“Since when am I not serious?” Graham challenged. “Are you...too chicken to come with me, Damien?”
Damien narrowed his eyes at Graham. This had to be a prank, but he was curious. Just how was Graham going to pull this prank off?
“All right,” Damien announced, gesturing grandly. “Let's go meet your sister. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting. I'll drive.”
Graham gave him the directions, and Damien pulled up in front of a row of small shops and offices. When Graham stopped in front of an office door, Damien stared at the name of the business and grabbed Graham's arm. “Wait! Miss Hatfield...your sister...”
The corner of Graham's mouth quirked up. “Yep. My sister's the boss. She owns the business.”
Damien was beginning to hyperventilate. Graham's sister ran a dating agency. She didn't want a man for herself. She wanted a new client. She was going to matchmake him with a nice, gentle woman who wanted to get married and have babies. He wasn't ready for this. He liked women and he liked hot, wild sex, but he liked his freedom more.
Damien winced and snarled at the same time as Graham held the door open for him. Graham was smirking in triumph and glee. The bastard knew that he had just pulled the ultimate prank on him.
“In you go.” Graham's grin was wider than the Cheshire cat's.
Damien's eyes flashed as he suddenly saw the perfect way to prank Graham right back. “I'm not going in alone. Oh no.” Damien dug his heels in and refused to move a single step. “We're doing this together, buddy.” Damien's lips curved in an evil smile. “We're in this together.” He threw an arm over Graham's shoulder. “Come on then. In we go. Together!”
CHAPTER FIVE
Penelope was about to log off her computer when the front door flew open and banged against the wall. She gasped as her brother came staggering in with another male. The two men were grunting and growling, trying to muscle each other into her office.
“Graham!” she cried, jumping up. “What…!”
“Hi, sis,” her brother choked out. “I got you a man. This is Damien Ken, your first male client!”
Damien grabbed Graham by the collar and smiled grimly. “And this is Graham, your second male client!”
Penelope's eyes widened. “Stop twisting each other around. Both of you! Stop it!” she ordered.
“Yes, Ma'am,” Damien said and dropped Graham on the floor like a hot potato.
Graham scrambled up and scowled. “I'm out of here.”
“No you're not,” Damien and Penelope said together. Damien's arm shot out and grabbed Graham before he could scoot towards the door.
Penelope gave Damien the once-over. From his muddy work boots and the paint splatters on his jeans, she guessed that he was one of Graham's work mates. Her glance was both appraising and admiring. Damien Ken was certainly a very good-looking young man. He was tall and muscular with light brown hair and intelligent, bright green eyes.
She let her eyes rake down his brawny frame and long jean-clad legs. When she forced her gaze back up to his face, she saw the humor and heat in his eyes.
As she was ogling him, the guy had been checking her out as well.
He raised a brow in challenge. Like what you see, babe?
Penelope blushed. She cleared her throat loudly and grabbed two forms from her desk. What the hell was she doing, ogling a prospective client?
She was a professional. She had to think and act like a businesswoman. Two eligible young men were standing in her office. She shouldn't let them get away.
“Hi, I'm Penelope Hatfield,” she introduced herself quickly to Damien. “I'm the owner of this fine dating agency. I'm sure I can find the perfect match for you. Both of you,” she added pointedly.
Waving them to the chairs in front of her desk, she went on, “Please, take a seat and fill up these forms. Remember to answer the questionnaire at the back as well. It'd just take you a couple of minutes.”
Damien and Graham stared at the forms in mute horror.
Penelope waved the forms impatiently. “Go on. Take them.”
The two men reached out gingerly and held the harmless pieces of paper stiffly at arm's length.
“Just grab a pen and sit down, please.”
They didn't move a muscle.
“Sit!” Penelope bellowed.
They did.
Penelope took a deep breath to compose herself. She was used to yelling at her brother, but she shouldn't scare Damien away. The two men had already hunkered down and were scribbling frantically.
Gentling her tone, she said, “I'll go through your forms and chat with you further about your requirements and preferences.”
“I'm not staying for your interrogation,” Graham groused.
“Oh, I don't have to interrogate you. I know you like the back of my hand.” Penelope smirked.
Graham made a face and threw the completed form on her desk. “Done.”
“Me too.” Damien waved his sheet like a white flag.
Penelope smiled. “Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?”
She went back behind her desk and glanced through Graham and Damien's hastily filled forms. With a satisfied nod, she looked up and beamed, “I'll find the perfect match for you. In fact...”
“I'm not going into your database, right?” Graham interjected. “We had a deal, Penelope!”
“Hmmm.” With a gleam in her eye, Penelope smiled slyly and mused, “But I can't wait to be an aunt. I think Aunt Penelope has such a nice ring to it!”
