No Match for Her

No Match for Her

Stacy Travis · Completed · 88.6k Words

1k
Hot
1.4k
Views
306
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

I need a fake date to my brother's wedding, and billionaire Charlie Walgrove owns a tux. Simple, right?   He’s also my sister’s boss, and I agree to let her set me up with the awkward genius, who apparently has even less luck in the dating game than a struggling artist, aka me.   We’re total opposites, but the date goes okay. We agree to be friends, the kind who won’t become lovers.    Famous last words.   On a series of “friend dates” involving bar snacks, acrylic paint and hedgehogs, I discover that Charlie is nothing like what I expected. Under his hoodie and glasses, he’s handsome and down-to-earth, stuck in a job he hates and afraid to disappoint people by walking away. His heart is as gorgeous as his hidden face.   I’ve always felt like the flaky sister in my family, but Charlie sees me as the artist I want to be. As our friendship deepens, so do my feelings for him. Maybe I’m even falling in love.   But gambling with my heart feels dangerous when all my relationships end in failure–especially if he’s only looking for a friend.   Is it only princesses that get a Happily Ever After? Or is there hope for a hot mess like me?   No Match for Her is a STANDALONE friends-to-lovers, opposites-attract romance. It is part of the Berkeley Hills series.

Chapter 1

Prologue

C

harlie

T

hree Years Ago

I

t’s her laugh that catches my attention.

I hear a chorus of tiny bells, the lilting symphony of piano keys and windchimes late in the summer when the breeze is mild and warm. One of those days when all you want to do is stay outside until the sun drops, casting a warm pinkish glow on ordinary things.

Her laugh sounds pink.

It reminds me of the kind of joy I felt in my bones as a kid when I had a new idea and couldn’t sprint home fast enough to make it happen.

I sure haven’t felt that way lately. And not today.

Most of the time, I don’t know what I feel. Stress, I guess—the weight of accomplishment and expectations ruining what might otherwise be a productive afternoon. I should be building the company I’ve dreamed of since I started messing with circuit boards and computer code two dozen years ago.

I shouldn’t be rethinking decisions that have already been made.

But I think about everything, especially the dreams. I’m a planner, so I work through scenarios, gaming them out with all possible outcomes to be sure I’ve chosen the best one. Even when I should be losing myself in an audiobook out on a run, I can’t stop my goddamned brain from wondering what if?

What if I should’ve when I could’ve?

Doubt will be the death of those dreams. I’ll have to try to remember that when all I can see are the question marks and second guesses.

If my thoughts sound wooden, it’s because they are—thought and overthought so many times they’ve become petrified.

Just keep moving forward, doing what’s expected, and everything will be okay.

More than okay. My virtual reality company, ViviTech, is about to be go public in a stock offering worth billions. Yes, there’s a “b” at the front of that word. I will be a billionaire in a matter of weeks.

And I’d be the biggest douchebag asshole on the planet if I complained. So, I won’t.

I will simply say that the past few years have been a grind. What started as a senior thesis in college with a bunch of my knucklehead computer nerd friends has turned into a twenty-four/seven life.

I’m not being overly dramatic.

Our joint paper on the subject of whether machines could learn emotions opened doors for all of us. Tech incubators and venture capitalists came calling and sent us all off in different directions once we’d turned in our research.

Two of my fellow knuckleheads developed an app that uses tech to predict who’s most susceptible to different kinds of cancers using a couple drops of blood and powerful computers. I founded a virtual reality company that makes a whole new category of sports games and allows astronauts to virtually explore Mars and run experiments there using rovers in real time.

The fourth member of our dude group started a landscape design firm. It has nothing to do with technology or machine learning unless drip watering on a timer counts as high tech. And he’s probably the happiest of the bunch, married to a pastry chef who tries out new recipes on him daily and doesn’t mind when he comes home smelling like fertilizer.

He zigged, I zagged. Until now, I had no problem with spending all my time on algorithms. If managed correctly, they’re predictable.

I like predictable.

So do shareholders. They want predictable profits and growth—and it’s my job to produce.

Billions of dollars will be changing hands based on work I’ve completed and bold promises I’ve made about what I’ll continue to do. Investment dollars will allow my company to grow beyond anything I’ve dreamed of, but every future decision I make will be with shareholders in mind.

