Page 13 of Sweet Temptation

“I was polite,” I said. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to take one for the team. Girl had legs, bro.”

“I wasn’t into her.”

“Trust me, she noticed.”

I tossed him a dark look.

“I’m starting to think you’re actually dead inside.”

I didn’t dispute that.

“So,” he ventured, “do you think that was Tam’s idea? Or Naveen’s?”

“Naveen knows better,” I muttered.

At least, I fucking hoped my partner knew better than to try to secretly hook me up with one of his wife’s friends at a dinner party.

The party was for me, a little “congrats on officially retiring as a bodyguard” thing that my partners had insisted on throwing for me. It was at Naveen and Tamara’s house, and once the kids were put to bed, the adults had some decent conversation. It didn’t take too long to figure out, though, that everyone was coupled up except for me, Andre, and the woman seated next to me, a co-worker of Tamara’s.

And that Tamara was bent on the two of us hitting it off.

We didn’t.

“Are they in trouble now?” Andre asked, snickering.

“Whatever. It’s fine.”

It wasn’t.

Granted, Naveen’s wife had tried playing matchmaker for me a few times over the years, and the woman she’d tried to hook me up with tonight—shit; I’d already forgotten her name… Rosalie? Rochelle?—was pretty. She seemed like a nice girl. Worked at the same hospital as Tam, as a nurse.

But none of that mattered when you just didn’t feel anything.

It was definitely gonna take a hell of a lot more than pretty and nice to make my cold, dead heart kick back to life.

“You really weren’t into her?” Andre pressed, like he just couldn’t fathom it. “Like… even for a few hours?”

“No. She was way too… eager. Needy? Something.” Honestly, the woman stank of eau de desperation, which was even more off-putting given the fact that she clearly had a lot to offer.

Red flags all over the place.

I was done with needy.

Been there, done that. And been sucked dry by it way too many times.

“Christ, you’re an asshole,” Andre muttered. “She liked you.”

“I know. It was awkward.”

He snorted.

“Think I need to put the word out to my friends,” I grumbled, “and their wives, that I’m not looking to get fixed up.”

“I don’t mind getting fixed up. As long as she’s hot. And that Roshana chick was hot.”

Right. Roshana.

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