by Susan Meier
Until he spoke. Because when he spoke, his true colors came out. He was probably the most self-absorbed, cold, emotionless man she’d ever met. If he had given her one word of tenderness or romance the night before, she would have melted. Instead, he’d propositioned her as if sex were nothing but a way to prove a point, insulting her to the tips of her toes. Yet in a way, that was lucky. His view of making love proved that she had been wrong about him. There wasn’t a nice guy inside Ty. He was a one-dimensional, selfish, success-at-any-cost jerk. Madelyn kept giving him the benefit of the doubt because the good things he did confused her into thinking he had a heart. But he didn’t. His sense of responsibility forced him to raise his brothers, provide a home for his cousin’s child and create good jobs for the townspeople. He was responsible. He wasn’t nice.
Still, as she watched him conduct his meeting, she couldn’t stop the sexual awareness that snaked through her. He lifted his arm to point at a number on the overhead screen, opening his black jacket and exposing his white shirt, and she remembered there was a fabulous male form beneath because she’d seen him in jeans and T-shirts. She’d tasted the sureness of his kiss, the experience of it. Even without making love to this man, she felt sure he knew a million ways to pleasure a woman, and if they ever did succumb to their passion, the explosion would be surreal. The experience would be surreal.
She stopped that thought. Sex without emotion was only sex and she shouldn’t even be thinking about it. But she was curious. Damn curious. Still, she couldn’t sleep with someone just for the fun of it. Especially not someone totally devoid of emotion. She had been brought up to want relationships with good men. Actually, having been taught to look for a morally upright man might explain why she kept theorizing that Ty Bryant had a good side. She was searching for a way to make her fantasy of sleeping with him legitimate.
But she now had solid confirmation that he wasn’t a nice man and she also knew the best way to keep her sanity would be to quit initiating personal discussions with him. No more conversation. No more benefit of the doubt. No more temptation.
That night she implemented her decision to speak only when spoken to and then only about the appropriate topics, and to her complete horror it hurt when Ty seemed very, very happy with her new course of action. For two long days they hardly spoke, then at dinner the third day—completely out of the blue—Ty said, “Your mother is a very good cook.”
“Thanks.”
“But she doesn’t have to do this, you know. From the way we nearly starved the first weekend, I got the message that my lifestyle had to change a bit. I can’t go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner anymore, so I need to make accommodations. Breakfast I can get on the run. Lunch is usually taken care of at work. But I was thinking about calling Louie’s and asking the owner to send over two dinners every night, so we don’t have to impose on your mother.”
Madelyn resisted the urge to smile at him. She wasn’t sure if it was pragmatism that had him thinking about meals, or an unwillingness to take advantage of her mother’s good nature, but either way his plan was unexpectedly considerate.
Still, there was no point in smiling. Instead, she politely said, “You’ll probably have to do that when I leave, but for now my mother’s very happy to send us dinner.”
“Okay, then ask her to write up a bill and I’ll…”
“Ty!” Madelyn protested, forgetting she wasn’t supposed to be getting personal with him. “This is my mother! She likes doing this. Besides, there’s nothing to bill. You’re buying the groceries. She’s donating her time, but she enjoys it.”
He took a quick breath. “Then I want you to tell your parents to feel free to watch Sabrina here if it would make cooking easier.”
Madelyn gaped at him. “You want them to watch Sabrina here?”
“Yes.”
“In your house?”
“Yes.”
“My dad, too?”
He grimaced, but recovered quickly. “Yes. I’m fine with the Sarge trooping through my backyard. Heck, if he wants, he can take a look at the flower bed and see if there’s anything he wants to plant there.”
Madelyn stared at Ty, but he went back to eating his dinner, Sabrina on his lap, as if nothing had happened. But everything had happened. He’d made a concession! Without her prodding him he had offered a kindness. And it had nothing to do with responsibility. Somebody was doing something nice for him, so he did something nice in return.
She wasn’t wrong! Inside Ty was a good man! She knew he kept that knowledge hidden because he thought being mean got him respect, but with a reporter about to descend on them and her entire public relations reputation on the line, she wasn’t going to let him behave like a scrooge anymore.
She wanted that nice guy out and walking around the streets of Porter. And she knew exactly how to get him out and keep him out.
She waited until Friday when the baby was in bed and Ty was in his study, engrossed in reading something he’d brought home from work, before she sprung her trap.
“I’m ready to sleep with you now.”
He peered up from the thick document. “I thought we’d been over this.”
“We had, but I wasn’t prepared for your offer. Today I’m prepared.”
He leaned back in his chair. His eyes raked over her, but when he returned his gaze to her face, his expression was shuttered. Any emotion he was feeling was hidden. “Really?”
She wouldn’t let herself shake or quake or lose heart. Too much was at stake here. “Yeah. See…” She drew a quick breath. “The point is, I think you’re a great guy.”
He snorted a laugh, but Madelyn kept talking.
“And you deserve a much better life than what you have…”
“A much better life?” He gaped at her. “I’m rich. Nearly everybody in town works for me. And as long as I keep you in line, they all still respect me.”
