Single Girl Abroad: Untameable Rogue

‘He’s not here,’ said Jacob without looking up from the screen.

‘Did I ask?’ said Madeline.

‘No, but you wanted to,’ said Jacob. Boy and man swapped amused glances.

So they were right. Madeline shot them a narrowed glare. That didn’t mean she had to admit they were right. ‘Yesterday, you mentioned lunch,’ she said. ‘I’ve got twenty minutes.’

‘Why so tight?’ asked Jacob. ‘Problems with the empire?’

‘Always.’ She’d inherited a crumbling empire, not a thriving one. Staying one step ahead of the creditors had taken ingenuity and time. Fortunately, she’d had plenty of both. Madeline could play the widowed trophy wife to perfection when it suited her, but anyone doing business with Delacourte knew differently. The Delacourte upstart didn’t leech off Delacourte enterprises, she ran them, along with a fair few charity institutions on the side. ‘A meeting with the accountant beckons.’

‘I’ve got leftover mee goreng, a microwave, and an apprentice who knows his way around a kitchen,’ said Jacob.

‘You want me to fix the food?’ said Po.

Jacob nodded and the boy slipped away, swift and silent.

‘Has he taken to karate?’ she asked.

Jacob nodded, eyeing her tailored black business suit with a frown. ‘Po moves fast, thinks fast, and he’s so used to living rough that anything I set him to do is a softness. He and Luke started on some karate forms at around midnight last night and finished around two a.m. He was up again at six. The kid’ll nap now in snatches throughout the day and snap awake the moment something moves, ready to either fight or run. Breaks your heart.’

‘He’ll settle, though, won’t he? Eventually?’

‘Maybe.’ Jacob ran a hand through his hair. ‘I don’t know. Luke’s got a better handle on him than I do. Maybe you should talk to Luke.’

Not quite what she had in mind. ‘Why? What does he say?’

‘He says he’ll stay another week unless a job comes up. And that he’ll keep an eye on Po while he’s here.’

‘And your brother can just do that? Change his plans on a whim?’

‘The man’s a free agent, Maddy. Would you think more of him if he couldn’t stay and help out for a while?’

‘I’m trying not to think of him at all,’ she muttered.

‘Is it working?’ said a silken voice from behind her. Madeline knew it was Luke, even before she turned to face him. Her body’s response to his nearness was very thorough.

He wore a faded grey T-shirt, loose-fitting jeans, and a look in his eye that told her that if she had any sense she’d turn and run and keep right on running. ‘Where’s Po?’ he said.

‘Kitchen,’ replied Jacob.

With a curt nod in Madeline’s direction, Luke left. Madeline made a concerted effort not to watch him go.

Jacob just looked at her and sighed.

‘What?’ she said defiantly.

‘Nothing,’ said Jacob. ‘Nothing I want to talk about at any rate.’

Amen.

Luke made himself conspicuously absent during lunch. Po showed Madeline the room Jake had given him afterwards—bare walls, bare bulb, a chest of drawers, a bed, white sheets and a thin grey coverlet. Jacob was a minimalist when it came to possessions but Po seemed overwhelmed by the space and the fixtures that had suddenly been deemed his. Madeline asked Po if he felt like staying on as Jacob’s apprentice. If she’d done the right thing in bringing him here.

Po nodded jerkily. Yes.

She’d seen a noodle bar across the street from the dojo that she thought she might try out next Monday lunchtime. She could use some company if Po felt inclined to stop by …

Another nod. System sorted.

Madeline left the dojo with five minutes to spare before the start of her next meeting. It would take her another ten minutes to get to the accounting firm’s offices so she was already running late, even before she spotted Luke Bennett leaning against a shopfront wall not two doors down from the dojo, idly seeming to watch the world go by.

While waiting for her to leave.

She walked towards him slowly, stopped in front of him. Neither of them spoke. But he looked at her and in that fierce heated glance lay a dialogue as old as time.

