Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(30)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

"This place is truly gorgeous," she said.

He nodded, still looking at her. "Gorgeous," he echoed.

"I can’t believe your friend had it built and isn’t able to be here to enjoy it."

Matthias sighed, turning to look out at the view now. "Oh, I imagine Hunter’s enjoying it, wherever he is. I think he’s enjoying seeing the effect the place has on all of us. Somehow he knew all those years ago what kind of men the Seven Samurai would turn out to be."

"And what kind of men did you all turn out to be?" she asked.

Matthias inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Men who are too busy building our empires to remember

why we wanted to build them in the first place. Men who work so hard, we’ve forgotten how to live."

But he realized as he said it that that hadn’t been true of him today. Today, Matthias had forgotten all about work. Today, he’d forgotten all about empires. Today, he’d thought only about Kendall. And today, more than any other day of his life, he had lived. He’d lived, and he’d enjoyed living. He’d enjoyed it a lot. More, even, than work.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Kendall turn toward him, but he continued to gaze out the window, looking for.. .something. He wasn’t sure what.

"You miss him, don’t you?" she said softly.

He nodded. "It happened so quickly. By the time the doctors found the cancer, it was too late to do anything to save him."

"It must have been hard on you and your other friends."

Hard wasn’t the word, Matthias thought. "Devastating," he said instead. "It tore us apart, in more ways than one. Hunter was the glue that kept us together. I think that was his gift—that he knew people. Knew what made them tick. Knew what made them behave the way they did. I mean, look at what he did for me and Luke."

"What?" Kendall asked. "I thought you guys didn’t get along."

"We don’t. Didn’t," he immediately corrected himself. "But in college, we did. Somehow Hunter made us see past all the animosity and one-upmanship our father generated in us. Luke and I were friends—real friends—in college. But after Hunter died."

He didn’t continue. What had happened to Matthias and Luke was complicated and unsettled, and he didn’t want to talk about anything complicated or unsettling tonight.

So he only said, "We all drifted apart after college. We all did well, at least professionally, but we lost each other."

He did turn to look at Kendall then. "Until now," he said, smiling. "This lodge, Hunter bringing us all here, it’s getting us together again. There’s going to be a reunion in September, once Jack has fulfilled his obligation to spend the month here." Although he had no idea what possessed him to do it, Matthias added, "Would you like to come back with me for that?"

Her eyes widened in surprise at the invitation. And truth be told, Matthias was surprised he’d extended it. But once said, it seemed perfectly natural. Perfectly normal. Something about having Kendall there with the friends from his past—the people who had always been more important to Matthias than anyone else—felt right.

She nodded slowly, smiling. "I’d love to come," she said. "It would be nice to meet all your old friends. And your brother, too."

Matthias wasn’t sure why he did what he did next. Something about the moment, about the lodge, about the woman, just made it feel right. Dipping his head toward Kendall’s, he covered her mouth with his and kissed her.

Lightly at first, gently, a part of him fearing she might pull away. But she didn’t pull away. She tilted her head to the side a little, to make it easier for him, and then she kissed him back. Slowly, sweetly, almost as if she’d been expecting it, and as if she wondered what had taken him so long.

Kendall wasn’t sure when the line between her and Matthias disappeared, whether it had happened just now, or during the banana split, or when she finally quit, or if it had happened years ago at a point she didn’t even notice.

But when he kissed her, the way he did, she knew that line would never be back again. And then she stopped thinking about any of that, because the feelings blooming inside her, and the sensations twining through her body, were just too delicious to ignore. All she knew was that, one minute, Matthias had been looking out the window and talking about Hunter, and the next, he was surrounding her.

As he kissed her, he plucked her wineglass from her hand, and she followed his mouth with hers as he bent slightly to place both their glasses on an end table beside them. Then they were both straightening again, and he was pulling her into his arms completely, opening his mouth over hers now, tasting her deeply. She felt his hands on her back, first skimming along her spine, then curling around over her nape, then tangling in her hair. Instinctively, she raised her own hands to explore him, too, touching his rough face, his hard shoulders, his silky hair, savoring the different textures and reveling in the heat, the strength, the power she encountered beneath her fingertips.

He towered over her, seeming to touch her everywhere. Every time she inhaled, she filled her lungs with the scent of him and her mouth with the taste of him. His heart thundered against her own, the rapid beating of both mixing and mingling, until she wasn’t sure which was his and which was hers. Their breathing, too, grew fierce and ragged as the kiss intensified, until Kendall felt as though their breath had also joined and become one.

One hand still tangled in her hair, he moved the other to her hip, inching it slowly downward to curve over her fanny, pushing her body forward into his. Kendall responded instinctively, rubbing her pelvis against his, sinuously, seductively, loving his growl of satisfaction in

response. He moved his hand higher again, bunching the fabric of her shirt in his fist and pushing upward. She felt the cool kiss of air on her heated back with every new bit of flesh he exposed. When his fingers had crept high enough for him to realize she wasn’t wearing a bra, he groaned again, splaying his fingers wide over her na**d skin before deepening the kiss even more.

Thinking turnabout was fair play, Kendall dipped her hand under the hem of his shirt, too, steering her fingers over the silky swell of muscle and sinew that crisscrossed his back. Then she brought her hand forward, caressing the springy hair of his chest and the taut musculature of his torso. He was hard in all the places she was soft, angled in all the places she was curved, rough in all the places she was smooth. But his skin was as hot as hers was, and his heart beat every bit as rapidly. Their differences complemented each other, but their similarities were what brought them together. They wanted each other equally. That was enough.