Love Contract (The Match Broker) Read Free Page A

had decided to sign with Tony Ludlow, one of his major
competitors, to list his penthouse apartment on Lake Shore Drive. Finding out he
had lost a sale always bothered him, but hearing that Ludlow had taken one of
his clients from under his nose irked the crap out of him.
    “You have a call holding, sir.”
    “Let me guess, my mother’s on the line checking on her latest
coup?”
    The woman opened her mouth to reply, but Adrian
interrupted.
    “You’d think she’d give me some time between setups to catch my
breath and regroup. When will she learn?” Agitated, he rose from his chair to
pace around the room.
    “Oh, let’s not forget my date this past weekend. She made calls
to her therapist all through dinner. Now there was a woman in touch with her
inner self. Or how about the kleptomaniac that eyed my Rolex more than me? If
I’d have married her, she’d be stealing her own damned silver!”
    “You know...I can see you’re busy so I’ll just leave you in
peace. One of the other Realtors can take the call.” She backed out and closed
the door firmly behind her.
    Startled, Adrian halted his diatribe to stare after her. What had he done?
    Thoughts of Milán came barreling back. He could see her
horrified and then livid expression after he had kissed her. He hadn’t been
prepared for the venom she had hurled at him. Another thing he didn’t see coming
was his body’s reaction to their kiss.
    He felt like he’d been jolted with an electric current. The
feeling had run through his entire body before settling like an explosion into
his groin. That woman felt altogether too amazing in his arms. Her body was
enough to disrupt any man’s peace of mind, and that temper of hers only enhanced
his excitement—until she had punched him.
    You ruined your chances and there’s no
recovering from that fiasco , he complained to himself. Adrian was
thoroughly embarrassed and disgusted with himself over his actions. Not that
he’d ever admit that aloud. He stifled a curse. It was time to call it a day.
The sooner he ended his backward day the better.
    While stacking papers into his briefcase, he spotted Milán’s
folder. Staring at it, he was about to throw it away when curiosity overpowered
him. He grabbed the portfolio, sat down and put his feet up on his desk. Several
moments later, the reality of the situation hit home. “ Estúpido, ” he said to himself. After reading over Milán’s
credentials and seeing samples of the homes she had staged, he was intrigued,
impressed and extremely pissed off. He was stupid. She was just the caliber
designer he needed at Anderson Realty and he’d blown it.
    With a multitude of services under the Anderson umbrella,
Adrian’s goal was for his clients to be as unstressed as possible during their
realty experience. His clients ranged from average income to
really-rolling-in-it kind of wealthy, but a realty company wasn’t enough; Adrian
had a title company, real estate attorney, a relocation expert, a mortgage
specialist and concierge dedicated to providing whatever services were needed.
Adrian’s dream had almost come to fruition, but came dangerously close to going
belly up when the market bottomed out.
    Now more than ever, he needed to assist his clients any way he
could to combat the fierce competition. His nemesis, Tony Ludlow, came to mind.
Ludlow had been in business about as long as Adrian. From the moment they had
met, some undercurrent of one-upmanship had sparked and ignited. Ludlow would
watch Adrian to see what he would do, or gloat when his agency came out ahead.
He was sure Ludlow did not have a staging expert.
    A great designer would be the proverbial icing on the cake for
his company. Like the one you just watched walk out your
office. Actually stomped out was more accurate. He had to fix this.
“ ¡Me tengo que disculpar! ” There was no way that
he was going to let her get away without taking a good look at what she could
bring to the table.
    Granted, having to