‘I wanted you to look this way and walk the other,’ he said finally. Had she been listening to his words alone she might have kept on walking, but those eyes and the tension in that hard, lean body of his told a different story.

‘No, you didn’t.’

‘I dreamed of you last night,’ he said next. Not the sweet murmurings of a soon-to-be lover, but cold, hard accusation.

‘Snap.’ She’d dreamed of him too, her sleeping time shattered by a golden-eyed warrior whose righteousness cut at her even as his kisses seduced. ‘Jacob said you and Po trained for half the night.’

‘We did.’ No need to guess why he’d chosen physical exertion over dreaming. He hadn’t wanted to dream of her. He couldn’t have said it any plainer. ‘I still think walking away from you is the smart option,’ he murmured.

‘Then do it.’

He glanced away, looked down the street as if planning where he would walk, but his body stayed right where it was. When he looked back at her the reckless challenge in his eyes burned a path through every defence she had in place. ‘No.’

Oh, boy.

‘Come out with me tonight,’ he said next.

‘Where?’ Was asking about a venue a tacit agreement? She thought it might be.

‘Anywhere,’ he muttered. ‘Do I look like I care?’

A shudder ripped through Madeline, two parts desire and one part dread for the wanton images that played out in her mind every time she looked at this man.

Luke’s eyes darkened. ‘You choose,’ he said. ‘Maybe you’ll care.’ Somewhere with people, if she had any sense at all. Somewhere crowded and casual. There were plenty such places in Singapore. She could easily suggest she meet him at one of them.

She didn’t.

Instead, she gave him her home address. ‘I’ll try and book us a table somewhere. I’ll be home by six. Ready to head out again by seven.’

He nodded, shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned his head back against the wall, everything about him casual except for his eyes. There was nothing casual about them at all. ‘You should go now,’ he said.

Madeline nodded and forced a step back before she did something monumentally stupid like setting her hands to his chest and her lips to his throat and to hell with empires and accountants. ‘Jacob knows my mobile number.’ Luke’s eyes narrowed, as if he either didn’t like that notion or he didn’t know where she was heading with this. ‘Call me if you decide to cancel.’

‘Do you really think I will?’

‘No.’ She offered up a tiny smile of farewell. ‘But I’m fairly certain you should.’

Madeline made it home just on six-thirty but instead of the fatigue that usually accompanied an afternoon spent wading through financial statements, nervous anticipation ruled her now. She didn’t make a habit of handing over her home address to men she’d just met. Even if Luke was Jake’s brother there’d been no call for that. But she had, and she’d wear it. Wear something. What on earth was she going to wear this evening?

A wizened old woman appeared in the foyer, her face leathered and lined but her old eyes clear and smiling. Yun had been William’s housekeeper for at least thirty years, maybe longer. Now she was Madeline’s and more grandmother than housekeeper if truth were told.

‘We’ve company coming at seven,’ said Madeline as she shed her light coat and slid a wall panel aside to reveal a cleverly concealed wardrobe. ‘Can we do some kind of canapés?’

‘What kind of company?’ asked Yun.

‘Male.’

‘How many?’

‘One.’

‘Nationality?’

‘Australian.’

‘Age?’ Yun could put foreign embassy officials to shame when it came to tailoring hospitality to fit circumstance.

‘My age.’

Yun’s immaculately pencilled eyebrows rose. ‘A business associate?’

‘No. Jacob Bennett’s brother. He’s taking me out to dinner.’

‘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.

Madeline nodded. ‘Yes. Does knowing my background make my choice of marriage partner any more palatable to you?’

‘I don’t know.’ Luke smiled bleakly and looked around the room.

Madeline looked too, trying to see her home through his eyes. An eclectic mix of the comfortable, the best, and a smattering of old and distinguished money in the form of sculptures and paintings. Madeline didn’t deliberately flaunt the Delacourte wealth at her disposal, but she did enjoy it. No apologies.

