Hotter than Hades Read online

  Praise for the writing of Alecia Monaco

  Kiss of the Fairy

  Even though it is written with a St. Patrick Day flavor, it can be enjoyed any day of the year. Ms. Monaco has a delightful wit and a flair for the written word. This is an enchanting piece that was a thrill to read.

  -- Karen Magill, Coffee Time Romance

  Alecia Monaco penned a whimsical story that had the right balance of characters and plot. Her characters were fun and just real enough to make this a light read.

  -- Serena, Fallen Angel Reviews

  4 Stars! A comedic masterpiece overall; Kiss of the Fairy has the ability to put me in stitches and simultaneously melt my heart with the dreamy splendor of love.

  -- Keely Skillman, EcataRomance Reviews

  Ms. Monaco weaves these two star crossed lovers a magical tale of romance and passion. Their heated embraces and steamy lovemaking left my heart pounding. Patrick and Siobhan’s connection fills the pages with beautiful scenes of love and tenderness.

  -- Ophelia, Erotic Escapades

  A cute, sizzling and well-executed romp of a modern fairy tale, Kiss of the Fairy is a perfect St. Patrick’s Day read.

  -- Border Minx, Literary Nymphs

  Kiss of the Fairy is now available from Changeling Press.

  HOTTER THAN HADES

  Alecia Monaco

  www.loose-id.com

  Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

  * * * * *

  This book contains explicit sexual content and graphic language.

  Hotter than Hades

  Alecia Monaco

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published by

  Loose Id LLC

  1802 N Carson Street, Suite 212-2924

  Carson City NV 89701-1215

  www.loose-id.com

  Copyright © August 2006 by Alecia Monaco

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared in any form, including, but not limited to printing, photocopying, faxing, or emailing without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC.

  ISBN 978-1-59632-321-6

  Available in Adobe PDF, HTML, MobiPocket, and MS Reader

  Printed in the United States of America

  Editor: Crystal Esau

  Cover Artist: April Martinez

  www.loose-id.com

  Chapter One

  “The queen is divorcing me?”

  The black-haired king of the Underworld laid his scepter aside and sank back on his massive ebony throne, rifling through the thick sheaf of legal documents, each page bearing the ominous seal of the Olympus Supreme Court.

  “Please don’t shoot the messenger.” Hermes appeared to quake inside his gold lamé flight suit.

  “I have no plans to harm you, my friend.” Hades glanced up from the papers. “You were merely doing your job by delivering these. It’s certainly not your fault that my marriage has come to an end.”

  “But surely, sire,” Hermes said, “Her majesty will have a change of heart.” The slight young male shifted his gold messenger bag to his other shoulder.

  “Not this time.” Hades scanned the documents with his eyes. “I had a feeling she was gone forever, and these ...” He wagged the papers at Hermes. “... confirm it.”

  “But she’s gone above every spring for centuries now, and never failed to return at harvest time.” Hermes adjusted his gold helmet and frowned.

  “This year is different.” Hades rubbed a hand over the black stubble covering his chin. He’d neglected his appearance for weeks now, becoming more certain with each passing hour that Persephone would not be back. “Our love began to fade hundreds of years ago, and we’ve been married in name only longer than I care to remember. She’s become more and more dissatisfied with life here below, and the modern world holds endless attractions for the eternally young.” His gaze drifted around the dim throne room. “What have I to offer that can compete with shopping at Bloomingdale’s or meeting Athena for cosmopolitans in SoHo?”

  Hermes coughed back a laugh, earning a glare from the king. “With all due respect, sire, you can’t believe this phase of running around in the upper world wearing Manolos will last? After all, she’s the queen of the Underworld, not Carrie Bradshaw.”

  “Someone’s been watching cable again.” The corners of Hades’s mouth turned up in a wry smile.

  Hermes returned it with a sheepish grin of his own. “What can I say? Samantha Jones is my idol.”

  Hades turned serious again. “I mean to say that Persephone has gone above to enjoy the life I denied her when I brought her below ...” The words “by force” hung in the air, unspoken. He didn’t like to recall his actions so many centuries ago. “She never had the chance to be a young woman on her own.” Hades glanced at the empty throne beside him, a smaller version of his own. The black velvet robe, with its elaborate silver embroidery, lay tossed across the back. He’d miss her, even if the passion between them had cooled. “She’s having it now.”

  Hermes hesitated. “And you don’t intend to intervene.”

  Hades shook his head. “No. I was wrong to take her freedom in the first place. The last thing I should do is take it away from her a second time.” He took a solid gold pen from his pocket and scrawled his signature across the dotted line of the divorce papers. “She may have her freedom, from both my kingdom and me.”

  Hermes took the papers and tucked them into his bag. “That still leaves one tiny problem.” He shifted uneasily from one winged foot to the other on the black marble floor.

  “Summer has yet to end, when we should be well into autumn in the northern hemisphere by now.” Hades’s face darkened. “Unless she returns, the seasons cannot change.” He rose from his throne and began to pace. “I absolutely refuse to demand she return on those grounds.”

