Job interviews had never sparked lustful feelings within her, but she’d never had a potential employer like Roman.

“Your history is impressive,” he stated with a commanding tilt of his chin. His firm grip on her portfolio sent a shiver through her after she allowed herself the naughty thought of those strong fingers stroking her body.

“I understand that you worked on the city’s restoration project two years ago?” he prompted and his question snapped her back.

It’d been a project that she worked on after recently graduating college. As public interest projects went, most of the credit went to elected officials and her name wasn’t mentioned at all, despite her hours of hard work.

“Yes,” she replied in a wavering voice. “How did you know that? I don’t remember mentioning it…”

His smirk stoked a flame within her chest. “I have several associates in the public sector. You’d be surprised what a phone call can reveal,” he said. “Someone said you were incredibly dedicated to your work. Several sources have told me that your love for history is unrivaled. You don’t seem to be doing this work for anything but personal passion.”

“I love history,” she admitted in a soft voice. “I’m dedicated to my interests.” A sweltering heat rose in the room. She skimmed her cool fingers against the back of her neck, a motion that he followed with laser focus.

His eyes flashed. “What are you interested in, Josephine?”

“Different things,” she admitted around the nervous knot in her throat. His eyebrows rose. The pause hung over her with a suffocating force. Yep, it was time to change the subject. “You asked me if I was afraid of the dark.”

“You said that you weren’t,” he recalled with a nod. The curve of his lip twitched higher.

“Why did you ask me that?”

He chuckled, a deep delicious sound that filled the room. “You need guts for this job.” The formality in his voice waned, replaced by something wicked. “I’m an awful guy to work for, honestly.”

She hummed with disbelief. “I find that hard to believe. Leo and Robert spoke highly of you,” she said with a shrug.

“They have to love me,” he said with a lazy grin. “They’ve been with the family for a long time, you see.”

The idea of having generations of servants was too foreign for her to comprehend. She wouldn’t know what to do with a maid if she were rich enough to have one.

After several minutes of sitting together, something dawned on her. The air of elite mystery faded from Roman the longer they talked. His posture had grown more casual; his tall, muscular body leaned into the chair instead of sitting ramrod straight. When he tilted his head to gaze at her, her tightly wound nerves almost snapped from the added tension.

She searched for a word to describe him. Overall, his tall, thick build said he was more suited to playing professional football rather than sitting behind a desk. But something else lurked, just beneath the surface, almost like an internal aura.

Dangerous, her mind unexpectedly supplied. She bit her lip at the sudden revelation. He smiled, amused and calm, across from her and she found herself wondering if perhaps he could read her mind. She definitely hoped not.

“If you work for me, I want my work to be your only focus. You’ll be living here with me in my country home until the project is finished. I have several locations all over the city that I want you to explore,” his explanation brooked no room for negotiations. He demanded what he wanted and expected her to agree to his terms. That told her that he was a man used to getting exactly what he wanted, when he wanted it.

His face held a blank, brooding expression while she simply studied him. Confidence washed off him in large, rolling waves. He wasn’t a man to take refusal lightly. Yes, she wanted this job; however, she wondered if perhaps she could get what she wanted as well.

“Can you agree to my terms?” he asked after a few moments of prolonged silence; a sudden impiety marring his face. “I don’t tolerate deception or slacking off. You should know that I’m very good at discipline.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. She wanted to ask just what kind of discipline he administered but felt like the question could be taken as flirtation and that was the last thing she wanted to do with her potential new boss.

So, she nervously shifted her eyes to her lap and smoothed at invisible wrinkles until she’d worked up the nerve to add her own request. She had no idea what she’d do if he declined.

“If I do this, may I research the Midnight Den?” she asked forcefully.

His response was the arching of one brow and nothing more.

“You can research what I allow you access to, but you’ll be required to sign a non- disclosure agreement,” he relented. “But if you try to publish anything with information that I haven’t approved, then I will bury you in lawsuits.” His words carried the underlying threat plainly.

“Okay,” she said, swallowing the hard lump in her throat. “Deal.”

His gray eyes burned into her. “Good. I hear Robert coming with the coffee. Let’s discuss details after paperwork. Josephine?”

“Yes?” she leaned forward.

He grinned maliciously, but his face held a supreme seriousness that made the fine hairs on the nape of her neck stand at full attention.

“Don’t fall in love with me.”