Harte Strings: The Billionaire Matchmaker, Part Two (8 page)

He stopped uphill from me and took pity. He turned his back to me. “Climb up.”

“What?”

He nodded. “Climb on my back. I’ll carry you up.”

Pride would have stopped me, but I was in the mood to punish him. And when was the last time I’d had a piggyback ride?
Ruck
. My heart broke a little. I swallowed my sense of guilt, put my arms around Lazer’s neck, and jumped, throwing my legs around his waist. He caught them beneath his arms.

If I expected my weight to slow him down, I was sadly mistaken. He jogged up the path, while I laughed, as delighted as a child as I jounced along.

There was something to be said for this show of chivalry, strength, and fun. It was so
sexy
.

At the top of the trail, he set me down in a clearing. My good mood restored, I was laughing. The sun was now fully up and gaining strength.

“Showoff!” I said as my feet touched the ground, reluctant to relinquish my contact with him.

He swung around to face me, his hair flopping over his eyes adorably. He’d barely broken a sweat and wasn’t breathing hard.

“You’re just punishing me for last night.” I laughed.

“I carry you on my back, and you accuse me of punishing you?” He lifted an eyebrow.

I leaned forward, bracing my hands against my thighs, and breathed deeply, looking up at him, and trying not to grin like a schoolgirl at summer camp. How was it that I was still winded when
he’d
carried
me
the last part of the hike, not the other way around?

“You’re going to get shin splints from running with me on your back,” I said.

“On the dirt trail?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m tougher than that.”

He made me too happy. Everything was sunshine when he was around.

“Good,” I said, standing up. “You can fight off Bigfoot if he comes around. I don’t have the energy.”

“We won’t see Bigfoot,” he said. “He’s far too wily. Anyway, we’ll smell him first and have plenty of time to run. That’s the myth.”

“That assumes my legs will work,” I said.

“What is it with you?” he said. “You’re always tired. Some breakfast will perk you up.” He grabbed his backpack by the strap and gestured toward a picnic table nearby.

I had been so lost in him and the hike that I’d been totally oblivious to it, and the breathtaking view. But now that he pointed the table out, my eyes went wide.

The picnic table was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was smoothly planed and stained with a medium brown rub. A rough, homemade-looking bench was placed on either side—rough boards balancing on log stumps. Although wonderful, none of that was what made it magical.

The table was set and decorated as if woodland fairies were welcoming us to brunch. Thick-stemmed cut-crystal goblets augmented by tawny-cut water glasses, champagne flutes, cut-crystal plates, each with a deep pink flower artistically laid over them, sparkling silver. Sprays of ferns strewn with flowers. Moss. Candlesticks with white tapers. A bottle of champagne chilling in a silver ice bucket. A carafe of freshly squeezed orange juice, also on ice.

Around us was nothing but greenery, ferns, and underbrush. Above us a canopy of trees gently swaying and whispering in an early morning breeze.

I turned a stunned gaze on Lazer as he pulled a lighter from his pocket, lit the tapers, and began pulling a Northwest feast from his backpack—fresh blackberries and pastries, a warming bag full of hot breakfast sandwiches.

“It looks like Bigfoot has been expecting us,” I joked, not sure what else to say.

Lazer laughed. “More like I’m surprised he didn’t steal the silverware. I heard he likes shiny things.”

I ran my hand over the smooth surface of the table. “This is…it’s… There are no words.” I took a plate from Lazer as I helped him put the rest of food out. “Someone from your staff has been up here already?”

“Two someones.” He held up two fingers and pulled the bench out for me. “You’ve probably noticed. My staff is in excellent shape. Exercise and morning hikes are a perk of the job.”

“You must hire Sherpas. I suppose that’s a hint I should get in hiking shape?” I said. “Now that we’re partners.”

“Partners have different rules.” He paused, his gaze caressing me. “And I never said you aren’t in great shape.”

Cheesy, but I flushed. Damn, he was good.

As I sat, I got the full impact of the view through a clearing in the trees. The mountains were rows of blue and gray on the horizon. I hadn’t thought it was possible, but the view was even more spectacular than the view at the lodge.

“Do you always entertain like this?” I indicated the table.

He shrugged. “Not always. Sometimes my guests collapse on the trail on the hike up and have to be evacuated to the nearest medical facility. Fortunately, the most convenient hospital has a decent cafeteria with an affordable brunch.”

“Shut up!”

He popped the cork on the champagne and poured us each a glass. He slid onto the bench next to me and lifted his glass. “To us. And a beautiful partnership!”

I clinked his glass with mine, wishing for a partnership of a different kind…

“You can’t do this!” I blurted out as a thought occurred to me.

He looked puzzled. “Do what? Drink champagne? Eat?”

I laughed and gestured around at the table and the perfect setting. “You can’t spoil women like this. It isn’t fair.”