A deal with the devil.

No wonder I’m stressed. No wonder I’m grasping at anything that will lighten my load.

No wonder that today, when my mind is deep in a trough of investor questions I’d rather not answer, the melodic laugh kind of saves my life.

It reminds me that in some alternate dimension from where I currently eat, breathe, and sleep my work, some things are still beautiful.

And for some people, still funny.

It’s a foreign sound at my company, despite what I’ve done to make our workspace a pleasant environment with a ping-pong table, flexible hours, and free vending machine food. People like coming to work, but they don’t laugh at work. Not like that.

So, even though I have a hundred emails in my inbox, I leave my glass-walled office and walk through the cubicle farm in search of the sound that warmed me from the inside out.

I’m certain of the source before I hear a second peal that’s even more gleeful than the first. It has to be her—the auburn-haired woman in the red dress standing near one of the lunch tables in our central common area. She’s grinning at my newest hire, Tatum Finley.

Long, dark red waves hang down her back with bronze highlights catching light from the overhead LEDs. I’m struck by the need to put the correct name to the color—copper, russet, chestnut?

The dress defies description, both tastefully covering most of her body in a hip-hugging knit fabric and screaming sexy at the same time. Even from across the room, I can see her long lashes brush her cheeks when she blinks over greenish eyes that could easily be gemstones.

It’s none of my business who Tatum is talking to, and I’m not the kind of arrogant jerk who’d walk over and puff my feathers in front of her just because I founded the company. One of my project managers, Paul, is already positioning his weak, slip of a body between Tatum and her guest. Given his lack of stature, his eyes are right at chest level, and he’s not even embarrassed to gawk. If he gets any closer, he could bite one of her breasts like an apple.

To her credit, the woman says something I don’t hear, but it has him scurrying away like a rodent under the heel of a boot.

A moment later, I hear a repeat of the delightful carefree sound that called me from my office like a siren song. She’s laughing at Tatum, who’s waltzing in front of her with her hands on her hips, her hair flipping from side to side, and a wild sway in her hips. They both break up over whatever they’re talking about, and I feel like a stalker creeper for lingering by the snacks watching them.

For a split second, she looks in my direction, the deep pink of her lips parting to reveal an open-mouthed smile that confirms I was right—there’s something joyful about her. Something uninhibited, as though she isn’t weighed down by a job she hates or a husband who she married for the wrong reasons. Her laugh tells me she’s happy.

Not that you’re projecting…

She just seems…content.

Of course, I don’t know her at all, and I’m reading into the things I want to be true. But isn’t that how it always is? We seize on something and believe in it without knowing whether reality will bear out our hopes.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the hopes are enough to drive reality.

And maybe it’s because I’ve been working endless, god-awful hours getting the company ready for its initial public offering—listening to power players in the banking industry tell me what they think I want to hear about my brilliance because it will translate into millions of dollars for them—but I could use a little joy and contentment right now.

Berta, the Icelandic model who I married a year ago, has just asked for a divorce. I know she waited for the options to vest before bailing because she told me. I almost don’t blame her for making a shrewd financial play, especially since I knew we weren’t in love by the honeymoon.

I dove headlong into the marriage anyway because I’m good at fixing broken things. It’s taken me a year of therapy to learn the distinction between broken machines and broken people, and I’m still not sure I understand.

Now I’ll stick to the technical things I can repair using logic. I don’t need a relationship in order to live a meaningful life.

Still…I do need to hear that laughter.

Its surprising warmth has me relaxing the smallest degree about all the things on my massive, awful to-do list. Who knew another person could make a sound with the power to do that? Not me.

The fridge has a selection of drinks—ginger tonics, green smoothies, seltzers, cans side-by-side of Red Bull and Diet Red Bull that once launched an office-wide debate—and I take my time deciding on a cranberry seltzer. And because I skipped lunch, I scoop some raw almonds from one of the glass jars into a blue bowl that looks like someone sculpted it out of Play-Doh.

Then I linger in hopes of one more peal of laughter to lift me out of work hell, one more look at this red-haired beauty before I head back to my office for another coding marathon.

Still lost in my head and dreading the calls I need to make when I get back to my office, I nearly miss Tatum and her friend walk past. I don’t even take advantage of the moment and get a closer look at the cherubic features of the woman whose hair bounces as she fades out of range.

