In the Heat of the Spotlight (8 page)

‘Well.’ She shifted in her seat, gave him a breezy smile. ‘Now we’ve broken the ice.’

‘Or the ice cream.’

‘That was a seriously weak joke.’

‘I told you, my sense of humour only appears on rare occasions. Anyway—’ he glanced at her as he took a sip of champagne ‘—can you eat bubblegum ice cream? Or does that send your glucose levels through the roof?’

‘Everything in moderation.’

He nodded towards the handbag at her feet. ‘I should have asked before, but did you bring everything you need?’

She nodded. ‘I have a little kit for testing my blood. It travels easily.’

‘When were you diagnosed?’

‘When I was seventeen.’ She swallowed, remembering those awful early days. At the time she’d just been moving from one event to another, dazed, incredulous, hopeful and yet still afraid.

Too late she realised Luke was watching her face, and she knew he could see the emotions in her eyes. Emotions she’d meant to hide. ‘Anyway,’ she said, apropos of nothing.

‘How did it happen?’

‘The usual symptoms. Weight loss, excessive thirst, dizzy spells.’

His eyes narrowed, and she could almost see his mind working. Understanding. ‘And the tabloids claimed you had anorexia. A drinking problem. A drug overdose.’

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. ‘That’s what they like to do. And in any case I haven’t been a saint.’ She lifted her chin a notch, tried to smile again, but her heart was thudding hard.

Luke gazed at her steadily. ‘Who has?’

‘You seem to have been a regular Boy Scout.’

‘No, not a Boy Scout.’ He rubbed his jaw, a movement that Aurelie couldn’t help but notice was inherently sexy. Although, perhaps the sexiest thing about Luke Bryant was how unaware he seemed of his own attractiveness. He moved with unconscious grace, and her gaze was helplessly drawn to the shrug of his broad shoulders, the reassuring squareness of his jaw. Everything about him solid and strong.
Safe.

‘Why haven’t you ever talked about your diabetes publicly? Issued a statement?’

She leaned her head back against the seat, suddenly tired. ‘It’s quite a boring disease.’

‘Boring?’

‘Much more interesting to let them wonder. So my agent told me.’

‘Your agent sucked.’

She let out a surprised laugh. ‘Yeah, he wasn’t that great. I fired him a couple of years ago.’

‘You could have said something since then.’

She opened her eyes. ‘Maybe I didn’t want to.’

‘Why?’

‘Because telling the truth and having no one believe you is worse than not telling the truth and having people assume the worst. But I guess you wouldn’t understand that,’ she finished lightly, ‘what with this compulsion to honesty that you have.’

Luke didn’t say anything for a moment, yet Aurelie felt him tense, saw something dark flash in his eyes before he angled his head away from her. Had she inadvertently touched on something painful with her offhand remark? ‘I understand,’ he said finally, his voice low, and she almost asked him what he meant. She didn’t, though, because they’d surely had enough honesty for one day.

By the time they arrived in Camiguin Aurelie had started feeling relaxed again. Luke had steered the conversation back to lighter subjects, moving from ice cream flavours to movie preferences and whether she supported the Mets or the Yankees.

‘Mets all the way,’ he’d assured her solemnly, but she saw a glint in his eyes that made her smile.

They disembarked the plane at the tiny airport and took an island taxi—basically, a rusted-out Jeep—into Mambajao. The capital of Camiguin was no more than a small town of rickety buildings with wooden verandas and tin roofs, the narrow streets bustling with bicycles and fruit vendors and raggedy children darting in and out of everything. It was so different from Aurelie’s usual experience of travelling, when she kept to limos and high class hotels and never stepped outside of a severely controlled environment. She loved this. Craved the feeling of possibility and even hope wandering around the dusty streets gave her.

‘What are we doing first?’ she asked Luke, and he smiled and took her elbow, steering her away from a man on a bike pulling a cartload of pineapples.

