Page 80 of Failure to Match

“Ah, yes, you’re going to love this.”

I bit down my smile.

“You said Cat likes Adrien because of his scent, right?”

My heart skipped a beat. “That’s just a theory. We’re not actually sure…”

He waved a dismissive hand. “Either way, having my scent associated with all this is probably going to help him warm up to me.”

I crossed my arms over my pounding chest, like that would help protect it. “What about the pictures?”

Along the walls of the palace were framed pictures of Jackson’s face, all in varying sizes and expressions.

“Brilliant, no? Same idea as the scent.”

“You’re unhinged. This”—I flapped a hand around—“is unhinged.”

He grinned. “Would you like to hear the best part?”

I guessed it immediately. It was the emphasis he put on the wordhearthat tipped me off.

Jackson clapped his hands together twice.

“Hello, Cat. This is Jackson Sinclair, your favorite male human. You love me, and you love my voice. You do not hiss when I am near, especially not in my home?—”

I clapped, cutting the recording off. My chest couldn’t handle much more. This was… I was just… Every single piece of data we’d accumulated in Jackson’s profile was incorrect.Noneof this aligned with the information we’d been provided by his team.

He was so much more... Honestly, I’d never met someone quite so…

“What do you think?” he asked before my thoughts could fully form. His expression was slowly sobering. “I know it’s unhinged, but do you... like it?”

He stepped closer. I meant to take a step back.

“It’s…” I trailed off, my blood thrumming as his gaze met mine and softened. “I don’t... really understand why you did this.”

There was a long, dense pause. “I want Cat to like me.”

My fists dug into my ribs as my pulse scrambled for purchase. “And why’s that?”

“Because.” His head slanted to one side. “I’ve decided that I like... him.”

Whatever response my brain pieced together died in my throat when Jackson tilted my chin up, thumb caressing my skin.

“I find Cat intriguing,” he murmured, and I was convinced my heart was going to beat out of my chest. “I’ve never been outwardly loathed like that before. People always pretend.”

Willing my voice not to crack, I said, “So… you only like him because he doesn’t fall at your feet like everyone else?”

Jackson dropped his hand.

“You have no idea how rare—how fuckingrefreshing—that level of honesty is when you’ve spent your whole life not knowing whether the people around you are there because ofyou, or your money.” His throat worked with a rough swallow, eyes sliding between mine. “I like that he doesn’t put up with mybullshit just because of my family name. That he refuses to be bought with my money.”

We were still talking about Toebeans.

Yup. We were definitely still talking about my cat, so if my heart could stop trying to beat itself into cardiac arrest now, I’d sincerely appreciate it.

“You want to know the real reason I was so rude to you on our first date, Jamie?” His voice dipped to a low gravel, snaking through me like ivy. “I was trying to see how far I could push before somebody finally told me to go fuck myself.”

My breath hitched when his thumb caressed my chin again, my lips drawing his gaze when they peeled apart.

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