Volatile Chemistry (Billionaires' Secrets Book 1) (3 page)

“Not that I know of. Our products sell best in upscale department stores and boutique salons. The price point is too high for mass-market retail. I do know Tarrant wants to find more outlets in China.”

“Lack of posh department stores there?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s outside my area of expertise.”

“Which is?”

“Tarr—er, your father hired me to develop new products. He likes to be on the cutting edge.”

“How did he find you?”

She licked her lips, an awkward gesture of hesitation that sent a tongue of heat through his groin. “Um, actually I approached him.”

Her shield had just grown thicker. Apparently he was hovering around some kind of danger zone.

Interesting.

“How did you convince him to invest in research? Those photon microscopes couldn’t have been cheap.” He leaned forward as the waiter deposited her plate. He could almost smell her alarm over the scent of the sautéed scallops. “You must be very convincing.”

“I told him he had no choice. The market is changing. Nanotechnology makes an entirely different type of cosmetic possible. Smearing cover-up over blemishes will be obsolete once people discover our light-refracting products.”

“Maybe you should take it one step further and invent a cloak of invisibility.”

She blanched. Her fork stopped in midair on its way to her mouth and her brow furrowed.

Dominic’s heart kicked up a notch. “Is that what you’re doing?’

She let out a forced laugh. “Of course not.” She glanced at her scallop, then popped it in her mouth.

Something was definitely up with this one. Doing something she wasn’t supposed to.
The question remained whether Tarrant was in on it, or not.

He picked up an oyster shell. Stared right at her while he sipped the cool, slippery creature into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

She didn’t blink, but her lips parted. She dragged her eyes away and snatched up her water glass.

“You’re young to be in such a position of authority.” He sipped his champagne. “You must be smart.”

Maybe too smart for the good of the company.

“Oh, I don’t know.” She shrugged again and her slim shoulders moved inside her silky blouse. The soft fabric slid over the breasts.

“You’re no slouch yourself.” She speared another scallop. “I overheard you talking to the retail associates about your business. For someone who didn’t grow up inside the Hardcastle empire you seem to have done well for yourself.”

“I do all right.”

Bella watched him knock back another oyster. She blinked as he swallowed it and it slid down his throat.

As she’d guessed in the lab, this man liked his food
raw.
He must enjoy living on the edge. Nothing added an adrenaline rush to a meal like the possibility of an invigorating dose of botulism.

She couldn’t let herself be sidetracked by his quietly admiring glances. She had a growing suspicion that if Dominic Hardcastle got the chance, he’d eat her alive. He was the enemy. His father destroyed her father. If he knew what she was up to he’d chew her up and spit her out without a second thought.

She blew out a breath and ate her last scallop.

Funny how just the way a man looked at you could make you feel like...a woman.

She must have been spending too much time in the lab with scientists who got turned on by photons rather than by humans. She dressed to impress every day just to fly under the radar at Hardcastle, and she was used to the cool stares of appraisal that rewarded her efforts. They didn’t compare in any way with the raw, earthy appreciation she read in Dominic Hardcastle’s gaze.

“How did you get into retail?” she asked, to get her
min
d off the way his long-lashed eyes heated her skin with their steady regard.

“Necessity.” He lifted another oyster shell to his lips and leveled a dark look at her. “I started selling stuff in the playground when I was eight. You see, I had this deadbeat dad who didn’t pitch in, so I had to help my mom.”

He tipped the oyster into his mouth and gulped it down. “Touching.” She sipped her champagne to distract herself from the movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed.

“Yeah.” His dimples appeared. “Then I got bitten by the capitalist bug. Never looked back. When I was fifteen I convinced my mom to give me my Catholic school fees and let me go to the public school instead. I figured I could turn that cash into enough money to go to college and start my own business.”

“And she let you?”

“She wasn’t happy about it, but she’s never regretted it.”

“Guess you make a case for nature over nurture. What made Tarrant track you down after all these years?”

“I’m sure you know he has terminal prostate cancer. He’s been given a few months to live and that made him realize you can’t take it with you. Apparently he’s looking for someone to hand the jeweled scepter to.”

Of course she knew. Everyone did. The dilemma of who would inherit his empire had been front-page news since the story of his illness broke.

Not that anyone in the company would dare utter a word about it within these hallowed walls.

But something bugged her. “Doesn’t he have a daughter?”

“Yes. Fiona. But she’s young. Maybe he thinks she’s too inexperienced?”

“Or maybe he wants a male heir?”

Dominic’s brows lowered. “He certainly never had any interest in one before. After denying paternity for thirty-two years he’s suddenly decided to clutch me to his well-clad bosom.”

“He literally
denied
paternity?”

“Yup.” Dominic’s hard-edged expression didn’t falter.

She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have a parent refuse your existence. Her parents had always been her closest friends in the world.

It hurt so much that her dad was gone. And that her mom was... She took in a deep breath to banish a dangerous surge of emotion. “Did your mother ever try to take him to court?”

“She tried. She wanted to send me to a decent school. She was hoping to get some money to move us to a better neighborhood or pay for private school. Tarrant’s lawyers got the case thrown out of court.”

“How did they do that?”

His jaw hardened. “It was before DNA. They just laughed off the idea that a big shot like Tarrant Hardcastle would be fooling around with an ordinary girl from Brooklyn, and the judge believed him.”

Bella let out a slow breath. “I’d be mad.”

Something flickered in his eyes. “Yeah.” He picked up his champagne glass and knocked the rest of it back. “Lucky
thing
I’ve got better things to worry about, huh?”

“They do say living well is the best revenge.”

