Seducing the Matchmaker

Opening the morning paper to find his pillow talk smeared across the front page was a particularly painful blow. Especially considering the engagement ring he’d purchased for her the day before.

There were others, many other failed relationships with fault lying on both sides to varying degrees. Derrick had almost given up hope of ever finding a compatible woman to spend his life with.

Then, about a month ago, his business partner, Camille, dropped a small article on his desk. It was a lifestyle piece about a small local matchmaking service boasting a one hundred percent compatibility rate among its clientele.

From the moment he walked through the glass double doors of Love Unlimited that morning, Derrick had known there was something special about Noelle Brown. Although, he couldn’t fully identify the sensation, he trusted her. And Derrick was a man who took instinct seriously. Most of his present success could be owed to following his gut.

Along with an astute understanding of human nature that had served him well in business if not in his personal relationships, Derrick had overcome incredible odds to become one of the most successful architects in Philadelphia.

Now all he sought to complete his life was the one missing piece of the puzzle, someone trustworthy to share it with. A woman with the social grace and poise of Camille. The emotional openness of a rose in bloom. And the carnal appetite of a nymphomaniac.

Looking at the beauty sitting across from him, Derrick couldn’t help wondering about Noelle Brown’s carnal appetites. His eyes flashed to the small solitaire diamond wedding ring on her finger. Lucky Mr. Brown.

He cleared his throat and sat up straighter. “Why don’t you tell me which part of what I’ve said you find the most difficult to work with.”

She gestured to the file. “All of it. But if I had to pick one specific thing, it would be the financial requirement. I can’t think of a single woman who would agree to marry you and then be expected to continue to support herself completely. You’re one of the wealthiest men in Philadelphia, and a marriage is a partnership, Mr. Brandt.”

She lifted a knowing eyebrow. “And the ‘smart enough not to betray me’ thing. Quite frankly, that statement causes me a great deal of alarm.”

Hearing it repeated back like that, it did sound bad to Derrick. Eloquence was never his strong suit. He knew that if he ever found the right woman, he would worship her with lavish gifts every day and ravenous attention to her body every night. He would hold her as the dearest thing in his life, considering the many years he’d waited for her.

As always, he didn’t have the right, diplomatic words often needed to express his feelings when it came to his love life. Instead, his eyes said it all. A problem that had haunted him his whole life and had cost him greatly on more than one occasion.

Camille was always telling Derrick that he had no filter. That something in the brain that kept people from saying exactly what they were thinking seemed to be lacking in him. It always had been. That lack of tact on his part had also contributed to bringing him to this point in his life, where he was requiring professional help in the most basic of human pursuits. The hunt for a mate.

“Maybe I didn’t articulate my thoughts properly.” He frowned. “Naturally, I would support my wife, with the usual contingencies. But as for the selection process, let’s be perfectly clear. I won’t allow you to present me with a handful of money-grubbing, promiscuous opportunists.”

For several seconds, Noelle sat staring at him in silence.

Derrick stared back.

Finally, she blinked and released a deep sigh. “I will probably regret asking, but feel I must. What exactly do you mean by ‘the usual contingencies’?”

“Prenuptial agreements, of course.”

“Of course,” she muttered, with another deep sigh. She reopened the file and started writing.

Every instinct in Noelle wanted to tell the illustrious Derrick Brandt to get the hell out of her office. The problem was that she could not afford to. She needed him as much as he obviously needed her. Of course, she wasn’t about to let him know that.

For a few moments, she’d been terrified that he’d take her up on the offer to find another matchmaker. Thankfully, he’d stayed. Now, the question was…what to do with him?

The man was a Neanderthal, no doubt about it. But he was a wealthy, influential, well-connected Neanderthal. And if handled right, he could be just the boon her growing agency needed.

In the eighteen months since she’d opened her doors, she’d successfully matched almost forty couples. And of that forty, twenty-nine had married, and the other eleven were still together. It was an enviable record by any standard. Despite the lofty name of the agency, Love Unlimited, her resources were indeed limited and had been concentrated on rising rent and the day-to-day business of running the agency, leaving little for the kind of advertising and publicity Noelle would’ve liked. With one positive endorsement, Derrick Brandt could change all that. He could put Love Unlimited over the edge. That is, if she could stomach the man long enough to find a woman willing to put up with him.

She finished her notes and turned the file in his direction. “Okay, I just need you to complete this application and these disclosures.” She flipped through the pages. “Sign here and here.”

His eyes shot up to meet hers, and she was once again startled by the unusual flickers of gold that surrounded the light green pupils, both colors in stark contrast to those long, lush black lashes. It’s ridiculous for a man to have lashes that long, she thought.