“Yes, they respect you, but you don’t have friends.”
“And you think I need friends.”
“Everybody needs friends. But more than that, you need companionship.”
He shifted in his tall-backed office chair and tossed his pencil on top of his document. “Really? And you think you’re that companion.”
This was the tough part. She had a sneaking suspicion that she was the companion Ty had been waiting for all his life. When she really examined her consistent ability to see his good side, she realized she wasn’t simply searching for a way to legitimize making love with him. She continually saw good things in him because deep down inside he was good. And she decided there must be a reason she saw, as well as a reason why—despite her best efforts—she couldn’t help liking him.
But if she told him any of that, he would laugh and try to prove—one more time—that he didn’t have a nice side. She had no choice but to bring this to his level. Keep it light. Keep it simple. Keep it about sex or work. Topics he could handle.
“I wouldn’t say I’m your perfect companion, but I wouldn’t say I’m not, either. Still, somebody’s got to break the ice, make you see you’re not so bad.”
“And you’re going to sacrifice yourself.”
“Yes.”
For several seconds he stared at her, then finally he said, “Are you insane?”
“No, I just have really great parents who have had a passionate romance for almost forty years. I can’t imagine anybody not wanting that, but you don’t. The only reason I can surmise for why you don’t want it is that you don’t know it exists. So…”
“I know. I know. You’re going to show me.”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes and licked his lips, and desire tumbled through Madelyn, stealing her breath and catapulting her thoughts to all the delights that awaited her. This wasn’t in any way, shape or form a sacrifice. She genuinely believed that once she showed Ty some real emotion, floodgates of feelings would open for him and he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from admitting he felt something for her, too. Because t
he real bottom line was she liked him. She liked him a lot. She might even be falling in love with him.
He drew a quick breath. “No.”
“No?”
“I can’t believe, Miss Maddy, that you of all people would use sex to manipulate me.” Anger glittered in his black eyes. “Just go to your room and stop playing games.”
Madelyn stared at him, her head spinning. Was he right? Had she gotten so confused about her feelings for him that she’d just tried to manipulate him?
That’s exactly what happened.
Tears of mortification sprang to her eyes, but the mortification was quickly replaced by embarrassment and humiliation when the real bottom line sunk in. He’d also turned her down. No. He hadn’t turned her down. He hadn’t even taken her offer seriously. All this time she’d thought he wanted her, but he didn’t want her. And she’d been too stupid to see it.
She pivoted and bolted from the room.
Saturday morning, Ty still felt guilty for making Madelyn cry. When he’d seen the tears that sprang to her eyes when he’d told her no, his chest had squeezed as if someone had him in a vice grip. It had taken every ounce of control he had to keep from jumping out of his chair and going after her. But he hadn’t because she was a starry-eyed dreamer, and he was a pain-in-the-butt executive. In spite of what she’d said about him deserving a better life than he had, she was the one who deserved better than the life she might get stuck with if she didn’t stop tempting him.
When he spent far too much of his time wallowing in misery and regret over the fact that he had hurt her, he knew the woman would be the death of him if he didn’t fix this. So when she suggested he take the baby to the park for some fresh air, even though he knew she really wanted him to stroll sweet Sabrina through the grassy playground for all the townspeople to see, he agreed.
They meandered through the park twice, and when Madelyn directed him to a bench, he didn’t argue. Realizing he wasn’t going to get a damned thing done that day unless they resolved this, he sat on the bench and said, “We have to talk.”
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“Sure, there is. I made you cry.”
“From what I’ve heard, you’ve made plenty of people cry.”
“Yeah, but not over personal things. And that’s sort of my point. I don’t get personally involved with locals because I am the kind of guy who makes girls like you cry.”
“I’m not a girl and I didn’t cry.”
“I saw the tears.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t help that they sprang up, but by the time I reached my room I felt more sorry for you than for myself. I’m fine.”
That didn’t make him feel any better. He didn’t like that she felt sorry for him, and he knew now more than ever that they had to get on stable footing again. Even if that meant he had to tell her the truth about his life. “Look, I had a fiancée several years ago.”
“Somebody with a broom and a cauldron, I’d suspect.”
Ty couldn’t help laughing at her suspicion that only a witch would go out with him. “At the time I didn’t think so, but when she was done with me and my brother, I decided she must have been hiding them in her basement.”
Madelyn looked at her nails as if totally disinterested. “Fascinating.”
“Come on. At least let me explain why I’m not the kind of guy who has relationships so you know you’re not at fault in our disagreement. And we can go back to behaving normally.”
She sighed heavily, as if put out, but at least she didn’t tell him she didn’t care to hear his story.
He drew a quick breath and said, “This woman—Anita—was very beautiful and smart. But she owned a home nursing business that was failing. The problem was she needed to have employees available but she didn’t always have jobs for every nurse. Her compromise was to pay them a portion of their salary on the days they were scheduled but she didn’t have any work for them. Unfortunately, that meant she was paying people who weren’t pulling in an income.”
Madelyn shifted on the bench. She might be trying to pretend disinterest, but Ty could tell she was listening.
