‘I work for lots of people,’ she said stubbornly. ‘I don’t remember all their names and faces.’
Watching his mouth tighten, she felt a stab of satisfaction at having punctured his pride.
There was a long, abrasive silence and then he shrugged. ‘Which is no doubt why you’re just a waitress.’
Her cheeks flooded with heat, his sneer stinging like a slap.
Just a waitress!
‘Don’t patronise me—’ she began furiously.
‘Then don’t lie to me,’ he said softly.
She glared past him, face flushed. ‘Fine. So I know who you are! So what? It makes no difference to me—’
‘Then you are either exceptionally foolish or dangerously foolhardy, because this is my building, and my office. And you shouldn’t be in it.’
His voice scraped against her skin, sending flickers of fear in every direction.
* * *
Watching her face turn pale, Rollo felt his stomach twist.
Beneath her bravado she was scared—maybe she wasn’t the hardened criminal he’d taken her to be.
But she was still guilty.
Guilty of knowing the power of her beauty and guilty of exploiting it to deceive and disarm. He stared at her critically, noting the slight tilt of her chin, the wash of colour on the flawless cheekbones. He’d known women like her before. One in particular, who had thought nothing of lying and manipulating those around her, causing havoc and devastation even as she played the victim.
Daisy had made the biggest mistake of her life if she thought her charms would work on him and, eyes narrowing, he let the silence lengthen until finally, with a mixture of defiance and almost exaggerated casualness, she said, ‘I was curious. I just wanted to have a look around.’
‘I see.’ He loaded his words with sarcasm. ‘And yet you didn’t put on the lights? You must have truly extraordinary night vision.’
Daisy bit her tongue. Already she hated that sneer, the way his eyebrows lifted, and the glitter in that mocking green gaze. Of course, she’d imagined what would happen if she got caught. But in her head she had pictured some bumbling security guard. She certainly hadn’t expected to be grilled by Rollo Fleming himself. The watch’s owner and a man who was demanding an honesty she couldn’t give.
‘I didn’t put the lights on because I thought somebody would see,’ she said quickly.
He was standing too close; the heat and scent of his body was messing with her head so that speaking in sentences was suddenly a struggle.
‘I know this floor is off limits, but I’ve worked here a couple of times and I wanted to see...’
She paused. What could she have possibly—believably—wanted to see in an unlit office?
Blood pounding in her ears, she stared desperately past him at the lit-up skyscrapers—and then her gaze locked on to the Empire State Building.
‘The city. At night,’ she said, her breath juddering in relief. ‘Everyone says the view from up here is amazing, so I thought I’d come and look.’
He stared at her for so long and so hard that she had to clench the muscles in her legs to stop them from giving way.
‘How?’
She blinked. ‘What?’
‘Not what. How? How did you get up to this level? Catering staff only have clearance for the floor they’re working on.’
Daisy swallowed. Keep it simple, she told herself. ‘I don’t know,’ she lied again. ‘I just pressed some buttons.’
Her head was starting to ache, and there was no way she could keep this up for much longer. It was time for a dignified retreat. David would understand, and together they could think of another less humiliating way to return Rollo Fleming’s watch to him.