by Susan Meier
Both Ty’s thoughts and his SUV screeched to a stop.
Well, darn her little hide. She was doing to him what he had done to her. She was forcing him to deal with the baby, to deal with the PR, to deal with his employees, by throwing him into those types of situations. It wasn’t exactly the same as how and why he’d kissed her, but it was damned close. So close he might even have given her the idea!
But she was better at it than he was. She was so good he hadn’t realized what she was doing. Worse, he’d walked right into her trap and behaved exactly as she needed him to behave. As if he were some kind of simpleton.
No, as if he were some kind of ogre. It appeared she had bought into everything his employees had told her in the days he had been out of the office for Scotty’s funeral. But she wasn’t changing the employees’ impression of him. She was changing him.
He’d be damned.
He squelched the surge of disappointment that she thought he was as mean, as ornery, as unlikable as his employees believed. A personal relationship between them couldn’t happen. And he liked being thought of as ornery. It gave him an edge with the employees. No one questioned any of his orders for fear he would yell. Which actually meant he rarely had to yell.
He also stomped down an unexpected surge of appreciation for both her cleverness and her ability to put her plans into action. Because he was the person she was hoodwinking, he couldn’t applaud that.
He sat in the middle of Oak Avenue for only another thirty seconds before the driver of the car behind him honked his horn, indicating Ty should get going.
Yeah, he would get going all right. He would go straight home and put such a crimp in the plan of little Miss Public Relations that she’d never, ever try to bulldoze anyone again.
Madelyn was feeding Sabrina rice cereal when Ty returned. “What the heck?” she said, when she heard his SUV pull into the driveway close to the kitchen door.
She almost rose to glance out the window to be sure it was him, but he was in the kitchen before she got off her chair.
His penetrating onyx eyes pinned her and she felt a chill of foreboding run down her spine. She was in trouble. Deep trouble.
“I think you’re going to need to teach me a few things about the baby.”
Fearing a reprimand, or the prospect of being fired again, Madelyn wasn’t expecting that request. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He ran his finger along the bridge of his nose trying to appear casual, but Madelyn knew there was nothing casual about this guy. He did nothing without a reason. That was why she had had to trick him into looking like a good dad and a nice person. He would never choose to be either because both eroded his reputation as a scrooge, bully and tyrant.
“Did you call a nanny service and discover you were going to have to do night duty or something?”
“Nope. Didn’t call yet. Not going to call until I can take care of Sabrina myself.”
Terror skittered through Madelyn as she envisioned herself teaching him—and living here—until Sabrina graduated from college. “Are you kidding me?”
Obviously seeing her fear, he smiled. “No. I simply want to learn how to care for the baby.”
“Great.” Yeah, great. It didn’t make a whit of sense that he’d changed his mind. She knew that undeniably meant he was up to something. She almost swallowed, but refused to show him any weakness. In fact, the best thing to do would be to meet his challenge head-on.
“Why don’t we start with your feeding her the rest of her cereal?”
The baby pounded on the high chair as if signaling her approval.
He shrugged off his jacket. “Okay.”
“You might want to change out of more than your coat.”
“I’m already burning a pair of Armani pants. Another suit won’t make any difference. I need to learn this.”
The determination in his voice again confused Madelyn until she realized that was the deal. He’d figured out that the baby always threw him off balance and that using his confusion was how she guided him to do the things that would come naturally to him if he wasn’t so busy being aloof, trying to convince everyone he didn’t have a nice side. And having seen her strategy, he had resolved to take away her advantage.
Well, she’d see about that.
“Feeding a baby is a very simple thing.”
Sabrina contradicted that by screeching and pounding her fist against the high chair tray, almost toppling the bowl.
Ty nodded. “First, I’d probably set the bowl on the table,” he observed, sounding as if he was approaching this the way he did a business problem and already coming up with better ways to do things.
