Married to His Business / Six-Month Mistress: Married to His Business. Elizabeth Bevarly

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СКАЧАТЬ was odd that no one else had arrived yet.

      “Don’t tell me I’m the only one who got here on time,” she said.

      “No, of course not,” he told her. “The others just aren’t scheduled to arrive until Wednesday.”

      Wednesday? Kendall thought. That was two whole days away. “Oh,” she said, the word sounding more disappointed than she’d intended.

      “The others are training for management positions,” he said by way of an explanation. “You’re the only VP candidate this time around. So I thought it would be nice if the two of us could have a couple of days where I could go over some of the policies and procedures that won’t be pertinent to everyone else’s training.”

      That made sense, Kendall thought.

      “But first, a drink,” he said, motioning to a waiter who had been hovering within range. “What would you like? I discovered a wonderful California pinot noir recently that’s absolutely delightful.”

      “Thanks,” Kendall told him, “but I’ll just have a bottle of sparkling water.”

      He threw her a look of mock effrontery. “But we’re celebrating your joining the OmniTech team,” he objected.

      “Which is why I ordered sparkling water,” she said with a smile.

      He smiled back, dipping his head forward in acknowledgment. “Then I’ll have the same,” he told the waiter. “Now then,” he added as their server departed, “I thought we could spend much of tonight talking about how—”

      “Stephen DeGallo!”

      Kendall flinched at the sound of the booming, all-too-familiar voice, but managed to otherwise keep her irritation in check. Well, enough that no one would notice it, anyway. Though she had to admit that Stephen didn’t look any happier about the interruption than she was. Nevertheless, good businessman—and guy—that he was, he smiled as he rose to greet Matthias. Kendall turned in her chair to acknowledge her former employer, but remained seated, hoping that small act of discourtesy would illustrate her pique in a way that wasn’t quite as impolite as other actions might have been. Actions like, oh…Kendall didn’t know. Tripping him as he strode past her to shake Stephen’s hand. Calling him a big poophead. Stuff like that.

      She noticed Stephen didn’t grasp Matthias’s hand in both of his the way he had hers—in fact, he gave Matthias’s one, two, three firm, manly shakes and released it. Then again, Matthias was a rival, so naturally, Stephen’s greeting to him wouldn’t be as familiar as his to Kendall had been. Similarly, it was understandable why Stephen’s posture, too, with Matthias would be more assertive, more straightforward, more businesslike, than it had been with Kendall. Wouldn’t it?

      Yeah. Sure. Of course.

      “Matthias Barton,” Stephen greeted him. “Long time, no see. What have you been up to?”

      “Besides competing with you for the Perkins contract?” Matthias replied. “Not much.”

      Well, he’d recently lost his personal assistant of five years, Kendall thought irritably. Or so she’d heard. That was kind of major.

      As if he’d read her mind, Matthias turned to her then and feigned tremendous surprise—though, Kendall thought, not very well.

      “Why, Kendall Scarborough,” he said with overblown amazement. “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you since…” He pretended to search his memory banks—again, not exactly an Academy Award-winning performance—then snapped his fingers. “Since you gave me your two weeks’ notice to go work for some fly-by-night company.”

      She sighed wearily. “Well, except for this afternoon in my room, when you offered me my job back.”

      Now Stephen was the one to look surprised, Kendall noted. Only his was obviously genuine. Then he smiled, and looked at Matthias again. “Really?” he asked the other man.

      Matthias looked a little uncomfortable now, and this time, he wasn’t pretending. “It was just a formality,” he said. “I always offer my exes the chance to come back, once they come to their senses and realize what a mistake they made, leaving Barton Limited.”

      Kendall couldn’t prevent the snort of laughter that escaped her at that. Yeah, right. Matthias had the longest memory of anyone she’d ever met, and he never forgot a slight—real or imagined. If someone elected to leave the company for any reason, he had that person’s personnel file expunged within the hour, as if they never existed. And he certainly never went looking for that person to offer them an opportunity to return.

      Not until this afternoon, anyway, she reminded herself.

      But the only reason he’d come looking for her, she further told herself, was because he hadn’t known how to program his new BlackBerry. The offer to take her back had obviously been off-the-cuff, and had doubtless been extended for the same reason. He thought she was the only one who knew how to program one of those things. He didn’t realize anyone could do it for him. Well, anyone except Matthias Barton.

      “Well, Barton,” Stephen said now, “had you appreciated Kendall’s possibilities, the way I do, then maybe you wouldn’t have lost her in the first place.”

      Kendall started to smile at that, then stopped. Something about the way Stephen had said it made it sound kind of unprofessional. Just what had he meant by possibilities? That was kind of a strange word to use. Why not abilities? Or talents? Or expertise? Possibilities made it sound as though he considered her a blank slate or unformed mass that he could turn into whatever he wanted.

      “I assure you, DeGallo,” Matthias replied, “that Kendall was one of my most prized possessions at Barton Limited. I hope you realize what an asset she’ll be to OmniTech.”

      All right, Kendall thought. That did it. Forget about blank slates and unformed masses. Matthias had just made her sound like a new computer system. Possession? Asset? Just who did he think he was?

      “Prized possession?” she echoed indignantly.

      Matthias looked down at her and must have realized immediately from both her voice and her expression—and, most likely, the quick drop in temperature among the small group—what a colossal gaffe he’d just made. “Uh…” he began eloquently.

      “If that’s the case,” she continued while he was still off balance, “then you better go over my operating instructions while you’re here. I wouldn’t want Stephen to think he acquired a defective machine.”

      The look Matthias gave her then was almost convincingly distressed. Almost. “Kendall, that’s not—”

      This time his words were cut off by Stephen’s light, good-natured laughter. “Sounds to me like she works just fine,” he said. “In fact, this particular model is promising to work better than I initially hoped.”

      Matthias’s lips thinned at that. “Yeah, she’s a piece of work, all right,” he muttered.

      She smiled sweetly. “And now I’m working for someone else.”

      Matthias opened his mouth to respond, but this time was prevented by the arrival of their server, who placed tall sweaty glasses СКАЧАТЬ