Suddenly, their situation took on a whole new, delectable piquancy.
‘I didn’t want you prying into my private messages.’ Her voice was choppy, and Alexei felt as well as heard her harsh breathing.
‘Why’s that, Carissa? Have you been sexting with your French boyfriend?’
Her hissed breath confirmed it. Alexei’s constraining arm tightened. At the idea of her sharing erotic messages and images with another man?
Impossible.
Yet he felt a deep satisfaction that while she was on his island she’d have to devote all her attention to him. There’d be no other men in her life.
‘You know about him?’ Her voice was wary.
‘Was he supposed to be a secret?’ Of course he was. She’d even faked a show of tremulous innocence when her lips met his. Not that it had lasted.
‘My messages are my affair. You have no right to pry. You’re a bully.’
She yanked her arm, trying to free it. The movement was so violent it slammed her into even more intimate contact with Alexei’s hardening body. Flame shot through him as she rubbed against his groin.
Carissa froze, her breath a shocked hiss. He felt the pulse at her wrist sprint out of control as if she only now realised how intimately close they stood.
‘You think I care about seeing your nude photos? All I want is to bring your father out of hiding.’
‘Hiding? What are you talking about?’
Alexei applauded her acting skills. She sounded confused rather than guilty. ‘Spare me the dramatics. Only a woman desperate to hide the truth would pitch her phone. You’re in this with your father.’ He hadn’t quite believed she’d do it, even as she drew her arm back in that perfect curve. ‘You’ve just proved it.’
She was silent for so long he wondered if she were about to admit defeat till she said in a completely different tone, ‘In what?’
Furious and sick of her lies, he spun her round, his hands on her narrow waist.
Yet, reading her expression, Alexei felt a splinter of doubt.
‘What has he done?’ Instead of avoiding his stare, she peered up at him, a tiny wrinkle between her eyebrows, her look searching.
Probably hoping to pretend that she didn’t know.
‘Embezzled a fortune. And that’s just the funds he’s stolen in the last couple of months. Who knows what the total is in the years he’s worked for me?’ Alexei spoke through clamped teeth, watching her eyes grow wide.
He’d thought his financial systems the best. The rigorous accounting and auditing processes were held up as the gold standard. But when the man who designed them was the one with his fingers in the till...
‘You’re sure?’ Carissa looked the picture of shock. He felt a tremor pass through her and held her more firmly, telling himself he didn’t want her pretending to faint. It wasn’t dramatics he wanted but retribution.
‘Absolutely. There’s a complete audit underway. You can be sure it will uncover every cent he’s stolen. Including the money that’s supported your party lifestyle while you pretend to be an artist.’
The fact some of the stolen money had funded this woman’s taste for idle self-gratification twisted the knife. Alexei had laboured hard for everything he possessed. It had been tough, especially scraping together capital to invest in his first innovative software package when he’d had no track record and only a mediocre education. He hadn’t even had a permanent roof over his head.
Nothinghad been handed to him. And he knew all about leeches who fattened themselves by living off the hard work of others.
Yet he’d allowed himself to be conned by Carter.
He stared down into soft brown eyes and knew they lied. His voice held bitter amusement. ‘After this you’ll have to work for a living like the rest of us. That will be a novel experience for you.’
* * *
NowMina understood the rage flaring in that deep green gaze, the snap of his words and the harsh jut of his chin. It was like staring into the boiling heart of a volcano.
The raw quality of his emotion should unnerve her. Yet at the same time, that elemental ferocity drew her.