Page 32 of Bride Under Contract

More so for Carter.

‘Not long,’ he said, as they turned down another waterway and finally she glimpsed lights.

‘Are there people at home?’ she asked as he tied the boat.

‘There are some residences and offices, but their jetty is further along.’ She saw him look at her taut features. ‘Don’t worry, Felicity won’t see us. The banyan tree is a great divider.’

She laughed. ‘Why am I so scared of her?’

‘I don’t know.’ He pointed to his laptop and she passed it out to him. ‘That too,’ he said, and she handed him the leather cylinder he’d been carrying at the airport.

‘So much for spontaneous,’ she quipped.

‘When it rains in Borneo...’ he said, offering his hand and pulling her out. ‘I am not risking them.’

The lawn was so unlike the jungle, trimmed and cold beneath her feet, and then they came to a stone path and walked up some steps.

‘Wait here...’ he told her, and she watched as he opened up some French doors.

She gasped as he turned on lights. ‘A ballroom?’

‘It was,’ he said. ‘Now it’s a conference room, but there used to be parties held here. Arif and I would watch.’

He didn’t elaborate, just deposited his luggage by the doors and then his attention was fully upon her.

She felt shy, and just a touch awkward—possibly because of her inexperience, or just because she was here, in this stunning, opulent home, where apparently you entered via a ballroom.

But then she met his eyes and any gathering doubts flew away. For there was nothing in her head other than his male beauty. Not a thought save for one—that it had to be him. This night could only happen with him. On this hot, sultry island, all her secrets would be held in the jungle...a place she was never going to return.

‘Can we dance?’ she asked.

‘I don’t dance.’

‘One dance,’ she said, and draped her arms around his neck.

They swayed to no music and she inhaled the scent of his chest and then kissed his salty skin. Breathing him, licking him, tasting him... And not caring, barely noticing, when he unknotted her sarong and it fell to the polished wooden floor.

Oh, the feel of her breasts against his chest, his hands easing her knickers past her thighs. She pushed them down and stepped out of them.

‘One more dance,’ said the man who never danced as he discarded his clothing.

And she thought there might just be music, because they moved slowly as if to a rhythm.

His breathing was ragged in her ear, and then he took her hand and slipped it between them, and she held him, stroked him. Then they separated and he toyed with her breasts, lowering his head and tasting them one by one.

‘Please...’ she said when he stopped his attention there.

But he desisted, and neither did he pull her back into his embrace. The sight of the silver he’d left on her stomach was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen. His erection was alive between them, as if searching for where Grace ached the most.

‘Take me to bed,’ she pleaded, and he did.

But first—hopelessly unromantic—he took condoms from his luggage.

‘I don’t bring anyone here,’ he told her.

She liked that. Knew this was a rarity for them both.

As he picked her up she coiled her legs around his waist. He took the long, winding grand stairs and kissed her at the top, then carried her down a corridor, then another...

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