“You could do that,” Madelyn agreed calmly, not letting him gloat. “But having to turn back to the table to get bites will add time to the process and Sabrina’s not going to like it.”
“Really?”
“When she’s hungry, she wants to eat. So leave the bowl on the tray, but watch it, and her.” Madelyn smiled as if she’d told him something easy, when they both knew that watching Sabrina and the bowl would be far from simple. “Just get a little bite of cereal on the baby spoon and slide it into her mouth.”
With the bowl on the tray, Ty did as instructed and Sabrina eagerly opened her mouth. Madelyn saw the determined expression in his eyes soften. But not with love for the baby. Nope. The expression in his eyes softened with relief. He was beating Madelyn and he was doing it deliberately.
Or so he thought.
“I’m glad you didn’t call about the nanny,” Madelyn said, going back to the strategy that had already worked so nicely for her. Confuse, disorient and conquer. “Because I realized something while you were gone.”
“Really.” He slid another spoonful of cereal into hungry Sabrina’s mouth. This time his eyes sharpened. He’d gone from relief to victory in two spoonfuls.
“Yes. For the next few months the nanny may not mind sleeping in the same room with the baby on the same floor with her employer, but eventually she’ll want more privacy.” She glanced around the kitchen toward the laundry room, as if thinking through what he could do. “The only way she’ll get real privacy is if you put her quarters downstairs, but that will be cramped. I think you’re going to need to buy a new house.”
“Something bigger,” he ventured.
Well, now, that was too darned agreeable. “Yeah. Bigger.”
“Sure, so that the nanny can have her own quarters.”
Damn it! What was he doing? “Yeah.”
“And while we’re on the subject of houses,” Ty said, spooning another bite into Sabrina’s mouth. “I suppose I hadn’t made myself clear before this, but I don’t wish to have Captain Bunny and the Sarge roaming through my house at will.”
“Captain Bunny and the Sarge?”
“Your parents. In case you haven’t noticed, I like my privacy. I don’t want strangers rooting through my things.”
“My parents don’t root through your things!”
“How do you know? You weren’t here while they were stocking the house with groceries.”
“Are you kidding me?”
He rose, growing angry now. “This is my home.” He began walking to the kitchen doorway where Madelyn stood leaning against the frame. “I have a right to privacy.”
She straightened away from the security of the door and squared her shoulders. “And I have a right to eat!”
“So go shopping yourself!” He took a step closer.
She took a deep breath that made her feel taller, stronger. This was it. Armageddon. She either won this fight or it was over. All of it. She would not be the wishy-washy employee who let him get away with not raising his own child just to maintain his scrooge image. She would stand up to him and teach him or she would leave. “When? I’m not even sleeping anymore!”
He took the final step that put him directly in front of her and forced her to look up at him. “You should have thought of that before you made the agreement.”
Tho
ugh her chin was tipped up in an unspoken testimonial to his superior height, she made sure her eyes told him she was conceding nothing and was a lot tougher than he thought.
“Ha! You should have considered your schedule before you agreed to ‘do anything I said’ for the baby and for the PR!”
“I’ve held up my end of the deal.” Though she didn’t think it possible he somehow got even closer.
“Not hardly.” She raised the heat in her eyes a notch. “Every time I ask you to do something you have an excuse for why you can’t.”
“Legitimate reasons.”
“Our agreement doesn’t leave room for reasons. You said you would do anything I wanted for both the baby and the PR, yet all I get are excuses. You’re the one who’s letting me down.” She paused, her eyes locked with his. “No. You’re letting the baby down.”
They stood nose to nose. Their gazes clashing. Both breathing heavily. Both out of steam.
With no more points to be made or defended, Madelyn suddenly noticed how masculine he was when he was out of control with the passion of his conviction. She didn’t want to be attracted to him. He was too old for her and he wasn’t the kind of man she always pictured herself getting involved with. But she couldn’t deny that standing so close she could virtually feel his power. That strength was as attractive as his dark hair and eyes.
