“I’m afraid it’s a waste of your time. Miss Alves is looking for a civil rights attorney. She’s asking about pro bono.”
I let out a sigh of frustration. “Well, then, we’re the wrong firm for her.”
“I’ve told her, but she’s very insistent. Your reputation precedes you.”
“Can you advise her, please?”
“I’m in it.”
“You mean, ‘I’m on it.’”
She huffed at my correction and put me on hold.
While waiting for her to speak with Maria Alves, I took another swig of beer and checked to see if I had missed any other calls while I’d had my phone silenced.
Gylda came back on the line. “She’s begging, sir. She wants to talk with you.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Find her a good civil rights attorney.”
“I will do my best.”
I had a bad feeling in my gut, turning away someone in need, but this was not the sort of work I did. It certainly wasn’t what our firm was known for. I felt confident that Gylda would deal with the woman fairly and compassionately.
She hung up and I clung to the comfort I’d felt having that brief contact with home…the only place I’d ever belonged. I enjoyed London, but my heart was in São Paulo.
I needed to refocus.
It would be a lot less difficult if my mind didn’t keep circling back to Daisy. That kiss had touched more than my lips. It had awoken a longing inside me for something more—though a relationship was something I had no time for…even if I couldn’t fight the compulsion to keep checking my phone.
It would have been so easy to steal another kiss from her outside The Waldorf.
No, I can’t think about that.
Family first. Nick was my priority. If he hadn’t gone out with Morgan tonight, I’d be pushing work aside and hanging out with him.
I couldn’t help wondering, though, what Daisy would be like in bed. A sweet and eager lover? I imagined her back arching beneath me as I took her hard and fast, my hands buried in her hair as she moaned loudly, her way of asking me to thrust my cock deeper inside her.
Great, and now I had a hard on.
Shut. This. Down.
I took a swig of beer, blinking to clear my vision so I could refocus on reading the emails on my laptop—only this time processing what I was seeing. My latest court case had been postponed by the judge.
I stared at the screen, realizing that my schedule had just opened up. I could even consider staying another week in London.
Just don’t think about it.
Don’t think about her.
Not kissing Daisy last night had been the right decision. I was so damn good at being sensible. But still, my mind kept circling back to thoughts of the way Daisy’s eyes had brightened when she saw me. Her easygoing nature was a pleasure to be around. I admired her sweet disposition and her natural beauty. She’d captured my attention in a devastating way. Whenever I was around her she made me feel…happy.
Nick was an idiot.
There, I rest my case.
I looked down at my smartphone and saw Daisy’s number lighting up my screen. Conflicting emotions warred within me. An hour ago I’d made the wise decision never to see her again.
I let out a deep breath and pressed the phone to my ear. “Yes?”
“Max?”
At the sound of Daisy’s voice, warmth saturated my body like I’d just had a personal hit of bliss. She was fast becoming my drug of choice.
Push her away.
“It’s late,” I said.
“It’s only nine o’clock. You gave me your card.”
“I did?” I did.
I climbed off the bed and began pacing the room. “Everything all right?” I should pretend not to care. I glanced back at my laptop at the emails stacking up.
Fuck the emails. This was more fun.
She was more fun.
My heart stuttered with the realization that my father would have ignored her call had this been my mother. He’d have worked late into the night despite her needing him. Those kinds of choices had devastated his existence. He could have hired someone to do half his workload. His ego, his arrogance, his blind determination had taken him down and his marriage with it.
I’m no different.
Nor will I ever be.
Daisy piped up, “Are you still there?”
“Yes.”
“I’m on top of The Shard.”
“The tallest building in London?”
“Yes. It’s super high. Very windy.”
“You’re with the Dare Cub?” I brushed my fingers through my hair. “What have they got you doing this time?”
“This one’s scarier than the first dare. The one with the glass chute.”
“Like I could forget.”
“Yeah…right.”
“Next time, land on my face.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, next time give it some space.”
“Oh, I thought you said something else.” She paused. “This one seems harder.”
Did she have to say it with a husky tone? I felt my cock twinge in response to her subconscious tease.
I squeezed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. “I suppose they’re making them incrementally more challenging—”
“That’s not why I’m calling, though. Ted says no invitations went out. All the sign-ups were online.”
My gut tightened with uncertainty.
“Max, I’m trying to figure out who the invite came from. I showed it to Ted, and he has no idea.”
From my window, I could see the The Shard, a beautiful structure of monstrous height. The skyscraper dwarfed the buildings surrounding it.
My mouth went dry and I was hit with an attack of vertigo. “Really?”
“Nick asked you to give me that invite, right? Do you think he was trying to send me a message?”
“Daisy, does it matter? You’re having fun, aren’t you?”
What the hell did they have her doing up there?
She let out a wistful sigh. “I was thinking maybe Nick is leaving things open with me. Maybe he wants to see if I can be more spontaneous.”
I felt a wave of pity for this beautiful girl. My brother was still wielding his spell over her. “What’s the dare, Daisy?”
The line was muffled as she called out to someone. “Sorry, Max. I have to go.”
“What have they got you doing?”
“We’re going over.”
“Over what?”
“The top of the building.” She huffed out a nervous breath. “Sorry to have bothered you. I won’t call you again. I know it’s awkward. I didn’t mean it to be.”
The call dropped and I heard only silence.
I stared at the skyscraper with a feeling of dread, my throat constricting.
Going over it?
What the hell did that mean? Studying the silhouette of The Shard, I realized that whatever they had her doing was quite possibly illegal. No city would grant permission for anything that hazardous to their clients or the pedestrians below. There’d been no initial indication of the organizers leaning toward criminality. It had seemed more like trivial fun…the get-out-of-your-comfort-zone kind, not the get-yourself-killed kind.