‘I thought we could pick up some lunch in the market, and then we’ll take it out to the falls for a picnic.’

‘The falls?’

‘The Tuwasan Falls. They’re pretty spectacular.’

‘You’ve been there before?’

‘I stopped over here the last time I came to Manila.’

She felt a completely unreasonable prickling of jealousy. Had he taken one of his serious
relationships
to this falls? Was this his go-to place for a romantic date in the tropics?

‘Alone,’ Luke said quietly, yet with a hint of humour in his voice that made her blush. Again. She’d never blushed so much with a man, had never had a reason to. She was Aurelie, she was worldly-wise and weary, beyond shame or embarrassment.

But that act was falling away, flaking off like old paint. What would be left when it was gone? Something good, or even anything at all? She still wasn’t sure of the answer.

‘Come on,’ Luke said, and he guided her to a market stall overflowing with local produce and fish. ‘Anything look good?’

Aurelie surveyed the jumbled piles of fruits and vegetables, the pots of noodles and trays of spring rolls.

‘Crispy
pata
?’ Luke suggested. ‘It’s deep fried pig’s leg.’

She winced. ‘I don’t think I’m feeling quite that adventurous.’

‘It’s quite tasty.’

‘You’ve had it before?’

‘I like to try new things.’

She pointed to a tray of round yellowish fruit that looked a bit like potatoes. ‘What’s that?’

‘Lanzones.’

‘Have you had those?’

‘Yes, but you have to be careful. If they’re not ripe, they taste horribly sour. If they are, incredibly sweet. You just have to take your chances.’ He picked up a fruit, testing its ripeness with his thumb. ‘Try it.’ The fruit seller quickly peeled the
lanzone
with a knife and handed her a piece. Warily, she bit into it and then, without thinking, spat the piece out into her hand. ‘Yuck!’

‘Bitter, huh?’

‘You don’t sound surprised.’

He shrugged, and she hit him in the shoulder. ‘You did that on purpose!’

‘Try this one.’

‘Why should I trust you?’ she demanded even as she took the second peeled
lanzone
.

‘Because even
lanzones
deserve a second chance.’

Something in his quiet, serious tone made her mouth dry and her heart beat hard. She took a bite, and her mouth filled with the intense sweetness of the fruit. Her eyes widened. ‘Wow.’

‘See?’ He sounded so satisfied, so smug, that Aurelie rolled her eyes.

‘Thank you very much for that life lesson. Message received. Everything deserves a second chance.’

‘Not everything.’ After handing the vendor some coins, he’d placed his hand on the small of her back and was guiding her to the next stall. ‘Just me and the fruit.’

He acted, Aurelie thought, as if he were the only one who’d made a mistake. Who needed a second chance. Yet when she thought of her behaviour at their first meeting—and even their second—she felt as if
she
was the one who needed to change. Who wanted to prove she was different. Not Luke.

She glanced at him, her gaze taking in his stern profile, the hard line of his mouth, the latent strength of his body. What was he trying to prove?

He’d put several
lanzones
into a straw basket he’d bought from another vendor, and they added mango, spring rolls and some local sausage and cold noodles to their purchases. The sun was hot overhead even though the air felt swampy, and Luke bought two bottles of water and some sun hats as well.

‘Now to the falls,’ he said, and Aurelie followed him to a tin-roofed garage where he conferred with a young man who couldn’t be more than sixteen before leading her around to the back where a battered-looking Jeep awaited.

‘Your carriage, madam.’

She eyed it dubiously. ‘I don’t particularly relish breaking down in the middle of the jungle.’

‘Don’t worry, we’re not taking this into the jungle.’

‘Where, then?’

‘A car park about five kilometres from here. Then we walk.’

‘Walk? In the jungle?’

‘It’s worth it.’

‘It’d better be.’

