The only person she could trust to take care of her was her.
Which meant it was time to stop dragging her heels and get through these dates. Her fate wasn’t going to magically change in the next few weeks, and the longer she waited for the initial dates, the less time she’d have to actually make a decision. Holding off wasn’t going to hurt anyone but her, so she wasn’t going to wait any longer.
She moved on to the next two names on her list. Kellen O’Neill. Dmitri Romanov. An hour of Internet searching later, she had little to no information on either of them. Kellen O’Neill was a pretty common name, and the only Dmitri Romanov she could get a bead on was some Russian prince who may or may not be fictional. Probably not her guy.
Resigning herself to not knowing a damn thing about these men before she met them, she dialed the number next to Kellen’s name. Ten minutes later she had a date for dinner that evening. He hadn’t even hesitated. It was hard to tell on the phone, but he sounded young and eager. Neither one was a turn-on, but it might mean he was easy to manipulate. She filed that away in the back of her mind and dialed the next number.
“Dmitri Romanov.”
She blinked. She’d expected someone Russian from the name, but he sounded…She shook her head. “This is Carrigan O’Malley. I’ve been given to understand you’re interested in linking your assets to my father’s.” Such a careful way of prettying up what this really was—her father selling her off to further his business.
“You understand correctly.”
“I’d like to meet with you, this afternoon if possible.” Knocking off two of the names today would keep her busy—and keep her mind off James.
Dmitri chuckled. “I’ll clear my schedule. Shall I meet you at three?”
“That would be perfect.” This Dmitri didn’t sound like the type of man to paw at her uninvited, so there was absolutely no reason she should so much as talk to James today. Good.
“I look forward to meeting you, Carrigan.” His accent gave her name an exotic roll, and she couldn’t stop a shiver. Damn. “Enjoy your day.” And then he was gone, leaving her feeling vaguely unsettled.
Dmitri Romanov wasn’t a man to be underestimated.
She frowned. They’d exchanged a handful of words. He’d canceled his plans to meet her. There was absolutely nothing in what he’d said that should be making her skin twitch like she was surrounded by danger she couldn’t see. So why is my stomach in knots and my heart beating too hard? She set her phone down next to her on her bed. Growing up in the house of a powerful and ruthless man, it made sense that some part of her instinctively recognized it in this stranger, even over the phone. That had to be it.
Chauncey had been a pig. She got the feeling that Kellen was a puppy. Dmitri…well, Dmitri was something else altogether.
A knock on her door was all the warning she got before her mother swept into the room, her dark hair perfectly styled, her makeup flawless, and her pantsuit looking like she was ready for brunch. Aileen took in the space with a critical eye, and finally settled on Carrigan. “You had a date last night with one of your father’s candidates.”
It was a fight to keep her face perfectly bland. She could still feel him pawing at her, and the anger over his asshole commentary hadn’t dimmed with time. Her interlude with James had made the memory bearable, but she wouldn’t hesitate to knock that slimy fuck on his ass again if she ever was forced into his presence. “Yes. Chauncy Chauncer.”
Her mother made a face. “New money.” As if that summed up everything worth knowing about him. Unfortunately, she wasn’t wrong in this particular case. She moved to the dresser and started straightening the pictures there. “How did it go?”
“He’s no longer in the running.”
Aileen looked over sharply. “What did he do?”
She should have known that her mother would pick up on the underlying anger that Carrigan still couldn’t shake. Every time she so much as thought Chauncey’s name, a slow-burning rage rolled through her. He’d insulted her, and then he’d touched her without permission—assaulted her. She picked at a nonexistent thread on her comforter. “He had problems taking no for an answer.”
It wasn’t something she’d ever admit aloud to her father but, as rarely as she and Aileen saw eye to eye, she knew her mother would understand this. Sure enough, her perfectly lipsticked mouth tightened. “You took care of it.” There wasn’t any doubt on her face that Carrigan was more than capable of putting the pig in his place.