Millionaire's Secret Seduction(15)

"If wishes were horses … " Tarrant waved his cigar in the air. "I'd have a  billion-dollar stud farm. But as it is, I've been given three months to  live and even I can't laugh off a deadline like that."

He gestured to a waiter hovering a few feet away, and the man refilled their glasses. "So, what're you going to do with 'em?"

"I want to bring my food stores to the Midwest. I've already expanded into the Southeast and the Northwest."

Tarrant frowned. "They don't want gourmet pesto in the Midwest."

"Sure they do, if it's two-fifty a jar."

"And you can do it for that?"

Dominic nodded. "Organic too."

"Well, hell." Tarrant raised his glass, and this time Dominic did join  him. Couldn't help himself. His dad's delighted grin swelled in the air  and fixed itself on his own face.

"I guess people are eating differently these days. Pesto on Main Street,  huh? Never thought I'd live to see it." He shook his head. "I guess you  have to grow up on Main Street to know the people. Your mother told me  you moved around quite a bit."

Anger pricked Dominic that Tarrant could speak so casually of the woman  he'd screwed, then screwed over. But he was glad to prove they'd made it  just fine without him. "She became an accountant for a trucking firm.  We moved where her work took her."

"Good for her. It's a good thing you didn't grow up with me, as you'd  have led a dissipated, sheltered existence hobnobbing with other young  twits in the Northeast's most expensive boarding schools. Much better to  be streetwise. Your mother told me you were selling things on an  upturned crate almost before you could read."

"That's a slight exaggeration."

"I think she was trying to make me feel guilty. All it did was make me  proud." Tarrant leaned forward and patted Dominic on the knee. Moisture  glittered in his eyes.

Dominic sucked in a breath and took another chug of whiskey.

"Dominic." Tarrant leaned even closer. "Will you promise me something?"

His stomach tightened. "It depends."

Tarrant smiled. "Good. Good. I like that you're not just buttering me  up. Because I want you to promise to be different from me."

Dominic frowned. Tarrant's cologne stung his nostrils.

"I devoted my life to having a damn good time and making a damn lot of  money. Nothing wrong with those things, mind you, but in the end,  they're not enough."                       
       
           



       

Tarrant's chest lifted as he drew in a long breath. He adjusted his  colorful tie. "Honor, my boy. Honor is what I've never had. Be the kind  of person people respect. Someone they can trust. That's what a real  leader is."

Dominic's tie seemed to be cutting off his circulation. He loosened it with a finger. "That's what my mom taught me."

"Well, you listen to her. She's a good woman. Better than I deserved." He laughed.

Thoughts rushed Dominic's mind. Tarrant would be furious if he knew that  his own son stood by and watched Bella Andrews damage the company from  inside. But his mom?

She'd be devastated.

He wasn't raised this way. To keep secrets from his own flesh and blood  to protect a woman with a scheme so crazy it was doomed to failure  before she even started?

He took another gulp of whiskey.

The lure of Bella's sensual lips and shapely hips had turned him into someone he didn't even recognize.

He'd told her she was nuts. Warned her off.

Did she listen? No.

So why was he protecting her?

His brain started to swim and he put his glass of whiskey on the table.

"Dad … " the word almost took his breath away as it stumbled from his  mouth. Tarrant looked up from his cigar, his focus intense. "There's a  problem in the lab."

"What kind of problem?"

"It's Bella Andrews. She thinks you cheated her father out of some research. She wants it back."

Tarrant held his gaze. "How do you know this?"

"She told me." He tried not to feel the sharp knife of guilt in his gut.

His father's eyebrow raised slightly. "Who the hell was her father and what does he have to do with me?"

"A scientist named Bela Soros. A lot of the work they're doing now is  based on his research. Something to do with nanotechnology and altering  surface texture."

Tarrant waved his cigar. "I don't understand a word of that stuff. If  Kreskey told me to buy some research, I bought it. He left a year ago  and Bella's his replacement."

"She seems to think you underpaid."

"Entirely possible." Tarrant's eyes narrowed and he took a long drag on  his cigar. Blew out the smoke. "I am in business, as you know."

"So her dad died and her mom is short of money. She wants the research back."

Tarrant blinked. "I'm crying. And how exactly does she propose to do that?"

Dominic inhaled a measured breath. "She's looking for proof that you  underpaid, then she plans to sue to get her father's work back."

He could almost swear he saw a twinkle in those sharp, aqua eyes. "I do  enjoy a good lawsuit. Shame we won't get to have one, because she's  fired." His expression grew fierce and he pulled a phone from his  pocket.

Adrenaline shot through Dominic. "Wait. She's doing it because she's worried her mom is going to lose their family home."

"What the hell do I care about that? If her father sold me his damn  research, it's mine. And I thought I was lucky to get her." He blew out a  snort. "What the heck is that new HR number?"

"Dad." The word rolled off his tongue more smoothly this time, perhaps  because he said it deliberately. He needed to appeal to Tarrant's  emotions. He was beginning to suspect Tarrant did have actual emotions  rather than simple reptilian reflexes. "The work she's been doing is at a  crucial phase. If you let her go now-especially if she's angry-the  project could fall apart and she's a loose cannon out there just when  you least need to deal with one."

Tarrant exhaled a stream of acrid smoke. "Something tells me you have a plan."

"Keep her here. Watch her. Clean out the files so there's no way she can  find what she's searching for. Lock her in somehow until the project is  finished. I've talked to her already and I think she'll come to her  senses once she sees that the future of her father's research is here,  not off somewhere in her imagination."

Tarrant's eyes had narrowed to slits. "You seem awfully concerned about  Miss Andrews. Or whatever her name really is." The corners of his mouth  tilted up. "She is a beauty, isn't she? For a scientist, at least."                       
       
           



       

The last caveat raised Dominic's hackles and gave him a fierce urge to  defend her beauty in any arena. He managed to get ahold of himself.  "She's a smart woman who can take Hardcastle to the next level of  product development. Scientists are like artists, they can be difficult  to work with because they don't see the world the way others do."

He leaned toward his dad and held his gaze. "But we entrepreneurs need  them. Their vision and creativity drive the world right alongside our  energy and hard cash. One can't thrive without the other."

"Hmm." Tarrant pressed a finger to his lips. "I always did like the  advice to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Never  followed it myself because I never can resist running an enemy through  if he gets close enough, but it's the beginning of a new era."

Tarrant held his glass out for a refill and a waiter rushed to top it off. "Here's to the future, and my son's vision."

Dominic didn't want to drink to a toast that insinuated he'd be implementing that vision in his father's place, but he did.

Bella was safe.

The whiskey tasted sharp, almost sweet, and the woodsy thickness in his throat soothed him.

"I'll brief security and tell them to keep an eye on her." Tarrant's  eyes glittered and one eyebrow lifted slightly. "Unless you want to keep  this hush-hush and watch her yourself."

"I'll watch her." Dominic put down his glass. "I'll head over there and have the files moved before I go back downtown."

Tarrant nodded slowly. "You're different from me, all right. I like it, I really like it."

Before Dominic left they embraced. He held his father's frail body and a  fist of emotion tightened in his chest. Maybe blood really was thicker  than water? He felt relief that he'd come clean about Bella, yet managed  to protect her interests, at least for now.

He'd be able to look himself in the mirror while he shaved tomorrow morning.

Or would he?

He stepped out into the streetlights of Fifth Avenue and started walking back to the Hardcastle building.