Page 16 of Mismatched Mates

"A company expense?"

"Oh, absolutely. Accompanying Pine River's finest party planner to dinner? Practically a civic duty."

I laughed, the tension from earlier dissipating. "Your father might disagree."

“My father’s the one who insisted I do this for our image,” he said, tone slightly pious and mocking. “And like a dutiful son, I’ve done exactly what he wanted.”

If I wasn’t using him just as much as he was using me, I might have felt a curl of discomfort at his words, but he was going to be attending a wedding on my arm and participating in the ugly fallout of my marriage, so I’d be the kettle and he’d be the pot.

I stood up and brushed past him, heading for the door. As we stepped outside, the thick spring air enveloped me like a warm blanket. I fanned my blouse collar, trying to cool the flush creeping up my neck.

"Hot?" Grant asked, his voice tinged with amusement.

I shot him a look. "It's warmer than I expected."

A sleek black Porsche SUV idled at the curb, its tinted windows gleaming in the streetlights. My eyebrows shot up; the realization of his words earlier hitting me. Of course he had a driver.

Grant opened the passenger door with a flourish. "Only the best for Sentinel's newest asset. Thanks, Winslow.”

“No problem,” came a voice from the front. As I climbed in, the driver sniffed and glanced back at me, brows drawing together. He looked like he was in his early fifties, bald but with enough facial hair to make up for it.

Grant climbed in after me.

Winslow caught my eye in the rearview mirror but stayed silent.

Grant winked at me. “Where to, Jane Thomas?”

Hearing my name on his lips shouldn’t have lit me up inside. But it did. “Just…” Giving him my address seemed like a bad move in pretty much every dimension. “Thicket & Thorn.”

“The… bar?”

“Yup.”

“You got it,” Winslow said, as the car pulled away.

The sun was setting as we traveled back through the woods toward Pine River. Grant took his phone out, typed a quick message, and I tried to imagine any similarities to the pictures I’d seen of Konrad, but if there were similarities there, I was blind to them.

Honestly, he just wasn’t quite what I’d imagined for a Elston boy. Vince was one of those scary, diamond-jawed business types, while Grant looked like he’d be more comfortable in a tee and sweatpants. I could imagine him kickboxing with me.

Whoa Jane, you’ve gone on half a date and you’re already working out together? What’s next? Breakfast in bed?

“You’re staring at me,” he accused as he put away his phone.

“You’re egotistical.”

“That’s not a denial.” He glanced across at me, the phone screen lighting up his face in a washed out glow.

I narrowed my eyes. "I didn’t expect a Elston to be quite so..."

"Handsome? Charming? Irresistible?" he supplied helpfully.

I rolled my eyes and looked away, although he wasn’t exactlywrong. My fingers tingled with the urge to figure out how soft his hair was, or what the graze of stubble along his jaw would feel like. Ever since I’d first met him, I’d been too aware of his mouth and what it was doing.

"Annoying," I finished, but I could feel the corners of my mouth twitching upward against my will.

Heather was right: it had beenwaytoo long since I’d gotten some.

But no matter how ruggedly charming he might turn out to be, he was a wolf. Out of bounds. Off-limits. This was a business arrangement.

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