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Wanted by the Boss: Sleeping with the Boss / Cowboy Boss / Billionaire Boss
Maureen Child
Kathie DeNosky
Meagan McKinney
Sleeping with the Boss by Maureen Child Eileen Ryan soon found Rick Hawkins’ charm irresistible when she became his secretary. One shocking night of passion led to an unexpected pregnancy, then Rick offered Eileen his name, his home, everything…except his heart.Cowboy Boss by Kathie DeNoskyWhen gentle Faith Broderick was stranded with her seductive boss, Cooper Adams, neither could hide the passion that raged between them. With her warmth, lovely Faith filled his home and his heart, and confirmed bachelor Cooper knew he’d better watch his step – because promoting Faith to wife would be far too easy.Billionaire Boss by Meagan McKinney Seth Morgan was sophisticated, sensual, sinfully wealthy – and completely out of his PA Kirsten Meadows’ reach. Although the playboy tycoon took her breath away, Kirsten didn’t mix business with pleasure. But Seth always got what he wanted…and he wouldn’t rest until Kirsten surrendered to him!
WANTED BY
THE BOSS
Sleeping with the Boss
MAUREEN CHILD
Cowboy Boss
KATHIE DENOSKY
Billionaire Boss
MEAGAN MCKINNEY
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Sleeping with the Boss
MAUREEN CHILD
MAUREEN CHILD
is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. The author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever who has delusions of grandeur.
Visit her website at www.maureenchild.com.
To Wendi Heard Muhlenbruch – an artist with
flowers and the inspiration behind Eileen – may
your new baby bring you and Daren joy always.
One
Eileen Ryan faced her grandmother down in battle, even knowing that she would, eventually, lose the war. It was inevitable. Her grandmother was undefeated. If she wanted something, Margaret Mary—Maggie to her friends—Ryan, usually found a way to get it. But Eileen was determined to stand her ground. ‘‘Gran, I’m not a secretary anymore.’’
Sunlight danced in the small living room. The tiny beach cottage that Maggie Ryan had called home for more than forty years was packed full of her memories, but was never less than tidy. Gran sat in a splash of sunshine that gilded her perfectly styled gray hair. The older woman wore a pale peach dress, nylons and sensible black shoes. Her deeply lined features creased in a patient smile and her hands rested on the doily-covered arms of her favorite chair. She looked quietly regal—which was one of the reasons no one ever won an argument with her.
‘‘Yes, but it’s like riding a bike,’’ Gran countered. ‘‘You never forget.’’
‘‘You can if you work at it hard enough,’’ Eileen told her, stubbornly clinging to her argument.
Heaven knows Eileen had certainly tried to forget everything about being a secretary. It had been three years since she’d last worked in an office. And she didn’t miss it.
She’d always hated working in offices. First, there was the whole ‘‘trapped behind a desk’’ feeling—not to mention having to put up with a boss looking over your shoulder all the time. But the absolute worst part of being a secretary, as far as Eileen was concerned, was being smarter than the boss and having him treat her like an idiot. An old echo of pain welled up inside her and she fought it back down. Her last boss, Joshua Payton, had pretended to love her. Pretended to need her. Until he got the fat promotion that had taken him up the ladder of success and sent her back to the secretarial pool.
Well, she wouldn’t be used and discarded again. She’d made her escape and didn’t want to go back. Not even temporarily.
‘‘Piffle.’’
‘‘Piffle?’’ Eileen repeated, laughing.
Maggie’s nose twitched. ‘‘It’s not as though I were asking you to take a nosedive into the black hole of Calcutta.’’
‘‘Close, though.’’
‘‘I’m only asking you to help Rick out for two weeks. His secretary’s gone on maternity leave and—’’
‘‘No way, Gran,’’ she said, shaking her head and taking a step backward, just for good measure. Going into an office again was going backward. Revisiting a past that she’d just as soon forget.
Maggie didn’t even blink. She simply stared at Eileen through emerald-green eyes and waited. And waited.
Eileen folded. She never had been able to stand tough under the silent treatment. ‘‘Come on, Gran. It’s my vacation.’’
‘‘Your vacation was canceled.’’
