Bombshell For The Boss

“Ethan—”

“You still work for me, Sadie. Get it done.” Then he walked to his desk, sat down and started working. He avoided looking at Sadie again and told himself it was for the best. Hell, the baby wouldn’t want to be held by him, anyway.

A few hours later, Sadie and Ethan, along with the baby, were at Target, staring at a wall of baby supplies.

“How does anyone know what to get?” he asked of no one in particular.

“Well, here I’ve got a little experience,” Sadie admitted. “On those rare Sundays off, I’ve been shopping with Gina, my sister-in-law.”

“You’re elected as guide, then.”

Sadie noticed that he looked completely out of place in the perpetually crowded store. In his elegantly cut suit, he would have been much more at home in his meeting, or in a five-star restaurant, or even just sitting in his sleek black convertible. But here in Target, Ethan Hart was enough out of the ordinary that every woman who passed him paused to stare. Of course, that happened everywhere. The man practically oozed sex and success.

But at the moment, he was devoting himself to staying as far away from the big red cart and the baby strapped into it as humanly possible. Sadie gritted her teeth. She’d promised to help him with the baby, not do everything herself. Not even for a hundred-thousand-dollar bonus. This was Ethan’s chance to step outside the carefully built path he’d designed for himself, and Sadie wanted to see him do it. But now wasn’t the time for that argument. Pretty soon, the baby would be hungry. Or wet again. Or tired. Sadie would rather avoid the inevitable meltdown that she’d witnessed with her infant nephew just a couple weeks ago.

“Okay,” she said abruptly. “First, we need diapers.”

“Right.” Ethan instantly turned to the task at hand. “But what size? There’s a million of them.” He scanned the shelves, looking like a blind man trying to feel his way through a forest.

“You held her. How much do you think she weighs?”

He pushed one hand through his hair. “Twenty pounds?”

“Okay,” she said. “Start there. I’ll get some formula and bottles and...everything.”

Yes, she’d been shopping with Gina, stocking up on baby supplies, but that was just adding a few things to an already well-stocked house. This was starting from scratch, and she was overwhelmed with deciding what Ethan might need to care for Emma. He was right—there were just too many things.

While the baby slapped her hands on the cart and Ethan stayed at the end of the aisle, reading the descriptions on every bag of diapers, Sadie loaded in whatever she thought might be useful. Toys, a stuffed bear that Emma grabbed hold of and refused to release, bottles, bibs, nipples, pacifiers... The cart was pretty much full when Ethan turned and dropped a single package of diapers on top of it.

“One?” she asked, stunned. “Really? You think one package will do it?”

“How the hell do I know? You’re the expert here.”

“Ooh,” Sadie said with a grin. “That had to have been hard for you to say. Ethan Hart, the man who’s never wrong and must be obeyed at all costs.”

He scowled. “I don’t remember you being this sarcastic over the last five years.”

“That’s because I muttered most of it,” she admitted. “Get two more packages to start and that should hold us.”

“For what? The apocalypse?” He stared at the cart. “She doesn’t really need all of that, does she?”

The baby frowned, as if she understood what Ethan had said and disapproved. Sadie almost laughed, but she was afraid it might sound hysterical, so she swallowed it. Busy shoppers rushed past them as music pumped through the store speakers. “Do you really want to find out in the middle of the night that you need something and you don’t have it?”

“Oh, hell no. Fine. We’ll take it all.” He started to walk away, but Sadie stopped him.

“She needs clothes, too, Ethan.”

He goggled at her. “This is incredible. How do people do this?”

“Well, most people don’t have to do an entire stock-up run all in one day...”

“Right.” He looked over the aisles they had just been picking clean and said, “You know, the chocolate business makes billions, but turns out, that’s just peanuts. The real money is in baby junk. How can someone who can’t even talk possibly need so much stuff?”

She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. This was a huge disruption in the placid lake that was his life. But hey, sink or swim. “It’s a mystery. Come on. Baby clothes.”

He followed after her, grumbling under his breath, and Sadie looked into Emma’s eyes and grinned. In the five years she’d worked for the man, Sadie had never seen Ethan completely out of his element. And it was sort of endearing. She didn’t need another reason to be drawn to him, though, so she really tried to dismiss what she was feeling.

