KEIRA felt her jaw slacken as she gazed at the man standing a couple of feet from her. Her intentions? Did he mean…? Surely not.

Her grey eyes took in the studied arrogance of his stance, the coldly cynical expression evident in his eyes, eyes as incredibly blue as the deepest reaches of the Pacific Ocean.

If she was unsure of his meaning then those chilling eyes confirmed her suspicions. He meant exactly what she’d suspected his words implied.

Keira’s back straightened instinctively and her chin rose. ‘My intentions? I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean by that,’ she said succinctly, and they both knew she was stretching the truth.

‘Oh, I think you do, Mrs Strong. What are your intentions towards my nephew? I would have thought that was fairly self-explanatory.’ He made a slightly irritated movement of one well-shaped hand. ‘However, I’ll try to be a little more explicit.’

‘Please do,’ Keira put in levelly and his eyes narrowed.

‘What would a married woman, one not in her first bloom of youth, want with a teenage boy scarcely out of the classroom, hmm?’ He folded his arms across his chest again and held her gaze.

Keira seethed inside. How dared he? How dared he stand there all holier than thou and make such vulgar insinuations? And what precisely did he expect her to say, allowing for the fact that he was, in all essence, her boss? What she’d like to say to him…

‘Apart from the obvious, that is?’ he added disparagingly, and hot colour flooded Keira’s cheeks.

‘Daniel and I,’ she got out between clenched teeth, and then made herself pause, swallow to regain her control. She had to keep her cool, not allow him the satisfaction of nettling her. ‘Daniel and I are working acquaintances. No more, no less. Daniel kindly-’

Eden Cassidy bit off a derogatory expletive and Keira vehemently wished Daniel were here at this particular moment so that she could give him the sharp edge of her tongue.