She felt him relax beside her, pressing his own head back against the seat and facing her. She kept her eyes facing forward, not looking at him.
He inched his face a little closer to her. ‘You didn’t like lying to your colleagues, did you?’
How could he read her so damn well? He barely knew her.
Her throat caught. ‘I hate it,’ she muttered. ‘Lying on an investigation is never real because I always know I’m getting the facts needed to expose corrupt and illegal practices. This is very different.’ She turned her head to meet his gaze. ‘You know I’m only going along with this to protect Violet, don’t you? If it was just my own future at stake I would let you throw me to the wolves.’
He brushed his thumb over her cheekbone lazily but there was an intensity in his stare. ‘She is lucky to inspire such devotion.’
Carrie grabbed his hand, intending to push it off her face but instead wrapped her fingers around it tightly and stared back with matching concentration to his. ‘Do we have to do this…this marriage thing?’ she asked on impulse. ‘My colleagues all believe I made a mistake. I’ve convinced them there’s nothing worth investigating about you.’
His light brown eyes continued to ring into hers for a long time before he answered. There was none of the usual staccato beat to his voice, his tone slow and thoughtful. ‘A good reputation takes years to build but can be knocked down in minutes by nothing more than careless words. Do you know what happened to my parents’ business?’
She shook her head.
‘They owned their own water taxi company. Do you know what that is?’
‘Like a regular taxi firm but on water?’
He nodded. His face had inched so close to hers she could feel his warm breath on her skin.
A voice in her head warned her to shift away from him, not allow him to get any closer.
Carefully she released her hold on his hand but his eyes…
This was why she tried to avoid looking into them.
It was as if he were hypnotising her.
‘They took tourists and locals island hopping or from one side of the island to another. They also had a handful of larger boats they chartered out for daytrips through the holiday companies. It was a good living for them.’ His lips tightened, the mesmerising eyes darkening. ‘When I was in my final year at university a rival company set itself up. These rivals were predators. They sabotaged my parents’ fleet. One of the charter boats sank; it’s a miracle none of the passengers were killed. Then rumours were spread that they knowingly employed paedophiles—can you imagine the impact that had on an island built for families? People stopped using their taxis, the holiday companies cancelled their contracts…in months the business they had spent their whole marriage building was in ruins.’
Chills raced up Carrie’s spine. ‘That’s…horrific. What did your parents do?’
He grimaced and rolled his face away from hers. ‘They tried to fight but did not have the resources. They had used all their savings to get me through university. I went on a scholarship but they paid for all my accommodation, flights back home for holidays… I thought they could afford it. If I had known they were putting themselves in such a precarious financial situation I would have worked more hours to support myself…’ He cut himself off and shook his head before straightening in his seat.
His gaze fixed on the screen separating them from his driver, he continued, ‘It is done. I cannot change what they did or what I did. I didn’t go home at all in that last year. There was too much going on in my life. Studying. Girls. Parties. Too busy to call home and only listening with one ear when we did speak. I didn’t have a clue what was happening with them. They didn’t want to worry me and made my sister promise not to tell me. I learned the truth when I graduated.’
‘Would you have been able to do anything if you had known?’
His jaw clenched before he answered. ‘If they had told me when it first started I might have been able to scare their rivals off. I could have at least shared the burden with them. Once I did know, I helped as much as I could. Their financial situation was an incentive for me to work all hours so I could support them through it and pay for lawyers who were able to take the case to court. To prove the allegations wrong and prove that their rivals deliberately sabotaged their business. It took four years to get there but they went to prison for it.’
‘Good,’ she stated vehemently.
He turned his face to look at her. A faint smile appeared on his lips. ‘I should have guessed that what happened to my parents would make you angry. You are a one-woman crusader against injustice.’