The unique color was not the most unsettling thing about his eyes. It was the open window to every thought behind them. Whatever Derrick Brandt was thinking or feeling was plainly expressed in those eyes.

“I don’t sign anything without reading it first.” He sat back once again crossed his ankle over his knee and settled in to read the file. Derrick smoothed his silk tie, reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a pen. Using it as a guide, he began reading. Noelle frowned at his downcast head, still unsure just what to make of him.

Granted, he was probably the most beautiful specimen of masculinity she’d ever laid eyes on. Granted, he was rich as King Solomon and showed flashes of intelligence that bordered on brilliant. But even with all that going for him, it was hard to like the man. It had all started with that smile. Noelle felt her blood beginning to boil once more just remembering.

Her secretary, Terri, had called in sick because her daughter had come down with the flu. Noelle understood the woes of a sick child, but it had created a problem, considering she had five appointments scheduled for the day, the first and most important of which was going to arrive any minute.

She had been scrambling around on Terri’s desk, looking for the phone number of the temporary agency she occasionally used, when the glass doors to her suite were thrown open, and he walked in. Derrick Brandt.

Noelle immediately recognized him. His face was in the paper almost every week. The photographic images did not do him justice. He stood, tall and broad shouldered, and moved with the precision of a dancer. His handsome face look chiseled from stone, all sharp angles and perfect lines. His light-colored almond-shaped eyes were in startling contrast to his rich brown skin. A sharp nose and heart-shaped pink lips completed the exquisite picture. Looking at Derrick Brandt, one would never guess he had gotten his start in life as a mailroom clerk for a Philadelphia architectural firm. A firm he now owned.

As he entered, Noelle stood straight and walked around the desk with her hand extended in greeting, fully prepared to be her professional best. As her eyes met his, she stopped in her tracks with several feet still between them.

His hazel-green eyes twinkled with wolfish delight as he openly, blatantly and completely without shame ogled her! There was no other word for it.

Noelle stood stunned. No man had ever looked at her like that before. At least not that she had seen. She had to fight the compulsion to cover herself with her hands as he mentally stripped her of every article of clothing.

Then, as if that scathing examination were not insulting enough, he looked her directly in the eyes, and he smiled. Not just any smile. No, this smile held sinister promise.

Watching the ravenous expression fade from his eyes when they fell to her left hand, Noelle was very grateful for the diamond wedding ring she wore as a prop. She’d originally bought it to lend credibility to her role as a matchmaker. Most people understandably wanted to believe that their matchmaker was herself a happily married woman. Maybe one day but not anytime soon.

Determined to ignore his lascivious behavior, she pasted on her best smile and continued moving forward with her hand extended in greeting. “Welcome to Love Unlimited, Mr. Brandt. Noelle Brown.”

He frowned. “You’re Noelle Brown?”

Didn’t I just say that? She ground her teeth together, determined to keep the false smile firmly in place. “Yes, I am. It’s so nice to meet you,” she lied.

Gesturing behind her, she said, “Please come into my office. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?”

“Neither,” he grumbled.

She turned and walked back into her office. “A bottle of water, perhaps?”

“That will be fine. Thank you.”

Noelle crossed behind the desk, opened the small fridge built into her credenza and pulled out two bottles of water. Reaching across the desk, she placed one in front of the guest chair.

As Noelle took her seat, she tried very hard to wipe the memory of that smile from her mind, determined to make the best of this golden opportunity. But as she watched the porn movie playing in his mind reflected in his eyes, it proved impossible.

She’d only known him five minutes, and she could already see the signs of why this man, who was said to have the magical touch of King Midas in his business dealings, was such a blazing failure at romantic relationships.

She’d just met the man and already didn’t like him. She could only imagine what other women must think. You don’t have to like him. Just tolerate him, Noelle reminded herself. He was the key to Love Unlimited’s future success. Finding Derrick Brandt a mate would put her small matchmaking agency on the map. Permanently.

For years, Noelle had read the stories in all the local papers regarding Derrick Brandt’s professional successes and personal flops. Usually businessmen did not garner the kind of media coverage Derrick received. With his rags-to-riches background and camera-perfect face, he was a fascinating figure to the citizens of Philadelphia. Especially when it became obvious that, despite his financial acumen, he had the social grace of a camel. As far as the local tabloids were concerned, Derrick Brandt was the best kind of celebrity figure: prone to public emotional outbursts.

He argued with his girlfriends in busy restaurants. He assaulted cameramen who got too close. He had a well-known reputation for being rude and surly, the by-product of which was that for the right price, people in the service industry were eager to betray him. He was considered a playboy, although not a very successful one.

In other words, Derrick Brandt was a paparazzi dream come true. The local media had even gone so far as to give him the odious label of The Most Ineligible Bachelor in the City.