"Looks can be deceiving." Samantha pressed her lips together, blending her lipstick. Bella shrank under her bright blue gaze. "He's losing strength every day. Sometimes I think the only thing keeping him going is the need to find an heir to pass his beloved company on to."
Bella swallowed. They both knew who that heir was.
Her brain started to tick. Would Samantha try to warn her away from Dominic? Was she considered "not our sort" by the Hardcastles of the world because she wasn't rich and fabulous and a six-foot-tall supermodel?
Her neck heated and her dander started to rise.
Samantha tucked her lipstick into a white clutch purse and laid a hand on Bella's arm. Her fingers were ice cold. Bella struggled not to flinch away.
"Bella, can I talk with you honestly, woman to woman?"
"Um, sure." Bella could feel her chest starting to heave. It took every ounce of self-control not to rip her arm out of Samantha's slim but steely grasp.
"Dominic means everything to Tarrant." Samantha stared into her eyes. "He represents the future that Tarrant won't be here to share, all his dreams for the company."
Bella nodded, hoping no response was required.
"Dominic is a very impressive man. He's a successful retail entrepreneur in his own right, and he did it with no help from his famous father. That alone makes him ideal. But on top of that he's proven to be thoughtful and generous and honorable."
Bella's stomach clenched. She couldn't argue with that. If he'd done anything dishonorable, it would be to keep the dirty little secret of her own treachery.
"And of course … " She paused and emitted a tight laugh. "He's terribly handsome and charming." Her grip tightened to the point where Bella was almost ready to cry out.
"What does this have to do with me?" The words flew out. If Samantha was going to tell her to keep her hands off Dominic, she'd just as soon cut to the chase while Bella still had circulation in both hands.
"It's obvious to all of us that Dominic has feelings for you."
Bella frowned. Samantha must have been noticing Dominic's amorous behavior here tonight. Surely she didn't know that they'd been … intimate? Bella couldn't stop her arm from flinching.
Samantha let go. "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to grab you like that. I get carried away sometimes. It's just that it means so much to me, and to Tarrant, that Dominic join the family and take over from his father. If anything were to happen to destroy that, I know I couldn't forgive myself if I hadn't done anything possible to prevent it." Her cornflower-blue eyes seemed to plead with Bella.
"I don't understand what this has to do with me." She wanted to get out of here. Her nerves stung and burned like her recently liberated arm.
Samantha drew in a breath, and shoved her blonde hair back with a bony arm. "There's no delicate way to put this. My husband knows that you are here to try to win your father's patents back from the company."
Bella froze.
"He wants to have you fired."
Her blood flow seemed to stop, like a river frozen in motion. The bright lights of the bathroom threatened to blind her.
Samantha blinked rapidly. "He'd like to sue you too." She pursed her carefully made-up lips. "But Dominic has persuaded him not to."
The fried circuits of Bella's brain attempted to process the information. She couldn't formulate any response at all, even a protest that it wasn't true.
Which of course would have been a lie.
Samantha continued. "I don't want to see that. You've done wonderful things for the company, regardless of the original reason you came here. I'd like to broker a truce between you and Tarrant. I know that Tarrant won't be able to tolerate someone he believes is a traitor in his beloved company. He's trying to accommodate Dominic but sooner or later he's going to blow up and fire you, and then I'm worried that Dominic will leave too and everything will be ruined."
How would Tarrant have suddenly found out?
"The only reason you're still at the company is because Dominic promised to watch you, to make sure you didn't cause any damage."
Which explained why Dominic followed her everywhere.
The strangely reassuring idea that he'd begged Tarrant to keep her on was crushed out of existence by the ice-cold realization that Dominic must have warned Tarrant about her plans.
Bella's frozen heart seemed to lose the ability to beat.
Dominic had told him.
"Will you agree to give up your plans for a lawsuit?" Sam reached out to grab her again, then apparently caught herself just in time.
Bella realized she hadn't said a single word.
She couldn't think of a single word to say.
Dominic had betrayed her.
Their "deal" and everything it led to was a sham, a mockery, a joke on her. She'd offered her lips, her breasts and every other part of her to him. She'd given herself in exchange for his silence … .
And he'd taken her and sold her out anyway.
Honorable?
She stared at Samantha, wanting to cry or scream or even hit something, and becoming increasingly aware that she was getting dangerously close to doing all three.
"I think if you'd be willing to sign an assurance that you will not seek legal redress … " Samantha's soft voice penetrated only the very outer edges of Bella's consciousness.
"Excuse me." She pushed past Samantha using every bit of restraint she could muster to not shove her. She ran for the door, her head pounding and her heart hammering painfully.
They knew!
And they'd invited her here, knowing.
What kind of sick game was this?
Her hideously gaudy dress flashed like a beacon under the strobing lights as she hurried down the stairs, glancing around for the exit. Faces and bodies whirred like a thousand demons hovering in the multicolored shadows.
They all knew.
What was the finale? A public execution?
Dominic's surprising display of affection took on a new and very sinister tone. It was a challenge. A gauntlet thrown at his father's feet.
And she'd been ashamed of making him lie to his father?
She should be ashamed of being a gullible idiot.
Tears stung her eyes as she pressed through the sweating, writhing bodies on the dance floor. The bass beat thundered even louder than the blood pulsing in her head as she pushed onward, almost blind with rage and hurt.
And fear.
Now that they knew, what would happen to her?
"Bella." Big hands grabbed her forearms and a familiar masculine smell filled her senses. A smell she would have found wonderfully arousing and reassuring, until just a few moments ago.
"Let me go!"
"Where are you rushing off to?"
She could barely see Dominic through the mist of tears that sparkled with colored lights. "Away from you!"
Her childish shout embarrassed her, but she struggled to get free. She didn't want to start bawling like a baby in front of him.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"You know exactly what happened. Samantha told me. She said Tarrant knows I came here to get my father's work back and that he wants to fire me."
"What?"
He looked stunned.
Did he really not know?
Hope surged inside her like a tidal wave. Had Tarrant somehow found out without his involvement?
She swallowed and stopped fighting him. Blinked the tears from her eyes.
Maybe he truly was her protector. Guilt washed over her for assuming the worst.
For a second she allowed herself to imagine sinking into those strong arms and resting her head on his powerful chest. Letting his warm musky smell soothe her.
But Dominic's arms weren't pulling her toward him. If anything they seemed to be holding her at a safe distance.
"You didn't tell him, did you?" Her voice shook as she asked her tentative question, wanting a very specific answer.
He frowned and his eyes narrowed. Her heart started to sink, and her hands started to shake, before he even spoke.
"I did tell him."
"Let go of me."
"Listen … "
"Listen to you? I did that before and look where it got me. You betrayed my trust."
Her words appeared to hit home for a moment, then his eyes darkened. "You've got no right to be angry with me. You took a job at Hardcastle and as such promised your loyalty to the company. You've been taking a paycheck, and you had access to all kinds of proprietary information-secret information-that no company owner would want an enemy to get their hands on. And all this time you've been operating under your own hidden agenda. I've been trying to defend you. I've explained to Tarrant that you're under stress, that you just need time, that we can work things out. I'm trying to help you."