“I sensed some...”

He glanced at the ceiling while he searched his vocabulary then clicked his fingers as he found the right word. “Hostility from you.”

“Hostility?”

He nodded, inflaming her further. “I thought we could behave like adults, but one minute you’re dismissing my invitation, the next changing your mind.”

“I was not being hostile. I think the word you actually mean is ‘circumspection.’ I was being respectful of our working relationship.” But of course, she had dismissed him, out of fear and nerves and sheer panic.

Sadie tried to stay aloof with him, but the absurdity of their bickering finally registered and she laughed it off with a shake of her head.

When she looked up, he was smiling.

“So, will you meet me for a drink or not?” she asked, dragging in a shuddering breath, because this Roman was the man she’d flirted with in Vienna. A straight-up, say-it-like-it-is, intelligent and funny guy who would surely react positively to the news that he had a daughter.

Wouldn’t he...?