"Tell me about a book that made you cry," my friend, Ashley had once asked me over coffee.

The answer had been easy. "The Epigenetics Revolution," I'd said with a groan. 

I was studying molecular biology and regretting it.

I hunched over my open textbook. Page seventy glared at me. Though I was supposed to be studying my mind shifted from my coffee conversation to one I had in the hall a few hours ago.

My neighbours had been chatting as I stepped out of the elevator. I'd been living in the high-rise complex for four months after having moved to study in Boston.

"Sandy saw a new family move into the penthouse." Doris King knew everything about everyone. When she and our other neighbour, Kim saw me, they waved. "Hi, Persa. Have you seen the new family who bought the penthouse?"

"Not yet," I replied.

Doris gave me a Colgate smile. "Sandy said they're gorgeous." Looking to Kim she added, "You remember Sandy's a history major." Then she turned to me. "She says they look like the gods of Olympus. Gorgeous!" She giggled. "You're Greek, right?"

"Yes. From Athens."

The clock on the wall chimed, pulling me out of my reminiscing. "Ten pm?" Each chime reminded me that I still had twenty pages to cover. I decided if I was going to get anywhere near that I needed more caffeine and Coffee Shack stayed open till midnight.

I headed out. The hallway was eerily quiet. After the familiar ding announced the elevator's arrival, I stepped in. "Going down?" I asked the man who had his head behind a newspaper.

"I am," he replied. When he looked up, I gasped. He was immaculately dressed in a dark suit. His black hair curled around his ears. I'd never seen features that chiseled nor eyes that dark...and those lips could rewrite history. Yet the tattoos on his neck gave him a dark demeanor.

The smile he offered made me physically weak. It was one of the rare times I felt a sudden attraction. Usually, guys had to get to me through my brain, not my hormones.

The door closed and the elevator began to move.

"I am new to the building," he said in the deepest voice I'd ever heard. "My family and I just moved in." He pointed upwards.

"Oh," I said but it came out more like a squeak than my voice. "Are you the ones who moved into the penthouse?"

He nodded. Doris' comment echoed, "They look like the gods of Olympus. Gorgeous!"

He was indeed gorgeous, albeit a bit frightening with that piercing gaze and the tattoos. When he extended his hand I shivered. 

"May I have the pleasure of your name?"

I slipped my hand in his. Instead of shaking it, he brought it to his lips.

"Persa," I uttered.

"Beautiful," he breathed against my knuckles.

"It's short for Persephone."

"It is my honor. I am Jack Hades."

I didn't realize he hadn't let go of my hand as we went down. Lower and lower and lower we went.