by Amber Lynn
Sarah knew she’d bitten off more than she could chew, but she planned on at least going along and trying to appease the bridezilla and her sister. If she couldn’t find a good enough stand-in for Aaron, they were going to have to deal with it or find someone themselves. It’d be nice if Sarah had a say in who she had to walk down the aisle with, but when push came to shove, she was pretty sure it would end up being some guy they found on the street.
Chapter Two
Looking around the dimly lit room, Reid King shook his head and reconsidered how much he needed to find a date. It wasn’t a good omen that alcohol was being passed around and he couldn’t make out anyone’s face well from across the room. Apparently, the organizers didn’t want you to get an idea of what the potential dates looked like until the moment you sat down across from them.
They could have been covering up the less than stellar atmosphere of the club too. Reid didn’t hit up the clubs around town often, and the dark walls and mismatching tables set up around the room the singles were gathered in didn’t make him want to check out the nightlife scene. He had assumed the speed dating setup would mean he’d be able to speak to potential dates while they were coherent, but the way he saw a redhead slamming back whatever was in her glass told him words were going to be slurred.
“I can’t do this,” Reid whispered to the man standing next to him.
There had to be a better way to find a date. He looked over at the tall man to his left and tried to make it clear with his eyes that he wanted to go. Nico had been his teammate on the ice for two years and was one of his closest friends. He’d been the one with the brilliant idea to try speed dating when Reid’s agent told him he needed to find a date to impress a sponsor if he wanted to close an endorsement deal.
Nico glanced at Reid for a second, and then stared back out into the crowd around them. Knowing what a playboy the Russian was, Reid knew he was seeing the room a little differently.
“This will be easy. Just pick one and bat your eyes at them.”
There was a bit of a snort from Nico, making Reid playfully hit him in the arm. If Nico wasn’t known for dropping the gloves and beating the crap out of opponents on the ice, Reid may have made the hit not so playful.
Nico was a couple inches taller than Reid, coming in around six-four, and had arms the size of a normal person’s thighs. The man was a beast, and if anyone questioned that, all they had to do was look at his nose, which was the definition of crooked.
“Women bat their eyes, Nico. I don’t know what guys are supposed to do, but that ain’t it.”
It wasn’t like Reid hadn’t had girlfriends in the past, but they were all during high school. Once he found out he had a chance at making it pro, he focused away from girls and parties to make sure he didn’t blow that chance. The fairer gender didn’t always understand Reid’s total lack of interest, but he tried to let them down easy.
“I’ve seen women around you, even if you aren’t paying attention to them. Just bat your eyes and you’ll be fine. Anyone catching your eye?”-+9-
Reid looked away from his dark-haired friend to gauge the women in the room. His eyes immediately went to the redhead again. He didn’t remember having a preference in hair color, but there was something about her that interested him. She’d lost her glass, which somehow made him feel better.
The woman stood off to the side, giving Reid the feeling she wanted to be there about as much as he did. Everyone else had a look of excitement to them as they spoke with the people around them. The redhead wasn’t meeting anyone’s eyes and instead stared down at the floor in front of her.
“I’m just looking for someone who can show up on my arm and charm the guy whose company makes our helmets.”
It’d be helpful if Reid could manage to have a civil conversation with his date, but he wasn’t looking to make any friends. He was about to look away from the redhead to see what other options there were, but her eyes lifted from the ground and connected with his. The audible intake of breath from Reid wasn’t meant to come out, yet he couldn’t stop it.
They were too far away to see what color her eyes were, but he imagined they were green. The color would go perfect with her long red hair that looked soft as it bounced with the motion of her head. There was something about her that seemed vulnerable, and for once in his life Reid was curious to figure out what that was.
Reid quickly shook his head and looked back to Nico. The knowing look that greeted him made it pretty clear his reaction didn’t go unnoticed.
“She not right for what you need.”
Nico’s English was sometimes a little broken. Most of the time, his heavy accent and second language didn’t have a problem meshing, and other times verbs weren’t a priority.
“Do you know her?”
Wanting to look back to her, but not wanting to be noticed, Reid settled for getting another glimpse by looking out of the corner of his eye. The woman was back to staring at the floor in front of her. She’d moved a little further from the women talking around her, deciding to hold up the wall across the room from Reid.
“No, of course I don’t know her. I’ve just seen the type before. She’s a Plain Jane, and what you’re looking for is more of a Glam Pam.”
Reid’s brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of Nico’s words. They all seemed to be English, but they may as well have been another language. There was nothing plain about the redhead. Even without being able to see her well across the room, Reid could tell she was stunning. His breath wouldn’t have caught otherwise.
“What does that mean?”
Before Nico could answer, a woman with a microphone drew all eyes in her direction. Reid cringed as her nasally voice boomed through the room.
“Okay, guys and gals, I think everyone is signed in, so we’re going to go ahead and get started. For those of you who are new, let me explain how things work. We have a few more women than men tonight, so the women are going to be seated at the twenty tables around the room. Guys, you’re numbered so when I say go, you’ll find the woman who matches your number and sit down with her for three minutes.”
