The Billionaire’s Rebellious Lover (The Maxfield Brothers Series Book 2)

G
abe Maxfield needs
to let go of the past to finally get what he wants.

All his life, Gabe Maxfield has been in the middle. The middle of three feuding brothers, the middle of family conflicts, and now, the middle of his father’s jeopardized construction company, Duncan Enterprises. Gabe has never had a life of his own, let alone time for romance, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon.

That all changes when hot-headed environmentalist Daisy Levine and her group, Restore Eden, stage a massive protest against the company. Now, Gabe will have to work with her to reach a compromise and save face, but there’s just one problem—Daisy is his brother Nathan’s ex-girlfriend. She’s also the most captivating woman he’s ever met.

When Gabe finds himself falling for the woman trying to go public with his family’s environmental record—and possibly sabotage his company—it puts him in the middle once again. In an impossible situation, he’ll have to get off the fence and make a stand. But can he sacrifice his reputation as the perfect son to be with the woman he loves?

“
I
t’s Gabe Maxfield
!” someone yelled, and the mob advanced.

With pickets.

Gabe Maxfield rarely deviated from his weekday work routine. He needed those morning hours to prepare himself for the day, and if the morning didn’t go well, he knew that his whole day wouldn’t go well. He enjoyed the calm minutes where he could organize his day so that things would run perfectly.

He took the same route, and he listened to the same morning radio show. So, when he pulled up to the parking lot and found it overrun with people, he was understandably miffed.

“Protesters? Really?” he muttered. It had been a while since Duncan Enterprises had been picketed. Duncan actually paid his employees well. They got at least three weeks of paid vacation time, worked in a safe and harassment-free environment, and had plenty of freedom when it came to profit sharing. The last group of protesters that showed up did so by accident. They were feminists protesting what they thought was a male-run company.

Angie Maxfield soon set them straight.

“How can you sleep at night knowing that you’re killing the environment?” one young girl yelled. She stared at him, and he knew what she saw. His expensive gray suit was neatly pressed, and his soft blue shirt didn’t have a single wrinkle. He’d long ago mastered the art of the perfect tie, and it tucked neatly into his jacket. His dark hair was cleanly swept to the side. He was the model image of the businessman. And to her, that no doubt made him the enemy.

Gabe turned to her and appraised her coolly. She was dressed in a pair of torn Daisy Dukes and a bikini top. Her bleached blonde hair was upstaged only by her giant pink sunglasses. This was what passed as a protester these days?

“I usually sleep soundly and wake up with a sound of soft chimes at four-fifteen on the dot,” Gabe said smoothly as he walked around her.

Another woman straight from the clone machine jumped in front of him. Only this one was wearing lime green sunglasses. “What about all the poor animals that you’re killing?” she snarled.

“I’m confused. Am I killing the environment or killing poor animals?” he asked evenly as he pushed through the mob. When he felt hands reach out for his suit, he reacted quickly. Snagging the wrist of a woman, he gave her a piercing glare.

“Don’t. Touch. The suit,” he said coldly.

Her blue eyes widened, and she gasped. He felt a spark of recognition from his memory. The woman was beautiful, but that wasn’t it. He knew her from somewhere. Her dark hair was held in a braid that swung over her shoulder, and her tawny eyes challenged him. Unlike the beach college babes, she was dressed in well-worn jeans that hugged her curves and a tank top. This one could be a problem. She clearly wasn’t here to meet guys. She meant business.

Feeling uneasy about the whole thing, he forced his way through the screaming mob and nodded at the guard.

“Morning, Mr. Maxfield. Interesting start to the day that we’re having,” the guard said with an easy smile. Gabe knew that the man had worked here for a long time, long enough to remember Gabe’s own younger, wilder days. The guard barely even blinked an eye at the protesters.

“I’ve had better mornings,” Gabe agreed as he moved towards the office. Glancing at the clock, he sighed in frustration. The protesters had taken precious minutes from his morning. Safely in his office, he sank into his chair and pulled out his notes. Not ten minutes into his review, his cellphone began to buzz with a new text message.

Where the hell are you? Nathan’s ex has broken up the meeting. GET IN HERE.

Gabe frowned as he stared at Stephen’s text. Before he could reply, the phone buzzed again.

Gabe, you have to help. Stephen is about to call the cops on Daisy!

That’s right. Now he remembered. The beautiful woman outside was Daisy, Nathan’s ex-girlfriend. Nathan had always been passionate about the environment, but things had changed for the worse when he’d met Daisy. They’d dated for four years, until Nathan finally realized that she was far more impulsive than he could handle.

So what was she doing here, actually inside the office building? How the hell did she get in?

“I only wanted a quiet morning,” he grumbled as he set aside his notes. Once again, he had to mediate between his two brothers. Sighing loudly, he really wished that they wouldn’t bring their crap into the office. Stephen was always a hothead, and Nathan never did know how to stand up for himself without lashing out. Picking up the phone, Gabe called security.

Angry, he stomped along the corridors and pushed open the glass doors of the meeting room. Already the guards were hauling her out of the room. “You can do better, I know you can!” she screamed as they dragged her out. Gabe held the door open, and, for a moment, they locked eyes. There was a jolt of energy, but he immediately locked it down. As he surveyed the group, his eyes landed on his brothers. Jerking his head, he turned and waited for them to join him in the hallway.

“What the hell is going on and why wasn’t security called sooner?” he demanded.

“Ask Nathan,” Stephen growled.

“Come on, Gabe. She’s my ex. We had our differences, but I cared for her. I don’t want her arrested on my account.”

“She wouldn’t have been arrested. She would have only been escorted out,” Gabe said as he swung an incredulous look at Nathan. Gabe would never have had a protester arrested.

