door. On your way out, Drake will close it for you.”
Drake must be one of the guards posted outside.
I bit my inner cheek and glared at him. He held my gaze with his dark sapphire eyes. My nostrils flaring, I rose to my feet and stormed toward the door. He was lucky that I didn’t show him a vulgar gesture.
When I laid my hand on the handle, he still didn’t call me back. I glanced over my shoulder and spotted him pushing my wrinkled resume to the edge of his expensive desk. Then he opened a notebook and scribbled something on the page.
“Just out of curiosity,” I said, my voice dripping with disdain. I had to leave him with something spiteful before I left, not that it would have much effect on a sleazeball mob Fae boss. So far, I hadn’t met a decent Fae. “Do you ask every girl to come here to perform for you for a job interview? Is that how every one of them got the job?”
He probably had asked more than that.
He leveled his gaze on me. “Every one of them would consider it an honor to do that for me. They’d gain great status for such a performance. But no, I never asked any woman, except you, to dance for me. I’ve never brought any others here, either.”
I wrinkled my nose in disbelief. “I’m the first one?”
“You heard me.”
A surprise went though me, quenching two-thirds of the rising anger inside me.
“Were you joking again?” I asked in a high-pitched voice before I tuned it down.
“I said I don’t joke. Nor can I lie.”
The legend said that the Fae couldn’t lie. My fingers touched the doorknob as lightly as a feather now.
“Should I feel insulted to be singled out?” I asked.
“I can’t decide for you how you feel.”
“Why me then?”
Rydstrom leaned back in his fancy chair. “I need to see if you have what it takes to survive in this place. A girl like you—”
I narrowed my eyes. “A girl like me?”
He quirked an eyebrow again. “Vulnerable beyond measure despite your bad attitude, distracting giggles, and humor that’s only funny to you.”
My face flushed with anger. “I beg your pardon? My humor is fine.”
“Do you want to dance or not? I have a meeting in twenty minutes.”
I pursed my lips together. Maybe I should just flip him the bird and storm out in dignity.
Or maybe I should require more information and decide later. Rushing into action rarely got any good results.
“My friend’s cousin said the pay is six-figures annually,” I started. “Is that truth or rumor?”
A slightly amused light danced for a nanosecond in his unfathomable eyes. “I can assure you that your friend’s cousin got it right. We don’t function on rumors.”
“And with dental and vision coverage for family members as well?” I fished.
He leaned forward, his gaze suddenly sharpened, a predatory light quenching any amusement he held a moment ago.
“Are you married?” he asked, and there was an undertone of threat in his voice, as if he’d for sure murder my husband if I said yes.
“Oh, hell no. I’m too young to get into any marriage contract, but I have siblings,” I said. I wasn’t willing to tell him how many, as I didn’t want to scare him away with the insurance coverage for six of them.
He relaxed. “Don’t your parents claim your siblings as their dependents?”
A wave of pain slammed into me at the mention of my parents.
“My parents are serving overseas at the moment,” I said, feeling a muscle jumping on my chin, and he saw it. “I’m the bread earner for the time being, but it won’t always be like that. My parents will be home soon.”
“The insurance will cover you and your siblings,” he said. “If you prove to be a good dancer.”
“That will be written into the contract, right?”
“A non-disclosure one,” he confirmed.
“Fine, but I need to get a few more things sorted out first,” I said, looking around the room.
“There’s no camera inside this office,” he said. “And no one who wants to keep their head dares to enter my office without permission. My reputation and my guards see to that. We have complete privacy.”
I swallowed, a little shocked that he’d known exactly what I had planned to say next. Tingles climbed up my spine as if I couldn’t wait to dance for him. “One last thing,” I said. “I’ll do a striptease, but it’ll be like a sample. Just one time and I won’t strip bare.