Accidental Rivals_An Office Romance Read online

  Accidental Rivals

  An Office Romance

  River Laurent

  Contents

  Other Books By River

  Acknowledgments

  1. Sienna

  2. Sienna

  3. Zack

  4. Sienna

  5. Sienna

  6. Sienna

  7. Sienna

  8. Zack

  9. Sienna

  10. Sienna

  11. Zack

  12. Sienna

  13. Sienna

  14. Sienna

  15. Sienna

  16. Zack

  17. Sienna

  18. Sienna

  19. Sienna

  20. Sienna

  21. Sienna

  22. Sienna

  23. Zack

  24. Sienna

  25. Sienna

  26. Sienna

  27. Sienna

  28. Sienna

  29. Zack

  30. Sienna

  31. Zack

  32. Sienna

  33. Sienna

  34. Sienna

  35. Zack

  36. Sienna

  37. Sienna

  Epilogue

  Sweet Revenge (Sample chapters)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Connect With River

  Other Books By River

  Other Books By River

  Cinderella.com

  Taken By The Baller

  Daddy’s Girl

  Dear Neighbor

  CEO & I

  Dare Me

  Kissing Booth

  Single Dad

  The Promise

  Too Hot To Handle

  Accidental Rivals

  Copyright © 2018 by River Laurent

  The right of River Laurent to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, designs and patent act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  978-1-911608-22-6

  Editor: Brittany Urbaniak

  Proofreader: Peggy Schnurr

  Final eyes: Teresa Banschbach

  Cover Designer: Kellie Dennis

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  Created with Vellum

  Acknowledgments

  Many, many thanks to:

  Leanore Eliott

  Brittany Urbaniak

  Peggy Schnurr

  Sienna

  There are people who drag their butts into the office on Monday morning, then spend the next five days looking forward to Friday evening.

  I’m not one of them.

  I don’t just work Monday through Friday. Often, I’ll work right through the weekend. And I freaking love it. I honestly do. I’m a career girl and I love my job. To me, work is such a huge part of my life that it is quite literally my whole life.

  “Good morning,” I greet, a bright smile plastered on my face as I breeze through the open floor plan layout of Dunhurst Real Estate. It reminds me of a beehive, so many cubicles attached to one another, so much buzzing among the worker bees.

  One day, I’ll have the corner office. I glance longingly at it every morning on my way to the cubicle-with-a-door which currently passes for my office. I suppose I should be grateful. At least, it has a door, and high walls to give me privacy. Most people don’t even have that much.

  I reach my door without getting pulled into random conversations about the weather, or questions about what I did during the weekend. That’s always a pointless question, anyway. Everybody knows what I do with my time. I work. Maybe they’re hoping I’ll mix things up and talk about a great party, or recommend a movie I went to.

  But how is a person supposed to hit their sales goals when they spend their weekends partying, going to brunch and the movies, or generally being slack? Whenever I overhear complaints from one of my coworkers about middling sales, I have to bite my tongue to keep from bringing this up.

  If you want something great, you have to be willing to sacrifice the not-so-great stuff. It’s all a matter of choices. Sure, I’d love to be able to maintain my position in the company while enjoying a busy social life, but that’s not possible. It is what it is.

  Closing my office door, I hang up my coat on the rack in the corner, and sit down to plan my day. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in writing out my to-do lists at the start of every day. I can always add items to my ticker on the computer, but the act of writing it all down soothes me in a way technology simply can’t. And it’s an excuse to put down my phone for a minute.

  A very, very rare minute for me.

  “Call Cindy,” I murmur, scrawling the name of one of my recently closed clients. I like to check in a week or so after closing to see how things are going with the new house, maybe send a gift basket or flowers. I add a sub-note beneath that to remind myself to place an order. I have other such calls to make after that, seeing as how I’ve sold four additional properties in the last month.

  It’s been busy. God, I love it.

  A knock at my door makes my nose wrinkle. Can’t they give me ten minutes of peace? “Yes?” I call out, forcing the irritation out of my voice.

  Becca pokes her head in, her cloud of auburn curls making an appearance before she does. I wish I had hair as pretty as hers, but I know I’d never be able to get it to behave as well as hers. I’d probably end up a frizzy mess, forced to eternally wear a messy bun. Who has the time?

  “Rodney’s looking for you,” she whispers before wincing.

  My eyes dart over to my phone, checking the time. “Not even nine-fifteen yet? It must be my lucky day.”

  “Godspeed.” She hurries off, probably grateful she’s not the one the boss wants to see this early on a Monday.