“So, we bottom lined her unusual employee expense as being a typical start up cost and I bankrolled her business for two years.”
Madelyn turned and gaped at him. “You bankrolled her business?”
Hearing the shock and disbelief in her voice, Ty felt his face redden and cursed himself for being so transparent around her. “She was my fiancée. Plus, her idea was a good one.”
“But she still failed, didn’t she?”
“Took my money and ran.”
Madelyn studied his face for several seconds then said, “There’s more. I can tell.”
Ty shrugged, trying to make light of it. “Well, she cheated on me.”
“And that embarrassed you enough that you won’t get close to anybody else?”
Ty winced. “Yes and no.”
“Just spill it, Ty. I’m going to get it out of you eventually.”
“Okay, she cheated and Cooper found out. When he told me, though, I didn’t believe him and we had a big fight and—”
“And because you didn’t believe Cooper, he felt you didn’t respect him and he left town.”
He sighed, not even slightly confused about why she knew the end of the story. “Seth?”
“He was trying to help me understand the Cooper situation so I could spin it for the press. He ended up helping me understand why you behave like such a grouch.”
“See, there you go. Even my brother thinks I’m a grouch.”
“No. Grouch was my word. Your brother thinks you’re a great man. In the same way I can’t help seeing goodness underneath your gruff personality, Seth also believes everything you do has an altruistic purpose.”
Ty rolled his eyes. “Romantics.”
“Seth isn’t a romantic.”
“He was. But something must have happened. He hasn’t told me about it, but it’s not our way to pour out our hearts in deep-felt conversations. When he suddenly became quiet and then behaved more maturely at work, I simply recognized that something bad had happened, but it hadn’t killed him and he’d learned a valuable lesson. So I let it alone. In fact, I liked the change.”
“Because he’s becoming like you.”
Ty blew his breath out in a disgusted gust. “I’m not Satan. I actually have my good points. But I don’t want you going around thinking I’m a nice guy. I want even less for you to go around telling my employees I’m a nice guy.”
Madelyn rose from the park bench. “You are a nice guy. And I figured out days ago that’s why you fight so hard to make people believe you’re mean. But this story about your fiancée confirms it. You’d rather strike fear than risk anyone having too much influence over you. You think being grouchy is how you stay in control and successful.” She took a quick breath and turned to the sidewalk. “But I think you’re into overkill.”
With that, she left him alone in the park with Sabrina, and though her parting comment didn’t please Ty, he didn’t ponder it because he noticed that he wasn’t panicked about being alone with Sabrina. He knew he could handle her.
Pride shot through him. He couldn’t raise this baby alone, but he most certainly would be a good parent with the help of a nanny to handle the things that didn’t require a parent’s love.
Realizing what he’d unwittingly admitted, his heart swelled with pride again. He loved this kid. He loved Sabrina.
And he owed that to Madelyn.
With the morning sun streaming down on him, his usually tense muscles relaxed, and with one very happy baby sitting in the stroller in front of him, Ty suddenly wondered if Madelyn wasn’t right about more than the baby. Maybe Anita had done more damage than he’d thought. Or maybe he’d carried being mean and staying aloof just a bit too far.
Ty behaved oddly when he returned home with Sabrina, but Madelyn simply stayed out of his way. When the first of three potential nannies arrived for her in
terview later that day, Madelyn went shopping. When the interviews continued on Sunday afternoon, she visited her parents.
Monday morning, Madelyn stuck to her decision to stay out of anything not directly related to Sabrina or PR and left the house for work while Ty chatted—unusually pleasantly—with her parents. But because she’d stopped for a doughnut, she found herself standing next to him at the elevator in the main lobby. She frowned. He wasn’t using the private elevator in the side corridor?
She turned to look at him. “Slumming?”
“Experimenting.”
What the hell did “experimenting” mean?
Two secretaries entered the lobby and walked to the elevator. “Good morning, Mr. Bryant. Madelyn,” they said in unison.
“Good morning, ladies,” Ty said and Madelyn gaped at him. He’d said good morning?
“Nice day.”
“Yeah, it’s a beautiful day,” Mary McCready agreed.
And Madelyn suddenly saw what he was doing. He was experimenting with interacting with his employees. He was experimenting with doing the things she’d been trying to get him to do for the past two weeks. He’d heard what she’d said on Saturday and he was taking her advice. The realization shocked her so much she let her floor pass and rode with him to the top floor, which held only his office suite.
When she stepped out with him, he said, “Do we have a meeting I don’t know about?”
She took a breath. “No.”
“Then scram. I have things to do.” He walked to Joni’s desk and took his messages. He read only one before saying to Joni. “Call that jerk back and tell him we won’t do business with his company ever again.” He grabbed the message and changed his mind. “No, let me call him.”
Madelyn turned to the elevator. Tyrant Ty lived. If he was taking her advice by experimenting with her PR suggestions, the changes weren’t going to happen overnight, but she wasn’t complaining. She needed him to mingle with his employees. Taking baby steps into the process was better than not taking any steps at all.