Page 16 of Bride Under Contract

‘Nothing—luckily. Arif intervened, told me the herd were close. It could have turned nasty—they weigh in the tons.’

‘Arif?’ Grace checked. ‘The guide here?’

He nodded.

‘Thank goodness for friends.’ She laughed, but then it trailed off. ‘I almost didn’t come... I cancelled this trip a few times. But my friend Violet practically marched me to the airport.’

She didn’t elaborate, and Carter found he wanted her to.

Grace had found out something too—the inescapability of desire.

They were both looking down at her now blank phone, and she was suddenly utterly aware that he sat close to her. She could see his long, lean thigh next to hers, and his beautiful fingers holding her phone, the sorts of things she’d never really noticed in a man before...

Since that first meeting at airport she’d been doing her level best to get him out of her mind, and now he’d arrived at the resort she was trying to treat him just as she would any of her fellow travellers.

Yet for all her denial, for all her bravado, her heart—which had barely slowed since his arrival—picked up pace again. And when their fingers brushed as he handed her back the phone, the butterfly in her throat felt like a trapped, panicking moth.

‘Thanks,’ Grace said, placing it on the table and wondering if he’d move his chair back now. But he remained by her side, which meant they had to turn a little to face each other. ‘It’s nice to show someone.’

‘Aren’t you all swapping photos at dinner?’

He clearly knew the resort well. ‘I don’t really...’ She didn’t know how to say that she didn’t quite fit in—it wasn’t a flattering thing to admit. ‘They’re mainly couples.’

‘Yes?’

‘And I’m not the best photographer...’

‘I liked your pictures.’

‘Thank you.’ She rolled her eyes, but then her gaze went straight back to his. ‘They don’t get my jokes either. Mind you, they’re pretty dreadful.’

‘I’ll try and remember to laugh.’

Carter didn’t look like a man who laughed very often, and yet he made her smile with rare ease. More, there was a gentle yet particular attention he gave.

As if he even registered her blink.

Certainly she noticed when he did—the bat of his spiky black lashes and then the captivating return of a slate-grey that seemed to set the world into slow motion.

Her reaction was heightening—more now than just a faint blush or a fluttering heart. There was a pleasurable air of light tension. Her breasts, her stomach, and even lower felt subtly...provoked. Stirring, stretching, tuning up like the orchestra at the start of a concert...or rather tuning in to new sensations. She had never felt such attraction, and most bewildering of all, for Grace it felt reciprocated.

As if Carter felt it too.

Of course not, she told herself, reaching for her wine, determined to appear unaffected. It wasn’t just that he was out of her league, or that he was out of her realm, it was the fear of misreading him. The fear that it was woeful inexperience that had her misinterpreting the static air between them.

He took a drink, drained his glass, and her eyes flicked to his mouth as his pink tongue lightly licked his bottom lip.

Such a simple motion, yet Grace found herself, both entranced and determined to act as if she hadn’t noticed.

Grace tried to deny she was, for the first time, on fire.

CHAPTER THREE

‘SO...’ CARTER NOTICED Grace pushing out a smile and retreating from their silent flirt. ‘You’re visiting your grandfather’s home?’ she asked.

For a moment there he’d thought they might kiss, pick up his key and head to bed...

It was that easy for him.

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