Contract with Consequences

CHAPTER NINE

JOHN was putting a few more pieces of wood on the camp fire when he heard the distinctive ring of his satellite phone. Frowning, he crawled into his one-man tent, picked up the phone and carried it back out into the moonlight, where he stared at it briefly before sweeping the phone up to his ear.

‘Hello, Scarlet,’ he answered, trying to sound cool when inside he was anything but.

John had been relieved at first when she hadn’t contacted him. Once he’d cleared his head, he’d told himself that it had been a crazy idea anyway. But as the days had crawled by, John’s every waking moment had been haunted by the thought of going home at Christmas and seeing Scarlet with a stranger’s child growing in her belly. Once again, he’d been repulsed by the idea.

After several particularly restless nights, he’d been tempted to ring her. But what could he say that he hadn’t already said? It was obvious she didn’t want him to father her child. To have pursued the matter would have made him look foolish.

So in the end, he’d done nothing. Literally. He hadn’t tried to find work with any of the mining companies. He hadn’t gone fishing, either, the way he usually did when he was holidaying in Darwin. Hadn’t done a damned thing. He had just moped around the place, watching endless movies on TV and doing way too much thinking. And way too much drinking. Bianca would have said he was running away from real life. Again.

In the end, he’d had his heli-fishing mate drop him into this isolated spot for a few days and had been camping out alone. Nothing cleared the head better than communing with nature, he’d found.

And it had worked, to a degree. He’d finally begun to see the sense of Scarlet’s decision not to accept his offer. Finally found some peace of mind over the situation. Or so he’d believed.

It had only taken one little phone call to shatter that illusion.

‘How did you know it was me?’ she asked, clearly taken aback.

‘The caller ID said you were from New South Wales,’ he explained. ‘You’re the only person in that state who has my satellite number.’

‘Oh. I see.’

John suddenly had the most appalling thought. What if she was ringing to tell him she was finally pregnant? It was possible, he supposed. She might think he would like to know.

‘Why are you ringing, Scarlet?’ he asked abruptly.

Scarlet’s heart sank at his brusque tone.

‘You’ve changed your mind about your offer, haven’t you?’ she said.

The tension in John’s gut immediately melted away.

‘Not at all,’ he replied.

‘Really?’ she gasped, renewed hope flooding her heart.

‘Yes, really. So what happened, Scarlet? Given the time lapse since we last spoke, I presume you went back to the clinic for another go and it didn’t work.’

‘I got my period today,’ she confessed with a sigh.

‘Like I said in my letter, my offer is open.’

Scarlet had reached the stage where she would have given anything a try. But she wasn’t so desperate that she still wasn’t slightly bothered by one thing. ‘I know I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, John, but I still can’t work out why you’re doing this for me. Aside from the sex angle, that is. Which I also still can’t fathom. I mean, if you always fancied me, then why didn’t you do something about it before this?’

They were logical questions, John accepted. He wished he had some logical answers for her. He had to tell her something, he supposed, something which would satisfy her intelligence. Scarlet was no dummy.

‘Can I be blunt with you?’ he said.

‘Please do.’

‘I didn’t do anything before this because I thought you would just knock me back,’ he said, not untruthfully. ‘Until we met again last month and I realised that the attraction was mutual. However, contrary to your belief, I also like you a lot, Scarlet, and I want to help you get what you obviously want very much-which is a baby. And, as strange as it seems, I also quite like the idea of having a child of my own. But if I’m to be brutally honest, what I want most is you, in my bed, for a good deal longer than you spend at that wretched clinic each month.’

Scarlet’s silence at the other end of the line indicated a degree of shock. Or deep thoughtfulness. John suspected the former. He had gone overboard a bit in his attempt to focus on the sex angle. But he didn’t want her questioning him further over his motives. He didn’t understand them fully himself! All he knew was that his blood was racing through his body with a surge of entirely male, powerful satisfaction at her agreement. For a short time, Scarlet was going to be his.

Scarlet had been rendered speechless by the decidedly R-rated images which had sprung into her mind. She was seriously glad that John couldn’t see the burst of heat which flamed into her cheeks.

‘Come now, Scarlet, you must know how very desirable you are.’

Now Scarlet felt hot all over. A shiver ran down her spine at the realisation she might shortly find out just how desirable he thought she was.

‘I hope your silence doesn’t mean you’ve changed your mind about this?’ he said, his voice sounding curiously expressionless.

‘No,’ she choked out, still blushing at her earlier train of thought. Thank heavens they weren’t face to face!

‘Good.’ His voice relaxed again. ‘When can you get yourself up here?’

Scarlet swallowed, then sat up straighter. She’d always been more comfortable following a plan.

‘I thought as soon as possible,’ she said briskly.

‘How about the beginning of next week?’

‘Well, I’ll have to get stuff organised at work…’

He rode over her objections. ‘I’m sure you can sort it. Once you’ve booked your flight next week, text me your time of arrival and I’ll be at the airport waiting for you.’ He sounded equally brisk, and it was as difficult as ever to guess what he was feeling. ‘Don’t send the text to this number. Send it to my mobile. I’ll be back in Darwin by then.’

Scarlet rolled her eyes in exasperation. Why was it then men wouldn’t listen? ‘Where are you, anyway?’ she asked.

‘Camping out in one of the national parks.’

Scarlet had been doing some mental calculations. ‘Wait-next week is way too early. I can’t possibly fall pregnant till a week after that. I never ovulate before day fourteen on my cycle. I know this for a fact because I’ve been taking my temperature every day for the last year and-’

‘Scarlet,’ he interrupted. ‘If you want to get pregnant, then let’s try this my way.’

Truly, he could be as irritating a man as he’d been an irritating boy! ‘Which is?’ she snapped.

‘Not taking your temperature every day, for starters. Not caring about when you bloody ovulate either. Because, let’s face it, that method hasn’t been working too well for you up till now, has it?’

‘I guess not,’ she admitted grudgingly.

‘I suggest you leave this whole operation up to me. Put yourself entirely in my hands. No arguments, no more buts.’

‘Yes,’ she bit out.

‘Good,’ he said, smiling wryly to himself at the thought that ‘yes’ wasn’t a word Scarlet was used to saying. But she was going to say it a lot during their time together. He would make her say it. No, he would make her want to say it. For that was what he craved all of a sudden. Not just Scarlet’s compliance but her complete surrender.

The thought excited him unbearably. Was this what had been lurking at the back of his mind? Not just desire for sex, but a desire to seduce? To possess? To control?

The idea perturbed him. He’d never been into that kind of thing. Sex for him was usually just a physical release with no strings attached. He’d always steered well clear of becoming emotionally involved with the women he slept with. John could see, however, that this was a different situation entirely. If truth be told, his emotions were already involved. The problem was which ones?

He almost told her to forget it then; that he’d changed his mind. But it was too late. The roller coaster of destiny was already moving and he was solidly strapped in. There would be no escape till it came to rest at the end of the ride.