The Baby Contract. Barbara DunlopЧитать онлайн книгу.
“I’m trying,” said Mila. “But your brother doesn’t hire women.”
Kassidy’s blue eyes went wide and she stared at him with patent disapproval.
“That’s not true,” said Troy, wondering why he was feeling defensive. “I have three women working in this building alone.”
“Not as security agents,” said Mila.
Troy glared at her, sending the unmistakable message that she should shut up.
“Why not as security agents?” asked Kassidy. Using one hand to hold Drake, she dug into her shoulder bag. “I’ll show you the latest emails.”
“Mila is leaving, and I’m having lunch.” Troy had to try at least.
“Go ahead and have lunch,” said Kassidy. “I want a woman’s opinion on this.”
He turned his tone to steel. “Goodbye, Mila Stern.”
“Don’t you be a jerk, Troy,” said Kassidy.
“I won’t charge you,” Mila said, rising to her feet and heading for Kassidy.
“Charge me with what?” He was baffled by the statement.
“Charge you for the time,” she said.
“You don’t work for me.”
“This new one came yesterday,” said Kassidy, holding out a sheet of paper.
Despite himself, Troy’s curiosity was piqued. He hadn’t seen this one. “Who’s it from?”
Mila was quicker on the draw, taking the printout from Kassidy’s hand.
“BluebellNighthawk,” said Kassidy.
Mila was reading her way through it, and Troy went behind her to look over her shoulder.
The message rambled about Kassidy’s hair and her eyes, her voice and a song she’d written that BluebellNighthawk seemed to think was about him.
“Is this the only new one?” asked Troy.
“Is there any significance to the word window?” asked Mila.
Troy stared down at her. “Why?”
“None that I can think of,” said Kassidy.
“He uses it twice,” said Mila. “And both times it’s the end of a thought followed by an awkward transition.”
Troy reread the note. “It’s all awkward.”
“True,” said Mila, sitting back down in the armchair, still gazing at the printout.
Troy summoned his patience. They were going backward here.
“I’m starving,” he said to both of them.
“So go have lunch,” said Kassidy.
Mila merely waved him away.
* * *
Mila had managed to stay in Troy’s apartment with Kassidy while he went downstairs for some meetings. She now had a hundred fan emails sorted into piles on the dining room table and had reconstructed Kassidy’s recent concert schedule on a digital map on her tablet.
Drake cooed in his baby seat in the corner of the living room. Kassidy chatted on the phone to her business manager in the kitchen, the occasional word or burst of laughter filtering out.
Mila was matching the emails to the performance dates, and now she needed to link them all on the map. For that, she needed a scanner.
She glanced around and spotted an open door that looked promising. She rose to look more closely and discovered it was Troy’s home office. Sure enough, she found a scanner on the corner credenza.
It looked straightforward enough, and she loaded in the documents.
“Can I help you with something?” Troy’s deep voice came from behind her.
“No.” She turned to meet his decidedly annoyed expression. “I think I’ve got it working.”
“I didn’t mean that literally.” His frown deepened.
“What did you mean?” she asked conversationally.
She refused to let herself be intimidated by his scowl. Kassidy was living here with him, and she had invited Mila to stay and sort through the emails.
“I meant, what the hell are you doing in my office without permission?”
She held his gaze. “I’m scanning documents.”
He advanced a couple of paces, shrinking the space with his presence. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”
“You have cameras all over the place. You’d have known if I left.”
“I don’t monitor the control center.”
“Your staff wouldn’t notify you?”
He paused at that. It was obvious from his expression they would have contacted him immediately.
Their gazes stayed locked, and a tickle of awareness found its way into her pores. There was no denying he was a good-looking man. And masculine strength was definitely a turn-on for her. But it was odd that his belligerence wouldn’t have counteracted those two traits. She wasn’t blindly attracted to just any tough guy.
The scanner chugged and whined in the background.
“You need to leave,” he said.
“You don’t want to know what I found?”
“We both know Kassidy’s in no real danger.”
“We do?”
Mila wasn’t ready to go that far. Though it did seem likely Kassidy was experiencing the harmless, if annoying, adoration that could be directed at any pretty young woman in the public eye.
“You’ve given it a nice try,” he said. “You’ve given it a terrific try. You’ve gone above and beyond in trying to get me to hire you. I’ll grant you that.”
“Thank you. So, hire me.”
“I’m not hiring you.”
“Why not?” she asked.
He rolled his eyes with obvious derision. “You’re stalling again.”
“I’m serious. In this day and age, what possible reason could you have for not hiring women?”
“You want the truth?”
“I’d love the truth.”
“Okay. Here it is. It’s a simple equation of muscle mass.”
She gave herself an extra beat to frame her response. She knew this was her last and only chance to change his mind. Simple, she decided. Simple and direct was her best bet.
“Skills can overcome muscle mass.”
“Maybe,” he allowed, surprising her.
She felt encouraged. “And don’t discount knowledge and intelligence.”
He squared his shoulders, not looking at all like somebody who was about to capitulate. “I don’t discount knowledge and intelligence. I hire for skills. I hire for intellect. I hire for experience. I hire for proficiency. And when all of those elements are present, I then hire for strength and power.”
“I have all of those things.”
“How much do you even weigh?”
“A hundred and twenty pounds. Almost.”
He shook his head in a pitying way. “Two guys come at you, big guys, five hundred pounds between them. What do you do?”
“Shoot