Free 1925 - Millionaire's Secret Seduction by Jennifer Lewis

the roof flooded the tall interior with the spooky half light of the thunderstorm.
    “Let’s go up.” Dominic led the way up a half-spiral staircase rising toward the skylight. She gripped the glasses and bottles, trying not the think about vertigo.
    They arrived on a wide platform. White ultramodern furniture gathered around a sort of indoor fire pit.
    “The ultimate bachelor pad.”
    “Yeah. And since my pal who owns it now has a three-year-old and an eighteen-month-old, it’s available pretty much whenever I want it.”
    “Definitely doesn’t seem like a good space for kids.”
    “Not unless they’re wearing rappelling equipment. But he designed it himself and he can’t bear to part with it. I think it’s kind of weird to take a perfectly good building and scoop it out like a tub of ice cream.”
    He put their plates down on a low table near the fire pit and settled into a wide, white chair. He shrugged out of his jacket.
    Rolled his sleeves over thick forearms. He glanced at her. “Go on, eat.”
    “Stop telling me what to do.”
    “It pains me to see good food grow cold. I guess because food is my business.” He tilted his head and fixed those dark wicked eyes on her. “Pretty please.”
    She scowled at him, trying not to smile. Picked up her plate. “How did you get into selling food?”
    “I like to feed people. It’s that nurturing thing.”
    Yeah, right. She peered at him. “I guess food never goes out of style.”
    “Nope, and it hurts my soul that processed junk is cheaper and easier to buy than real food. I’m working to change that.”
    “And make a profit.”
    “Sure, or I wouldn’t be in business.” He took a bite of lasagna. “My goal is nothing less than world domination.” His relaxed expression suggested he almost took it for granted.
    “Like father, like son.” She eyed him cautiously.
    “We do seem to have a lot in common.” He put down his fork. “Including a taste for beautiful and difficult women.”
     
    Dominic loosened his collar with a finger. Bella’s wary gaze drove him crazy. She was only here because she was afraid he’d spill her secret. She was trying to play him.
    That should make him mad.
    This girl thought she could swindle Tarrant Hardcastle out of research he’d paid for and distract her enemy’s son with a few fluttering eyelashes?
    He should teach her a lesson for making that kind of mistake.
    He’d already warned her off. Told her she was looking for trouble and likely to find it. But she didn’t back down, or even pretend to.
    She stared at him again through those gold-tipped dark lashes. Her gray eyes so calm, cool. A perfect industrial spy—except that she didn’t seem able to tell a lie.
    What other secrets was she hiding, that she might spill if he just asked the right question?
    A crash of thunder shook the old building, and a blast of lightning brightened the open space of the apartment. Dominic put down his plate. He’d lost his appetite for food.
    She’d refused his kiss, but her lips had swollen and trembled under the pad of his thumb. He suspected he could stimulate a similar reaction in the rest of her body.
    He did love a challenge. The prospect of licking her skin—aroused, hot and salty with exertion—made his mouth water.
    “Would you like some wine? My friend has a good cellar left over from his partying days.”
    “I don’t drink during the day.”
    “Very sensible.” He took her plate from her lap and put it on the table. She hadn’t taken a single bite since they came here.
    He had an irrational urge to throw Miss Cool and Controlled a curveball. “Have you ever been in love?”
    She blinked. “No. Have you?”
    Her answer surprised him. It ended the line of questioning he’d anticipated, and his own question, thrown back at him, caught him by surprise.
    “Sure.”
    Bella smoothed the skirt of her dress “Did she make you so suspicious of women? I bet she broke your heart.”
    “I’m not suspicious of women.