Page 13 of Unlikely Match

I reach out to take her hand. "Ridiculous question again. If we win, you haven't told me where you'd like to go on this fabulous dream vacation."

Her eyes drop. "You know, I've been so focussed on the money and finding an art space that I didn't really think about that part. I've never been anywhere."

"Are you a lounge on the beach type of lady? Or would you prefer museums and galleries?"

"Galleries, definitely."

"Then you want to go to Europe." Squeezing her hands gently, I'm relieved when she smiles. "Okay, on the count of three, we'll both say three cities in Europe we'd like to visit. Ready?"

Jewel laughs brightly. "Ready."

"One. Two. Three."

She says, "Paris, London, Barcelona" just as I say, "Zürich, London, Vienna."

We both burst out laughing. "I guess it's settled, then." Leaning forward, I kiss the tip of her nose. "We're going to win and go to London."

Her smile is so precious. "You're totally sure?"

"We might as well continue to operate on that assumption."

She checks something on her phone that makes her flinch. "Bad news?" I ask.

Her head shakes, sending tendrils of blue hair swirling around her cheekbones. "I don't know. The site's loading really slowly. But, um… They posted that photo."

Leaning over, I'm sure that my face falls as badly as hers when I see it.

It'sawful.

The worst kind of paparazzi shot. Since we'd been in near darkness for a while, our pupils are so dilated we look crazed. Jewel looks like a freshly fucked sex kitten. I'm blocking her protectively, yet looming over her like some sort of predator. In the tight t-shirt, my muscles are completely pumped up, possibly from having been holding her up.

I look like a damn savage. The exact opposite of what I've always attempted to project.

Jewel turns to me looking so horrified that it breaks my heart.

"Luckily, only people following the contest will see it," I say, hoping that I'm speaking the truth. I can't stand the thought of my employees seeing me cornering a young girl. It honestly looks like I could have been doing anything to her.

"Send me a link to the site so I can read everything as well?" She texts it to me, then we both scroll through the comments.

I'm not really surprised that so many people entered this contest. I guess free matchmaking services are a rare treat. But the hundreds, maybe thousands of people who are following along online? Some of the comments.Damn.

"These people are vicious," I mutter, skimming through complaints about the denim couple's ragged appearance. Or how the man in the sporty couple is obviously on steroids, and the woman has supposedly had a bad boob job.

"We have way fewer negative comments than the rest of them," Jewel says thoughtfully.

Skimming through some of the comments on our photos, it's clear that a lot of the men find Jewel sexy. She looks up at me when I reach my hand out to cover her phone. "Sweetheart, I don't think I want you to read all of this crap. if someone says anything nasty about you, I'm going to lose my shit."

I love the way she smiles whenever I say something sweet to her. "It's okay. There hasn't been anything really terrible. Seems like a whole bunch of people were happy that they finally got to see your face."

"So much for me being a man of mystery."

"Hey, it was a big reveal. It's just a shame it wasn't ours."

"Maybe it would be good if there's one photo of us looking more presentable," I say thoughtfully. "What do you think?"

"I'm down if you are. Where would you like to take it?"

My fingers drum on her knee while we both think. "I guess since that photo made us look a little bit…" She hesitates. "Wild, let's say… Maybe we should post something more dignified?"

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