Page 54 of Bride Under Contract

She rather guessed he was thinking the same thing.

‘I am going to Janana soon,’ he said.

‘Where?’

‘The Middle East,’ he explained. ‘I have a big project there.’

‘Oh?’

‘Jonathon, my lawyer, is flying in, but before he gets here there’ll be time to sort out a few things...’

He paused the conversation as their drinks arrived and the waiter placed a gorgeous pink drink on the table before her.

It was soft, yet fruity, and so icy and delicious. ‘It’s like peaches.’ She pushed the glass towards him, and then frowned, because he seemed about to decline. ‘Look, I’m sorry I brought it up.’ She was awkward. ‘I just don’t think I should be drinking.’

‘It’s fine.’

As if to prove he wasn’t annoyed that she might be pregnant he reached for the glass and, almost reluctantly, took a taste.

He screwed up his nose. ‘Not for me.’

‘I thought you liked mangosteen?’

‘No.’

‘But we had them...’ Her voice trailed off as she remembered he had only peeled one for her, rather than have any himself, and when she’d asked had said he didn’t particularly like them.

Carter took a sip of cognac, as if to rinse his mouth,

It was a sickly taste, a familiar taste—only it wasn’t this sweet, fruity version he was recalling, but the rotten, decomposing fruit on the jungle floor that had been most of his sustenance for a week.

He took another sip of cognac, looked up at her eyes. He wanted to tell her that memories were starting to come back, his recollections becoming more frequent by the day. Tell her how he’d hoped things would change now they were out of the jungle.

That wasn’t part of the deal they’d made, though.

Yet the taste of that damn drink was still on his tongue and churning in his stomach.

As she reached to take the glass he told her what was wrong. ‘They were the only food I could find when I was missing.’

She looked at the glass, the condensation trickling down the side, and then up to him. ‘You should have said that morning. I wouldn’t have asked you to peel one.’

‘We were meant to be a one-off then.’

‘Yes.’

‘And I’d only just remembered then.’

‘I’ll order something else.’

‘No, no,’ he said. ‘Finish your drink. I just thought it better to say...’

‘Before it becomes my nightly treat?’

She made him smile, even with the sickly scent still in the air, and he watched as she called for the waiter and asked him to take the glass away.

‘Is everything okay?’ the waiter checked.

It was Carter who answered. ‘It’s fine.’ He’d just got a message. ‘I believe our suite is ready.’

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