The Matchmaker's Replacement
Page 27
I rolled my eyes. Typical Ian.
Blake looped her arm through his and laughed as he kissed her on the nose. She was super tall so it looked cute, whereas if Lex tried to kiss my nose I’d have to either be on the countertop or in his arms.
Blake and Ian weren’t the perfect match either, but together, they made sense. Maybe not on paper, but in real life, there was no girl better suited for him.
And Lex? Well, Lex was the same way.
The elevators opened on the twelfth floor. A short hallway led into a large glass-encased lobby surrounded by lines of offices and then a set of cubicles in the middle.
“Wow.” Lex squeezed my hand, then let go and started walking around. “It’s perfect.”
“Both corner offices are ours for the taking,” Ian called out as Lex and I hurried down the hall toward the first corner office.
A leather couch was already inside, along with a random chair and a piece of paper on the floor.
“What do you think?” Lex asked without looking back at me.
“I think”—I nodded toward the couch—“that the brown couch has seen better days, but you may want to keep it.”
“What?” Lex turned around. “Why?”
“Memories.” I smirked, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the couch, only stopping so that I could push him onto his back and straddle him. “It’s the very first couch in your very first office . . . the very first couch you’ll have sex on during the workday!”
“Gasp.” Lex laughed. “I must be a complete and total man slut.”
“Oh, you are. All the ladies think so, even that really old personal secretary you hired.”
“I’m lost.”
“Repeat after me: all of my secretaries will be old grandmas with charming smiles and ten grandchildren.”
Lex burst out laughing, then tugged my mouth against his in a searing kiss before letting me go. “Sunshine, I could have Victoria’s Secret supermodels working for me; hell, I’m pretty sure I was with one when—”
I glared.
“The point”—he kissed me again, smiling—“is they wouldn’t be you. And it’s always been you.”
“Promise?” My voice was husky as I trailed tiny kisses down his neck.
“Yup, now move a little to the left. You know what the manual says. I have an equal opportunity neck; I need love on both sides, you know?”
I smacked him.
He shook his head. “Page five specifically states that if you slap me during foreplay, at least one of five dirty words must follow.”
“I’m not calling your penis ‘womb raider.’”
“Killjoy.”
“I can’t believe you actually gave a manual to girls before bed.”
Lex tickled my sides and flipped me onto my back so that he was hovering over me. His gorgeous smile was illuminated by the light coming in from the windows behind him. “If you’re not gonna do it right, why waste my time?”
“Hopeless,” I fired back. “Good thing I never needed the manual.”
“Nope.” Lex shrugged. “Because you were always right. The perfect match.”
“Aw,” Ian said from the door. “You guys gonna break into songs from Disney? Because if you are, we can wait. Blake totally digs musicals.”
“Let them have their moment!” Blake slugged Ian in the stomach.
He coughed out a curse and glared. “Must you be an athlete?”
“I’ve been lifting,” she said proudly.
“No shit.” He coughed again. “Lay off the roids.”
She raised her arm again.
“Kidding! Geez!” He was still twice her size, but she was a strong girl, which Ian needed. “Alright, you lovebirds ready to go?”
“Nope.” Lex tugged my body tighter against his. “Why talk when we can make out? Don’t you have an office to go to?”
Ian frowned. “Yeah, but it’s daylight.”
We all fell silent.
“Right.” Ian chuckled. “Right, Blake.” He led her away from the office. “Have I ever told you that very vivid fantasy I had about a really sexy volleyball player naked on my desk?”
“You guys have serious problems.” I laughed against Lex’s mouth as he kissed me deeper, harder, his hands already tugging away my leggings, my Ugg boots trapping them in place.
“See!” Lex pointed. “The devil makes those boots!”
I rolled my eyes. “Lex, I’ll take them off . . . but first . . . tell me something.”
“Anything.”
“In the playbook, the last page, it says ‘And they lived . . .’ What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Sunshine, it means that the couple has to finish the story. They decide the ending.”
“And ours?”
“Happily.” He kissed the side of my mouth. “Ever.” He kissed both eyelids. “After.” He kissed my nose. “Now take off those damn boots.”
Epilogue
Lex
10 months later
Hot damn, I’d love to tap that,” I said aloud as Gabi weaved her way through the large crowd. She was wearing a tight red dress and heels that went on for miles, and I was already envisioning her naked—wearing the heels, of course—in my bed. I gave her a nod of approval as she smiled at a board member and then finally stopped in front of me.
“Stop flirting with Stan,” I said, huskiness lacing my voice.
