Corporate Daddy (6 page)

They had reached the bottom of the stairs, and Logan took her hand in his. “This is exactly what I mean, though. I wouldn’t know if the nanny was going about it right or not
if you weren’t here to tell me.” To her heart-thumping chagrin, he lifted her hand to his lips, brushing a kiss across her fingers between the knuckles. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough,” he added in a hair-raisingly silky voice.

“D-don’t be silly,” she stuttered. “A-anyone w-with a little experience could—”

“But
you
are here,” he interrupted, lifting his free hand to stroke her hair.

Emily swallowed, her heart beating a mile a minute. He
was
flirting with her! She should have known that Logan Fortune would not let a convenient flirtation pass him by. She put on a smile, saying, “It’s late. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Oh, right.” He dropped her hand, and she turned toward the bedroom. He fell in beside her. She quickened her pace a bit, but he was still at her elbow when she reached the door. Eyes widening, she turned and lifted a hand to his chest. For a moment he seemed puzzled, but then he chuckled. “Good grief, I forgot I wasn’t sleeping in my own bed.”

Emily relaxed. Of course, he forgot. Why shouldn’t he? It was his bedroom, after all. Perfectly natural. So why was her heart beating so hard it was choking her? “Everything will settle down soon,” she told him, appalled at her breathlessness.

A slow, lazy grin spread across his face. His gaze lowered pointedly to her mouth. He lifted an arm and braced a hand against the door frame, leaning close. “We could always share,” he said huskily. “It would save me the effort of going all the way back up those stairs, effort that could be better used in more enjoyable ways.”

Stunned, Emily stared up at him, completely at a loss for words. Before she recovered herself, he bent his head and covered her mouth with his. All the breath left Emily’s lungs. He sucked it up greedily, widening his lips to fit them more perfectly to hers. The room spun, up and then down again. Her arms floated away from her sides, her hands looking for an anchor and finding it in his upper arms. She
clamped her fingers tightly to his bunched muscles, reassured somehow by the hardness beneath the smooth, warm skin.

He dropped his arms around her, his hands rubbing up and down her back as he pressed her against him. Emily was shocked, first by the thinness of pajamas that had seemed perfectly acceptable only moments earlier, then by the weightiness of her own breasts as they encountered his chest and, finally, by the hard ridge that pressed against her quivering belly.

He really was trying to seduce her—and succeeding unless she took control this very instant. Almost reflexively, she did just that, simultaneously pushing away and telling herself that it was the situation more than herself spurring his actions.

“Emily,” he protested softly, and the heat in those blue eyes nearly melted her where she stood.

She slipped through the doorway, one hand seeking the edge of the door itself as her brain searched frantically for some word, some quip to put an end to the insanity. Her wits, thankfully, were in better working order than she suspected, the words slipping out almost before she thought them.

“It isn’t
that
far to the other bedroom.”

With that, she stepped back and shut the door in his face, collapsing against it as her knees threatened to buckle. She heard him chuckle on the other side, and after a while, he said a silky good-night and seemed to go on his way. She knew he’d sensed her waiting there, but she couldn’t think about that now. It was enough to have escaped the desire that had threatened to swamp her good sense and was even now turning her legs to water.

She stumbled over to the bed and dropped down onto it. Long minutes passed before her heart rate slowed and she began to wonder how she was going to face him in the morning. She felt alive with his touch, awash with his kiss, and some part of her marveled that such a man as Logan
Fortune might actually want her, Emily Applegate. It seemed that hours passed before she could stop reliving the moment and surrender to desperate sleep.

Logan strolled into the kitchen the next morning as if that kiss the night before had never happened.

“Good morning!” he sang, all smiles.

Amanda Sue sat in the crook of his arm, her shining, auburn hair sticking out at odd angles. “Num, num, num,” she said, “hunky,” pointing toward the refrigerator.

Logan chuckled and smoothed her hair with his hand. “I think that means she’s hungry.”

“Egg,” she said clearly, nodding.

Logan laughed indulgently. “If I’m not mistaken, she’s just ordered the breakfast special.”

“I think I can manage an egg and toast,” Emily said, keeping her gaze carefully averted. She felt oddly stung by his sunny composure, which was absurd, of course.

