Baby Before Business. SUSAN MEIER

and purposes, she had a deal. But she couldn’t force her mouth to form the words of acceptance. She’d seen his real temperament and demeanor when he fired her. She also remembered all the complaints his employees had made about him. There was a lot of damage to be repaired here. Though confident in her own abilities, she recognized that unless she could figure out a very solid way to get Ty Bryant to look, sound and behave like a totally different guy before the Wall Street Journal reporter arrived, she was going to fail. Because, the truth was, he could do every darned thing she said and still come across as an ogre.

      Or, more realistically, Madelyn thought, he would come across as a powerful, distanced executive so wealthy and clueless about the real world he was heartless.

      And if an employee got that opinion into the Wall Street Journal article, it would be all over.

      The bottle slipped out of Sabrina’s mouth, a sign that she was asleep and Ty set it on the desk, passing within a millimeter of Madelyn’s shoulder as he did so.

      Madelyn suppressed a shiver, as the room grew unbearably hot. What the hell was happening to her?

      “Excuse me, Mr. Bryant?”

      At the sound of Neil Ringler’s voice, Madelyn and Ty looked at the mailroom employee, who was at Ty’s door.

      “What is it, Neil?” he asked quietly, obviously not wanting to awaken the sleeping baby.

      “I’m sorry, but Joni’s not here.” Neil very cautiously stepped in the room, virtually shaking in his shoes. “And you got this package from a special courier. I…I was just about to leave when it arrived. But I stayed…” He gulped. “You know, so you’d get it. But I can’t sign for it. I’m not on that level yet.”

      “Let Ms. Gentry sign for it.”

      Again, Ty’s voice was quiet and the previously shaking mailroom employee not only gave Ty a baffled look, he also relaxed a bit.

      “Here,” Neil said, handing the fat envelope to Madelyn along with the delivery log to be signed. As Madelyn put her signature on the appropriate line, Neil faced Ty. “Whose baby?” he whispered.

      Ty said, “Shhh!” indicating Neil should lower his voice even more, then very quietly added, “Mine. Sabrina was the daughter of my cousin who was killed. I got custody today and I don’t want her to wake up, so grab that log and leave.”

      Even though Ty’s command was straightforward, with his voice softened, it didn’t come across harshly, and Neil grinned.

      “Okay,” he stage-whispered, then snatched the clipboard and left the room.

      Madelyn stared at Ty.

      “Did you see what you just did?”

      Ty faced her. “Don’t lecture me on yelling at my employees.”

      “You didn’t yell. You…” She stopped her explanation because if she came right out and told Ty that the soft voice he used while holding the baby made his demand more palatable, he would tell her that was liberal elitist crap. But his quiet tone had changed the entire dynamic of his exchange with Neil.

      She took a quick breath as an idea began to form. She couldn’t have Ty hold a baby until all his employees saw what Neil saw. But as Ty cared for Sabrina over the next few weeks while he looked for a nanny, she probably could teach him to speak more softly. She might even be able to get him to laugh once or twice. Time alone with him and a baby had endless possibilities for inching him toward lightening up.

      And any changes Ty made wouldn’t be questioned. Neil would quickly spread the news that Ty had taken in his deceased cousin’s baby, and before long every employee in the building would ascribe kindness to their scrooge boss, which they hadn’t before. More than that, though, they would ultimately believe that the baby was responsible for any change in Ty’s behavior, not the upcoming article.

      It was perfect.

      “I’ll do it.”

      Ty glanced over and whispered, “What?”

      “I’ll help you with the baby on the condition that you really do every darned thing I say both with her and for your PR.”

      Ty smiled victoriously, but Madelyn sternly said, “I mean it. You have to really promise to do what I say. The first time you tell me no, I leave. And you’ll be alone with this baby.”

      “Deal,” Ty said, then extended his free hand to shake hers.

      Madelyn grasped it and a lightning bolt shot through her and warning bells went off in her head. She had just agreed to spend at least a week or more living with a guy she not only admitted to herself was gorgeous, but with whom she was having all kinds of weird physical reactions.

      She stopped that thought because it was ridiculous. The man was a mean-spirited dictator and she was a smart professional woman. Smart women didn’t get involved with grouchy self-absorbed men.

      “Deal,” she said, shaking once as she caught his gaze.

      Big mistake. When she met his sexy dark eyes, the zing of attraction exploded through her again. Desperate to distract herself, she glanced at the baby he held, but when she did, she realized what was happening and she almost laughed.

      All along she’d noticed Ty was gorgeous, but she hadn’t felt an attraction to him until he picked up the baby. The same thing that would ultimately make him attractive to his employees was making him attractive to her now: the baby.

      Reaching to pull Sabrina from his arms, she said, “Let me take her.”

      “No, I’m fine with her,” Ty argued.

      But Madelyn shook her head. “Until we both adjust to this situation, I’m holding the baby when we’re alone.”

      Chapter Two

      Madelyn carried Sabrina, and Ty lugged her car seat and diaper bags to his black SUV, which was parked beside the private entrance to the Bryant Building—the entrance that prevented him from having to go through the lobby and interact with a boatload of employees on his way to his office in the morning.

      After storing the diaper bags in the rear compartment, he tried to install the car seat. But when he couldn’t immediately get all the buckles and snaps aligned, he stepped out of the way, took the baby from Madelyn and let her connect it.

      He wasn’t going to be an idiot about this. Raising Sabrina might be a high priority, but doing menial tasks involved in her upbringing weren’t. That was why he had hired the woman beside him.

      With the seat installed and the baby contentedly cooing as she pounded on the padded seat guard in front of her, Ty drove Madelyn to her parents’ home to retrieve the clothes and accessories she would need for the weekend.

      He stole a peek at the woman he’d coerced into helping him. Her straight red hair glistened in the late-afternoon sun. Her smooth pink skin gave her the look of a fresh-faced, all-American girl. For the first time, something very important struck Ty. Madelyn was young. He’d already guessed her age at around twenty-five. At most she had three years of experience in her chosen field. Yet, he’d agreed to let her splash his name all through the papers and get him out in the community for a love fest with people who should already be kissing his behind for providing them with jobs. That side of the agreement wasn’t exactly a good deal for him.

      The other end of the bargain wasn’ t a total prize either. He might be getting care for Sabrina, but a stranger—no, an employee, someone who could take bits of his personal life into the office—would be living in his home.

      Man, he hadn’t really thought this through.

      They parked on the street in front of the huge Victorian-style house where Madelyn’s parents lived. White vinyl siding and modern green shutters had replaced the original exterior treatment of the dwelling that he suspected was built in the 1940s. But the actual shape of the structure hadn’t