I married Tara, she worked for my company in the accounts department. She made it her business to find out everything she could about the way I ran things. I didn’t know, but once I started dating her she used that knowledge to make trouble, hiding behind the shield of our relationship. None of my staff dared tell me.’
‘Not good,’ Andie said, wanting to express in no uncertain terms what she thought of his ex, yet not wanting to get into a bitching session about her.
‘You’re right about that,’ he said. ‘It’s why I now never date employees.’
His gaze met hers again and held it for a long moment. Was there a message in there for her? If she wasn’t a contractor, would he ask her out? If she hadn’t promised her partners to stay away from him, would she suggest a date?
‘That policy makes...sense,’ she said. What about after Christmas, when she and Dominic would no longer be connected by business? Could they date then? A sudden yearning for that to happen surprised her with its intensity. She wanted him.
‘It gets worse,’ he continued. ‘A former employee started his own business in competition with me—’ Andie went to protest but Dominic put up his hand. ‘It happens; that’s legit,’ he said. ‘But what happened afterwards wasn’t. After our marriage broke up, Tara used her knowledge of how my company worked to help him.’
Andie couldn’t help her gasp of outrage. ‘Did her...her betrayal work?’
‘She gave him the information. That didn’t mean he knew how to use it. But now I’ve just discovered she’s working with him in a last-minute rival bid for the joint venture with Walter Burton.’
Andie shook her head in disbelief. ‘Why?’ Her research had shown her Tara Hunt had ended up with a massive divorce settlement from Dominic. Per day of their short marriage, she had walked away with an incredible number of dollars.
Dominic shrugged. ‘Revenge. Spite. Who knows what else?’
‘Surely Walter Burton won’t be swayed by that kind of underhand behaviour?’
‘Traditional values are important to Walter Burton. We know that. That’s why we’re holding the party to negate the popular opinion of me as a Scrooge.’
‘So what does your ex-wife have to do with the deal?’
Dominic sighed, a great weary sigh that made Andie want to put comforting arms around him. She’d sensed from the get-go he was a private person. He obviously hated talking about this. Once more, she wondered why he had chosen to.
He drew those dark brows together in a scowl. ‘Again she’s raked over the coals of our disastrous marriage and talked to her media buddies. Now she’s claiming I was unfaithful—which is a big fat lie. According to her, I’m a womaniser, a player and a complete and utter bastard. She dragged out my old quote that I will never marry again and claims it’s because I’m incapable of settling with one woman. It’s on one of the big Internet gossip sites and will be all over the weekend newspapers.’ He cursed under his breath.
Andie could see the shadow of old hurts on his face. He had once loved his ex enough to marry her. A betrayal like this must be painful, no matter how much time had elapsed. She had no such angst behind her. She knew Anthony had been loyal to her, as she had been to him. First love. Sometimes she wondered if they might have grown apart if he’d lived. Some of their friends who had dated as teenagers had split when they got older. But she dismissed those thoughts as disloyal to his memory.
Andie shook her head at Dominic’s revelations about his ex—it got worse and worse. ‘That’s horrible—but can’t you just ignore it?’
‘I would ignore it, but she’s made sure Walter Burton has seen all her spurious allegations set out as truth.’
Andie frowned. ‘Surely your personal life is none of Mr Burton’s business? Especially when it’s not true.’ She believed Dominic implicitly—why, she wasn’t completely sure. Trust went both ways.
‘He might think it’s true. The “bed-hopping billionaire”,’ the article calls me.’ Dominic growled with wounded outrage. ‘That might be enough for Burton to reconsider doing business with me.’
Andie had to put her hand over her mouth to hide her smile at the description.
But Dominic noticed and scowled. ‘I know it sounds ludicrous, but to a moralistic family man like Walter Burton it makes me sound immoral and not the kind of guy he wants to do business with.’
‘Why do you care so much about the deal with Mr Burton? If you have to pretend to be someone you’re not, how can it be worth it?’
‘You mean I should pretend not to be a bed-hopping billionaire?’
‘You must admit the headline has a certain ring to it,’ Andie said, losing her battle to keep a straight face.
That forced a reluctant grin from him. ‘A tag like that might be very difficult to live down.’
‘Is...is it true? Are you a bed-hopping guy?’ She held her breath for his reply.
‘No. Of course I’ve had girlfriends since my divorce. Serial monogamy, I think they call it. But nothing like what this scurrilous interview with my ex claims.’
Andie let out her breath on a sigh of relief. ‘But do you actually need to pursue this deal if it’s becoming so difficult? You’re already very wealthy.’
Dominic’s mouth set in a grim line. ‘I’m not going to bore you with my personal history. But home life with my aunt was less than ideal. I finished high school and got out. I’d tried to run away before and she’d dragged me back. This time she let me go. I ended up homeless, living in a squat. At seventeen I saw inexplicably awful things a boy that age should never see. I never again want to be without money and have nowhere to live. That’s all I intend to say about that.’ He nodded to her. ‘And I trust you not to repeat it.’
‘Of course,’ she said, rocked by his revelations, aching to know more. Dominic Hunt was a street kid? Not boring. There was so much more about his life than he was saying. She thought again about his scarred knuckles and broken nose. There had been nothing about his past in her online trawling. She hoped he might tell her more. It seemed he was far more complex than he appeared. Which only made him more attractive.
‘My best friend and first business partner, Jake Marlow, is also in with me on this,’ he said. ‘He wants it as much as I do, for his own reasons I’m not at liberty to share.’
‘Okay,’ she said slowly. ‘So we’re working on the party to negate the Scr...uh...the other reputation, to get Mr Burton on board. What do you intend to do about the bed-hopper one?’
‘When Burton contacted me I told him that it was all scuttlebutt and I was engaged to be married.’
She couldn’t help a gasp. ‘You’re engaged?’ She felt suddenly stricken. ‘Engaged to who?’
‘I’m not engaged. I’m not even dating anyone.’
‘Then why...?’ she said.
He groaned. ‘Panic. Fear. Survival. A gut reaction like I used to have back in that squat.
