Failure to Match (Bad Billionaire Bosses, #2)

by Kyra Parsi

“Either shut up, Jackson, or go help Vivian with the tea.” Oh, hell yes.

But could you sleep at night? Knowing you let Jackson Sinclair buy you like this?

Uh yea?

It was the first time I’d seen him fully smile, and… damn. All straight white teeth, prominent canines, and masculine charm.

He rolled his eyes and I had to remind myself that cool, unbothered cucumbers did not have flashes of nuclear rage or thoughts of deriving pleasure from murdering someone via strangulation. Psychopaths did.

“Good girl,” he murmured, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. Wouldn’t have if he wasn’t standing so close. But I did. I definitely heard him. And I definitely didn’t hate it. Uh oh.

To put it bluntly, I was experiencing a concerning amount of tingling.

I swear his eyes were twinkling as they slid between mine, his smile jerking. “I kind of like it when you’re mean to me.”

Third of all, his eyes were, um, even more striking up close. They were at least five different shades of winter blue, cutting over one another like thin shards of ice fighting for dominance⁠— I’m sorry, but what the actual fuck are you talking about? Shards of ice? Fighting for dominance? Are you okay?

“I’ll give you a hint,” Jackson murmured darkly. His pupils ate away at the surrounding color as he leaned to whisper in my ear. “I don’t share, Jamie.”

“I assumed your lack of friends was largely due to your personality,” I teased lightly. His teeth tugged at his smiling lower lip, and a fresh wave of heat washed over me. “I told you I like it when you’re mean to me. I’m starting to think you’re doing it on purpose.”

“You think I’m easy to fall in love with?” His voice was husky, quiet.

“I hate to break it to you, Jamie Paquin, the prettiest little matchmaker with the prettiest smile and the prettiest heart he’s ever seen, but this idiot is your man.”

“How can you stand it?” His voice was raw, anguished. “How is it fair that you’re only halfway there, but I can’t fucking breathe anymore, Jamie?”