Steven (3 page)

Bailey
sighed.  “I wish there had been more nice things to say about my sister.”  She cut off a piece of her steak.  “I miss her, though.”
  And she did.  Angela had been the only family she had left, and thinking of her being gone made Bailey want to start crying again then and there.

“Our company provides software for sports teams.  It basically predicts who will win sporting events and helps put the best teams together.”
  Cody’s voice was full of enthusiasm as he said it.  It was obvious he thought he had the most amazing product in the world.
  “We also have a line for the fantasy league players.”

“Oh.  Um…that sounds interesting.” 
Bailey
took a sip of her water.

Cody
laughed.  “She thinks our company is dull.”  He poked
Justin
.  “We’re billionaires, and she thinks we’re dull.”
  Cody sounded positively thrilled to know she wasn’t afraid to show her real emotions.

Bailey
flushed.  “I didn’t say that!”
  She’d thought it though.  Bailey rated sports right up there with a trip to the dentist.

Justin
grinned at her.  “No, you just thought it.  Poor
Steven
.  He has to live with a girl who thinks his software is dull.”
  He looked over at Steven and waited for a reaction.

Bailey
’s eyes widened at that.  “No, we’re not living together.  I’m just his nanny!”
  They didn’t think she’d be sleeping with him, did they?  How could they think that? 

Even
Steven
had to laugh at that.  “They’re just harassing you.  Don’t worry about them.”
  He enjoyed the blushes they were getting out of Bailey.  She was obviously as different from her sister as night and day.

Cody
winked at her again.  “If you ever get sick of living with this freak, the pillow beside mine will be waiting for you.”
 

She blushed.  “Umm.  I think I should go check on the baby.”  She jumped up from the table
amidst a chorus of laughter
and ran up the stairs, rushing into her room.  “I’m done eating.  I’ll take over here.” 

Connie
had been sitting on the bed.  “That sounds good.  I’ll be back in the morning.”
  She stood and stretched.  “Don’t even think about cleaning up the mess those boys made.  I’ll get to it in the morning.  You look like you need a good night’s sleep.”

“You don’t live here?”
  Why hadn’t she asked before?  She should have asked.  Oh, what was wrong with her today?

Connie
shook her head.  “Oh no.  I have an apartment in Grapevine.  I’m usually only here Monday through Friday.”
   She patted Bailey’s arm on her way out of the room.

Bailey
bit her lip.  She didn’t like the idea of living alone with a man.  She looked down at Faith and nodded to herself.  For Faith, she’d do anything.  The baby meant everything to her.

*****

He saw her carrying the baby down the steps in her car seat the following morning. 
“Is that your car in front of the house?” he asked
Bailey
.  She nodded.  “You’re not taking
Faith
anywhere in that thing
ever again
.
  In fact, with the shape it’s in, you’re never getting into it again either.
”
  The tone of his voice brooked no argument, but she had to try.

Why did he think he had the right to dictate what she did?  She wasn’t his child! 
“I need to go to the store to buy diapers and formula.  Are you going to babysit her while I do that?
  Or are you going to go buy formula and diapers?
”
  She knew he wasn’t willing to watch Faith.  Why was he so unwilling to be close to his daughter?

He backed up a step.  “I’m getting you a new car.  I’ll have it delivered tomorrow
.”
  He wasn’t going to watch the baby or buy diapers.  He’d call and have a personal shopper do it for him if he had to.
  The easiest answer was Connie, though.  She wouldn’t mind. 

“You can have cars delivered?” Her voice echoed the amazed look on her face.

He laughed.  “With enough money you can have just about anything done.”
  He loved how innocent she was about money.  Her sister had known exactly how to use it, and had expected him to buy her an expensive gift every time they went out.  She was a refreshing change.

“Well how will I feed her and diaper her today?”
  She only had two diapers left and enough formula for one more bottle.  They wouldn’t make it through the next three hours, let alone the next twenty-four.

He shrugged.  “
Connie
can go.  Make her a list.”
 
His tone of voice made it clear he was used to ordering others to do whatever he didn’t want to do.

“Faith has been riding in that car since the day she was born.  It’s never hurt her.”
  She had to make one more protest.  She couldn’t just let a man she’d met the day before buy her a car.  People didn’t really do that, did they?

“There’s always a first time.  I didn’t know about her before.  Now that I do, she’s not riding in that rattle-trap.”
  He didn’t say another word as he turned to go back into his office.

Bailey
turned and stalked to the kitchen to make a list for
Connie
.  “Your daddy is a pain in the butt, Faithy.”

“I heard that!”

“You were meant to!”

*****

Bailey
rubbed her eyes as she quietly closed the baby’s door. 
Faith had
woken up hungry at two in the morning
, and she’d been in feeding her
.  She wasn’t sure where
Steven
’s room was in this monstrosity of a house, but she didn’t want to disturb him.

She stumbled toward her room yawning widely.  She didn’t see
Steven
until she bumped into him.  “I’m sorry!”
  How could she be so tired she didn’t even sense him there?  He was the most attractive man she’d ever met, and she didn’t notice him in the hall?

He grabbed her shoulders to steady her.  His eyes traveled up and down her scantily clad body.  She was wearing a thin tank top and a pair of short
sleep
shorts.  One breast was wet and the nipple was hard as if begging for his attention.

He didn’t think about what he was doing, he just pulled her against him, molding her body to his.  His lips
crushed hers, his hands roaming along her back and down to her buttocks. 

