Baby Before Business (Silhouette Romance)

by Susan Meier

  As pretty as Madelyn was, as interesting as she was, she would take up his time, talk about his life in public, air his dirty laundry, get involved with his family issues, tell him how to raise Sabrina….

  Did he need any more reasons than those to walk away?

  But he didn’t have time to turn and run before Madelyn faced him. Her warm green eyes drew him in from across the room. Her pretty smile tempted him.

  Without any effort at all he remembered kissing her. He remembered her taste, the softness of her lips, and his blood pulsed hard through his veins. He wondered what she would be like in bed and knew her body would be soft and responsive. She would be passionate. But making love with her would be more than something physical.

  He gritted his teeth in frustration, wondering what the hell it was about this woman that affected him so powerfully. She wasn’t superwoman. She didn’t hold the answers to the universe. She was a kid who knew how to help him with the baby that had been dumped into his lap. His cousin had died, he’d unceremoniously become a father and he was about to face the press—something he’d avoided for fifteen years. His life had been tossed up in the air and was coming down in disjointed pieces. He shouldn’t be thinking about sex right now.

  For God’s sake, the very woman tempting him was the one who was messing up his life!

  No matter how much he tried to believe otherwise, his attraction to Madelyn was nothing but a physical thing. Once he got a nanny, he could fly to New York and visit a female friend and anything he felt for his little PR pal, who was far too young for him anyway, would be gone.

  “I’m going to my study.”

  “Oh. I thought you wanted to talk.”

  Her eyes were soft, luminous, as if he’d hurt her. Her smile faltered. An odd tightening began in Ty’s chest. He knew he was the cause of the confusion he saw on her face. But that was the very reason he couldn’t change his mind. In the end, he would hurt her and, contrary to popular belief, he never deliberately hurt anyone.

  “I changed my mind.”

  He sighed heavily and raked his hand through his hair. “Just go to bed and get some rest while the kid is sleeping, would you?”

  Chapter Six

  Madelyn bounced out of bed the next morning energized by her lingering fury over what had happened the night before between her and Ty. He could no longer pretend he wasn’t attracted to her. She’d seen the desire that flared in his eyes when they’d confronted each other. Yet after telling her they needed to talk, making her believe they would approach this attraction like two adults—and that he might even kiss her again—he came into the living room and shipped her to her room as if she were a child.

  Carefully lifting Sabrina out of her crib, cooing a good-morning at the happy baby, Madelyn reluctantly admitted to herself that she hadn’t reacted well. Ty had made her so angry that she actually did as he’d asked. But that was because he behaved as if this whole attraction mess was her fault, as if she wanted to be attracted to him.

  Ha! It killed her to have physical responses to him because he really wasn’t her type. Though gorgeous, and now becoming involved with the baby, he was still ill-tempered, selfish and single-minded. The words share and compromise were not in his vocabulary—evidenced by the fact that he knew they needed to talk about their attraction, but he’d apparently decided to handle it his own way and banished her to her room.

  Madelyn paused her thoughts as she held giggling Sabrina over the baby bathtub. She recognized Ty had shipped her out because he didn’t want to talk about their attraction. But what if the way he had decided to deal with it was to stay away from her completely? What if he ordered her not to come to the office?

  No. He wouldn’t do that. He knew she had a lot of work to do before the Wall Street Journal reporter arrived. He was too pragmatic to prevent her from doing her job.

  When Sabrina was dressed, Madelyn carried her to the kitchen and slid her into the high chair, then went to the cupboard in search of ingredients for the baby’s cereal. As Madelyn reached for a bowl, Ty dashed in. Looking handsome in a dark suit with a white shirt and red tie, he didn’t pause or even stop for coffee. He simply shot toward the back door barking orders.

  “I think it’s time you took inventory of the diaper bags and bought whatever Sabrina needs that we don’t have. Pajamas, rattles, teddy bears. Buy whatever Pete didn’t pack. I put two hundred dollars on my desk, if you need more, there’s a credit card. I also left the number for my gardener. Call him and tell him to get the hell over here and cut my grass.”

