There were times when he didn’t know himself…
Luiz drowned the thought with another sip of his drink but, as he lowered his glass, he saw Daisy enter the bar. It was like a bizarre rerun of the first night they had met. He felt the same knockout punch to his chest as her eyes met his across the floor. But this time she didn’t put her nose in the air. Instead, she gave him a smouldering come-and-get-me look that made the back of his neck fizz and prickle in excitement.
His eyes nearly popped out of his head and landed in his drink when he ran his gaze over her outfit. So too did every other man’s. Gone was the conservative little black dress.
Her dress was a tight-fitting leather sheath that clung to her body like a sleek evening glove. The neckline plunged between her breasts, giving cheeky little glimpses of the gentle curves of her breasts. The hemline was mid-thigh but it looked even shorter because she was wearing hooker-high heels.
Also gone was the prim and conservative schoolteacher make-up. In its place was smoky eye shadow, scarlet lipstick, bronze blush and thick black mascara and eyeliner that gave her a free love, Sixties look to match her teased, high ponytail. She was wearing dangling earrings and carrying a tiny silver evening purse and her arms were bare apart from a metallic bracelet that jangled as she sashayed towards him.
She sent a fingertip over the back of his hand in a teasing brushstroke and batted her eyelashes at him. ‘Want to buy me a drink?’
‘Sure.’ He liked this game. If this was her idea of dress-ups he was in. ‘What will you have?’
‘Champagne.’
‘French?’
She gave him a worldly look. ‘Is there any other?’
Luiz had never felt more turned on by a woman. She was vampish and yet underneath all the war paint and costuming he could see the essence of purity and wholesomeness that made her so unique. He ordered the champagne and when it arrived he ushered her to a more private area where velvet sofas were stationed in a cosy nook.
She sat down opposite him and elegantly crossed one leg over the other, her dazzling smile brighter than the surrounding lighting.
He handed her a bubbling glass of champagne. ‘I see the shopping trip was successful.’
‘Very.’ She took a sip and wrinkled up her nose as the bubbles danced. That was another thing he adored about her. All those little mannerisms she didn’t try to hide in order to appear sophisticated. ‘How did you spend your time?’
‘I had a Skype call with the sponsors.’
‘It went well?’
‘Extremely.’ He raised his glass to hers. ‘I have a meeting with them in London the week after next. The whole board want to meet me, thanks to you whitewashing my reputation.’
She clinked her glass against his. ‘To reforming irascible rakes.’
He held her gaze with smouldering heat. ‘To debauching good girls.’
She laughed a tinkling bell laugh. ‘Belinda can’t believe the change in me. She’s always told me off for being so staid and conservative. Just shows what meeting the right man can do.’
The right man? He was totally wrong for her. Hadn’t her father made that clear? He hooked an eyebrow upwards. ‘I’m not sure your father would think that.’
Her smile slipped away as she looked at the leaping bubbles in her glass. ‘For years I’ve always done what he said. I was happy to do it. It was easier than arguing with him. But over the last few months I started to feel like life was leaving me behind.’ Her gaze came back to his. ‘That’s why this trip here was so important. I had to shake off the old Daisy and embrace the new. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do it at home.’
‘So what happens when you go back tomorrow? Will you slip back into good habits again?’
Her dimples appeared as she smiled. ‘There’s always that danger, I suppose.’
Luiz ran his eyes over her outfit again. ‘You look hot tonight.’
She pulled at her lip with her teeth. ‘You don’t think it’s too over the top?’
‘For Vegas, no. For teaching five-year-olds in London? You may have a problem.’
A little frown flitted over her forehead as she glanced around. ‘Gosh, I didn’t think of that. What if someone sees me?’
‘Wasn’t that the whole idea?’ he asked. ‘To get noticed?’
‘By you; not by the rest of the world.’
‘It comes with the territory of hanging out with me. I attract the world’s attention.’
She looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment. ‘Why is being the centre of attention so important to you?’
Luiz thought of all the times as a child when his needs went unnoticed. The constant struggle to be heard in a house that had to remain quiet for the sake of his father’s health. His brother had done what he could but he hadn’t been able to meet the emotional needs of a young insecure child. Who would have expected him to? His mother’s desertion had made Luiz act out in a variety of ways that had tested his older brother’s patience. Alejandro had used work and study and doing whatever he could to keep the family together as his way of coping with the pain of their father’s accident and their mother’s leaving. Luiz had used any number of attention-seeking behaviours. His reputation as a tearaway began early and even though there were times when he’d wished he could reinvent himself, he’d never quite managed to do it. Although he was more than competent academically, his love and natural aptitude for sport was the thing that stood him apart from his peers. Over the years the adulation of the crowd had become more and more addictive. It made him all the more competitive and ruthlessly driven to be the best.