Half asleep, she didn’t even think about resisting.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life, opening her mouth under his to welcome his tongue.  She felt her blood pounding in her veins.

One hand went unerringly to her nipple, stroking its hard peak through her tank where the baby had drooled on her. The baby.  She pressed against his chest to push him away, her breath coming in short quick pants.  What was she thinking?

He backed up a step, trying to force his mind to wrap around the situation.  What was he doing?  It was the middle of the night, and he was molesting his nanny in the hallway.   “What are you doing out here dressed like that?”  His voice was gruff with sleep and passion.

She sucked in another breath, staring at him with wide-eyes.  Why did she feel so much with him, when she’d felt nothing with
her former fiancé
, whom she’d loved?  Or had she?

“I’m sorry.  The baby woke up and I went to her.  I should have grabbed a robe.”
  She felt like an idiot.  Did he think she’d deliberately tried to entice him?   Of course, she couldn’t have expected him to be in the hall at this hour of the morning.

“Yes, you should have.  If you’re going to wander around in the middle of the night dressed like that, I’ll take you up on what you’re offering.”  He stormed off down the stairs to get the snack he’d gotten up for in the first place.  It was bad enough he’d spent half the night lying awake thinking about the sexy nanny down the hall.  He couldn’t believe she’d been running around half naked in the middle of the night.  He’d never be able to sleep again.
  What had made him think this was a good idea?

The following
evening
, h
e walked into the kitchen to find her holding the baby talking to her in a low voice.   “So tell me why you’re raising your sister’s baby instead of having your own?”
  She looked like a natural mother standing there with that baby in her arms.
  He’d never given a thought to having children, but suddenly the idea ap
p
e
a
led to him.

She shrugged.  “The right guy hasn’t come along I guess.”
  And it was none of his business anyway.  She was still annoyed with him for acting like a jerk in the middle of the night.  It wasn’t her fault he was up wandering around instead of sleeping like a normal human being.

He raised an eyebrow.  “So there’s no one serious in your life?”
 
He knew it really wasn’t his place to ask, but he found himself very interested in this sweet girl.  Her story, and whether she’d just up and take off leaving him with a kid
who
wasn’t his, interested him.  He’d had her investigated, of course, and knew most of it, but he wanted to hear it from her lips.

She sighed.  “There was, but now there’s not.”
  That should be enough to satisfy his nosiness. 

“When?”

“When what?”
  What was he talking about now?

“When was there someone in your life?”

“I was supposed to get married over the summer, but he ran off with my best friend instead.”
  She sighed.  Why had she just admitted that to him?  Now he’d give her the pitying looks she’d gotten every time she’d left her home in Hamlin.  She hated those looks.

“Sounds like a winner.”
  His nose wrinkled a little as he made his opinion of her former fiancé obvious.

She smiled.  “Yeah.  He was a real winner all right.  I knew I wasn’t very broken up about it, when I realized I was more upset about not getting to go to the beach for my honeymoon than I was about not getting married.”
 
She
shoved
the baby toward him.  “Here hold her for a second while I wash my hands.  I need to fix her a bottle.”

He took Faith automatically looking down at her.  He’d only held her the night she came to live with him.  Never since.  She looked up at him with her big blue eyes and made a happy sound in her throat.  He couldn’t help but smile.  “She looks fatter.”

Bailey
glanced at him over her shoulder.  “Her face is just filling out a little.  Babies need to have chubby cheeks anyway.
  They’re so much fun to pinch!
” She quickly mixed the formula and turned back to them.  He looked so adorable standing there staring down at Faith.  What was it about a man holding a baby that made her heart beat faster?

She set the bottle on the counter and took the baby from him, unable to avoid the way her body brushed up against his as she did.  She swallowed hard and looked at him through her eyelashes to see if it had affected him like it had her.  His expression was unreadable.

She efficiently popped the nipple into the baby’s mouth, leaning back against the counter to feed her. 
If he hadn’t been there, she’d have taken Faith up to her room to sit in the glider rocker he’d bought for them.  Faith’s room was now beautifully furnished with everything she could possibly need for the baby.  She had been awed by his generosity.  He hadn’t even had the paternity test done yet.

“Where were you going for your honeymoon?”
The words cut into her thoughts.

She looked up at him startled.  Was he still thinking about that?  “Galveston.  I’ve never seen the ocean before.”
  She sighed thinking about it.  She’d never been on a plane or left Texas.  She’d rarely been away from Hamlin for more than a few hours at a time.
  For her honeymoon, Bradley was going to drive her to Galveston, and they were going to spend a couple of days on the beach.  It had sounded like heaven.

He lifted an eyebrow.  “He knew you’d never see the ocean, and he was going to take you to Galveston?  Their beaches are awful.  He couldn’t be a man and spring for something exotic like South Padre?”  His expression showed plainly what he thought of both of the Texas beaches.

She shrugged.  “We didn’t have money to throw away.” 
She wasn’t trying to defend Bradley, because he didn’t deserve it.  She simply didn’t think he understood there were people who couldn’t go through money like it was water.

“He sounds like
a jerk
.”

“You know, I’m realizing more and more how lucky I am that he backed out before it was too late.”  She kept watching the baby, rather than letting him see her face as she said those words.  She didn’t want him to realize he was the one who’d brought her to that realization.  His kiss had already taught her she wouldn’t have been happy with Bradley.  There
had been
no real spark between them.
  If she got engaged again, it would be to a man who could make her blood boil.