Mister Irresistible: Bachelor International Book 2 Read online

  Mister Irresistible

  Bachelor International Book 2

  Tara Sue Me

  Copyright © 2021 by Tara Sue Me

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ISBN Ebook: 9781950017263

  ISBN Print: 9781950017294

  Cover image: Deposit Photos

  Contents

  Foreword

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon

  Don’t Miss

  Wall Street Royals

  About the Author

  Also by Tara Sue Me

  She came into my arms willingly, and for one perfect second, all was right in my world. Emotions I’d never experienced and had no name for consumed me. My only path of action was to release those emotions on her.

  I tightened my arms around her; deepened our kiss. She moaned in reply.

  What would it be like to have this every day? Could my body even function under such bliss? I wasn’t sure, but vowed to do everything in my power to make us happen.

  I assumed her thoughts ran in parallel to mine, but at once I sensed a hesitancy in her that hadn’t been there seconds before.

  Damn it all. I would not lose her again.

  I didn’t care what I had to do.

  Chapter 1

  Wren

  My best friend, Mia, was up to something. That was the only reason I could think of to explain why she’d ask if I wanted to do dinner after work.

  Don’t get me wrong, I loved her, and she’d been my best friend for as long as I could remember, but ever since she got together with Tenor Butler two months ago, I hadn’t seen much of her. Not that I blamed her. She was madly in love and wanted to spend every waking minute with her man. And by every waking minute, I meant that literally. They lived and worked together.

  The three of us had been out a few times, but I didn’t enjoy being the third wheel, and no matter how nice Tenor was, there was no escaping the fact that I was the odd man out. Just like those puzzles I used to do in elementary school, the ones where you had to pick out which thing didn’t belong? Circle me with the red crayon, you found it.

  Mia and I had just received our vegan taco order from one of our favorite restaurants, and were making our way to an empty table outside.

  “This one?” She pointed with her free hand. “It’s mostly shade.”

  “Works for me.” I sat down and she followed.

  “What? Why are you staring at me?”

  “Tell me what’s going on,” I said and took a bite of my taco, tired of waiting for her to spit out the reason she asked me to dinner.

  “What makes you think anything is going on?” she asked, and her voice sounded so by-your-leave if I hadn’t known her forever, she might have fooled me.

  I rolled my eyes. “Because you’ve been up Tenor’s butt lately. Granted, it’s a nice-looking butt, and I can see the appeal, but the two of us haven’t been out to dinner alone in over two months.”

  She stopped chewing and swallowed before answering. “It hasn’t been that long.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Has it?” she asked.

  “I get it,” I said. “I do. But I still think something’s going on.”

  Fortunately, she didn’t even try to say otherwise. “You remember the match questionnaire you filled out for me about a month ago?”

  Mia and Tenor co-owned a matchmaking business, Bachelor International. The company was the most successful of its type in Boston before Mia joined, and after she did, they’re nearing the top of agencies on the east coast. Especially since a satellite office recently opened in Atlanta. Mia and Tenor have been working to update the questions they ask new clients, and Mia asked me to fill out one of their new questionnaires because they needed more data points.

  “Yes,” I said. “What about it?”

  “You filled it out with truthful information, right? You didn’t make stuff up because it was something I asked you to do?” She took a bite of taco and waited for my response.

  To be quite honest, I’d thought about filling it out with completely ridiculous answers, but ended up being truthful. After all, the data points wouldn’t be helpful if they were all outliers.

  “I filled it out with truthful answers,” I said, and then narrowed my eyes. “Why do you ask?”

  Mia put her taco down on her plate, and that’s when I knew she meant business. Putting food down meant she didn’t want any distractions while she spoke. I had the sudden urge to run screaming from the table.

  “An international client has hired us for his upcoming visit to the States,” she said. Nothing new there. I mean, seriously, the business was called Bachelor International. One would assume they got similar requests all the time. I didn’t see what any of it had to do with me.

  “Anyway,” Mia continued. “Tenor asked if I thought you’d be a suitable match for this guy. Of course, I couldn’t say definitively one way or another unless I compared your answers with his. So I did, and Wren, you’re the best match out of our entire database.”

  My brain tried to stop listening as soon as it heard, “Tenor asked if I thought you’d be a suitable match for this guy,” but somehow I managed to hang on until the end.

  “And what?” I asked. “You want to pair me up with him? Why? I’m not a client of yours.” Not to mention I wasn’t looking for a relationship and had no interest in being matched with a snotty international who more than likely had more money than God. I didn’t care what her database thought.

