Matched to Her Rival

Was Leo at home? Hard to tell; the house was too far from the street. Once upon a time, Dax would have put money on the answer being no. For as long as he’d known Leo, the man worked until he nearly dropped with exhaustion. Occasionally, when Dax found himself between women, he’d coax his friend out from behind his desk and they’d tie one on at a bar in Uptown.

Case in point—Dax had no woman on call. No plans. It would have been a great night to meet up with a friend who didn’t ask him pointed questions about why he never stuck it out with a woman longer than a few weeks.

He didn’t call Leo. He didn’t drive up to the security camera at the gate, which was equipped with facial recognition software, and would admit him instantly.

Leo wasn’t that friend, not any more. Leo had a new playmate locked away inside his fortress, one he’d paid a hefty chunk of change to meet.

Well, not really a playmate since he’d married Daniella. Married. That was a whole lot of forever with the same woman. If Elise could be believed, Leo and Daniella were soul mates.

For the first time, Dax wondered if Leo was happy. Because wasn’t that the point of a soul mate? You had someone you wanted to be locked away with, someone you could be with all the time and never care if the world spun on without either of you.

If Dax’s soul mate existed, she would care very much what was behind his curtain and furthermore, he’d trust her with the backstage mess—the doubts about whether he actually had something to offer a woman in a relationship. The anxiety over whether he’d find out he had more in common with his mother than he’d like. The fear that he actually lacked the capacity to be with one person for the rest of his life. The suspicion that he was broken and that was why he’d never found someone worthy of promising forever to.

Five hundred thousand dollars seemed like a bargain if it bought a woman who stilled his restlessness. Dax had just spent twice that with the click of a mouse, and barely glanced at the description of the goods Wakefield Media had purchased. Whatever it was—likely cameras or other studio equipment—would either wear out or be replaced with better technology in a few years.

A soul mate was forever. How could that be possible for someone like Dax? What if he’d already met her and didn’t realize it? That was the very definition of being broken, and it was exactly what Elise had meant when she’d said “someone like Dax.”

Before he did something foolish, such as drive up to Leo’s house and demand an explanation for how Leo had known Daniella was his soul mate, Dax hit the gas and drove until the low fuel light blinked on in the dash. He filled up the tank and went home, where he did not sleep well and his mood did not improve.

The next day dragged even worse than the day before. Everyone, including Patricia, steered clear, and while he appreciated their wisdom, it only pissed him off. He needed a big-time distraction.

Because he was in that perverse of a mood, he pulled out his phone and texted Elise.

Have a nice evening by yourself?

Well, that was stupid. Either she’d ignore him, tell him what a fabulous evening she had without him or make a joke that gave him zero information about whether she was in as bad of a mood as he was. And he wanted her to be. He wanted her to suffer for...

Beep. No. It sucked. I miss you.

His heart gave a funny lurch and the phone slipped from his nerveless fingers. God, what was he supposed to do with that?

Nothing. She was trying to manipulate him. She knew he didn’t like to be alone and wanted him to crack first. That wasn’t happening. He wasn’t texting her back with some cheesy message about how he was miserable too. She was probably sitting there on that champagne-colored couch in her condo, phone in hand, waiting for his reply.

They weren’t dating. Elise wasn’t his lover. It shouldn’t be this difficult.

He set the phone off to the side of his desk and proceeded to ignore it for the next thirteen minutes while he read the same paragraph of a marketing proposal over and over again.

The phone sat there, silently condemning him.

“Stop looking at me,” he growled at the offending device and turned it over.

Elise wanted him to be some fairy-tale guy who swept her off her feet with promises of undying love, and it was so far from who he was, he couldn’t even fathom it. So that was it. Nothing more to say or do.

The phone rang.

Elise. Of course she wasn’t going to put up with his stupid text embargo. His heart did that funny dance again as he flipped the phone over to hit the answer button.