Page 49 of Love Expert

“It’s okay.” I press my palm to his pounding chest and force a small smile. “I’m not interested in sleeping with my client, and even if you’d changed your mind on the relationship stuff, it would bewildlyunprofessional for me to date the man I’m working so hard to set up with someone else.” I drop my hand and take a step back. “I’m gonna go downstairs. Let you boys finish getting ready. You need to brush your hair. Maybe consider swinging by the barber sometime soon, because it’s getting a little long. I’ll see you in a bi?—”

He grabs my wrist and yanks me back, then he slams his lips to mine.

My breath explodes on a gasp, and tears form in my eyes. Emotion clogs my throat, cutting off my air and starving the rest of my body. My phone beeps again. It vibrates. Then the single chime turns into an incoming call, and all the while, Billy’s lips crush mine.

They don’t move. They don’t taste or seduce. They do nothing except claim, the way a greedy child claims a toy in a sandbox.

I wanted this for so long. Needed it. Wished upon a star for it.

But now that I have it, my heart shatters at the realization it’s nothing like younger-me expected.

When I give him nothing but statue stillness and apathy, he disconnects our lips and rests his forehead against mine. “You were supposed to kiss me back.” Breathless, his eyes flicker between mine. “If I kiss you, you kiss back. Then you’ll realize I don’t need to go out on these dates anymore.”

“So it’s all a game?” My heart aches as I swipe the back of my hand across my lips, then I turn my hand over and spy Elson’s name on my screen.Work. Always work.“You think kissing me will ruin my plans?” I bring my eyes back to Billy’s. “That it’ll get you out of this prize you’re trying so ridiculously hard to escape?”

“No! I kissed you, cos I’m curious, Magnolia. Because I wanted to. But every time I try to play nice and have an actual conversation with you, you argue instead. Arguing makes it really fuckin’ hard to kiss you.”

Playnice. And yet, he claims there’s no game.

Angrily, he looks down at my phone and the call that rings out. Elson gives me just a minute of pause, then he dials again, lighting up my screen and turning Billy’s glare to something much darker.

Much meaner.

“I have to take this.” I press the pads of my fingers to my trembling lips, while hidden deep inside my chest, my heart aches and shudders. Becauseyeah, I’m curious! I’ve been curious my whole damn life. But grabbing me… tonight… like this?

That wasn’t a kiss of passion. It wasn’t even a kiss of curiosity.

It was nothing more than a feeble attempt to destroy the date I’ve organized, a last-ditch effort to cancel the plans he never wanted to make in the first place.

“Who is Elson?” His glare sizzles and warms the fingers wrapped around my phone. “Another client?”

“Yes. He is.”Sort of. I accept the call and take a step away. “I’ll be downstairs when you’re ready.” Bringing the phone to my ear, I charge through Billy’s door and past the closed bathroom. Turning at the top of the staircase, I jog down and wipe the stupid too-tired-to-function tears from my eyes. “Hi, Elson.” Sniffling, I clear my throat and head into the kitchen. “So sorry. Is everything okay?”

“Hi, Sweetheart.”

ROUND NINETEEN

BILLY

Pretty sure that was strike two… or three… or ten.

I don’t even know.

I lost count a long time ago, and as I bring my car to a stop just twenty feet from the benches at Picnic Point, I stare out at the woman who waits for me with wringing hands, a shy smile, and eyes that can’t quite meet mine.

Dammit.

Magnolia has somehow managed to find me some of the nicest, prettiest, sweetest women in a hundred-mile radius. Fuck knows, they’ll probably makesomeonereally happy someday. But I’m not that person, and every time they climb into their cars and drive all this way just to meet me, with their hair done up nicely and their makeup as flawless as they can get it without visiting a professional studio, I feel like a total jackass.

Apt, I suppose, since Magnolia’s convinced I’m exactly that.A jackass.

I brush a hand over my face, scratching the stubble I never truly shave away, then I cut the engine and glance across to my passenger seat, where my phone dings with an incoming text.

Not from Magnolia—which isn’t surprising at all, since she wants nothing to do with me—but from my first Magnolia-sanctioned date.

Brienne:

How’s it going, handsome? Did you tell her about us yet?