Reid couldn’t figure out if three minutes was too little or too much time. He envisioned it being too long more than anything else. He wanted to tune the speech out, but he needed to know what to do so he didn’t end up looking like an idiot.
“You’ll find a piece of paper and pen at your first station that you can make notes with and then take with you as the night goes on. When the bell sounds, rotate to the table to your left and repeat until everyone has a chance to meet everyone else. Once you’ve made it through everyone, go ahead and mark who you’re interested in hearing from and turn your paper in. If we have any matches, we’ll be in touch to let you crazy kids know how to connect.”
Hearing the brunette say something about crazy kids made Reid want to be somewhere else. It sounded weird, and the woman’s overall bubbly personality didn’t help matters. He envisioned every one of the twenty women with the same personality, which made his hands sweat a little.
Reid looked at the number pinned on his shirt and then searched for the woman wearing the same number five. The woman with the mike was in the middle of the groups of men and women, so everyone was facing the opposite sex and most of the women seemed the be doing the same thing he was as their heads moved and some stepped up on tiptoes to try to look around people in front of them.
No number fives jumped out, so after the woman instructed the other women to find a table, the men were quick to follow and sit. Nico hurried by Reid, actually pushing him to the side as he made his way over to sit with a smiling woman with golden hair.
By the time Reid put his heart behind moving, there were three women without someone sitting in front of them, all of them seemed to be off to the left of the room. The redhead was one of them, but she was at the table next to the woman wearing the five. Reid tried to hide the disappointment that wanted to show in his eyes. At least the redhead was the next person h
e got to meet based on the rotate to the left rule.
“I’m Jenny,” the perky fair-haired woman at Reid’s table said as she reached her hand out towards him.
It was hard not to wrinkle his nose. Reid was already sure he only needed to walk up to each table and have the woman introduce herself to know if any of them would work. Jenny wasn’t going to make the cut, or even the short list.
There was nothing wrong with her externally. She was a little thinner than he generally thought was attractive, but that was really the only negative thing he could say based on looks. The way her eyes instantly went to work undressing him was what immediately turned him off. It didn’t help seeing her tongue dart out to lick her lips. Reid imagined it was supposed to be sexy, but it only made him wish the three minutes were already over.
“I’m Reid.”
Carefully, Reid shook her hand, worrying that he’d snap it in two if he squeezed too hard. He took his seat, sitting on the very edge of the chair so he could spring out of it as soon as the time was up. Not wanting to be rude, he made sure his eyes didn’t dart to the next person he got to meet.
“Reid, huh. What in the world is someone like you doing here?”
The two of them had barely spoken, but Jenny was already making some notes on her scrap of paper. If Reid cared enough, he could probably figure out what she was writing, but he was scared to know.
“I’m not sure I understand the question. What exactly are we supposed to do during the three minutes? Has the time already started?”
Her words led Reid to believe she’d been to a speed dating event before. The fact that she was already hard at work with her piece of paper told him she at least listened a little better to the instructions.
“We ask each other questions to see if we want to go on a real date. So, what do you do for a living?”
Before answering, Reid looked over to his left to see what the redhead was doing without anyone at her table. He tried to make it brief, but the fact that she was writing something on her paper disturbed him. Returning his focus to the woman across from him, Reid sighed.
“I’d rather not get into that. I’m just trying to find someone who’s willing to go to one dinner with me.”
Jenny tilted her chin down and widened her eyes to look skeptically at Reid. He knew it was probably best that he didn’t reveal his motives, but he didn’t want anyone to get any ideas.
“And you decided speed dating is the best place to find this one-time arm candy? Why didn’t you just walk down the street and ask the first person you came across? If a woman is single, she’s not going to say no.”
Reid shrugged. It wasn’t a conversation he wanted to get into. He looked around the room to see if there were any clocks. His cell was in his back pocket, but he didn’t think it’d look good if he got it out to stare at. He hadn’t come out and said there wasn’t a chance of anything between him and Jenny, but he hoped that it came across clearly.
Not surprisingly, there were no clocks in sight. The woman who ran the show was staring down at her phone, hopefully watching seconds click down on a stopwatch or something.
“A friend convinced me this was a better idea. I have a feeling you two will get along swell. He’s right over there,” Reid said as he pointed to where Nico was leaning over a table.
Nico looked like he was a hair’s width away from kissing the woman, and she was ready to join in the fun. Something about the concept of closeness terrified Reid. It spelled distraction and he didn’t want anything to do with an activity that would divert his attention from his career, especially if it involved another person who could get hurt by his non-intentions.
Realizing just how bad the idea of convincing a woman to go to the dinner was, he pushed his chair back to stand. It wasn’t a needed move, since he was barely on the chair to begin with, but scooting away from the table seemed to relieve a little of the pressure he felt building up inside of him.
