Scarlett's Letter (Touched by a God #1) (13 page)

Hello people I call family.  Thank you for letting me know that my life was in possible danger.  I appreciate the consideration.  You can call off the dogs because the inevitable happened and I’m crushed.  Don’t…DON’T F—ING call me. Scar (as if you didn’t know)

Scarlet hit send then dialed Brian’s phone.  He didn’t answer.  As a matter of fact, it went straight to voicemail.  She would like to say this wasn’t typical behavior, but it was.  She wasn’t surprised in the least bit.  He would probably call her back in ten minutes.  She wouldn’t be available then.  After listening to his short and sweet greeting of “You called B. leave a message,” she decided to follow his instructions.  The one thing she didn’t want to do was to alienate her friends, especially not when she probably needed them the most right now. 

“Hey Brian, I’m fine.  No, I’m not going to do something ‘stupid’ in the way that you meant it.  I am taking control of my life and deciding to live and not in fear.  I am at the baby store right now.  I have a life growing inside of me.  Can you believe that?  I know you can’t either.  I’m going to be a mom.  I really don’t know about the father.  I don’t know where we stand or if it’s possible for us to be…  I’m just taking one day at a time.  I know that you are here or there for me.  This part of this, this aspect of my life I need to handle on my own.  I have a major decision to make with regard to the father of my child.  I have so many to make.  For the next hour, I’m going to be shopping and not thinking about all I have on my plate.  I’m just outside the baby store then I’m going to get me some room to grow clothes and something cute for my date.  Yes, I’m going to call this man that recently gave me his number and let him take me out.  I will text you the deets soon.  Love you more, sexy B.”

Scarlett wasn’t about to attempt to explain all that she’d realized when she was at Chelsea and Qui’s house.  What she did know was, she was much too young to be struggling with so much.  Whatever was going to happen was going to happen and she was going to live in the here and now of it all.  So, Brock Jenson was about to get a phone call.  The fates, hell and that damned god could kiss her ass.  She had a life to live.  Scarlett Rose Grace was about to live it.

Willingly Courted (12)

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Date nights, best of: Hades

Hades had to hand it to himself.  He’d come up with all kinds of ways to woo his Rouge.  “Brock” was surpassing all of the expectations that he’d set for himself after that initial debacle.  What he hadn’t expected was to enjoy every single thing that he’d done with her. 

They’d gone to the theatre on several occasions to enjoy the performances.  He never would have thought that he’d not only enjoy, but want to see a pansy sounding thing with a name like
Swan Lake
.  It was one of the most fascinating things that he’d seen in all of his vast years of existence.  Hermes informed him that one of the things that Scarlett had wanted to do was to go and see a live Cirque du Soleil show.  He’d gone one better.  They had seen two of the Cirque du Soleil shows.  Watching that show had him questioning whether or not any of the acrobats and artists had a direct line to a god. He wouldn’t be surprised in the least bit.  The immortal tended to interfere in the menial, day to day tasks of humans just for shits and giggles.    

Hades had seen the inside of so many theatres and concert halls that they all were beginning to blur together.  Taking in the things that she adored and gushed over was wonderful.  Having been the one to procure some of and pay for all of the seats that they sat in was the greatest pleasure.  She was overly enthusiastic and animated when she discovered the places they were going.  When he’d told her that she would be going to the ballet in a few days, she almost took out his eardrums with the high pitched squeal that exited her throat. He’d sat through one of those ballets and a modern dance show that she’d said that she really wanted to go to.  Her eyes lit whenever any of the performers took to the stage.  He’d watch her slight movements and gestures as the dancers moved across the stage. 

Hades didn’t limit himself to the arts when he took her for nights out on the town.   He’d taken her bowling and to a live street performance in the park.  Bowling ended in her boasting of her win and how she didn’t think he could’ve been as bad as he was.  He enjoyed watching her win.  The street performance granted him the opportunity to see her in action again.  To see his Rouge move would make a grown man cry.  For a god, it brought him to his knees.  She was spectacular in his movements.  The reminder of those special moments in her dance studio made him wanting to find the demon of the hour so that he could speed time forward.  Her thought that one through and changed his mind.  If he did have that done, then something that could change a negative outcome could possibly be missed.  If anything, he needed to stay the course and seize his slight victories with both hands.

