Stacy

There was something off about the woman from the dating agency. Something not quite normal or safe. She reminded me too much of the doctors who’d once ruled my life.

“Congratulations on joining us at the IG Dating Agency,” the woman, Ampetheia, said. Her smile spread a little too wide across her face, her eyes a not-quite-normal color of brown. Definitely not safe.

“Thanks.” I shifted on the chair, unable to hold still. Something about the way she watched me was making me uncomfortable even though I couldn’t pin down the reason. It wasn’t as if she looked dangerous in any way. The woman was wearing a brown cardigan, for Christ’s sake. Was she a ninja in disguise? An assassin on the side? I couldn’t tell, but she was still totally watching me with those beady eyes. Time to fake it.

I pasted on a bright smile and tried to keep my leg from shaking. “My sister had such success with the gentleman you matched her with, I figured you might be able to help me, as well.”

Ninja lady looked about ready for the kill. Crap, how did one escape a woman in a cardigan? Throw cat food at her? Bring up the wedding episode of Outlander to see if she could be distracted by the kilt? Rip apart a book?

No, scratch that one. I couldn’t be that evil. Macy would kill me for sure.

“Your sister was a prime candidate, and of course, I can assist you as well, dear.” Ampetheia practically purred. Odd, that sound. “I already have the perfect man for you.”

That didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. “Already?”

Ampetheia laughed. “The match I set up for your sister caused me many headaches. Oh, not because of Macy, dear. Your sister was a dream client. More because… Well, when I see two people together, it helps if those people don’t look like anyone else.”

“Huh.” I sat back and crossed my legs, suddenly a little less wary of the woman. That’s what had to be setting off my bullshit alarm—she was another bullshitter. “So the whole mail order bride thing is a lie? Awesome. I cribbed that letter in the worst way. I’d hate to think you were matching me to someone off that drivel.”

Her beady eyes went surprisingly round. Really, those colored contacts were the worst. “You…what?”

“Yeah, I get it. You do some voodoo magic thing to find a partner for your client, but you can’t let anyone know about the voodoo magic thing because, let’s face it, that shit’s scary. It’s okay. I won’t tell. So, when do I get to meet him?”

“Meet whom?”

“My match. You said you had one for me.”

Ampetheia shook her head. “Yes, of course. Maverick. I’ll call him tonight. I don’t see why you can’t meet him tomorrow if you have the time.”

“Sounds good.” I rose, ready to get the hell out of her office. I might not be as worried about hidden ninja assassin skills anymore, but that didn’t mean I wanted to hang around. Ampetheia was not someone to be trifled with. “Tell him I’ll meet him at the immersive date hotel in the afternoon. He should wear black. I find black on guys very attractive. Oh, and no flip-flops or sandals. Man feet shouldn’t be on display.”

Ampetheia stared at me for a long, quiet moment. “Is there anything else, Stacy?”

I ran through the list in my head…black clothes, no feet, meet at hotel, be ready for nooky. Not sure I should mention that last one, though she had to expect there’d be a little bumping and grinding going on. No one set you up to spend two days in a single hotel room with a potential relationship candidate without understanding that those hormones would be racing. She knew exactly what was going to go on in that room.

And so I didn’t need to tell her that. “Not right now. I’ll call you if I think of something.”

I tossed her a smile and a wave and left. Once I made it outside, I grabbed my phone and pulled up my favorite call recipients. With the number of times I called her every day, you’d probably think my twin sister would be in my top spot. Not the case. God before family—my number one call was my favorite Sunday brunch restaurant. Reservations could be hard to get, you know?

“Crap,” I hissed when she didn’t answer. That was becoming a habit—the not answering. I knew she had her boyfriend now, but still. Okay, fine… I mean, the man was sex on legs. Like, ridiculously handsome. If she weren’t my sister, I’d totally go in for the steal. But she was, and that would make holiday dinners totally awkward. Anyway, Macy had Hudson—she’d even moved in to his loft—so I knew she was often busy with him. But I needed her. Immediately.

