Worlds Apart Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Roosevelt.”
    Both men gaped at her.
    She tightened her mouth. She wasn’t going blurt out the sad details of her unfortunate birth and misadventurous childhood. Unless pressed. Oh God, all right. As she opened her mouth, a phone rang and saved her. And them.
    “Yes?” Taylor snapped.
    With that tone, Roo was surprised he had any clients. He really needed someone with a gentle voice to ease the distressing facts out of those desperate enough to hire a private detective. Someone like her. She practiced a few telephone yeses in her head. Yes? Yeeeesss? Yep? Yip? Yurp?Yarp?
    “You should have been here yesterday,” Taylor barked.
    Roo glanced around the room to stop herself staring at Niall. It was shabby, cluttered and old fashioned. There were piles of papers stacked on the floor alongside a towering heap of books. The shelves above were largely empty. Taylor’s desk was a huge wooden thing with a computer monitor and a laptop on one side, dirty coffee cups the other. I’d love a coffee . And something to eat. The last thing she’d eaten had been a slice of bread that morning. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled loudly. Roo coughed to disguise the sound, but when she caught Niall’s gaze, he was staring at her. She swallowed hard.
    “That’s not good enough,” Taylor shouted.
    Roo jumped and diverted her gaze from both of them. All she could see through the window were trees, and she wondered if there was a garden. Roo had always wanted a garden, though she knew nothing about flowers. She debated getting up to have a look, but decided it might be rude and stayed where she was.
    Eventually the mobile was slammed down with such force, Roo let out a squeak. So much for not panicking.
    “Sorry about that,” Taylor said, and smiled at her.
    His face crinkled, his cheeks developed dimples and she caught a glimpse of perfect white teeth. Roo almost melted, but not quite. Something about the smile didn’t look genuine, as if he’d practiced in front of the mirror until it was perfect, except it looked too perfect. A smile to get him into women’s pants. She let her gaze drop from his mouth. Oh fuck. His lovely neck. His Adam’s apple went up and down. Roo waited for it to move again.
    A throat being cleared brought her back to reality and she straightened.
    “Why do you want this job?” Taylor asked.
    She tried to look discreet, efficient and organized. The flexible could wait.
    “Because I’m discreet, efficient and organized.” What else? Oh yes. “ I’m courteous, I’m integri…integrou…I have integrity and I’m not prone to panic.” She smiled and then let the smile slip. “Well, not unless there’s cause to panic, for instance if I was in the middle of a field and looked up and saw a swarm of pterodactyls—is the collective noun for pterodactyls a swarm?” She shook her head and continued. “Or if I was tied to train tracks and a train was coming, or if I was buried up to my neck in sand and the tide was rising. I might panic then. Panic has its place. The adrenaline spurt can be very useful, particularly if you meet a velociraptor.” Her foot began to tap.
    The men exchanged glances.
    Drat, did I just say what I think I did?
    “How flexible are you?” Taylor asked.
    Was that a smirk? “Very.” Roo went for her sultry stare and kept her arms and legs where they were, fighting the urge to show how she could press her thumb back to her wrist. The legs around the neck could definitely wait. “I can start immediately and work whatever hours you like.” All night would be appealing.
    Taylor coughed. “Let’s try again without you repeating the job spec back to me. Why do you want this job?”
    Oh bugger. “I need it. Desperately.” Roo tensed. “No, forget I said desperately. I don’t want to sound desperate. But I am desperate. I’m prepared to do anything. Almost. Well, anything legal. Maybe illegal if you really wanted me to. Though I’d have to think hard about that.” Shut up.