Three Kinds of Trouble by Anne Malcom

Chapter Twelve

“So?” I questioned, twirling. “What do you think?”

I felt oddly uncomfortable twirling in front of this man. Yes, I’d spent a huge chunk of my adult life twirling in front of men, but I was usually attached to a pole and half naked. I’d never flushed this much since ... ever.

I was modeling yet another sundress. This one was black. Halter neck. Backless. It clinched in at my waist, skimmed over my body and finished just below my knees. I was in bare feet, so I was twirling on my tiptoes to help with the effect. This was the first one I’d tried on, one of only a handful that was hanging in my dressing room.

It felt incredibly weird walking around Nordstrom—we’d had to drive thirty minutes to the next town, thirty minutes of near silence—with Hades beside me. With all the expensive shoes, the purses, the low playing elevator music ... he stood out, that was for sure. A large, menacing man wearing a biker cut in all black. Yeah, he stood out alright. Every woman—and a decent amount of men—we walked by had checked him out, big time. The salespeople had looked at him tentatively, as if they were expecting him to hold up the joint or something. I’d made sure to meet their eyes with an angry, judgmental stare, causing them to quickly avert their eyes. I was not unused to sales assistants at expensive stores giving me those kinds of looks, especially with the way I dressed. I dressed like a stripper. One who wore Jimmy Choos and carried around a Chanel purse, but a stripper, nonetheless.

I’d learned to let such looks bounce off my hard exterior despite the number of times I’d wished to have the Pretty Woman “big mistake, huge” moment. But I’d taken the high road. I barely noticed it anymore. Yet I felt strangely and weirdly protective over this man, who had been willing to walk into Nordstrom with me. Not that he needed me to protect him.

He’d taken to the experience like he took to everything, like this was something he did every day. No male shifting from foot to foot, no eyes darting toward the exit, looking for the closest escape.

Sure, he wasn’t picking out outfits for me or anything, but he was attentive. Staring. At me. I doubt he noticed a single woman—or man—who had checked him out since we’d arrived. Not one.

It was almost impossible to concentrate on shopping. Which was a big fucking statement for a girl like me. I’d grasped a handful of dresses, barely paying attention, then hightailed it for the dressing room.

He’d followed me. All the way in, down the row of doors, to the one I selected at the end where there were a bunch of mirrors and a seat, presumably for the husbands. There was no husband in the room I chose. There was no one in any of the dressing rooms, as far as I could tell. It was late morning on a Thursday, not exactly peak shopping hours. That was one of the best things about having a job like mine, daytime shopping without any of the crowds.

But right now, twirling in my dress in front of Hades, some crowds would’ve been welcome.

The dress was utter perfection. Surprising since I’d just snatched it off the rack, the first one I’d tried on. That never happened. Ever. It had to be Hades. Hades, the magical, badass, sexy man. His powers apparently extended to the women’s department at Nordstrom.

It showed off my ample assets, but not in a way that would be inappropriate for a family barbeque. Though this was a Sons of Templar barbeque, so I didn’t think it required the same kind of outfit as the WASP barbeques I used to attend with Derek.

Ugh, Derek.

I did not need to think of him at that moment.

When I was brave enough to look up at Hades, I melted. I truly fucking melted.

I couldn’t say his eyes had softened because there was nothing soft about this man. I was pretty sure it was impossible for anything about him to be soft or tender. And although I had thought that’s what I wanted, I realized I hadn’t known what I wanted. What I needed. Until that very fucking moment.

“Freya,” he said through gritted teeth. It was a warning. One that made me take two steps back without even consciously thinking about it.

Hades followed me. All the way back into my dressing room. He slammed the flimsy door shut behind him. Everything was moving in slow motion, my heart thundering against my ribcage. In my throat.

Somewhere, far away, in another world or maybe in another dressing room, women entered, chatting.

Hades and I stared at each other for a split second, for an eternity, before he approached me. Or maybe I approached him. Either way, his hand was at the back of my neck, bringing our bodies and mouths together. We crashed against each other. Tongues. Teeth. Desire that had been building for weeks, fire that had been simmering for months. It wasn’t just an inferno now. It was something else entirely. A fucking explosion. Destroying everything in its path. Even now, in the state that I was in, I knew that nothing would ever be the same after this.

