Single Girl Abroad: Untameable Rogue

‘Where?’

Good question, for she’d yet to make a reservation. ‘I thought maybe somewhere touristy, down by the water.’ If they went to the wharves they wouldn’t even have to book in advance. They could just choose a place as they wandered along.

Yun’s eyes narrowed to slits. ‘Does he not know how to properly honour a woman of your social standing?’

Madeline stifled a grin. ‘You’d rather he took me somewhere intimate and expensive?’

‘Just expensive,’ said Yun.

‘I don’t think he’s the kind of man who cares much for the trappings of wealth or for impressing a woman with fine food and wine.’

‘Really?’ Yun seemed unimpressed. ‘What kind of man is he?’

‘Well …’ Apart from the kind who could make a woman abandon every ounce of common sense she’d ever had? ‘I don’t rightly know.’

‘When was he born? What’s his animal?’

‘I don’t know.’ Yun was old school. She practised feng shui, observed the Chinese zodiac, and honoured her ancestor spirits. ‘I’m going to go with Tiger.’

‘Tiger is unpredictable,’ murmured Yun. ‘And dangerous. Tiger and Snake not good together. Each can destroy the other if allowed to get too close.’

‘Thanks, Yun. I feel so much better now.’ Madeline had been born in the year of the snake. Nice to know in advance how incompatible she and Luke truly were.

‘Monkey is better fit for you. Even Ox. Find out his birth year.’

‘Will do. So can you do up a tray of something?’

‘Of course,’ said Yun. ‘Something for harmony and relaxation.’

‘Perfect.’ Madeline could use some harmony and relaxation, what with her incompatible love life and all. She started across the high-gloss white marble floor, only to whirl back around with a new question. ‘What should I wear?’

‘A dress shaped for beauty, a smile for serenity, and your antique jade hairpin,’ said Yun. ‘For luck.’

Luke Bennett was a punctual man, discovered Madeline as the state-of-the-art security cameras showed him summoning the private lift to the apartment block’s foyer area at five minutes to seven that evening. Madeline had taken Yun’s advice and wore a fitted deep-green dress that emphasised her assets and the green flecks in her eyes. Yun had helped wind her hair up into an elegant roll, secured with many hidden pins. The jade hairpin came last—with its five silver threads studded with tiny oyster pearls.

‘Stop fidgeting,’ said Yun, and prepared to open the door. ‘He’s just a man.’

‘Right.’ Just a man.

A man who wore dark grey dress trousers and a crisp white shirt with an ease she’d never expected of him. A man whose elegant clothes served only to emphasise the raw power and masculinity of the body beneath. His dark hair was tousled and his face could have launched a thousand fantasies and probably had. It was the eyes that did it—those magnificent tawny eyes.

‘You’re no Monkey,’ said Yun accusingly. ‘And you definitely no Ox.’

Luke Bennett stared down at the tiny woman whose head barely topped his elbow. ‘No,’ he said as his bemused and oddly helpless gaze cut to Madeline. ‘I’m not.’

A helpless Luke Bennett settled Madeline’s butterflies considerably. ‘Yun, this is Luke Bennett. Luke, meet Yun, my housekeeper.’

‘Could be Dragon but not so likely.’ Yun sighed sorrowfully. ‘I’ll bring out the antelope.’

Not a lot a man could say to a statement like that. Luke said nothing, just watched Yun disappear through a wide archway as she headed for the kitchen. Madeline summoned a hostess’s smile as Luke returned his gaze to her, seemingly oblivious to the wall full of museum-quality silk tapestries and the occasional priceless vase.

‘How’s Po?’ she asked.

‘Busy, I hope. Because when he’s not he’s prodigiously good at finding trouble.’

‘And your brother?’

‘Also busy.’

And that was the extent of Madeline’s small talk. Common ground extinguished. Dangerous new territory stretching out before them. She wondered if Luke knew what he was doing in pursuing the lightning attraction that sparked between them. Madeline certainly didn’t.

She’d always preferred not to play with lightning.

‘Would you like a drink?’ Madeline moved towards a high-topped bench in the corner. The bar was behind it, cleverly concealed by panelling that slid aside to reveal the drinks selection on hand. Hospitality was important in this part of the world and the subtleties of what was offered and how were endless. William had taught her that. Pity he hadn’t taught her what to offer a golden-eyed warrior who didn’t necessarily like her but who wanted her with an intensity that left her breathless. ‘Yun’s just gone to get a tray of nibbles for us.’

‘You didn’t have to go to any trouble,’ he murmured.

‘It wasn’t any trouble. Yun enjoys putting her culinary talents to use.’ Madeline offered up what she hoped was a serene smile. ‘She’s done every cooking course known to man, and she’ll scold me if I haven’t poured you a glass of something before she gets back.’

‘With the antelope.’

‘Let’s hope not.’ Madeline opened the bar fridge and peered at the contents. ‘What would you like?’

‘Just a beer.’

Madeline pulled a bottle of Tiger Bitter from the shelf and reached for the bottle opener. Pointless asking what year Luke had been born, really. His zodiac sign was a foregone conclusion. She retrieved a cold beer glass from the fridge and poured for him, before starting in on the fixings for a gin and tonic for herself. Staple fare in this part of the world—any time and anywhere.

‘So what brought you to Singapore?’ asked Luke as she found a lime and sliced into it with a paring knife. A quarter for his beer if he wanted one. Definitely a slice for her gin. And running alongside the busy work, small talk between strangers that should have been easy enough to answer but wasn’t.

‘I came here looking for my brother,’ she said finally. ‘He was travelling around South East Asia. Singapore had been his starting point, so it became mine as well.’

‘Did you find him?’

‘Eventually.’ Madeline had no inclination to explain her extended crawl through the dark belly of humanity in search of Remy. ‘He’s dead now.’ There’d been no saving him.

‘I’m sorry.’ Luke’s clear gaze rested thoughtfully on her. ‘Is that why you try and help children like Po?’

‘Maybe.’ Madeline shrugged. ‘Probably. I saw a lot of things in my search for my brother—a lot of things I would fix if I could.’

‘Is that why you married money? So you could fix the things you’d seen?’

‘Still judging me, Luke Bennett?’ Always, he seemed to circle back to the question of why she had married William.

‘No.’ And with a wry smile, ‘Maybe. Maybe I’m just trying to get to know you a little better.’

Maybe she could give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘My brother and I were orphans,’ she told him. ‘Wards of the State of New South Wales. Remy craved oblivion and found it. I craved security, stability, and wealth.’

‘And found it,’ said Luke.