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The silence moved around them, and then Brady narrowed his eyes—eyes which must have been identical to his mother’s given how closely they resembled Jake’s blue depths.
‘Why do you work for a company called VenomSci? Do you use animal venom? Do you hurt them?’
It was the distraction she needed.
‘Quite the opposite,’ she assured him. ‘I’ve worked with wasp venom, scorpion venom and snake venom. But whatever project I work on for pharmaceutical companies, my personal goal remains the same, and that’s finding ways to protect and save as many animals as possible.’
He eyed her suspiciously.
‘Why would I believe you?’
‘I don’t know. But I have a nine-year-old niece and a six-year-old niece, and we often go exploring the forest together to see what we can find, and which animals we can help.’
Although she never let the girls go near anything that could possibly harm them.
He scrutinised her for a little longer.
‘Promise?’
‘I promise.’
They eyed each other for a few moments, and she knew he was assessing her. Evaluating. Just the way that she would have done at that age.
‘Brady? Brady? Why aren’t you with Patricia? What are you doing here?’
It was the moment she told herself she’d been dreading. It took everything she had not to spin around in her chair, but instead she waited for him to draw level with her table.
‘Jake.’ She inclined her head as professionally as she could. ‘I already checked where Patricia was, and she’s right over there by the counter.’
‘I was coming to sit down when we...’ Brady paused, looking to her.
‘Flávia,’ she supplied helpfully.
‘Flávia and I started taking about venom and poison.’
‘Is that so?’ Ja
ke bit out, eyeing her as if she had somehow engineered the situation.
Evidently, he’d had no intention of seeking her out after their night together, and probably would have been more than happy if their paths hadn’t crossed for the remainder of his stay in Brazil.
She told herself she didn’t care, that she’d known the parameters of their...encounter the night of the party. But the way her throat was closing, and the shameful stinging behind her eyes, told her a different story.
Idiot that she was.
‘How did you get talking, anyway?’
‘Because she knows about nature, too.’ The kid looked at his uncle as though the answer was surely obvious.
Clearly, Jake wasn’t convinced.
‘He spotted my laptop case.’ She gestured to the bright logo. ‘It caught his interest.’
‘Ah...’ Jake surveyed the case, and if he didn’t actually roll his eyes, then he at least gave the impression of dismissal. ‘That would have done it. He’s obsessed with everything from ants to cheetahs. How they live, how they feed, how they defend themselves.’
‘Fascinated,’ Flávia corrected automatically, unable to help herself.
‘Sorry?’
