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.""Just a suggestion.I'll bet you could get further in your business by pushing your owncandidates instead of somebody else's.""I know, but I like her." She frowned at him."Although I couldn't help but notice that sheseemed to blame me for breaking up the evening, which is so unfair.""You'll also go further if you at least pretend to suck up to me.""Here's what's sad.I have been sucking up."That country boy mouth crooked at the corner."The best you can do, huh?""I know.Depressing, isn't it."His amusement turned to suspicion."What did Melanie mean when she said you should giveme a raise?""No idea." Her stomach rumbled."I don't suppose you'd consider feeding me?""We don't have time.The next one will be here in ten minutes.I'll buy you another drinkfile:///C|/Downloads/Susan%20Elizabeth%20Phillips%20-%20Match%20Me%20If%20You%20Can%20(v1.0).html (67 of 329)10/12/2005 17:39:41 SEp Match me if you caninstead.""The next one?"He pulled out his BlackBerry in a blatant attempt to ignore her, but she wasn't having it."Portia Powers can babysit her own introductions.I'm not doing it.""Yet only six days ago, you were in my office on your knees telling me you'd do anything toland me as a client.""I was young and stupid.""Here's the difference between us& The reason I'm running a multimillion-dollar business andyou're not.I give my clients what they want.You give your clients grief.""Not all of them.Just you.Okay, and sometimes Mr.Bron-icki, but you can't imagine whatI'm up against there.""Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.""I'd settle for a breadstick.""Last week I was on the phone with a client who plays for the Bills.He just bought his firsthouse, and he mentioned that he liked my taste and wished I could help him pick out somefurniture.Now I'm his agent, not his interior decorator.Hell, I don't know jack aboutdecorating; I haven't even furnished my own place.But the guy broke up with his girlfriend,he's lonely, and two hours later, I was on a plane to Buffalo.I didn't blow him off.I didn't senda lackey.I went myself.And do you know why?""A newly discovered passion for country French?"He arched an eyebrow."No.Because I want my clients to understand I'm.always there forthem.When they sign a contract with me, they sign with someone who cares about everyaspect of their lives.Not just when times are good, but when things get rough, too.""What if you don't like them?" She'd intended the question as a small dig implying she didn'tlike him but he took her seriously, which was just as well.This weird compulsion to put himin his place had to stop.Her future depended on making him happy, not alienating him."I'd never sign a client I didn't like," he said."You like them all? Every single one of those demanding, egotistical, overpaid, self-indulgentjocks? I don't believe you."file:///C|/Downloads/Susan%20Elizabeth%20Phillips%20-%20Match%20Me%20If%20You%20Can%20(v1.0).html (68 of 329)10/12/2005 17:39:41 SEp Match me if you can"I love them like they're my brothers," he replied, with unflinching sincerity."You are such a bullshitter.""Am I?" He gave her an inscrutable smile then rose to his feet as Portia Powers's secondsocialite of the evening made her appearance.Don't you have it memorized yet?" Portia jumped at the sound of a deep and very threateningmale voice.She spun around from her spot on the sidewalk in front of Sienna's window andtook in the man who'd come up next to her.It was only a little after ten, and people stillstrolled the side-walk, but she felt as though she'd been sucked into a dark alley at midnight.He was a goon, huge and menacing, with a shaved head and a serial killer's translucent blueeyes.An intimidating display of tribal tattoos decorated the ropy muscles visible beneath thesleeves of his tightly fitted black T-shirt, and his thick, muscular neck belonged to a manwho'd done hard time."Didn't anybody tell you spying on people isn't nice?" he said.For the past hour, she'd been circling the block, stopping each time she passed the restaurant topretend to study the menu.If she looked over the top, she could see the table where Heath wassitting, along with Annabelle Granger and the two women Portia had arranged for him to meettonight.Normally Portia wouldn't have thought of being present during an initial introduction only a few clients had ever requested it except she'd learned he wanted Granger there, andPortia couldn't tolerate that."Who are you?" she said, pretending a bravado she didn't feel."Bodie Gray, Champion's bodyguard.And he sure will be interested to hear what you've beenup to tonight."The muscles in the small of her back cramped.This was beyond humiliating."I haven't beenup to a thing.""That's not what it looks like to me.""But then you're hardly an authority on matchmaking, are you?" She regarded him coldly,doing her best to stare him down."How about minding your own business and letting me mindmine?"Her assistants would have dived for cover, but he didn't even blink."Champion's business ismy business."file:///C|/Downloads/Susan%20Elizabeth%20Phillips%20-%20Match%20Me%20If%20You%20Can%20(v1.0).html (69 of 329)10/12/2005 17:39:41 SEp Match me if you can"My, my& Quite the dedicated gofer.""Everybody should have one." He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the curb.She gave a hiss of dismay."What are you doing?" She tried to wrench away, but he didn't letgo."I'm going to buy you a beer so Mr.Champion can finish his business in private.""It's my business, too, and I'm not ""Yeah, you really are." He steered her between two parked cars."But if you make nice, youmight be able to convince me to keep my mouth shut."She stopped struggling and gazed at Mr.Bodyguard through the corner of her eyes.So& hewas willing to sell out his boss.Heath should have known better than to hire a thug, but sincehe hadn't, she'd take advantage of his naivete because she did not want him to find out aboutthis.If he did, he'd see it for exactly what it was, a sign of weakness.The bar they entered was smoky and sour, with a cracked linoleum floor and a dyingphilodendron sitting on a dusty shelf between a couple of fly-specked trophies and a fadedphotograph of Mel Torme."Hey, Bodie, how's it hanging?" the bartender called out."No complaints."Bodie steered her toward a barstool.On the way, one of her shoes stuck to something on thefloor.As she freed it, she wondered how such a seedy establishment could exist so close toClark Street's best restaurants."Two beers," Mr.Bodyguard said as she perched gingerly on the stool next to him."Club soda," she interjected."With a sliver of lime.""No limes," the bartender said, "but I got a can of fruit cocktail in the back room."Muscle Man found this hilarious, and a few moments later she was staring at the faint outlineof a leftover lipstick imprint on the rim of a beer mug.She pushed it aside
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