“Stan golfs with my dad. He’s seventy. He’s on the board of directors because his wife says he gets depressed sitting in his big house.”
“How hard for Stan, living in a mansion.”
“Look who’s talking,” Gabi teased, pulling her bottom lip into her mouth, her white teeth biting down on the red lipstick.
“Damn it, don’t look at me like that if you want me to behave.”
“When have you ever behaved?”
She knew me so well.
“It’s Christmas, you know,” Gabi pointed out. “I may have a little . . . surprise for you back at the house.”
“Aw, Sunshine, did you bake?”
She slugged me in the shoulder. “No, Mr. Vice President.”
“I love it when you talk dirty. Last night when you called me ‘sir’ in bed, I nearly orga—”
“Ian!” Gabi choked out, interrupting me. “How’s . . . life?”
He frowned. “You been drinking?”
“Loads,” I answered for her, then wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “I better get the fiancée home. You know . . . how she . . . tires.”
Gabi glared daggers at me. I ignored her. As per usual.
Ian shook his head. “I don’t even want to know whatever the hell little sex play you guys have got going on right now. Have you seen Blake?”
“Eating.” Gabi laughed. “She’s been doing nothing but eating since she got here.”
“She’s eating for two!” Ian said defensively as Blake made her way over to us. At six months pregnant, she looked more rock star than usual. Almost like pregnancy was her superpower. Her skin was gorgeous, and her smile was electric. Ian did good with Blake.
“Sorry.” Blake smiled sheepishly. “It’s just, they have these amazing little bacon-wrapped pickles.”
I made a gagging noise.
“You just wait!” She laughed, pointing her finger at Gabi.
I stiffened while Ian paled and shot me an accusing glare.
“Chill.” Gabi rolled her eyes. “I’m not pregnant. Some of us still have a few credits left!”
Gabi’s dad made his way toward our little group. “Ian, Lex, it’s time.”
I kissed Gabi on the head for good luck and followed Ia
n as we made our way to the stage.
The applause was deafening as we took front and center. My eyes locked on Gabi as I mouthed, “I love you.”
Tears filled her eyes as she mouthed it back.
“It’s been a great year,” Ian started. “We’ve tripled our clientele and started selling the app overseas.”
More cheering.
“Thanks to Lex, our resident tech guru, The Villain Bracelet 1.0 sold to Apple for fifty million dollars.” I beamed. It was hard not to. After I’d won over Gabi, it hit me: why not have a type of bat signal that girls could send, whenever they were in bad situations, to request help? The bracelet had different settings for blind dates, bad dates, scary situations, walking home by themselves. Whenever a girl was doing any of those things, she could change the settings and press a simple alert if she was in trouble. It notified the police of her location and sent a text to her closest friend or family member. “Lex? A few words.”
I stepped forward, my eyes gazing over the large crowd that had gathered for our celebration.
Years ago I would have lived for this type of attention and recognition.
But in that moment, all I cared about was sharing it with Gabi.
“I’m so proud to share this moment with my best friend and fiancée.” She was both. “She’s my everything. My partner in crime, my lover, the person I turn to for both business . . .” I barely kept myself from saying “pleasure” out loud—especially with her father looking at me from across the room. “I guess what I’m trying to say is: she’s my home, my family, my world, and I’m so happy that she said yes.”
People clapped, but I had eyes for her, only her.
Funny how we’d started out as enemies.
Turned into lovers.
Ended as best friends. And so much more.
“Thank you . . . and Ian?” I continued, “We did good, man. We did good.”
Ian and I shook hands while cameras went off, and I went in search of Gabi. When I couldn’t find her in the crowd I panicked, until something pinched my ass.
I turned and glared.
Gabi waved her fingers at me. “Ready to blow this party, Lex Luthor?”
“I’ll ready the escape vehicle.”
“Oooo . . .” She pulled me in for a kiss. “I love it when you’re bad.”
“I’m so bad I’ll let you eat Pirate’s Booty in bed.” She shivered. “While I watch.” My tongue caressed her outer ear as she burst out laughing.
“So, what’s Lex Luthor’s weakness? You never told me.”
“I think that would be obvious.” I shrugged, leading her out the door. “It’s sassy-mouthed short girls who wear ugly-as-hell Uggs and shout my name.”
“I shout your name a lot.”
“I know.”
“Lex! Do the dishes!” she yelled.
“Lex!” I joined in with my best falsetto. “Right, there! Oh, that feels so good, a little to the left.”
People glanced curiously in our direction.
Gabi smacked me in the stomach. “Does a whore ever change its spots?”
