1925 - Millionaire's Secret Seduction by Jennifer Lewis

successor to take the garden I’ve planted and grow it into something even bigger and better.”
    Tarrant squeezed his hand again and Dominic fought the urge to squeeze back.
    “You’re the one. You’re my heir. Hell, you even look just like me.” He slapped the leather arm of his chair with delight. The exertion made him cough a bit.
    Dominic looked him right in the face. “I’m not going to be your heir.”
    “What do you mean? Of course you are! You’re perfect. Even a retail entrepreneur yourself. I had no idea that young upstart revolutionizing the way gourmet food was sold was my own flesh and blood. When Sam found you and told me, I couldn’t stop laughing. You can’t fight destiny, dear boy.”
    So Tarrant hadn’t even recognized his name in the papers. That was a cold splash of reality. Dominic had always imagined his famous father sitting up and taking notice as his stores got raves in the press.
    When Tarrant snatched those bankrupt stores out from under him, Dominic had taken grim satisfaction in the idea that at least his father was paying attention to him. Maybe even making some kind of alpha-dog jostle for dominance.
    Once again, like the snot-nosed kid with the scrapbook, he’d been kidding himself.
    Dominic kept his eyes on Tarrant’s. “I came here because I wanted to meet you. I wanted to look you in the face. I wanted to know why you abandoned me and my mom.” He inhaled slowly. “I’ve done that now. I’m glad of the chance to meet you, but I’m not going to take over your company. You don’t owe me anything, and I don’t owe you anything.”
    Tarrant’s eyes didn’t dim. If anything they glowed brighter. “I can see you’re a tough customer.” He patted Dominic’s knee.I wouldn’t expect anything less. Why should you want to take on a big burden from some old codger who needs a son all of a sudden? Hell, I wouldn’t either.”
    Tarrant leaned forward. “Tell me, Dominic, what can I do for you? For your business. I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pies and I can pull you out a sweet cherry from one. Just say the word.”
    Here was his opportunity to ask for the stores he wanted. But he’d rather die than take a handout from this man. He should throw his offer back in his face with a stinging insult.
    But he couldn’t.
    Dominic struggled to keep his face emotionless. He’d thought his childish hopes and dreams of reconciliation with his absent father were crushed out of existence and forgotten.
    They weren’t. They’d been festering away below the surface the whole time and now they bubbled up like acid that stripped his insides raw.
    “I’ve got to go.” He stood, burning to be out of this place where anything nasty was sucked out of the air so they could all pretend it didn’t really exist.
    Tarrant Hardcastle could offer all the gold in his vaults, but that would never change the past.
    His clothes felt itchy and uncomfortable as he stepped out into the high-noon heat. His gut churned and his chest ached and his heart kept beating too fast.
    He decided to call it lust and go see Bella.
     
    “Hello, Miss Andrews.”
    Bella started at the deep voice in her ear. Dominic . Leaning over her shoulder, staring at the graph in her hand. She snatched it out of sight. “How did you get in here?”
    “Through the door.”
    Kumar and Anita stood not ten feet away, going over somedata in hushed voices. Sue hunched over a microscope at the nearest table, and Theo held a rack of test tubes up to the bright sunlight at the wall of windows.
    Dominic’s breath, warm on the back of her neck, made her tiny hairs stand on end.
    “My research team is here,” she hissed.
    “I can see that. I look forward to meeting them.”
    She craned her neck around. His placid, innocent expression warred with the wicked gleam in his eye.
    “What do you want?”
    “Lunch would work.”
    She blew out a breath. Anything to get him out of here before he stirred up trouble with her team.