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Hmm. And here I thought things couldn’t get any worse.
“Lyndsey? As in the dreaded Lyndsey Saunders?”
Her eyes latched onto mine, cold and insistent, despite the anxiousness from before. “I’m not a pirate, Mr. Carson. I don’t pillage small fishing villages and bury treasure on deserted islands. Nor do I want to know the many erroneous and, no doubt, convoluted stories my cousins may have told you about me. I’m here to see that you get everything you need from our services.”
Damn. She’s wound like a top!
She’d been stubborn and opinionated since the moment I first met her, but this was a whole new level. Though, I admit I could have handled my surprise at her identity a little bit better. I don’t imagine there were many women who appreciated being called “dreaded” or reminded how badly they didn’t belong with the rest of the people in their family.
I groaned.
God, I’m such an ass.
“Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just frustrated. I’m not really interested in these matchmaking services.”
She smiled tritely, flipping through the files in front of her. “Then one would wonder why you signed up for them in the first place.”
“That would be my sister’s doing. She’s not very patient when it comes to...well, anything,” I explained. Like literally anything. Though, mentioning my sister’s horrible character when it came to people certainly wouldn’t get me on this woman’s good side. “And I may have foolishly mentioned wanting to find a wife. She then took the initiative to sign me up for this instead.”
Lyndsey shook her head, confused. “And what’s wrong with a matchmaking service? Isn’t finding a wife what this is all about?”
“You would think, but my sister and I don’t necessarily see eye to eye on these kinds of things.” You know, the whole sacrifice love for convenience sort of thing. Though explaining that to Lyndsey would only make matters even more awkward than they already were.
“Meaning…?”
She was really going to make me explain all of this? How could I talk about love and passion in front of this woman? She’d been all I’d been able to think about for the past few days. It had taken everything to remind myself that a woman like her was trouble, real trouble. The kind that made a man drain his bank account and give up on dreams for the future, all for a two-month fling that included mind-blowing sex with a hot blonde.
I could live with that.
“Mr. Carson, are you still with us?” Lyndsey asked.
I nodded, stupefied by my own fantasies and desperately trying to rid myself of the images now swirling around my head. How the hell was I supposed to work in close proximity to this woman? Let alone discussing intimate details about my life and things I wanted from a long-term partner?
“Yes, I apologize. My sister...” I stammered through my response. “She is more interested in business, where I am more interested in…connections.”
“Well, that’s good,” Lyndsey said, the irritation slowly leaving her. “We can focus on attraction and finding common interests, rather than finding someone who fits your lifestyle.”
Finding someone who fits my lifestyle? That sounded like something someone would do when purchasing a pet. “Sure. Whatever we need to do, I guess. Get this done and over with.”
“Well, this is a lifetime commitment you’re making here,” she said. “You want to give it some thought.”
A lifetime commitment to a perfect stranger? Wonderful! My heart thudded within my chest. My body was close to shutting down. Could I do this? Could I carry on with this little charade to appease my sister for a lifetime? I reminded myself just why I was doing this. I needed to find a match, someone who would be content to be a firefighter’s wife, happy raising a family, and occasionally look after my mother.
I wasn’t even happy with that life. But it was what needed to be done. It was what my father expected me to do, what the family expected of me. I was the one who needed to pick up the broken pieces of this family and keep it together for as long as possible.
“So, what are you looking for in a wife?” Lyndsey asked.
I froze.
How do I answer that?A blonde with a spectacular body and a mouth that drives me insane?I wasn’t looking for a wife like that. Hell, I was basically looking for the opposite of that! I didn’t need someone challenging me every step of the way, and I certainly didn’t need someone who looked ready to leap at the next opportunity to pass her way every second she had.
“Look.” I rose, moving around the table. “I don’t think this is going to work.”
“You haven’t even tried,” Lyndsey said, rising to her feet and placing herself between me and the door. “All I need to know is the type of relationship you want or the woman you imagine yourself being with.”
And if that woman was Lyndsey Saunders, the one woman my sister would never approve of, what then? Holidays were already awkward enough. I couldn’t make it infinitely worse by screwing my sister’s arch nemesis.
But there she stood, pressed against the door, her eyes glued to mine. It would be so easy to lean down and kiss her, to pin her there between my embrace and show her why this particular business relationship would never work.
