I’d never been as turned on in my entire twenty-eight years of life. Rae had just wrapped the board of directors of a multibillion-dollar company around her little finger like it was nothing and saved my company in the process. I’d never thought that I had a fetish of any type before, but apparently, I did. I had a serious, lusty fetish for watching a beautiful woman stick it to the man (or in this case, woman).

Outside the board room, Rae sighed and smiled at me in satisfied victory. I extended a hand to her and she took it. We walked back to the executive elevator together. Just as we were waiting for the doors to close, my favorite New York rent-a-cop turned a corner with four or five men in matching outfits. I made double “finger guns” at him cheerfully.

“We were just leaving,” I called out. “I think the guys you want went that way.” I used my finger guns to point down the hall.

“You. Stop!” He barked.

Haha. No.

I pushed the close button. “Bye-bye.”

He was nowhere near fast enough to stop us, but he waddled toward us anyway. I waved at him as the doors met.

“You really know how to make friends don’t you?” Rae said as the elevator dropped. Her tone was dry, but she was fighting a losing battle with a smile.

“What can I say,” I told her, “I just have a lot of natural charm. I think you made some friends just now too, although I confess that I have no clue what just happened.”

Rae’s smile won. “I definitely made some new enemies. I won’t be listing McKenzie as a reference on my job applications.”

“She looked like she wanted to shoot blood out of her eyes like those weird, desert lizards.”

Rae snickered at the thought. “Gross. I think she’d rather shoot lasers.” She paused. “I see you decided not to attend the closing,” she said.

“I don’t think I want to sell to Azure Group after all.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that Azure Group is the right partner for you.”

“I know who the right partner for me is.”

Rae’s grin faded. She swallowed hard. The doors to the executive elevator opened on the lobby. “Come on. We need to meet Annie and Kyle.”

I was now back in the IHOP. I didn’t even like IHOP. Ellen, the waitress that had put up with me for five hours the night before, stared at me without an ounce of recognition. Apparently, I wasn’t worth the investment in brain cells.

Gotta love New York. Where nobody gives a shit about you unless you’re loitering.

“Coffee?” she offered Rae and me. Her face was impassive.

We both nodded. Across from us in the battered pleather booth, Kyle and Annie were vibrating with excitement. As soon as Ellen was out of earshot, Annie started talking.

“We got it. Nobody even guessed what we were doing. They didn’t even look at us sideways when we started messing with the system. All the data was removed from the servers.” She and Rae high fived and then Rae and Kyle high fived. “How did your part go?”

“It was pretty epic when I wasn’t about to wet my pants with fear. McKenzie resigned,” Rae said triumphantly. “We did it.”

Did what, exactly? And why?

“Can someone please explain what’s going on?” I asked. “I’m really, really confused.”

Rae grinned at me. “We just saved Notable Match.”

I blinked. “What?”

Why? How?

Rae took a deep breath before explaining. “McKenzie, our now-former CEO, was the one that promised Datability that she’d make Notable Match disappear. While I was up there threatening her into resigning, Kyle and Annie went to the server control room and wiped all the data on Notable Match. They can’t threaten you now. You’re free.”

My jaw dropped open. All of that had been for me?

“What about your jobs?” I heard myself asking. I stared at three matching smiles in confusion.

Then Kyle made a face. “Did you see the shit in Rae’s file? I can’t believe I made it six months working someplace like that.”

“We quit,” Annie said, holding Kyle’s hand. “We’ll find something else that isn’t so soul-crushingly evil. I think I’m finished with being used by a company that doesn’t value me as a human being.”

“Dude, I worked there for three years,” Rae said. “I’m lucky I even have a twisted piece of conscience left.” She shook her head.

“I knew you couldn’t go through with the deal,” Annie said. “I never doubted you.”

The deal for Notable Match? I never thought Rae wouldn’t go through with it. She had no obligation to protect me whatsoever. This was a business deal.

“I doubted me,” Rae admitted. “That was all really scary.”

“When I saw your message to McKenzie, that was what inspired me to go through all the email servers looking for leverage over Azure Group,” Annie told Rae. “I wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t quit.”

Rae had inspired this entire plot? Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. Her ability to lead people was truly impressive. She knew how to command a board room, too. The funniest thing about it was that she didn’t necessarily seem to know how powerful she was.

“I definitely don’t deserve the credit here. You do Annie,” Rae replied. “But I’m just so incredibly glad it worked out.” Her smile was big and white and relieved.

“You three put your careers on the line for me?” I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around it.

How could I be worthy of such a thing? And from strangers?

“Notable Match deserves to be seen,” Kyle answered. “I don’t know how you managed to figure out the secret behind those algorithms, but they work.”

Rae and I exchanged a silent glance. “It’s less exciting than you think,” I told him after a second. “I wish I could tell you it was magic, but it isn’t.”

“I don’t need to know,” Kyle replied, looking at Annie adoringly. “I have all the magic that I need now.”

Annie glanced at her phone. “Speaking of which, we have an appointment at the Court House with a justice of the peace.” She grinned. “We’re eloping!”

Rae and I congratulated them, and they dashed off in the direction of the subway. As far as I knew, this was the first match made by my app that had resulted in a marriage. It cut through my confusion and disbelief with a feeling of pride. Kyle and Annie seemed well and truly in love. They’d also done me an incredible favor. I made a mental note to send them a really nice panini press or something. It wouldn’t pay them back for what they did for me, but nothing would. At least they could make some nice paninis.