Then again, nothing had been the same since the night we met.

And I was totally fucking okay with that.

“Fuck,” he hissed against my mouth, his other hand at my ass, bunching up the dress. “I knew you’d taste like this. Like goddamned destruction.”

There was no time to digest this, no time to explore the heat in his eyes. No, he was kissing me again. He was devouring me fucking whole.

And I let him. Gladly.

Something ripped. My sanity, maybe. More realistically, it was the thin strap of the dress. Hades jerked the fabric covering my breast away as if it was nothing, his palm kneading my bare ass.

I moaned in a way that was much too loud and much too sexual, but I couldn’t control it.

He bent down and put my nipple in his mouth, tracing his tongue over the sensitive skin, his teeth grazing against me. I tore my fingers through his hair, itching to yank it out by the root. My body writhed against the wall, and I feared I was going to break it down. Men had explored my nipples with their mouths before, and it had been nice, but nowhere near as stimulating as every porno made it seem.

Now I was questioning every man who’d come before Hades and wondering whether every porno producer was actually a woman who had, at some point, been fucked by Hades or a some kind of alpha male.

My climax started building, my body tensing, readying to explode. Solely from his lips on my fucking nipple. Although I knew that the orgasm that I was a handful of moments away from having was going to be fucking awesome, really fucking awesome, I did not want my first orgasm with Hades to be fromhis lips on my nipple. I wanted his cock in my pussy.

“Hades,” I huffed out, pulling at his hair in a different way now. “The first time we have sex cannot be in a dressing room at Nordstrom.” My voice was breathy and not at all convincing, considering his mouth was on my nipple and his fingers were probing the edge of my panties.

“I know,” he murmured, removing his lips from my nipple.

But his fingers did not move.

No, they did move.

They moved inside me.

First inside my panties, then inside of me.

I gasped, my knees giving out. Hades somehow held me up while his fingers worked expertly inside of me, coated in my need for him.

“I didn’t want the first time I get inside your cunt to be somewhere I couldn’t make you scream without getting us arrested,” he murmured in my ear, fingers still moving inside of me. “I had plans for you, Freya. To own you. To take every part of you.” His mouth moved upward, tongue slipping into my mouth. He tasted of man and sex.

“I wanted to taste every part of you,” he continued against my mouth, putting another finger inside of me.

I gasped, no longer caring that we were in a public place, that there were women trying on clothes mere feet from us. That there wasn’t a solid wall anywhere around. That a world beyond this fitting room existed.

Nothing existed except him.

Hades.

“I wanted to control everything about the first time I was inside of you,” Hades growled, his fingers still moving, coaxing me to climax. “But then you babbled about going shopping. Then you looked at me like you were imagining my cock inside of you. Then you came out in that fucking dress.” He pulled my hair to expose my neck. His lips landed on it, teeth grazing my carotid artery. “You stole all my control. I don’t have a choice.”

Somehow, some way, his fingers left me, my legs wrapped around his hips, my panties were pushed to the side and his cock surged inside of me.

All the way inside.

I screamed. It was muffled by his hand against my mouth, but it was still a scream.

It was exquisite. Overwhelming. I’d never felt so full in my fucking life.

He didn’t remove his hand straight away, as if he knew I was about to fall apart, as if he sensed that even his large hand against my mouth might not come anywhere close to muffling the sound of my next orgasm.

The conversations of people beyond the door were nothing but a faraway echo.

“I don’t have a choice whether or not to fuck you right now, Freya,” Hades murmured, his lips at my ear. “I’m going to come inside you. You’re going to clench around my dick. I won’t get to see every inch of you as you do so. I won’t get to hear you scream the way I want. but that’s gonna happen later.”

Then he started thrusting. He stared at me as his hips moved, his hand still at my mouth, muffling my moans of pleasure. Veins in his neck pulsated from restraint. And I knew he was restraining himself right now. This was a muscled fucking sex god. He was fucking me with one-tenth of his strength, of his hunger, his desire. I heard that in his voice, saw it in his eyes, in the way he was holding himself.

If this was one-tenth of what he was capable of giving me, I had no idea how I’d survive him.

But I couldn’t think about the future right now. All I cared about was Hades’s cock plunging inside me, his hand on my mouth, my teeth grazing against his fingers, fingers that tasted faintly of me.