  Without waiting for an answer Ty slammed the door behind him and Madelyn stood staring at it. He really was keeping her home because he couldn’t handle their attraction.

  She stopped her thoughts. It didn’t matter why he gave her orders that kept her out of the office. She had work to do beyond being Sabrina’s nanny and she intended to do it.

  “Sorry,” she said, her voice low even though she knew he was in the SUV by now and couldn’t hear anything she said. “But I have to come to the office today. If I don’t get my PR strategies up and running, the employees won’t be ready when the Wall Street Journal reporter gets here. Don’t worry though. My mother will do the shopping. And my dad will call your gardener. I’ll see you at the office.”

  There. If he had been playing high-handed boss, she had just balanced the scales. If he wasn’t being highhanded, but genuinely wanted Sabrina to have everything she needed, then Madelyn had simply taken care of his tasks differently than how he’d suggested. She might have agreed to be Sabrina’s nanny, but she also had work to do. And she wasn’t going to let his fear of their chemistry prevent her from doing it.

  An hour later, with her parents assigned their respective chores and Sabrina tucked in the back seat of Madelyn’s car, Ty’s temporary nanny drove to work. But when she pulled into a parking space, her bravado from the kitchen began to fail her. As Sabrina cooed behind her, Madelyn stared at the huge brown brick Bryant Building, a symbol of how powerful Ty was, took a long breath and gave herself a minute to muster her courage.

  But all she could think of were reasons she should not enter that building. The most relevant was that she and Ty had gotten into the fight that sent their sexual chemistry off the charts because he had been angry about the way she had manipulated him. Though she wasn’t precisely manipulating him this morning, she wasn’t following his orders. When she showed up in her office with Sabrina, Ty would probably hit the roof. That wouldn’t be good for the new image she was working to create for him.

  Madelyn took a cleansing breath, reminding herself that Ty hadn’t said she couldn’t come into the office or that she couldn’t bring Sabrina. He had said to take inventory and call the gardener. And both of those errands were being done. So, technically, she wasn’t disobeying him and if he saw her and he looked like he was about to explode, she would explain that to him. Everything would be okay.

  She took another deep breath and grabbed the handle of her car door. “Come on, Sabrina.”

  She entered the lobby, carrying Sabrina on one arm and the jumbo diaper bag on the other.

  “Hello, Madelyn! Hello, Miss Sabrina!” Ginny greeted them.

  “Good morning, Ginny,” Madelyn said, then turned to the baby. “Say hello, Sabrina.”

  Sabrina screeched. Madelyn kissed her cheek. “Isn’t she precious?”

  Ginny sighed. “Absolutely.”

  “She just melts Ty’s heart,” Madelyn said, keeping up the impression that Ty was a normal person by subtly slipping tidbits of his life with Sabrina into everyday conversation.

  Ginny snorted a laugh. “Maybe. But having a baby hasn’t improved his disposition at work. He came in this morning looking like a bear with a thorn in his paw.”

  Madelyn reveled in perverse satisfaction that he wasn’t any happier than she was until she remembered she could very well be on the wrong side of his dark mood in only a few minutes.

  “I think he’s a little out of sorts toda
y because he didn’t take any time this morning with Sabrina,” she told Ginny as she walked to the elevator. The rosy picture she painted of Ty with Sabrina wasn’t really a lie. Since she didn’t know—well, wasn’t absolutely positive of the reason for Ty’s bad humor—it wasn’t such a farfetched guess that his mood stemmed from missing that morning’s interaction with the baby. Not only was he getting better at caring for Sabrina, but he had made a commitment to be a better parent. If there was one thing she knew about Ty he kept his commitments.

  “See you at lunch,” Madelyn said as the elevator bell rang and the door opened. She entered and pressed the button for her floor. After the short ride, she took another fortifying breath, stepped into the corridor and walked down the path made by two rows of cubicles on her way to her office.

