“Yes, Mr. Caldwell.”
“Sir.”
My eyes drew back to his. “Pardon?”
A shadow crossed his face.
“I saidsir; as in, you will refer to us as ‘sir’ or ‘sirs’.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded. “Of course, sir.”
His eyes sparked, and I could see a slight grin pull at the corners of his mouth at my use of the word.
“It’s just that you’re…” Sean, sitting on the sofa, steepled his hands in front of him.
“How to put this delicately — you’re overqualified, Ms. Holloway. In fact, you’re educated enough to basically be in charge of a division here, rather than running coffee errands and scanning documents for the three of us.”
I tried to smile, but it quickly fell from my face. On the one side, it was nice of them of them to acknowledge my qualifications — oroverqualifications as the case may have been. But on the other hand, Ireally didneed a job, however overqualified I may be for it. And if I was going tonotget it because of my higher education level than the other applicants, well, that would suck.
Damien seemed to see the look on my face, as he quickly shook his head.
“Nothing like that, Ms. Holloway, we’re just surprised to see a resume like yours in the pile.” His eyes narrowed at me.
“That said, the jobdoeshave duties that need being done, however overqualified you may be.”
He arched a brow at me meaningfully, and I nodded quickly.
“Oh, absolutely,” I said quickly, smiling.
“I’m perfectly aware of the position, sir, and I’m willing to start wherever I can.”
He smiled darkly, his eyes flashing at me again, and I could haveswornI saw his eyes momentarily slip down over my bare, crossed, knees beneath the hem of my skirt before darting back to my face.
“Are you married, Arianna?”
I jerked my head toward Hunter, still standing by the window, quickly blinking at his question.
“I’m aware that you’re a ‘Miss’, but I know many women don’t take a last name these days.”
I shook my head. “No, sir.”
“Boyfriend?”
His quick follow-up threw me even more off center. Wasn’t this an oddly personal question for a professional interview like this?
But still, I shook my head again.
“No, sir.”
“Good,” he said, smiling darkly at me as his eyes flicked over me.
The fact that he didn’t follow it up with any sort of explanation left me hanging on the reason.
“Would you stand for a moment, Arianna?” Sean’s smooth voice from the sofa had my eyes darting to him, and then finding themselves being held by that steely gaze.
“Stand, Ms. Holloway.”
His voice was darker this time, and slightly edged with irritation, as if I hadn’t followed through quick enough.