Nathan glared at Stephen, and Gabe followed the look. “You were going to have Nathan’s ex arrested?” Gabe asked quietly.

“She’s trespassing, and she became violent,” Stephen muttered.

“Violent?” Gabe laughed.

“She shoved Stephen when he tried to remove her. Stephen couldn’t handle it,” Nathan said nastily.

Gabe held up his hands. “Look, I took care of it. Daisy will be released back to her horde of protester pals, and we can call the police to make sure that any future protests are staged at a safe distance. Now, can we please get back to the meeting?”

“She’s joined an organization called Restore Eden. They’re not going to go away,” Nathan warned, licking his lips nervously.

Gabe stared at him. “Restore Eden?” he asked darkly. “Please tell me that’s a joke.” Restore Eden was an established group with a new branch in the city. They had been harassing businesses all over town. The rumors were that once they sunk their claws into you, it took forever to get them out.

“Take care of this, Gabe,” Stephen growled.

“Excuse me? Not only is this Nathan’s ex-girlfriend, but this is your wife’s company. Why do I have to take care of this?” Gabe didn’t want to deal with a messy environmentalist group. He wanted to go back to doing his job focusing on the real estate properties that Duncan Enterprises held.

“Clearly, Nathan can’t handle Daisy, and I’m running Maxfield Construction,” Stephen replied, smugly.

“Then why are you at this board meeting?” Gabe snapped.

“I’m here to support my beautiful wife.” A slow smile crossed Stephen’s face, and Gabe rolled his eyes. Stephen was completely infatuated with his wife, Angie, their newest CEO, and enjoyed sitting in on meetings simply to watch her in action.

“Fine. I’ll take care of it,” Gabe snapped. Anything to get back on track so he could enjoy his damn morning again.

D
aisy Levine stood
outside Duncan Enterprises and watched the protesters. Things weren’t exactly going according to plan. Pushing through the crowd, she searched until she found the man that she was looking for. “Jordan!” she yelled over the noise. He didn’t seem to notice. Reaching over, she grabbed his shirt. “Jordan!”

He looked down and gave her a big smile. Jordan was a good-looking guy, only a few years older than her own twenty-six. He had deep ties with Restore Eden, and had agreed to help her work the San Francisco section. “Daisy! How did it go?”

“Can we talk?” she said as she tugged him away from the crowd. Finally, away from the noise, she turned to him. “Listen, I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

“Daisy, baby,” he said soothingly. “I thought you wanted to make a difference in the city? Where else would we start than with Duncan Enterprises?”

“I know, but I already told you. My ex-boyfriend is Nathan Maxfield, and we had a big falling out over my aggressions against Duncan Enterprises. If we want to change Restore Eden’s image, I think we should do something smaller.”

“Smaller? Daisy, do you still have feelings for Nathan?”

“No. I already told you, we’re done. But this still doesn’t feel right.” She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had made a huge mistake but this was her chance to put Restore Eden on the map for the
right
reasons.

“If he has feelings for you, we could use that,” Jordan mused. “Did you see him in the building? I saw security dragging you out. You looked hot, babe. I hope someone took pictures for the news.”

Daisy tried not to roll her eyes. She hated it when he called her babe. “I did see him, and no, he doesn’t have feelings for me. Besides, I’m not the type of person to use someone’s feelings to get what I want. If we do this, if we go after Duncan Enterprises, we have to do this professionally.”

“Professionally? Like what? You want to dress up in a skirt and pantyhose and sashay into the office?”

“No,” Daisy said in frustration, shaking her head. She rubbed her hands over her eyes. “I want to make sure that Nathan doesn’t get caught up in this.”

Jordan reached out and grabbed her hands. “Daisy, listen to me. If you had no connections with the Maxfield family, would you want to bring Duncan Enterprises down?”

“Down? I would still want them to change their policy on building and waste management, but I do have connections…”

“No.” Jordan put his fingers on her lips. “No buts. If you had no connections with the Maxfield family, you would still want to do this. You say you want to do this professionally. That means doing what you know is right without letting your feelings get in the way. Right?”

She sighed. “I guess.”

“That’s the spirit,” he said with a smile. “We don’t need to start with something smaller. We need to make a stand. We need to say that Restore Eden is here, and we’re not leaving until we’ve made a difference. Duncan Enterprises is a giant. We take them down, it’ll make all the other conglomerates sit up and take notice. And, we’ll have a solid reputation in this city. Everyone will fear us.”

“Fear us? You mean work with us to help change them. The whole point is to show the world that Restore Eden isn’t an extremist organization anymore.”

The look Jordan gave her was worrying before he smiled at her. “Is this the same girl who wanted to chain herself to a tree to save Hollins Gardens?”

She felt her cheeks burn. “That was a few years ago. Things are different now, Jordan. I was working on my own, and I didn’t have the same resources that Restore Eden does. I want to make a difference, and I’m willing to make a scene to do it, but I want to be able to give Restore Eden a new face. I want this to work.”

“Good. We’ll make it work with Duncan Enterprises. Now, I have a feeling that Nathan Maxfield isn’t too happy about seeing you in the office, and I’ll bet he’s even less happy about watching security drag you away. I bet the Maxfields are going to do whatever it takes to make sure this crowd goes away, with a minimum of fuss. And that probably means striking a deal with us.” He smirked, and Daisy nodded her head.

“Strike a deal. That sounds good.” She tried to sound hopeful, but Jordan was too focused on how Nathan Maxfield would feel. He didn’t seem to care how she felt seeing Nathan again.

It wasn’t love. That ship had sailed a long time ago. But her relationship with the Maxfields wasn’t easy. So, whatever deal they wanted to strike, she had a feeling it would involve working with them. While Daisy wanted to change the world, their family was complicated.

And the last thing she wanted was to get involved with the Maxfield brothers.