LITMIR.BIZ

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the office door.

      ‘‘I’ll be right with you.’’

      The voice was distinctly female, Reid noted, and had a smooth, smoky quality. Fantasies, immediate and extremely erotic, pinballed in his brain. Reid hoped it wasn’t Mrs. Alexander; he sure as hell didn’t want to have the kind of thoughts he was having over another man’s wife. Still, he couldn’t wait to see if the voice matched the face.

      Merlin seemed to glare at him.

      ‘‘I’m only human,’’ Reid said with a shrug, then folded his arms and leaned against the wall.

      The door opened a moment later and a young man dressed in ragged jeans and a blue T-shirt that read, No Flash Photography, came out of the office.

      ‘‘Hours suck,’’ the guy muttered.

      Lifting a brow, Reid watched him walk away, then turned back to the still-open door and stuck his head inside. A woman wearing a long-sleeved white blouse sat bent over a small, cluttered metal desk. Her sandy-brown ponytail cascaded down her long neck and skimmed one narrow shoulder. She held a pen between slender fingers while she made notes on a piece of paper.

      ‘‘I was looking for—’’

      ‘‘One second.’’ Her gaze still on her scribbling, she waved him in. ‘‘Would you mind closing the door, please?’’ Reid moved into the office and shut the door behind him. Because he couldn’t quite see the woman’s face, he studied her hands. Smooth skin. Nails short and neat. No polish, no rings.

      ‘‘Before I have you fill out an application,’’ she said without looking up, ‘‘I’d like to ask you—’’

      That’s when her gaze lifted.

      With the large-framed eyeglasses she wore, Reid might not have said that the woman was beautiful, but she was definitely pretty. Her skin was porcelain smooth over high cheekbones, her eyes wide and expressive, the color of smooth whiskey. Her lips, parted in midsentence, turned up slightly at the corners.

      ‘‘—a few questions,’’ she finished after a moment’s hesitation.

      Though it was brief, Reid saw the unshielded surprise in the woman’s eyes, heard the breathless edge to her voice.

      Just as quickly the moment was gone.

      ‘‘I’m Tina Alexander.’’ She straightened her shoulders and held out her hand. ‘‘Thank you for coming.’’

      Tina’s heart lurched when the man’s large hand enclosed her own, and she struggled to hold on to her composure. She’d interviewed dozens of applicants before, but never one who looked quite like this.

      And certainly none who’d made her brain cells turn to dust.

      He was just over six foot, she assessed, and from what she could tell by the jeans, black crewneck sweater and denim jacket he wore, he was lean and muscular. Handsome was too easy a word to describe him, Tina thought. With his dark hair and good looks, he was more complicated than that simple word. Eyes so deep blue, so intense, that they had quite literally stolen her breath. Add to that a square jaw, a strong slash of brow and a firm mouth, and he had her pulse skipping.

      Of course, the fact that her fingers were still enclosed in his wasn’t helping, either.

      She pulled her hand away and gestured to a chair on the other side of the desk. Though she was absolutely certain she’d never met this man before, he looked strangely familiar.

      She shook the thought off. No matter. She couldn’t possibly hire him, anyway. He would be too big a distraction for Sophia and, if she were going to be completely honest, for herself, as well.

      But she could hardly tell him that, of course. Better to let him decide the position wouldn’t be right for him. She’d start with a few basic questions, then discourage him with a job description.

      ‘‘So, Mr.—’’ She hesitated, realizing she hadn’t asked him his name.

      ‘‘Reid Danforth,’’ he finished for her. ‘‘Reid will be fine.’’

      The name was familiar, too, she thought, but she couldn’t place it. She wrote his name on the top line of the application.

      ‘‘Reid.’’ She pushed her glasses up with her index finger. ‘‘Do you have any problems getting to work on time or working early morning hours?’’

      Confusion furrowed his brow, and it took him a beat to answer. ‘‘Not usually.’’

      ‘‘Do you have any medical conditions that prohibit you from lifting or doing physical labor?’’

      He narrowed his eyes. ‘‘No.’’

      She made a note on the application that he was in good physical condition. As if she hadn’t already noticed. Darn it, though. She’d been hoping for an easy way out.

      She moved on to the next question. ‘‘Do you have any experience working in sales or with a cash register?’’

      He stared at her for a long moment, then one corner of his mouth slowly turned upward. It was really quite annoying what that casual half smile did to her stomach.

      ‘‘I have some experience in sales,’’ he said with a nod. ‘‘I’ve never worked a cash register, but I’m a fast learner.’’

      I’m sure you are, Tina nearly said out loud. She also had no doubt that he would be quite good at sales. Lord knew she’d certainly want to buy something from him.

      They hadn’t talked about wages, she realized. Though the job was good pocket money for a teenager or college student, it was hardly enough for a more mature man to live on. ‘‘Is the hourly wage we advertised acceptable?’’

      To her discomfort, he leaned forward and leveled his gaze with hers. She caught the faint, spicy scent of his aftershave, and could hear her pulse beating in her ears.

      ‘‘Let me just ask you this,’’ he said, his voice smooth and deep and edged with amusement, ‘‘if I said the wage was irrelevant, would you hire me?’’

      Her first instinct was to say yes, but Tina knew it would be wasting her time and his to give him false hope or continue this interview. ‘‘No.’’

      ‘‘Why not?’’

      ‘‘Because—’’ she hesitated ‘‘—for one thing, you’re…a little older than most of our applicants.’’

      Irritation narrowed his eyes. ‘‘I’m too old for you?’’

      ‘‘Of course you’re not too old for me,’’ she said, then quickly tried to sidestep. ‘‘I mean, you’re not too old.’’ Oh, hell. She’d certainly gotten herself into a corner on this. There were laws against age discrimination. ‘‘It’s just that we mostly hire teenagers and college students, that’s all.’’

      ‘‘You wouldn’t hire me because I’m not a teenager or college student.’’ He crossed his arms and looked down his nose at her. ‘‘So what else is wrong with me?’’

      ‘‘It’s not that there’s anything wrong with you.’’ She chewed on her bottom lip. ‘‘Exactly.’’

      He lifted a brow. ‘‘Exactly?’’

      ‘‘Well, there’s also my sister, Sophia.’’

      ‘‘What about her?’’

      ‘‘She is easily—’’ Tina searched for the right word ‘‘—distracted by good-looking men and vice versa.’’

      ‘‘So you think I’m too old and too good-looking,’’ he said dryly. ‘‘What else?’’

      When he repeated it all back, Tina knew it sounded absurd. She cursed herself for not having had him just fill out an application and

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