Baby Before Business (Silhouette Romance) (9 page)

He dropped his head to his hands and wearily ran his palms down his face. “Oh, lord.”

“Why won’t you let me leak a little bit of this to your employees?”

“Leak what? That I raised my brothers? They know that.”

“They also know that you took in Sabrina when there was no one else to raise her. But there’s more to you than family responsibility. You have a huge sense of responsibility to this town. Such a sense of responsibility that you’re willing to sacrifice your own personal life to make sure your company runs smoothly.”

He stared at her incredulously. She honestly believed this crap she was telling him.

She drew another huge breath. “You might be gruff, Ty, but deep down you’re a nice guy.”

“Not even on a good day!” Angry now, he walked around the side of his desk and stood directly in front of her. “I told you in our first meeting that I had worked fifteen years to get this reputation and if you start spreading this manure you’re going to screw it up.”

“See! You just proved my argument. You
use
this
reputation! But I think you’ve taken the grouch thing too far. Or maybe it’s gone on too long. You don’t have to be mean anymore to get your employees to work hard.”

“Oh, really, Miss Smarty Pants. And how many companies do you successfully run?”

“You know what I’m saying.”

He stepped closer. She didn’t as much as move a muscle. If he was out to intimidate her, it was clear that she was every bit as determined to prove he couldn’t. And that could very well be true. She might be the only person on the face of the earth who didn’t fear him.

Suddenly he knew that was the problem but he also knew the solution.

He ran his fingers along her cheek, gently, tentatively, ignoring the tornado of arousal that spun through him when he realized how soft her skin was and when he saw the way her eyes darkened from a simple touch. Just as she considered it her mission to get his employees to speak kindly of him, he had an equally important mission to keep their respect. If the only way to keep her in line was to…

He bent his head and kissed her. The arousal that had begun with touching her cheek turned into a full-scale attack on his senses. The scent of her perfume combined with the taste of her mouth and the feeling of her lips pressed against his. The sensations of all three flooded through him, sending all his blood to one part of his body. His response was quick and instinctive. He fanned his fingers through her hair and plunged his tongue into her mouth, forgetting this kiss had a purpose. She was soft and warm and sweet and tempting. So tempting. Why did she have to be so tempting?

When he pulled away, she blinked up at him. Her green eyes were cloudy with desire. Her lips were moist and dewy from his kiss. He knew exactly what she was feeling because he was feeling it, too. But it was wrong. She was young. He was old. She thought the world was good. He knew it wasn’t.

Though he was internally shaking with need, outwardly he remained calm. “If you really think I’m nice…If you really think I’m totally different personally than I am professionally…have sex with me tonight and see how I treat you in the morning.”

With arousal still wreaking havoc on his nervous system and need pounding in his veins, Ty half prayed she would accept his invitation, if only to call his bluff, so he could feel the thrill of her acknowledging she wanted him, too.

Fortunately, he used the other half of his prayer to hope that if she called his bluff, he’d have the strength to refuse her.

Clearly debating, she stared at him. Ty felt his resolve weakening, as his mind formed images of what would happen if she agreed to go to his bed. With their chemistry, they would spontaneously combust and she knew it. It would be the best sex of both of their lives. And she knew that, too. What she was debating really was how he would treat her in the morning.

That
she didn’t know. So, that was what he had to use.

“Come on. You threw out the theory that I’m nice. Prove you really think that. Sleep with me tonight.”

She took a pace back and Ty knew he had his answer. He felt a sharp jab of insult from the rejection, but reminding
himself that he needed her to reject him, he ignored it and shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.” Turning to walk back to his desk, he said, “Good night, Ms. Gentry.”

T
he next morning Madelyn arrived at Bryant Development late for Ty’s regularly scheduled meeting with his department heads. When she got off the elevator, she said good morning to Joni, then took a quick breath, straightened her shoulders and walked into the conference room.

“Ms. Gentry, I see you’ve decided to join us. Even though you’re—” he glanced at his watch “—thirty minutes late.”

Head high and spine ramrod straight, Madelyn took a seat at the far end of the long table. “I dropped Sabrina off at my parents’ this morning.”

“Really? What a novel idea to have a third party watch the baby rather than bring her to work.”

Madelyn opened her notebook, glad he was behaving like a moron. She’d actually mourned her decision not to sleep with him the night before. Not because she
wanted to prove she thought he was a good person, but because the fire burning through her veins every time they touched was unlike anything she’d ever felt.

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 the 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.”