  As she passed each individual workstation, the occupant rose, peered over the five-foot divider and cooed at the baby. Sabrina ate it up. Laughing, singing, cooing back. Madelyn squared her shoulders and stood taller. Whether Ty knew it or not, the baby was doing a bang-up job of getting his employees to see him as being more human, and that opened the door for Madelyn to talk about his good points—even if she did stretch the truth a bit. If he dared argue with her about coming to work, she might just sock him.

  By the time Madelyn reached her office, the energy and courage she’d failed to muster in the car flowed abundantly through her veins.

  “Can I come in?”

  Madelyn set Sabrina in the play yard that she’d set up by her desk the first day she brought Sabrina to work, and turned to see Seth standing in her doorway. Dressed in a pair of khaki trousers with a dark brown jacket that brought out the yellow in his sandy hair, Seth was Ty’s polar opposite. Not that he wasn’t good-looking. He was every bit as attractive as his older brother, but in a boy-next-door kind of way. Ty was handsome in a sexy, deliciously masculine kind of way….

  Taking a quick breath, Madelyn reprimanded herself for thinking those thoughts about a man who was all wrong for her, and smiled at Seth.

  “Of course, you can come in! What can I do for you?”

  He closed the door. “I heard you walking down the hall with the baby and wanted to have a minute with her.”

  “That’s a great idea!” Madelyn said, pulling Sabrina out of the play yard so she could hand the little girl to Seth.

  But Seth waved his hands in refusal and stepped back. “I’m not sure what to do.”

  Madelyn nudged the baby toward him again. “Just take her.”

  He hesitated. “Okay,” he said, then awkwardly wrapped his hands around Sabrina’s waist. He laughed. “She’s so…smooshy.”

  “That’s her diaper. It makes her feel very soft and pliable.”

  “Hey, Sabrina,” Seth said, nuzzling his nose under her chin.

  Sabrina stared at him, then hooked her fingers around a lock of his pale hair, yanking on it.

  “Ouch,” Seth singsonged, not in any real pain.

  Madelyn beamed. “See how you did that? That’s the perfect reaction.”

  Seth glanced at Madelyn. “It is?”

  “Sure, you let Sabrina know that what she was doing wasn’t right, but you weren’t mean about it. You sort of made it a game.”

  Seth virtually glowed from the praise. “Really?”

  “You’re a natural.”

  Sabrina playfully patted Seth’s cheek. “Thanks. I know what it’s like not to have parents. This kid is going to feel alone and different. So, I intend to play a part in her life.”

  “That’s very sweet,” Madelyn said, wondering how someone Ty raised could be so thoughtful, and also remembering that Ty and Seth had another brother. One who had run away. One who might not be as sweet as Seth, but who could actually be more like Ty. And one whose story might poke a big ugly hole in Madelyn’s carefully orchestrated PR plan.

  Since Ty wasn’t forthcoming with information, she strolled behind her desk, flipped the calendar page to the appropriate day and, as if it were of little consequence, casually said, “I imagine it was very difficult being orphaned. Especially when raised through most of your teen years by such a high-profile older brother.”

  Seth peered around Sabrina at Madelyn. “Ty wasn’t always a big shot.”

  “That’s right. The first five years that you guys were on your own he nearly went bankrupt every year.”

  “It wasn’t because he didn’t try.”

  “Oh, believe me, I’m sure he tried.”

  “He was great.” Seth smiled at the memory. “Tough as nails and so freaking determined to succeed that he didn’t let anybody stand in his way.”

  Madelyn banished the image of a young, sexy Ty taking on the world by forcing herself to focus on the conversation with Seth. Though she had to admit that remembering how he’d struggled as a young man, particularly since he was also supporting two brothers at the time, did tweak her conscience, making her feel she should consider how hard his life had been before she criticized him for taking the easy way out in dealing with their attraction. “That’s interesting.”

  “Yeah, and it’s old news to you. You have access to every file in the building so I know you know all this. What are you fishing for?”

