AllFreeNovel
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Tap-tap-tap. His phone buzzes and beeps with the sounds of whatever little mobile game he’s playing. Irritation burns in my chest. Why even bother with setting up an interview if you’re not going to conduct it?
“What do you like to do on the weekends?” he asks suddenly. His feet come off the desk, and he almost sits like a normal person, his head resting on his fist as he continues to look at me like I’m the most boring thing in the world.
“I stay in.” No need to tell him I tend to look after Mom.
“No friends?”
Quinn would have a field day with that one. I resist rolling my eyes. “I have friends. I’m just responsible.”
Reese scoffs. “Responsible? You got kids of your own?
The way he asks stings. “No, no kids.”
His head tilts away from his fist in mild surprise. “No kids, but you’re a nanny?”
“Didn’t think it was a prerequisite,” I shoot back.
“You got a boyfriend? Husband? Twenty-nine, be weird if you didn’t.”
I curl my fists. He’s not taking any of this seriously. Before I can stop myself, I hiss, “That’s none of your fucking business.”
He looks at me. It locks me cold in my place.
He stares right in my eyes. Like he’s gazing into me, and I can feel the flush heat my skin pink. His head tilts one way as his lips—those full, full lips—quirk again.
God, his mouth is pretty.
I shift in my seat. It’s just because he keeps staring at me like a weirdo. Definitely not because that look is the kind a man gives you when he’s thinking about undressing you. Definitely not because my body seems to find that idea appealing.
Focus, Olivia. Dude’s a dick, remember?
Reese stands up and comes around, sitting on the desk. His legs are spread wide, thighs thick under the fabric of his suit. He folds his arms over his broad chest and looks down at me.
That spark fizzles a little. I’ve seen that expression, too, in men. That condescending little smirk that says they aren’t taking you seriously.
“Here’s what I think,” he begins, that smirk slowly fading as his mouth sets into a hard line. “I think that you’re not smart enough to have read my file, which means you don’t know what I need. I’d have maybe entertained this if you were another puck bunny trying to play dress-up to impress?—”
“Excuse me?—”
“I’m not done.” His brow arrows downward. “You come in here not knowing who I am, and I bet money you don’t know shit about children, either. Twenty-nine and you don’t even have a boyfriend? No kids of your own? You must’ve come with a factory defect. You waltz in here with your tits out like that’s gonna do it for me, but between you and me, Ms. Carter, you’re trying way too hard to make an impression. I saw you squirm like a little kitten in heat just then?—”
“—fucking prick?—”
“—and I bet you don’t even have a Master’s.”
I’m on my feet before I have time to think clearly.
“Fuck you.” My hand is plastered against my side. If I keep it like that, then I won’t give Reese the smacking that he deserves. “How dare you? I busted my ass in school to get my degree. What did you do? Float around on some fake frozen ice until your diploma was handed to you? I have ten years of experience as a nanny. I’ve worked with babies and children and teenagers. I’ve dealt with everything you can possibly imagine, and that includes rich, stuck-up assholes like you, too. More to the point, I’ve dealt with enough to know that no matter how much I need this job, I don’t need it from you.”
The bills are piling up.
My student loans aren’t even halfway paid off.
The agency already thinks I’m on my last legs as a competent employee.
These thoughts flood my head alongside my rage, but they’re not enough to keep me rooted. Not this time.
I give Reese one last furious ounce of my gaze. Then I shove the chair into the desk hard enough to shake the little Reese Dalton bobblehead perched on the corner.