When he pulled his gaze away from hers, she relaxed somewhat, but he didn’t step back as she expected he would. Instead, his gaze took a quick inventory of her body, and when she realized he was as attracted to her as she was to him, heat spiraled through her.
Determined to ignore the sexual electricity sizzling between them, she took the step back and shifted her attention to the fact that she was actually winning a battle with him. He wasn’t arguing anymore because he couldn’t argue. He seemed to finally see that not picking up his end of the responsibilities didn’t hurt her, it hurt the baby.
Trying to get his mind off how soft Madelyn’s skin looked, how plump her lips were and how easy it would be to kiss her again, Ty focused his attention on the fact that she was right. He wasn’t merely Sabrina’s “guardian.” He was her father. He had to pay more attention to her.
He was suddenly glad Madelyn was bold enough to stand up to him, but he quickly amended that. She wasn’t just bold enough to stand up to him. She out-and-out fought with him. Like an equal. That realization sent a thunderbolt of arousal through him. He looked at women as competent employees, friends, conquests, agreeable sex partners, but never his equal.
That was why the difference in their ages didn’t deter his libido. Her age didn’t matter because intellectually she was his equal.
He swallowed and watched Madelyn risk a quiet breath. One of them had to take another step back. And quickly.
Sabrina screeched noisily, then pounded her spoon against the high chair tray. Both he and Madelyn glanced over in time to see the baby grab the cereal bowl and heave it across the room. White mush splattered everywhere, including Ty’s back.
Madelyn began to laugh. She laughed so long and hard, tears formed in her eyes. Ty stared at her. She was so different from anybody he’d ever met that he wasn’t sure what to say or do. And not just about their work situation. He had to do something about the chemistry between them. Either stop it or enjoy it. Because he knew they would enjoy it. In fact, he was beginning to believe that if he let her get away without following through on their natural instincts, they might regret it for the rest of their lives.
“I think I need to change my shirt,” he said, stepping back.
“Yeah,” Madelyn said between giggles. “I’ll take care of the baby.”
“Then we need to talk.”
“Uh-huh.”
Ty left the room. He didn’t know what he was going to say. All he knew for sure was that something had to change.
Madelyn turned from the counter when Ty returned to the kitchen ten minutes later. But wearing jeans and a T-shirt, looking relaxed and comfortable, he was incredibly attractive to her again. Worse, she now knew he found her attractive. He couldn’t deny it because he hadn’t been able to hide it. He couldn’t even bluster his way out of it. Being as close and as passionately angry as he had been, he hadn’t had his usual personal control and she’d seen the way he’d looked at her.
Still, their attraction was secondary to the baby. “I wiped the cereal off everything.”
“So I see,” he said, then glanced at Sabrina. “How do I get her out of the high chair?”
“There are levers on both sides of the tray. You squeeze them and the tray slides off. But don’t take it the whole way off. Just open it far enough that you can pull her out.”
“Okay,” he said, and followed her instructions, creating a space through which he lifted the baby. “Hello, Sabrina,” he said, tickling her chin. She giggled. “You really are an adorable kid.”
Madelyn smiled. “She really is.”
He drew a long breath. “And I understood what you were saying about my caring for her.”
“It isn’t that you have to care for her,” Madelyn said cautiously, not wanting to make him think she was shirking her responsibilities. “You can hire someone to do the menial tasks. But she needs to spend time with you. When you come in the room, you should acknowledge her. When you leave, say goodbye. Kiss her goodnight. Give her ten minutes of playtime. Read her a story.”
He smiled slightly. “And let someone else change diapers?”
“Sure.”
“Good.”
