Though she didn’t manage to miss Dominic’s last words. “See you at the party.”
Chapter Sixteen
The party.
Bella glanced around anxiously as she walked up to the velvet rope at the Studio 54 party in the glare of paparazzi cameras.
She’d waited for Dominic to find her and finish what he’d started in the copy room.
But he didn’t.
She’d jumped each time the door opened and every time the phone rang. She checked her e-mail with bated breath. Even scanned the train platform on her evening trips back to the house, where she’d taken to staying nightly.
No Dominic.
Probably just busy, she tried to reassure herself. She certainly was. Despite her strong reservations, she’d arranged to have the nurses he’d hired bring her mom home. It would have been petty and selfish not to.
And her mom had already shown signs of making a dramatic recovery, spending hours in her beloved garden and willingly eating the food from it. The nurses, and a doctor who’d been hired to make twice-weekly visits, said it was likely she’d recuperate fully from a severe but temporary “nervous breakdown.”
The startling turnaround, and the strange way in which it happened, had Bella’s emotions stretched to the max, and she wasn’t sure if at any moment she’d burst out laughing or collapse into tears of happy relief.
The very last thing she wanted right now was to see Dominic. He’d not only kept her betrayal secret, but now he’d brought her mom back from the brink of slow death. His actions touched her deeply, and scared her.
He held her life in the palm of his hand, when she’d always taken such pride in managing it herself. Worse yet, the uncontrollable desire she felt for him was totally inappropriate under the circumstances—or under any circumstances. And if she saw him she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t jump all over him in a rush of pent-up emotion and white-hot lust.
She drew in a shaky breath as she handed her invitation to the huge bouncer at the door. The pounding beat of the music jangled her nerves as he ushered her inside. She’d barely entered the lobby when she was accosted by Tarrant’s young wife.
“Oh my goodness, Bella, don’t you look marvelous! Halston as well.”
Bella resisted the urge to glance down at the swingy, gold vintage dress her fashion maven friend Risa had borrowed for her.
Samantha’s figure-skimming white halter top did have a similar cut. “He was a genius, wasn’t he? Aren’t you mad that we missed the seventies the first time around?”
Bella forced a friendly laugh. The vivacious blonde appeared genuinely happy to see her, which was odd since they barely knew each other.
“Come in, let me introduce you to some people.” Samantha threaded her bony, tanned arm through Bella’s and pulled her into the club. Music pulsed over the sound system, and she heard Grace Jones’s smoky voice singing, “I need a man.”
Great.
Everywhere she turned her heart leapt with excitement at the thought that she might see Dominic—and her stomach clenched in terror at that same prospect.
Could she be any more pathetic?
“Fiona! Have you met Bella from Cosmetics?”
Samantha gestured to a petite redhead in a slinky teal dress that hung from one shoulder. Thin gold hoops swung in her ears.
“Hi, Bella.” Fiona’s hand was cool. “I hear you have some big-deal product coming out next week.” Her voice sounded almost accusatory.
“Yes, ReNew. It restores the appearance of smooth skin.”
“How marvelous. What would we do without smooth skin?” Fiona’s mocking voice could have passed for humor with the trace of a smile, but her perfect porcelain skin remained unmarred by an expression. Her blue-eyed gaze was downright chilly.
Bella hesitated. Could Dominic have told Fiona about her? She was his sister—or at least his half sister. A finger of ice-cold fear crept up her spine, which was bared for all to see by the plunging back of her halter dress.
“Fiona put the whole party together.” Samantha dove between them, shattering the tense silence. “She’s a genius at research. She even hired one of the original DJs. The records he’s playing are the exact same vinyl discs that played here thirty-odd years ago.”
“Samantha loves historical relics. Like my father.” Fiona winked.
Samantha managed a natural-sounding laugh. “Your father has the heart of a teenager.”
“Yes. That’s always been his problem. How many of his progeny did you manage to round up for tonight, Sam?”