I’m left only with a lingering citrus scent that makes me want to grow lemon and orange trees all around my house so I can prolong the memory of her.

Glancing over to the table where the two of them sat a moment ago, my eyes snag on a slip of paper, maybe what they were laughing at, maybe not. But I’m curious enough to walk over and look.

It’s a page from one of the notepads we have all over the office. Rule one in working with people who are paid to find new solutions to old problems is to make it easy to capture the barest whiff of an idea before it’s lost.

That’s the work I love—the creativity, the collaboration, the ideas.

Do I even want the company to go public? Does it even matter? What if I want to own a sports team or a piano bar or an eco-travel company?

Shut up, you whiny, lucky bastard who’s about to have the biggest IPO to hit Silicon Valley in a year.

Yeah, I need to keep my complaints to myself, bury them deep, and forget about them.

The first thing I notice on the paper is the drawing—it’s a pencil-scrawled image of a hockey player sweeping a puck into the net. It’s highly detailed, surprisingly so for what’s basically a doodle.

She drew this?

Beneath it is a quote I know to be from Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Yes, you do.

It’s exactly what I need to hear—or read—today. Not because I need courage before I take the company public. But because of all the other things I want to do someday.

Shareholders? Fuck ‘em.

Sometimes, the universe provides the exact inspiration at the exact time a person needs it. Sometimes, it’s provided by a mysterious redhead with a musical laugh. Either way, I’m smart enough to know it when I see it.

I understand that I’m holding something in my hands that could change my career trajectory if I do things right. It may even change my life. So I’m grateful for something a total stranger scribbled on a page, having no idea it would speak to me in a moment when I needed clarity.

I also know I need to see this woman again. When the time is right. When I have my life in order.

Popping the top on the cranberry seltzer, I take a long sip.

When I have my life in order.

Sure. I have no fucking idea when that will be.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate

Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate

588.5k Views · Ongoing · Becky j
"Mate is here!"
What? No—wait… oh Moon Goddess, no.
Please tell me you're joking, Lex.
But she's not. I can feel her excitement bubbling under my skin, while all I feel is dread.
We turn the corner, and the scent hits me like a punch to the chest—cinnamon and something impossibly warm. My eyes scan the room until they land on him. Tall. Commanding. Beautiful.
And then, just as quickly… he sees me.
His expression twists.
"Fuck no."
He turns—and runs.
My mate sees me and runs.
Bonnie has spent her entire life being broken down and abused by the people closest to her including her very own twin sister. Alongside her best friend Lilly who also lives a life of hell, they plan to run away while attending the biggest ball of the year while it's being hosted by another pack, only things don't quite go to plan leaving both girls feeling lost and unsure about their futures.
Alpha Nicholas is 28, mateless, and has no plans to change that. It's his turn to host the annual Blue Moon Ball this year and the last thing he expects is to find his mate. What he expects even less is for his mate to be 10 years younger than him and how his body reacts to her. While he tries to refuse to acknowledge that he has met his mate his world is turned upside down after guards catch two she-wolves running through his lands.
Once they are brought to him he finds himself once again facing his mate and discovers that she's hiding secrets that will make him want to kill more than one person.
Can he overcome his feelings towards having a mate and one that is so much younger than him? Will his mate want him after already feeling the sting of his unofficial rejection? Can they both work on letting go of the past and moving forward together or will fate have different plans and keep them apart?
Surrendering to Destiny

Surrendering to Destiny

624.5k Views · Completed · Allison Franklin
Catherine is not only a rogue half-breed, she is also the result of mate-bond infidelity, was abandoned as a baby and, to top it off, she can only shift during the full moon. When Catherine left the only pack she'd ever known in order to escape the new alpha, the last thing she expected was to find her mate... let alone for him to be the mouth-watering, heavily tattooed, lead warrior of the most feared lycan pack on the continent.

Graham MacTavish wasn't prepared to find his mate in the small town of Sterling that borders the Blackmoore Packlands. He certainly didn't expect her to be a rogue, half-breed who smelled of Alpha blood. With her multi-colored eyes, there was no stopping him from falling hard the moment their mate bond snapped into place. He would do anything to claim her, protect her and cherish her no matter the cost.

