Matched to Her Rival

Jenna crossed her arms and addressed Elise without glancing at Dax. “We’re here in the best interest of your female clients. We’re protesting you taking him on as a potential match. Don’t foist him off on another unsuspecting woman.”

Unable to stop blinking, Elise gaped at Jenna, extremely aware of the other women’s hardened gazes. Those lined and mascaraed eyes might as well be spotlights.

“I’m sorry, what?”

A hot flush swept up from her neck to spread across her cheekbones. All those eyes on her, including Dax’s and Angie’s, had done their job to make her uncomfortable. After all, she was wearing Dax’s huge jacket, which told its own story, but also turned her figure blocky, like a stout oak tree in a forest of willows.

“He’s not interested in a relationship.” Candy cleared her throat. “He told me. Flat out. I thought it was so strange. Why would he go to a matchmaker? Then Jenna and I met by accident at Turtle Creek Salon and I found out he’s only in your system as part of some wager the two of you made.”

The other ladies nodded and the brunette said, “That’s where we met Jenna and Candy too, at the salon.”

They did share a hairdresser. Elise would congratulate herself on the good eye if it made one bit of difference. Her knees shook and she locked them.

Jenna waved at Dax. “He’s a cold, heartless SOB who’ll screw you over without a scrap of remorse. No woman deserves that in a match. You have to drop him as a client.”

Dax’s jacket gained about fifty pounds, weighing heavily on her shoulders. These women had no idea Elise had been kissing Dax not ten minutes ago and making plans to have dinner. But Jenna wasn’t talking to her directly. Dax wasn’t going to screw Elise over.

“This has gone on long enough.” Dax stepped in front of Elise to position himself between her and the ex-girlfriends. “Say anything you like about me, but don’t involve Elise in your grievances. She has a right to take on whomever she pleases as a client and you have no call to be here.”

Dax’s staunch defense hit her in the heart and spread. He was a gentleman underneath his gorgeous exterior, and she appreciated the inside and the outside equally.

This was a really bad time to discover she might care about him more than she’d realized.

Jenna glared at Dax, fairly vibrating with animosity. “We were still together when you agreed to be a client. Did you tell her that? One would assume your matchmaker might like to know you weren’t actually single.”

The bottom dropped out of Elise’s stomach. Surely that wasn’t true. Jenna was spewing half truths in retaliation for Dax’s imagined transgressions. That’s what all of this was about—scorned women spewing their fury.

The blonde—Sherilyn, if Elise’s beleaguered brain recalled correctly—flipped her curls behind her back and put a well-manicured comforting hand on Jenna’s shoulder.

“We were dating, yes.” Dax’s eyes glittered. “But I was very much single. I did not promise you anything beyond our last date. If you chose to read a commitment into it, that’s unfortunate, but it has nothing to do with my business at EA International. Nothing to do with Elise. You’re using her to exact revenge on me and it won’t work.”

Let’s take things day by day.

It was almost the same as saying no promises past the last date. Elise suspected Dax gave that speech often.

No, Dax was definitely not a liar. He was a player, exactly as advertised. None of these women had been able to change that and Elise couldn’t either, whether she took it day by day or not. Her burden was deciding if she could live with no promises and the likelihood he’d be giving that speech to another woman in a few weeks, after he’d moved on from Elise.

Her fragile heart was already closer to the edge of that cliff on Heartbreak Ridge than she’d like.

All the eyes were back on her, burning into her skin. Jenna’s were the hottest as she swept Elise with a pointed look that clearly indicated she found her lacking.

“It has everything to do with what kind of company this is. Are you a matchmaker or a gambler? Do women like Candy come in here expecting to meet a compatible man who’s also looking for love, only to be disappointed and out a substantial sum of money?”

It was the TV interview all over again, except this time she wasn’t naive enough to offer her matchmaking services to Jenna as a way to prove her skills. She had a hunch that woman ate men alive and then let them beg for more. Except for Dax. He’d truly hurt her.