“Your party does seem rather uninhibited,” Persephone used the opening to express her impressions.
“Aw this?” Sondrio cast a lazy look around the room. “This is nothin’. ‘Uninhibited’ is what goes on beyond this charade that’s all in the name of business.”
“Well that sounds sinister.”
Bolder then, Sondrio fingered the dangling end of Persephone’s belt. “Sinister, huh? I prefer seductive.”
Persephone let out quick laughter and was bringing her drink in to sip, when it was slapped from her hand. At the same time, Sondrio was shoved back with such force, he collided with a passing waiter. The impact sent an assortment of glasses shattering upon the gleaming Blackwood.
Persephone wasn’t looking to see whether Sondrio had joined the drinks on the floor. Instead, she was gaping at the man who had shackled her elbow. In the span of twenty seconds, she went from disbelief over the presence of yet another piece of Tesano eye-candy to a state of mortification when the lurid throb of arousal plumbed her core. The seconds ticked by as she cursed herself for letting a man’s looks make her panties go damp.
At the twenty second mark, recognition bloomed. “Hill?”
“What the fuck are you doin’ here?” His voice straddled the line between speech and growl.
“Answer me,” he followed that command with a teeth-rattling jerk of her elbow.
Recovered from his collision with the waiter, Sondrio clapped a hand to his cousin’s shoulder. “Hill, the lady and I-”
Hill didn’t bother with words when he rounded on the man. His expression could’ve been categorized as nothing other than malicious that time.
Hands raised in the universal gesture for submission, Sondrio gave his cousin a wide berth. Whatever Hill’s plans for the beautiful doctor, no one there would stop him from carrying them out.
Sondrio sent Persephone a pitying look, but she seemed too riveted by Hill to fixate on anything… other than Hill.
The long elegant meeting hall was packed with guests. Silenced by the scene, they were all thankful that they weren’t the ones at the mercy of Hill’s wrath.
Persephone worked to soften her breathing
that was then amplified by the deafening quiet. The volume of her
breathing became irrelevant. It was soon partnered with the sound
of the shriek she gave when Hill’s grip on her elbow tightened
another agonizing fraction and he all but dragged her from the
room.
~~~
“Hill-”
“Shut up.”
“This hurts,” relief fueled her gasp when he released her and walked on ahead down the long corridor they traveled.
Persephone massaged her elbow while faintly noting the sounds of conversation and music resuming from the party. Warily, she studied Hill not knowing whether to gawk or swoon over his appearance. From a towel to a tuxedo, he made anything look good. The slate blue three piece he wore that night was no exception. The tailored cut was a precise mold for his eclipsing frame. She knew it wasn’t just the suit. Her eyes kept returning to the back of his head to observe his mane of smoky black, then tapered into a close crop of waves.
His steps slowed at a set of double maple doors at the end of the long hall. He opened it, turned and waited on her to precede him.
Persephone hesitated only a few seconds, before his low, impatient sigh warned her to move. The door slammed with such force, she jumped but wouldn’t turn and face him.
“Why are you here, Persephone?”
A shiver danced her spine. She’d have rathered he yell. His coolness was a con. She heard a creak and then the faint clap of heel to wood before it was muffled by the deep bourbon colored rug that covered most of the floor.
The room was a parlor of sorts, its walls featuring an assortment of landscape art. Persephone tried to lose herself in the imagery, but the hunting motifs did nothing to instill peace.
Hill’s footsteps had silenced in the carpet, but she knew he was there, within touching distance now.
“Why are you here Persephone? Don’t make me ask again.” He gave the question and her warning on the same breath.
“I needed to see your cousin.”
Behind Persephone, Hill bowed his head and worked to quell the heat skimming his neckline. “You came with him?” the question made him wince.
“No,” she turned to him then. “No Hill. It’s not what you think-”
“Oh I know that, Goddess...if it was, my asshole cousin would be dead right now.”
She wouldn’t look away in spite of the fact that his distracting features were drawn into a mask that blared fury and promised menace.
“You won’t like it,” she blurted.
His laughter cracked out against the air like a whip. “I believe that goes without saying.” One last advancing step had him nudging her chest. “Why don’t you tell me anyway.”
Persephone refused to retreat. “I’m taking a meeting he was supposed to have with Eva.”
A lethal grin split his face, but still she refused to retreat. She wilted inside though- from despair or resolve- she wasn’t sure which. He was quiet for a long time, having turned away to prowl the room with his cat-like grace.
“Will there ever be a time I ask you a question that doesn’t have that freak’s name at the goddamn bottom of it?”
“Hill-”
“What’s next, Persephone? Going to pick up her muthafuckin’ laundry?”
“It’s not like that-”
