Page 1 of The Demigod Complex
Chapter One
Lyleia Naiad stared at the white envelope sitting on her desk, trying to pluck up the courage to march into her boss’s office and hand it to him.
Suck it up, and just do it.
Just resign. Give her two weeks’ notice and walk away. Not as easy as it sounded. She’d been trying for two weeks to pluck up the courage. The trouble was she didn’t really want to leave. She loved her job. It had given her life a sense of purpose.
But she had to disappear again. She should have known coming out of hiding, even just into the shadows at the edges, was a bad idea.
She had no proof, but last night was the second time in a month that she suspected someone had been in her apartment. Running anytime that instinct kicked in had kept her alive for centuries.
Which meant she had to go. Soon.
“Hey.” Mike Morgan, the lead lawyer for Dioskouri Enterprises, walked into her office.
In the same instant, the intercom on her desk came to life with Castor Dioskouri’s voice.
“Lyleia.”
A barked order she had no problem interpreting as “get your ass in here.”
Lyleia, who went by Leia to everyone but her boss, winced. Holding up a finger to the man standing on the other side of her desk, she pressed the intercom button. “I have Mike Morgan with me. Two minutes?”
Silence.
She gave Castor another few seconds, then, assuming he was okay with waiting, lifted her gaze to the head lawyer of Dioskouri Enterprises. She held out her hand to accept the paperwork he’d brought. “Thanks, Mike. I’ll get his signature and have this back to you by end of day.”
She stood and smoothed down her gray pencil skirt and white, button-down blouse and patted her hair into place. Then she disconnected her computer from the docking station.
But Mike didn’t leave. Instead, he casually hitched a hip on her desktop, pushing papers around. Leia held in a sigh as her fingers itched to fix the small upset to her perfectly ordered work area.
“When are you going to go out with me?” Mike asked with what she was sure most women found to be a charming smile. The lawyer, while excellent at his job, was a player with a capitalP. Not her style at all. It took a lot more than charm and looks to impress a nymph. Even an ex-water nymph who’d failed to protect her spring.
“Never. When are you going to stop asking?” She gave Mike a gentle push to get off her desk and came around the side to head into Castor’s office.
Mike got up but didn’t make a move to leave. “Just one little date?”
She shook her head, amused despite herself, and pointed at the door. “You’re a great coworker, but that’s all it will ever be. Now shoo.”
“Friday?”
Leia crossed her arms, getting annoyed.
“Mike. Did you need something?”
The dark rumble of Castor’s voice sounded behind her, even more irritated than over the intercom. Leia spun on her heel to find him standing in the doorway, glowering like a bear with a thorn in its paw.
“I was dropping off the Metro paperwork for your signature.” Mike strolled to the door. “See you later, Leia.”
She nodded but otherwise didn’t pay attention to his departure. Her entire focus was on the man standing in front of her. Tall, dark, and handsome was a cliché that didn’t begin to cover the pure energy and power radiating from his lean form.
As had happened from her first day working for him, Castor’s presence pulled a visceral response from her.Why the hell can’t I turn off my body around him?
Damn the gods who’d ruined her life. She had despised them, werewolves, and anything to do with gods or their demigod offspring.
Until this one.
Somehow, Castor had snuck under all her defenses.