CHAPTER SIX
Damien stared at the curvy brunette behind the desk and couldn't help leaning forward. Graham's elder sister was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. She was wearing large, black-rimmed glasses and her hair was pulled back into a severe bun. She was dressed primly in a long sleeved blouse and gray pencil skirt, and she looked like a very sexy school principal or librarian. She was in her mid thirties, he guessed. There were some strands of silver in her hair, and it made her look even sexier. This was a woman who had lived her life, made her mistakes, and knew what she wanted.
He glimpsed her kitten heels under her desk, and he grew uncomfortably hard as he imagined those heels digging into his back as he took her on her desk…
“I'm outta here.” Graham almost toppled his chair in his haste to escape. “I can go now.” He shot Damien a smug look. “But you can't.”
“I'm not going anywhere,” Damien drawled. “I'm staying right here. With Penelope.”
Graham grinned at his sister. “You can match him with all the women in your database. He'll be happy to go on dates with all of them.”
“No I won't,” Damien said hotly.
But Graham was already gone, the swivel chair spinning madly in his wake.
Damien had randomly ticked the boxes without really reading through the questions. He wasn't interested in signing up with Miss Hatfield's Dating Agency at all. But he was certainly very interested in Miss Penelope Hatfield herself.
Penelope pursed her lips as she read what he had written on the form. Damien stared at those puckered, pink lips and wondered how they would feel against his. The woman was so kissable, and she oozed sex appeal without even trying.
Gosh, where had she been all his life?
“So. You're Graham's big sister,” he said, looking her up and down. What a goddess. He loved females with some meat on their bones, and Penelope's lush, curvy figure was so perfect. She was hot with a capital H. He wanted to pull her hair free from her tight bun and feel her long tresses brushing against his chest as she rode him. His bear surprised him by sitting up and growling in approval.
Strange. His bear had never taken much interest in any of Damien's ex-girlfriends before.
“Yes.” Penelope looked up in surprise. “I guess Graham's told you about me. You work with him, right?”
“Yeah.” Damien smiled. “I know you've been living in the city.”
She nodded. “I worked as a secretary in a legal firm
in the city. It was quite an experience.”
Damien watched her type his information into her computer. Her fingers flew expertly over the keyboard and she seemed to be able to read his untidy scrawl without any difficulty. She must have been a damn good secretary.
“Why a dating agency?” he asked as he watched her work.
“Huh?” Penelope adjusted her huge glasses and canted her head at him. “Oh.” She laughed a little. “It's something I'm good at. I think I've lost count of the matches I made. I paired up almost all the people around me, and they're all blissfully married or engaged now.”
She sighed. “Then I lost my job and I started thinking about starting my own matchmaking agency. It started off as a daydream but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it.”
With a wistful smile, she said, “I guess I'm a hopeless romantic at heart. And what better job for a romantic than a matchmaker? I believe in love, even if love doesn't believe in me.”
Damien perked up. “So...you don't have a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Penelope's eyes rounded behind her glasses.
“I mean, you're a matchmaker. Why didn't you matchmake yourself?” Damien asked.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Well...” The question caught her by surprise. Penelope chewed her lip and wondered how to tell Damien that while she made great matches for other people, her own love life was a mess.
She was probably destined to be single for the rest of her life. She had wasted years on a relationship that turned out to be just as disastrous as all the rest of her short-lived, meaningless flings.
She had been with her ex-boyfriend, Ian Renshaw, for four years. That was the longest relationship she'd had. She and Ian had met when they were both in their early thirties, and she thought that they were both ready to settle down.
She thought wrong.
She remembered that fateful afternoon when she decided to surprise Ian at his office. Ian had his own accounting firm. It was a small firm with just one office assistant, but he seemed to have more than enough work and his paycheck every month was pretty impressive. In the last year, she had moved into his posh apartment, and she'd thought that they would be getting married very soon.
But it took just one surprise visit to Ian's office for her silly, naive dream of domestic bliss to blow up in her face.
It was just after she lost her job at the law firm. She'd been home, baking a batch of butter pecan cookies, his favorite, and decided to drop by his office to cheer him up. Ian had looked awfully stressed. He was always in a bad mood and she couldn't even remember the last time they had sex.
When she arrived at the office, Penelope had been surprised to find the front door locked but she could see that the lights were on in Ian's office. She had a spare key to the office, so she simply let herself in.
His assistant's computer was on but she wasn't at her desk. Well, of course she wasn't at her desk. She was on his.
His good, dutiful, eager-to-please assistant was spread out on his desk with her legs in the air. Ian was going at it with gusto and wild abandon. Penelope couldn't remember him ever being so energetic and enthusiastic when he was in bed with her.
No wonder he was always too tired to have sex with her. He had worn himself out at the office.
Penelope had placed her key on his assistant's desk and left. She went home and packed up all her things. Then she called her younger brother.
“I'll come get you,” Graham said at once.
She didn't protest. All of a sudden, she just felt so tired...of everything. She'd had enough of city life. This wasn't where she belonged. At heart, she was still a small town girl, and she missed her brother. They visited each other frequently, but it wasn't the same as living in the same town and being near each other. Graham was her only family now. She didn't want to waste any more time.
