Desperately trying to drag her attention away from his body, she decided to focus on his clothes. Carter was always immaculately dressed, which was something Fen noticed because she was too. She’d spent some time before he’d arrived seething over the wreck the kidnappers had made of her suit and shoes by dumping her on a dirty floor. His clothes and shoes were as expensive and well-chosen as hers, and in just as much of a mess. His shoes, of fine Italian leather, were scuffed. His white linen shirt was rumpled and stained with engine oil. His signature long black coat was dusty and scrunched beneath him.
Hewas a mess. The kidnappers must have hit him over the head rather than drugging him. Dried blood was smeared over one side of his face and had glued some of his hair together. A bruise spread across his temple. None of that looked fake.
Fen ruthlessly crushed the sympathy that had flickered up at the sight of his injuries. Instead, she focused on his face. His features were more rugged than really worked with his image: his chin too strong, his mouth too wide, his eyes too deep-set. He was supposed to be a billionaire genius playboy, but his face suggested something tough and strong beneath the glamour.
She kept coming back to his eyes. She’d never been able to identify their color in photos and video. Close up and in real life, she could see that they were hazel, which never photographs well. His were a particularly attractive shade, a blend of deep green and rich brown, like a pool of clear water in an ancient forest. His lashes were thick and black, as were his eyebrows. She’d always suspected him of wearing very subtle mascara and eyeliner based on how amazing his eyes looked in photos and video, but now she realized with annoyance that he just had the world’s greatest eyelashes.
Hedefinitelymanicured his eyebrows, though. No one’s were that perfect without help.
She took a deep breath, and that one wasn’t to force herself to focus. Her arrogant enemy Carter Howe was the best-smelling thing on the plane. Of course he was, he could afford the absolute best cologne and soap, but he also seemed to naturally smell good, or else he’d invented an incredibly realistic cologne named something likeEau de Sexy…
Focus.
He had the strangest expression on his face. He’d looked annoyed before, but now he looked like he too was deeply focused, intent, almost enraptured…
With a start, she realized that he was observing her right back. She wondered what information he’d gleaned from her.
“Well?” Carter demanded. “Satisfied that I didn’t kidnap myself?”
Reluctantly, she came to the conclusion that he hadn’t. She couldn’t imagine him deliberately damaging his carefully maintained body, let alone his expensive clothes. Nor did she think he’d allow himself to appear in such an unflattering position next to her. Or that he was a good enough actor to fake that level of irritation.
But she couldn’t resist saying, “Maybe you set it up so I’d trauma-bond with you and tell you business secrets.”
He gave a disgusted snort. “If I wanted your business secrets, I’d take over your company, not kidnap us both and cross my fingers you’d draw me some blueprints with your hands cuffed.”
“You already tried to take over Little Bit,” she retorted. “And you failed. Maybe this is your desperate last resort to destroy me.”
“Why would I do something as ridiculous as stage a kidnapping when I could destroy you the traditional way, by making sure Howe Enterprises has better products?”
“Because you can’t. I make sure Little Bit has better products,” she retorted. “Maybe you wanted me to disappear for a while and then return with a wild story, so my company looks unstable and our stock prices plunge and our investors drop us and invest with you.”
“Right.” He sounded almost… hurt. “A disappearance followed by a wild story followed by people investing elsewhere. Definitely sounds like something I’d do to you. Oh wait,Iwas the one who disappeared and returned a year later with a wild story, andyourcompany was the one that benefited. Maybe I should suspect you of staging that. God knows everyone thought I faked it for publicity.”
She felt abashed, though there was no reason for her to. It was true that she and her company Little Bit, along with the third big tech company, TicTech and its CEO Eldon McManus, had profited from Howe Enterprises nearly imploding in chaos and legal trouble after Carter had vanished. But she’d had nothing to do with Howe Enterprises’ misfortunes.
And Carter’s explanation of what had happened, when he’d finally reappeared, had been absolutely ridiculous.Surehe’d been flying alone and crashed his small plane in the ocean and had been stranded on a tiny island for a year, living on fish and coconuts without even a volleyball for company. No one had believed it.
But the photos and video after he’d come back hadn’t suggested a publicity stunt. The smirk was gone. He’d lost weight, which made sense if you believed in the fish and coconuts, and he’d looked haggard. Even haunted. She hadn’t believed the tropical island story, but it was obvious that it was a cover for something real. She’d assumed he’d either been in rehab for some kind of addiction or in treatment for a serious illness that he hadn’t wanted to make public.
Even now, he looked haunted just talking about it.
“I never thought you faked it for publicity,” she said. “I knowsomethingbad happened.”
His face seemed to freeze over, leaving him completely expressionless. In an equally guarded voice, he said, “Roll over so your back is to me.”
“You can say, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ You don’t need to order me to do random things to change the subject.”
“I wasn’t changing the subject,” he snapped. “Seriously, roll over.”
“Why? What don’t you want me to see?”
“Do you always jump to the worst possible conclusion?” he demanded.
Forbearing to point out that she’djust saidshe didn’t believe that he’d vanished as a publicity stunt, she retorted, “When it comes to you.”
Carter heaved a put-upon sigh, then rolled over himself, showing her his back and cuffed hands. A very nice back, she couldn’t help noticing. Very muscular. The back was an underrated part of the body. So many sexy parts to it. The narrow groove of the spine, for instance. If it hadn’t belonged to Carter Howe, she’d have wanted to run her finger along it. If she hadn’t been handcuffed, it would have been a temptation she’d have struggled to resist.
“See what I’m holding?” he asked.
