What in the heck was she doing here, copying documents in the middle of the night?
She emerged, face bent over a new file, golden-brown hair hiding her features. She shoved a hank roughly behind her ear, pulled out a sheet and scrutinized it.
Then something made her look up.
"Aaaa!" She jerked violently and dropped the file. Papers fluttered in the air and scattered about the small copy room.
Her eyes fixed on his, wide with alarm.
Dominic widened the door opening. "Sorry to startle you."
"Wh-wh-what are you doing here?"
"Watching you."
"Why?" She glanced down at the papers on the floor, as if scanning them for incriminating evidence.
"You make compelling viewing."
Her eyes flashed. "You shouldn't be here at this time of night."
"Says who? It's my dad's company, isn't it?" He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms. "I'm thinking you're the one who's not supposed to be here."
"Why shouldn't I be here?" she snapped. She crouched and gathered the strewn papers. "They're all out of order now."
"Let me help you." He wanted to get a look at the pages. He picked up the closest one, which was covered in typed formulas.
She snatched it from his hand. Her fingertips grazed his palm and his skin tightened at the reminder of their mesmerizing kiss.
"What are these papers?" He picked up another one. Couldn't make heads or tails of it. He could read a balance sheet upside-down from twenty paces, but chemistry was way out of his league.
"Research. Some reading for the train."
"The midnight train to Georgia? You were running to catch your train nearly an hour ago."
"I missed it. I came back to kill some time."
"We're more than ten blocks from Grand Central."
"I had a lot of time to kill." Her gray gaze stuck him like a steel blade.
"I don't believe you." His words hung in the air.
Her startled expression only enhanced his conviction that she was guilty. Of something.
He decided to push. Maybe just to see how hard she'd push back. "I think you're stealing secrets."
"And doing what with them?" she snapped.
"I don't know that. Yet." He crossed his arms over his chest. He was intrigued by anyone daring enough to risk getting on the wrong side of Tarrant Hardcastle.
She tossed her head and picked up more papers. "I'm just doing my job."
"Then you won't mind me looking at those papers in your briefcase?" Why was he doing this? He wanted to get past the cool scientist demeanor as much as he'd wanted to see what lay under that white lab coat. And he had the strings to tug at it. "I am a Hardcastle, after all."
No need for her to know those pages made as much sense as Cyrillic script to him.
She hesitated, blinking. "I'm not stealing anything."
"Prove it."
Her breath came in hard gasps. He could see her chest rise and fall beneath her silk blouse. He stepped into the copy room, narrowing his eyes against the fluorescent light. "Where are the file cabinets?"
"Why are you doing this?" Her voice was shaky.
Why indeed? Yes, he'd had the uniformed pleasures of being both an altar boy and a boy scout, but he couldn't cry morality on anyone going up against Tarrant Hardcastle. With his background, he'd be first in line to fight him with them.
Maybe it was the overbearing way she tried to order him out of her lab and called security on him. He'd spent too much time as a scrappy outsider to appreciate being treated like one now.
One thing was for sure: he certainly wasn't motivated by filial desire to protect the interests of dear old Dad.
He shoved past her into the file room. A long drawer sat open. "Acquisitions," he read aloud. He stopped and flipped through some files. The folder he picked up was full of letters with another company's letterhead. Negotiations for the sale of proprietary research. "Tarrant buys scientific studies?"
"Yes. It's expensive to do them in-house."
"So why does he need you?"
"Change of strategy. He wants to stop buying outside work and leap ahead of the competition by investing in new technology."
"And you're selling all that hard-won research to the highest bidder."
Her face turned white. "I most certainly am not!"
"Then what the hell are you doing?" Some primitive part of his brain prayed she'd come up with a good explanation.
She lifted a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. With some effort he resisted the urge to see if the movement pulled her blouse tight over her full breasts.
"I'm searching for something," she rasped.
She wanted to say more. Her lips quivered.
He could imagine how they'd feel under his mouth, softening and warming.
He tugged his gaze away and fixed it on her gray eyes.
Bella blinked. "Tarrant stole my father's research. I want it back." She lifted her chin.
He stepped forward. He liked to get close to people when they were under pressure. Something subtle let him know whether they were telling the truth. The smell of their pheromones, maybe.
"Who was your father?"
"Bela Soros."
"Bella, like you?"
"It's a man's name in Hungary, where he's from. He worked his whole life developing formulas that would revolutionize the way we perceive things. He sacrificed everything, poured his whole self into it. He was this close to realizing his dream … ." She held two slender fingers a hair's breadth apart. "Then Tarrant Hardcastle bullied him into selling it for a song. Now he's dead. It's not right!"
Her nostrils flared as her indignation rang off the stark, white walls and metal cabinets of the file room.
"Tarrant stole his work, or he bought it?" Dominic narrowed his eyes. The raw emotion on her face tugged at something in his chest, but her words didn't add up.
"He paid, but with an insulting pittance."
"How much?"
She tilted her chin at him. "I don't know. I'm hoping to find out from these files. Tarrant browbeat him into it after hearing him speak at a conference. My father told him no time and time again … ." She inhaled a shaky breath.
"But Tarrant Hardcastle doesn't take no for an answer."
She didn't say anything.
"How do you know it wasn't much money?"
"Because it's all gone. There should have been enough for a comfortable retirement. My father always had a good research or teaching job and we lived well. Now my mother has nothing and she's in danger of losing their home."
Been there, done that. Sympathy swelled in Dominic's chest. Tarrant Hardcastle didn't give a rat's ass about the people he used. Once he was done with them they could live on the streets for all he cared.
"Don't you earn a decent salary?"
"Yes. It's good."
"Perhaps that's revenge enough?"
Bella tilted her head. Her eyes darkened. "My mother sacrificed a lot so Dad could focus on his work. It's been hard for her, very hard … ." Her lip started to quiver and she bit it.
"And how do you plan to get money from Tarrant, now that he already bought the research?"
"It's not only about the money. It's about my dad's legacy. I'll prove Tarrant forced my father into selling against his will and then the courts will restore his work to my family."
Alarm mixed with amusement made him snort. "You're going to sue Hardcastle Enterprises?"
She held his gaze, her gray eyes unblinking. "Yes. I know a judge will do the right thing."
"Sounds to me like you have way too much faith in the legal system and not nearly enough in Tarrant's utter ruthlessness. Did you find what you need?"
She swallowed. "Not yet. Are you going to have me fired?" Her lips pressed together.
"Me? Oh, yeah, the son and heir. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with you."
Kiss you again, maybe.
"I know I'm close. I've been through nearly all the files. I'll probably find it tonight, then you'll never have to see me again."
"You think I should just let you get away with this?" He tilted his head.
"If you believe in justice." Her gaze dared him to challenge her.
"I'm a businessman. I believe in profits."
It would be only too easy to take her side against Tarrant Hardcastle. If it wasn't for his knack for business, his own mother would still be struggling.
Still, her deceit intrigued him. "You worked here a whole year to get to this point?"
She licked her lips, a hesitant flick of the tongue which sent a shiver of lust to his groin. "The files used to be stored off-site. It took a few months to get them moved here."