  I can only imagine what he wants from me at this time of the morning.

  Rodney’s not bad, as far as bosses go. I worked for some real winners throughout college, during my internship and in the year following that. Rodney’s intense, sure, and a hard worker, I mean, how else would he get to be in the corner office? But he rewards good work and doles out opportunities to those he knows will make the most of them.

  I hope that’s what this is about.

  I take a quick look at myself in my compact. My chocolate-brown hair is in place, smoothed back in its low ponytail. I really do wish I had more time to make it look nicer, but even when I try, it never comes out the way I’d like. The makeup around my hazel eyes looks good. I didn’t smudge it on the way here.

  I stand and smooth down the skirt of my black dress before striding out into the beehive. This could be good. No, this will be good. He’s going to congratulate me on my sales last month. He’s going to give me a raise. He’s going to give me a new listing. He’s going to…

  The sight of an unwelcome presence outside his office door nearly stops me in my tracks.

  Sienna

  Ugh. Zack?

  He would have to stop in for a moment of the boss’s time when I’m on my way in for something I’ve decided must be very, very important. This is so like him, acting as if the entire world revolves around him and what he wants. Forget the rest o
f us, forget having a little consideration of his boss’s time first thing on a Monday.

  The thing is, he acts that way because people treat him as though it’s okay to be an inconsiderate jerk. Just because he’s good looking, the women around the office fawn over him like he’s the second coming. I guess that sort of drop dead gorgeousness will breed confidence throughout other areas of life too. Not that I’m ugly or anything, just that he’s in a class by himself. Even I can admit that, and I can’t stand the man.

  Why?

  Because he’s almost as good as me. Maybe as good as, certainly not better than. To date, he is my only competition in the company. The only agent who closes nearly as many properties as I do, for around as much money as I do.

  All right. He had a slightly higher sales figure than I did last month, but only by a few measly hundred thousand dollars. That’s nothing when you’re selling the sort of luxury properties we handle.

  Damn it, he’s making a move to close Rodney’s office door behind him. I put on a little speed, hurrying the rest of the way in order to catch the door before it swings shut.

  “Excuse me,” I murmur through gritted teeth. “I was told Rodney wanted to see me.”

  His ice blue eyes size me up, and one corner of his mouth quirks up in a smile. “Small world. So was I.”

  We both turn to our boss, who’s seated behind his desk. As always, the office is pristine, without so much as a single paper or pen out of place. Not a single speck of dust anywhere. He’s a very deliberate man, Rodney is.

  If this were my office, I would be the same way.

  He flashes us one of his million-dollar smiles, the sort of smile I’m still working on, the one that closes never ending, multi-million-dollar sales. “I wanted to see the both of you at once, as a matter of fact. Please, close the door and have a seat.”

  I exchange a look with Zack—for once, the two of us are in the same boat, both slightly confused and feeling as though we’re about to go up in front of a firing squad. But if he can be confident, so can I. I close the door and walk over to one of the chairs facing Rodney’s side of the desk, taking a seat and folding my hands in my lap.

  He hasn’t stopped smiling, looking for all the world like the cat that ate the canary. He has News for us, the sort of news that requires a capital-N when I imagine it in my head. I’ve seen that gleam in his eyes before. And it wasn’t good the last time.

  “We don’t have much time, so I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version: Nick McMann is selling his estate, and he’s going with Dunhurst for the sale.”

  My mind immediately starts to race. The McMann property is legendary, built with the sort of money only a multi-platinum selling recording artist can afford to spend. I can see it in my head. It looks like something from that old TV show, Dynasty, somewhat more modern, but just as sprawling and over-the-top.

  And he’s going with us to close the sale.

  I have a feeling I know why Rodney called us in, and I’m more than up to the challenge. He wants to see which of the two of us can close it first. No freaking contest. I already have a half-dozen people in mind to call up and see if they’re interested.

  A quick glance out of the corner of my eye tells me Zack’s thinking along the same lines. He can’t hide that wolfish smile he gets on his stupid face whenever he sees himself close to a big sale. I wonder how he manages to sell anything at all, seeing as how he gives away what he’s thinking with that stupid, arrogant smile of his.

  I’m gonna wipe the floor with him.

  “We’re talking the sale of the decade here,” Rodney continues, oblivious to the silent war going on between his staff. As far as he’s concerned, Zack and I are his two shining stars. I don’t think he would care even if he knew we hated each other, so long as we keep making money for the company.

  “No kidding,” Zack observes with a smarmy grin.