“Then I guess we’re both getting revenge on someone.” A crooked smile slid across his lips.

Chapter Three

I
f you only knew.

Bella watched silently as the waiter put plates, artfully arranged with their expensive entrees, in front of them and placed another champagne bottle in the bucket of ice.

Living well didn’t mean a thing if there was a white flame of anger burning inside you. Her father had been so close to fulfilling his dream. After enduring decades of snide laughter from peers and so-called colleagues, he’d finally come within reach of manipulating particles to alter their surface properties.

Even his fantasy of a cloak of invisibility was no longer a laughing matter.

Then Tarrant Hardcastle had bullied him into selling his life’s work for a pittance. With his dreams gone, he succumbed to undiagnosed heart disease and was gone within months.

Her chest tightened. She wouldn’t wish that death on anyone, not even Tarrant Hardcastle. But she
would
get her father’s work back and make his dream come true.

She owed it to him.

A long shadow across the tablecloth jolted her back to reality.

“Dominic!” Two striking women materialized next to him, one on each side. A statuesque redhead in a tight green number bent to kiss his cheek, while an ebony-skinned beauty in a slinky cream sheath grabbed his hand. “You didn’t tell us you were coming to town. We’ll have to punish you.” Her accent sounded French.

Dominic put down his fork, rose and gave each girl an intimate kiss on the cheek. Bella stabbed her innocent quail as a wave of irritation rose in her chest.

Dominic’s dimples appeared. “Bella, I’d like you to meet two of my best clients.”

Two arms as long as javelins stuck out at her and she shook their perfectly manicured hands. Luckily she managed not to cut herself on the array of sparkling rocks decorating their shapely fingers.

Dominic introduced them and both their names sounded vaguely familiar. Probably former supermodels.

As they towered over her, Bella’s contact lenses seemed to morph back into the thick glasses she’d worn as a teen. Her blouse and skirt felt as glamorous as her lab coat. And she’d dared to imagine that Dominic Hardcastle was attracted to
her?

Must be delusional.

She shoved a loose strand of hair off her forehead. “Nice to meet you. Dominic asked me to show him around Hardcastle Enterprises. He wanted to try the restaurant.” She blushed, suddenly feeling pathetic that she had to explain what a man like Dominic would be doing in an expensive restaurant with a nondescript scientist.

“Bella’s a genius.” Dominic had his arms around both hourglass waists. “She’s in charge of cosmetics research. She’s going to make everyone in the world beautiful.”

Bella’s face heated further. Apparently he also felt the need to excuse her dullness.

“Would you like to join us?” She spoke up, her voice a little squeaky. She knew Dominic would rather be with them than her.

Dominic’s smile disappeared and he lifted a brow at her.

“We can’t, darling!” The redhead seized the opportunity to kiss his cheek again. “We’re just passing through on the way to tonight’s party.”

“They’re event planners,” Dominic explained. “They love to serve my products and pretend they paid a fortune for them.”

The cream-dress girl leaned toward him. “Don’t tell anyone how much you charge for the mushroom paté.” Her French accent gave her words an air of sexy conspiracy. “The hostess is crazy for it. She thinks we buy it from Paris by the ounce.”

“It’ll be our secret that it’s two-fifty for a half-pound tub.” Dominic’s dimples showed. “I doubt one of your clients would ever go into an actual store, anyway. They have ‘people’ for that.”

The two beauties threw their heads back in musical laughter.

Bella took a bracing swig of her champagne. She’d seen his stores here and there—Trader Dan’s, was that the name?—but had never actually been in one. Apparently she’d been missing out.

She was in danger of shrinking out of existence altogether when the girls chimed, “Must fly!” They kissed him on both cheeks, then back on the first one. Three kisses. Each.

Bella managed to keep a poker face.

“You have lipstick on your cheeks,” she said, as the goddesses stalked off toward the door.

Dominic shrugged. “Occupational hazard. I bet you know the best way to get it off.”

“The fresh mayonnaise would work, but it might clog your pores. I’d go with the napkin if I were you.”

Dominic scrubbed at his chiseled features with the white linen. “Better?”

“Much. I’ve never seen someone kiss three times before. It gets messy.”

‘That’s how they do it in Europe. There it’s just like shaking hands. You get used to it.”

“I’ll bet. Anyway, I must get going too.” She stood. “It’s been lovely.” She gulped. “The food, I mean.”

His eyes narrowed slightly.

She blinked. “And the company, of course. Very nice to meet you, Mr. Hardcastle.”

“Dominic.” His tone chastised her. He stood and slid his hand into hers. “I’m offended that you’re abandoning me here.”

“I’m afraid I have a train to catch.” She tried to release her hand, but he tightened his firm but gentle hold on it. “I need to visit my mother.”

His espresso-shot eyes fixed on hers. “Family’s important.”

“Yes. Well, I’d better be going.” She tugged at her hand again. He didn’t release it.

“No way you’re leaving without a traditional European goodbye kiss. That would add insult to injury.” He tilted his head. His dark eyes glittered.

Deep breath and get it over with.
She leaned forward. The warm salty musk of his skin assaulted her as he lowered his head and pressed his cheek to hers. She kissed the air by his ear and tried to ignore the strange shivery sensation in her arms and legs.

Was he really going to kiss her on both cheeks? A swift movement of his head confirmed her suspicion. She held her breath as his lips brushed her other cheek and
a shi
mm
er
of desire rippled inside her belly.

She was about to step back and gulp air when she remembered the other girls had kissed three times. Ugh. So pretentious. But she could handle it. Hang tough. She lowered her eyes for the return journey to cheek number one. Braced herself against his male scent. She was almost out of here.