‘Nice place,’ he said.

‘Thank you.’ She studied him a while longer. ‘Money doesn’t mean much to you, does it?’

He shrugged. ‘I have enough. I’ve no need for more.’ His eyes grew dark as his gaze met hers. ‘You going to judge me wanting again, Maddy?’

‘Because you don’t crave wealth?’ she said lightly. ‘No. Each to their own.’

So different, she and Luke Bennett. Maybe even too different. The man was reckless, where Madeline craved control. Addicted to danger, whereas she was addicted to security. As for him being unaware of the impact he had on a woman when he exploded into her life … she hadn’t quite decided if he knew how truly potent he was or not. But judge him wanting? That she could not do. ‘We really don’t have much in common, do we?’ she said.

‘Not so far.’ Luke put his drink down carefully on the coaster she’d provided. He leaned forward, elbows on the bar, closer, and closer still, until his lips were almost upon hers. ‘But we might dig up something eventually,’ he murmured, and Madeline’s gaze dropped helplessly to his lips. ‘That’s what first dates are for.’

‘And second kisses?’ she whispered. ‘What are they for?’

‘They’re to see if we remembered the first kiss wrong.’ His lips brushed hers, slow and savouring before returning to offer up just that little bit more. Desire unfurled deep within her. She hadn’t remembered their first kiss wrong.

He pulled back slowly and drew his bottom lip into his mouth as if committing the taste of her to memory.

‘What are your feelings on standardising and enforcing international deep-sea-fishing quotas?’ he murmured.

‘I’m all for it,’ she said. ‘Although the enforcement bit could prove tricky.’

‘I agree,’ he said. ‘Common ground at last.’

Not to mention uncommon heat in their kisses.

Yun chose that moment to enter the room with a tray of bite-sized spring rolls and a chilli dip. Smiling wryly, Madeline pulled back and turned her attention to the diminutive housekeeper.

‘It’s plenty hot,’ warned Yun, with a sour sideways glance in Luke’s direction. ‘Fire is useful weapon against hunting Tiger. Bullets also,’ she muttered, and disappeared.

‘She’s very loyal,’ said Madeline.

‘Not quite the word I had in mind,’ murmured Luke, eyeing the finger food cautiously.

Madeline picked up a roll, dipped it into the dressing, popped it into her mouth and bit down through the flaky pastry to the mince mix beyond. So far, divine. But the bite of chilli was there, and growing ever stronger. It stopped short of a conflagration, but only just. ‘They’re very exciting,’ she said hoarsely. ‘You’ll probably enjoy them.’

‘What about the ones with the little squiggle on the side?’ asked Luke.

Not a squiggle, thought Madeline, looking closely at the spring rolls, but a snake. ‘Those are for me.’

He took one of those, dipped it in the sauce and made short work of it thereafter. ‘They’re good,’ he said, reaching for another, this time without the snake motif on the side. This one made him smile. ‘They’re very good.’

‘We should probably go soon,’ she offered weakly. She didn’t know what embarrassed her more: Yun’s dubious hospitality or her body’s extravagantly sensuous response to his recklessness. ‘I haven’t booked. I thought we might wander down towards—’

‘The wharves,’ he said.

‘Exactly.’ Plenty of water down by the wharves. She could use it to douse the flames.

The rows of restaurants surrounding the wharves shone crowded and cheerful, even if the food was hit and miss. Lights from the surrounding city shimmered in the background and found reflection in the inky harbour water.

Luke sat back in his chair once they’d ordered their meals and aimed for casual conversation, the kind a man might make in passing. Did Madeline enjoy living in Singapore? Yes, she did. Had she ever considered heading home to Australia? No, she hadn’t.

And then Madeline began to counter with questions of her own. Where was he based?

Nowhere of late, though he had an apartment in Darwin that he often returned to in between jobs. He didn’t need much. He didn’t have much.

