Page 84 of Failure to Match

His features pinched in confusion. “What does love have to do with it?”

I took a deep breath, centering myself. “I swear, if this is your idea of a joke?—”

“It’s not.”

My arms were deadweight at my sides as I stared up at him, failing to fit the pieces together. I’d spent the better half of a year trying to find this man a wife. Two matches per week for eight months, all of whom checked off every single item on his long list of requirements.

Me? I didn’t even check off one.

Notone.

I was too short. Too young. Too blonde.

I didn’t have a master’s degree from an Ivy League school, didn’t own my own seven-figure business, had never competitively played any of the sports on his list, didn’t speak a second language. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. I wasn’t even close to what he wanted in a wife.

“Explain this to me like I’m a child,” I tried. “Break it down to a molecular level.”

Jackson slipped his hands into his pockets and considered me for a moment. “I have to get married,” he said. “If I want to keep my position as CEO, which I do, then it’s no longer optional. Minerva isn’t giving me a choice in the matter.”

“Okay.” So far, I was with him.

“Problem is, I very much don’t want to get married, and being cornered into it isn’t exactly helping.”

I huffed a breath through my nose. “Why don’t you just... I don’t know, hire someone to marry you? Aren’t contractual marriages a thing in your tax bracket?”

I didn’t need to ask because they definitely were. Charmed had a package to cater to those clients, but it was all very discreet. I wasn’t senior enough to take on any of those cases, so I had no idea what they actually entailed.

He cocked his head. “If I offered you fifty million in exchange for one contractual year of marriage, would you do it?”

“Absolutely not.”

His face split into a heart-stuttering grin. “A hundred million.”

“No.”

“Two hundred.”

“No.”

A low chuckle rumbled out of the depths of his chest. “Then that idea doesn’t work. What else do you have?”

The back of my neck was growing increasingly damp. “I didn’t meanme. Find someone willing. It shouldn’t be very hard.” Not with a dollar amount that hefty. “Better yet, why don’t you make that offer to one of thesixty-sevenwomen we’d set you up with before this?”

I knew his deal with Minerva had changed after the whole pool incident; back then he’d only been required to attend the dates. But it wasn’t too late. He could probably arrange something with one of them now.

“Finding someone willing may not be difficult,” he said carefully, “but finding someone I could stand to spend that much time with is damn near impossible.”

“You hate having me around.”

I didn’t understand why this conversation was so amusing to him. His stupid grin kept twitching.

“You’ve grown on me.”Twitch. “We are friends after all, are we not? They do say that the happiest marriages stem from solid friendships.”

Valid point, minus the part where, “We’ve been friends forone day.”

“And yet it’s felt like a lifetime, no?”

My teeth sunk into my bottom lip. Punishment for smiling. “I hate you.”

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