  God, he is such an ass kisser.

  “There’s just one little catch.” Rodney’s smile fades. “It has to be closed within a week.”

  “What?” I realize a moment later that Zack said it just as I did.

  For once, something has managed to knock him off his high horse. He looks just as shook as I feel.

  Rodney holds up his hands, signaling silence before the two of us can continue to work ourselves into a frenzy.

  A week? Is he insane?

  “It’s the only stipulation Nick has. He wants the sale finalized in a week. He’s moving out of the country and doesn’t want any loose ends.”

  “A week? He’s crazy,” I mutter. Just like a clueless celebrity. He obviously doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about how much work goes into a sale, especially a high-profile sale like this one. They think we can just snap our fingers and make magic happen.

  “If there’s anyone I trust to get this done, it’s the two of you.”

  Silence. He is greeted by complete silence for at least five seconds after dropping that adorable little bombshell on our heads. I’m still reeling from the timeline situation, and he goes and adds this to the mix.

  “The two of us?” Zack croaks.

  I can’t help but feel slightly pleased at his incredulity, even though I know it comes from the fact that he likes me around him as much as I like to be around him. Which is to say—not even a little bit.

  Meanwhile, I’m too gob smacked to speak. What is there to say? To argue with him would make me look childish, and I know Rodney well enough by now to know he doesn’t change his mind once he’s made it up. I can only sit here and absorb whatever it is he has to say.

  “The two of you,” he confirms, smiling again. “You’re the two best salespeople I have, which shouldn’t be a surprise to either of you. I couldn’t trust anyone, but you guys to do this. Let’s face it… this will be a challenge, and a big one so I would rather have two great minds on it rather than only one. And considering the price Nick’s looking to pull down, your commission will be sizable even when split in half.”

  Zack looks like somebody just killed his dog.

  I feel like somebody just killed mine. If I had one, that is. This isn’t going to go well. I can’t believe Rodney would do this—high-profile sale or not. The fact that he doesn’t have enough faith in me to let me handle it on my own speaks volumes. I’m not a child. I don’t need my hand held.

  And I sure as hell don’t need Zack sliming his way around the place, doing little work and taking all the credit for what’s surely going to be my sale. I’ve never exactly had a lot of respect for people who charm their way through life without actually working for anything, which is exactly the sort of guy he is.

  “Off you go, then. You both have a lot of work to do. Becca should have all the preliminary information together for you by now.”

  When he turns to face his laptop, I know we’ve been dismissed for good. No chance of changing his mind, no way to beg him to reconsider without looking like a whiny little crybaby.

  My knees are shaking as I stand, but I do my best to cover up the absolute fury roiling in my stomach as I walk out with Zack behind me. There are times when even the biggest sale and tastiest commission isn’t worth it. I hope this isn’t one of those times, but something tells me it will be.

  No wonder people hate Mondays so much. I think I might start hating them, too.

  Zack

  He’s got to be kidding. Even as I walk out of the door I keep waiting for him to yell “Gotcha!” or something like that, but he hasn’t. Yet. I’m afraid he never will. I’m afraid he seriously means to pair us together.

  Her? He wants me to work with the ice princess? Doesn’t he know what an insufferable little bitch she is? And that’s not me being mean. Hell, everybody in the office thinks so. They’re just too afraid of her, and of the way Rodney obviously loves her, to say anything about it. She’s one of the two top agents in the company.

  I just happen to be the other one.

  If Rodney wasn’t such a stickler for keeping everybody accoun
table by making us work like bees in a hive, there would be three offices on our floor instead of only his. Mine would be one of them, and hers would be the other one. Even I can admit she’s damn good at what she does.

  Why does she have to be such a hard-nosed bitch about it, though? That’s what I don’t get. All she cares about is work, all she wants is the sale. Forget making friends in the office, forget being a human being and not some robot who understands nothing but numbers and commissions. There isn’t even any making small talk with her. She can’t even be bothered to take time out of her busy day around the coffee maker, the way civilized people do when they work together.

  There’s a reason I steer clear of her and anybody like her, male or female. Especially when they happen to be my competition.

  Now, Rodney has gone and dropped her in my fucking lap and asked me to play nice. We have to be a team. I’ve never been good at acting as though I like someone when I don’t. And I don’t have a reputation for playing nice.

  What a hell of a week this is going to be.

  I follow her out of Rodney’s office and wish she wasn’t wearing that tight dress. It’s not enough that I have to work with her. I have to watch that cute little ass wiggling back and forth every time she walks past.