Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(27)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

And then she turned and strode confidently down the sidewalk, back toward the Timber Lake Inn. She had an unexpected day off, she thought with a smile. Well, okay, maybe not all that unexpected. She’d planned to tell Stephen this morning that she wouldn’t be coming to work for OmniTech, and she’d been fairly sure he would terminate her on the spot. She’d just thought it would go a little more smoothly, that was all. She truly hadn’t meant for things to end as abruptly as they had, or with as much chilliness.

But Stephen had deliberately skipped their meeting last night, something that had illustrated his disregard for her as both a person and an employee. And he had hired her under false pretenses to begin with. It hadn’t exactly been a situation that lent itself to air kisses and toodle-oos. If she’d been too pushy or blunt—

Her steps slowed and her back straightened. She smiled. If she’d been too pushy and blunt, then it just meant she was a solid businesswoman. Any man who’d been pushy

and blunt would have been applauded and called assertive and candid. So she was going to applaud herself, too.

Boy, what a couple of days for changes and epiphanies, Kendall thought. So far, she’d accepted a new power job, resigned from an old dubious job, told her sleazy ex-employer what a sleazy ex-employer he was, discovered what an assertive businesswoman she was, and now she could go back to her hotel and—

She halted in her tracks, her confidence fleeing completely. Because she realized then that her hotel wasn’t her hotel anymore. Stephen DeGallo wasn’t going to foot the bill for her room now that she wasn’t in his employ. And he’d probably cancel her return ticket to San Francisco, not to mention the rental car. And with it being the peak of the summer tourist season, finding a flight or car right away might prove to be a bit daunting.

She was going to have to check out of the Timber Lake Inn. She had nowhere else to go and no way to get there.

She sighed and gave her forehead a good mental smack. So much for being the assertive, candid businesswoman who could take over the universe at will. In a matter of hours, Kendall was going to be living on the streets.

Matthias was reading a political thriller he’d found in one of the spare bedrooms when he heard the front doorbell ring. He set it facedown on the sofa and went to answer, automatically brushing the dust from his jeans and pinstriped, untucked oxford, even though the house wasn’t old enough to have accumulated any dust, and even though, if it did, Mandy or Mindy or Maureen or whatever the hell the caretaker’s name was would make quick work of it.

Mary, he remembered as he stepped into the foyer.

Mary, who had seemed strangely familiar for some reason, even though, at the moment, Matthias couldn’t even remember what she looked like. For all he knew, it was she who was at the front door right now. He hadn’t seen her since the day of his arrival. Not that he’d expected to. He wasn’t even sure if she lived here in Hunter’s Landing. But something about her had made him think she had a vested interest in the house and would check on it from time to time to make sure none of the Seven Samurai was trashing the place with wild parties and wilder behavior.

Even though the days of their trashing anything—like the furniture they’d nailed to the ceiling in the dorm their freshman year—had long since passed. These days the Seven Samurai, in addition to no longer being seven, were no longer the soldier of fortune types they’d fancied themselves when they’d assumed the nickname for the group as young men. They’d all made their fortunes in one way or another, and now they were all too busy trying to protect those fortunes and make them grow larger to have time for wild parties and wilder behavior.

And why that realization made Matthias’s mouth turn down in consternation, he couldn’t have said.

But his mouth turned up again when he opened the front door, and his step felt lighter—even if he was standing still—when he saw that it wasn’t the caretaker who stood on the other side, but Kendall.

Her appearance surprised him. Not so much her appearance on his doorstep, but rather her appearance on his doorstep. She was dressed in the kind of thing he’d never seen her wear before—blue jeans that were faded to the point of being torn in places, and a pale lavender T-shirt that was brief enough to allow a glimpse of creamy

flesh between its hem and the waistband of her jeans. Even more surprising than Kendall’s appearance, however, was her luggage’s appearance, since, by virtue of its appearance, it was apparent that it would be visiting, too. It was scattered about her feet in a way that made it look as if she’d just dropped it there in frustration before ringing the bell.

She sounded frustrated, too, when she said, by way of a greeting, "Can I ask you a favor?"

Matthias tried to tear his gaze away from that very alluring strip of na**d flesh.and failed miserably. Still gazing at the hem of her shirt, he mentally willed it to leap up again the way it had—all too briefly—when she’d shoved her hands into her back pockets. And somehow he conjured the presence of mind to reply to her question. Unfortunately, that reply was a very distracted, "Huh?"

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, an action which, although not the one he was mentally willing her to complete, nevertheless had the desired result. For another scant second, that band of na**d flesh widened, causing the heavens to open up and a chorus of angels to sing, "Hallelujah, hoo-ah."

"Can I ask you a favor?" Kendall said again.

But she said it without moving her body, unfortunately, so her shirt stayed in place. Then again, that at least allowed Matthias to be coherent enough to answer her question this time. Kind of. At least he got out an "Mmm-hmm" that sounded vaguely affirmative in nature. The problem was, by then, he couldn’t remember what the question was that he was answering.

His reply seemed to be fine for Kendall, though, because

she continued, "Would it be possible for me to crash here for a couple of days?"

The question was unexpected enough to command a much larger chunk of his attention. So unexpected, in fact, that he wouldn’t have been more surprised if Kendall had just asked him if it would be possible for him to pull the Empire State Building out of his pocket. Then again, the way he was beginning to feel watching the comings and goings of her shirttail, that might not be such an unreasonable request in a few more minutes.

He managed to cover his reaction well, though—he hoped. And through some herculean effort, he also managed to bring his gaze back up to her face. "Problems at the inn?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Problems at OmniTech."

Hey, that sounded promising, he thought. "What kind of problems?"