Page 6 of Bride Under Contract
There were scars there too—although nothing like the neat gash on his face. On his shoulder and down his back the flesh was pitted, as if hot oil had been poured there. It looked as if he had gone into battle.
With barely a memory of doing it, though.
‘Kalajengking,’ Bashim had told him—scorpion bites.
As well as that, he’d been found unconscious on a nest of fire ants.
In regard to that fateful day he had no memory of the gory details, and in truth preferred it that way. As for his time spent alone in the jungle...it didn’t matter that he could barely recall it. The fact he’d survived should surely be enough.
Women didn’t like the scars on his back quite so much, and if they inadvertently touched the scar tissue during sex he’d feel them hastily recoil.
Carter wrapped a long arm around his chest, to his back, and felt the waxy, cold flesh for himself.
No wonder they pulled away.
‘Mr Bennett...?’ He heard the tap on the bathroom door and Ms Hill calling his name. Thank God for their polite boundaries.
He was dressed in a matter of moments and back to his measured self.
Jonathon Holmes was as stern-faced as ever, and Carter greeted him with a handshake. ‘Thanks for coming at short notice.’
‘Of course.’
‘How’s Ruth?’
The usual pleasantries were exchanged, but the moment Carter’s PA had closed the office doors he was hit with a question.
‘So, are the rumours true?’
‘What do you think?’ Carter responded drily. ‘Of course not.’
‘And here I was thinking you were asking me here to draft a water-tight prenup. I’m ready for her...’
‘Who?’ Carter frowned.
‘Whomever Mrs Bennett turns out to be.’
‘Never going to happen.’ Carter gave a firm shake of his head. ‘I am not getting married to appease my late grandfather. What the hell was he thinking?’
His grandfather had done the unthinkable.
Ignoring Carter’s cautionary words—that his cousin Benedict could not be trusted—he’d left the house and land to both his grandsons. With one proviso. If Carter married in Sabah, and remained married for a full year, he would have the option to buy his cousin out.
He seemed to have forgotten that Carter did not do sentiment in any way, shape or form, and would not be coerced into marriage.
‘I warned him repeatedly that he was making a mistake...’
Carter sighed. He didn’t doubt that the cutthroat Jonathon would have wanted every loose end neatly tied.
‘Yet he went ahead?’
‘He was always his own person.’
‘True.’
While for Carter marriage was not an option, neither was he any good at fifty-fifty—especially when it came to his cousin Benedict. He’d offered to buy him out, in order to void the will, yet Benedict had not only declined, he’d put in a counter offer.
‘Are you considering accepting?’ Jonathon asked. ‘It would be one less thing to worry about. You’ve got enough real estate of your own to deal with. You certainly don’t need the headache of this...’