Graham had driven her straight to Shadow Point and insisted that she stay with him. But his bachelor pad had only one bedroom and was too cramped for the two of them. So she rented her own place, a cozy little house just a few streets away from him, and decided to put her business plans into action.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
It was ironic, but she picked out lemons for herself and gems for other people.
Not to brag, but she really was a matchmaker extraordinaire. She just knew how to spot a great match and she loved seeing couples in love. Her friends, colleagues, neighbors, all the people she had made matches for, were all getting engaged, getting married and popping out babies.
Well, at thirty-seven years old, she'd just had a baby as well. Her business was her baby. She was going to make sure it grew big and healthy.
Penelope started when Damien cleared his throat. She realized she hadn't answered his question when he said, “I'm just curious why a matchmaker can't find her own match.”
“I thought I found the one. But...I was wrong,” Penelope said at last. “The one turned out to be a dud.”
“A dud...and a fool,” Damien said, holding her gaze steadily.
When she gave a crooked smile, Damien thumped his chest and declared, “I can assure you that I'm no dud, Penelope. I, Damien Ken, am a stud!”
“Yes,” she said, startled into laughter. “I'm sure you are!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Penelope gasped when Damien reached across her desk and took her hand in his. Brushing his thumb across her knuckles, he lowered his voice to a seductive purr. “Am I a good match, Penelope?”
“For whom?” She blinked rapidly before she caught herself. “Oh, of course I'll find you a good match...”
But Damien stopped her with a finger to her lips. “You don't have to find anyone for me, darling. I think I've already found my match,” he whispered, tracing her jaw with his finger. “We'll make a good match, don't you think?”
Penelope held her breath as Damien held her chin and tilted her face up. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest and her mind was swirling with all kinds of inappropriate thoughts.
Penelope's eyelids drooped and her gaze moved down his handsome face to his mouth. Damien had a very sexy mouth. The guy was a smart mouth, that was for sure. But he had a boyish, winsome smile that could melt hearts and dampen panties. Just one look at his ruggedly handsome face and brawny physique and women would swoon…
Penelope jerked herself away with a start. What was she doing? Swooning and making goo-goo eyes at a client!
“Mr Ken, you're a client of the agency,” she said sharply.
“Hmm.” He managed to run his finger down her neck, making her shiver, before she slapped his insolent hand away.
Grinning, he flopped back in his seat. “So what?” he said, lacing his fingers behind his head. “A client can't ask the boss out?”
“No. He can't,” she said firmly and rather unreasonably.
“But you're a dating agency. You have to practice what you preach.”
“I'm a professional,” Penelope sniffed. “I do my job. I don't need to matchmake myself.”
“But you'll matchmake me.” Damien raised a brow.
“Of course. You're my client...”
“You said you can find me my mate,” Damien went on as if he hadn't heard her.
“Yes. I...”
“I already found my mate.”
Penelope's jaw dropped.
“And she's sitting right in front of me, gaping at me and imagining us naked on her office floor having hot, animal sex.”
“You...” Penelope sputtered.
The image of Damien's rippling, glistening body flashed through her mind, and she clenched her muscles in consternation. He had planted that suggestive image in her mind to rile her up, and she had fallen for his dirty trick.
Damien was just like her brother. Graham was a prankster, and was irreverent, irrepressible and incorrigible.
She glanced down at the fo
rm in front of her. Damien was thirty-four, just a year older than her baby brother. And at their very first meeting, he had already managed to ruffle her feathers.
Penelope stiffened her spine, her eyes flashing behind her glasses. Game on.
If Damien thought that by provoking her, annoying her and coming on to her, she would turn him down as a client and decline to work with him, he had another think coming.
Penelope Hatfield was a professional matchmaker. She could find the perfect match for even the most annoying, provoking, distracting client.
“Well, I'll set up your profile and your account, Damien,” she said with a pleasant smile. “Thank you for signing up for our matchmaking services. Will you be paying your registration fee by cash or credit card?”
“Credit card.” He pulled out his wallet and handed her his card. As she took the card from him, he caught her hand for a moment and winked.
“What are you doing tonight, Penelope?” he asked.
“Working,” she replied curtly and turned away to process his payment.
“Aww, a girl's gotta eat. Have dinner with me, Penelope. Just dinner,” he said with a roguish smile. “Unless...you want something more after dinner. I'm all yours, you know.”
CHAPTER NINE
Penelope took a deep breath to steady her nerves. The guy really knew how to get under her skin. He was rather pushy and persistent, but she kind of liked that in a guy. He wasn't one to give up easily.
Too bad. He would just have to take no for an answer this time.
“You're very charming, Damien. But I don't date clients. Company policy,” she lied. She totally just made that up.
Damien's green eyes flashed as he steepled his fingers. “In that case, Miss Hatfield, perhaps I should withdraw my application. If I'm not a client of the agency, then we can date all we want without violating any company policy.”
Dating Agency Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 6) Page 2
