Free Baby Before Business (Silhouette Romance) by Susan Meier Page A

opportunity to be as successful as Seth and I are.”
    “That’s another thing. Seth is so darned withdrawn and cautious. One public show of support from you would probably turn him into Mr. Personality.”
    “He was Mr. Personality until he lost that contract I told you about on Saturday. I like him much better withdrawn and cautious. It doesn’t cost me any money.”
    He turned and headed for the door. “I’m going back to the Bryant Building.”
    “Fine, but you should know that your constant running out on me, avoiding looking for a nanny, makes you look like even more of a scrooge.”
    He backpedaled until he was directly in front of her.“Why do you think I’m going back to the office? So I can make some private calls. Some calls that won’t be overheard, dissected, interpreted and spit back at me like ammunition. If nothing else, Ms. Gentry, you’ve shown me a few traits I definitely do not want in the next care-giver I allow in my home.”

Chapter Five
    T y raced along the streets of Porter, so angry that he finally understood what the term spitting fire meant. He’d intended to lay down the law with Madelyn about her bringing the baby to the office, about pushing her agendas, about meddling in his business and instead she’d blindsided him. She had not only brought her parents into his home—again—without his knowledge, she’d also turned the tables until he was defending himself to her, not putting her on the defensive.
    Unfortunately, he knew he wasn’t at his best because his attraction to her distracted him. Worse, the attraction was the only thing he was just about certain she wasn’t using, manipulating or twisting to get him to appear to be something he wasn’t— nice —or to do things he didn’t want to do—like hold Sabrina in the middle of a meeting. So he couldn’t even order her to stop. Hell, he’d tried getting her to stop giving him those lovesickpuppy looks on Friday night. By kissing her, he’d forced her to see, feel and taste exactly what she was getting into so she would know…
    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