Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(8)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

Now Kendall turned to look at Matthias, her huge, clear green eyes penetrating deep enough to heat something in his chest. "Well, there is a lake out there," she said lamely. "Besides, what would you have said to welcome a new employee?"

"I would have said, ‘Get to work,’" he replied. "And I would have said it to that new employee’s face. I wouldn’t

go through all this ridiculous pretense to make her feel like she was more important than she actually is."

Two bright spots of color flared on Kendall’s cheeks at that. She nodded brusquely. "Of course you wouldn’t," she said. "Because no one is important to you. You think the success of Barton Limited is because of you and you alone. You have no appreciation for how many people it takes to make a company prosper, and you have no clue how to take care of the ones who are doing the best work. And if you’re not careful, then—"

She halted abruptly, her eyes widening in what he could only guess was horror that she’d just leaped like a gazelle across the line she had previously only overstepped. Matthias narrowed his eyes at her, his own lips parting now in surprise. Kendall had never challenged him like this before. Hell, challenged? he asked himself. Compared to her usual self-containment, she’d just read him the riot act. With a bullhorn. Sure, she’d taken exception in the past to some of his decisions—okay, edicts—but she’d always pointed out her concerns with discretion. And deference. But this reaction was completely unlike her. Totally unexpected. And extremely…

Matthias stopped himself before allowing the impression to fully form. Because the impression had nothing to do with his reaction to Kendall as an employee, and everything to do with his reaction to her as a.a person.

"Is that what you really think?" he asked, deciding to focus on that instead of.the other thing.

She hesitated only a second, then nodded. And then, a little less forcefully than she’d spoken before, she added, "Yes. Sir." And then, a little more forcefully, she altered her response to, "Yes. Matthias."

There it was again, he marveled. That ripple of heat that should have been disapproval of her familiarity by using his first name, but which was instead.something else. Something he told himself to try to figure out later, because he really needed to respond to Kendall’s allegation that he was so self-centered. But because of the way she was looking at him, all clear-green-eyed and hot-pink-cheeked and tumbling-silky-haired, all he could manage in response was, "Oh, really?"

A moment passed in which neither of them spoke, or moved, or even breathed. Then Kendall’s lips turned up almost imperceptibly, into a smile with what only someone who had the vast experience Matthias had with the emotion could identify.

Victory.

Kendall Scarborough had it in her head that she’d just won whatever the two of them had been engaged in. Now if Matthias could just figure out what the two of them had just engaged in, maybe he’d know what to do next.

Kendall, however, didn’t seem to be having the same problem he had. Because she settled her hands on her h*ps in a way that was at once relaxed and challenging, and she asked again, "Was there some reason you came here this afternoon, Matthias? Is there something you wanted?"

He honestly had no idea how to answer her. Because for the first time in his life, Matthias didn’t know what he wanted. He was too off-kilter looking at Kendall and thinking about Kendall and listening to Kendall saying his name and marveling at how Kendall had thrown him so off-kilter.

But he didn’t want to look foolish, either—that would have been another first he would have just as soon done without. So he reached into his trouser pocket and removed

a small gadget he’d purchased for himself the day after she’d left his employ. Something called a. Well, he couldn’t remember what it was called now, but it was supposed to be even better than the. Whatever that other thing was he used to use for keeping track of his appointments and obligations.

Then he held it out to Kendall and replied, "Yeah. Do you have any idea how this thing works? I keep getting e-mail from some deposed prince in Nigeria who needs my help freeing up some frozen assets he’s trying to get out of the country, and I’d really like to help him out, because he promised me a more than generous share once he’s fluid again. Plus, this woman named Trixie just got a new Web cam she wants to show me, and I’m thinking it might be technology I’d like to invest in."

He looked at Kendall, who was looking back at him as if he’d just grown a second head. "What?" he said.

She crossed the room in a half-dozen long strides and opened the door. Then she pointed to the hallway beyond with one finger. "Out," she said. "Now."

His mouth dropped open in surprise. "What, you’re not going to help me?"

"I’m not your assistant anymore, Matthias."

Oh, as if he needed reminding of that. "But—"

"Out," she repeated. "Now."

He shook his head in disbelief. But he did as she asked him to. Told him to. Demanded he do. The door was slamming shut behind him before he’d even cleared it, missing his backside by that much. He spun around, and went so far as to lift a fist to pound on it again. But he stopped himself before completing the action.

There was a better way to go about this, he told himself.

He just had to figure out what it was. Because Kendall was making a mistake, thinking OmniTech was the place she needed to be. Where she needed to be was with him. Or, rather, with Barton Limited, he quickly corrected himself. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to make her realize that, too.

Three

Kendall leaned back against the door through which Matthias had just exited and tried to get a handle on everything that had just happened.

She’d thrown him out, she marveled. She’d looked at the BlackBerry in his hand, incredulous that, just when they were starting to have an exchange that felt evenly matched, he would ask her to program the little gizmo the way she had so many others when he was paying her to be his underling, and then she’d asked—no, told—him to leave. Even more stunning than that was the fact that Matthias had done as she asked—no, told—him to and had left. Without a word of argument. Without a word of exception. Without a word of reproach.

Okay, and without a word of farewell, either.

The point was that Kendall had taken charge of a situation with Matthias and she had mastered it. Eventually. Just

because there had been a few moments in between that had been filled with strange bits of weirdness didn’t diminish the enormity of that achievement.

But just what, exactly, had that weirdness been about? she asked herself now. There had been times during their conversation when Matthias had looked at her almost as if he were seeing someone else, someone he didn’t quite know, someone with whom he wasn’t entirely comfortable. Someone he wasn’t sure he liked. It had been…weird. And her response had been weird, too. She’d suddenly been aware of him in a way she hadn’t been when she’d worked for him. Or, at least, in a way she hadn’t allowed herself to think about when she worked for him.