Matched to Her Rival

“Hey, Dax,” a female voice purred in his ear. It was not Elise.

Dang it. He should have at least glanced at the caller ID. “Hey...you.”

He winced. He had no idea who she was.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about you since yesterday,” she said.

Sherilyn. He recognized her voice now and if he hadn’t been moping around like a lovesick teenager with an atrophied brain, he’d never have answered her call. “Yesterday when you and the rest of your wrecking crew stormed into a place of business and started telling the proprietor how to run it?”

Which wasn’t too far off from what he’d done to Elise, but he’d staged his showdown over EA International’s formula for success on TV. He swallowed and it went down his throat like razor blades. In his defense, at the time he hadn’t known how much she hated being in the spotlight. She’d handled herself admirably, then and yesterday. Because she was amazing.

“Oh, I wasn’t really a part of that.” Sherilyn tsked. “I went along because I had a vested interest in seeing that you no longer had a shot at getting matched. I’m in the mood for round two with you.”

What a mercenary.

“I’m sorry, Sherilyn, but I’m not interested in a relationship with anyone right now. You heard Candy. It would be unfair to you.”

He did not want to have this conversation. Not with Sherilyn, not with Candy, not with any woman. He was sick of the merry-go-round.

“Come on. Remember how good it was?” Sherilyn laughed throatily. “I’m not asking for a commitment, Dax. Just one night.”

Her words reverberated in his head, but he heard them in his voice, as he said them to Elise. And of course the idea had seemed as repugnant to Elise when it came from him as it did now to Dax coming from Sherilyn.

Why hadn’t Elise slapped him? Instead, she’d offered him friendship, which he’d thrown back in her face because he’d wanted things his way, not hers. And he’d lost something valuable in the process.

Dax sighed. “No, actually, I don’t remember. Thanks for calling, but please forget about me. We’re not going to happen again.”

He hung up and stared out the window of his office. He might as well go ahead and admit he missed Elise, too, and had no idea how to fix it.

The Stiletto Brigade hadn’t caused his problem with her. The problem had been there from the beginning, as she’d said. He’d discounted Elise’s hopes and dreams because they were based on something he considered absurd and improbable—true love. Yeah, he’d done the profile and gone along, but only to win the wager fairly, not because he believed she had some special ability to prove something that was impossible to prove. Yet she’d built an entire business on the concept, and if someone as smart as Leo bought into Daniella being his soul mate, maybe there was more to the idea than Dax had credited.

Maybe he should give Elise’s way a chance.

Or...

Love was a myth and now that some time had passed, the new marriage smell had worn off, but Leo was too embarrassed to admit he’d made a mistake. If Dax gave in to Elise without more information, he could be setting himself up for a world of hurt. After all, he didn’t trust easily for a reason. Look what had happened to his friendship with Leo.

Besides, Elise wanted to meet her soul mate and Dax was not it. Their vastly different approaches to relationships—and to life as a whole—proved that. So why pretend?

There was nothing wrong with two consenting adults having fun together. They didn’t have to swear undying devotion to take their relationship to the next level.

Why was she being so stubborn about this?

Leo might be too ashamed to come clean about how disastrous his relationship had become with Daniella, but Elise had lots of other clients. Surely several of EA International’s former matches hadn’t lasted. An unhappily ever after was a better way to attest that love was a myth than being matched with another Candy, anyway.

All he needed was one couple who hadn’t ended up with their soul mate as advertised. Then he could take the evidence to Elise. She needed to understand how the real world worked, and what better way to convince her? He’d have hard proof that even when people started out wanting a lifelong commitment, sometimes it still didn’t happen. Sure, she might be a little upset at first to learn she’d held out for something that didn’t exist, but then she’d see his point. She wanted him as much as he wanted her, and it was time to let things between them take their natural course.