Page 34 of Failure to Match

He clicked his tongue. “Like I said, everybody has a price.”

“Oh yeah? What’s yours?”

“Approximately thirteen and a half billion, give or take daily market fluctuations.”

Huh. “Less than I thought.”

His smirk expanded slowly as he watched me, but before he could bite back, two waiters entered the room… and promptly stopped in their tracks, their widening eyes bouncing between Jackson and me. In their defense, we were practically toe to toe.

I took two full steps back, arms folding over my chest again as I gave them my best nothing-to-see-here smile.

“Our apologies,” one of them said. “We’ll have the staff knock before entering the room again.”

Oh, wow, no. “Not necessary. I was just leaving,” I said as they placed the food down. Three stone plates of vibrantly presented sashimi, squid, and caviar.

“You can eat first,” Jackson said, “the order was automatically upped to two when you arrived.”

“No, thanks.” My mouth was watering, my stomach was threatening to growl, but the absolute last thing I wanted to do was sit in that chair.

“You said you wanted sushi.”

“Still do. But I’ve already dined with you once and it’s not an experience I’m willing to repeat. Plus, there’s a sushi kiosk at the mall two blocks down, so I’m all set. See ya.”

I didn’t linger long enough to hear his response.

10

Toebeans was rightfullyunimpressed by my incompetence when I finally made it back to my suite, ninety whole minutes past his dinner time. He was curled up on my sweater, tail jerking irritably as he yowled his complaints.

“Sorry, cutie.” He jumped down from the bed, trotting over to stand as inconveniently in my way as possible while I fished out a can of wet cat food from its designated cupboard. “Here.”

He looked up at me expectantly as I tossed the empty can, his tail continuing to whip.

“Go on. I’m looking,” I reassured him, sinking to the floor.

He’d been like this since he was around six months old. Would not touch his food unless someone he trusted was there to watch his back while he ate. Ria and I took turns when we lived together, and after she’d moved out, I’d hired an on-call sitter to come in and look after him when I had to work late. Though it’d taken almost two weeks of us feeding him together for him to trust her.

“We need to figure out a new system, huh?” I scratched his fluffy back as he munched away. I had a feeling my evening schedule was going to be somewhat erratic over the next month.“I’ll ask the Bad Man if he’s cool with Rosie coming down here to feed you.”

She’d already said she could, her fee would just be a little higher to make up for the increased travel time, which was fair.

Once Toebeans was done, I gave him all the obligatory post-dinner pampering until he got sick of my love and swiped my fingers away.Enough, human.

“Fine.” I kissed the top of his head before getting up and stripping out of my stiff work clothes. I was starving. Not only had I skipped breakfast, but by the time I’d made it to the sushi kiosk, the lunch rush had stripped the shelves bare. I’d been left with a small pack of stale California rolls and a sugar-free iced tea.

I slipped into a pair of jeans and a grey tee, then unpinned my curls and let them fall loose from their too-tight bun before shoving them back into a much looser one.

There.

That was so much better.

“Kind of like taking your bra off at the end of a long day, but for your hair, huh?”

Toebeans chirped, and I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t. I knew he’d had enough, but he was too darn cute, my derpy little meatloaf.

I bounced over to where His Chonky Adorableness was curled up on the bed and gave him more kisses, annoying the ever-loving shit out of him. He was plotting my murder so hard; it was so cute.

“Okay.”Peck. “Bye.”Peck. “Be good.”Peck. “Last one.”Peck. “Promise.”Peck. “I’ll miss you.”Peck.

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