  “You’re not interested at all?” she asked. “Don’t you want to know even a little about him? Doesn’t the fact that you match him better than all the other women we have in our database intrigue you just a bit?”

  I laughed. “How many is that? Twenty? It can’t be that many or else you wouldn’t have needed more data points.”

  She didn’t reply, but picked her taco up and took another bite.

  I waited.

  She took another bite.

  The truth hit me all at once, and I groaned. How could I have been so stupid? “You didn’t need my answers for data points, did you?” I didn’t have to wait for her answer. Why would an agency as large and as successful as Bachelor International need my data points?

  They didn’t.

  “I didn’t need your answers for data points, per se,” Mia confessed. “I may have stretched the truth a bit.”

  “Why did you need them?” I asked, but she didn’t answer. “Mia?”

  “I needed them to match you, and I knew you’d stay no if I told you that. So yes, I may have stretched the truth, but it was only because I’m worried about you.”

  “Worried about me, why?” I shook my head. “You could have just asked if I wanted to be in your database.”
/>   She hadn’t, though, because she knew I’d have told her no way.

  “You wouldn’t have filled it out if I told you it was for real,” she said.

  “And?” I asked. “You think this way is better?”

  “Yes, I do, actually,” she said. “I found you a near perfect match, and all you have to do is show up for dinner.”

  I snorted. “That’s all I have to do?”

  “Come on, Wren,” she said. “When was the last time you went out with a guy? For a real date?”

  I shot her a glare. She knew exactly how long it’d been. What’s more, I’d finally told her why it’d been that long a few months ago. “You know when the last time was.”

  “And you’re never going to move on if you don’t put yourself out there, and at least try.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to move on,” I said, cringing at hearing how ridiculous my reply sounded. I knew that wasn’t what I really wanted. It’s just that it was easier to go about my life not putting myself out there very much. After a year or two, it became my routine. Staying at home was easier than going out. Boring and predictable, yes. I’d even go so far as to say mildly pathetic. But it was mine, and it was comfortable.

  “If that’s the case,” Mia said. “Then no big deal. I’ll get in contact with his second match, and that will be that.”

  I hated it when she called my bluff. Because regardless of what I or anyone else thought of my life, I really didn’t want it to stay the way it was forever. To be honest, I didn’t know how to do anything differently. I hated the singles scene, and couldn’t afford a professional like Bachelor International.

  Then maybe you should take Mia up on her offer, I told myself. “When did you say this guy was coming into town, and when am I supposed to meet him?”

  Mia did a horrible job hiding her grin, which just proved my point about her calling my bluff. She’d known the entire time, and I had played right into her hands. “There’s an event he has next Saturday.”

  “What kind of event?” I asked.

  “A reception and dinner, I believe.”

  “I’m not going to meet him before the event?”

  “No,” she said, but didn’t expand.

  “Why is this sounding more like an escort service than a matchmaking one?” I asked.

  Mia’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You know I’d have nothing to do with an escort service.”

  “I know,” I said. “But you have to admit, it sounds a bit odd.”

  “Not odd,” Mia corrected me. “It’s what the client asked for. He needs a date for the event and wanted someone he would more than likely get along with. He’s coming into town the day of the event, so there’s no time for a date before then.”

  "Flying internationally into Boston the day of an event makes no sense.” It boggled the mind. “Doesn’t he have people who tell him stuff like that is stupid as hell?”

  “I’m sure he does, but he’s not flying in from an international location. He’ll be in New York for a few days, and then he’ll fly to Boston.”

  I’d be lying to say part of me wasn’t interested in getting all glammed up for a night out. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done so. Even if I had to put up with a snooty international who had more money than God. Maybe this would be the kick in the butt I needed to get my social life breathing again.

  “I’ll think about it,” I said to Mia. She probably knew I was going to end up agreeing to do it anyway and only dragged it out to give her grief.

  Either way, her face lit up like she’d just spied Tenor standing behind me. “That’s all I ask,” she said. “And that you let me know by Monday morning one way or the other.”

  “Today’s Wednesday,” I said. “That’ll never work because if I decide to go, I’ll need something new to wear, and you and I will have to go shopping. The best time for me to go is Saturday morning. Let Tenor know now so that he can come to terms with not spending time with you for a few hours on Saturday.”

  Mia held a hand up to her mouth. “We’re not that bad, are we?”

  I narrowed my gaze. “Two months.”

  Mia only smiled. “They’ve flown by.”

