Persephone awoke to a tug on her right hand. She blinked and tried to raise her hands to rub the sleep from her eyes, but she found she couldn't move either arm in any direction. She looked up to find Hades leering down at her.

His dark gray hair was disheveled...much the way it had been after their trysts on Mount Olympus...after she had twined her fingers in his longish locks to pull him even closer to her. But no! She couldn't—she wouldn't think of those nights. If she thought of them, she might give in to him and that she would never do.

Then she remembered she couldn't move her hands. He had bound her to the posts at the head of the bed, and he had used adamantine cloth. The threads of adamantine were so fine, the woven cloth was soft and supple as silk—but unbreakable!

"What have you done?" Persephone cried out as she tugged and pulled, trying to free herself. "Do you think you can keep me tied to this bed in this dark and nasty place forever?"

Hades' dark eyes were hooded. "I could if I wanted to, my love, but I think a few hours should be enough to persuade you."

"In a few hours, I will want to leave as much as I do now!" she retorted and turned her head away from him.

He moved in closer until she could feel his warm breath stir the short curls framing her cheek. She pulled farther away, but still she felt his breath now tickling her ear. The tickle became a tingle that somehow moved through her body to her most secret place.

"Stop it," Persephone meant to shout, but the words came out in a weak whisper.

Hades laughed softly, sending more hot breath into her ear and more tingles through her body. Hades placed a kiss at the base of her ear, and Persephone stifled a small sound that rose in her throat.

"Y-You can't keep me here against my will." She turned the sound into a sob and affected a catch in her voice. "I-If you ever felt anything for me, you wouldn't do this."

"I feel everything for you, Persephone! And if you don't feel everything after this night, then you will be free to leave. I won't stand in your way."

She turned to him with wide eyes. "Do you mean it, Hades? You'll let me go?"

He nodded thoughtfully. "But you have to be able to tell me truthfully that you feel nothing for me...when the night is over and I've finished."

Persephone didn't like the sound of that. "When you've finished? With what?"

"With this—" Suddenly, he bent over her... She could feel his heat through the thin material of her chiton.

"Noooo..." Persephone tried to protest, but the sound was a moan that betrayed her body's response to him.

Persephone squirmed against his touch and her bonds...and discovered her feet were bound as well, to the posts that cornered the foot of the bed.

"Oh, oh, Hades!" She thought of all the horrid names she could call him, but none of them escaped her lips.

Persephone watched as he climbed onto the bed, straddling her waist but not resting against her, a knee on each side of her carrying his weight. His long fingers gripped the edge of her chiton...

"You can't mean to-to—" she choked out.

"No," he said with a wicked smile. "Not even if you beg will I make love to you tonight."

"Beg! I would never—"

"Never, Persephone?" Hades' eyebrow rose and he laughed. "Never say never."