Page 31 of Bride Under Contract

‘You’re fine,’ he said, drawing her close so she stood by him.

‘Will we see other boats?’

‘Most can’t get down here,’ Carter said, and steered them into a small tributary, then another, where the branches were hanging low, the banks closer, forming a natural tunnel. He guided them down, then they came to some mangroves and he turned the engine off.

‘What are you doing?’ she whispered as he turned the lights off and they were plunged into darkness.

He turned her around and wrapped his arms over her shoulders. ‘Look,’ he told her.

‘I can’t see anyth—’

For a second she thought she had something in her eye. Little lights were darting across her vision. But then she gasped as she saw the river trees as if draped in fairy lights, flickering on and off, dots of yellow and cool icy green.

‘Fireflies,’ she gasped.

‘And a new moon,’ he said. ‘Which makes them especially bright. Now do you get why the group went out later tonight?’

Grace started to laugh—a giddy laugh, a carefree laugh—and she spun around, stunned by the tiny lights, the sheer volume of them.

‘It looks as if they’ve been strung on the branches...as if...’ She had never seen anything so beautiful, so pretty, so wondrous. Some of the lights darted, and some of them seemed to flash in unison, as if synchronised. ‘This is so precious!’

‘Yes.’ He turned her to face him. ‘And so are you,’ he stated, for he needed her so badly tonight.

Beyond the display in the lush trees where the fireflies gathered were the bare, silvery mangroves where his family had been lost. Where not only his heart had been carved out but his spirt, too, leaving him a stranger to those who had once known him.

‘Take another look,’ he said. ‘They disappear once the lights come on.’

For Grace, they would never disappear.

Even before they’d made love the night was perfect. As if Carter himself had been standing on ladders and arranging the lights just to give her this sight.

‘Thank you,’ she said as he started up the boat. The light show was over but her heart was soaring even as they were plunged back into the night. Bolder now, she moved behind him as he took the wheel. Wrapping her arms around his waist she leant her head on his strong back and gazed out to the darkness. ‘For bringing me here.’

Carter loathed the rare times he was here. It was like sailing through hell. But tonight he felt the low grip of her arms around his waist as he stared ahead. Feeling her warmth, he carefully guided the boat through the winding, narrow stretch. The dense vegetation was gone; the river here was lined on either side with bare silvery mangroves.

Grace’s touch, the heat from her body and the promise of bed was everything he needed to get through this stretch of river he particularly loathed.

‘Was it here?’ she asked, and he assumed she must have felt the tension zip through his shoulders.

Usually he’d ignore such a question, but then, there was nothing usual about this situation. He’d avoided being here, and certainly had never brought a woman. There was no demand for him to answer...just a calm, patient presence...and they were, after all, just together for one night.

‘Just there,’ he finally answered, pointing to the exact spot. ‘That was where my father tied the boat off. A local fisherman saw it empty.’

He turned the boat’s flashlight on and aimed it towards the riverbank, but there were no predatory glinting eyes, just the pale mangroves and the still, dark water. He thought of his mother, impatient when they couldn’t get the small boat close enough...

‘Sophie!’

He could almost hear his father warning her...see Hugo smiling over her shoulder, looking at him.

Moving the flashlight, he shone it into the mangroves, almost expecting to see Hugo’s innocent smile.

That damn teething ring.

Arif should have left it there, undisturbed.

Carter turned off the flashlight, and Grace knew he was shutting down any further discussion about it. She didn’t blame him.

It was eerie to be on the river now, a relief to leave that stretch behind.

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