Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(2)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

Well, frankly, Kendall was still trying to figure that one out. She’d met Lauren only a few times, but she’d never gotten the impression that Lauren was in love with Matthias—or even in like with him. Obviously she hadn’t been in love, because she wouldn’t have fallen for his brother, identical twin or not, if she had been. Personality-wise, Luke and Matthias Barton couldn’t be more different from each other—save the fact that Luke was as driven professionally as his brother was. At least, that was what the office scuttlebutt said. Kendall had never met the other man in person.

There was no question that the match between Luke and Lauren was indeed a love match. With Matthias, however,

any life he’d envisioned building with Lauren had been more about business than pleasure, more about ambition than affection. There were times when Kendall wondered if the man could care about anything but building his business.

Matthias said nothing for a moment, only met Kendall’s gaze levelly. "But there are other things I’m going to need you to—"

"There is nothing," she quickly, but firmly, interjected, before he had a chance to create and/or fabricate a host of obligations that anyone could see to. "We’re coming up on the slowest time of the year for Barton Limited," she reminded him. "I have you up to speed on everything for the next month. Now that the Stuttgart trip is out of the way, you don’t have any international travel scheduled until the fall. No conferences until September. Nothing pressing that whoever you hire to take my place won’t have plenty of time to prepare for. And since you’ll be spending the entire month of July at your friend’s lodge, anyway, that makes this the perfect time for me to—"

"I’ll need you more than ever at Hunter’s lodge," Matthias interrupted. "Even with all the preparation I’ve done—"

You mean I’ve done, Kendall thought to herself, since it had been she, not Matthias, who’d made all the arrangements.

"—it’s still going to be difficult, being away from the office for that length of time. It’s essential that I take someone with me who knows what’s going on."

"Then I’d suggest you take Douglas Morton," Kendall said, naming one of Barton Limited’s newest VPs.

"Morton needs to be here," Matthias said. "You need to be with me."

So now he was going to use the mysterious month at the

mysterious lodge to keep her on her leash, Kendall thought. She knew his upcoming trip to his friend’s lodge on Lake Tahoe was much more than a trip to his friend’s lodge on Lake Tahoe, even if she had no idea exactly why. All she knew was that, in January, he’d received a letter out of the blue from some law office representing the estate of a friend of his from college. The man had passed away, but before going had imparted a dying wish he wanted fulfilled by his old friends. They were each to spend one month in a lodge he owned on the lake.

Why? Kendall had no idea. But Matthias had driven her crazy for weeks, trying to rearrange his spring schedule so that he could spend his assigned month of April in Lake Tahoe. Then, when he’d been unable to reschedule a trip to Germany in April, he’d driven her even crazier rearranging everything she’d spent weeks rearranging so that he could switch months with his brother Luke—whom he hadn’t even spoken to in years at that point—who had been assigned July.

There were seven friends in all, Kendall knew, dating back to Matthias’s time at Harvard, all of whom had gradually lost touch with one another after graduating. Matthias hadn’t wanted to talk about it in detail, and Kendall had respected his wishes. She’d also managed the impossible, reworking his schedule and obligations—twice—so that he could abide by his friend’s last wishes and spend his month in Lake Tahoe.

It would have been so much better if he’d been able to stick with the original plan. Not only because she would have saved herself a lot of trouble, but because Lake Tahoe was where Kendall would be going to complete the necessary training for her new job—starting the first week of

July. She was dreading the possibility—however remote— that she might run into Matthias there so soon after severing ties with him. He was bound to be unhappy about her leaving. Even more so once he discovered who her new employer was.

"I can’t be with you, sir," she reiterated. Inhaling a deep breath, she told him the rest. "I’ve been offered a position elsewhere that I’ve already accepted. They want me to take part in a week-long training seminar that starts the first of July—two weeks from today," she added for emphasis. "And I’ll report for work at the company immediately after completing my orientation."

Matthias said nothing for several moments, only leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his expansive chest. Then he looked at her in a way that made Kendall feel like her backbone was dissolving. Fast. Finally, he said, "You’ve already accepted a position somewhere else?"

She nodded. And she hoped she sounded more confident than she suddenly felt when she told him, "Um, yes?"

Oh, yeah. That sounded totally confident. There was nothing like punctuating a statement with a question mark to really hammer home one’s point. Provided one was a four-year-old child.

"Mind telling me where?" he asked.

Kendall braced herself for his reaction, reminding herself to be forceful and assertive and end her sentences with a period. Maybe even an exclamation point where necessary. By golly. Or, rather, By Golly! "With, um, OmniTech Solutions?" she said. Asked. Whatever. Oh, hell. "I’m going to be their new VP? In charge of Public Relations?" When she realized she was still speaking in the inquisitive tense, Kendall closed her eyes and mentally

willed her age back up to twenty-seven-and-a-half. If she kept this up, Matthias wouldn’t let her have her milk and cookies for snack later.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw that his dark brows had shot up even farther at her declaration. Question. Whatever. Oh, hell.

"OmniTech?" he asked. Using the proper punctuation, Kendall couldn’t help noticing. Unlike some people. "Who the hell recruited you to work for OmniTech?"

Strange that he would assume she was recruited, she thought, and that she hadn’t gone looking for the position on her own. Even if, you know, she had been recruited for the position and hadn’t gone looking for it on her own. "Stephen DeGallo," she told him. And she applauded herself for finally grasping the proper rules of punctuation. Now if she could just do something about the sudden drop in volume her voice had taken….

Although she wouldn’t have thought it possible, Matthias’s eyebrows arched even higher. "The CEO of the company recruited you to come work for him?" he asked with obvious disbelief. "As a vice president?"