FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (4 page)

This was the culmination of months of work, but as I sat in the conference room, my thoughts kept drifting away from the powerpoint presentation and back to last night. I didn’t snap back into focus until Kyle barked the dreaded words, “—new assignment!”

“What did I miss?” I hissed to Olivia.

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Daydreaming about your bearded dude? You know, ever since I shaved, I’ve missed feeling hair down there. Maybe I need to look into acquiring a bearded dude, too.”

“Gross.” I wrinkled my nose. “I’m not talking about Ian.”

“For once.”

“Shut it. What did Kyle say about an assignment?”

Olivia huffed, bored with work talk. “He wants us to do some troubleshooting. Test the app, sweetheart.” She sighed dramatically. “Honestly, what would you do without me?”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, for one, I wouldn’t be a part of your rumor mill. I wouldn’t know that Ian is supposedly a manwhore.”

“Oh, he is!” Olivia clapped excitedly. “But go out with him anyway! This is actually perfect for you, Candy. You can go on a date with a guy you know is terrible from the get-go. This will be good practice for you.”

“Practice?”

She touched my arm, a flicker of concern dancing across her face. “Go out and have fun, and stop looking for the ‘one.’ Because I can guarantee you, Ian is not looking for the 'one,' either.”

Chapter Four

Ian

For a second, I didn’t recognize her.

She looked even better in the light.

“Candace,” I said, standing up from the table so quickly I nearly toppled my chair over. “Thanks for coming.”

“Were you waiting long?” she asked breathlessly, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Thanks for changing plans and meeting me here instead of picking me up." She plopped into her chair and rolled her eyes adorably. "I’m so sorry my boss kept us late. He has no concept of employees actually having personal lives because he doesn't have a life at all.”

I chuckled at the barrage of explanations. “I wasn't waiting. I just sat down,” I lied. In truth, I had arrived over twenty minutes ago and drained a Goose Island porter way too fast in an effort to calm my nerves.

“This place is nice,” she breathed.
Vermillion
was a Latin American-Indian fusion place I had heard of but never had the courage to try, but it seemed like the kind of place a classy girl like Candace would frequent.

“Better than a sports bar?”

“By a lot,” she smiled. “For one thing, I can actually hear you.”

“You might regret that,” I smiled as the waiter came and took our drink orders. “Jocks aren’t known for their conversational skills.”

“And I tend to blather on forever about nothing,” she hand-waved. “You’re the one who’s going to regret actually hearing me.”

“I highly doubt that,” I replied.

She smiled at me and the moment stretched out long, something hesitant hanging in the air. If she were anyone else, I would have cut it short with a kiss, reached under the table to grip her thigh, slid my hand into the warmth between her legs…

“I want to hear more about your job,” I blurted. “Why did your boss keep you late?”

She leaned forward eagerly. “I work for
Cupid’s Arrow
,” she said, with the confident air of a person who had every expectation that the other person knew what they were talking about.

“Oh?” I said blankly.

She looked up at me, frustrated. “The dating agency?”

“Oh!” I said, a little more brightly.

She sighed in exasperation and leaned back in her chair. “Oh my god, who am I kidding, of course the star enforcer for the Blackhawks has no reason to be using a matchmaking app.”

“I met you fine without one,” I pointed out.

She smiled up at me, displaying one lone dimple on her left cheek. I had the oddest desire to lick it.

“Well, if rescuing women from bad dates ever stops working for you, you should try it out.” Her eyes brightened. “Hey, you want to try something with me?”

Anything
. “Sure!” I said instead.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a battered-looking iPhone in a cracked case. I made a mental note of this, wondering if she’d like a new one as a gift. “Right after you called today, they pulled us into a meeting—that’s why I was late getting here. My boss asked everybody to please test the app in various locations, make sure there were no bugs, make a list of any of the dead spots—that sort of thing.”

“Sure, okay.” I had absolutely no technological prowess whatsoever.

“So—I’m just going to create a fake profile, right now,” she looked up at me with a mischievous smile. “What should your fake name be?”

I thought for a second. “Bradley Scott,” I said decisively.
Hey, maybe he might actually want to use it?
I thought to myself.

“I remember you telling me about him. Isn’t he your cautionary-tale friend?” she asked, rapidly typing into her phone.

“Yes. My best friend,” I said firmly.

“Okay, well, you need to answer as if you are you, not him, okay?” She leaned back and let the waiter set our drinks down.

I took a cautious sip of mine. I had the feeling I needed to keep my wits about me. That Candace would know if I was drunkenly bullshitting her. “Got it.”

“So, I’ve already got all my info loaded in,” she looked up to see my raised eyebrows. “What? I work there, I have to.” The blush dancing across her cheeks was too cute for words. “I mean, I’m not like, desperately looking or something…”

“I can’t wait to see how it works,” I said, trying to smooth over her embarrassment.

She visibly relaxed. “Okay, so this first bunch of questions are just really basic stuff: age, physical stats, stuff like that. We can skip all that.” She made a little face, the corner of her mouth turned down, and her tongue poking out adorably through her lips. She furrowed her brow, then sat back, nodding. “Okay, here it is. The matching section. First question is an easy one—do you prefer dogs or cats?”

“Cats,” I said firmly.

She looked up, surprised. “Really?”

I nodded. “I’m on the road a lot. Dogs are way too needy for me. I like cats, because they kind just hang out in the same house as you, not asking much except for food and the occasional belly rub.”