True. She and her best friend, Tina, had planned on two weeks in Mexico. Until, that is, Tina had unexpectedly eloped with her longtime boyfriend, leaving Eileen an apologetic message on her machine. Now Eileen had her passport in hand and no real desire to go to a fun-in-the-sun spot all on her lonesome.
Frustrating, since she’d spent so much time arranging things so that her flower shop wouldn’t fold in her absence. Eileen had prepped her staff, coached her assistant and cleared her own decks to allow herself two whole weeks of a well-earned vacation. Early October was the best possible chance for her to take some time off. There was a real lull in a florist’s calendar at this time of year—and as soon as October was finished, the holiday frenzy would kick in. She wouldn’t have a moment to herself until after Valentine’s Day.
Stress rattled through her like a freight train and even her eyes suddenly hurt. She could almost feel her time off slipping away from her. ‘‘The trip was canceled. I still have my two weeks.’’
‘‘And nothing to do,’’ her grandmother pointed out.
True again and darn it, Gran knew her way too well. Yes, she’d probably go a little nuts with nothing to occupy her time. But she was willing to risk it. ‘‘Hey, you never know. I might actually learn to like doing nothing at all.’’
Maggie chuckled. ‘‘Not you, honey. You never were one to sit still when you could be up and running.’’
‘‘Maybe it’s time I slowed down a little then,’’ Eileen said, and started pacing. ‘‘I could read. Or go to the movies. Or maybe sit down at the beach and watch the waves.’’
Maggie waved a hand at her. ‘‘You wouldn’t last twenty-four hours.’’
Eileen tried to placate her grandmother even while sticking to her plan to escape doing her this ‘‘favor.’’ ‘‘Rick Hawkins is a pain, Gran, and you know it.’’
‘‘You only say that because he used to tease you.’’
Eileen nodded. ‘‘You bet. Every time he came over to pick up Bridie for a date, he tormented me. He used to make me so mad.’’
‘‘You were a little girl and he was your big sister’s boyfriend. He was supposed to tease you. It was sort of his job.’’
‘‘Uh-huh.’’
Maggie’s sharp green eyes narrowed. ‘‘His grandmother is a very old, very dear friend.’’
‘‘Great,’’ Eileen interrupted in a rush. ‘‘I’ll go help her, then.’’
‘‘Nice try, but Loretta doesn’t need a secretary. Her grandson does.’’
‘‘So what’s he do, anyway?’’ Eileen plopped down into a chair close to her grandmother’s. ‘‘With as mean as he was to me, I’m figuring he’s some sort of criminal mastermind.’’
‘‘Financial advisor,’’ Maggie said, reaching up to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. ‘‘He’s doing very well, too, according to Loretta.’’
Eileen wasn’t impressed. ‘‘She’s his grandmother. She’s deluded, poor woman.’’
‘‘Eileen…’’
‘‘Fine. So he’s rich. Is he on wife number five by now?’’
‘‘Awfully curious, aren’t you?’’
‘‘It’s a tragic flaw.’’
Maggie’s mouth twitched. ‘‘One ex-wife, no children. Apparently the woman was just a barracuda.’’
‘‘Hey, even a barracuda doesn’t stand a chance against a great white.’’ She hated to admit that she felt even the slightest pang of sympathy for a guy she hadn’t seen in years, but divorces were never pretty. Not that she would know from personal experience, of course. You had to actually get married to be able to experience divorce. And her one and only engagement had ended—thank heaven—before she’d actually taken the vows.
‘‘Honestly, Eileen,’’ her grandmother said. ‘‘You’re making the man sound awful.’’
‘‘Well…’’
Maggie frowned at her. ‘‘Rick is the grandson of my very dear friend.’’
The solid steel guilt trap was swinging closed. Eileen could actually feel its cold, sharp jaws pinching at her flesh. Yet still she struggled. ‘‘Rick never liked me much either, you know.’’
‘‘Don’t be silly.’’
‘‘He probably wouldn’t want me to help him.’’
‘‘Loretta says he’s grateful for your offer.’’
Eileen’s eyes bugged out. She wouldn’t have been surprised to feel them pop right out of her head. ‘‘He knows already?’’ So much for free will.
