Page 10 of The Rebel

I help them because it’s a way to pay my dues.

‘You’re willing to compromise? Lucky me.’ She claps her hands, her sarcasm making me want to laugh out loud.

I’ve never met a woman like her. Isn’t she at all intimidated?

‘I could fire you. You know that, right?’

She doesn’t blink. ‘You can but you won’t, because you need me to make you look good.’

Her snooty gaze sweeps me from my head to my torso. ‘And it’s going to be a tough enough job without you vetoing everything.’

I bark out a laugh. I can’t help it. She’s feisty and mouthy and bold, unlike any woman I’ve ever met.

The girls I knew growing up in the foster system were defiant, but I always saw through to the underlying fear. It was like looking in a mirror. Later, when I began to move in Pa’s social circles, the women were deferent yet calculating, impressed by wealth more than anything else.

Daisy is unique. She’s not scared of me, she’s not embarrassed, and she’s not backing down.

‘I’m glad you find me amusing.’ Her anger has faded, replaced by something more alarming: daring.

I see it in the brash way she meets my gaze, unflinching and questioning. And her mouth has relaxed, the corners curled up like she’s about to smile.

‘I find you many things, but amusing is low on the list.’

Those beguiling flecks in her eyes glow again, but with heat this time, not anger. ‘Do tell.’

I can’t do this. I shouldn’t do this. But I’ve never backed down from anything in my life and I’m not about to start now, no matter that I should.

‘You’re confident. Overly so.’

She remains silent, one eyebrow arched in provocation, and I continue.

‘I also find you surprisingly impertinent for someone who’s technically an employee of mine for the foreseeable future.’

The other eyebrow arches. ‘There’s a difference between being impertinent and articulate. I’m the latter, in case you were wondering.’

‘There you go, being insolent again.’

She rolls her eyes and I stifle another chuckle.

‘And at the risk of going over old ground when we said we wouldn’t, you’re also incredibly attractive.’

‘Hey.’ She waggles her finger at me. ‘You chastised me for looking at your mouth earlier so you can’t say stuff like that.’

‘You asked me to give you a list. I’m doing that.’ I shrug. ‘What’s the big deal?’

She doesn’t buy my guileless smile. Smart girl.

‘I’ll email you what I’ve just presented.’ She closes her laptop, slips it into her bag, and stands. ‘I recommend you take another look and we reconvene this afternoon.’

I should let her get away with her abrupt reversion to professionalism but where’s the fun in that? Not much amuses me these days and I haven’t laughed in forever. Daisy Adler, with her swiftly changing faces—audacious to prim, teasing to business-like—has managed to get me doing both over the last thirty minutes.

‘Maybe we should make it dusk and take another walk along the beach?’

Those sensational glossed lips compress into a thin line. ‘I’ll see you back here at two.’

With that, she tucks her portfolio under her arm and stalks toward the door, back ramrod straight. Her ass is divine and I remember palming it last night. How it filled my hands. Soft yet firm. Pliable.

As if sensing my thoughts she stops at the door to glance over her shoulder, shooting me a disapproving glare.

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