Baby Benefits Read Free Page A

to pace the floor.
    “I’m not helping you take care of that baby. I don’t want anything to do with her. I don’t care if she’s yours.” Her gaze flickered to Isabella and her expression softened for an instant before hardening again. “I don’t care how cute she is.”
    He watched her with fascination. He’d never seen her like this. In all the years she’d worked for him—and it must be, what, eight or so by now—she’d always been the consummate professional. Well dressed, well-groomed, well-spoken. She’d never raised her voice. Never glared at him. Never showed so much as an ounce of disrespect.
    Funny how he’d never realized before today how long her legs were, but now as she was striding across his room, they were hard to ignore. As was the way her cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink when she raised her voice.
    Something dangerously like desire stirred inside him as he watched her. He quickly stifled the reaction. This situation was strained enough as it was.
    “Raina, I’d never ask you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
    Her head whipped around toward him. “Not comfortable with?” She let loose a laugh that had a slightly maniacal tone to it. “You wouldn’t ask that of me? How on earth would you even know what I’m comfortable with?”
    This time, when he obviously had no response, she just stood there, waiting for him to answer. The moment stretched on seemingly forever and he felt his own inability to handle the situation spinning out of control.
    Finally, she just shook her head. Then she stalked out of the room slamming the door behind her. He felt the concussive force of it like a physical thing.
    To the empty room, he asked, “What the hell was that about?”
    And where the hell had his calm, professional assistant disappeared to?
    The only answer to his questions was the stirring of the tiny baby in his arms.
    Woken by the slamming door, she twisted against his chest, pushing with all her five-month-old strength against the confines of his arms. When he didn’t release her, she let out a wail of frustration.
    He knew how she felt.

    Raina didn’t stop walking until she’d made it out to her car. She climbed in, slammed the door behind her, and pounded her fist on the steering wheel only to jump when she accidentally hit the horn. The blare of the horn echoed through the parking garage, causing several people to turn and gape in her direction.
    Next she pounded her forehead against the steering wheel, an action that both released a tiny bit of her frustration and hid her face in case any of the people staring were her coworkers.
    Or rather, ex-coworkers.
    She glanced down at the paper still crumbled in her hand. Okay, soon-to-be ex-coworkers.
    Why—in the middle of her ridiculous and embarrassing tirade—hadn’t she at least had the sense to hand him her resignation? Or, in lieu of that, thrown it at him on the way out the door?
    The timing had been perfect. She’d already made an ass out of herself. She might as well have removed the need to ever see him again. Besides, given her current state of rambling madness, he probably would have welcomed her resignation.
    “So why didn’t you just quit, you big dummy?”
    She sighed, raised her forehead enough to rub at the tension there and then slouched deeper into her car seat.
    “Probably because you’re not really going to quit. At least not now.”
    How could she quit now? After all she’d done for him, all the late nights, all the weekends and holidays. How could she walk out on him when he needed her most? She alone knew how important family was to Derek. True, he had an odd way of showing it, but nothing mattered to him more. Which was probably why he was bungling things so badly right now.
    Talk about big dummies.
    He thought he could learn to be a father in two weeks? He thought he needed to, just because Dex had fallen hard for Isabella himself?
    Men. Were they all this stupid or was it just the