“Just Dominic. I haven’t seen him yet, but he promised to come.” She turned to Bella. “I’ve been working hard trying to get in touch with Tarrant’s other children, but I imagine it’s awkward for them to hear from a long-lost parent out of the blue.”
“Jeez. I can’t imagine why.” Fiona scanned the crowd, her face expressionless as a statue.
Bella wanted to dislike the frosty redhead, who was obviously doing her best to make everyone uncomfortable, but she couldn’t. This poor girl had been Tarrant’s only child until he suddenly decided to unearth the others he’d fathered accidentally.
Why was he doing it? Was Fiona not enough for him? Bella knew that if she asked that question, it must ring as loud as the pounding sound system in Fiona’s head.
Fiona was pretty, but not in the cover girl mold of the women Tarrant surrounded himself with. It couldn’t be easy for a girl like her growing up in his hard-edged, glittering world, and watching him divorce her mother and then marry a woman almost her own age.
She tried to make polite conversation. “The club looks wonderful. Probably better than when it was first open.”
“Oh yes, we’ve got everything down to the last detail. Even the man in the moon with a cocaine spoon logo on the dance floor.” Fiona tilted a slim brow.
“No real cocaine though!” Sam patted Bella’s arm. “That’s one authentic detail we left out.”
“Sam’s on the board of the Just Say No Foundation,” murmured Fiona. “Ruins the authenticity, but what can you do.” For the first time a genuine smile snuck across her face, and she and Samantha laughed. Bella joined in. Thus the three ladies looked like they were actually enjoying each other’s company when Dominic walked up.
Bella tried to act natural while her pulse accelerated beyond all healthy limits.
“Hey, little sis.” He kissed Fiona on the cheek.
“Hi, Sam.” He kissed her too. Only one kiss for each of them, Bella was gratified to note.
“We Are Family” by Sister Sledge was spinning on the turntable. Bella felt appropriately left out for a split second, then Dominic turned to her.
She offered her cheek for a casual peck, like the ones he’d given to Fiona and Samantha.
Dominic glanced at her cheek, and a wicked smile crept over his arrogant mouth. “Uh-uh. No way you’re getting off that easy.” He leaned in and gave her a big smooch, full on the mouth. She even got a cool taste of tongue before he pulled back, leaving her wide-eyed and gasping for breath.
What on earth was he doing?
Samantha and Fiona both looked a little surprised, but Samantha recovered quickly. “Dominic, I’m so disappointed you’re not wearing a fitted suit and a gold medallion.”
He shrugged. “My white three-piece is at the cleaners.”
His usual shirt and tie were replaced by a black T-shirt that skimmed his muscled chest and well-developed arms. Black pants encased his long, powerful legs.
She could see why he always wore a suit. With his dark good looks and threateningly hard body, he looked quite different out of one. Much less respectable and businesslike.
Far more dangerous.
Her body’s instant reaction made her wish she had a sturdy lab coat over her skimpy gold dress.
Why did he kiss her like that in front of Samantha and Fiona? Curiosity and anxiety prickled over her, joined by a disturbing hot swell of lust as Dominic lifted her hand and kissed her fingers.
<
br /> Her skin burned where his lips had touched it.
“May I have this dance?”
Bella felt Fiona’s and Samantha’s eyes on her as well as Dominic’s. “Um, sure.”
So cool. So sophisticated. Apparently a vintage designer dress could only take you but so far. She wished she hadn’t let herself be talked into wearing it. Not her style at all. But the gold knit fabric swished against her bare legs as she walked, and maybe it was the energy of the music, but—under Dominic’s dark, watchful eyes—she couldn’t help a certain swing in her hips.
Dominic danced close to Bella. Close enough to almost see down the front of that slinky gold number draped over her curves like an early morning fog. He could taste the sweetness of her skin in the air and he allowed himself to feel its warm silk under his fingers.
She looked nervous. Glancing around, as if wondering who might see them.
