliment her every day if it puts that expression on her face. Has she noticed how she’s slowly relaxed and unfurled in the last few weeks? I have. She’s stopped guarding her words so closely, has stopped considering each conversation like a battlefield she might not come out the other side of. Another clear indication of the trust she places in me.
In how safe she feels.
She nods at the puppies, her expression going indulgent. “Have you considered names?”
“Dog.” I don’t mean it. I only say it to see her roll her eyes at me.
She doesn’t disappoint. “Hades, you have three dogs. You can’t call them all ‘dog.’ They
