Read Bad Boy Baby Daddy for Free Online Page A

he’d loved to do that as a joke, and he’d say that I was easy to rile up because my name was Riley. Perhaps that was what he’d been doing.
    No, scratch that—that couldn’t be it. He hadn’t recognized me at all, so there was no way he’d remember all the silly things we’d done to tease each other as kids. He’d even asked me what my name was, and when I’d told him and handed him my business card with my full name on it, he still hadn’t put two and two together.
    And then to speak to me in the way that he had at a business meeting was just appalling. Did he have no professionalism? Did he get away with speaking to all his connections in that way, or did he just sense a weakness in me? Maybe everyone was just so desperate to work with the infamous Kaiden Cross that they were willing to take anything from him.
    Well, not me. No freakin’ way.
    As much as I felt angry at the perverted way that he’d acted around me, I was actually more gutted that he had absolutely no idea who I was. There was no way I’d changed as much as he had, and I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it stung my pride to find out that I was so forgettable. It was as if all that we’d gone through in the past stood for nothing.
    Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I’d built our friendship up in my head as something more than it actually was.
    I slumped down onto my sofa, feeling physically and mentally drained after my long, trying day. It wasn’t like this was the first time I’d had to work antisocial hours—that was quite common in this industry—and it wasn’t as if Kaiden was the first unpleasant client I’d ever had to deal with. It was just that this had affected me somewhere deep inside, and I really didn’t know how I felt about that…let alone what I could do about it. I stared down at my feet, feeling the burn all the way up my legs from the day’s activity. I knew this was a warning sign from my body, telling me that I should go to bed, but I just needed a moment to chill out first. I needed to wind down, and I needed to shake this day off me.
    I flicked on the TV, just for something to do, but I couldn’t listen to anything that was being said onscreen. I stared into space instead, thinking about Kaiden’s earlier words. ‘We can be as professional as you like, after we’ve gotten better acquainted.’
    Was that the technique that he used to get girls to sleep with him? Had he really thought that I was going to have sex with him, right there and then in his seedy little dressing room, where he’d almost hooked up with two random girls only moments before? Urgh, what a pig.
    Now that I was alone, I could admit to myself that having his body that close to mine had made me tremble, even though I didn’t want it to. A strange, lusty feeling had built up inside me, and I’d found myself totally and utterly frustrated by his hotness. Why did he have to be so damned gorgeous and make it so hard to be around him? The mere brush of his hand on mine when he’d taken the business card from me had almost sent me over the edge.
    I suddenly realized that I was biting my bottom lip hard, as if I was trying to hold in some sort of crazy outburst. What the hell was wrong with me?
    I hadn’t felt sparks like this with anyone before, and I didn’t even like Kaiden as a person, which made it absolutely insane for me to feel like this at all. I’d had boyfriends, and I’d liked them just fine, but I’d never had this ‘ I need to have you right now or I’ll die’ feeling before. Sex had always been a standard part of the relationships. Fine, but not overly passion-filled.
    That being said, I needed to push these feelings aside, and I couldn’t allow them to distract me. I needed to keep focused on Kaiden as a client. Nothing more. It was my job and I didn’t want to screw that up by messing around with him, which was practically rule number one in the PR handbook. Don’t sleep with the clients — no, not even if they’re