‘‘Well, I had to say something, didn’t I?’’
‘‘And volunteering me was the first thing that came to mind?’’ Her only family, turning on her like a snake.
‘‘You’re a good girl, Eileen. I didn’t think you’d mind.’’
‘‘Rick Hawkins,’’ she muttered, shaking her head. She hadn’t seen him in six years. He’d come to her grandfather’s funeral. Six years was a long time. And that was okay by her. The one brief glimpse of him in a business suit didn’t wipe away her real memories of him. The way she remembered it, he was a bully who’d picked on an eleven-year-old kid who’d kinda, sorta, had a crush on him. There’s a guy she wanted to work for. Nope. No way. Uh-uh. ‘‘I’m so not gonna do this.’’
Maggie Ryan rested her elbows on the arms of the floral tapestry chair and steepled her fingers. Tipping her head to one side, she studied her granddaughter and said softly, ‘‘When you were ten years old, you broke Great Grandmother O’Hara’s china cup.’’
‘‘Oh, God…’’ Run, Eileen, she told herself. Runand keep on running.
‘‘I seem to remember you saying something along the lines of, ‘I’m so sorry, Gran. I’ll do anything to make it up to you. Anything.’’’
‘‘I was ten,’’ Eileen protested, desperately looking for a loophole. ‘‘That was seventeen years ago.’’
Maggie sighed dramatically and laid one hand across what she was pretending to be a broken heart. ‘‘So, there’s a time limit on promises in this house, is there?’’
‘‘No, but…’’ The trap tightened a notch or two. It was getting harder to breathe.
‘‘That was the last cup in the set my grandmother carried over from the old country.’’
‘‘Gran…’’ The cold, cold steel of guilt wrapped around her, the jaws of the trap nearly closed around her now. She winced.
The older woman rolled her eyes toward heaven. ‘‘Her grandmother gave her the set as a wedding gift. So she could bring it with her from County Mayo—a piece of her old world. And she took it with love, knowing they’d never meet again in this life.’’
If she started talking about the steerage section of the boat again, it was all over. ‘‘I know, but—’’
‘‘She kept those cups safe on the boat. It wasn’t easy. She was in steerage, you know and—’’
Snap.
‘‘I surrender,’’ Eileen said, lifting both hands in the traditional pose. No matter how much she wanted to avoid working for Rick, she was caught and she knew it. ‘‘I’ll do it. I’ll work for Rick. But it’s two weeks only. Not a day longer.’’
‘‘Wonderful, dear.’’ Gran reached for the shamrock-dusted teacup on the table beside her. ‘‘Be at the office at eight tomorrow morning. I told Rick to expect you.’’
‘‘You knew I’d do it all along, didn’t you?’’
Gran smiled.
‘‘Just so you know, I still haven’t forgiven you for the whole Barbie episode.’’
Rick Hawkins just stared at the tall, elegant-looking redhead standing in his outer office. Her features were wary, but couldn’t disguise her beauty. Irish green eyes narrowed, but not enough to hide the gleam in their depths. Her mouth was full and lush, her eyebrows finely arched. Her hair fell in red-gold waves to her shoulders. She wore a white dress shirt tucked into sleek black slacks and shiny black boots peeked out from beneath the hem. Small silver hoops dangled from her ears and a serviceable silver watch encircled her left wrist. Her hands were bare but for a coat of clear nail polish. She looked businesslike. Dignified and too damn good.
He never should have listened to his grandmother.
This could be a long two weeks.
‘‘You were eleven,’’ he reminded her at last.
‘‘And you were almost sixteen,’’ she countered.
‘‘You were a pest.’’ Looking at her now, though, he couldn’t imagine being bothered by having her around. Which worried him a little. He’d been taken in by a gorgeous face before. He’d trusted her. Believed in her. And then she’d left. Just like every other woman in his life—except the grandmother who’d raised him after his mother decided she’d rather be a free spirit than be tied to a child.
She nodded, allowing his point. ‘‘True. But you didn’t have to decapitate Barbie.’’
He smiled despite the memories crowding his brain. ‘‘Maybe not, but you left me alone after that.’’