  “But, your majesty,” Hermes said, falling in step with the king, “there might be another way around this issue of climate control.”

  Hades glanced down at the much shorter god. “Without compelling her to come back to me?” He shook his head. “No, it’s impossible.”

  “Maybe not technically.” Hermes stopped a few steps ahead of Hades. “I was chatting up Zeus earlier ...”

  Hades snorted. “That pompous old windbag?” His stormy relationship with his father-in-law was well known in the kingdom of Olympus.

  “He’d sent me out to pick up the latest Vin Diesel movie on DVD for him.” Hermes stepped aside as Hades began to pace again. “Anyway, I mentioned the situation with her majesty. You know the old man has never been the biggest fan of your marriage.” Hermes rolled his eyes theatrically. “It seems Zeus completely approves of his daughter sowing a few wild oats in the modern world. Goddess knows he’s sewn a few himself, the old coot.”

  “And this helps me how?”

  “Well, your majesty, Zeus has a proposal.” Hermes stood tall, puffed up like a blowfish with the importance of his announcement. “He’s willing to suspend the ruling about the return of autumn coinciding with the return of Persephone.”

  Hades knew his father-in-law too well to fall for it. “What, as they say
above, is the catch?”

  Hermes cleared his throat. “He’ll allow autumn to return when you have a new queen.”

  For a minute Hades didn’t believe his ears. “A new queen?” Zeus had been trying to force his hand where Persephone was concerned for hundreds of years. “It’s unthinkable. How dare he even suggest such a thing?”

  “Well, as her father and supreme god of Olympus, he pretty much suggests whatever he pleases.” Hermes grimaced. “Including asking for double anchovies on pizza. You should’ve heard me trying to explain that at Little Caesar’s.”

  “And who, among all the goddesses of Olympus, did he suggest I crown the new queen?” Hades scoffed. “Or did he manage to get around to that little detail, between gulping down some deep dish and watching The Pacifier?”

  “He did have a few suggestions.” Hermes whipped a sheet of gold stationery from his messenger bag and studied it with narrowed eyes. “First of all, there’s Hestia, always looking for a few good men. She’s great around the house and one heck of a fantastic cook ...”

  “And a dedicated virgin. Next?”

  “Nemesis is single again, and tired of looking for love in all the wrong places.” Hermes peered up at Hades hopefully.

  “After the blind date I went on with her a few millennia ago, during which she argued with everything I said and cursed the very womb that bore me, I think I’ll have to pass.” Hades rolled his ebony eyes. “Next?”

  “Medusa?”

  “That suggestion doesn’t even merit a reply.” Hades rocked back on the heels of his black boots. “Anyone else?”

  “Well, there’s always ...” Hermes blushed a rosy pink. “There’s always Maia.”

  Hades’s dark features softened at the mention of Hermes’s mother. “My friend, as much as I admire you ...” He gave the messenger god a warm pat on the shoulder. “... I would not want to be your stepfather.” He stood up straight and squared his broad shoulders. “Come.” He turned to exit the throne room through the massive onyx doors.

  Hermes walked double-time to keep up. “Where to, sire?”

  “The crystal cavern.” The king smiled for the first time in weeks. “If I’m to find my new queen, I’ve a bit of summoning to do.”

  * * * * *

  “Summoning the Fates isn’t a task to be taken lightly,” Circe cautioned him. “If we do indeed find your fated queen, you will have no peace until you’ve secured her hand.” The eternally lithe and youthful sorceress absently played with the silver crescent moon amulet hanging from a chain around her smooth white throat. “What of the countless maidens of Olympus?” Circe regarded him with a frosty expression. “Are they unworthy of reigning as queen of the Underworld?”

  “It’s not a question of worthiness.” Hades shook his head, his black hair grazing his shoulders. “It’s a question of fate. I want the woman who belongs with me. The woman whom the Fates have decreed should ascend the throne of the Underworld. I’ll settle for no one else.”

  Circe didn’t bother to conceal her disdain. She stood up and banished her chair into thin air with a wave of her slender hand. “Shall I consult the reflecting pool?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Hades followed her to the inner recesses of the crystal cavern with Hermes in tow.

  Circe gathered her silver skirts around her and knelt at the pool’s edge.

  “Ancient ones from Olympus above

  Titans, guardians of immortal love

  Fates, wise weavers of time and space

  Appear to us and reveal the face

  Of the one destined as queen to rule

  Show Hades’s bride in the reflecting pool!”

  * * * * *

  “That’s when he broke the news to me.” Hyacinth Garret finished placing a fire-colored silk mum in a centerpiece of fall flowers -- all silk, since real fall flowers were in short supply during this year of endless summer. “He asked Denise to marry him over the weekend.”

  “And of course she said yes.” Cyndi, her best friend and co-owner of Flower Power, rolled her brown eyes. “Silly girl doesn’t know the old adage about once a cheater, always a cheater.” She smirked. “What made him think you’d welcome a midnight phone call about his big news?”