My second orgasm came fast, quick, and it was earth-shattering.

“Yes,” Hades hissed, still fucking me, holding me up, taking all of my weight since the flimsy dressing room partition definitely couldn’t take it. “That’s my girl,” he rasped, his voice animalistic. “Come for me.”

He kept going, my body exploding with aftershocks, his body refusing to let me settle, to let me come down. His eyes were locked on me the entire time. It was an out-of-body experience, having this man—the one I’d touched myself thinking about for weeks—fucking me in a Nordstrom dressing room, fucking me like I’d never been fucked before.

And I’d never felt more in touch with my body in my entire life. Never felt more like a woman in my entire fucking life.

I came apart again, coming for the third time. This time, I brought Hades with me. He let out a low growl that sounded like it came from the back of his throat. I couldn’t tell whether it was a roar or a whisper. All I knew was that I felt it in my pores.

I felt him in my pores.

* * *

I did not walk out of Nordstrom with a dress. However, I did walk out of Nordstrom with a man who had just made me come. Three times. Although his hand was settled on my lower back and his cock was back in his jeans, I could still feel him inside me. Because he was still inside of me.

Not only had Derek never come inside of me, but he’d also never fucked me without a condom. That was not something I did.

Ever.

Nor was it something I forgot about in the throes of passion. The throes had never been intense enough for me to forget about sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancy. Sure, I was on the pill and had been since I was a teenager, but that did not mean I couldn’t get pregnant. Multiple girls at clubs I’d worked at had told me stories about unplanned pregnancies that were the result of sex with a man who hadn’t wanted to use condoms. I’d told myself I would only forgo condoms when I was okay with having a child with the man I was fucking. There was not one single man who’d ever fucked me that I had wanted to have a child with.

I snuck a look at the man who was driving my car. Something he’d demanded because apparently it was impossible for a man to sit in a passenger seat and let a woman drive.

God forbid.

I didn’t mind even the slightest right now, considering his hand was on my thigh. High on my thigh. Plus, I was busy thinking about his cum. Then I was thinking about a dark-headed baby in his muscled arms.

Fuck.

No. I needed to slow down. I’d had sex with this guy once. Once. Now I was imagining what our child looked like? Fucking insane.

Hades looked at me when I cleared my throat. It was not the first time he’d done that, looked at me. We hadn’t spoken since we’d gotten into the car. Actually, we hadn’t spoken since he’d gotten out of me. Not because things were awkward. Because there wasn’t much else to say.

Well, now there was something to say.

“We didn’t use a condom,” I blurted out. My cheeks flamed. I couldn’t believe me, of all people, was embarrassed by that. Not twenty minutes ago, this man had been inside me.

“No, we didn’t,” he agreed.

“I don’t have sex without a condom.”

His grip tightened on my thigh. It almost hurt. And I liked it.

“I don’t want to hear a word about you fucking anyone but me,” he shot back.

The corner of my mouth turned up in amusement. “I don’t plan on fucking anyone except you,” I admitted, laying my cards on the table. There was no point playing hard to get here, not when he already had me.

“I’m clean,” he said, still gripping my thigh tightly. “Can get tested when we get back, show you the papers before I fuck you again. And, baby, as long as you’ve got no objection to it, I need to fuck you raw.”

Now, he might not have been a traditional gentleman, but the offer was remarkably polite in my opinion. But the reality of that meant that I would have to wait at least two days for Hades to fuck me again. The mere thought of it made my skin crawl and my stomach constrict in need, despite the fact his cum was still dripping from me. Yes, I could’ve insisted on a condom. It was my right as a woman, and I’d scoffed at all the men who’d whined about how condoms numbed things. But I was a woman who’d never been fucked without one.

It might have been foolish of me to take an outlaw at his word, but I didn’t give a shit. For better or for worse, I trusted Hades. My gut told me he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.

“No, I don’t have any objections,” I rasped out, barely able to speak.

His hand moved even higher up my leg, so high that it brushed the edge of my very damp panties.

My teeth sank into my lip hard enough for me to taste blood. Hades returned his eyes to the road, but his jaw was granite.

Neither of us said a word during the rest of the drive home. His finger just kept brushing the side of my panties and that soft area where my pussy and my upper thigh met.

