Hot as Hades Read Online Free PDF

it fast.”
    “I discovered a bit of a contest amongst some of the younger gods.”
    “With Persephone as what, the prize?”
    “Well, yes. You know how they are.” Zeus laughed. “We were like that once, all full of boasting and competition.”
    Zeus and Poseidon had been. Hades had never been young.
    “Since when do you care about some other deity, Zeus?”
    “You wound me. Though you’re right, normally I’d be all for chasing a maiden, but Persephone has a power that is much needed by the humans, and I couldn’t risk that she be damaged. You see, the competition wasn’t just to woo her…but to take her.”
    Take her ? Hades blood started to simmer. “Take her how?”
    Zeus made a face. And if anything-goes Zeus was making a face, it must not have been pretty. “You know.”
    “Rape her.”
    He nodded reluctantly. “Yes. And then hold her captive for the others.”
    Hades cracked his knuckles. “I want names.” All that soft, supple flesh, that delightful spark of spirit that had defied him so boldly, crushed beneath the heels of some renegade gods? Not a chance.
    “Relax, brother. I’m sorting it all out. Give me a little time. In the interim, shelter Persephone down there, would you?”
    Keep her with him? That wasn’t a hardship. He had had far less attractive and tempting morsels in his private abode.
    She won’t see it that way.
    No, she would be scared and terrified of the thought of being trapped with him, even if it saved her from a fate worse than death. Hell, to her, he probably was the fate worse than death.
    “Hey, Hades, you there?” Zeus was snapping his fingers.
    He jerked to attention. “Fine. I’ll keep her.”
    “Keep? Now, be careful. Persephone may be a good-looking piece but don’t go getting any ideas about trying to steal her away from us. She’s pretty vital to the Earth and the mortals.” Zeus’s hearty laugh couldn’t hide the flash of warning in his eyes.
    The unspoken threat raised Hades’s hackles. He bared his teeth. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I have a few terms for you, though. Remove the block that kept me from sending her back and tell me how you managed to get her past my shield.” Every security system had vulnerabilities, but he made his as close to impenetrable as possible. Besides, no one in any world would get away with shorting his powers.
    Zeus frowned. “I’m sorry, did you say something?” The picture faded in and out rapidly. “You’re…cutting…out…”
    “Son of a bitch, Zeus, don’t you dare…”
    “I’ll give you a ring when it’s all clear on this end. Toodles.”
    “Zeus—” Too late. The ball went black, and Hades knew the other god wouldn’t answer again until he was good and ready.
    Only the clearing of Middle’s throat stopped him from hurling the sphere against the wall. He tried to control his temper around his servants, not that he often succeeded.
    “Sire, what is the plan then?”
    “She stays.” Damn it, his body certainly liked that idea.
    “Shall I tell my lady?”
    He hesitated. He really ought to let Cerberus go and inform her, but that perverse, irritating part of him that couldn’t stop himself from wanting the unattainable female roared to life. He stood. “No. I’ll take care of it.”
    “Very good, sire. Um. Might I be so bold as to warn you to watch out for the flowers?”

Chapter Three
    Hades understood Cerberus’s cryptic words when he neared the red room. A long vine sprouting the most unusual flowers snaked along the granite floor. He knelt and touched the petal of a bloom, finding it velvety smooth and warm, as if it had sprouted from the ground in some sun-drenched garden and not from the stone floor of his palace.
    Intrigued, he followed the vegetation all the way to where it disappeared, sure enough, under the door of the red room. Was this his new visitor’s version of a trail of breadcrumbs?
    He grasped the doorknob and was about to push it open when he had second thoughts. Knock