There’s this new girl at work who I had never spoken to before today. I had to help her with some work today and we were getting on well. We were chatting about unwork related things and I was teasing her a bit too. Then afterwards when she emailed me some work, we continued some banter in an email exchange. During the email exchange she emailed me:

Her: “I gonna have to be careful with you! You look like trouble!”

Me: Now that hurts!

Was this an IOI from her?

Also, what would have been an ideal response from me in that situation? Perhaps something more flirty?

I definitely wouldn't say what you said. It could have been a IOI, or it could be just her being flirty.

I think the first thing that comes to my mind for a response would be, "Well that depends, are you one of those girls who like trouble or go looking for trouble? "

Definitely an IOIs, note the excitement with exclamation marks. You should pay attention to telling the difference between a playful flirt and a real insult.
If you're are trouble she doesn't want to deal with, why would she bother to stick around and be careful with you? I would totally say "You're right, I was told I pose seriously challenges" or something along the line.

Is not a IOI. But she is basically saying, flirt with me more, I like you.

I would have gave some stupid ass respond to that like "Grandma says the same thing."

Dude... if she is good looking, you must f*ck her.

Flirt with her over email. Write her that you are planning on robbing a bank and that you need a girl her size to break into it thru the ventilation shaft. Game her. Do some NLP routines (roller coaster, natural woman), cube, qualify her. The whole program.

Thanks for all this. I’ve been getting a bit of kino from her as well today (after applying it myself initially on her), nothing more than the odd light tap on the arm or shoulder, but I’m assuming they’re both IOI’s. Hopefully, I won’t fuck this up lol!