Unlike some. She’d said that his lack of monetary focus didn’t bother her and heaven help him he believed her. The problem now lay in deciding if the disparity in their wealth was going to eat at him. When it came to a short-term relationship, the extent of Madeline’s wealth shouldn’t bother him at all. It was only when he started thinking long term that her wealth and his comparative lack of it became an issue.

‘What?’ she asked, more attuned to him than he wanted her to be.

‘What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and you’d lost all that Delacourte money your late husband left you?’ Not that he was thinking long term. No way.

‘Start again.’

‘Beginning with marriage to a rich man?’

‘Not necessarily,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I know a little something about the making and keeping of money these days. I’d probably try and make my own way.’

‘You’d fight to be wealthy again?’

Her eyes flashed green fire. ‘The Delacourte empire wasn’t in particularly good shape when William died. I sold the family estate, bought the apartment I live in now, and used the change to restructure the company. Big business can mean big losses. I fight to stay wealthy now.’

‘You like it,’ he said. ‘The fight.’

‘So do you,’ she countered. ‘When it comes to your work you’re all about challenge and danger and pitting yourself against the odds. Of course, when it comes to women, I’ve a very strong feeling that you’re not looking for a fight at all. You’re looking for perfection.’ She leaned forward, her eyes warm and ever so slightly mocking. ‘Sorry to disappoint.’

‘You don’t have to keep pointing out your flaws, Maddy. I can see them.’

She laughed at that, a rich vibrant chuckle that warmed an already sultry night.

‘How exactly did you end up doing what you do?’ she asked him, directing the conversation away from money and the making of it and back towards him. ‘I can’t imagine a school counsellor sitting you down to do a jobs test and saying that he thought you should diffuse bombs for a living.’

‘He didn’t. Though he did think a stint in the armed forces might not be such a bad thing should I ever wish to acquire some discipline. No, I followed my brother Pete into the Navy straight from school. Pete had his eyes on the sky, the Navy Seahawks. All I wanted to do was dive. After the training came the jobs, one of which was clearing sea mines. Then came retrieval of unexploded weaponry from various naval training grounds and I ended up as part of a three-man Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. Then some land-based work happened my way and I finished up with the Navy and went freelance. I still consult for them every now and again. I teach for them too, on occasion.’

Madeline smiled wryly. ‘Okay. I’ll admit it. I’m impressed,’ she said, and looked up as an immaculately dressed elderly Asian man paused on his way past their table. The rest of the man’s party moved on ahead.

‘Mr Yi,’ said Madeline, not quite concealing her surprise, though she made a creditable attempt at a polite smile.

‘Mrs Delacourte.’ The briefest of bows accompanied the statement, before the man’s gaze cut to Luke.

‘May I introduce Luke Bennett, my dining companion?’ said Madeline, responding to the unspoken cue, again with manners and caution rather than warmth. ‘Luke, may I present to you Bruce Yi, philanthropist and financier.’

Luke stood and shook hands with the man. Firm, slightly calloused grip, steady eye contact.

‘Any relation to Jacob?’ said the older man.

‘My brother.’

‘Ah.’ Hard to tell if Bruce Yi thought this was a good thing or not.

‘You know Jake?’ asked Luke.

‘I know of him,’ said Bruce. ‘Jianne Xang is my brother-in-law’s child. My niece.’

‘Ah.’ Awkward. ‘Give Ji my regards,’ said Luke quietly. He bore Ji no grudge. None of them did.

Okay, so maybe Jake bore her a tiny grudge for leaving after less than a year of marriage and taking his heart with her. Luke was still pretty sure that Jake would be the first to say that his expectations of marriage and of Ji had been too high. Had Jake ever actually talked about his ill-fated marriage to anyone, that was. Which he hadn’t.

‘Curious, don’t you think, that after all these years of separation neither Jacob nor Jianne has ever filed for a divorce?’ said the older man with the searching eyes.