Amanda Sue nodded, happily amending her order, “Tose un grink. Grink!”

Emily shook her head. “What’s a grink, darling?”

“Grink! Grink!” She stuck out her tongue as if to show Emily that she had a bad taste in her mouth, and everything clicked. Emily took her into her own arms and moved toward the sink.

“She wants a drink.” Opening a cabinet, she took down a plastic cup, filled it from the tap and lifted it to Amanda Sue’s mouth. For once, the child did not fight her for possession. Instead, she gulped and gulped and gulped.

“She communicates really well, doesn’t she?” Logan asked proudly.

“She certainly does.” Emily smiled as she dried Amanda Sue’s mouth and carried her to the high chair. He stood there a moment longer, beaming like an idiot, until Emily indicated the coffeepot on the counter. “I made some coffee.”

“Oh! Excellent!” Hurrying to the cabinet, he took down a mug and filled it. “If, um, you two are all right here, I’ll
just take this with me and slug some of it back before I climb into the shower.”

“No problem,” Emily said evenly. “I’ll get Amanda Sue’s breakfast.”

“Great.” He sipped his coffee and looked up. If anything, his smile brightened. “Good coffee. Thanks.”

Something struck her as odd about the way he kept smiling, but she put it aside as he hurried from the room, concentrating instead on getting Amanda Sue into her high chair. It was then that she noticed Amanda Sue’s diaper had come loose and was bunched up in one leg of her sleeper. She couldn’t help laughing. Poor Logan. He wasn’t quite the model father—yet.

Despite vociferous protest, Emily managed to fix Amanda Sue’s diaper, then gave the child a sipper cup of juice and some dry cereal to eat with her fingers while Emily prepared her breakfast. It was a busy enterprise, constantly righting the cup with one hand and scrambling the egg with the other and somehow catching the toast as the stainless steel monstrosity on the counter literally launched it.

Yet, during it all, Emily found her mind wandering to last night’s kiss and this morning’s seeming indifference. Had it really affected him so little? Perhaps she ought to be glad about that, but somehow she couldn’t be. She was, in fact, a little disappointed. Apparently she wasn’t even worth pursuing when doing so wasn’t imminently convenient. Maybe he really had attempted that lackadaisical seduction just to keep from walking back upstairs! The idea was extremely lowering, and as determinedly as she tried to tell herself that it didn’t—shouldn’t—matter, somehow it did. It very much did.

“No wub!”

“I have to rub your face, Amanda Sue,” Emily’s voice explained patiently. “Otherwise, it will stay dirty.”

Amanda Sue
h-h-hubbed
a phony sob, but Logan could tell that she was getting her face cleaned, the little faker. No
doubt about it, the kid had a strong streak of theatricality, but it still tore him to see or hear her crying. He wondered if he’d ever be strong enough to really stand up to her the way Emily did. Emily, as it turned out, was far stronger than he’d ever realized, strong enough to close the door in his face after curling his toes with that kiss last night.

He was still smarting from her easy rejection, but he’d be hanged if he’d let her know it. That kind of thing had never bothered him before, and he wasn’t going to let it do so now. Like every other man in the world, he occasionally struck out, but it had never before bothered him. Why should it? The world was full of women. If one was unwilling, another would not be. He’d even learned to laugh about it, but with Emily that had been more mechanical than actual. It was different with her somehow. It smarted more. Maybe that was because she’d been right there under his nose all this time and he hadn’t even realized what he had within his grasp. And maybe it was just the situation, finding himself so completely out of his depth for the first time. He couldn’t deny that she was the only thing keeping his head above water just now. All he really knew, though, was that having that door closed in his face still hurt somehow, and he didn’t like the feeling. He didn’t like it at all.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, he put on a smile and stepped into the kitchen. Emily had Amanda Sue sitting on the counter next to the sink and was scrubbing her down with a washcloth. As usual, Amanda Sue had smeared at least as much of her breakfast on the outside as she’d managed to get on the inside. Having cleaned her face and between her chubby fingers, Emily then rinsed the cloth and scrubbed Amanda Sue’s head with it, despite the child’s attempts to fight her off. Once Emily was finished, however, Amanda Sue grinned and went happily into Emily’s arms.

