Page 7 of Forbidden Match

“Thanks man, I could use extra to pad my savings,” Sam says, grinning at me as I walk in waving my winning ticket. “Hey, Molly, guess who’s gonna get buff again? I’m gonna start doing some construction work on the weekends.”

My brother never lost his trim physique, despite having a sedentary job after college, but there’s no way he’ll ever be as built as Levi. He’s been doing rough-and-tumble construction work as long as I’ve known him.

Just mentioning it makes me look Levi up and down, his shirt clinging to his pecs, his biceps straining seams of his sleeves. His golden hair is pushed back off his brow and the lips I’ve been fantasizing about curl from their usual scowl into a slight smile at seeing me.

He quickly ruins the moment. “What are you so worked up about?” he asks, making a swipe for the paperwork I’m clutching, complete with a shiny gold heart sticker at the top.

Stop staring at him like he’s a dessert, I admonish myself.Think about being with someone who will love you back, someone not out of bounds.

“I just so happened to win the biggest prize at the Pawsitive Pals raffle,” I say. They don’t need to know I bought fifty tickets to radically increase my chance at winning. “It’s this amazing Valentine’s Day retreat where you get fixed up with a date for—”

“Whoa, what?” Sam snatches the paperwork from me before scanning through the rules. “Romantic activities? The whole weekend with some stranger?” He laughs, crumpling it in his hand. “Not likely.”

It’s only because I’m used to this kind of overprotective behavior that I don’t explode.

Sam is most of the reason I never got to date in high school, or beyond. Levi was the other part. A giant, overprotective brother and his moody best friend acting as bodyguards and gatekeepers to my social life? Yeah, that doesn’t make anyone keen on getting to know me as anything more than a friend.

And my massive crush on Levi meant that I didn’t really care. Not until now.

But now Idocare. I don’t want this heartache anymore! I want to be able to look at Levi and not have my chest constrict, my blood rush in my veins, or feel the all-consuming desire to grab his face and kiss him and shares my feelings. And that’s not Levi. It’s never been Levi.

“Why do you think you can stop me?” I ask.

Two stern faces stare back at me before both of them crack up.

I sigh inwardly. I should have kept it a secret. I am nineteen—not a kid anymore. I raise my chin and grab for the paper, which only cracks them up more.

“You arenotgoing on some sleepaway thing with complete strangers,” Sam says, getting serious. “Most of them areprobably pervs looking for an easy—Levi, tell her how stupid this sounds.”

My face burns as Levi grins slowly at me, one brow arching with an inscrutable look on his gorgeous face. My anger melts and I’m back to wanting to kiss him. Which is exactly why I need this “sleepaway thing.”

“It sounds extremely stupid,” Levi says.

Sam tosses my ticket into the trash, giving me one last warning look before completely dismissing me.

And just like that, they go back to talking about construction.

A lifetime of living with the most stubborn brother in the world has taught me a lot. I stomp into the living room where I wait until they leave the kitchen. The second they’re gone, I scramble in there and dig through the trash and pull out my crumpled ticket, brushing off the gold sticker and making sure it all looks clean.

When I look up, I stifle a gasp as I lock eyes with Levi. He grabs the soda can he left behind and sighs.

“Please don’t tell him,” I rush out as tears spring to my eyes. “Ineedto do this.”

“It isn’t a good idea. You really shouldn’t go. It might not be safe.”

I bite my lip before looking up into his eyes. “Are you going to tell Sam?”

He shakes his head with a shrug, and then he turns to leave.

I should be relieved. But as I go up to my room to fill out the questionnaire that will help Madame Amour match me with the perfect man, I feel nothing but defeat. I trust Levi when he sayshe won’t tell Sam or try to stop me. After all, why should he care if I end up with someone else? He doesn’t care about me at all. Not the way I want him to.

All the more reason to do this.

It’s time to take charge of my heart, once and for all.

Chapter 3

Levi

---