Page 29 of Mr. Romantic (Mister 2)

“I’ll take that as a no. I will. I’ll talk dirty to you. Is Richard the jealous type?”

It takes several more seconds for Ivy to catch up on the conversation and then she squints her eyes at me and says, “Yes. He is. And he comes from a mob family in Providence. Ever hear of the Providence mob? It’s infamous.”

“You’re lying. Richard is some stuffy career man who wouldn’t know a mobster from his flaccid little dick. And no one you’re sleeping with is more infamous than me.”

“I’m not sleeping with you, Nolan. That’s final.”

“Not yet,” I say, leaning back in my chair and wishing we were somewhere more private so I could masturbate as she fights my seduction. “Anyway, I know Richard is fake. I even know why Mr. Corporate sent you here.”

“What?” she says quickly. “Why?”

“He’s trying to set us up.”

“What?” This time she’s loud.

“Yeah,” I say, taking a sip of my wine and reaching for the bread. I pull off a piece, butter it, and then place it on the little plate to her left. “Eat that. It’s fucking delicious. This chef I hired can bake like a motherfucker.”

“Why did he send me?” Ivy asks again, ignoring her bread.

I butter a piece of my own and then take a bite and another sip of wine to wash it down. “We’re playing games.”

“What kind of games?” She’s angry now.

“You know Mr. Match?”

“No,” she says, huffing out air that makes a little bit of hair blow up from her forehead. “Not really. I don’t know his real name. But I’ve heard of him.”

“His name is Oliver Shrike and he runs this dating site. Online dating? You ever done that?”

“Absolutely not,” she says, shaking her head and blushing. Which means she totally has. I’m going to get Oliver to look that shit up for me. If she was dating online, she was probably doing it at his website.

“Well, Oliver and his sister own this big dating site. But I was at Perfect’s engagement party a few weeks ago and Corporate comes up to me and says, ‘Don’t you think it’s weird that Match has no date today? Shouldn’t he have a date if he runs the country’s largest online dating site?’

“I shrugged and said, ‘Maybe?’ So then he goes into this whole plan about how he’s going to headhunt a girl for him. And he sends me this ridiculous online dating dossier this morning. A girl for Match. Right as you were pulling up in that limo, to be exact. So I think he sent you here to fix us up because I was dateless at that party too. Which means there’s no Richard. Maybe there was a Richard, once. But he’s not in the picture now. Mr. Corporate is very thorough.”

I have rendered Ivy Rockwell speechless too many times to count today. It gives me a lot of satisfaction. “You’re not eating your bread, Ivy. It’s good. And that fucking chef, man. She even has people making the butter from scratch. Take a bite.”

“Are you for real?” Ivy asks, all her defenses down. “No man is really this full of himself.”

“One hundred percent genuine. You’re getting me tonight, Ivy. I hope you can handle it. Because I’d hate to disappoint Mr. Corporate at the next party.”

Chapter Twelve - Ivy

I… have no idea what to make of him. None. This whole day, this whole experience, has been one mind trip after another. “Why would he do that?”

“I just told you,” Nolan says. His voice is low and filled with ego, and self-assurance, and charm—all wrapped up into one low rumble. His voice is filled with power.

“He’s trying to set you up? On… a date?” It seems silly.

But the look on Nolan’s face tells me I’m reading it wrong.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing,” he says back. “So about those ideas you have.”

Hmmm. So that’s why he kept me here another night. He wants to pump me for information. “I don’t work for free, Mr. Delaney. So you’re wasting your time with this dinner.”

“I don’t expect it for free, Ivy.” Those green eyes practically burn into mine. He doesn’t blink, or avert his gaze when I stare back.