Page 27 of RAKEish

“Then I will set you up with rakes I know.”

That wasn’t going to happen, but she’d fight that battle when the time came. “How will I pick up a man if you’re with me on these dates for the next couple of nights?”

“I’ll be there but not beside you. I’ll situate myself to witness your attempts from afar so I can offer you feedback.”

“Be honest, you can’t really believe I’m going to capture a rake as a result of all this?”

“It could happen. I’ve been told rakes are known to fall into insta-love. One day they’re playing the field, the next they are threatening to kick the ass of any man who looks sideways at their woman.”

The term used to describe a certain romance trope caught her attention. “Do you believe in insta-love?” She glanced up at him, wanting to read his expression as she heard his response.

“We can feel other emotions instantly; I don’t see why love should be excluded,” he said with a genuine smile.

“Be still, my heart,” she teased. “A rake who believes not just in love but the instant kind.”

“My parents fell in love at first sight,” he said, somewhat gruffly.

She stopped. “Then the curse has been broken? Why are you perpetuating the myth it hasn’t been? Is it to get sympathy sex?”

“I misspoke. Father wasn’t so much in love as enthralled. To this day, he swears it would have been love if it hadn’t been for the damn curse. But Mum for sure fell the moment they met. And she said enthrallment from Father beat the hell out of love from any other man on the Earth.”

His words gave Lux something to think about. Perhaps instead of searching for love, she should find herself a man who was easily enthralled by a slick makeover and cheesy pickup lines. “How long were they married?” She only knew the part of his history that he’d revealed in his magazine column…which wasn’t a lot.

He began walking again. “They were married a little over thirteen years before her death.”

“I’m sorry.” She squeezed his arm. “Then Queen Mildred of Shiretopia is your stepmother?”

“Could we please move on to a more pleasant topic?” he said tensely.

“One more question.”

“And that is?”

“I know you said we have no spark, but did you feel any instant emotion for me upon first impression?” She would use his answer in next Monday’s show as a follow-up to her one on the importance of second glances. The show that had started this whole fiasco.

“Instant irritability,” he said. “When I first listened to you bash me as a columnist.”

“That’s fair since I felt instant prickliness toward you when I read your January column. But how about when you first saw an image of me?” He was, after all, one of the many men who’d swiped past her profile in under one second.

“Honestly, the first time I saw your image, I was flipping through candidates on the same dating app you were on as part of a work project. You didn’t fit the profile required for the column, so I rejected you.”

Oh. He hadn’t dismissed her as not right for him, but as not right for an assignment. Interesting. “I don’t recall your doing a column on the dating app?”

“That’s because Frankie vetoed the idea when I pitched it to her.”

They stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the light to turn. “What makes Scott Landshire tick?” Perhaps if she better understood him, she’d be better able to know when he was lying.

“Word to the wise: men do not like a woman who psychoanalyzes them.” His tone was light but with a hint of caution. “I would hazard to guess that’s one of the reasons so many men zipped past your profile image. You were holding that damn cup that shouted, ‘I’m analyzing your ass.’”

Fair enough. “Hazard of the trade,” she said, lightly. “Tell me, are you still irritated by me?”

He looked down at her. “Like you, my irritation has turned to intrigue.”

“What about me intrigues you?”

He gave her a devilish smile that did things to her stomach. “For starters, those pants you’re wearing.”

“Like, who designed them?” she asked. The light changed, and they moved with the other pedestrians.

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