Oh, The Games We Play

"I missed you," Hades' mouth moved along her collarbone enjoying the breathy laugh she gave as a reply and the way her fingers wound around the ends of his hair.

He half expected her to repeat that tired line once more *you miss Angel, not me.* But she didn't and his heart swelled just a touch more. Perhaps she was finally understanding, finally seeing herself the way he could now see her. Completely. He knew all sides of her and there was no part of her he didn't crave, no part of her shade that he did not accept.

Tugging down the other spaghetti strap, so the expanse of her shoulders up to the tops curves of her breasts were bared to him, Hades studied her perfect skin. The way the darkness of his room seemed to melt into one side like an embrace. The light flickering from the fireplace turned her eyes molten, made her skin sparkle like embers on the other side.

He could finally see exactly how they fit together. The bright side and the dark, the flame and the cool night. Both in equal measure, both calling to the core of him because they were his too. His darkness and his fire. He had never felt understood by anyone. Never fully. Because even when he explained what it was like to have this power, they could not know. Not really. But she did. She knew and had broken more completely than he had. Still she persevered gloriously. Beautifully. Perfectly, even with all her jagged edges. He could have her until the world turned to dust and it would never be enough.

Brushing his nose up the column of her neck, he kissed her again. As if it were the first, as if it would be the last. As if every minute since he first saw her had been undoing him so completely there was no way to return. And he wouldn't want to.

This was worth every bite of pain, of loneliness and longing, of torture and half pleasure, of darkness and fire, of the thousands of years he had to endure before her. She met his fevered lips fearlessly, playfully, taking a tour of his mouth with her tongue, her hands greedily pressing him closer. This was fast becoming a game of wills for him. He wanted his mouth on every part of her all at once. He wanted to taste, and lick, and kiss so many things it was a crime to choose.

Dark blew a shallow breath, pulling their lips apart and commanded him, "lower." Her body flushed with anticipation, every nerve lit up along her spine. She could feel hardness pressed against her center, satin under her back, warm, wet reminders along her neck, the cool bite of air hitting that sensitive skin. Sensation surrounded her, consumed her. And she wanted it all at once. Wanted to burn everything in the room and play in the ashes.

She wrapped her legs around him, nudging them closer, letting him know exactly where and how badly she wanted him.

Hades laughed deep and slow, breath skittering across her sensitive flesh. "I have not had you alone in months, my love, I'll not rush a single moment." He moved lower, pressed his mouth over the base of her neck, letting his warm tongue dance against the bone's edge and slipped a hand under her shirt. He knew where she wanted him and he ignored it, those sensitive peaks tipping through the thin fabric. Instead he skimmed her ribs, dragged his fingernails along the soft skin of her back.

He licked along her shoulder blades and kissed the place where fabric met her skin, teasing, taunting. Hades hovered his open mouth over her nipple, letting the moisture of his breath move along the shirt fabric until it clung to her flesh.

The single hitch of breath told him how much it affected her even when her words would not. Because Dark wasn't going to let him make a mess of her without a fight, without playing, without giving as good as she got. He knew that. And the challenge was as delicious as the taste of her. Her skin, her mouth, the heaviness of her eyes all fought with his control. But he wanted to savor her.

His fingers replaced his mouth as he moved to the other nipple, tugging and flicking at it as he sent a dual flame shivering under her bottoms and along both legs.

A sharp inhale and her hands found his chest, "I didn't know you c-could do that."

Dark was barely breathing as she felt the flame move along her hip bone, separating cloth from skin and leaving delicious heat in its wake. She couldn't stop her back from arching when the flame went straight between her legs and extinguished. Dark swallowed the sounds desperately building in her chest.

Hades moved lower at last, ghosting his lips over her stomach as he raised her shirt, "Every time you keep those sounds to yourself, you only force me to try harder, love. I'll drag them from you myself if I have to. They are all mine and I've earned them."

The smile in his tone made Dark sigh a laugh that ended in a groan. He was teasing her, toying with her as if he knew exactly how her body reacted to him and intended to unravel her with it.

