Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(35)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

She wanted to leave.

"Kendall, you don’t understand," he added as he rose from the bed, too. He grabbed his navy silk bathrobe from the back of the bedroom door as he followed her into the hall.

"Oh, I understand perfectly," she snapped as she went into the guest room where the bags she hadn’t even unpacked still lay on the bed.

Good God, Matthias thought. She didn’t even have to pack her bags. All she had to do was get dressed, and she’d be out of there. He had mere minutes before she was gone for good.

"No, you don’t," he told her. "You can’t understand, because I just figured it out myself."

She spun around so quickly, her hair flew over her face. Brushing it fiercely aside with one hand, her other tightened where she clutched the sheet until her knuckles were white. Her entire body quivered with her anger, he noted. Or maybe it was with something else. Maybe it was the same thing that was making his body shudder, too. The realization that he’d just found something wonderful—the most wonderful, stupendous, spectacular thing in the world—and were about to lose it, before he even had a taste.

Finally, coldly, she said, "What, Matthias? What don’t I understand?"

He opened his mouth to try and explain, to try and put

into words, as eloquently as he could, all the things he needed to tell her. How much she’d come to mean to him. Not as an employee, but as a woman. How he couldn’t live without her. Not because she helped him work better, but because she helped him live better. How he couldn’t get through another day without her. Not because she knew how to work his BlackBerry, but because she knew how to fill all the places inside him he’d thought would be empty forever. But all he could think to tell her was— "I love you."

She went completely still at that. But her fingers on the sheet relaxed, and her expression softened. "What?" she said, her voice a scant whisper.

"I love you," he said again.

She stiffened once more. "Don’t you dare say something like that just because you’re trying to—"

"I mean it, Kendall," he said. "I may be heartless when it comes to getting my way in business, but I would never put my heart on the line like this unless I was telling the truth."

He took a few experimental steps into the room, taking courage in the fact that she didn’t back away from him. But neither did she reach out to him. Nor did she say a word.

"I thought I needed you to come back as my assistant, because I thought that was why you were good for me." She frowned at that, so he hurried on, "You know me, Kendall. I’ve always been married to my business. It never occurred to me that anything else could make me happy. I’m an idiot," he admitted. "But I’m not so stupid that I can’t learn. And I finally realize, it doesn’t matter what job you do, whether you program my BlackBerry or mop the floors at Barton Limited or.or come aboard as my new VP in charge of Public Relations."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you talking about? You have a VP in charge of Public Relations. Mitchell Valentine."

"Yeah, well, Mitchell’s wife is pregnant with twins, and he wants to be a stay-at-home dad, so he’s leaving at the end of August. I was going to hire a headhunter to find someone to fill the position, but I think I already have the perfect candidate working at Barton Limited."

Her expression was cautious. "Who?"

Did she really have to ask? Well, okay, he supposed she did, since she had asked. "You," he told her. "I’d like you to come work for me as my new VP."

She said nothing in response to his offer, something he wasn’t sure was good or bad. So, thinking, what the hell, he decided to go for broke. "There’s just one problem," he told her.

Now her expression turned wary. "What’s that?" "Barton Limited has a policy that bars spouses from working together."

Her eyes widened at that.

"Fortunately," he added, "it’s just a policy, not written in stone anywhere. Besides which, I’m the CEO, so I can do whatever the hell I want. Should, you know, two of the executives want to get.married."

It occurred to Matthias then that Kendall had never actually said she loved him, too. Not that he wasn’t pretty sure she at least had some feelings for him. He just wasn’t sure if they were as strong as his were for her.

"You really want to marry me?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes. I do."

"You really love me?"

He nodded again. "More than anything."

This time, she nodded, too. But it was a slow nod. A thoughtful nod. The kind that indicated she was thinking, not agreeing. Finally, though, she told him, "Then I think, Matthias, before we go any further with this, we need to talk about the terms."

Good businesswoman that she was, she insisted they be dressed for their discussion. Conceding the point, Matthias decided they should also have access to coffee. So after dressing and having breakfast, he and Kendall took their coffee out to the deck, where a warm summer breeze skidded off the lake, and where the golden sun washed over them.

They took their seats on the big Adirondack love seat, settling comfortably into the patterned cushions. Matthias took solace in the fact that Kendall sat close enough to touch him, tucking her bare foot under her denim-clad leg comfortably. Her white cotton shirt was embroidered with white flowers and edged with lace, feminine enough to be unprofessional, another good sign. He, too, was barefoot, his blue jeans as worn as hers, his polo an old, lovingly faded green one that was his favorite for those few occasions when he kicked back and relaxed. They were talking terms, he thought, but for something much more important than business.

"Where would you like to start?" he asked.

She sipped her coffee and gazed out at the lake. "It occurs to me that if I agree to this merger, it’s not the first time you’ve attempted this kind of thing. And I want to be clear that, although I’m not the first candidate for the position you’ve offered me, I’m your first—your only—choice."

He looked at her, confused. "I’m not sure I follow."

She sighed, then turned to face him. "Two words. Lauren Conover."

He smiled a little self-deprecatingly. "Ah. I guess that’s my signal to tell you about my botched wedding attempt, isn’t it?"

Kendall nodded. "I tried to be subtle, but you men just don’t have the subtlety gene."

He nodded. "That explains a lot, actually. Like how my engagement happened in the first place."

He looked at Kendall, who had placed her hand on the seat cushion between them, so that her thumb touched her own thigh and her pinky touched his. Her eyes glistened in the morning light, the sun flickered in her hair, first orange then red then gold, and her cheeks had bloomed pink from the warm breeze. Her entire being seemed illuminated from within, as if it were she, not the sun, that brought warmth to the day. And to Matthias, too. Because he’d sat in the sunshine plenty of times, but never had he felt the way he did in that moment. As if everything in his life that had come before it was only preparation for this moment. As if this moment signified the beginning of something new and wonderful that would last forever.