  Madelyn winced and decided to come clean. “Seth, I need to know what I’m going to be facing if the reporter uncovers information about Cooper leaving town. Ty won’t talk about it, so I’m guessing it’s not something good. If you believe the reason Cooper left needs to remain a secret, or if you know Ty wants it to remain a secret, just explain enough of it to me that I can create an answer that spins the situation into something acceptable if the reporter asks about it.”

  Sabrina grabbed Seth’s ear as he said, “The real bottom line was that Ty never believed Cooper respected him. But in the end it was Ty who didn’t respect Cooper. And that’s why Cooper left. He didn’t want to work for someone who didn’t respect him. Brother or not.”

  Well, that didn’t sound too bad. Still, she had to be sure. “So there was no fight? Nothing I have to spin?”

  “Oh, there was a fight. A big fight. But no one saw it or heard about it except me and that was only because I was upstairs. Ty certainly never talked about it in public and Cooper left before he could.”

  Madelyn tapped her fingers on her desk blotter. Seth’s answer explained Ty’s comment that Cooper left town so he wouldn’t bad-mouth his older brother. “So if the reporter asks about Cooper, what would you say to make his leaving seem reasonable?”

  Seth drew a quick breath. “I would say he got his degree and two years experience and left to find a job in another town. Because that was how the timing went.”

  “What if the reporter knows you guys haven’t had contact in almost a decade?”

  Seth shrugged. “We’re all very busy, Madelyn.”

  Madelyn nodded. “Okay, I can take that and craft an acceptable statement for Ty.”

  “I don’t think you have to,” Seth said as he passed the baby back to Madelyn. “Ty’s been spinning this story for years. If the topic comes up, he’ll handle it beautifully.”

  She took the little girl and kissed her cheek. “So, you think I should trust him?”

  “Yes.”

  When Madelyn looked up, Seth was smiling at her.

  “You’re very good with her.”

  “Thanks. I’ve had plenty of practice with babies because I have eight nieces and nephews.”

  Seth laughed. “Eight nieces and nephews! Wow,” he said, but his smile faded. “You know, after all this talk about Cooper I just realized he’s been gone so long, he could be married. I could have a niece or nephew.”

  “Or several,” Madelyn agreed.

  Seth toyed with the stapler on her desk. “I tried to find him, you know.”

  “Cooper?” Madelyn glanced over at him. “Really? Did Ty know?”

  Seth shrugged. “I doubt it. I had a private investigator looking. I wasn’t doing the legwork myself, and the P.I. only poked around for a few weeks before I
told him to stop. But he hadn’t gotten anywhere anyway, so I’m not sure we’d ever actually find Cooper, even if we looked for years.”

  “Why did you tell your P.I. to stop?”

  Seth swallowed, then turned away, and Madelyn’s breath caught. All this time she was worried about Cooper being the loose cannon when the real problem might be right under her nose. With Seth behaving so oddly she had to wonder if he didn’t have a secret, too. “No reason to keep looking.”

  “Seth, is there something you want to tell me?”

  “No.”

  “Really? Because it seems like something is wrong.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine.”

  Seth laughed. “Madelyn, there’s nothing about my past that’s going to pop up and hurt my brother. Trust me. Anything I did that might potentially be embarrassing—and that’s all it would be is embarrassing—has been so tidily buried by real pros that you don’t need to worry about it.”

  After he was gone, Madelyn sat Sabrina in the play yard, then stared at her closed office door with her arms crossed over her chest. She had been at Bryant Development long enough, and had spent enough time interacting with Seth that if there had been a real problem Seth would have told her. She cringed for a minute over his statement that his situation had been “buried by real pros” but kept coming back to his assertion that his past was only “embarrassing” and she could handle embarrassing.

  Unfortunately, talking with Seth hadn’t sufficiently eased her mind about Cooper, and she decided she was done mollycoddling Ty. Seth’s problem might only be embarrassing, but it caused him to be moody and emotional, and Madelyn couldn’t risk him leaking something about the story of Ty’s fight with Cooper that could potentially come back to haunt them. So, tonight, whether Ty liked it or not, he was telling her the entire story.