“No.”
Keely grinned at him. “Good. That makes this a lot easier.”
“Makes what easier?”
Joa didn’t know what she was talking about, either. “Ro, Joa has been working as an au pair for years and she is going to be your new nanny. She needs something to do while figuring out the next phase of her life, so she might as well look after the monsters while she muses.”
What. The. Hell?
Sadie watched Keely fly out of the room, bemused by the blonde’s whirlwind approach to life. Sadie placed her reports back into their folder, conscious of Carrick looking at her from across the room. He stood by the top-of-the-line coffee machine, his eyes on her face as he waited for the machine to fill his cup.
“Can I make you a cup of coffee, Sadie?”
Sadie closed the lid to her laptop and shook her head. She’d far prefer a cup of chamomile tea to settle her jittery stomach. Work was easy—being around Carrick made her jumpy. “I’m fine, thank you.”
Such a lie...
Carrick picked up his cup and walked over to the open door, kicking it closed and shutting off the conversation happening outside. Providing them with privacy. She didn’t want privacy and she didn’t want to be alone with Carrick because she couldn’t guarantee that she’d still be clothed at the end of their conversation.
Her lack of self-control around this man was ridiculous. Yeah, he was hot, but so was a volcano and both were equally dangerous. Why, oh, why couldn’t she be attracted to calm, nice, reasonably good-looking guys who didn’t ooze charisma and sex appeal? Why was she only ever attracted to alpha men with no shortage of good looks and confidence?
And a strong streak of jerk?
Carrick placed his cup on the conference table and perched on the edge next to her, long legs stretched, crossed at the ankles.
“Are you done thinking and can I buy you dinner tonight?”
His out-of-the-blue question had Sadie jerking her head up, her eyes narrowing. What was he playing at?
Carrick raising the subject of them sleeping together again didn’t surprise her, but his offer of dinner did. Dinner implied that he wanted to spend time out of the bedroom with her and that simply wasn’t happening. Talking, laughing, getting to know each other was out of the question.
Even if Carrick wasn’t too like her ex for comfort, she wasn’t interested in dating. Dating—dinner, coffee, drinks, no matter what form it took—was invented to get to know someone better and she wasn’t interested. What was the point when she wasn’t prepared to start another relationship?
“Carrick, I think it’s better if we keep our relationship professional,” Sadie said, resting her hand on her closed laptop and her other fist on her hip.
“I think that horse bolted,” Carrick replied. He lifted one shoulder in an “aw shucks” shrug. Then he smiled that crooked, sexy smile and she narrowed her eyes. Yeah, she wasn’t going to fall under his I’m-so-sexy-I’m-difficult-to-resist spell again.
“First, we’ve already slept together so you don’t need to buy me dinner.”
Carrick stood up, and when his eyes hit hers, she saw his annoyance. “What do you mean by that?”
Sadie met his annoyance with defiance. “You want to sleep with me again—you’ve told me that. You don’t need to spin the whole dinner line.”
Carrick’s expression turned colder and his eyes were touched with frost. “Wow. What is your problem?”
Sadie pushed a finger into his chest. “You. And men like you. You’re not being honest and I hate that.”
Carrick stood up and pushed his hands into the pockets of his suit pants. Sadie thought he looked an inch or two taller, slightly broader, than just a few moments before. He was properly angry and Sadie wondered why she wasn’t feeling scared. Had this been Dennis, she would be finding a way to placate him, to distract him, to divert the incoming river of vitriol and verbal abuse.
But with Carrick, she didn’t feel anxious or scared. Not even a little.
Huh.
But just in case she was wrong about Carrick, in case her radar was faulty, Sadie steeled herself. Men like Dennis and Carrick didn’t take rejection well.
Sadie straightened her spine, lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. No matter what Carrick said, she wouldn’t let him hurt her. She’d been hurt enough for too long by a stupid, thoughtless man. She refused to let Carrick exert the same power over her.
The rogue thought crossed her mind that, if she lowered her guard, Carrick Murphy could slice and dice her into smaller pieces than Dennis ever managed. But she wouldn’t let that happen; she categorically refused.