Leaning around her, he opened the door and strode past her, tossing his phone on his desktop, dropping his coffee into the trash under it. He smoothed his rich blue tie, flipped open the lid on his laptop, and reached for a file, all before he had completed his descent into his chair.

“Have a seat, Ms. Keeling.”

Gladly. Mandy sank into a leather armchair and took a deep breath. “Please, call me Mandy, Mr. Sharpton.”

“All right. So, tell me why you think you’re qualified to be my assistant?”

No offer for her to call him Damien. No comment on the elevator incident. Right to business. She should let it go, the whole embarrassing ogre thing. But she just couldn’t. Not because of the job, but because of Caroline’s reputation, and because it seemed that if someone insulted her character, she would like to hear an apology.

“Listen, Mr. Sharpton, I need to apologize for the rather unfortunate comments I made in the elevator.”

He pinned her with a stare. “There’s no need. Really.”

While Mandy heard his almost palpable need to keep this interview clipping along so he could move on to the next task of the day, she could also see that there was more to Damien Sharpton than met the eye.

He was fabulously attractive, with dark hair cut very close to his head, strong, sharp cheek and jawbones, and the palest blue eyes she had ever seen. They matched his tie and set her heart racing with feelings that weren’t particularly maternal.

But even a mum can appreciate a good pair of electric blue eyes on an attractive man.

Not that she was a mum yet. And not that she had a husband or boyfriend, so the strange fascination she was feeling wasn’t wrong exactly.

But it didn’t matter in the least, because she wasn’t shopping for a man to fill either role. After Ben, she was done. It was time to concentrate on her child and being the best parent her inadequate self could be.

But blimey, he had nice eyes.

And behind the impatience, there was a touch of something that made her rethink Damien Sharpton. There was pain there, hiding behind his efficiency and elegance and hardness.

“No, there is a need for me to apologize, because I was completely out of line gossiping about you. I don’t know you, so I have no reason to believe any of those rumors are true, and it was small of me to be talking like that. I’m sorry. My only excuse is that I was nervous, and not feeling well, obviously, since you were witness to that, and when I’m nervous, I tend to babble.” Like now. Good God, Mandy felt her cheeks start to burn.

Damien’s eyebrows had shot up, and his hand froze on his computer mouse. If disdain had a name, it would be Damien.