Then he did it to her again when he picked up baby pajamas and discarded the penguins in favor of the ones covered in teddy bears. When he caught her looking at him quizzically, he shrugged and tossed the jammies into the cart. Then, pointing at the baby now chewing fiercely on the stuffed bear’s ear, he said simply, “She likes bears.”

Sadie took a deep breath to still the jolt of her heartbeat. He didn’t want the baby, but he was doing everything he could to make sure she was cared for. He didn’t like change, but he was so far accepting a huge one in his life. He didn’t belong in Target, but here he stood. And God knew he shouldn’t look so damn sexy, but there it was. Even as she thought it, she spotted a woman staring at Ethan with open admiration.

Sadie told herself to get past it. Get over it. She was going to leave Ethan behind so she could find the right man for her. No matter how she felt about Ethan, no matter how her blood burned when she looked at him, going after him was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

He wasn’t the man for her and trying to pretend otherwise was just setting herself up for a crash. So she busied herself by concentrating on the shopping and promising herself that one day, she’d be doing this for her own family.

The sad part of that dream was Ethan wouldn’t be a part of it.

Three (#u8c211870-9c20-574f-950b-0938c3647f68)

By the time they were finished and checked out, Sadie was stunned by just how much Ethan had bought—and that wasn’t even counting the baby furniture ordered and hopefully already delivered to his house. Sadie took Emma in her car while Ethan loaded all the bags and boxes into his. They’d taken both cars so Sadie could leave once he was settled in with his new charge.

With Emma in her car seat, Sadie headed for Dana Point, barely keeping up with Ethan as he hurtled down Pacific Coast Highway. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought he was trying to lose her. But that couldn’t be true, because she already knew where he lived.

Sadie had been to Ethan’s house before, bringing him papers or running one of the parties he threw for distributors, but today felt different. They weren’t there for business and it sort of colored how she looked at the house itself.

It was Spanish-style and gigantic, even by mansion standards. The red tiled roof made the white walls seem even brighter than they normally would have. The grounds, from the sweeping lawns to the flower beds and climbing roses over the pergola in the backyard, were lovingly tended by a team of gardeners and the floor-to-ceiling windows glinted in the winter sunlight. Behind the house, she knew, was a sloping yard that ran down to the cliffs where waves beat a constant rhythm against the rocks.

The view was majestic and the house itself was breathtaking. Every room was huge, open and appealing in an earthy, masculine way. Brown leather furniture and burnished wood decorated every room and the dark red ceramic tiles in the halls were a dramatic statement. Sadie’s favorite spot was the Spanish-style, enclosed courtyard. Three sides of the house surrounded an outdoor living area, complete with comfortable furniture, a bar and kitchen. Terra-cotta pots held a wide variety of plants and the area provided a wonderful view of the ocean.

Today, though, she really didn’t have the time to luxuriate in the place itself. She had a cranky baby in the backseat and a ton of things to unload.

Ethan came around and opened her car door. The baby chose that moment to scream her fury and Ethan winced. “How does she hit those notes?”

“It’s a gift.”

“Why don’t you take her inside? I’ll get the gardener and some of his guys to empty out the cars.”

Huffing out a breath, Sadie accused, “You’re just trying to avoid touching her, aren’t you?”

“See why I hired you?” he countered. “You’re smart.”

“Right.” This did not bode well for Ethan and Emma. If he avoided the baby every chance he got, he’d never adapt to the new situation. Yes, he’d paid Sadie a lot of money to hang around until he got things settled. But she was going to make sure that he did at least half the baby care.

She got the little girl out of the car seat, plopped her on one hip and headed for the front door. Ethan wasn’t too far behind her, but when she opened the front door and walked inside, they all stopped dead.

Alice, Ethan’s housekeeper, was standing in the entryway, arms folded across her abundant chest and a frown etched deeply into her features. Really, Alice defied stereotypical logic. Looking at her round body and bright blue eyes, most people would have guessed her to be as kind as Mrs. Claus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sadie had never understood why Ethan kept such an unpleasant woman working for him. It probably helped that he was rarely at home and so wasn’t exposed to her much.

Alice’s eyes narrowed accusingly on the baby. “I’m the housekeeper,” she said flatly. “I don’t take care of children.”