One of his favorite things they’d done to go up in one of Brock’s personal plane and write on the sky as the sun set.  She’d beamed just as bright as the sun that day. Hades couldn’t believe just how much fun it was to court a woman, this woman.  It was so much fun there was no time where he thought it was work. The time seemed to pass so quickly.   They seemed to watch one another when they were in each other’s presence.  Rouge had been giving him curious gazes since the second week of him courting her.  He couldn’t believe that it had been two weeks already. 

The downfall to all of the great things that came of all of this was the more time he spent with her as Brock; the more he didn’t care for the man that she seemed to loathe as well.  Hades had to reconcile the differences between Brock and Hades almost every night. Being this man for her was difficult at times because he’d had certain reactions for so many years he didn’t know any other way.  Allowing this other side to be his ruling nature took some doing.  For her, he was willing.  If this was what was needed so that he could have his greatest desire, then it was the sacrifice he was willing to make.  He would continue to court her and so he did.

The revelations of what would happen on the next date were always met with either squeals of delight or long, passionate kisses.  Hades made sure she didn’t have a clue what he had planned for her.  Those kisses were his anticipated reward, well part of it, the other part had yet to come.  The first time that it had happened he tried his damndest not read too much into it.  He didn’t try to deepen the kiss or anything.  She didn’t kiss him goodnight and he didn’t push the point.  By date, six, he couldn’t take the either or thing with her anymore.  When they’d reached her door that evening and she attempted to just say goodnight without anything else.  He grabbed her with just enough force to get her attention.  His hold was loose enough where she didn’t feel trapped.  That kiss made his bones quiver.  His Rouge had placed her hand in his hair.  As he’d kissed her, she ran hers hands through his hair and gave it a slight tug every so often. 

It was complete and utter torture to have her that close and not have her.  When her nails bit into his scalp for less than the time it would take to register it as pain, he’d almost said “to hell with the farce.”  Those nails had attempted to break the flesh of his scalp before.  It was a regular thing that he found that he missed.  Anytime he had his Rouge for a meal, snack or dessert those nails made an effort to find purchase embedded in his brain.  Hades never felt pain from it.  On the contrary, it was pure unadulterated pleasure.  The kind that has him wanting to take his every ready shaft and plunge it home in one of her orifices.  Brock couldn’t do that.  He’d hoped for a moment when she’d moaned, then pressed into him.  All too soon, she’d pulled away with an apology in her eyes and on her lips. 

“I’m so sorry, Brock,” she’d said, breathlessly.  “I think I should go inside now.  I have some things that I need to share with you before anything can happen between us.  I’m afraid if I try to talk to you tonight, I might act on what it is that I’m feeling.  As hard as this is for me to do, believe me, I’m going to say ‘Goodnight’ and leave it at that.”

She’d looked at his lips, ran her hand down his body and stopped just before hitting his waistband.  He had been relieved yet disappointed when she removed her hand from his body.  His body longed to be aligned with hers again.  He could feel her tremors; hear her past pleas for release.  His body called for her heat.  The need flared and she gasped.  Hades could see her reaction to it in her breathing, beaded nipples and the way her eyes glazed over; preparing her to be ready to respond to him. 

Her key was in the door and the door open seconds later.  She threw another apology over her shoulder as slipped into the barely open door. He heard her drop what she had in her hands and begin to strip.  She muttered all the way to the glass enclosure.

“Cold shower…need relief…hateful god…don’t want to want him,” she repeated it until he heard the first drops of water hit her naked flesh, flesh that was his. 

A low moan escaped her lips and he wanted to tear down her front door.  He materialized in an ice bath and literally roared in response to the cold. 

“Fuck! Damn it all to hell,” his grip on the lip of the tub was tight enough to break through the thick material.

“I take it, it didn’t have the end result you wanted,” Hermes’ jovial tone cut into his slight agony. 

Hades made to move.  He could feel his ability rising and knew the flames were in his eyes.  As usual, his nephew had no regard for his own livelihood.  The only reason he wasn’t looking to realign a piece of his godly body was because of the news he shared.

“I have to say, Unc, your abilities look better on that body, well that face than the other.  Brock’s golden locks seem to appear more golden with those fiery, flame ridden eyes.  I have a purpose in being here.  Bartong is in route and word is he has set things in motion to take someone for leverage.” 