“See, now I would have totally pegged you for a guy who loved big, clumsy Labradors, or maybe even a bulldog.”

“I know it’s not the typical
guy
response. How about you? Cats or dogs?”

“Oh, dogs, for sure.”

“Really?”

“Why get an animal that’s not going to love you completely unconditionally? she asked. “Cats are too judgey and finicky for me.”

“You make a valid point,” I said, happy just to get to know her. There was this lack of cynicism about her that was so refreshing.

And her tits were pretty fucking refreshing, too.

I tore my eyes back upward, just in case she caught me staring at her chest. She tapped her screen a couple times, then frowned. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing?” she sing-songed.

I felt the grin spread across my face. “You’re comparing our answers, you?”

She grinned, showing that pretty little dimple again. “Not exactly subtle, am I?”

I shook my head. “Not subtle, no. But definitely adorable.”

She blushed. “Question two, which do you prefer more: hiking, or the beach.”

“Hiking,” I nodded. Surely this girl, with her fresh face and long athletic body would be into hiking as well.

But she shook her head minutely. “The beach.”

“So you can lay out and get a tan?” I asked, voice sinking.

She shot me a look. “So I can swim,” she corrected me.

“Well—hiking is kind of like swimming… Through air?” I sputtered lamely.

She shook her head. “You’re really reaching here, aren’t you?”

“I’m trying. Did that just make our score go down or something?”

She tapped on her phone. “Beer or wine?”

“Beer normally, wine with you.”

She glared up at me. “That’s not really an answer is it?”

“Beer,” I sighed, already knowing her answer.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure if I like this app,” she whined. “And I’ve spent the last six months working on it.”

The waiter appeared to take our order, and I found myself tapping my foot impatiently, wanting him to leave so Candace could keep asking questions. I wanted to know if we were compatible, even though I already knew how I felt.

“How many more questions?” I asked once he had left.

“Just two. Okay. City, or country?”

Well, this should be easy, she
was
a Chicago resident after all. “City,” I said confidently

Her shoulders slumped. “Damn it,” she said.

“Wait, I only said that because I thought
you
would. Country, I like the country.”

“Really?”

“Really,” I said.

For a second, we did nothing more than smile at each other.

She ducked her head and cast her eyes down. “Okay, last question. This one’s kind of random, but we did a bunch of surveys prior, and all of our respondents said that this was really key.”

“Lay it on me, I’m ready.”

“Which do you prefer,” she read. “Winter, or summer.”

I let out a short burst of laughter. “Candace, I’m a hockey player. Winter.”

“Damn it!” She laughed. Then she shook her head. “We are a twenty percent match, Ian.” She looked at me imploringly. “I don’t get it. According to this, we’d never be placed together because our odds of getting along are too low. “

“I think we get along pretty well,” I reassured her.

“I do, too.” She glared at her phone. “Maybe the app’s busted?”

I sat back in my chair. “Maybe you guys are concentrating too much on similarities. After all, what’s the saying? Opposites attract?”

When I said those words, it was like a little jolt went through her whole body, from her head all the way down to her feet. She looked down, then up at me, then back down, sliding her fingers mechanically over her phone, clutching it so tightly that her knuckles were white. “Opposites attract,” she echoed, like the words had more meaning to her than some useless platitude.

“Maybe you should bring that up? At work?”

Just then the waiter brought out our dinner. Candace went silent, cutting into her meat with a thoughtful grimace on her face. I could practically hear the wheels turning in her head.

I took a bite and waited. The food was amazing, but I could barely taste it over the riot of anticipation that whirled through my head.

She finally nodded slowly, and swallowed her bite of food. “That’s a really good idea.” Then she brightened, whatever spell she had been under lifting. “Seriously, thank you, Ian. I think you just fixed a big, big problem.” She shook her head. “Ian Carter.” Her lip curled a little. “Why didn’t you mention who you were last night?”

I set my fork down. This was always an awkward question.
Especially after Lisette…
“I don’t know,” I lied. “I guess it didn’t really come up?”

Even I could hear how lame that was, and Candace was too smart to let it slide. “Well, now, I think there were plenty of moments you might have mentioned that. Like maybe at the bar, when the hockey game was playing.” She ticked off on her fingers. “Or, maybe when we were passing the skating rink. Oh, oh, or maybe even when I told you I had no idea how a big guy like you could possibly be any good on the ice!”

I had to laugh. “Okay, you’ve got me. I didn’t tell you, well—because I didn’t really want it to matter.”

Candace laughed, her bright eyes softening. “Honestly, Ian. Even if you had told me, I would have only nodded, smiled, and then gone home to Google you.” She picked up her napkin and dabbed at her mouth, unconsciously wiping away the traces of lipstick that still clung to her full mouth. I liked that. I liked the way the natural berry color showed through. I could easily imagine leaning over and kissing her so hard that her lips turned red again in their own right.

But I didn’t. I kept my hands in my lap like a true gentleman, and counted backwards from ten to ignore the raging hard-on I was now sporting. “Not a sports fan?” I ventured.

She shook her head. “I know, it’s kind of a talent I have, especially living in this town. But I’ve never really been able to understand hockey.”

“Do you want to understand it?”
I want to understand you
.

She set her napkin down and looked up at me shyly. “Suddenly? Yes.”

A rush of pride filled my chest, even though it was the corniest thing in the world.

When the waiter reappeared to take our dessert order, I wanted to wave him away. This dinner was going by way too fast. I wanted to stay here…with her. Talk to her…touch her…let her touch me…