Page 20 of Perfect (mis)Match

I heaved a sigh, the weight of what I was about to do settling on my shoulders. Invoking the name of the woman who’d done nothing but challenge me since the moment we ran into each other—literally—felt like admitting defeat.

“Piper,” I finally said. “Piper Doyle.”

The woman who might be the end of me.

6

PIPER

Vincent Forde was the Beelzebub of the boardroom. Ihatedthat man!

I was so consumed with frustration after our confrontation about the Sullivans I couldn’t focus on my work. I longed for one of those stupid rubber squeeze balls with a corporate logo on it, so I could squash it in my hand and pretend it was his face.

His distractingly handsome face.Whydid he have to be so damn hot? I shouldnotbe finding him attractive when he’d dismissed me like he was a principal and I was his unruly student!

How I was going to survive the next few weeks of torture was beyond me. It was like it physically pained him to admit when I was right. And now we’d be traveling together? I wanted to visit Hawaii, but not with him as my plus-one unless I could toss him into a volcano as a human sacrifice.

I settled back at my desk and tried to focus on editing some web content photos, but my phone went off with three texts in a row.

Matthew, again.

A greeting, a question about if I was purposely avoiding him, and a request to meet for coffee to catch up and “chill.”

I snorted and pushed my phone behind my computer. No way. I knew better than to get caught up in his lies again. Matthew was magnetic in all the wrong ways, and I didn’t have the time or energy to waste trying to figure out his angle. Maybe he was in between women, and he was looking for someone to keep him warm as he tried to find better options? The guy was dumb enough to try a “U up” text during the daylight hours, so I wouldn’t put it past him.

I settled in and finally shifted into my drone-zone, where all the background noise of the day faded away, only to have the interoffice phone on my desk scare the hell out of me with an overloud ring.

“Vincent would like to see you,” his assistant Linda said. “Again.”

I picked up the subtext in her clipped tone. Something was up.

When I walked back into his torture chamber of an office, he jumped out of the chair behind his desk and welcomed me in as if hehadn’tjust dismissed me like I was an impertinent servant thirty minutes prior.

“Piper, thanks for coming back. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

I narrowed my eyes at his inexplicable lack of asshole-ishness, trying to figure out why he was suddenly displaying manners I’d honestly thought he didn’t possess.

“Actually, you did. What’s up?”

“Sit, please,” he said, pointing at the black leather chairs in front of his desk. As I moved to take a seat, I couldn’t help but notice his sleeves were rolled up, revealing strong forearms that looked annoyingly good. I cursed myself for noticing.

I was shocked when he opted to sit in the chair beside me and not behind his desk. Something was definitely weird with him, and I didn’t trust the shift.

Vincent took up space, and it wasn’t just his strong frame. Him sitting across from me, staring at me with his stupid piercing blue eyes, made it a little hard for me to breathe. He didn’t just look at me, hestudiedme.

Like he was trying to figure out how to swallow me whole. Which, honestly, sounded equally scary and hot, so I tried to push the thought away.

“This might come as a surprise to you, but I think we make a good team.”

I laughed in his face. “What in the world gave you that idea? We bicker every time we’re in the same room. You don’t respect my input. You’re pushy as hell. You’re rude. You don’t trust my process. None of that suggests teamwork.”

He smirk-smiled at me, like he thought I was being adorable. “Oh, come on. Things are going great! And that’s why I think we should expand our little charade.”

“Which one? The one where I respect you as a boss?”

He laughed good naturedly, not taking the bait at all.Whatwas going on?

“I mean the dating thing we agreed to. For the Sullivans.”

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