The amusement faded from his expression. “What, exactly, did you see?”
“The arcanematch.com people say they found a match for you.”
“Yeah?”
“They lie.”
Paranormal energy was invisible to the human eye, but she could have sworn that the air around him was suddenly shimmering with the stuff. She could feel the potent waves pulsing invisibly in the atmosphere.
“You sure about that?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah.” She moved another step closer. “I am absolutely positive they’re wrong.”
“Why?”
“Because you belong to me, that’s why.” She swept out her free hand. “We’re perfect for each other. I love you. Why do you need arcanematch.com? What’s that woman they claim they found for you got that I don’t have?”
The dangerous energy that had swirled around him shifted with disconcerting abruptness into sensual hunger.
“Interesting question,” he said.
“The answer is nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. She’s got absolutely nothing that I don’t have. Don’t bother to set up a date with her because there will be three of us there and I don’t think she’s going to feel real comfortable chatting with me, do you?”
“Don’t know,” he said. “It would certainly make for an unusual first date.”
“Skip the snappy repartee. I am dead serious, Jake Salter Jones.”
His mouth tweaked up at the corners. Heat burned in his eyes. “About me?”
“About you. And me. We’re a match. Can’t you see that?”
“Yes.”
“What’s more, there’s no frickin’ way those arcanematch.com people could have found anyone who will love you more than I do.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
She stopped cold. “You’re laughing at me.”
“No. Honest. I’m not laughing at you.”
“Liar.” Scalding tears of outrage welled in her eyes. She jabbed him in the chest with a forefinger. “Why are you laughing at me?”
“Let’s go inside.” He took her arm. “I’ll show you.”
He walked her back into the kitchen and halted at the table where the dreadful news from arcanematch.com still glowed with macabre good cheer.
Jake clicked on the link that was set up to take him to a profile of his perfect mate. She watched, stomach clenched, dread in her heart, as a screen full of data and a photograph popped up. The photo was shockingly familiar.
Meet: Clare Lancaster.
Parasensitivity level: Ten*
Description: Extreme sensitivity to the inconsistent psychic energy generated by those engaged in willful prevarication and/or deception.
Clare stopped reading. “That’s me.”
“Thought I noticed a resemblance.” Jake studied the photo on the screen with an air of satisfaction. “Great picture. I like your hair that way. The ice princess look is cool. It’s got a real touch-me-if-you-dare thing going on. I think I can feel my pulse kicking up.”
“Where did they get that photo?” she yelped. “That was taken for the annual report of the Draper Trust last year. I never sent it to arcanematch.com.”
“Wasn’t hard to find. I just looked up a copy of the annual report online.”
“You sent it to arcanematch.com?”
“Sure.” He poured himself a second cup of tea. “I got Fallon Jones to ask one of his computer techs to dig out the old registration you filed with arcanematch.com a couple of years ago. Figured Fallon owed me that much.”
She was dazed. “But I pulled my registration file.”
“Nothing ever disappears completely once it’s online. It’s always out there, somewhere.”
“And the computer matched us?”
“That’s what it says.”
“Good grief.” She sat down slowly, unable to take her eyes off the screen. “I don’t understand. Did you do it so you could find out whether or not we really are meant for each other?”
“No,” Jake said. “I already knew that. I did it so you could be sure. Given your trust issues and all, I figured you needed some objective confirmation.”
Truth rang in every word, so dazzling and crystal-sharp that it stole her breath. She did not know whether she was going to laugh or cry. She covered her face with both hands and did both.
“Hey,” Jake said, suddenly anxious. He touched her shoulder. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to make you cry. Damn. That’s the last thing I wanted to do.”
She raised her head. The tears were spilling down her cheeks but she smiled anyway. “When I saw that they’d matched you I was ready to hunt down those dip squat arcanematch.com matchmakers, wrap my hands around their scrawny little necks and start squeezing.”
“I did get that impression,” Jake said. He looked both relieved and pleased.
“Now, of course, I realize that I should wrap my hands around your neck, which is not scrawny. Nevertheless—”
“If you insist. But if you’re in the mood to squeeze something maybe you would like to consider wrapping your hands around another portion of my anatomy?”
“You are absolutely impossible.”
“Maybe. But I love you, Clare.”
Once again the pure, silvery energy of truth shimmered in the atmosphere.
She leaped to her feet. “I love you so much.”
His arms closed around her, warm, tight, strong. This was where she belonged, she thought. This was her true mate.
“About your last name,” she said. “Can I assume that is not a coincidence? Are you one of those Joneses?”
“Afraid so.”
“And Dumbass Fallon Jones?”
“A cousin. I’ve got a lot of ’em.”
“Family, hmm?” She smiled slowly. “In that case we will definitely quadruple our consulting fees whenever we take on contract work for J&J.”
Jake laughed. “I’ll leave the negotiations up to you.”
He started to kiss her. She put her fingers on his mouth.
“One more thing,” she said.
“Yeah?”
She took her fingers away from his lips. “What would you have done if the arcanematch.com crowd hadn’t matched us?”
“No problem. I would have called Fallon and told him I needed one of his techs to hack into the arcanematch.com database to make a few adjustments to our profiles.”
“You would have crafted a whopping great lie just to convince me to marry you?”