Persephone wasted a good ten minutes once she’d left the tub. It didn’t take that long to put on lotion and deodorant, but it did when you were all alone with the man you loved- the man you’d left- the man you’d; regardless of the reason, deceived.
She stepped into a terry towel wrap and spent more time dawdling in her closet-looking for something appropriate in the forest of exquisite garments she owned. Appropriate? What the hell did one wear to tell a man he’d been a father for six years and that you-the mother of his kids-had kept that from him?
Persephone left the closet room, having selected nothing to wear. She stepped out into the bedroom and found her answer. It would seem one wore a towel wrap.
“Hill.” His name was a faint exhale that had her laboring to take a deeper, more refreshing breath before she continued. There wasn’t a chance.
“Did you tell him about California, Sef?”
“I-uh-who?” she closed her mouth, frowned and leaned back to brace her weight on one leg as she watched him unsteadily. “California?”
“Yeah,” Hill’s voice was deceptively soft as he moved around the room then studying the elegant simplicity of its design and decoration. He leaned against the maple dresser that ran the length of one wall and boasted a lighted vanity nook to one end. From there, he watched her and tossed a tiny, beautifully carved perfume bottle.
“I’m guessing that’s a no,” he said, “What? Did you forget to tell him or did you just forget about it entirely?” He scanned the length of her statuesque frame beneath the pitiful excuse for a towel and prayed she couldn’t see how lost he was over her.
Persephone was too befuddled to notice. “Him?” Was all she could manage.
“Did you forget?” Hill left the dresser, slamming down the delicate bottle viciously but not hard enough to break it.
“Did you forget the last time we were together, Sef? That car I fucked you on? That car you begged me to fuck you on?”
Persephone wasn’t quick enough to stop the moan or the unforgiving jolt of arousal that speared deep over the memory.
Hill heard the response clearly enough. Leaning close, he dipped his head slightly to brush his mouth across her shoulder. “Did you forget what I did to you? What we did to each other?” He was speaking against her skin then, his mouth skimming the curve of her jaw and then on to her ear where his tongue wet the lobe as he suckled.
“You forgot about him, didn’t you? Forgot about him while you were saying my name and coming all over my dick…” He intensified the suckle and waited until Persephone was leaning heavily against him before he straightened and caused her to stumble in her place.
“Who?” She could only murmur the question, overwhelmed by his mood and manner. She hooked a finger into a side pocket of the navy trousers he wore with a matching sport coat. She’d firmed her grip on his clothes by the time she’d turned to face him. “Who are you talking about?”
He laughed. What little emotion the gesture carried was by no means fueled by amusement. “Jesus, Goddess is it so easy to forget the father of your kids? The little girls plastered all over your front room out there? They’re yours, aren’t they?”
For an instant, he thought, hoped, she’d say no. This was all a big mistake. She was still his-had always been his.
Persephone covered his hand where he squeezed her elbow. “They’re mine, Hill and you-”
“How could you do it?” The question reeled of confusion and dismay, among two of the most uncharacteristic terms to be paired with Hill Tesano.
“Was I that bad?” He shook his head as though he couldn’t quite fathom it. “Was I, Sef? Didn’t it mean anything? Didn’t we mean anything?”
She couldn’t move. She literally could not move-could not speak-could not tell him that he’d let his stubbornness and anger lead him to a wrong and stupid conclusion. She couldn’t tell him any of that. She could only stare in disbelief- suspended by the lost look in the onyx abyss of his eyes. She could see the rich shade of purple lurking in their depths, his gaze had gone that dark with emotion. Behind that upset and best-heeded anger, was hurt. In all the years she’d known him, she had never witnessed him truly hurt. Its appearance crushed her heart.
“Hill-”
“Don’t,” He bowed his head, shook it. When he looked up again, the hurt was gone-masked. In its place, a chilling devilry. “What do you suppose he’d say if he walked in here right now?”
“Hill there’s noone-”
“Shut your mouth,” he’d leaned close suddenly to murmur the words against her temple. “That was a rhetorical question.”
His fingers skimmed her thighs just below the hem of the towel. “You know, I’d love to find out what he’d say if he walked in here. If he saw you in that bed with me doing with you what I think about doing with you way too much.” His fingers found their way beneath the hem of the wrap.
Persephone made a more valiant attempt at stifling her next moan and emerged victorious. Say it! Reason’s voice commanded and she would- she would say it. It was why she’d called him there, after all.
His fingertips stroked her folds, just the lightest of strokes. He’d yet to attempt entry and she very much wanted him to attempt it… She’d tell him, they had time, but first...first this…
Shifting, she nudged his fingers where they stroked and she bit her lip before she begged him to put them inside her.
Hill’s voice of reason was commanding him as well. Commanding him to remember two little girls whose family he was about to ruin. Summoning whatever superhuman strength there might be at his disposal, he withdrew only to have Persephone exercise her own superhuman ability to prevent his retreat.
She rested her head against his jacket lapel and pleasured herself on the fist he still clenched. She grazed the back of her free hand along the muscular ridge that had steadily taken definition along his thigh.
“Sef,” he rested his brow to her bare shoulder and let himself be swayed by the scent of berries that followed her like mist. “I’m trying to be good…” he said.
Persephone smiled, so thoroughly overcome by the defeat in his words. “Since when?” she teased, appreciating the quiet laughter he breathed out.
“I shouldn’t be here,” his voice was a bit lighter that time.
“Here is exactly where you should be.” Again, she nudged herself against his loosening fist.
“You shouldn’t tease me,” the richly guttural quality of his voice was returning.
“So you’ve told me,” she could feel his fingers caressing her folds and she sobbed out a moan when he filled her with them.
“If you tell me to stop-”
“I won’t-mmm…” her muscles flexed and squeezed greedily for release.
“Your girls-”
