Page 16 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

He is lonely, I realize. The man has everything, and yet he is emotionally starved.

“Okay, so you want me to come here every day after my studies to cook, share dinner with you, tidy up and leave?”

His eyes bore into mine, and for a moment, I stop breathing. “I would like it if you were live-in.”

“Live in?” I parrot dumbly.This just keeps getting weirder, like I’ve stepped into the Twilight Zone.

His lips twitch. “I like breakfast, too.”

“You like—” I pause, inhale, and ask calmly, “Hades, it sounds like you need a cook.”

He laughs. The sound is rich and unexpected and decadent. It touches me so deep inside, like a match to the marrow of my bones.

I’m struck breathless, immovable.

“You will share breakfast with me. I would like for it to feel natural between us. Friendly.”

And we circle back to that. His need for companionship that is so out of touch for him, he’s soughtsomeone to hire to fulfill that need. A basic need no one should ever have to pay for.

I feel like a con artist for considering agreeing to this.

“Why me, Hades?”

He considers for a moment while I hold my breath in my lungs. “You are real and honest. Within minutes of meeting you, you admitted to me that you are crazy.”

The breath bursts from my lungs on an abrupt laugh. “You want me as your companion because I told you I was a lunatic?”

“As I said, you’re honest.”

I shake my head, stupefied. “Hades, this is insane.”

“What do you need to feel comfortable with this arrangement?” He stands from behind his desk, stalking closer to me until there are only inches between us. The scent of him, woodsmoke and sin and earth and something foreign surrounds me, scattering rational thoughts.

“I want to keep my room at the house, in case anything goes wrong.”

“Done.”

“I am supposed to get Saturdays and Sundays off. This week was funny with the schedule,” I explain my odd days off. “It was the first week, and a little wacky. But I want at least one of those days to myself.” He nods agreeably. “And this is a strictly professionalarrangement, Hades. I’m serious when I said I won’t sleep with you.”

He assures, “I will have a room made up for you that is all your own.”

I nibble my lips, feeling more than a little nervous and a lot uncertain. “Okay. I guess—I guess I’m working for you.”

He smiles like a devil that just struck a deal for my soul.

I’m not altogether certain he didn’t.

Chapter

Nine

Persephone

“Let me get this straight.”Willa drops another cube of sugar into her already sweet coffee. “You're moving in with the guy five days a week?”

“Essentially, yeah.”

I don't bother correcting her and saying that I'd pretty much agreed to spend six days a week with a man I hardly know. In his house. As his…companion?

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