"I d-don't recall you being so demanding before," Dark felt the pad of his thumb drag along her slit, pushing against her clit, pressing against her lips, dipping inside the wetness she wanted him to feel. His eyes met hers and she saw it all there: the hunger, the barely-maintained control, the burning need she likely always caused in him. A pull between needing to consume her and wanting to enjoy her. She could see everything he didn't have to say and it was enough that the next time he moved his thumb against her insides she let him hear what it made her feel.

And when his tongue played long the edge of her belly button she felt flames shoot the rest of the way up her shirt, flushing the skin over her stomach, higher and higher until the shirt was only ashes and in one cool breath he blew them away, leaving her bare. Completely bare beneath him.

"L-learning new t-tricks?" She shivered as he moved lower, pushing her legs forward, wider.

"What makes you think it's new?" He asked, delicately putting his mouth to her. She was sure her bones were gone, liquified, useless. His mouth was too hot, too soft, too perfectly trained exactly where she wanted him. Her hands were in the sheets, in his hair, palming her own breasts, running along her own thighs.

"Thousands of years it took to perfect pleasure," he smiled against her lips, nipping then soothing them gently, "and you sought to know it all in a handful of nights?"

"I do love it when you brag," Dark breathed her irritation between her teeth. She was nearing the edge too fast, "about the thousands of women you've had..." she pulled her mouth taut just as he pressed his lips harder against her then stopped.

In a breath he was over her face again, glistening and hungry. Eyes flaring in the most desperate mix of lust and mischief, Hades gripped her jaw hard until she tilted into his chest, "I wouldn't have thought you would back down from a challenge, love, don't disappoint me now..."

The sting of his words and the sear of his lips stoked a fire in her gut so fierce that he needed only press a finger to her and she'd likely come undone. Gods, she wanted to come all the way apart and watch him put her back together. But she wanted to play too and use his pleasure against him until he begged for release.

Gripping his hair with a grunt, she rolled them sharply until she sat on his waist, noting that he hadn't removed a single bit of clothing except his boots. That wouldn't do at all for what she intended to do.

"It's not a challenge, your *highness*," Dark watched the flames come to life inside his eyes, "When you are already conquered. Though I'm always happy to give you a reminder of how capable I am."

His breathing turned shallow as she pushed flames across his chest and down his legs until his clothes were ash. She made sure to up the temperature enough to singe him a bit. Nowhere important but enough that pain mixed with pleasure. The heat became fingers on his skin, pressing him, teasing him, heating his blood as she sank her weight further onto him and slid lower. Hades reached for her face but she moved, using the back of her tongue to lick down the center of his chest.

Hades cursed loudly, roughly, as Dark made her tongue turn from hot to icy the second it touched his length. And in a breath she was back to hot. As she took him deeper into her mouth, she conjured up more water, making a hot, wet mess of him as he tried to do all he could to anticipate her next move. Dark could see the pleasure on his face, could watch the veins on his neck, the muscles in his arms for proof that she was getting to him. He palmed her hair, rolling them until her head was pressed back to the sheets as he thrust into her mouth with a groan. His sounds were so low, so raw that she couldn't help the build of pressure between her legs.

The thrill of being pinned beneath him, of being used for his pleasure. The thrill of seeing him lose the cool exterior he so often kept, was enough to have her taking him deeper, against her throat. It was all too much sensation. The feel of him. The sounds. The taste. The sight of him coming apart at the seams.

"You very nearly won," he rasped, pulling out of her mouth with enough fire in his eyes to burn the room down, "Clever trick using ice." He gasped a few breaths but it did nothing to squelch the ravenous look in his eyes, "I very nearly lost my mind..."

"As I said," Dark gloated with a wide, devilish grin as she wiped her mouth, "A reminder." She could pretend all she wanted but he saw the truth of it, that she'd nearly gone over the edge from watching his pleasure too.

Dark didn't manage to hear what he said as Hades flipped her over, pressing her chest into the sheets in a single fluid motion. It was clear they were riling each other up, trying to see who would break first. She smiled into the sheets, knowing it would be him.

"I asked you a question," Hades whispered into her ear, his body as slick with sweat and want as hers.

Dark turned one cheek to the sheets, "And what q-question was that?"

"Do you want a safe word?"

Dark lowered her eyes, rearing herself against him, "My safe word is conquered and I have no intention of using it, Hades."