Chapter 2

“Me,” the brazen woman bragged, and Keith felt his blood pressure spike slightly at her proud response. Her eyes, emerald stones, shone brightly, and she pursed her lips.

“What do you mean you?” He asked, feeling quite idiotic for exchanging words with a mortal. A woman, no less. Not that he had anything against them; Hera had shoved him into enough shit to know that women would mess things up in your life. They were that powerful.

But Hera was a goddess. And all the other women in Keith’s life had either been too enchanting to look upon or too powerful to hold down. The woman before him had neither money nor power, yet her nose, cute as it was, turned up haughtily at him.

Was she out of her mind?“What I mean is, I used your fucking medicine,” she turned to face the pressmen gathered around them. “And it didn’t do shit!”

Loud, Keith thought with a wince. She was too damn loud. How one puny mortal made such a loud racket was beyond him. Taking a deep breath, he spoke.

“Miss Wilson, look at me.”

Cassandra felt a particular coolness wash over at the sound of his voice. He had spoken so calmly, yet it sounded a lot like an order. An order she couldn’t resist obeying. Turning to face him, she sighed at the sight of him.

He was indeed handsome. She wanted to reach across the space between them and ruffle his hair. They were all gelled back, and it was indeed a pity. His hair would look beautiful when tousled, falling in curls above his eyes.

His eyes. Dark and swirling with depths Cassandra wanted to drown in. Perhaps it was because she was so fucking sleep deprived; she had to be seeing things. There was something about them... No, she frowned; something about him made her stomach twist and turn.

She blinked and looked away, taking a step back. He made her feel so many things. Hot, wet, and mighty, mighty uncomfortable.

“If this is a ploy,” Keith continued, taking slow, measured steps toward her. The infuriating woman had shaken off his hold on her! Nobody ever did that—at least no mortal ever did!

Stopping just a hair breath away, a scent, one of honey and roses, teased and tickled his nose. For a woman who looked like a harridan, she smelled so fucking good. He stamped down the growl that threatened to slip down his throat and continued speaking.

“If this is a ploy to tarnish my company’s reputation, Miss Wilson, you must pay the price.”

Cassandra whipped her head to look up at him, her eyes blazing with anger.

“What price?” She scoffed, forgetting for a minute that he stood so close to her. “The only person paying anything is you. You’ll pay me my fucking money back and take your damn medicine with you!”

“What in hades is your problem?!” Keith found his voice had risen an octave higher, which bothered him. No mortal had ever made him speak so loudly before—he rarely did. What was there to talk 

loudly about? And yet, in all of five minutes, the witch before him had him raising his fucking voice.

“You lied!” Cassandra spat, thumping two fingers against the chest of the man who stood before her. “

You said Hypnos would heal all insomnias. You said the medicine would take it away forever! And you lied...” Her voice cracked with tears when she trailed off.

It had to be the lack of sleep. She had battled insomnia for five years, and she had never lost her shit outside. 

Crying in front of the man who had defrauded her was not acceptable!

Keith found himself softening at the troubled look on her face. Five minutes ago, he would have wished Cassandra Wilson to hell, but as he stared at her, his eyes glazed over the clues he had overlooked.

There was the horrid nest of reddish brown hair on her head, the bags under her red-rimmed eyes, and her choppy nasty manner of speaking.

“You have insomnia,” he stated and almost chuckled when she glared at him. Ah, crap. He had to be out of his mind to find her remotely funny.

“No shit!” Cassandra spat. “I bought your damn Hypnos medicine for the past two months! Did it make me fall asleep? No. No, it made it worse. I spent three thousand dollars on a fake fucking medicine, and if you think I won’t get every fucking dime back from you, you must be crazy.”

Keith wanted to point out that between both of them, she looked more like a crazy person, but he held his tongue. She might be a mere mortal, but the determination in those green eyes could rival the strength

 of Hercules himself.

And what was this about his medicine not working? A frown barely creased his forehead as he thought deeply. He carefully made every Hypnos medicine. The god of sleep himself! How could her insomnia persist?

The clicking of cameras broke through his thoughts. The pressmen had woken up, and his calm hold on them had weakened. Sighing deeply, he looked down at Miss Wilson, who no longer looked at him but scowled at the pressmen.

“Miss Wilson,” he called, “we’ll need to test that theory.”

“Are you saying I’m lying?” She asked, her scowl now directed at him.

“I’m saying,” he said with a patient sigh, “we need to confirm your story.”

Her arms folded beneath her breasts, drawing Keith’s eyes to the now visible outline that formed underneath the vast shirt. For a brief moment, he ogled the shape of her breasts and felt his mouth dry at the sight. It couldn’t be, could it? Those mounds, she wasn’t-

“And then what?” Her snappy voice broke him out of his derailing thoughts.

“And then,” he said, instinctively stepping closer to her. “We find a cure.”

Cassandra laughed, partially because his nearness caused her to smell his cologne, and it did crazy things to her thighs, but mostly because he sounded crazy. Nothing could cure her insomnia.

“And if you fail?” She asked, holding his gaze.

Keith found himself lowering his head until their lips hovered a few inches above each other. “

When I win, Miss Wilson,” he whispered and swallowed when she let out a breathy sigh and closed her eyes, “you’ll be my slave forever.”