“Wow,” Rae said, shaking her head and watching her friends and former coworkers rush off to get married. “That was one hell of a morning.” She laughed a little bit into her coffee. “I can’t believe we pulled that off. I can’t believe you’re here. I can’t believe Annie and Kyle are about to go get married…” she trailed off, staring at her hands. I could see that she was a bit overwhelmed.

I knew the feeling.

“You were amazing in that board room,” I told her. Visions of her telling her former bosses to go fuck themselves played before my eyes, more vivid and erotic than any pornography. Rae was truly flawless.

“I was shaking in my boots.” Her blue eyes were shining, but I hoped that the unshed tears were from joy.

“It didn’t show.” She’d seemed about as frightened as Wonder Woman.

“Of course not. I was doing my amazing Lucas Stevenson impression.” She winked at me.

“Can I do my speech now?” I asked her, hoping that I really seemed that confident to her. I was the one shaking in my boots now. “I had this whole long speech planned and you totally stole my thunder by saving Notable Match.” I sat up straight and looked her in the eye, trying to project something other than vulnerability and fear.

She smirked, but it was short-lived. “I don’t know if I want to hear your victory speech, Lucas. I can’t stand the thought of you with Victoria. I’m sorry, but it’s true. I do want you to be happy, but I can’t pretend to be happy for you.”

I sat back in shock. “What?”

Is that what she thought I came here for? To tell her that I was back with Victoria and that my harebrained plan had worked after all?

Her lips parted in surprise. “You aren’t here to tell me you’re back together with Victoria?”

“No.” I shook my head at her. “Rae, I admit I didn’t do well with our last conversation. It was bad, and I owe you an explanation. But as far as Azure Group goes, none of what they wanted to do was your fault. You were just trying to do your job.” I tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away.

“So were the guards at Auschwitz.” She pouted and looked out the window.

The return of her dark sense of humor was a good sign but also proof that she still felt guilty. I shook my head at her. “Rae, it isn’t your fault that you worked for someone dishonest. You just went way above and beyond any expectation I ever had for protecting Notable Match. If I’m being honest, I don’t even care about Notable Match enough to ask you to do something like that, and I care about it a lot.”

“It was the right thing to do.” She paused. “Plus, the culture there really does need an overhaul. The sexual harassment there was off the charts. I could tell you stories that would make your skin crawl.”

I didn’t doubt it. Still…

“You really thought I flew up here to tell you I was back with Victoria?” My heart squeezed.

She honestly thought I didn’t want her? How could I not want her?

“I admit that I thought you’d probably send me an email or something rather than coming up in person, but yeah.”

Her eyes were fixed on her coffee. I laughed. She said what she said because of Victoria. I knew that from the start. It was time to get to the point.

“Rae, I talked to Victoria.”

She looked up at me in surprise. Her big blue eyes blinked, and she said nothing. Her gaze went back to the coffee cup. I took that as a cue to keep talking.

“I told her to go to hell,” I continued. “It was exactly like I’d planned it up until then. She showed up in the lobby of my building. She’d been lurking down there for god knows how long, crying and waiting for me to come down by myself. She told me that she loved me and that she wanted me back. She said that she couldn’t stand seeing me with you and that she wanted to give our relationship another try.” I shook my head. “It was just like in my dreams. But when the time came, I realized that I didn’t love her anymore.”

Rae took a deep, shaking breath. The hands gripping her coffee cup flew to her face and then down to be clasped demurely in her lap. It was like she didn’t know what to do with them and they had a mind of their own. “But—”

I cut her off. “But nothing. I don’t love Victoria. She’s cruel, and she didn’t love me nearly as much as she hated the idea of me being happy without her. It took me eighteen months to come to terms with it, but now that I’m able to admit it, I’m free. I don’t love Victoria Priestly anymore. I love you Rae. I love you.”

An IHOP is not the most romantic place in the world at the best of times. This particular one was even less so than usual. Ellen took the moment I was confessing my love to drop off the check. She coughed a smoker’s cough before slapping it down on the table.

“Since your friends took off without paying, I put their food on your check.” She looked from one of us to the other in bland disinterest. “Take your time.”

I shoved a fifty-dollar bill at her and she left. Rae was continuing to stare at me, wide eyed and silent. The moments passed by quietly, ticking my tension up a little bit at a time. By the time that Ellen returned with my change and laid it on the table, I was about ready to explode.

“You two have a great day,” Ellen said insincerely. I honestly don’t think that she had the slightest idea what she was interrupting, but I got the feeling that she wouldn’t care either way.

“Rae, please say something,” I begged. “I know my speech isn’t as good as what you just did for me, but it’s all true. I love you.”

“You really told Victoria to go to hell?” she stuttered.

I smiled. “Not in so many words, but yes.” I just wasn’t mean enough to say something like that to Victoria, although she might deserve it, but I knew she got the message. “I even called the guy she’s dating and told him that she tried to cheat on him.”

Rae smirked. “That’s pretty cold, Lucas.”

“Nobody has ever accused me of being too nice.” I frowned. “Look, when you’ve been cheated on as many times as I have—”

She interrupted with a girlish giggle. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I would have done the exact same thing. I completely approve.” Her smile gave me hope.

“So, does that mean you will take me back?”

“As your fake girlfriend?” Her smile was lopsided. My heart leapt at her gentle teasing tone. Rae’s wry personality was adorable to me. I loved that she took no nonsense out of me or anyone else.

“No. No more fakeness. No more lies. I want you as my real girlfriend this time.” I smiled back at her hopefully. “What do you say?”

Her answer was a kiss. I leaned into her, wrapping my arms around her waist and crushing her into me. Rae was beautiful, fierce, brilliant, and mine. I was never going to let her go.