I clenched my teeth.
Then I realized my father must have asked me something, judging from the way he stared at me.
“Uhm…what?” I said.
“Autumn,” he said, in a reprimanding tone.
“I’m sorry—can you just repeat that, please?”
“I said—I’m thinking about hiring Brady for our security team. He’s perfect for the job. He has an excellent record with the Savage Soldiers. He was a former army ranger of theirs. I’d feel a lot safer if I knew someone like him was watching out for us.”
I blinked rapidly, still trying to wrap my mind around what was happening.
“When I found out he was back in town,” Dad continued, “I insisted he come meet with me so I could offer him a job. “Wouldn’t it be great for him to join our team?” The telephone from my dad’s office rang just in time, saving me from having to respond. “Be right back,” he said. “In the meantime, make Brady feel at home, Autumn. Convince him to work for us!”
My dad winked and then darted down the hall.
Brady looked right at me and smirked. He winked, mimicking my father.
I sat and stared at him, dumbfounded. The book I’d been attempting to study slid from my lap and onto the floor.
“So we meet again,” Brady said, moving farther into the library. With his hands nonchalantly in his pockets, he looked around, taking in the scenery. “Nice place you and your father have here. Big. I bet you know all sorts of ways to sneak boys in without Daddy knowing, don’t you?”
Brady stood right in front of me, looking down and continuing to give me that cocky and over-confident smirk of his. He was just as good-looking as ever, causing me to remember that I was in yoga clothes with my hair tied sloppily on top of my head.
Not at all like the vixen he’d seen upon first meeting me.
“Maybe you’ll give me a private tour once your daddy is done showing me around?” he asked.
“Excuse me?” I said, incredulously. Annoyance rose through my shock at the blatantly sexual insinuations he dared to make while my father was literally around the corner.
Brady’s expression turned into one of mock-innocence. “What?”
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you? Coming here. You knew I was here.”
He gave a low whistle. “Mighty high opinion you have of yourself.”
My face flushed again. “I-I didn’t mean it like that, I—”
“Relax,” he interrupted. “You should have a high opinion of yourself. I certainly do.” His eyes roamed my body as if he could see it right through my clothes. I swallowed and suppressed a shudder, not wanting him to know just how uncomfortable—and hot—he was making me. Once again, memories of that passionate night we’d had together started drifting through my mind in ways I wished it wouldn’t. But there was no use denying it—I hadn’t had a night like that since leaving Brady back in Turkey and my body was dying to re-experience it.
And based on the way he stared at me, he knew it.
I shook my head. “This is unacceptable. If you’re going to be working for my father, our relationship has to be purely professional. Nothing else. Got it?”
“We’ll see about that,” Brady said, still grinning.
God, his confidence was infuriating! Just as a retort was about to spring from my lips, my father returned. “How’s it going in here?” he asked, smiling.
“Great,” Brady said, his devilish grin instantly turning polite.
“Excellent,” Dad said. “So I hope that means you’ll accept my offer. Did Autumn tell you how much we both appreciate what you did for us back in Turkey?”
?
??She surely did,” he said, a barely concealed laugh evident in his voice—or at least to my ears. My father didn’t appear to notice anything unusual though. Brady cleared his throat. “She was actually very welcoming and accommodating to me back in Turkey. I’m glad to have met you guys back there. I guess it was fate, huh?”
I pressed my lips together and gripped the edge of the table before me, not at all liking Brady’s word choices about me being welcoming and accommodating. The nerve of him. I couldn’t believe he dared to be so brash in front of my father.