  “He had to rub my face in it. Keeping something like that to himself would’ve given him a hernia.” Hyacinth squinted and turned the basket containing the silk arrangement a full three hundred and sixty degrees on the surface of her worktable. “You know Riley. He loves to point out that he’s the one who left me.”

  Cyndi looked up from her account ledger. “Remind me again why you married this jackass?”

  Hyacinth cut a strip of floral tape and sighed. “Another old adage ... love is blind.” She shook her head. “Apparently, Denise is wild in bed, and we all know how important that is to him.”

  “Why is it always the dental assistants?” Cyndi echoed Hyacinth’s bitterness.

  “I should’ve paid more attention to the deeper meaning of Little Shop of Horrors -- dentists enjoy causing pain.” Hyacinth looked down at her finished project. Hopefully the Chamber of Commerce would love it. It was perfect.

  Unlike the rest of her life.

  * * * * *

  The image swam before Hades’s eyes, at first nothing more than a faint impression on the rippling surface of the pool. He knelt closer to the edge, gripping the cold stone rim of the pool with his hands. The picture grew in clarity and sharpness, coming slowly into focus.

  “Behold the queen.” Circe gestured to the young woman’s image with a flourish.

  Hermes dropped to one knee beside Hades. “Long live the queen.”

  “Well, sire.” Ice dripped from Circe’s voice. “This is the woman the Fates have chosen for you. Your mutual destiny is sealed. What do you think of your future wife?”

  Hades didn’t speak -- couldn’t speak. Not with his pulse pounding like a Trojan horse and a knot in his throat.

  “I think she’s quite lovely, your majesty,” Hermes supplied.

  Hades dragged a rough breath into his lungs. “Lovely isn’t the word for her.” He bent lower, gazing into the moving image, drinking in her spun-silk golden hair, her violet eyes, and her moonlight-pale skin. “She is the beauty of every maiden of Olympus combined and surpassed.”

  They watched her gathering artificial flowers and arranging them in a basket. She was meticulous but artistic with her work.

  A flash of color in his empire of gray.

  “It seems she works with flowers,” Hermes observed.

  “And they pale beside her, in every respect.” Hades longed to reach out, to touch her reflection with his fingertips, to know the warmth and feel of her.

  “You must lead me to her.” He addressed the sorceress, never looking away from the pool. “I must make her mine at once.”

  “That ...” A sneer filled Circe’s face. “... might be a bit of a problem.”

  * * * * *

  Hyacinth kicked off her shoes the minute she stepped inside her house -- the house she’d shared with Riley during their brief marriage.

  It had become a shrine to hopes and dreams that had never materialized.

  She picked up her mail from the pile on the hardwood floor in front of the door where it’d dropped through the slot. Nothing but circulars, junk, and bills. Casting it aside, she made her way to the kitchen.

  Every night managed to be an exact rerun of the one before it. She put on a kettle of water for tea and popped a frozen dinner into the microwave. While her dinner heated in the kitchen, she went to her bedroom to change into her slippers. After padding back to the kitchen, she made herself a cup of tea and took her freshly nuked meal into the living room. She arranged her food and drink on the TV tray in front of her favorite corner of the couch, and with a click of the remote, turned on a rerun of Seinfeld.

  Reruns. The stuff her life was made of.

  Chapter Two

  “To the cave of Morpheus.” Hades shouted as the ferry drew closer t
o the riverbank. He tossed an obolus into the bronze urn near the bow, payment for his passage.

  “At your service, sire.” The skeletal form of Charon bent in a deep bow. He placed his double-headed hammer into a loop on the belt of his robe and steered the vessel toward the dock.

  Hades settled into the ferry with a disgruntled huff. He tried to avoid traveling by ferry whenever possible, but he needed to cross the river Acheron to get to the cluster of caves where Morpheus and his brothers resided, which made Charon’s ferry unavoidable. Of course, as king, he had his own vessels and a crew standing by, but Charon took it as a personal offense when Hades took his own barge across the Acheron. Under the circumstances, he thought it best to keep on the ferryman’s good side.

  “Dealing in the business of sleep and dreams, sire?” Charon looked over his shoulder at Hades, the empty sockets of his eyes black and vacant.

  “Something along those lines.” Hades stared down into the dark, murky waters of the Acheron. He had no desire to reveal the details of his plans to Charon. The ferryman gossiped like the Church Lady at a bingo game. Thank goodness for reruns of Saturday Night Live.

  “I hear the queen still hasn’t returned from the upper world.” The skeleton’s raspy voice grated on Hades’s ears. Great Zeus above, why didn’t Charon just start his own tabloid and be done with it? Didn’t he have anything better to do with his time, Hades thought with a wrinkle of his nose, such as washing his hooded black robe?

  “Her majesty is enjoying an extended vacation this year.” Hades leaned back in his seat, feigning an unconcerned air.

  Charon’s cackle sent chills down the king’s spine. “Trouble in paradise? And so soon, with you two lovebirds married only a few thousand years now.” He stopped laughing abruptly, his teeth meeting with a stomach-churning crunch when his mouth shut.