In fact, I was going to stop by her new place. She wouldn’t mind.

I made it to the warehouse she lived in and up the stairs in a matter of minutes. The place was filled with men. I mean, there were a handful of women who lived there, including my sister, but all I ever saw when I visited were men. Handsome, buff men. It was like a housing facility for romance-novel cover models. Why couldn’t I live in a building like that? The only man I saw in the hallways at my place was old Mr. Webster, and he definitely wasn’t handsome or buff. He was old, bald, hunched, and wrinkled like a man who’d smoked cigarettes every day for half a century. Which he was, so…fitting

I counted the hotties loitering in the halls on my way upstairs, just for fun. It took me five solid, ogle-worthy specimens to reach her door. Five. This was like the honey hole of hotties.

But Macy wasn’t in her place. Or at least, she didn’t answer when I knocked. And the door was locked, so I couldn’t go inside and wait. Crap. I yanked out my phone and tried calling again, but still no response. Where was she? My heart raced, and the hallway grew warm as I considered that question. Macy was my twin, my only family left, and we were tight. If she was gone…if I’d lost her…I’d be totally and utterly alone. I’d be—

Nope. Couldn’t think that way. She had to be around here somewhere.

I shook off the anxiety nipping at my heels and checked out my hottie-less surroundings. Where did all the muscled men go when you needed them? Voices from the apartment across the hall gave me an idea, though. I knocked on that door with a smile and a cock to my hip, hoping they had some clue where my sister was and ready to make a great first impression. You only got one, you know?

But everything went a little wonky when the door opened.

Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you? Where you fall or hit something and go whoosh, and suddenly, you can’t breathe? That was what happened to me when Mr. Tall, Dark, and Hella Sexy swung that slab of steel out of the way.

“Hi,” I said on a tiny breath of air. The man stared at me, his face harsh and his eyes intense. Green eyes. Holy fuck, he had green eyes. And they were definitely locked on me in a way that was not quite wholesome. There was a feel to his look, a sense of being touched. I swear, he’d made my panties wet just by giving me the eye.

Well done, sir.

“Uh, I’m—” Before I could introduce myself, I heard my sister’s voice coming from inside. Perfect! That broke me right out of my lust stupor and reminded me why I was there in the first place. I had a story to tell.

“There you are,” I said as I pushed past the eye candy and headed for the couch where my sister was standing beside her new guy. “I have exciting news.”

But Macy wasn’t easily distracted. She nodded toward the man at the door. “Wait, we were just talking about something.”

“I can’t wait. Sorry, hot stuff.” I shot a grin at the eye-fucker, just for good measure. I mean, the guy was delicious. Might as well hedge my bets a bit. “So remember how I signed you up for the dating agency?”

“Yeah?” Macy made a face then sat next to her future husband. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in tight. All possessive-like. How did she handle that crap so well? I’d be… Well, if I dated a guy who looked like Hudson, I’d probably be melting into his side just like Macy was right then.

Time to tell her my news so we could celebrate. “Well, since you seemed to hit the hottie jackpot, I figured I’d give it a try as well.”

The room went silent in a bad way. In a this-isn’t-good way. What did I miss?

Macy was the first to recover. “But…you’re dating Chad.”

Ouch. I mean, I’d never totally revealed everything there was to tell about my relationship with Chad, but hearing her bring him up stung. I didn’t date Chad… I borrowed him occasionally when the loneliness got too hard to fight. But I wasn’t about to tell her that, especially not in a room full of people I didn’t know.

So I waved her off as if the whole thing were beneath me. What? I’d seen it done on TV. That hand wave totally worked. “Only sort of. Besides, if things work out, I could just break it off with Chad. New guy never has to know.” And he wouldn’t. My situation with Chad made me look bad in a hell of a lot of ways. No sense throwing my garbage in new guy’s face. “Why not give it a shot, right? So I did.”