“Let’s hope not!” I picked her up, tossed her over my shoulder, and slapped her ass. “Let’s go, future Mrs. Luthor.”
“Hey!” she squealed. “Does that mean I get my own villain name?”
“We’ll talk about it.”
“Lex!”
“As in, oh look, I brought it to the table for discussion and the board voted no. Sorry, Sunshine.”
“Lex!”
“You can drive the sidecar. And fetch my laundry. And when I’m feeling really generous, I’ll let you touch my freeze gun.”
“Lex Luthor doesn’t have a freeze gun.”
I chuckled suggestively. “But he does have a gun. You’ve felt it.”
“You’re gross.”
“You love me!”
“I do.” She giggled. “Clearly I’ve been corrupted by the Dark Side.”
“It’s better over here. Trust me.”
“I do,” she whispered. “I do.”
Cast
Gabrielle “Gabi”
Francesca Sava
Devyn Adair
Lex “Luthor”
Michael Turner
Blake Olson
Lauren Alexander
Ian Hunter
Tanner Tinney
Mrs. Sava, Gabi’s mother
Meg McLynn
Crew
Director and Director of
Photography
Tristan Pope
Production Support
Run Studios
Acknowledgments
I’m so thankful to God for allowing me to follow my dreams every single day . . . All glory and thanks always goes to him first. With that being said, most of these books wouldn’t be possible without a huge team of people! Thank you so much to Katherine Tate, Liza Tice, Kristin Van Dyken, and Jill Sava for being a sounding board for much of this book. Melody, as always, you were such a joy to work with from start to finish, and you helped mold this product into something amazing! I love how you push me!
Erica, my agent, superwoman, thank you for believing in me and my writing process and, you know, fighting crime on my behalf. You’re awesome.
The team at Skyscape, Courtney and all the publicity, you guys are rock stars. When we talked about the marketing for this concept, I’m pretty sure I went home and jumped up and down in excitement. Thank you so much for believing in me as an author and allowing me to write for you!
Danielle Sanchez and the Inkslinger team . . . thank you for all the work you put into each release!
Bloggers.
Oh man. Bloggers and reviewers. Again, I feel like I need to just start dedicating books to you guys. Thank you for all of your constant support, and thank you for reading my books, seriously. I can’t thank you enough.
Rachel’s New Rockin Readers, Jill, Becca, AHHH, and all of the many people in that group who make my job so much fun. Thank you for putting up with my craziness!
And Nate, thanks for not judging me when I ask you crazy questions about guys’ psyches. I think this is why I LOVE writing from the guy’s point of view!
As always you can connect with me on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter! To keep up on my new releases text MAFIA to 66866!
Hugs,
RVD
To my son. You’re never getting married!
HA-HA! No, but seriously . . .
About the Author
Photo © 2014 Lauren Watson Perry, Perrywinkle Photography
A master of lighthearted love stories, author Rachel Van Dyken has seen her books appear on national bestseller lists including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. A devoted lover of Starbucks, Swedish Fish, and The Bachelor, Rachel lives in Idaho with her husband, son, and two boxers. Follow her writing journey at www.rachelvandykenauthor.com.
Praise for Rachel Van Dyken
“The Consequence of Loving Colton is a must-read friends-to-lovers story that’s as passionate and sexy as it is hilarious!”
—Melissa Foster, New York Times bestselling author
“Just when you think Van Dyken can’t possibly get any better, she goes and delivers The Consequence of Loving Colton. Full of longing and breathless moments, this is what romance is about.”
—Lauren
Layne, USA Today bestselling author
“The tension between Milo and Colton made this story impossible to put down. Quick, sexy, witty—easily one of my favorite books from Rachel Van Dyken.”
—R. S. Grey, USA Today bestselling author on The Consequence of Loving Colton
“Hot, funny, and will leave you wishing you could get marked by one of the immortals!”
—Molly McAdams, New York Times bestselling author on The Dark Ones
“Laugh-out-loud fun! Rachel Van Dyken is on my auto-buy list.”
—Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author on The Wager
“The Dare is a laugh-out-loud read that I could not put down. Brilliant. Just brilliant.”
—Cathryn Fox, New York Times bestselling author
Also by #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Rachel Van Dyken:
The Consequence Series
The Consequence of Loving Colton
The Consequence of Revenge
The Consequence of Seduction
The Consequence of Rejection
The Wingmen Inc. Series
The Matchmaker’s Playbook
The Bet Series
The Bet
The Wager
The Dare
The Ruin Series
Ruin
Toxic
Fearless
Shame
The Elite Series
Elite
Elect
Entice
Elicit
Bang Bang