Matched to Her Rival

“How can I do that?” Dax muttered. “I don’t know where you are.”

“I’m here,” Elise said. But in the flesh, not through the stadium’s sound system.

He whirled. And there she was, gorgeous and real, and her presence bled through the air, raising heat along his neck. She was within touching distance. He’d missed her, missed her smile, her quirky sense of humor. The way she made him feel.

And then he remembered. She was a liar, a manipulator. She cared only about winning.

Except she’d just announced to 80,000 people that she’d lost. And she’d told him in no uncertain terms that only promoting EA International could get her in front of a camera. Obviously she’d found another motivator, but what?

A cameraman followed her into the suite, lens on Dax. He couldn’t even muster a fake grin, let alone his “camera” smile, not when Elise had effectively pinned him to a piece of cork after all. “What is this all about, Elise?”

“I told you. This is your shining moment. It’s your chance to ruin me. Go ahead.” She nodded to the stadium, where this nightmare was playing out on the screen.

Thousands of eyes were riveted to the drama unfolding and it needed to be over. Now.

He opened his mouth. And closed it. Not only was he pinned to a cork, on display for everyone to examine, she was daring him to lie in public.

He wasn’t a liar.

So he didn’t lie.

“My soul mate doesn’t exist.”

Something sharp and wounded glinted in the depths of her eyes.

“Tell them I didn’t match you to the love of your life,” she suggested clearly, as if the stadium deserved to hear every word regardless of what was going on inside her. “That I’m a fraud and my match software doesn’t work.”

Obviously, this was not going to end until he gave her what she was asking for.

“True love doesn’t exist for me and your match process is flawed,” he growled as his pulse spiked and sweat broke out across the back of his heated neck, though both statements were true. “Is that what you wanted me to say?”

It was done. He’d set out to ruin her and now everyone in the stadium, as well as those watching at home, heard him say it. His comments would be broadcast far and wide on social media, he had no doubt.

His stomach churned. The victory was more hollow than his insides.

All at once, he realized why. He’d called off the wager and meant it. But only because he refused to lose and calling it off was the only way to ensure that would never happen.

He and Elise were put together with remarkable similarity. Was he really going to blame her because she didn’t like to lose either?

Leo might have had a small point about Elise bringing her A game.

Too bad the wager was the only real thing they’d ever had between them.

Vulnerability in her expression, she stared at him without blinking. “Is that all? There’s nothing more you have to say?”

“I’m done.”

Wasn’t what he’d already said enough? His heart felt as if it were being squeezed from its mooring through a straw. Did she not realize how painful this was?

She crossed the suite, closing the few yards between them, barging right into his personal space. Finger extended, she pointed right at the area of his torso that hurt the worst.

“You need to tell them the whole truth. You not only admitted love does happen to others, you started to believe in it for yourself. In the possibility of soul mates,” she said. “Because I matched you with the perfect woman. And you fell in love with her, didn’t you?”

He groaned. She’d seen right through his carefully worded statements. Right through him. The curtain didn’t exist to her.

He crossed his arms over the ache in his chest. “It would be unfair to say either of us won when in reality, we both lost.”

Tenderness and grief welled in her eyes. “Yes. We both lost something precious due to my lack of trust in you. But not because you were untrustworthy. Because I couldn’t trust myself, couldn’t trust that I was the right person to change your mind about true love. I was convinced you’d end our relationship after a couple of weeks and when I fell in love with you, I—”

“You’re in love with me?” Something fluttered in his chest as he searched her face.

All her deepest emotions spilled from her gaze, spreading across her expression, winding through his heart.

It was true.

His pulse spiked and he fought it. What did that really change? Nothing.