Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 223

Eve

My heart leapt out of my mouth as my eyes landed on Hades. His expression was soft and open before his eyes narrowed on me.

"Love?"

His voice was calm. Too calm—deceptively so. The moment stretched between us, thick with something unspoken, something volatile. I could see it in the way his fingers flexed, in the measured rise and fall of his chest.

My pulse thundered, but I forced a smile, adjusting the hem of my sleeves. "I— I wasn't expecting you back so soon."

His gaze drifted down, tracking the way my hands curled into the fabric. A slow blink. Then another. He stepped forward, his presence consuming the room like a rising tide.

"I noticed."

The words sent a shiver down my spine. There was no heat to them, no anger—just a dangerous kind of patience. The kind that meant he had already figured something out and was waiting for me to confirm it.

I swallowed. "I was just—"

"Covering up."

I flinched.

The smallest movement, but enough. His expression didn't change, yet something about him shifted—his eyes darkening, shoulders drawing back as if to brace himself. He was watching, reading, assessing.

I was losing this battle before I even had the chance to fight.

Hades inhaled deeply, his gaze locked onto mine like a predator sizing up wounded prey. Not with hunger, not with anger—but with that unnerving patience that made my skin prickle.

"Eve," he said again, slower this time. "What are you hiding?"

I held firm, though my grip on the fabric betrayed me, fingers twisting tighter as if the silk alone could shield me from his scrutiny.

"Nothing," I said, too quickly.

He exhaled, the sound almost amused but far from convinced. "Nothing?"

His fingers flexed at his sides before he took another step forward. I took one back, my heel bumping the edge of the bed. No escape.

His gaze dipped once more, dragging over the robe that now hung looser around my shoulders. And then, before I could react, he moved.

With the kind of fluid grace that made him so dangerously unpredictable, his fingers caught my wrists.

I froze.

Slowly, deliberately, he pried my hands apart. The fabric slipped from my fingers, revealing the delicate, lacy scrap of fabric I had been so desperately trying to hide.

Silence.

Hades stared.

Then his brows lifted, slow and incredulous.

"Eve," he murmured, voice thick with amusement. "Are you… holding a garter belt?"

My stomach twisted. Heat crept up my neck like wildfire. I clenched my jaw, summoning whatever dignity I had left. "Yes."

Silence stretched between us.

And then—

A laugh.

Not a chuckle. Not a quiet exhale. But a deep, rich, utterly delighted laugh.

I scowled. "It's not funny."

"Oh, but it is." His laughter tapered into something smug, his eyes glittering with unrestrained amusement. "You were acting like you'd been caught committing treason—over this?"

I sniffed. "I wanted to make an impression."

His lips twitched. "And you thought the best way to do that was by standing in the middle of our bedroom, gripping a garter belt like it's contraband?"

I crossed my arms, only to realize too late that I was still holding the damn thing. The lacy straps dangled between us, betraying me completely.

Hades reached out, plucking the delicate garment from my grasp with almost reverent curiosity. He turned it over in his fingers, dark eyes flicking back to mine, wicked amusement dancing behind them.