  I didn’t have it in my heart to pick on her too much. She’d been through a lot in the last year and truly deserved her chance at happiness. I’d never deny her that. After losing both a friend and her mother in a car crash, she’d then lost her business only a few weeks later. Even though she hooked up with Tenor soon thereafter, they had a huge misunderstanding, and went weeks without seeing each other.

  “I’m so happy with Tenor,” she said. “I never thought I’d feel this way about anyone. Much less him. I mean, I disliked him from the second I heard of him.”

  “I think the word you’re looking for there is hate, not dislike,” I felt necessary to remind her. Before meeting Tenor in person, Mia’s disdain for anything remotely related to either Tenor or Bachelor International was legendary.

  She nodded and looked at me directly. “I was so wrong about him, but the one thing I did right was not to let my preconceived ideas of who he was cloud my ability to let me see the real man.”

  “This feels like you’re trying to fit an after-school special in there somewhere, but I’m totally missing whatever it is.”

  “I’m saying you had an awful experience with a guy in the past. Don’t let that one experience control you to where it ruins your perception of all men.” Mia took a sip of water. “I believe there are a lot of good guys out there.”

  “And that, my friend, is why you’re the matchmaker and I’m the coldhearted journalist.”

  “Please. You don’t have a cold heart.”

  “Cold and dead,” I insisted.

  “I don’t believe you for a second,” Mia said. “It might be a bit on the frosty side, but all it needs is the right man to thaw it.”

  I snorted. “Whatever. Tell me what you can about this guy.”

  Mia’s eyes blazed with victory and I held up my hand. “Don’t get excited. I’m not saying I’ll do it, I’m saying tell me a little about him, and I’ll think on it tonight and let you know definitively tomorrow.”

  “He’s Italian—”

  “Wait. What?”

  Mia looked unsure for the first time since bringing up the entire date. “That’s the reason Tenor brought up your name for a potential date in the first place. He thought since you’d spent time in Italy, you’d be perfect.”

  My time in Italy was the reason why I had a heart so cold and dead. A fact I had only recently confided to Mia. “Does he know…?” I found myself unable to finish the question.

  “No, Wren,” she assured me. “Of course not. I would never betray your trust in such a way. Not even to Tenor.”

  Not that I thought she would, but I had to be certain and didn’t feel bad at all for asking. I took a deep breath, forcing the air out of my lungs before inhaling. I could do this. Hell, it’d been years, and in that time, I’d become an expert at shutting that part of myself away, not only from the world, but from myself as well. “Okay, so he’s Italian. What else?”

  She didn’t look half as assured as she had been only seconds before, but she continued. “His name is Lucrezio, and he’s in the US for marketing of some sort. He’s two years older than you and has never been married.”

  A businessman from Italy. I took another deep breath. “Anything else?”

  “Other than the fact he’s a perfect match?”

  “What did the background check show?” I knew before accepting any client, Bachelor International always ran a background check. According to Mia, they’d found nothing while doing a background check that would disqualify someone from being a client, but they wouldn't take a chance and not do one.

  “His background was relatively unremarkable. Close friends describe him as a workaholic, very driven, and somewhat reclusive.”

  He sounded dreadfully boring. Since boring wasn’t a word I’d have used to describe my time in Italy, or
my experience with Italian men, I let myself relax. I could do this. “I’ll think about it tonight,” I told Mia. “And let you know something tomorrow.”

  Before my time in Italy, I scoffed at the idea of love at first sight. Foolishness, I’d say with a shake of my head at how supposedly intelligent people could lower their intellect enough to believe in such nonsense.

  But then I went to Italy for two weeks.

  It had never been my plan to travel abroad that year. If I’d even considered it for longer than two seconds, I’d have decided fairly quickly the cost would be outside anything I’d be able to pay. At the time, I was going to school part time, while working as a ballet instructor. My dream was to become a professional dancer, and any free time I had outside of school was spent doing some sort of dance, usually ballet.

  A group of friends I’d met in school arranged a ski trip to Italy over Christmas break. They’d asked if I was interested. Of course, I’d said. But being interested and being able to afford the trip were two different things.

  My parents had moved to Florida when they retired and had announced earlier that October they’d booked a Christmas cruise when they found a bargain last minute deal online. Since they lived near Miami, they could take a cab to the port.

  I’d planned to spend the holidays with Mia and her mom, and was looking forward to catching up with Mia. Between her job and my schedule, we’d have very little girl bonding time. I didn’t even mind being around her mom. Dee was like a second mom to me, but a really cool second mom. Italy never crossed my mind as a possibility until three weeks before the group was due to leave, one of the travelers was arrested for accessory to armed robbery and wasn’t allowed to leave the country.