Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16678 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16678 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
Death to Sebastian.
Death to his fellow minion, Byron Graham. He’d probably helped our boss create this stupid bio.
And adorable? No. Not even close. Maybe Arden was blind, and that was why he was wearing sunglasses.
As we stood there awkwardly, I sneaked another glance up his body. He was dressed in a pair of dark slacks with a heather-gray V-neck sweater over a black T-shirt. His heavy coat hung just below his waist, providing a good glimpse of his muscular body. This was a man who liked to work out. No bulging muscles, but I doubted I’d be able to locate even an ounce of fat on his body.
If this wasn’t some painful setup but rather a random hookup, I’d be happy to go looking for that fat with a magnifying glass.
Well, that said way too much about my priorities. Happy with a one-night stand but not a date? Ugh. Sebastian might be right that I needed to get back out there.
“Well, umm…technically, I didn’t sign up for this,” I admitted. Time to bite the bullet.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
I lowered my gaze to the ground, watching as I traced the toe of my shoe along a crack in the sidewalk. “Someone else put my information into the app and signed me up for this blind date thing.”
My heart skipped at the low, throaty laugh that rose from Arden and I jerked my head up to find him grinning. “Meddling sister?” he asked.
“No, meddling boss.”
“What? Really? Your boss?”
I dredged a sigh from the very bottom of my soul. “Yeah, my boss. He’s one of those types who likes to chat about everyone’s private life and wants everyone to be blissfully in love. It’s weird. Apparently, when he found out that I wasn’t dating anyone and hadn’t dated in a couple of years, he came up with the brilliant idea of setting me up.”
“Wow…I…I…I got nothing,” he finished with a shake of his head. “Seriously, I’ve never known a boss like that.”
I shrugged. “Sebastian can be weird, but he’s a good boss. Cares a lot about the well-being of his employees.”
“Clearly.” Arden chuckled. “But doesn’t that app have to be on your phone? For our date, you had to get instructions on where to meet.”
I lifted my left hand out of my pocket and showed him a battered smartphone. “This is my phone.” Then I lifted my right hand out of my other pocket and displayed a brand-new black smartphone without a case. “This is a new phone my boss bought so he could set me up on a blind date.”
Arden threw his head back and laughed, filling the area with that deep, joyous sound. I swore it created a break in the perpetual cloud cover, offering up the sweetest taste of spring. I dragged in a breath and chortled. There was no stopping it. The happiness falling off Arden was soaking into me, chasing away the chill and the grumpiness.
“Your boss is a riot,” Arden proclaimed when his laughter died off.
“He keeps things interesting.” I shoved both phones into my pockets again and rocked on my feet, feeling a little less awkward but also not sure what to do next. The original plan to brush this guy off didn’t seem so great now. Or at least I wasn’t in such a hurry to move along. Of course, that didn’t mean Arden had any interest in sticking with me after he’d been set up with someone who didn’t want to be there in the first place.
I cleared my throat and forced a smile. “Look, you thought you were getting someone who knew all about this blind date event. I wasn’t even the one who filled out the profile. God only knows what Sebastian put in mine. So, if you don’t want to do this date thing, I get it. No hard feelings. I’m sorry you got sucked into my boss’s insanity.”
“Well,” Arden began only to pause and lick his lips. “Since we’re being so honest.” He reached up and removed his glasses to reveal not bloodshot eyes, but eyes of two startling colors.
“Whoa!” I gasped and then winced at my complete inability to temper my reaction to something less insulting. “Sorry. I mean…umm…cool.”
Arden hooked one arm of his sunglasses on the V of his sweater and smiled. He lowered his head, staring more at the ground than meeting my gaze. “No. It’s okay. It’s called heterochromia. Just one of those things people are born with.”
“Yeah, I knew a girl in college who had that, but…”
The man tipped his head up and smirked, even though he wasn’t quite looking at me. “Not as stark?”
“Yes.” I exhaled. Jennifer’s eyes were brown and light hazel. In most indoor lighting, you didn’t even notice the difference in colors unless you were close to her.
But Arden’s eyes were astounding. His left was a brown so dark that it almost appeared black, while his right was a pale sky blue.