Millionaire's Secret Seduction(22)

"Are you always this stubborn?"

"Absolutely."





Eight




T he bright, humming lights of the copy room made Bella blink.

Dominic must have put a lot of thought into the situation and gone to a  lot of trouble for a woman he'd never even met. That filled her with  sharp and unfamiliar feelings that underscored her guilt over her  duplicity. "I know you hate what I've been doing. As soon as ReNew  launches, I'm going to leave."

"Why should you leave? I bet your mom will be proud to see your dad's work carried on in the products you developed."

Bella shrugged. "Cosmetic preparations are not the end result my dad  dreamed of for his experiments, but I'm pretty proud of them."

"You should be."

She drew in a deep breath. "ReNew launches on Tuesday with a big media  blitz. The consumer line will be carried in Nordstroms all over the  country, and several large metro hospitals have already ordered the  medical line. I can leave as early as next week without feeling I  cheated Tarrant out of anything." She was trying to convince herself as  well as him.

"You can't leave." The words shot out of his mouth.

She held her head high. "I'd have thought you'd be happy to see the bad  apple roll out of the barrel." He couldn't stand to even sleep in the  same house as her, let alone the same room. He'd made not the slightest  hint that he'd ever like to kiss her again.

Or even touch her.

He watched her like a security camera, his expression guarded and intense, as if waiting to catch her doing something wrong.

And paying for her mom to have private care was both a gesture of  shocking generosity and a sharp tightening in the noose he already held  around her neck, keeping her in his debt.

Maybe he wanted to keep her here where he could watch her.

Control her.

Her skin quivered at the nearness of him. Close enough to feel his body heat through the wool of his expensive suit.

He edged toward her again, crowding her, almost crushing her against the  machine. She steadied herself with a palm on the open, glass surface.

"Now is not a good time for you to go. Trust me."

"Why?" A curl of fear unfurled in her gut.

"Tarrant won't take kindly to a defection when he's sick."

"It's hardly a defection. Scientists move around all the time. The only  way he'd be angry was if he knew … " She stared at his face. "But he  doesn't know about me."

Dominic watched her, eyes narrowed, expression unreadable. His lips  parted as if he was about to say something, for a split second the air  hummed with painful anticipation that drowned out the hum of the Xerox  machine and the florescent lights.

Bella's heart started to beat faster. "He doesn't know, does he?"

Dominic didn't say anything.

Her breath stuck at the bottom of her lungs and her heart threatened to explode from her chest.

His brow furrowed and he stared at her until her skin tingled, then he  grabbed her and kissed the last gasps of breath right out of her body.

Bella shuddered with terrible relief as she wound her arms around his  neck, unable to think of anything but falling into his embrace. His lips  and arms were warm and so very, very welcome.

His kiss answered her question. He'd kept her secret.

His mouth wandered over her cheek and throat, kissing and biting until  she wanted to cry out with passion. Her skin hummed under his fingers as  he moved them roughly over her lab coat, then reached under it to grab  her skirt.

Desire filled her like an ache as she pushed against him, trapped  between the big copy machine and his hard body. With trembling fingers,  she reached under his suit jacket, and slid her fingers into the  waistband of his pants. He grew hard against her as their tongues wound  around each other and they tore at each other's clothes.                       
       
           



       

She felt the smooth plastic of the machine against the back of her  thighs as he hiked her dress higher and rubbed her bare skin with his  hands. She tilted her hips into his hard erection and enjoyed the deep  guttural groan that escaped his mouth.

He slid his hands inside her panties and squeezed her backside. She was  already wet, craving him inside her. Thwarted, wounded desire had built  inside her since he'd turned down a night in her bed. Now it overflowed,  soaking her senses with hot and urgent need.

His strong leg parted hers. He lifted her and settled her on the edge of  the machine, then leaned in and kissed her hard on the mouth.

She'd managed to undo the front of his pants and reach inside. He  shuddered as she touched his erection, and he pushed against her,  shoving her further back onto the glassy surface. She tugged at his  shirt, struggling with the buttons, trying to remove the annoying  obstacle between her hot skin and his.

She shivered with agonizing arousal as he leaned into her, almost close enough to enter her.

Then she heard it.

Whhhhrrrrrrr. Ka-thunk.

She opened her eyes to see a blinding flash of white light as a streak  of heat ran under her exposed buttocks. She gasped, shifting off the  machine as if it had stung her, as the picture spit out the side.

"Oh my God, what are we doing?" Bella tugged at her lab coat as she  leaped away from the copy machine. Her panties were halfway down her  thighs and she struggled to pull them up. "The door's not even locked!"

She reached for the piece of paper but Dominic beat her to it, snatching  it out of the dispenser and holding it out of reach above her head.

He had a wicked smile on his face. "I'm framing this one."

Bella's body still stung with arousal, but she tried to think sensibly. "Give it to me, I'll shred it."

"No way." His eyes glittered. "I'll lock the door."

"We can't, my staff is outside! They'll hear … "

"I don't think I can go through the rest of the afternoon like this." He winced.

"No, you need to tuck your shirt in. You look a mess."

"I'm not sure I can. I'm kind of sensitive down there right now. What are you doing to me, Bella?"

She'd managed to wriggle her panties back up. Thank goodness she hadn't  worn pantyhose because of the summer heat. They'd be in shreds.

"I'm trying to bring you back to your senses. Give me that!" She lunged  at the paper, but he yanked it out of reach. Easy, since he was so much  taller. He held it up to the light and examined it.

A crisp, clean, grayscale image of her generous buttocks-grasped firmly  in Dominic's strong hands-pressed against the shiny glass of the  machine.

"Now that's what I call art." His voice sounded gruff.

"Some people would call it a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to  happen. I think it would be in everyone's best interests to shred it  immediately."

"I agree. Tarrant might not take it kindly that you've cruelly seduced  his firstborn and left him in such a painful predicament."

"Me? I'm not the one who suggested we come in here. I have work to do. I don't have time to xerox my ass for fun."

"It is fun though, isn't it? Can you think of any other parts we should  capture?" One dark eyebrow lifted. He still held the offending image  about a foot out of her reach.

"I can think of some parts that deserve a good swift kick."

"Promises, promises. Hey, I saw the silver envelope. Are you going to the party?"

"Of course. It says 'You will attend.' Doesn't leave me much choice."

A smile crept across Dominic's mouth. "Good."

She crossed her arms over her chest, squashing her suddenly alert nipples. "Why was I invited?"

"Only Tarrant and his secret inner circle know the answer to that question."

"I'd have thought you were firmly inside the inner circle by now."

"Tarrant just wants me to take over the company. I haven't been entrusted with anything as important as one of his parties."

She tried hard not to catch his infectious grin. His slightly crooked  lower teeth were the only imperfection in his otherwise  magazine-cover-perfect image. They added a naturalness to his smile that  made it all the more irresistible.                       
       
           



       

Apparently she had no powers of resistance at all where Dominic was concerned.

A knock on the door made them freeze. With a jolt of terror, she glanced  at the picture of her bare backside held between his long fingers "Just  a minute!" She leaned toward him and hissed. "Give me that!"

"Nope." He winked.

"The door has no lock!" she whispered. "At least put it away."

Who would knock? Someone who suspected she was doing more than copying  paper in here. Did her employees know she was carrying on a torrid  affair with the boss's son? She'd be the hot topic around every  watercooler in the company.