With their only neutral topic exhausted, the silence in the room became oppressive. Still, Madelyn didn’t break it. Ty was the one who had said he wanted to talk. As long as they were discussing the baby, she could converse for hours. But she didn’t have a clue what to say if he wanted to dissect their sexual attraction. If he asked her to sleep with him, she would probably consider it. But she also knew it would be wrong. At least, she suspected it would be wrong. He wasn’t the kind of guy to settle down. He’d already told her he liked sophisticated women. She wasn’t foolish enough to think she was the one woman who would change his entire life. And he’d already guessed she wanted to be married. If they made love, it would be a one-night stand, or an affair.
And that was the end of thinking about that! He was her boss. Even if she hadn’t yet been hired full-time, she was working directly for him. Plus, she hoped to get the job as head of PR for Bryant Development. She couldn’t have a one-night stand or an affair with him.
But with him standing three feet away, looking casual and comfortable, the thought of sleeping with him was tempting. So darned tempting!
Which was why they had to talk about this. They had to get it out in the open and agree to do whatever they had to do to ignore whatever it was that simmered between them.
Finally, Ty said, “So what do we do now?”
“Sabrina needs a bath, then a story, then another diaper change, then a bottle, then bed.”
“Wow.”
“Do you want to help with any of those?”
“I could do the story.”
“You could do the story and the last bottle, actually. That way you could kiss her good-night while I showered and had a few minutes to myself.”
“It’s a deal.”
Madelyn was acting strangely around him now, Ty noticed, when he slipped into the nursery to read to Sabrina. Her voice was husky when she explained her story choice. Her smile intimate when she handed him the book. In their last disagreement they’d crossed a line and he wasn’t sure how to get them back on the right side.
As he read Sabrina a tale of a bunny’s birthday, he heard the sound of Madelyn’s shower and understood why she had insisted he needed to buy a new house. Because caring for a child was a twenty-four-hour-a-day job, he and Madelyn weren’t simply sharing duties. They were living together. Hearing each other’s showers. Exposed to each other’s sleep-tousled hair and ready-for-bed yawns. They saw each other’s most routine activities and none
theless were sexually attracted. Then they went to bed knowing that the other slept beyond only a thin wall. And tonight that knowledge would keep them both awake.
But Madelyn couldn’t leave and Ty couldn’t have her leave yet, so they couldn’t explore the sexual energy that constantly sizzled between them. That meant he had to get them back over that line again.
Madelyn returned to her bedroom wearing sweatpants and a big T-shirt, not pajamas and a robe as he had feared. Still, her nerves were clearly on edge, as if anticipating that any minute could be the minute he swept her off her feet. The funny part of it was that in the way she waited for it, she invited it.
“Here, I’ll lay her in bed,” Madelyn whispered, lifting Sabrina from his arms so he could rise from the rocker. “Then I’ll leave while you tuck her in and kiss her good-night.”
He nodded.
Madelyn laid the baby in the crib and Ty did as she had directed. He kissed the baby’s forehead and pulled the fluffy blanket to her chin. He stared at her for a few seconds, wondering how one sixteen-pound bundle of noise could change his life so much.
He left the bedroom and found Madelyn in the family room. Standing in front of a row of DVDs, she appeared to be casually choosing something to watch but Ty could feel tense waves of expectation rolling off her. It tightened his nerves and brought urges to life that Ty wanted to act on. Nanny problems be damned.
Anita resurfaced in his memory, but not because Madelyn and Anita looked or acted alike. Madelyn and Anita were total opposites. Anita was a short brunette with big brown eyes and curly hair. Madelyn was tall, slender, sleek, graceful.
But the real difference between them, and probably what attracted him to Madelyn now, was Madelyn’s maturity. Still Ty wasn’t fooled. Mature or not, Madelyn couldn’t handle working with him after their affair ended. Anybody would have trouble having an ex-lover for a boss. He also had to consider sexual harassment potential. But even if—by some miracle—things somehow worked out between them, he never wanted to settle down. Girlfriends were a drain on his time. They were a security risk. They had friends. They talked at cocktail parties. Wanted to have lunch in the middle of the week. Expected vacations. Wanted to talk at dinner.