1925 - Millionaire's Secret Seduction by Jennifer Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

system prevented even a whiff of smoke from straying into the air.
    Dominic shook his head. He couldn’t help an indulgent smile. It was easy to see how Tarrant’s childlike enthusiasm for everything charmed the socks off people around him. “Good, good. Don’t want you to get the big C like your old man.” Tarrant patted his arm.
    His chest tight, Dominic settled into the leather armchair. Floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the treetops of Central Park.
    “So you saw the lab, huh? What d’ya think?”
    “Impressive.”
    “That Bella Andrews is a firecracker. Could have gone anywhere with a research and business background like hers. Zurich, the Mayo—but no, she wanted to come to Hardcastle. Came to me, don’t you know?” His satisfied grin revealed two rows of gleaming capped teeth. “Damned fine gal.”
    Dominic wondered if his father had always talked like an escapee from an Agatha Christie movie, or if his mode of speech was newly adopted to complement the silver hair. He suspected the latter.
    “Yeah. She’s smart.” Shame she’s planning to take you to the cleaners.
    Though whatever she claimed would no doubt be pocket change to Tarrant.
    “I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have you here.” Tarrant wrapped long fingers around Dominic’s. “I’m only sorry it took my illness to bring me to my senses. When you’re in a certain position, there’s a tendency for everyone to want to dip their fingers in your pockets, like they have a right to your hard-earned money. That made me so defensive I pushed away the people who should have meant the most to me.”
    Emotion thickened his voice and made Dominic look up. Tarrant’s blue-green eyes glittered with moisture.
    Dominic swallowed. He’d wanted a dad desperately when he was a kid. Other kids had fathers who at least visited them on weekends or sent presents on their birthdays.
    Not him.
    For years he’d searched the mail for a birthday card, listened for a phone call. He’d imagined himself glancing up during his first communion, or the time his Little League team made the regional finals, always hoping he’d see a tall man standing there watching him.
    Never happened.
    His mom had told him his father’s name, once he plucked up the courage to ask. When he saw an article about Tarrant Hardcastle in the paper one day, he clipped it. He’d stared at the grainy newsprint image of that handsome face, imagining far-fetched reasons why his dad hadn’t come to claim him. He even started a scrapbook, gathering information and images to piece together a picture of the father he longed for.
    At fifteen, after nursing resentment mingled with painful hope for several months, he’d angrily accused his mother of keeping his existence a secret, at which point she’d sadly and gently told him about the rejected paternity suit and shown him the court papers as proof.
    He’d burned his scrapbook in the backyard brazier his mom used for destroying trash. Since then he’d avoided anything to do with Tarrant Hardcastle.
    Now that he was grown up and didn’t need or want a father any more, he’d turned up.
    “I wasn’t sure you’d come, you know?” Dominic’s heart squeezed as Tarrant patted his hand. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I know that. I’m not asking for it either. I just want to share what I’ve created.”
    Tarrant took a deep breath and lifted his chin. The morning sun played over his weathered skin. “I put my life into this company. Ate, slept and breathed it. It was my child.” He fixed Dominic with a shiny stare. “I thought that was enough. To build something and watch it grow.”
    He took a deep drag on his cigar, then puffed out a ball of smoke which disappeared instantly, sucked out of existence. “It’s not enough. Maybe it’s because I can’t stand the thought that I’m dying. Because I want to hang on and push my way into the future in whatever way I can. But I have to pass it on.I need a