“To whom?” He shook his head. “Spoiling isn’t meant to be fair.”

“No,” I said. “That’s not what I mean. I mean, how will you ever find your perfect match if you turn every woman’s head with fantasies like this one? How can they get to know you?”

“This is me.” His eyes twinkled. “I’m a romantic.”

I stared him down.

He shook his head. “You’re telling me a woman can’t get to know me all alone in the woods with no interruptions? In a place where she has my complete attention?” He paused. “If she can’t get to know me here—”

“Where you’re playing Prince Charming to her Snow White? Where you’re spoiling her with expensive champagne and romantic tables? How is she supposed to see past this?”

“A woman could get to know me very well up here. If it weren’t for your damn dating rules.” He lifted an eyebrow.

I didn’t back down. We held each other’s gazes.

I let out a deep sigh. “Hikes, fine. Great. Backpacking in a picnic? Nice touch. Champagne and flowers waiting on crystal? Silver and tapered candles in the middle of the forest? Over the top and off limits. And possibly a fire danger, depending on the season.” I grinned and went in for the kill. “If you’re doing this just for a business partner, I can hardly imagine what you’d do for a woman you wanted to impress and seduce.”

He replied with a slow, sexy grin.

I looked away before that grin succeeded. “Were you always this romantic?
Are
you always this romantic?”

These were perfectly reasonable questions for his matchmaker to ask.

“No and no,” he said.

“Not even when you proposed?” I was too aware of him sitting next to me on the bench, nearly brushing arms. My expression too soft. My voice too low and curious. My eyes too wide.

His grin deepened. “I was wondering when you were going to get around to asking about that.”

“You knew I’d read the note card?”

“Knew? I asked Lottie to put it where you’d find it.”

My eyes went even wider. I hadn’t expected that. But it was so like him. He was constantly surprising me.

“So it
was
a joke!” I shook my head. “Tell me about this proposal. Were you in the fourth grade, too? Like Jeremy?”

“No. Much older. I was in college.” He paused and glanced down. “She really did break my heart.”

A
shley

As if he hadn’t before, he definitely had my attention now. “
Oh
. I’m sorry.” I’d put my foot in it. I put my hand on his arm. “I wouldn’t have been so flip. I just can’t imagine. She must have been a fool.”

“Thanks.” He didn’t seem particularly upset.

“Why did you bring it up at the game?” I frowned. “And why did you want me to know about it?”

“First, so that I could win. None of the other guys have ever proposed to anyone. We all know that. And they were all present when I did. It was a winning question.

“And second, I didn’t want you imagining the worst. Curiosity is a killer. I knew Lottie would tell you eventually, anyway.”

“I don’t think that’s it at all,” I said. “I think you wanted me to know. You wanted to shock me.” I leaned in close to him and whispered, “You may have even wanted my sympathy and understanding. And maybe you want my professional opinion about what went wrong so you never make that mistake again.”

His grin returned. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of making
that
mistake again.”

I laughed. It was so comical the way he said it. “Maybe this is even your way of letting me know why you hate the idea of marriage so much. The thought of proposing again and facing rejection, even though that’s laughable now. It’s a strong imprint—”

His laughter cut me off. “You think I’m still pining for a girl I was in love with when I was nineteen? And that that one incident scarred me for life?”

I squeezed his arm and looked him directly in the eye. “It happens all the time.”

He shook his head. “Not to me. I’m tougher than that. It was a mistake. Sanne did me a favor. She could have been kinder in her refusal. That’s true. Repugnance and fear isn’t generally good for the male ego.”

He glanced away quickly. By the time he looked back at me, he was grinning again. I was sure he was hiding his pain.

“Am I going to have to ask one of the guys about it?” I asked. “I’d
rather
hear it from you.”

He nodded. “I’m sure you would.” He paused, thought for a minute, and shrugged. “I was nineteen. And stupid. Hopelessly in love with a girl I’d known for most of a semester and had dated for a month.”

I winced.

He nodded.

“Knowing each other such a short time before marrying works out sometimes,” I said, though personally, I believed it was madness. The odds were against it. “Usually, though, the parties involved are more mature, have a lot of dating experience, and know exactly what they want. I would never recommend it.”

“Nor would I. Now.” He poured a glass of orange juice and offered it to me. “But, you see, I lost my virginity to her. For a geek like me, that was something. Any girl who’d let me…”

He passed me a plate of breakfast sandwiches and helped himself to one. “Well. It was a big deal. I thought it meant she loved me.

“I was so damn head over heels. And burning with lust. I’d never felt anything like sex with a woman. Hand jobs weren’t the same after that. I was addicted. I became insanely possessive. And despondent. She was a Dutch foreign student. The end of the semester was approaching. Sanne was heading back to the Netherlands. Forever. Unless I stopped her.

