His apology hung between them for a moment. Her lips parted, then snapped shut. "Sorry isn't going to save my job. Which is fine, as I don't deserve to have one. And don't worry, you don't owe me or my mom anything. I'm grateful for all you've done for her, but we'll be fine together from now on."
Her gray eyes shone with cool strength as she tried to pull away, but he held her tight. He couldn't stand the thought of her leaving his arms. His heart ached to gather her to his chest. "Listen to me, Bella. I've been so damn confused by everything and everyone. The dad I always dreamed of and never had comes after me suddenly and I've got thirty years of hurt and anger and unspent love unfolding inside me, and then I run into the most beautiful, brilliant, crazy, sexy woman I've ever met … ."
Bella's lips parted. Dominic fought a violent urge to kiss them.
"I'm a straight-down-the-line kind of guy. I have a simple code of honor, I take care of my family, I take care of my friends, I take care of my employees. Nothing complicated about it."
He frowned. "Suddenly I don't know what's right and wrong anymore, and I'm starting to figure out that sometimes there aren't any easy answers. I'm beginning to see that my dad can be right and you can be right, even though you're on separate sides of the same issue. And that … "
He took a deep breath and rubbed a hand over his face. "And that I care a lot about both of you."
Bella was no longer struggling. She stared at him, eyes wide. He tried not to notice that her dress had become twisted in the altercation and now revealed a good deal of ravishing cleavage.
"Sounds like one of those stories without a happy ending." Her voice sounded flat.
"But it doesn't have to be. We can find a compromise solution that will work for everyone. I take over Hardcastle, like Tarrant wants, and you stay and guide your dad's projects where you want to take them."
She blinked rapidly and he heard her breath quicken. "This sounds too good to be true. The way my life has been the past two years, frankly that scares me."
She was shivering, and he pulled her closer, until her lush body rested against him. "Do you still really want to sue Tarrant?"
"No. I don't want to sue anyone. I just want life to get back to some kind of normal." Her voice sounded like she was about to cry.
"Then let it go back to normal. Drop the suit idea, Tarrant will cool off, everything will level out and we'll all get on with our lives."
"You don't think he'll want to sue me for breach of contract? In the park, you said he would." Her gaze searched his face.
"He won't if I ask him not to."
"Because he's so desperate for you to be his heir?"
"Yes."
Bella couldn't stop shaking, even in Dominic's strong arms. The world still seemed to be closing in on her, atoms and energy flying at her from all directions.
Dominic intended to use himself as the bargaining tool to keep her job? She shuddered again and dragged in a breath. What if Tarrant said no, and Dominic risked losing everything over her?
Of course he wouldn't be foolish enough to give up the multibillion-dollar Hardcastle Empire over a geeky scientist. Even one who dropped her panties whenever he snapped his fingers.
But the fact that he'd offered-that he'd come after her-that he wanted to salvage an unsalvageable situation?
"Do you mean it? That you'll speak to him and at least talk him into letting me go quietly?"
"I'm not letting you go quietly." Dominic tightened his grip around her.
He lifted his thumb and brushed it over her lip. The same possessive gesture that drove her crazy in the cab. Her lips parted as a rush of purely sexual heat fell through her body, all the way to her bare toes.
Not again!
She stiffened in his arms, which unfortunately only crushed her hypersensitive breasts more firmly against his rock-hard chest. "How do you do this to me? I'm a scientist. I'm not supposed to have feelings. I study things, I don't experience them."
Dominic's dimples darkened against his skin. "That's where you're wrong. You feel a lot of things, and from what I've observed, you feel them very strongly." His thumb grazed her cheek and left the skin warm and tingling. "Though apparently not through the soles of your feet. What are you doing running around barefoot?"
She bit her lips. "It's better than running around in these." She lifted her strappy gold sandals.
"I have a better idea." Dominic slid one big arm under her butt and lifted her off the ground. Before she realized what was happening she was in his arms, resting against his chest, her cheek next to his.
"Don't be silly, you can't carry me!"
"I don't know why not. We're changing direction. My place is downtown." The throaty rumble of his voice echoed through her. He turned and started to walk down Sixth Avenue.
"Put me down."
"No."
He walked onwards. She could sense his smile and knew she should be irritated and protesting. But she couldn't. Being held in his powerful arms felt utterly fabulous.
"Aren't I heavy?"
"You think I'm dumb enough to answer a question like that with anything other than 'no'?"
She chuckled. "You're going to carry me all the way downtown? It's more than forty blocks."
"The longer the better. This is really working for me." He squeezed his big hand gently around her thigh, which set off a tremor of desire in her belly.
Her arm stretched around his broad back, which didn't seem the slightest bit strained by carrying her not-very-sylphlike form. Every step jostled her against his warm chest, which was very comfortable for something so hard.
People stared. She couldn't blame them. It wasn't every day you saw a tall, handsome man carrying a girl in a gold dress down Sixth Avenue. Near Forty-Second Street a bus stopped right in front of them and she goaded him onto it. He carried her onboard, protesting that the floor was dirty. He paid the fare with her in his arms, then lowered her into the seat as if she was made of glass and might break.
"You okay?" He slid his arm around her shoulders as he settled in next to her.
"I don't know," she said truthfully. "I don't seem to know anything anymore."
"I hear you. That's why sometimes you just have to go with your gut."
"I'm not so sure. There are a lot of butterflies in mine."
He rested his big hand right on her belly. "I can't feel anything." Then he looked up. "Then again. I'm experiencing a lot of other sensations right now." His simmering black eyes locked onto hers. Before she knew what was happening their lips had joined in an act of atomic fusion and their bodies locked together in the cramped space of the bus seat. His hand rubbed the gold fabric of her dress, creating friction that sent sparks of stray energy crackling through her. She writhed against him, unable to control the sheer longing that made her fall into his arms without hesitation, every time.
"Fourteenth Street." The announcement boomed through the bus.
"I think we need to get off here," she breathed.
They staggered toward the door, blinking in the light. Dominic insisted on carrying her the few blocks to his house. Inside he climbed the flight of stairs without breaking a sweat.
"You can put me down now," she protested as they crossed the threshold.
"No way." His deep voice crept into her ear. "I don't trust you. You might run off. There's only one place I'm putting you down."
The bed in the stark white bedroom was round. Not particularly surprising, given the rest of the house. Dominic laid her gingerly in its soft center, then just stood there, staring.
"What?"
"I love the way that dress falls off you."
Bella glanced down. Her breasts were making a break for freedom. "My friend Risa made me wear it. She said that if it was a Studio 54 party, I had to wear a Halston dress. I don't even know who Halston is."
"Me neither, but I'm eternally in Risa's debt."
"I think it was cut for someone less … well endowed." She tugged at the strained gold fabric.
"I think the fit is perfect on you."
Her skin heated under his smoldering black gaze. "You do seem to have an appreciation for dresses."
"I think my appreciation is for what's inside the dress." He sat on the edge of the bed and ran his thumb along her calf. "You do realize you have the most gorgeous body in the history of humankind?"
"Strangely enough, no one's mentioned that to me before."