Freya’s faltering gave Aaron time to pull on a T-shirt and stuff the key to his door in his pocket. ‘Let’s get out of here, before people start talking.’
She followed him back along the corridor and down the stairs. They passed one of the waiters on the way out. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. The door banged shut behind them. The courtyard tables were still full. The spiced scent of curry made Freya realise how hungry she was.
‘So why were you there then?’ Her words sounded more accusatory than she meant.
‘I went for a walk.’
‘You do that often, do you?’
‘It was a fucking walk, Freya. And what were you doing there?’
‘Getting my book from the shop. I couldn’t sleep.’
‘Well, there we go then.’
Freya folded her arms. ‘That answers nothing. Like how exactly the fire started.’ Despite the way he was glaring at her, she held his gaze. She wanted everything to go back to normal between them, like it had been in those first few weeks. She hated that she was so conflicted about him.
‘Are you actually suggesting what I think you are?’ His nostrils flared, his jaw clenched and he took a step back. ‘Is that what Zander’s been saying? And you believe him over me?’
‘I don’t know what to believe, Aaron. It’s been a weird and messed up few days.’
‘I saw this coming.’
‘You saw what coming?’
‘Zander and you.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘He’s really good at snaring beautiful young women with his looks and his money and his fucking villa on the beach, using them and dumping them when he’s had enough.’
Freya’s eyes narrowed. She took hold of Aaron’s arm and walked him away from the staff accommodation, aware of his voice rising and the amount of people milling around. She didn’t stop until they reached the far side of the beach where the water lapped the pearly sand.
‘Where’s this coming from, Aaron? Zander’s been nothing but decent to me, particularly since the night of the fire.’
‘Yeah, by all accounts you’ve been spending a lot of time with him.’
‘What is wrong with you? Of course I’ve been spending time with him – the bookshop burnt down. It’s where I work, the whole reason I’m here.’
‘I only got back this afternoon and it’s all everyone’s talking about, you and the fire, and you and Zander...’
It felt like the island was closing in on her. There was no privacy; nowhere to escape to. The staff village had become a melting pot of gossip, of people who thought they knew everything and assumed too much about things they had no clue about. Or was it Aaron simply reading too much into everything, the way he’d flipped as soon as she’d questioned his reason for being at the bookshop that night? If she hadn’t said anything, would he even have mentioned the fire or asked her if she was okay?
Freya folded her arms. ‘And if there are rumours about me, then you shouldn’t be surprised there are rumours about you too.’
‘Yeah, fuelled by Zander.’
‘It’s not just Zander. Meena too.’
‘Yeah, that makes sense. Zander’s bitch.’
Freya stepped back. She didn’t recognise him as the warm, friendly man she’d got to know over the past couple of months. The obvious hatred he had for Zander was spilling over to other people associated with him, including her. Maybe he realised how he was coming across because his clenched cheeks softened and he relaxed his balled-up fists.
He looked at her pleadingly. ‘It’s what he does, Freya. He charms women, puts them in positions where he can seduce them. He’s done it before; he’ll do it again.’
‘I don’t know why you think that, but that’s so far from the truth and my experience of him.’
‘You’re honestly telling me you’ve not slept with him?’
‘My goodness, Aaron, no. Is that what you believe?’
‘Not even when you stayed the night with him? Drew told me.’
‘I stayed because I passed out after the fire. If you’d come back and helped, it might have been you taking care of me. But you didn’t even go and get help. Why the hell would you not have done that?’
‘Is that what he told you?’
‘It’s what Hassan said. He raised the alarm because he heard me shouting. It was Zander who was there first helping me.’
One of them was lying to her, they had to be. Aaron, the gorgeous and friendly dive instructor who’d made her feel so welcome from the minute he met her, who’d become friends with her and taken her back to his home, introduced her to his family, had seduced her in the best way possible. Or the multi-millionaire whose past was documented for all to see: his wild boy band days, the womanising, the smart business-minded entrepreneur who’d made his fortune. And yet, while she hadn’t immediately warmed to Zander, and had been wary of him for the reasons Aaron was suggesting, as she’d got to know him little by little and that playboy exterior had been chipped away, she’d seen a different side to him. The same way little things about Aaron had been revealed; the son he’d failed to mention, the breakdown of the relationship with the mother of his child, the jealousy that had been hinted at that was now manifesting itself in front of her.
Freya shook her head and walked away. There was nowhere to escape to, no privacy on an island this size. Except one place. Freya paced back up the beach.
Aaron’s voice cut across the thrum of the waves folding on to the sand. ‘He had an affair with Zahida. The boy’s his, I’m certain of it.’
Freya swung back to face him.
