this man! He was arrogant and irritating. And he always invaded her space, making her feel small and…delicate! She wasn’t ever delicate! She was strong and capable. She’d had to be in order to survive in her father’s household. She and her sister were tough! Definitely not delicate.
“You never know if I’m a criminal. I could be.” She said it as her chin went out. Daring him.
He laughed outright at the idea. “You’re not a criminal,” he countered, looking her up and down. “You’re too cute.”
Sierra knew too well that a sociopath could easily come across as charming and even normal. Her father was one of those people. He would order someone’s death without a second thought and go about his day as if he’d just decided on spaghetti instead of lasagna for dinner. “So I’m a regular Bonnie Parker. What can I say?”
He laughed and bent even lower. “Can I be your Clyde Barrow? Minus all the killings, robberies and mayhem, of course.”
She blushed, knowing that Bonnie and Clyde had a torrid love affair until they were both shot during an ambush. “I don’t think we have the right personalities.” She bowed her head so he couldn’t see her blush.
He cocked his head to the side. “We definitely have the spark. Let’s just take a go at it,” he suggested.
She wasn’t sure how to handle that since all she wanted to do was reach up and touch the dark part of his jaw, the part that looked like it still had a bit of stubble to it despite the use of a good razor only hours ago. “I have that meeting,” she whispered, unable to make her voice stronger. “I really have to go now.”
He didn’t move away immediately, his eyes looking down at her and she suspected that he could read her mind, knew that she was both irritated and excited. “So you do,” he finally said. With that, he stepped back and gave her space, his hands in his pockets as he watched her take a deep breath and knock on Todd’s door.
“You can go on inside,” Drake said from behind her.
Sierra glanced over her shoulder, not sure why he was telling her she could just barge into her boss’s office. “Won’t he…?”
“No.” In fact, he opened the door for her, pushing the wooden door back so she could enter.
Sierra looked inside but the office was empty. Even most of the furniture was gone. “What’s going on?” she asked cautiously, standing just inside the doorway.
She felt Drake right behind her, his chest against her shoulders as his hands settled on her hips. He looked into the office over her head as if he were seeing the space for the first time as well. “The movers did a good job,” he said and gently pushed her inside, then closed the door behind the two of them. “Have a seat.” He walked around her to one of the two chairs left in the room.
“What’s happening?” she demanded, not taking the other chair. “Where’s Todd and where is all of his furniture?” She’d always loved Todd’s office. It was warm and grandfatherly. Not the style that would be conducive to her work, but it had felt warm and inviting.
Drake put his arm around her waist and brought her deeper into the room, closing the door behind the two of them. “Todd is already gone. He wanted to move on with his retirement as soon as possible. His wife was anxious that he might change his mind if given the chance to think about it and worry too much.”
Sierra looked around, feeling sad, as if her boss moving on with his life was the end of an era. It was, in a way. Although she didn’t want it to be the end of an era in her world. She liked her life. She wanted it to stay exactly the same. And that meant that this man was not in it!
Taking a deep breath, she turned around to face him, holding her notebook in front of her as if it could protect her. “I thought I was supposed to meet with Todd at nine o’clock.”
His grin was her first indication that she’d been tricked. “No, you were only told to be in Todd’s office at nine o’clock. There was no mention of who you would be meeting with.”
Her eyes narrowed at his statement. “That was on purpose wasn’t it?”
He chuckled softly. “Of course. I didn’t want you running from the building in