Page 24 of Stolen Fate

I worked hard to refrain from showing my expression. So he was just going to pretend we’d never met? Was this how it was going to go?

I nodded and grabbed his hand. Then I almost let go of him. I would have, actually, if he hadn’t tightened his hand around mine.

Electric shocks skated up my arm from where we touched, making goosebumps rise across my skin. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, but the fact that I was feeling like this over such a simple, professional, touch made me wonder what the hell I was even doing, entertaining the idea of taking the job.

It had been like that when I went home with him. I had thought it was because of how long I went without being intimate with another man, but now I knew it was simply the effect Jace had on me.

I had to ignore it.

I couldn’t cross a line—ever—if he offered me the job, but seeing as how things were going, it didn’t seem likely.

“If we get through the interview and he likes you, then you’ll be hired and are expected to start tomorrow morning. Would that be a problem?” Jace asked after a long pause. I wondered if he felt it, too. His expression didn’t change at any point, so I doubted that was actually the case, but I had to focus on something else besides my weird attraction to the man.

I was thrown off about the odd request to take much notice of the fact that he was giving me a chance. “Tomorrow morning?”

“Tomorrow morning, Ms. Adler. I am a busy man and I need someone to look after my son. Your background was checked the moment you submitted your resume. You were asked to come in for the interview because you passed the check. Can you do that?”

Could I do it? I wasn’t prepared to take on the role right away, but this was my one opportunity to leave and start over. Besides, it’s not like I had anything planned, but it didn’t sit right with me that I would be leaving my current employer high and dry. It was okay with the tutoring job, because it was freelancing and we picked up the shifts we wanted to do—I hadn’t picked up any shifts for the week—but my volunteer work at the hospital… No, I wasn’t getting paid, but it was still a commitment I had signed up for. I couldn’t just leave them without notice. But perhaps I could work it around the new and unexpected schedule.

“If I agree to take this job, what are the hours like?”

“Seven in the morning to six in the evening. While we’re still in Boston, there might be some time I need you to take a weekend shift here and there. It depends on my schedule.”

“And when do we leave for New York?”

“Two weeks from today.”

Two weeks. That wasn’t a lot of time to plan or prepare for anything. Two weeks was not enough time to wrap my head around the fact that I knew what Jace looked like naked.

“I need an answer, Ms. Adler.”

I could make it work. I had to make it work, because for the first time in a long time, I was actually looking forward to something.

I nodded. “Yes. I agree.”

“Perfect. Let’s begin.”

Jace, er, Mr. Reed motioned back to my seat. I sat down and waited for him to take the seat across from me so that we were facing each other. He tapped his finger twice on the table, something similar to what I had done before, only he didn’t look restless doing it.

He looked calculated.

And smart.

And dangerous.

And so fucking different from that man I met at the bar, it was unnerving.

“Tell me about yourself, Ms. Adler.”

“Please, you can just call me Evelyn.”

“Evelyn,” he repeated, as if testing the name out on his tongue and feeling indifferent about it. How could he feel so indifferent toward me, when I was anything but when it came to him? And why was I so fucking affected by him when we had only spent one night together? I was supposed to be more put together than this…

“Then you can call me Jace.”

He seemed to have forgotten the fact that I had screamed his name loud enough for the whole hotel to hear. I smiled a little at him, both from amusement over my own thoughts and from him telling me I could call him by his name. I nodded. “Okay… Jace.”

“Okay, Evelyn. Tell me about yourself.”

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