I wasn’t even sure that he’d put it in park by the time we got back to my place. I wouldn’t have even noticed if he’d driven through the house and parked in my living room at this point.

We barely got the door closed before he was inside me again. Sirius, who had cheerfully run up to us when he’d first heard the door, had taken one look and politely left us to it.

Now I was bent over the sideboard, my palms flat on the surface, Hades fucking me so hard that everything on the sideboard clattered to the ground. I barely noticed. All I noticed was that I could watch Hades fuck me thanks to the mirror I’d placed above it.

“Look,” he hissed, his hands bunching my hair, yanking it so my chin jutted up and my eyes found his icy ones in the mirror. “Look at yourself,” he ordered. “Look at how beautiful you are with my cock inside you.” He kept thrusting, and I cried out, looking at myself. My face was flushed, my eyes glowed, and yeah, I looked good.

“Remember the way you look right now,” he grumbled. “Remember it.”

It was a command. One that went deeper than just being surface words. He didn’t just want me to remember how I looked, he wanted me to remember him. Because he was already establishing that he’d be something to remember.

I might’ve held onto that a little tighter if my grasp on reality hadn’t picked that moment to explode into a million tiny particles with my orgasm.

I didn’t think about it later either.

Which was my mistake.

* * *

“I think this qualifies as a cheeseburger day,” I said to the ceiling.

We had made it to the bedroom. Just not the bed. We were laying naked on the lush, fluffy rug that took up half the room and had cost a small fortune. That was something that they—the proverbial ‘they’—didn’t tell you about adulthood: how expensive nice rugs were. It was worth every penny right at that second as we used it as a mattress. I was lying flat on my back, breathing heavily, waiting for my heart to return to its normal rhythm. Hades was beside me, also lying on his back, not staring at the ceiling. I could see him from the corner of my eye, looking at me. We weren’t touching. No cuddling. But I was glad about that. I was already covered in him. Drenched in him. Practically drowning.

“A cheeseburger day?” he repeated.

His voice was low, throaty and warm. Warm. I hadn’t thought Hades was capable of speaking in such a way. Or maybe he was speaking the exact same way he had before, but I was different now.

It seemed that there were going to be two versions of me: B.H. and A.H. Otherwise known as Before Hades and After Hades.

“Yes,” I sighed, still looking at the ceiling. “If there is ever a time for a cheeseburger, it’s after...” I struggled to find the right words. “So many orgasms I can’t even count. After the absolute best sex I’ve had in my life. The kind of sex I didn’t know existed. The kind of sex I couldn’t possibly tell anyone about because they’d think I was making it up.”

Fuck.

I really hadn’t meant to say all of that. It was the sex. It had done things to me.

Heat crawled up my neck. Now I was still looking at the ceiling because I had no other choice but to stare at the ceiling. I couldn’t possibly look at Hades’s handsome, angled, masculine face after spewing out that very embarrassing and dorky statement.

But he took the choice away from me as he lifted from his back onto me. He rested his forearms on either side of my body, not giving me his full weight. But he gave me his full stare, and it crushed me. In a good way.

Though his features couldn’t possibly have changed in the past few hours, like his voice, it was softer now. The edge was still there, of course. This was not a man who could lose his edge.

I could not predict what Hades was going to say at any given moment, but what he said next would never have even entered my mind in my wildest dreams.

“Okay, baby, I’ll go get us cheeseburgers,” he murmured, kissing my nose. “You’re going to stay here. You’re not going to shower. You’re going to open a bottle of wine. You’re going to do that without putting on any panties. You can wear a robe. Nothing else.” His eyes bore into mine. “Is that clear?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “Clear.”

He kissed me then, his mouth moving slowly over mine, his hand trailing down to cup my pussy. “And I’ve gotta say, I love what you’ve got going on down there,” he murmured, stroking the hair between my legs. “You ever get rid of it, we’re gonna have problems.”

“I’ll never get rid of it,” I promised, forgetting that I was not supposed to take anything off my body, or in this case, keep it on my body, at the demand of a man.

“Good.” He cupped me hungrily, then he went to get us cheeseburgers.

Because I was high on Hades, on what had just happened, it didn’t enter my mind that before this, Hades had never left me alone in the house. Not even for ten minutes. It didn’t enter my mind to wonder why that was. I just went into the kitchen, opened a bottle of wine and waited for him.