Kade stood in his weight room at seven the next morning, sipping his protein shake and thinking about Felicity.

The woman was infuriating. He could still see the flash of anger in those brilliant green eyes as she’d chucked a piece of the vase across the room. It was funny to him how insanely attractive he found her redheaded fury.

Putting down his shake, he went to his treadmill and hopped on. Normally, he liked to run outside, but today, he had an appointment with his father down at his office. He had to be down there before nine, so this meant his run had to be cut short.

His father liked to randomly summon him to his office. Worry wove through him as he wondered if Anthony would be there. He wondered if this whole meeting was about Anthony and Sheena and how he needed to stay away from her. Pushing the treadmill up a couple notches, he went into a full out sprint. Man, he needed the release of the run today.

Seconds later, the doorbell sounded.

Crap. Who could it be? It was too early for normal people. If it were Ace or X, they would just come through the backyard and straight to his gym. He pressed the off button and hopped off the treadmill.

Annoyance filled him. If it was his brother again, it was time for a pounding. He raced up the stairs to the door. Annoyance turned to anger. If his brother wanted to fight, he needed to come inside. They could destroy the front room, but he wouldn’t listen to his brother defend that snake of a woman.

He got to the front entry and flung back the door. To his amazement, it wasn’t his brother. All the anger whooshed out of him. It was her.

Felicity Song.

It was so strange that at this exact moment he thought about how her name actually meant happy song. Happy music.

She didn’t look how she'd looked at the auction, all satin and pearls. Or at the PR office, all professional. No, today, she wore a t-shirt with a grey hoodie, unzipped, but the hood pulled over her hair. The t-shirt was a Titans’ t-shirt, he immediately noticed, which pleased him. She pulled off her sunglasses and held the envelope up. “What is wrong with you?”

Of course he recognized the envelope with the deed in it. Yanking his ear buds out, adrenaline pounded through him. What the heck was she doing here? He thought she would call. Or text. Not come to his home. Taking a calming breath, he strove to speak casually. “Hey.”

She pulled her hoodie off, her red hair sparkling like an autumn mist. It reminded him of pumpkins and Thanksgiving and everything fall. He loved fall. It had been his mother’s favorite holiday. Wait, was he really thinking about the color of her hair and pumpkins?

She snapped in his face. “Hello!”

“Oh.” Had she said something?

She shook her head. “I don’t know how you found out about my momma’s house, but you can’t just buy people off.”

His defenses went down. “I’m sorry. Look …” He trailed off, going quiet before starting again. “The morning of the auction my brother came over.”

She looked shocked. “What?”

Hating this, he decided to explain. To tell the truth. “You obviously realize my brother and I don’t get along, but Sheena has somehow deceived him into thinking I’m pursuing her. He threatened me and said I better stay away from her.” He clenched a fist, feeling raw and vulnerable himself. “At the auction, I knew I couldn’t let her buy me. Things with my brother, let’s just say they’re more than tense, and Sheena buying me would have made it worse.”

A flash of concern washed over her face. “I haven’t read anywhere that Anthony and Sheena are dating?”

He shrugged. “The woman is toxic.”

Her eyebrows went up and she shook her head. “Yeah she is. Did a pretty number on Roman and Sam.”

“Exactly.” He agreed.

She kneaded the side of her right eye. “I guess everyone has family problems, don’t we?”

Finding it a bit comforting to share this with her, he wondered even more about her father and the fact her mother was about to lose her home. What other family problems did this woman have?

For a couple of moments, their eyes locked, and he saw a fire flare up then cool in front of him. She turned away from him. “I don’t want to take your offer, but the fact is my momma needs that house, and it will be my fault if she loses it.”

He thought it was interesting she thought it was her fault. What had she done, gambled away the family fortune? “Well, the house isn’t tied to a date,” he said, sounding a bit stilted, but actually meaning it. “It was—”

She whirled back to face him. “A gesture, Kincaid?” She spit out, disbelief in her eyes. “Nothing is free.”

They both stared at each other, stuck in a stalemate.

“Then I guess you’ll do the date.” He challenged after a bit, feeling like he wanted to win the play today.

Cocking an eyebrow, she nodded. “That’s what I’m here to discuss, I have a couple of conditions.”

The win didn’t feel as good as he thought it would, but he would still count it. “O-kay.”

“First, I’m planning the date. We do it my way. You don’t get to look over the date beforehand. You don’t get to give suggestions. You don’t get a say, Mr. Kincaid. We go out, start at breakfast and we’re done at midnight.”

“Fine,” he said. It didn’t seem like a problem to him.

She gave him a skeptical look. “You don’t have anything you want to nix?”

He shrugged. “Sweetheart, haven’t you heard? I live in Olympus, there’s nothing you can throw at me that I won’t be able to handle.”

“Fine.” She grunted back. “And, second,” she said, breaking eye contact with him and pulling out an envelope and a pen from her pocket.

He was intrigued.

She pursed her lips. “We don’t see each other socially after the date. You don’t text, call, or have any involvement with each other’s lives in any social way.”

“Fine.” He agreed quickly, thinking how the press would eat up this date with the beautiful redhead.

“Last,” she said, her voice severe, but she hesitated.

“Yesss…”

“You don’t fall in love with me.” She said defiantly.

For a second he had to process what she’d just said, then he had to stop himself from bursting into laughter. Did she think he would fall in love with her? He was pretty sure he could control himself, thank you very much. It all felt so unreal to him that she would be here demanding he NOT fall in love with her after one date. He put on a humble expression and winked at her. “I’ll do my best.”

Her features smoothed out. “I had my attorney write up an agreement. Please sign on the line that you get no say in the date, you will have no contact with me after the date, and you will not fall in love with me.”

This girl was crazy. Pure crazy. He and X and Ace always joked some women had crazy behind the eyes. This was clearly that woman. "Fine.” He took the pen she held out and grabbed the paper. Putting it on his leg, he signed it. “Sounds good.”

Appearing satisfied, she took the paper back and then held his gaze. “I’ll be at your home this Saturday at eight a.m. sharp. I’ll have a camera guy and a photographer. You’ll be driving.”

Unable to stop himself, a wide grin washed over his face.

“What?” She looked suspicious.

A light laugh came out of him, but he covered his mouth.

“What?” She demanded, looking like a middle school aid busting the kids for running in the halls.

“There’s only one problem.” He said in a serious voice.

The center of her brow creased, and her lips turned down. “What?”

He couldn’t stop the laugh that forced its’ way out. “What if I’m already head over heels in love with you?”

An annoyed glare fixed itself onto her face.

He busted into more laughter.

“He’s a funny man.” She turned and descended the steps quickly.

He wished he could stop his laughter, but he couldn’t, he called after her. “Wait, don’t leave me Juliet!”

Sticking the bird up at him, she didn’t even turn around.

This made him laugh even harder and like her even more. “See you Saturday!” He called out, and he realized…this was the first time he’d looked forward to a date in a long, long time.