“Rouge,” Hades was out of the bath and moving to his dining table in the next breath.

As he moved, he called clothes to cover his naked form.  If he had to, he would’ve went hunting stark naked, but his favorite appendage was needed.  He didn’t want to take the chance of some idiot creature making an attempt to have him be a eunuch.  It didn’t matter if it was temporary, it would be a painful temporary loss.

“My thoughts exactly.  The scouts and lookouts are all in place.  Unc, I think one might have been paid…” Hermes began, but Hades wasn’t listening anymore. 

His hand glossed over the surface of the table repeatedly.  He was trying to find her in her house.  He needed to see her to know that she was okay.  Where the hell was…there!

“Which one, H.? Which one is the one that is willing to defy me?”

Hades felt Brock’s features fade into the background and his own pull forward.  His power was on the surface and at the ready.  His hands itched to have his weapons. 

“It is…” the brother of the Sexian Demon had begun to speak, but was screaming in agony as one of Hades’ sais embedded itself in his eye socket. 

“You dare attempt to harm what is mine!” Hades voice shook the foundation. 

Hermes moved.  Out of Hades peripheral he could see that his nephew had poured himself a drink and was studying his nail bed on a lounger that wasn’t previously in the room.  He’d been part of enough of these to know that it would be over soon.  He was an ass for sitting and enjoying the sport of it.  

“How many are there?  I know you don’t travel or work alone.  As I remove you from this existence you will tell me.”

His “Death Blade” was slowly embedded in the demon’s first heart, then his balls.  With its dying breath Hades knew all that he needed to know.  His phone rang directly after the demon died.  Rouge was calling him.

The first words out of her mouth informed Brock of the fact that she was pregnant by a very difficult, overbearing, manipulative man.  She didn’t expect for that person to be in hers or the child’s life.  Rouge hadn’t given him an opportunity to respond.  He was glad that she hadn’t because he didn’t know what to say.  It wasn’t something he thought to think of a response to.  He hadn’t imagined her sharing that information.  Her voice changed when she spoke of the child, their child versus the father. 

The more she spoke about the man that he was, the more that he realized that he’d made her life very difficult and for his own selfish reasons.  He didn’t want her in his life and world if she was going to be miserable.  He’d seen how two gods just seemed to coexist when he observed Zeus and Hera together.  As he thought about what he’d just learned from the demon, he dismissed thoughts of not having her near.  She needed to be for her own safety.  He still had the Brock card.

Anytime Rouge was with Brock, he observed just how willing she was to comply to any of his requests.  It was frustrating to know that she purposely refused to be willing to do anything to remotely bend to Aides’ will or purposes for them, yet with Brock she was more than willing to be compliant. He’d tested the waters over the time that they’d spent together.  Whenever he had attempted contact as Aides, she had immediately rebuked or disregarded it.  He noticed that Rouge immediately and visibly relaxed around Brock.  He’d heard on a few occasions that there was just something about him that made her feel safe and protected around him.  It seemed that Hades plan to be the “White Knight” paid off better than he’d expected.  Rouge seemed to innately know that Brock would be there when she needed him.  She accepted that because of the fact that he’d been there to rescue her from the thug demon that had tried to attack her; something he’d set in motion.  He was to blame for creating such a perfect cover that they both didn’t care for the other.

Hades needed to find some way to turn this thing around.  At the rate that he was going, he was going to lose her to himself. That sentence sounded odd even to him. His thoughts were interrupted when the warning alarm sounded.  Bartong was on the move again and within range of the outer gates.  He needed to end his Rouge’s ramblings about her fears.  He knew she didn’t have anything to fear from him; all that he was seemed to be wrapped up in her. The things that she needed to fear were the beings that would use her to get to him. Hades began to tell her just that when he heard a muffled sound from her end and the warning alarm sound again on his.  Hermes was in motion, immediately calling his weapons to him.  Bartong had definitely made his move. Hades saw red when he heard the line go dead.  Yeah, that evil little rat was just the distraction that he needed.  Why did that alarm sound like it was close?  Fuck! He couldn’t be in two places at once.  He needed to know what happened to his Rouge.  This bastard was going to die. Preferably sooner than later.