“I didn’t want to lose her. Marrying her so she could stay, so she
would
stay, seemed like the only sane solution.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the humorous tone in his voice. He was clearly poking fun at himself.

“Oh, no,” I said. “You wanted to give her your name and a green card?”

He laughed. “That’s about all I had to offer. I was a broke college kid.”

He smiled as if remembering something pleasant. “It’s not as bad as it seems. We had a lot in common. We were both gaming geeks. We both loved a good screw. She spoke her adorable Dutch, which sounded like slaughtered English. I was teaching her real English.”

“There’s a sound foundation.” It wasn’t lost on me that the main things Lazer and I currently had in common were the great sex between us and a command of the English language. We didn’t even have gaming in common. I’d never been into it. “I assume you were always a romantic. How did you propose?”

“In great romantic style.” He took a bite of sandwich. “And with great care and planning. There was a fraternity on campus where the guys would dress up in war paint and grass skirts. They’d go as a group, carrying tiki torches, to ask girls out to their big dance. Then they’d congregate in front of the girl’s residence and serenade her. The guy who was doing the asking would come forth, plant his torch, and yell his invitation to her.”

This was going downhill quickly. “Oh no.”

“Oh, yes. But it gets better. I wasn’t in a frat. But Sanne and I had a favorite video game we played. Even back then Austin was into cosplay. We all were, but he was the costume master. I convinced all four of the guys to dress up in costume from that game. Austin helped us make them. He was a genius. They were very good re-creations, the best part of the whole proposal. Short Roman tunics, a balteus, and mock armor. I, of course, was Sanne’s favorite warrior.”

“Just so you know, I’m resisting the urge to put my hands over my eyes.”

“That terrible?”

“No, the thought of you in a Roman tunic skirt is enticing. And a little odd,” I said. “Go on.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “We had flaming tiki torches, because those were wicked—”

“Did Romans have tiki torches?” I asked. “I assume that is more of a Hawaiian thing and went better with the grass skirts the frat guys wore.”

Lazer gave me mock-stern look. “They were awesome.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I even had a ring for her. A cheap little thing made of ten-karat gold with a stone resembling diamond dust in the center that cost me every penny I had. Two months’ full salary. Just like the jewelers suggest. Unfortunately, working as a lab assistant didn’t pay much.”

I was still trying not to laugh. It was so tragically funny. “Did it have a reflective shield around the diamond to make it look bigger?”

“Absolutely.” He had such a winning grin.

And who didn’t love a man who could poke fun at himself? “You did your best.”

He nodded. “I did. In an odd way, that ring was worth more than all the expensive jewels I shower women with now. That one cost me everything I had. The jewelry I buy now is a drop in the bucket. I don’t even notice it.” He laughed suddenly. “Two months’ salary! On what I bring in now? Jeez. That rock would kill some poor girl hauling it around on her finger.”

“She’d certainly be the target of jewel thieves.”

“I still have the ring. To remind me. And because the pawn shop refused to pay more than a few dollars for it.”

“Where did this girl live, dare I ask?” Did I really want to know? How humiliating did this story get?

“You can uncover your eyes. Fortunately, she lived in a rented house just off campus. Also, fortuitously, I chose a time to propose when her roommates were out. We showed up in costume the Friday evening just before dead week. I had a bunch of roses I’d bought at the grocery store.”

“Red, I hope,” I said.

“Naturally. The best bunch they had.” He smiled. “Sanne came to the window. We sang to her. And, may I say, did a decent job of it.”

“What song did you sing?”

“That’s irrelevant.”

“That embarrassing?”

He ignored me. “I got down on one knee and yelled out a marriage proposal.”

I was actually on the edge of my seat. This was a complete train wreck. A matchmaking horror story. And yet my heart hurt for him.

“And?”

“I think we scared the shit out of her. Crazy American men with torches—what would you think?”

“No,” I said, sympathetically.

“When she finally realized it was me behind the helmet—”

“Helmet? Wait a minute. You didn’t mention a helmet.”

He shook his head at my ignorance. “What kind of video game warrior would I be without a helmet?”

“Did it have a mask that covered your eyes?”

“Naturally.”

“Crap.”

He laughed. “Can I finish my story?”

“Please do.” I pulled out my phone.

“Once she understood what I was asking—”

“Given the language difference, that was something,” I said as I typed,
Will you marry me?
into Google Translate. “
Wil je met me trouwen?
”

“What?”

“Dutch for ‘will you marry me.’ That does sound like butchered English. Surely you asked her in her native tongue?”

He rolled his eyes. “And risk saying something rude? I asked her in English.

“I wasn’t going away without an answer. Finally Sanne opened the window. She yelled at me that I was an
idioot
for embarrassing her. And a
stommeling
. And a couple of much stronger words in both Dutch and English.