“Oh, shit. Mirrors,” Chloe, the woman who’d barged into Macy’s apartment when she was being all woe-is-me over a misunderstanding with Hudson, said from where she sat on another couch. More like a love seat. And she had her own hottie with his arm around her waist. Damn, that lady had to have mad skills at something to snag a man who looked like him.

“What about mirrors?” Hudson asked, totally not paying attention to me. Neither was my sister. Damn it.

“Mace!” I squealed, making sure her focus was where it belonged for this reveal. “They matched me! I get to meet my Mr. Right tomorrow.”

“What?” Macy’s eyes flitted to the hottie by the door again, and her face fell into something that looked like the expression I’d make if I had to slice up dead bodies every day like she did. “Oh, God. How? And who?”

That didn’t sound like joy. At all. “Some guy named Maverick. I mean, he has to be hot with a name like that, right?”

Something that sounded an awful lot like a growl reverberated through the room. The guy at the door was staring at me, that slow, rough rumble coming from him. And he definitely didn’t look happy. Before I could ask him what his problem was, he stormed out of the apartment. He even slammed the door behind him.

“Ugh, what’s his deal?” I asked, oddly sad that Mr. Too Good For This had left. I couldn’t trust my feelings about him, though. Not when I was so close to a perfect match. I tended to make bad choices where men were concerned. Especially hot men. It was a weakness.

Chloe definitely had feelings about that guy leaving the way he did. “You are such an idiot,” she said before racing out the door with her husband on her heels.

Shocked was an understatement for how I felt. “Well, that was rude.”

But Macy wouldn’t even look at me. “Stace, you just screwed up.”

“What? How did I screw up?”

My sister sighed, finally meeting my gaze with something close to irritation on her face. “The guy who was here? The one who slammed the door? That was Maverick.”

“What? But…” There were no words. Well, other than one. No. No fucking way. How bad of luck did I have? “Shit.”

“Yeah. Shit.” Macy snuggled into Hudson, pretty much rubbing her new relationship in my face as mine fell apart before it had even begun. “These next two weeks are going to be hard on all of us as we deal with his crankiness.”

She and Hudson whispered back and forth, completely ignoring me. What was this? How had I gone from excited about possibilities to bereft within the span of thirty seconds? Any why wasn’t Macy helping me when she knew this guy already?

Shit, I needed my much smarter, much more logical sister right then. And I wasn’t afraid to fight for her attention. “Wait, what about me? What do I do?”

But there was no fight. Macy ignored me in favor of giving her man a little kiss before letting him pull her to her feet and lead her toward the door. Leaving me alone in a virtual stranger’s apartment.

But before she could make it to the door, Macy came through. Sort of. “Break up with Chad for good, apologize to Maverick, and hope he forgives you.”

I reached for her, needing more. “You can’t just disappear on me.”

Hudson jumped between us, looking fierce and ready for battle, as if I would ever hurt my sister. “She can, and we are. I know you feel bad about your mistake, but you need to fix it. Not Macy. Not me. Take a few hours to figure out what you need to do, and come back for Maverick. He’s a proud male. Keep that in mind, and everything will work out for you.”

“But I need Macy to help me. Why are you leaving me alone?”

“Because I can’t help you,” Macy said. “Break up with Chad. Come back and apologize to Maverick. That’s all you can do.”

She couldn’t help me, my ass. She knew Maverick, was practically married to someone who seemed awfully chummy with the guy. There had to be something. But by the look of resolve on her face and the way she refused to step around her boyfriend bodyguard, I knew there was no use fighting for her help. Macy’s mind was made up, and she didn’t often stray from what she decided were her rules.

I was on my own with this one.

There were moments in every life where you knew you needed to pull up the big-girl panties and get shit done. I’d experienced my first moment like that when my cancer diagnosis had come in. No matter what my parents said or the doctors thought, I never once gave in to the idea that the disease would knock me down. Same thing when I found out about Chad’s cheating ways the first time. I kicked that bastard into the friends-with-benefits spot so fast, his head spun. I didn’t need to tell the world or cry over it; I simply got the job done and moved on.