Which was exactly the point.
Yes, he wanted to kiss her and touch her and flirt with her. Now her mom was out of the hospital and recovering, and the pressure was off Bella to “save” her, he didn’t feel guilty about enjoying Bella’s company.
But there was an ulterior motive. He wanted Tarrant to see him with her. To know that while he may be his biological father, that did not give him the right to tell him what to do.
If he was going to take the reins from Tarrant he’d do it on his terms, no compromise.
Tarrant had raged and ranted the Monday after he’d been told about Bella. After contemplating an enemy in his keep over a solid weekend, he could think of nothing more than flushing her out and feeding her to the crocodiles in the moat.
Even Fiona, who obviously enjoyed being a thorn in her father’s side, had been disgusted that someone could work for the company with the underlying intention of suing it, and had said that Bella should be sued for breach of contract.
It took all of Dominic’s persuasive powers to keep Bella from being frog-marched from the building that very morning.
And now it gave him bittersweet pleasure to run his fingers around the strings of her gold halter dress and along the bare skin of her back, under several sets of disapproving eyes.
My way or the highway, “Dad.”
The rhythmic refrain of Chic’s “These Are the Good Times,” pumped through the club and he had to resist a satisfied smile.
Business was great; his absentee father had come crawling back to his mother begging for absolution; that same father had handed over the stores he swiped from under Dominic’s nose with an apology...and right now he was dancing with a gorgeous brunette whose slinky dress chafed the palms of his hands.
What’s not to like?
Yes, Bella was trouble, but damn if that wasn’t part of her appeal. He’d always played it straight, been the good son with perfect grades who worked hard to make everyone proud. In her own way, Bella had done exactly the same thing—and it had taken her down a crooked path.
He wanted to get her back on the straight and narrow where she obviously belonged. It was a quest, a mission that stirred his blood and gave deeper meaning to the pleasures of seduction.
And if his methods involved an element of pleasure-laced punishment, he could reason that she deserved it. She’d have fooled him as easily as the others, if he hadn’t caught her red-handed at the copy machine.
A white strobe hit her face, glinting off a smile. She’d relaxed enough to enjoy the dance, and let her luscious body swing to the beat. Swing being the operative word. At that moment it was deliciously apparent there was no bra under her strappy top.
Heat jolted through him and almost deprived him of his voice. “Come with me,” he rasped, after clearing his throat. He took Bella’s hand and they wound through the tight mass of swaying bodies. “We’ll go up to the balcony.”
Her arm stiffened. “I’ve heard about the things that used to go on up there.”
“Yeah.” He glanced up. “I was probably conceived up there.”
“Dominic!” Her eyes glittered with disapproval.
“Doesn’t bother me. I guess when it comes right down to it, I’m just glad to be here. If Tarrant and my mom hadn’t hooked up, I wouldn’t be standing here gazing at the way that gold fabric drapes over your...” He let his eyes drift to her curvaceous backside.
“You’re terrible.”
He sighed. “Yes. And don’t forget, I have a Xerox copy of your ‘assets’ to use as bribery.”
She lifted a dark brow. “Do you have no scruples?”
“Possibly not.”
“Dominic!” Tarrant’s voice boomed out through the music. Dominic felt Bella freeze.
Tarrant, all smiles, gripped Dominic’s upper arms with his tanned, bony hands. “How do you like my re-creation of heaven on earth?”
“I think I’ll be disappointed when I get to the real one.”
Tarrant raised a brow. “Such delightful confidence of a journey through the Pearly Gates. I suspect I’ll be dancing somewhere hotter. Either way, I’ll find out soon enough.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Dominic protested. “You’ll outlive us all.”
Tarrant turned to Bella, who seemed to shrink under his aqua gaze.
“Maybe if Bella here can invent something that will make the inside of my body look as young as the outside. I’m wearing our ReNew right now—what do you think?”
Bella obviously couldn’t resist peering closely. “It looks great.”
