Ecuador.
“In return, I got shot at several times, fell off a mountain, almost drowned in the Amazon and was bitten by more vicious insects than you could ever count. Still, for my blood, sweat and tears I got paid serious bucks. I was able to buy myself that house in Rio and this apartment here in Darwin. I now don’t have to take jobs which might get me killed!’ He smiled wryly. ‘I can even afford to support a child and give his or her mother enough financial freedom that she doesn’t have to work for the rest of her life. If she doesn’t want to,’ he added.
Scarlet hadn’t even given John supporting her financially a second thought. Now that he’d brought the subject up, she realised it was a tricky situation. If she accepted his money, it would give John more rights. Custody rights, maybe.
Her forehead scrunched into a frown as she once again considered the consequences and complications which would come with John being the father of her child.
‘More thinking, I see,’ John said before she could voice an answer to her concerns. ‘And not happy thoughts either. Look, if you don’t want my money, then just say so. I won’t ram it down your throat. Most women would be happy to have that offer on the table, but I should have known you’re not most women.’
‘I do value my independence,’ she admitted.
‘With my money you could buy yourself your own place. You could even employ a nanny, if you want to stay working.’
‘A nanny? I don’t want to hand my baby over to a nanny! As for buying my own place, I’ll have you know I already have enough money to buy my own place, if I wanted to. I’ve been saving for a house ever since I started work. Thank you very much for your offer, John, but no; I don’t want or need your financial support.’
Her stance shouldn’t have annoyed him. But it did.
‘Fine,’ he bit out. ‘I won’t pay for a damned thing.’
‘There’s no reason to get angry,’ Scarlet countered sharply. ‘You should be glad that I’m not most women. Just think what would happen if I were a gold-digger. I could take you for heaps!’
In spite of himself, John’s mouth quirked. She looked so disgusted by the very idea. Her anger had flushed her cheeks and made her look even more beautiful than usual. ‘Fine. I accept that it’s a good thing you aren’t a gold- digger. Now, are there any more questions I have to answer before we can proceed with my plan for today?’
Scarlet blinked her surprise. ‘You have an actual plan for today?’ She’d thought
‘I did have. Before you put a spanner in the works and started wanting to get to know me better.’
‘Well I… I…’ Scarlet could not believe she was stammering when she was usually so articulate. She pressed her lips tightly together and took a deep breath before continuing.
‘Okay. Fine. No more questions for now. But I might have some more later,’ she added as an afterthought.
‘A brief hour of sightseeing followed by a light lunch, followed by an afternoon in bed.’
Scarlet’s mouth was suddenly bone dry. ‘The whole afternoon?’
‘That’s a compromise. When you first walked out onto my balcony this morning looking good enough to eat, I wanted to whisk you right back into bed and keep you there all day.’
She just stared at him, the extent of his desire for her still a shock. So was the extent of her desire for him. Suddenly, her earlier resolve to restrict sex to the evenings dissolved, as she herself was dissolving.
‘Also,’ he went on with a sudden flare of desire in his eyes, ‘this afternoon has nothing to do with babies and everything to do with pleasure. Not just mine, either. Judging on how you reacted last night, your sex life so far has been sadly lacking. I aim to rectify that, if you’ll let me.’
Let him! How in earth was she going to stop him?
John rose to his feet and held out his hand to her. ‘Now. Let’s go sightseeing.’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SCARLET was impressed by the waterfront development. It was tourist heaven, with luxury apartment blocks, a fantastic hotel, chic shops and cafes, great walkways suitable for morning jogs, a wave pool to delight children and adults alike and deep-water wharves at which cruise ships could dock. Scarlet might have made lots more complimentary comments if she hadn’t been rendered uncharacteristically quiet by what was going on in her head, and in her body.
Never before had Scarlet felt such agitation. Her head whirled. Her stomach swirled. When John suggested they have some lunch at a trendy outdoor cafe, she was swift to agree, because it meant she could finally take her hand out of his. Not that she didn’t enjoy holding hands with him. She did, more than she wanted to. But it wasn’t the kind of physical closeness she was craving.
It had been wickedly clever of him to tell her what he had planned for this afternoon, she realised as they sat down opposite each other. Clever and corrupting. For she could think of nothing else now. She couldn’t even make up her mind what to eat, telling him to order for her. John didn’t seem to be similarly afflicted, ordering their lunches with the kind of
The girl’s simpering smile showed she found John just as attractive as Scarlet did.
She almost made some caustic remark after the waitress hurried off to do his bidding, biting her tongue just in time. But the near-miss left Scarlet somewhat rattled. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was jealous. Which was insane! There was absolutely no reason to be jealous because some slip of a girl was dancing attention on John. After all, she wasn’t going to be spending the afternoon in bed with him. Scarlet was!
She sucked in sharply at the spite-filled possessiveness behind her thoughts.
‘Something wrong with what I ordered?’ John asked straight away.
‘No, no. It was fine. I just remembered I should have taken some photos whilst we were walking around to send to Mum,’ she improvised. ‘I totally forgot.’
‘You can still take some photos after we’ve had our lunch.’
‘Yes, I suppose so.’
‘But you’ll have to be quick.’
‘Oh? Why’s that?’ she asked, glancing up to the sky to see if there were any clouds gathering. But no, the sky was still clear and blue.
Some clouds had gathered in John’s eyes, however, by the time her gaze returned to his.
‘For an intelligent thirty-something, you can be pretty dense sometimes.’ There was total exasperation and another kind of tension in his voice. ‘I’m getting the sense that you don’t know much about men, Scarlet.’
Scarlet decided not to take offence. She was tired of arguing with John. ‘I’m well aware that I’ve led a narrow kind of life. After listening to all your travelling tales and adventures this morning, I would say
John didn’t want her apology. He wanted her naked in his arms. It had been hell this last hour, showing her the sights and resisting the temptation to drag her back up to his apartment post-haste. As for his being disappointed that she’d had only a handful of lovers, nothing could be further from the truth. It pleased him hugely. He loved that he could show her things in bed that she didn’t know. Her lack of experience excited him. So, strangely, did her lack of feminine guile. Maybe he’d spent too many years bedding women who could read a man’s needs like an open book, and who knew how to meet those needs every which way. Whatever the reason, he’d never felt such a need for any other woman.
But he would clearly have to wait a little longer. He could hardly insist that Scarlet skip the lunch he’d just ordered. Or forget taking those damned photographs for her mother. As much as John sometimes regretted the tenuous relationship he had with his family, he did not miss the demands that some parents made on their children,
