Marrying Her Billionaire Boss

He gave a slight laugh. “No, actually, I can relate completely. My family is from Milwaukee and I’ve been to Lake Geneva many times, but usually for vacations. This is a bit different.”

“For me, too. The few times I’ve been here it was because my brother was making a delivery and he allowed me to tag along.”

Carson nodded. “What were you delivering?”

“Plumbing supplies. Steve’s a driver for a firm that manufactures them. I don’t think he was supposed to be carrying human cargo, but it was summer and it was his day to make sure his little sister stayed out of trouble.” She didn’t want to say more about that so she took a bite.

“You’re the youngest, you said?”

She nodded. “By ten years. Steve’s thirty-five.”

“He the one who tried to match you up with your last boss?”

Beth felt panic welling up inside her. “You don’t have to worry. He wouldn’t try to match me up with you.”

Carson almost choked on a piece of steak.

Beth wanted to crawl underneath her plate. “That didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. What I meant was that he would know that you’re out of my league, that you’d only marry someone rich and sophisticated. If he has any thoughts about you, it’s that I shouldn’t get involved with you at all.”

Which sounded even worse. She closed her eyes and prayed for the flowers on the table to ignite…or anything that would distract Carson and enable her to exit this uncomfortable conversation.

“He’s right,” Carson said.

Beth opened her eyes. “What?”

“I have a bad reputation with women. Your brother is right to have those kinds of thoughts, although…as I mentioned…”

“I know. You don’t get involved with your employees and I shouldn’t worry.”

A grim smile lifted his lips slightly. “Exactly.”

Beth managed to nod. “I’ll tell him that. Not that it will matter. Older brothers tend to be overprotective.”

She said that last sentence in a casual, offhand, flippant way. She was trying for a light, teasing tone, anything to let him know that she wasn’t worried, that she would never think of him in a romantic or lustful manner.

But Carson wasn’t smiling. “Older brothers should be protective,” he said.

She opened her mouth to speak, but he shook his head. “Forget I said that. I was just thinking of my own younger brother.”

He didn’t say more. Carson turned the conversation to business, and soon the meal was over. “I’ll take you to your car,” he said.

“I walked to work. I like to walk.” She didn’t want to add that the reason she had walked had less to do with her love of walking and more with the fact that her beat-up pickup truck looked like something she had gotten from the junk yard. It didn’t fit the image of a successful professional.

“Then I’ll drive you home.”

Panic welled up. “That’s all right.”

“No, it’s not. It’s getting late and we have another big day ahead of us. I wouldn’t want you to fail to get enough rest and end up being late tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

Carson sighed. “I know that. I just—let me do this. That line you said earlier about older brothers…I haven’t always been protective of my brother and there have been consequences. Let me do one good, if small, thing today.”

So, what could she say? Reluctantly she gave him her address. To her relief he didn’t say anything negative when they turned into the driveway. There weren’t exactly any bad neighborhoods in Lake Geneva, but there were some houses that were a bit neglected. The room she was renting was in one of those neglected, dumpy houses. Siding falling off, a crack in the window that hadn’t been repaired, weeds turning into a forest.