But Thomas didn’t know that yet. And there was a court case pending. ‘So...’ She squinted into the sun at him. ‘Rupert told you that much, huh?’
‘I didn’t know about the hidden cameras, but as for the rest...’ He nodded.
‘You know that’s all classified, right?’
He nodded again. ‘What hasn’t Rupert told me?’ He dragged in a breath, his hands clenching. ‘Did Farquhar break your heart?’
She huffed out a laugh. ‘Which of those questions do you want me to answer first?’ When he didn’t answer, she moved back to lean against the rock. ‘I’ll answer the second first because that’ll move us on nicely to the first.’ She winced at the bitterness that laced her nicely. ‘No, he didn’t break my heart. In fact I was starting to feel smothered by him so I...uh...’
‘You...?’
‘I told him I wanted to break up.’
He stared at her for a long moment. The muscles in his jaw tensed. ‘What did he do?’
She swallowed. ‘He pushed me into the hall closet and locked me in.’
He swore and the ferocity of his curse made her blink. He landed beside her, his expression black.
‘I... I think he panicked when I demanded my key back. So he locked me in, stole my computer and high-tailed it out of there.’
‘How long were you in there?’
‘All night.’ And it’d been the longest night of her life.
‘How...?’
He clenched his fists so hard he started to shake. In a weird way his outrage helped.
‘How did you get out?’
‘He made the mistake of using my access code to get into the office early the next morning. Very early when he didn’t think anyone else would be around. But Rupert, who had jet lag, had decided to put in a few hours. He saw the light on in my office, and came to drag me off to breakfast.’ She shrugged. ‘He found Thomas rifling through my filing cabinets instead. The first thing he did was to call Security. The second was to call my home phone and then my mobile. Neither of which I could answer. He has a key to my flat, so...’
‘So he raced over and let you out.’
‘Yep.’
She’d never been happier to see her older brother in her life. Her lips twisted. ‘It was only then, though, that I learned of the extent of Thomas’s double-dealing. And all I wanted to do was crawl back in the closet and hide from the world.’
‘Sweetheart—’
She waved him quiet again. ‘I know all the things you’re going to say, Finn, but don’t. Rupert’s already said them. None of this is my fault. Anyone can be taken in by a conman... Blah-blah-blah.’
She moved to the edge of the rock shelf and stared out at the sea, but its beauty couldn’t soothe her. She’d been taken in by a man whose interest and undivided attention had turned her head—a man who’d seemed not only interested but invested in hearing about her hopes and dreams...and supporting her in those dreams. She hadn’t felt the focus of somebody’s world like that since her mother had died.
She folded her arms, gripped her elbows tight. But it’d all been a lie, and in her hunger for that attention she’d let her guard down. It’d had the potential to cause untold damage to Cora’s career, not to mention the Russel Corporation’s reputation. She’d been such an idiot!
And to add insult to injury she’d spent the best part of six weeks trying to talk herself out of breaking up with him because he’d seemed so darn perfect.
Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!
‘So now you feel like a gullible fool who’s let the family down, and you look at every new person you meet through the tainted lens of suspicion—wondering if they can be trusted or if they’re just out for whatever they can get.’
Exactly. She wanted to dive into the sea and power through the water until she was too tired to think about any of this any more. It was a decent swim from here back to the beach, but one that was within her powers. Only...if she did that Finn would follow and five laps out to the buoy and back was enough for him for one day.
She swung around to meet his gaze. ‘That sounds like the voice of experience.’
He shrugged and moved to stand beside her, his lips tightening as he viewed the horizon. ‘It’s how I’d feel in your shoes.’
‘Except you’d never be so stupid.’ She turned and started to pick her way back along the rock pools towards the beach.
‘I’ve done stupider things with far less cause.’
He had? She turned to find him staring at her with eyes as turbulent as the Aegean in a storm. She didn’t press him, but filed the information away. She might ask him about that some day.