It wouldn’t be the end of the world in terms of PR for someone to know who she was, but she didn’t particularly want to advertise her identity.
On the rare occasions she was itching for a hookup, Rhiannon chose her conquests carefully, men who appeared to be far away from her world in both distance and work. Samson had looked big and eager for sex and they’d been almost 250 miles north of her home base in L.A. Just her type.
“And finally, a shirtless selfie,” Samson said, grabbing her attention, and judging by the hoots from the audience, the attention of most of the women in the room.
The screen went blank, and he smiled. “Actually, you know what? You all can sign up to see that.”
Rhi grit her teeth as people clapped and laughed. She’d had to rip and claw her way into the good graces of so many of the people in this room, overcome a reputation damaged by Swype’s power-hungry, vindictive Chief Executive Asshole. A lot of people in her own industry still sneered at her, whispered about her, dismissed her, even though she’d worked around the clock to prove herself with a multimillion-dollar company that was poised on the verge of billion-hood.
This good-looking asshole walked right in, made some jokes, and Matchmaker was probably already getting new clients.
“All humor aside, though.” Samson’s face sobered. “This is serious.” His profile took up the screen with blocks of text about who he was looking for.
Rhiannon’s rage only allowed her to consume single words and short phrases out of the word salad he’d posted.
Sweet.
Kind.
Loyal.
Loves animals and children.
Looking for the real thing.
So funny, that he could type all these words for Matchmaker to describe the woman of his dreams. He hadn’t even used all 250 characters that were allotted when he’d filled out his Crush profile.
Respectful and fully understand consent, not looking for anything serious, just a mutually satisfying physical relationship.
And now he’d just said, This is serious, with a straight face, and backed it up with a written thesis about his ideal woman.
Her eye twitched.
“If you’re in the greater Los Angeles area and we match, we can go out. If you agree, parts of our date will be filmed for short online episodes and commercials. If you don’t agree to the filming, we’ll go get a steak anyway, my treat.” He shrugged sheepishly. “This is a marketing campaign, yes. But it’s also my heart. So sign up. Match me if you can. Because as William said . . .” Samson’s gaze drifted over the crowd. “You never know who you’ll—”
His dark eyes landed on her and he stopped midsentence.
Rhiannon folded her arms over her chest, refusing to give him anything. She’d given him so much. Her body, her thoughts, her tentative trust even when she knew better.
Her hope for another night.
Even when she knew better.
Stone. Stone cold. That’s what she was.
Someone in the audience cleared their throat, and Samson jerked. It might be the lights, but Rhiannon swore there was a trickle of sweat at his temple.
Let it not be the lights. Squirm, you bastard.
“Find.” Samson’s hand fell to his side, the tablet tapping his thigh. “You never know who you’ll find.”
Chapter Two
GETTING HIT was nothing new to Samson. He’d played football from ages six to twenty-six and had been hit so many times, he’d lost count. He’d gotten knocked out cold twice in his career, and each time his late mother had bolted from her seat to his side, sobbing in fear.
The concussions hadn’t been fun, but it had been the countless subconcussive hits that had truly freaked Samson out. The ones that left him awake, but rattled everything inside his body, from the bones of his toes to his precious soft brain. Those hits had left him disoriented and confused, utterly discombobulated.
A person could still get up and play after a hit like that, their body on autopilot. Just like Samson could force himself to finish the speech he’d written and prepped in his hotel room last night without taking his gaze off the woman who was standing close enough to the stage that the light exposed her. “You never know who you’ll find.”
Like her. That face. The face of the one and only woman he’d ever met through his phone. The face he’d touched and kissed. The face that had haunted his dreams for months, so much so that he now thought about that night as That Night, in caps.