A buzzer sounded from across the room, causing Reid’s eyes to search for the cause. The woman running things clapped her hands together. The smile spreading across her face made Reid shiver. All that happiness wrapped up in one person disturbed him.
“Okay, guys, that means your three minutes are up and it is time to move to your left. Don’t forget to take your papers and pens with you and mark whether you’d like to see your first date again.”
Reid looked down at the paper and saw a list of numbers with checkboxes and lines next to them for notes. Even if he liked Jenny, their talk wasn’t long enough to decide whether he’d actually want to see her again.
“Well, it was nice meeting you, Reid, and just so you know, I’m marking you down as a match. There’s something about you that I just need to know more about.”
As he stood, Reid did his best to smile. There was no way he’d mark the match, but he kept that to himself.
“It was nice meeting you, Jenny.”
She was lucky he remembered her name throughout the three-minute meeting, so he left it at that. Straightening his light blue button-down shirt, his eyes moved to the redhead at the table to his left. Her eyes were green, and seeing that brought a genuine smile to his face.
Those eyes were staring up at him with a look of fear etched in them. Reid hoped that was at the general concept of meeting a new person and not the fact that he actually frightened her. The woman’s skin was almost translucent, making him a little worried she could be on the verge of fainting.
“Hi, I’m Reid.”
He stuck out his right hand before he took his seat. From behind him, he could already hear Jenny and her next date hitting it off more than the two of them had. He hoped her excited talking meant he was a distant memory already.
“Sarah,” the redhead said as she hesitantly inched her hand into his palm.
Her fingers were ice cold, causing Reid to grip a little tighter than he usually would in an attempt to maybe warm them up. The air temperature in the room was on the warm side to Reid, but spending so much time on a sheet of ice didn’t make him the best judge of temperature.
Releasing her small hand, Reid pulled the chair away from the table enough that he could sit down. He wasn’t exactly sure where he wanted to start the conversation, and she didn’t seem to be in a big hurry to say anything. Watching her eyes, it was clear she had something trying to work its way out as they rolled around like they were in thought and her lips made a few attempts to open.
Reid was in the same boat. He didn’t usually sit down to have a conversation with a woman, so he wasn’t sure where to start. Blurting out that he wanted a dinner date felt awkward. Since he was already having trouble looking away from Sarah’s eyes, he decided to wait for her to figure out whatever it was she wanted to say.
When she took a deep breath, Reid found himself holding his. He wondered what her voice would sound like once she finally let out more than just her name, and deep down he hoped it was pleasing. He hated to admit it, but he was sure she was the one he’d ask to go with him, even after Nico’s warning. There was something about her he couldn’t shake, which normally would have him running in the other direction. Instead, he found he couldn’t move away from her.
“Are you by any chance gay, or bisexual, and already in a relationship that just needs a woman to spice it up?”
Out of all the things she could have possibly said, Reid couldn’t believe those were the words that came out of her mouth. She spoke so softly and hurriedly that he had to scramble to hear what she said. The good news was that even in her rush and clear embarrassment, judging by the way her hands instantly covered her entire face, she had a soothing voice that wouldn’t grate on his nerves over dinner.
It was hard not to laugh, but Reid kept his response to just an amused smile. He tried to make it a warm smile, meant to calm the nervousness he felt coming from her, even if she couldn’t see it with her eyes covered. Reid wasn’t sure what to say, but he thought an answer was certainly required after a question that specific.<
br />
“I’m not gay, or bisexual, and I haven’t had a serious date in about seven years.”
Chapter Three
Sarah wanted to die, or at the very least have a hole open up in the floor below her chair to swallow her. She didn’t know where the question came from and blamed it on the fact that a freaking god had sat down at the table across from her.
She’d tried not to look too closely at the men while they were forced to stand around and wait for the event to start. It was nerve-racking enough just being in a room with forty people she’d never met before. Matters weren’t helped by the fact that most of the people looked like they stepped off of a runway. The man sitting across from her had to be a model of some sort, or maybe an actor.
There didn’t seem to be any product holding his smoothed-back dark brown hair in place. It looked too soft to be filled with gel. So soft that Sarah sort of wanted to reach out and feel if it was real.
Aside from the desire to run her fingers through his hair, his blue eyes were trying to burn holes in her. Even with her face covered, she could feel them penetrating. Sarah had felt them earlier from across the room, and they terrified her even more up close. She didn’t understand why he stared at her with such intensity. There was a small part of her that just wanted to sit back and return the stare to see who would blink first.
“Please pretend you didn’t hear any of those words come out of my mouth. I don’t know why I asked them.”
Sarah refused to remove her hands, so her words came out muffled. She’d known the whole speed dating thing would be a challenge for an introvert like her, but she hadn’t considered for even a second that she’d ask something as stupid as whether the guys were gay.
“I’m guessing you had some kind of reason. Look, this really isn’t my scene, but I need a date to an event and a friend suggested I give it a try. I have no intentions of starting any kind of relationship, so you should know that upfront.”