Page 4 of Must Be Love - Irresistible Bachelors

I’m screwed. I’m going to be one of those old ladies with gross, saggy, broken skin – all because I wanted to fit in as a teenager.

“Come on, Amber. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you do have some amount of deep damage to your skin. What do you think you’re going to do about it now? There’s no point in freaking out over something you can’t change.”

Nicole has a point, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I don’t want my skin to deteriorate as I get older. Maybe there’s something I can still do.

I pick up a plain bottle from the edge of the table. This one doesn’t have the same label as the others. It simply says “AJB-9,” without a list of ingredients on the label.

I open the lid and sniff it. It has almost a floral scent, but I can’t tell if that’s the serum or the air around us. There are a lot of perfumes and other scented products mingling together.

I start to squeeze a bit of the serum onto my hand when the woman working rushes over to stop me.

“No, no,” she says. “That’s not ready yet. It’s only a prototype. A tester.”

Her name tag says “Briana,” and she looks to be about the same age as Nicole and me.

“A tester means I can test it, right?”

Briana shakes her head. “No, I’m sorry. It’s too early in the testing stage for me to let you use it…”

“Let her try it, Briana,” a deep voice says from behind me.

Briana opens her mouth to protest, but the guy must make a gesture that stops her from saying anything.

I turn around to see who is bossing Briana around, and I come face to face with the most attractive guy I’ve ever seen. My heart races and the air escapes my lungs. Who is this man, and why is he here?

2

AJ

I hate these stupid events.

I’ve been to a few beauty conventions over the years. After all, I sell a lot of products at my dermatology practice. Plus, sometimes I find new products and techniques here that I can implement in the office. Last year, I went to a panel that talked about a new laser treatment for acne that a few of my patients have found helpful.

Still, I hate coming to these conventions. They’re ridiculous.

I take a seat in the back row of a panel. They’re going to talk about a new product for smoothing wrinkles. I’m here to keep an eye on the competition.

“Have you seen anything interesting?” the guy next to me asks.

I turn to face him and find he’s around my age. He’s wearing a lab coat with “Robert Kingston” embroidered on the breast.

“Yeah, I saw a few neat new products and went to a panel on skin cancer treatments earlier. How about you?”

“Plenty. I went to a panel earlier today that revolutionized treatment for hair and nail growth.”

Robert Kingston keeps droning on, but I tune him out. I don’t care about hair and nail growth treatments. I know some dermatologists deal with issues like that, but I focus on other areas of the practice, like acne and fixing skin damage from the sun.

“Seriously, it would be a great product to add to every dermatology office in the country. Let me just give you my card, and we can talk about it more!”

I accept the card from Robert just as the panel gets going. Thankfully, listening to the speaker means I can ignore Robert. I usually like meeting other doctors, but this guy and I are not compatible. His practice seems more superficial than mine. Plus, I would never wear my lab coat to a panel like this. Only pretentious assholes do that.

I take notes while the panel goes on. I love my dermatology practice, but over the last two years, I’ve been developing my own products to sell. My company, Blake Cosmeceuticals, launched a little less than a year ago. We have products for all kinds of skin care needs. I’m incredibly proud of how well we’ve done since launching. All the major retailers, plus smaller cosmetics stores, are either carrying our products or are in conversation with our small sales team.

It’s been amazing. I love being able to create products that will help my patients. Plus, being involved in the development of new products has given me new insight into a lot of the issues I treat. Before, I always knew which products worked, but now, I understand why.

The panel ends, and I’m not interested in the next one, so I empty my seat for another guest to use.

“AJ!” someone calls out when I enter the main floor.

I turn to find a guy I graduated school with, Peter.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?”

He pulls me in for an awkward bro-hug. Peter has always been a fidgety guy. Weird, too, but I like him well enough. I see him around at these conventions when I manage to drag myself to one of them.

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