The Boss, the Baby and Me

Since he’d put on cutoff jeans, to leave his damaged leg bare for the cast, she’d wisely been avoiding looking at his beautifully sculpted good leg, which was covered with a sleek pelt of reddish-brown hair. But while she wasn’t paying attention, somehow his shirt had been removed, as well, and now he was displaying a set of sexy muscles and a washboard stomach, all wrapped up in the most deliciously smooth and bronzed skin she’d ever seen.

The man was a damn Greek god! Gazing at him made her feel dangerously warm and fuzzy inside.

Realizing with a start that she’d been staring at his powerfully built chest too long, she glanced up into his bright green eyes and saw that he’d been watching her all along. Turning ten shades of red, she spun on her heel and pretended a sudden fascination with the collection of old first editions in his bookcase.

Matt and Kurt went on talking, but she didn’t hear a word they were saying. Her head was buzzing with a strange vibration, and all she could think of was that his gaze had been so full of awareness of her, it was downright scary. Awareness not only of what she was feeling, but of just what she might be thinking, as well.

Had he understood just how drawn to him she was physically? Had he known she’d ached for him to kiss her in the elevator? It was all so humiliating!

She tried some even breathing, determined to get this silly blushing under control, and to avoid meeting Kurt’s eyes again. And then she took a chance and escaped into the rest of the house, taking a deep breath as she did so. The cool air in the living room was a welcome relief.

She looked around the room. It was nicely furnished in a simple style, but there were toys everywhere. She winced, looking away. Funny. It had been almost ten years, but looking at baby things still brought on a wave of nausea every time. She knew it was silly and self-destructive to let that reaction rule her life, but she hadn’t found a way to fight it yet. Losing a baby was hard, even if that baby hadn’t been born yet at the time.

She turned toward the bookcase, refocusing her attention with a soft sigh. She couldn’t help but wonder why Kurt didn’t live in the old Victorian mansion up on the hill, where the other McLaughlins congregated. If he’d really come back to get help with his daughter, you would think he would have stayed there. It was supposed to be a wonderful house.

She’d never been inside the place herself, never been invited to the parties the other girls in town had attended on Sunday afternoons. In those days, Allmans weren’t welcome at anything put on by a McLaughlin.

“Hey, Jodie.” David came around the corner.

She jumped, startled out of her reverie. “What is it?”

“Matt’s finished.”

“Oh. Good.”

“But Kurt wants to talk to you alone for a few minutes before we go.”

“Alone?” Her hand went instinctively to her throat. “Why? What does he want to talk to me about?”

David gave her a quizzical look. “I don’t know. Work, I guess.” He shrugged and turned back toward the door. “Anyway, we’ll be waiting in the car.”

She swallowed hard. “Okay.”

She made her way back into the bedroom, cringing when she saw Kurt again, looking so helpless on the bed. “Oh, gosh, I’m really…”

“Don’t say it,” he ordered shortly. “I know you wish it hadn’t happened. So do I. But it’s done now. So forget about it.”

Her eyebrows rose as she noted a change in his tone. He’d put on more clothes and abandoned the easygoing attitude. What had happened to the friendly guy who’d traded jokes with her brothers just a few moments before? But the man had just broken his patella. He had to be tired, and probably the pain was coming back. She really ought to cut him a little slack.

“What we have to do now is figure out how to deal with the aftermath,” he was saying.

“The aftermath?” What was there to figure out? He had an injury. Obviously, that was going to put him at a disadvantage for awhile. It might put a crimp in his plans, but it also meant she would be able to keep tabs on him more easily, when you came right down to it.

He was nodding. “Matt says I can’t go back in to work for at least two weeks.”

“Oh. That’s too bad.” She had visions of working without him around to distract her. Her spirits brightened. Maybe things were looking up after all.

“But I’m in the middle of a couple of projects that can’t wait. So I’m going to have to work at home.”

“At home?” she echoed, emotions switching as she began to get a very bad feeling about what was coming next.

“Yes. I’ve got a computer and a fax machine right here. I won’t be able to move around a lot, though. And that’s where you will come in.”

“I will?”

“Sure. You can come work with me here. I’ll probably get twice as much done that way. It will all be for the best.”

“Oh, but…”

“I’ve been thinking it over. You can go in to work at your regular time, clear up anything you have to do there, then bring me anything I need to deal with and work here until lunchtime. You won’t have any problem with that, will you?”

What could she say? This was her fault and she had to help him any way she could. Jodie felt her head begin to ache and she bit her lip. She foresaw long mornings working with Kurt, the two of them alone, their heads together over some sticky problem, intimacy growing…. No! Impossible!

“You know,” she said quickly, “I think it would be better if I got Paula to come over here instead.” Oh, good thinking. Paula was the typist/file clerk they used. “I’m in the middle of a few things, too, you know. I’ll just stay at the office to make sure everything is covered, and Paula can run back and forth, kind of a liaison between us and…”

“That won’t work.”

She blinked. “Why not?”

“Because I want you here.”

Exactly what she was afraid of.

His gaze was dark and fathomless, and his jaw was set. He was all boss right now. He was giving orders. The problem was, she wasn’t all that good at taking orders.

She stared right back at him. “Why me?” she asked.

He frowned. “Are you, or are you not, my assistant?”

“That’s temporary.”

“As far as work goes, let’s live in the moment. Answer the question.”

She wanted to say something sassy and insubordinate but she realized it was going to seem very childish if she did that. But she was having a very hard time bending to his will too easily.

Their gazes locked and held. Jodie felt a surge of anger, but she managed to keep it reined in for the moment. Still, he could tell she was unhappy. To her surprise, that brought the amusement back into his expression.

“Do all your apologies mean nothing?” he asked her softly.

The nerve!

“And I guess you casting aside all my apologies means even less?”

He laughed softly. “Jodie, calm down. This is the way I want it. You’re going to have to comply.”

“Or what? You’ll fire me?”

“Fire you from your father’s company? Never.” His grin was lopsided in a particularly infuriating way. “I could, however, begin giving the better assignments to Paula in order to leave you time for document-copying and coffee-brewing duties.”

She turned away from him, furious, and tempted to head for the door. His tone said it all. Look at this, Jodie. You laid me low, but I’m still in control. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of saying she would do as he wished, though she knew she was probably going to have to. But at the same time, a small part of her glowed with satisfaction. She only wished her brothers had been there to see Kurt get autocratic with her.

You see? He is underhanded. He is out to sabotage us in some way. You just wait! I’m not wrong about that.

Come to think of it, maybe it was just as well that she would be hanging around wherever Kurt was working. After all, she was the only one who was clued in to what he was up to. Someone had to keep an eye on him.

She turned back and looked at him. “All right,” she said grudgingly. “I’ll be here.”

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