This was just another one of those times.

I took a couple of deep breaths to focus myself before lifting my chin. Warrior face on. “Fine. I’ll deal with Chad and then be back.”

“You can do this,” Macy said. “It’ll be worth it.”

I doubted her. A lot. But hell, what more did I have to lose?

Hudson gave me a soft, “Good luck, Stacy,” before the two of them walked out the door and left me alone. In someone else’s apartment. Probably that someone who’d called me an idiot. Wonderful.

I gave myself one moment to truly think about what had just happened. To wallow in it.

Oh God, I’d fucked up.

Mr. FuckMeEyes was my match, and apparently, he didn’t like what I had to say about Chad. Not that he knew me or Chad or what our situation was. The guy was reacting before he could get the whole story. That pissed me off for a second. He was my match, the man meant to be with me, but he was also a crabby jerk with an anger complex. And he growled. Who the hell growled? What were we, animals? And why the hell had I been matched with someone who refused to listen? That just wouldn’t work for me.

I was going to have to make a few adjustments to my plans.

Finally ready to face this issue head on, I took a deep, centering breath and headed back out the door. Nope. This wasn’t going to end on Maverick’s terms. I was supposed to be matched. That meant I got a weekend in a nice hotel with the man that creepy voodoo lady thought was right for me.

I was getting my weekend, even if the right man was all sorts of wrong.

I yanked my phone out of my purse and dialed as I headed back to my car. Time to turn the tables in my favor.

“IG Dating—”

I totally didn’t have time for the welcoming speech. “Yeah. Hi. I need Ampetheia.”

The woman paused. “Uh, is there something I can help you with? She’s with a client.”

“I’m sure you’re super awesome at your job, but no. I need her. It’ll only take a second.”

Another pause. This one longer than the last. She was close to breaking. “Okay, well… Can I at least have your name?”

Jackpot. “I’m Stacy.”

The line clicked and went silent as I slid into my car and started the engine. The humidity was too high, and the sun was beating down on my car like some sort of furnace. It totally didn’t help that the wet, stifling heat made me think of Maverick and that eye-fuck at the door. What I wouldn’t give to go back and change that entire script. I could be alone with him right now, getting to know him.

Maybe even getting naked with him.

Okay, not naked. I’d only met him a handful of minutes ago. But I could at least be fantasizing about him without wanting to smack him upside the head. That was totally allowed, right?

The AC had just turned cold when the phone clicked once more.

“Stacy? How can I help you?” Ampetheia sounded more worried than pissed, which was a good thing.

Good because I was probably about to piss her off. “I need you to call Maverick.”

“Excuse me?”

“I need you to call Maverick. Tell Mr. Broody Growler he’d better show up for our date.”

This time, she didn’t sound so sympathetic. “Is there something wrong?”

Always. “Nope, but he’s going to want to back out, and I refuse to let him. You tell him if he doesn’t show up, I’m camping for the week at his place, even if it’s in the damn hallway.”

“This isn’t how the IGDA does business, Stacy.”

“No, it’s not.” Time to pull out my ace in the hole. “You do business by using your empathetic abilities to match people who perhaps shouldn’t be matched. That high success rate you tout? Is that before or after the two-week time period you give us to decide our fates? And at what point do the people being matched find out that the whole setup is a lie?”

The silence that met me was long and heavy, almost deadly. I drove without really focusing on the roads, waiting to see if my bluff had succeeded.

Two whole minutes later… “I’ll call him.”

I nearly punched the roof of the car in my celebrating. “Good. Thank you. And have a great weekend.”

I hung up the phone and tossed it back into my purse. Challenge thrown. That fucker thought he could growl at me, not give me a chance to explain an offhanded comment, get me all hot and bothered with a look worthy of some serious sexing, and then walk away? Nope. Not happening.

The man was too arrogant for his own good.

It was going to be so much fun breaking him down.