Logan chuckled. “She beats everything going, doesn’t she? Fight you one minute, hug you the next.”

Emily turned, Amanda Sue perched on her hip. Her eyes never met his, as if he was entirely extraneous to the
situation. “She’s a strong, charming personality, all right,” she agreed, tapping the child’s chin. “There’s no doubt she means to have her way, but she’s loving, too.”

“And bright,” Logan said, holding out his hands.

“As a new copper penny,” Emily confirmed, moving closer as Amanda Sue reached for him. “Think you can manage her for a bit while I get dressed?” Again, she didn’t bother to look at him, and so he didn’t bother to answer her directly.

“Not this time, young lady,” Logan admonished his daughter as she lifted the pointed end of his tie toward her mouth. “Ties are for wearing, not eating. Besides, you’ve had your breakfast.” He flipped the tie back over his shoulder as he nodded in Emily’s direction. “We’ll manage. In fact, after I have a bite of something, I’ll see if I can get her dressed.”

“In that case I’ll lay out something before I get in the shower.”

“Great.”

She moved toward the door, and he couldn’t help following with his eyes. Her long, slender legs moved gracefully, pulling taut the seat of her short, tailored pajamas. She looked adorable with that long, shiny hair swaying against the tips of her shoulder blades.

“I like your hair down,” he heard himself saying.

She stopped in the doorway and turned slightly, giving him her profile. “Thanks.”

He desperately wanted to hold her there, though he couldn’t really imagine why. “I, um, didn’t know it was so long.”

“Well, I usually wear it up,” she said.

“You should wear it down more often,” he told her softly, pushing away Amanda Sue’s hand as she reached for the tie folded over his shoulder. Amanda Sue stuck her fingers in her mouth and studied him solemnly.

Emily turned to fully face him, her golden-brown gaze
implacable. “I don’t consider it a suitable style for the office.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“That’s beside the point,” she retorted smartly. “
I
don’t consider it appropriate.”

Logan winced inwardly. She couldn’t have told him more plainly that his opinion and preferences counted for less than nothing with her. Amanda Sue made another grab for his tie just then, and Logan gave his full attention to discouraging her, aware that Emily slipped from the room as he did so. He let her go. She wasn’t getting away, not really, not that easily. She was keeping him at arm’s length, nothing more, and not for long if he had anything to say about it. He wasn’t certain why, but he couldn’t let her get away with that.

All right, he had made the moves last night, but she had kissed him back. For one scorching moment she had kissed him back with the same fervor as a drowning woman clutching a life preserver. Maybe it meant nothing—and maybe it meant that she was not so cool toward him as she pretended. If the slightest chance existed that even an ember of that passion he’d tasted so briefly the night before still burned, he’d fan it to flame. One way or another, he’d make Emily Applegate burn for him. Hell, he’d burn the house down around them before he was through.

Like a little ape, Amanda Sue tried to climb over him to get to his tie. Laughing, he pulled her off his head and cradled her against his chest, making a seat of his arms. “No, you don’t. Not this time. I can’t have you behaving like a little savage in front of our nanny applicants again today.” Or could he? Was he really certain that he wanted to hire a nanny right away?

Emily might be indifferent toward him, but she adored his daughter, and she was good for Amanda Sue. She was good for both of them. And the longer he could keep her here in his house, the more likely she was to come around to his way of thinking. He suddenly knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t be meeting any acceptable nannies that day or for
some time to come. They already had the one they needed at hand.

Oh, yes, this could work out very well to his personal advantage. Emily could try to keep him at a distance, but as long as Amanda Sue held a piece of her heart, she wouldn’t succeed. In fact, he vowed silently, he was going to get next to Emily Applegate if it was the very last thing he ever did. She could keep right on closing that door in his face, but sometime soon he’d find a way to open it again—and his daughter would have the care she needed in the meantime. Even Emily could benefit from this arrangement. She’d been in need of some loosening up for quite some time now, and he was an old hand at removing the inhibitions of beautiful women. Yes, indeed, this could work out very well for them all.