Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(20)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

She nodded sagely, but said nothing.

He looked at her expectantly, but said nothing.

It occurred to her that he was waiting for her to invite him to sit down. Then it occurred to her that, with her luck, the minute she did, Stephen DeGallo would walk through the door with a perfectly legitimate reason for being so late, and whisk her off to a PowerPoint presentation of some of OmniTech’s most arcane secrets, then apologize for it taking so long to invite her into the loving bosom of his inner sanctum.

And she thought, Ew. That sounded really gross.

Not to mention it was almost certainly not going to happen. At least, not that last part. But there was still a possibility that Stephen would show up with a legitimate reason for being late, and it wouldn’t look good for her to be sitting here with Matthias.

"If you’re waiting for Stephen," he began, as if he were able to read her thoughts.

"I’m not," she quickly interjected.

"Good," he said. "Because I saw him driving off with a breathtaking blonde as I was coming into the inn."

She gaped at him. "You did not. We had a dinner…" She started to say "date," realized that hammered home even better—or, rather, worse—what her orientation this week had felt like, and immediately corrected herself by finishing, "Appointment."

"So you were expecting him," Matthias said, a note of unmistakable triumph in his voice.

She flattened her mouth into a thin line to keep herself from saying anything else.

"Looks like your new boss stood you up, Kendall," Matthias said. "Which isn’t a very sound business plan on his part." He hesitated a beat before adding, "The man’s an idiot if he doesn’t realize how lucky he is to have hired you."

The momentary thrill of surprise and pleasure that came with Matthias’s compliment was quickly replaced by other things she felt for Stephen DeGallo. Resentment, frustration, disappointment. She was sure the two of them were supposed to have met for dinner here tonight. Positive. In fact, he’d told her barely three hours ago that he’d see her at six-thirty in the dining room.

She looked at her watch. It was ten till seven now. There was little chance the man would be this late when he was staying at the same hotel. Obviously, he’d discovered something—or someone—in the last few hours who had seemed a more profitable return on his investment.

She braced herself for Matthias’s I told you so, but all he said was, "How about I buy you dinner instead?"

She told herself to say no, that all she really wanted to do was go up to her suite for some room service and a long bubble bath. Then she realized that was the last thing she wanted to do. She was tired of going to her room alone at night. Tired of wondering what Stephen’s motives were in hiring her. Tired of not knowing if she’d made the right choice in coming to work for him.

Work, hah, she thought. Nothing she had experienced with Stephen DeGallo so far had felt anything like work. It had felt like.

Bribery, she thought. And snooping. And something kind of smarmy and icky.

She sighed again, but this time there was less resentment, frustration and disappointment in it. They were replaced instead with a sad sort of resolution that she had made a mistake. Not in leaving Matthias’s employ, but in taking the job with OmniTech. She’d talk to Stephen tomorrow, ask him point-blank if he’d offered her the job

because he’d expected her to tell him about the workings of Barton Limited. If he had, she would tender her resignation immediately. And if he hadn’t.

Well. She’d wait to make plans until the two of them had had a chance to talk. In the meantime, she had another choice to make. And she told herself she’d better make the right one this time.

But instead of responding to Matthias’s dinner invitation the way her brain told her to—by declining—she listened to her heart instead. Even knowing her heart was wont to get her into trouble. Hey, it wasn’t as though her head had been doing such a good job lately.

"Dinner would be nice," she told him.

He smiled, and the heat inside Kendall sparked a little hotter. "Not here, though," he told her. "The steak I had the other night left a lot to be desired."

That wasn’t the only thing at the Timber Lake Inn that was like that, Kendall thought.

"But I do know just the place. It’s a bit of a drive, but you’ll love it. Nice ambience, and the food is excellent. And the service can’t be beat."

Before giving her a chance to agree or decline, he moved behind her chair and gave it a gentle tug. Then he lowered a hand to help her out of it. Without thinking about what she was doing, Kendall curled her fingers over his, marveling at how the heat inside her began to purl through her entire body.

This wasn’t good, she told herself again as she rose. She should have told Matthias she couldn’t go to dinner with him. It would be a mistake to think anything that might happen between them would ever go anywhere. Even if the two of them did get involved—and oh, wasn’t she presum-

ing a lot there?—whatever happened would flare up and fizzle out, probably in a very short time. Matthias Barton wasn’t a man for relationships. He wasn’t even a man for affection. The only thing he would ever love to distraction was his business.

As long as Kendall reminded herself of that—over and over and over again, she told herself—she would be fine. Right?

Of course, right.

Six

"Y ou’ll change your mind about this place, Kendall, the minute you taste your first glass of wine."

Matthias realized his concerns were unfounded when he turned from unlocking the lodge’s front door to see Kendall gazing back at him with a smile. "That’s okay," she said. "I like this place. It’s nice. It makes you feel comfortable as soon as you enter."

So she’d noticed it, too, he thought. Interesting.

"Not to mention it’s Friday night," he added. "Every decent place along the lake is going to be packed by now. We wouldn’t get seated until after ten."

"It’s nice that you have this place for a month," she said as she circled around him into the foyer. "It’ll do you good."

It had already done him good, Matthias thought. And just by inviting Kendall inside, the good had become better.

"Remind me after it gets dark to go out onto the deck,"

he said as he closed the door behind them. "There’s a telescope out there. It’s incredible, the things you can find in the sky out here."

She smiled. "You’ve been looking through a telescope at night?"

He eyed her warily. "You sound surprised."

"I am surprised," she told him. "Matthias, you’ve never taken time out of your days—or nights—for something like that."