“I’m sure my son thinks I’m a freak. Dominic doesn’t seem like the type to fuss over a few fines, does he?”
“I wouldn’t know.” Bella gave him a wary glance.
Dominic laughed. “He’s right. I’m not. I might be up for a cloak of invisibility though, if you perfect that. I could see that having some very interesting applications.”
“Cloak of invisibility, eh?” Tarrant’s brows lifted. “What exactly is going on in that lab of yours, Miss...Andrews?”
Bella blanched.
“We’ve been working nonstop on ReNew. No plans to research invisibility, I’m afraid!” Her voice sounded tight.
“Shame, I could think of quite a few places where I’d like to be the proverbial fly on the wall, can’t you, Dominic?”
“Sure can.”
Bella glanced at him, eyes wary.
Dominic enjoyed having them both where he wanted them. Tarrant playing nice for once, since he was willing to do almost anything to placate his newfound son and heir, and Bella under pressure to stop doing something that could screw up her life.
If this worked out right, everyone would end up right where he wanted them.
“Bella and I are heading to the balcony to rest for a minute.”
“Indeed.” Tarrant’s gaze seemed about to issue a challenge, then apparently he thought better of it. “Don’t stay out of the action too long. There are some people I’d like you to meet.”
Dominic just smiled.
As Tarrant walked away, he took Bella’s hand. It was ice cold. “What’s the matter?”
“What are you doing? What was that thing about the cloak of invisibility?”
“Wasn’t that one of your dad’s pet projects?”
“No! Well, yes, it was, but I never told you that.” She blinked rapidly.
“I’m good at reading between the lines. You’ll need to work on that cloak if you don’t drop your plan of suing Tarrant.”
Her pretty eyes narrowed. “Can we drop the subject? I told you I’m leaving the company.”
“And I told you you’re not.”
Her eyes widened. “What makes you think you have the right—”
“Raw nerve.” He grinned.
“You mean being a bully.”
“Have I ever bullied you?”
“No, but...” She pressed her lips together.
“You’ve spent your whole life in an ivory tower. You don’t have any experience with the real world, so it’s no surprise that you think every story has a happy ending. You trying to ge
t your dad’s work back from Tarrant is a story that does not end happily. Trust me on this.”
She put her hands on her gorgeous hips. “You think I’m just being a spoiled brat?”
“Hmm. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but maybe you could use a good spanking.”
Her mouth flew open, and for a second he thought she was going to slap him. Her breasts strained against the shimmering fabric of her dress and her cheeks flushed pink.
Beautiful.
“You’ve got a lot of fire in you. You don’t need to beg or borrow or steal stuff back from someone else. You’re sharp and young and you can do anything you want.”
She spoke between gritted teeth. “Right now I’d like to—”
“Finish what we started on that copy machine?” He tilted his head and let his gaze roam shamelessly over the hot, angry skin of her face and neck. “That picture does bring back sweet memories.”
“You’re a beast!”
“I know. Sad isn’t it? Do you think you can tame me?”
Her breathing came faster, creating a shimmering ripple in the clingy dress that made his blood pound with desire. He might be way beyond taming.
“I’d like to wring your neck.” Her eyes were narrowed to stormy slits.
“Go ahead and try.” He squinted. “It’s pretty big, so I’m not sure you’ll be able to get your hands around it. But you never know.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and went for it. He had no idea what was really going through her mind, presumably not a public strangulation at his dad’s party. Maybe she couldn’t turn down the challenge that her hands wouldn’t fit around his neck.
Naturally, he took advantage of the opportunity to grab her around the waist. She wriggled and her silky dress slid under his fingers. Her high heels raised her hips to just below his, so her pelvis crushed delightfully against his thickening flesh.
“Let me go!”
“You let me go first.” His voice turned gruff, as blood rushed from his brain and vocal cords to more southern parts of his anatomy.
Volatile Chemistry (Billionaires' Secrets Book 1) Page 12