From vengeful ex-lovers, pack politics, species prejudice, hidden plots, magic, kidnapping, poisoning, rogue attacks, and a mountain of secrets including Catherine's true parentage there is no shortage of things trying to tear the two apart.

Despite the hardships, a burning desire and willingness to trust will help forge a strong bond between the two... but no bond is unbreakable. When the secrets kept close to heart are slowly revealed, will the two be able to weather the storm? Or will the gift bestowed upon Catherine by the moon goddess be too insurmountable to overcome?
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

655.7k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
Invisible To Her Bully

Invisible To Her Bully

322.2k Views · Ongoing · sunsationaldee
Unlike her twin brother, Jackson, Jessa struggled with her weight and very few friends. Jackson was an athlete and the epitome of popularity, while Jessa felt invisible. Noah was the quintessential “It” guy at school—charismatic, well-liked, and undeniably handsome. To make matters worse, he was Jackson’s best friend and Jessa’s biggest bully. During their senior year, Jessa decides it was time for her to gain some self-confidence, find her true beauty and not be the invisible twin. As Jessa transformed, she begins to catch the eye of everyone around her, especially Noah. Noah, initially blinded by his perception of Jessa as merely Jackson’s sister, started to see her in a new light. How did she become the captivating woman invading his thoughts? When did she become the object of his fantasies? Join Jessa on her journey from being the class joke to a confident, desirable young woman, surprising even Noah as she reveals the incredible person she has always been inside.
King of the Underworld

King of the Underworld

114.1k Views · Completed · RJ Kane
In my life as a waitress, I, Sephie - an ordinary person - endured the icy glares and insults of customers while trying to earn a living. I believed that this would be my fate forever.

However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”

But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”


Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.

She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Shattered Girl

Shattered Girl

785.1k Views · Completed · Brandi Rae
Jake's fingers danced across my nipples, squeezing gently and making me groan in pleasure. He lifted my shirt and stared at my hardened nipples through my bra. I tensed, and Jake sat up and moved back on the bed, giving me some space.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Was that too much?” I could see the worry in his eyes as I took a deep breath.

“I just didn’t want you to see all my scars,” I whispered, feeling ashamed of my marked body.


Emmy Nichols is used to surviving. She survived her abusive father for years until he beat her so severely, she ended up in the hospital, and her father was finally arrested. Now, Emmy is thrown into a life she never expected. Now she has a mother

who doesn't want her, a politically motivated stepfather with ties to the Irish mob, four older stepbrothers, and their best friend who swear to love and protect her. Then, one night, everything shatters, and Emmy feels her only option is to run.

When her stepbrothers and their best friend finally find her, will they pick up the pieces and convince Emmy that they will keep her safe and their love will hold them together?
The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

The Pack: Rule Number 1 - No Mates

1.8m Views · Ongoing · Jaylee
Soft hot lips find the shell of my ear and he whispers, "You think I don't want you?" He pushes his hips forward, grinding into the back of my ass and I groan. "Really?" He chuckles.

"Let me go," I whimper, my body trembling with need. "I don't want you touching me."

I fall forward onto the bed then turn around to stare at him. The dark tattoos of Domonic's chiseled shoulders, quiver and and expand with the heave of his chest. His deep dimpled smile is full of arrogance as he reaches behind himself to lock the door.

Biting his lip, he stalks toward me, his hand going to the seam of his pants and the thickening bulge there.

"Are you sure you don't want me to touch you?" He whispers, untying the knot and slipping a hand inside. "Because I swear to God, that is all I have been wanting to do. Every single day from the moment you stepped in our bar and I smelled your perfect flavor from across the room."


New to the world of shifters, Draven is human on the run. A beautiful girl who no one could protect. Domonic is the cold Alpha of the Red Wolf Pack. A brotherhood of twelve wolves that live by twelve rules. Rules which they vowed could NEVER be broken.

Especially - Rule Number One - No Mates

When Draven meets Domonic, he knows that she is his mate, but Draven has no idea what a mate is, only that she has fallen in love with a shifter. An Alpha that will break her heart to make her leave. Promising herself, she will never forgive him, she disappears.

