Page 60 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“Well, I thought it would be better to start a little lower and work my way up. I haven’t been on a date in so long that I wanted to dip my little toe into the dating pool first.”

“But…what?” Matt parked a little more erratically than his BMW deserved. “Not even a fifty percent match?”

“No,” she admitted, unbuckling her seatbelt and hastily fleeing the car. Unfortunately, Matt was a professional athlete and acted swiftly.

“Did I understand that correctly?” he exclaimed in disbelief, slamming the door shut. “I’msupposed to take dating seriously, but you can meet Mr. Forty-Eight Percent?”

“It wasyourdecision to take dating seriously,” she reminded him. “And I’m trying.”

“Oh, come on.” He glared and stepped into the elevator after her. “Forty-eight percent is nottrying.”

“I wanted to start off without high expectations! Speaking of which, what did you think of Christina?” She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but it felt as though her voice had slipped up an octave.

Matt shrugged and pressed the button for his floor. “She’s beautiful.”

A lump formed in her throat. “I know.”

“And intelligent. And funny. And open.”

Damn. “Mm hm,” she replied.

“Your algorithm wasn’t far off the mark.”

She was afraid of that. She nodded and focused on the lit button as the elevator started moving.

“But…” Matt drawled and Maddie jumped.

“But?”

“Well, she said that would be the only date.”

Her jaw dropped. Was Christina crazy?

Wide-eyed, she stared at Matt and for a few endless seconds, their gazes locked. She studied his expression carefully, looking for disappointment inside herself or…relief, maybe, but found nothing, only warmth and the memory of his words:It would be stupid to sleep together now.

Those eight words that she just couldn’t get out of her head!

“It’s okay,” Matt murmured, lifting the corner of his mouth. “It was missing that certain something, anyway.”

What was the guy talking about? If Maddie played for the other side, she would have kissed Christina senseless right there at the table.

“What ‘certain something’?” she asked and blinked, wanting to see into his mind, read his every single thought.

He frowned and leaned forward almost imperceptibly. “Chemistry, I guess,” he finally murmured. “That tingling on the back of my neck that promisesmore.”

Maddie’s neck tingled. She knew what he meant. And the interior of the elevator shrank with every second.

“More? What’s more?” she echoed.

His gaze flicked to her lips. It was only a tenth of a second, but she saw it. Felt it. “More,” he repeated softly. “Things you feel but don’t comprehend. That you find attractive for seemingly no reason. The attraction that comes from nowhere but is still there.”

Her fingers gripped the fabric of her dress. “Do you feel that…often?”

He shook his head. “No. But when it’s there, it doesn’t just go away.”

The elevator pinged and Maddie flinched. He wasn’t talking about them, was he?

She cleared her throat and exited, hurrying down the hall to the door. “So, if Christina doesn’t meet your standards, then they’re just too high,” she said, wanting to get back to harmless topics.

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