“Then she told me exactly what I could do with my ring and where I could go—hell sounds pretty much the same in both languages—and slammed the window shut. In retrospect, we were lucky she didn’t call the campus police. After that, she refused to see me or answer my calls.”

The story, and the way he told it, were so funny that it was hard to take him seriously. I tried to gauge how he felt about all of it now. “That was horrible of her. It must have hurt.”

He nodded. “It did. For a while. Until I came to my senses.” He took another bite of his sandwich.

“She wasn’t very kind. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was just immature. Even so, it sounds like you dodged a bullet.” I was having a hard time imagining the confident, charming, successful man next to me as the geeky boy from his story. “Was she beautiful? Intelligent?”

“Beautiful?” He shook his head, scoffing at the suggestion. “No. I’ll show you a picture sometime. But I was a skinny-ass, pimply geek back then. If I was a two, she was a three. I’ve always dated up.” He laughed.

“There must have been
something
about her that you liked. Besides the sex.” I lifted my sandwich. “Was she smart? Funny?”

“You can’t stop playing matchmaker, can you?” He grabbed another sandwich and some fruit. “You’re trying to find out what kind of women I’m attracted to. What are my must-haves in a woman?”

“Maybe I am.” I paused. “Or maybe I’m just trying to get to know you and understand who you are.” I studied him. “What Sanne did to you was incredibly cruel. Yes, you were broke, by your own admission. And maybe you were going through a gawky stage. And your proposal was a little…overzealous. But you were still you, with your wit and intelligence. With your sense of romance, however misguided by youth and inexperience…”

“Thanks for that.” He leaned close to me. “Now you know my darkest secret. I was once a marriage enthusiast.”

I laughed. “Right. Why is this never mentioned in any of the profiles about you? You’d think someone would have dug it up.”

“Costumes,” he said, nodding. “Hid my identity.”

I shook my head and laughed. “And loyal friends. But why hasn’t Sanne ever sold the story?”

“Good question. Maybe because she moved back to the Netherlands after the semester. Maybe she hasn’t been paying attention to my meteoric rise in fortune. Maybe she’s still too mortified to admit to it. Or maybe she thinks no one will ever believe her now.”

“All good possibilities,” I said. “Can I at least add that you like Dutch girls to my notes on you?”

He laughed again. “Not so much now.”

It was all good fun, but I became serious. “Don’t let one bad experience scar you, Lazer.”

“Bad experience?” he said. “What bad experience? As it turns out, Sanne was my perfect woman in at least one way—she didn’t want to marry me.” He raised his glass again. “To perfect women.”

“Perfect women don’t exist,” I said, mildly, as I clinked his glass. “But we’ll find you a suitable one when we go through the matchmaking process. One who will love any proposal you give her.”

He studied me seriously for a moment. “I’m still not sure
why
I have to go through the process. I’m just a shill, not a real client.”

“And we don’t want anyone to find that out, do we?” I smiled sweetly at him. “Will you stop trying to wiggle out of this? How many times have I told you—”

“We have to make it look real.” He set his glass down. “Let’s change the subject.”

“All right,” I said, and tried to tease him. “Naming your lodge after yourself isn’t a touch arrogant?” I’d been curious about that for a while.

He smiled charmingly. “FYI, I named the lodge after myself precisely because a reporter had called me conceited. It was an in-your-face maneuver.”

I studied him as the bubbles of the exquisitely dry champagne slid down my throat. Commitment issues. Hitting on a good friend’s new bride. He was
so
unsuitable.

“I’m excited for the marketing meeting today,” he said. “The agency has some ideas I think you’re going to love.”

“Have you been cheating?” I asked. “And peeking at what they’ve been doing?”

“Collaborating.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“Peter should be at the lodge when we get back. You’re going to like him, too. Peter is to pairing people with jobs as you are to pairing people with soul mates.”

“I hope that’s a compliment?”

“The highest,” he said.

We finished our breakfast while talking business and packed up. Just as we were done, there was a noise in the woods, like an animal crashing through. I jumped.

Lazer got an excited look on his face. “Probably nothing. Stay here. I’m going to go look.”

“Stay here! Are you crazy? That never ends well.” I grabbed his arm. “I’m going with you.”

He nodded and took my hand. “Come on.” He pulled me out of the clearing into the dense forest and underbrush.

My heart raced. Partly from holding his hand. Partly from fear of wild beasts. The crashing continued and grew louder. Whatever it was was coming right toward us.

Lazer looked around excitedly. “There!” He pointed.

I caught a glimpse of a large brown animal and held tight to Lazer’s arm. “I hope you have a gun. Just in case.”

“Why would I need a gun? It isn’t moose season. And I’m not a hunter. As long as we don’t scare him into trampling us, he won’t hurt us.”