But she doesn’t know about the child she’s carrying or that the moment she left, Domonic decided rules were made to be broken - and now will he ever find her again? Will she forgive him?
The War God Alpha's Arranged Bride

The War God Alpha's Arranged Bride

513.7k Views · Ongoing · Riley Above Story
On the day Evelyn thought Liam would propose, he shocked her by getting down on one knee—for her stepsister, Samantha. As if that betrayal wasn’t enough, Evelyn learned the cruel truth: her parents had already decided to sell one daughter’s future to a dangerous man: the infamous War God Alpha Alexander, who was rumored to be scarred and crippled after a recent accident. And the bride could’t be their precious daughter Samantha. However, when the "ugly and crippled" Alpha revealed his true self—an impossibly handsome billionaire with no trace of injury—Samantha had a change of heart. She was ready to dump Liam and take Evelyn's place as the family daughter who should marry Alexander.
Yet Alexander made his decision clear to the world: “Evelyn is the only woman I will ever marry.”
I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis

I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis

417.8k Views · Completed · Jessica C. Dolan
Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé.
Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one?
Wrong.
One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn’t even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup.
So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster—my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise.
Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol.
Enter him.
Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I’d met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes.
It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised.
But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life.
And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made.
Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with.
And now, he’s not letting me go.
Oops, Wrong Girl to Bully

Oops, Wrong Girl to Bully

148.6k Views · Completed · Xena Kessler
An original story by Xena Kessler
My back hit the desk. Pain exploded through my skull.
"Girls like you don't get to dream about guys like Kai." Bella's breath was hot on my face. "You don't get to write pathetic love letters."
She shoved me again. Harder.
"Maybe if you weren't such a desperate little—"
I fell. My head cracked against the corner.
Warmth trickled down my neck. Blood.
Their laughter turned to gasps.
The door slammed.
I tried to stand. Couldn't. The room was spinning, fading to black.
Someone... please...
Angelina, the most powerful Alpha who conquered forty-nine packs, dies in a yacht explosion—only to wake up as Aria Sterling, a fifteen-year-old Omega's daughter who just died from bullying.
The original Aria's life was a nightmare. Humiliated when golden boy Kai Matthews posted her love letter online, then shoved to death by his girlfriend Bella Morrison. But that's not all her family faces:
"You got until Monday," the tattooed gangster sneered at Aria's mother. "Ten grand cash. Or I'm taking collateral—your kids' organs fetch top dollar. That pretty daughter of yours? She could make us money another way too."
Now Angelina's lethal combat skills awaken in this fragile body. No more hiding. No more fear.
Armed with an Alpha's ruthlessness and a mysterious blood-red pendant, she'll dismantle everyone who hurt this family—one calculated move at a time.
Balance of Light and Shadow

Balance of Light and Shadow

244.1k Views · Ongoing · Chandrea
After escaping the brutalities of her pack, the rogue she-wolf is only interested in protecting those she cares for. While protecting the innocents during a royal raid, she runs into a wolf claiming to be the Alpha King and worse yet, he claims she is his Mate. She barely escaped that life alive and has been living as a human since she was a teenager and no one was going to make her go back.

Little did she know how much both worlds need her to bring peace and true freedom.
Thornhill Academy

Thornhill Academy

124.8k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Allison was never meant to survive. She was born a siphon and hidden away like a mistake the world was waiting to break. The Council planned to shape her into a weapon or erase her before she became one. She was supposed to disappear quietly; another tragedy folded into the past. Instead, she lived, she thrived. When the truth of her bloodline comes to light, Allison’s carefully held world fractures, and power spills through the cracks whether she’s ready for it or not. She steals the magic she needs. She survives the way she has learnt. Everything is fine until she captured from the scrub lands and four men begin to orbit her life; each bound by something deeper than choice. Five men. Five obsessions. Five hearts tethered to hers by magic older than the Wall itself.

Hunted, haunted, and newly awakened, Allison is dragged into a rebellion built on blood and belief, the same fight her parents died trying to protect. As enemies close in and desire sharpens into something dangerous, she must decide what kind of power she will become. The weapon the Council always wanted. Or the storm that tears their world apart. When Allison rises, kingdoms kneel and when she loves, she loves like war.

Dark Academia | Reverse Harem | Dark Romance | Dark Humour | Action-Packed | Steamy | Unputdownable