Chapter 187
Liv noticed the woman eyeing her with interest.
“I’m Gerri Wilder.” She gave Liv her hand to shake. “Owner of the Paranormal Dating Agency.”
Liv gave her the clean hand she hadn’t used to eat. The last thing she wanted was to cover the poor woman in chocolate.
“Nice to meet you, Gerri. I’m Alivia Vela, but please, call me Liv.”
“Do you mind if I sit down?” Gerri asked, her look more intense by the second.
She hadn’t been wanting to spend time with anyone, but what the hell. The older woman had a nice disposition and a welcoming smile.
“No. Go right ahead.”
Gerri sat across from her. Her gaze roamed Liv’s face, her exposed arm tattoo, and her colorful hair. Unlike most people, Gerri appeared to like how different Liv looked instead of frowning at her like she’d broken societal rules by doing whatever she wanted.
“Thanks for returning the card,” Gerri said, placing it on the table next to Liv’s plate.
Why didn’t she take it? She should put it in her handbag. Someone would eventually need it.
“You’re welcome.” She bit into the second cookie.
Aurelis brought coffee for Gerri and a plate with chocolate-covered cream puffs.
“A paranormal dating agency, huh?”
Gerri grinned, her blue eyes twinkling with humor.
“Yes. You have heard of shifters, right?”
Who hadn’t? Everyone knew shifters were the badasses that shared the planet with humans. They were built like Mac trucks—tall, strong, and caught everyone’s attention. Men wanted to be them. And women… well, women just wanted them. It was said shifters fucked like animals. Too bad Liv had never had the luck to date one.
“Shifters. The sexy, growly men women die for a taste of. Those guys? I’ve heard of them.”
Gerri laughed.
“Are you single, Liv?”
She nodded and sipped her latte.
“Have been for thirty-six years.” She lifted her shoulders in a careless shrug. “If my dating life keeps going downhill, I might buy myself a cat or ten.”
Gerri pushed a strand of blond hair behind her ear, her gold hoop glinting in the light.
“Don’t say that. You’re much too young and beautiful.”
“Well,” she sighed, “I’m giving up on men on this planet. I swear I’d have better luck with aliens.”
“Why is it so hard for you to get a man?”
“Aside from the obvious?” she replied with a question.
“What exactly is the obvious?” Gerri asked.
“My size. My hair. My tattoos. I get either the ones who think I am a super freak willing to take on a gang of men or ones who think I am desperate and willing to accept any kind of treatment.”
Gerri sighed.
“That’s just like men. Never really using their brains.”
“Men are generally stupid.”
“I agree with you there.” Gerri nodded.
When she glanced at Liv’s face again, Liv noticed the gold rim around Gerri’s eyes. She was one of them!
“Shifters sound fascinating, but you must have lines of women dying to hook up with one.”
“Listen, let me set you up on a date.”
She shook her head firmly.
“No way. I have bad luck at this shit. People always give me the ‘good’ qualities of the man and then I find out the bad ones within five minutes of meeting.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you,” Gerri told her. “My clients want curvy women they can love. It’s that simple.”
Nothing was ever that simple.
“Look,” she smiled at Gerri, “I really appreciate what you’re offering, but my luck sucks balls. I mean, I’m at the point I might get artificially inseminated and forget men altogether.”
Gerri’s brows rose, and the interest in her gaze spiked.
“You want children?”
She nodded.
“More than anything.”
She wouldn’t go into being raised by her grandmother and treated like she didn’t belong in the family. No. This wasn’t the time for those conversations.
“What if I told you I can set you up with a shifter who wants a woman who wants babies too?”
Oh, that was a low blow. Children were her weakness. Growing up feeling unloved left her wanting someone to love unconditionally.
“Really?” she couldn’t help but ask, her fingers circling the edges of the business card.
A knowing grin spread over Gerri’s lips.
“One date, Liv. That’s all I ask.”
She swallowed the knot in her throat.
“If it doesn’t work—”
“Then I will back off and even help you find the best place to get artificially inseminated.” Gerri patted the hand she’d placed on the business card. “But wouldn’t you rather make a baby the old-fashioned way?”
“Hell, yes!” She laughed. “Especially if he’s good at it.”
“Good is not the word, darling.”
She raised her brows high.
“If you get me a man who can make my knees buckle, I will skinny-dip in the local pond.”
Gerri shook her head.
“Don’t make promises you will hate keeping later.”
“I’ve yet to meet a man who can get me all the way there.”
Gerri frowned, a horrified look taking over her face.
“Oh, child, please tell me you don’t mean an orgasm.”
She giggled at the fact it was so sad that men couldn’t do that for her. Everyone must have better luck with sex than she did if she went by Gerri’s reaction.
“Don’t feel bad. I can give them to myself, but sex is just not… it’s not been good to me. I think I am not relaxed enough, so it doesn’t happen.”
“So what do you do?” Gerri blinked. “You don’t… do you fake them?”
She bit her lip, her brows wrinkling, and she nodded.
“What else could I do? Not like I can get up and walk away and be all ‘hey, you didn’t get me to come so I’m out of here.’”
“That’s a damn shame.” Gerri’s voice lowered. “The man I have for you… He’s out of this world.”
Wow. Something about the way she said it made her skin tingle and her blood heat. Could Gerri succeed where others had failed? She sure as heck hoped so. Now to deal with the date she already had that night. That was a difficult one. Thankfully, they were going to a bar near her building. Liquor would either solve or create more problems.