Luke stowed their provisions in the bag, handed her a sun hat, and then swung into the driver’s seat. Aurelie could not keep her gaze from resting on his strong, browned forearms, the confident way he manoeuvred the rusty vehicle through the crowded streets of Mambajao and then out onto the open road, no more than a bumpy, rutted track.

The breeze was a balmy caress on her skin, the sun a benediction. In the distance the lush mountains—active volcanoes, Luke had told her—were dark, verdant humps against a hazy sky. Aurelie leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes.

When had she last felt this relaxed, this
happy
?

It was too long ago to remember. Smiling, she let her thoughts drift as the sunlight washed over her.

‘We’re here.’

She opened her eyes and saw that Luke had pulled into a rectangle of gravel and dirt that was, apparently, a car park. Their Jeep was the only car.

She rubbed her eyes. ‘I must have dozed.’

‘Just a little.’ There was something intimate about the way he said it, and Aurelie imagined him watching her sleep. Had she rested her head on his shoulder? Had she
drooled
? More blushing.

‘So where is here exactly?’

‘Well, nowhere, really.’ Luke slid out of the Jeep and reached for their basket. ‘But we can follow a path through the jungle to the Tuwasan Falls. It’s about a mile.’

‘A mile in the jungle?’ She glanced down at her leather sandals dubiously. ‘You should have told me we were enacting
Survivor
.’

He made a face. ‘Sorry. But it’s mostly wooden walkways, so I think you’ll be okay.’

‘If you say so.’

She followed him away from the car park and onto exactly what he’d said—a wooden walkway on stilts over the dense jungle floor. Within just a few metres of going down the walkway she felt the air close around her, hot, humid and dense. Birds chirped and cicadas chirrupped—at least she thought they were cicadas—and she could feel the jungle like a living, breathing entity all around her. A bright green lizard scampered across the walkway, and in the distance some animal—Aurelie had no idea what—gave a lonely, mournful cry.

‘Wow.’ She stopped, her hands resting on the cane railings, her heart thumping. ‘This is...intense.’

Luke glanced back at her. ‘You okay?’

‘Yes, I guess I just thought, you know, first date, maybe a movie?’

He smiled wryly. ‘I know you think I’m boring, but Jeez. A movie? I think I can do better than that.’

‘I don’t think you’re boring.’

‘You think I’m the human equivalent of vanilla ice cream.’

She gazed at him, the railings slick under her palms. Her heart was still thumping. ‘I do,’ she admitted quietly, and it felt like the most honest thing she’d ever said. ‘Completely trustworthy.’

Luke’s eyes darkened and the moment spun out between them, a thread of silence that bound them together, and tighter still. ‘Don’t speak too soon,’ he finally said, and turned away from her to walk further down the path.

‘You mean you’re not?’

‘I mean you don’t trust me yet, and why should you? It’s something I have to earn.’

Despite the damp heat all around them her mouth felt dry. She swallowed. ‘And you want to earn it?’

He glanced back at her, and his eyes were darker than ever. ‘Yes.’

Her mind spun with this revelation. She wanted to tell him that he’d already earned it, that she trusted him now, but somehow the words wouldn’t come.

They didn’t talk for a little while after that, because the wooden walkway became decidedly rickety, and then it stopped altogether at the bank of a rushing stream.

Aurelie raised her eyebrows. ‘What now, Tarzan?’

‘We cross it.’

‘Did I mention my leather sandals?’

‘You might have.’

‘And?’

‘I didn’t think you were the type to care about shoes.’

She wasn’t. ‘No, but I’m the type to care about getting my big toe eaten by a giant barracuda.’

He laughed then, a great big rumbling laugh that had a silly grin spreading wide across her face. She liked the sound of his laughter. ‘I don’t think there are any giant barracudas.’

‘No?’

‘Only medium-sized ones.’

She pursed her lips, hands firmly planted on her hips. ‘Is that your sense of humour appearing on this rare occasion?’

‘Oops, it darted away again.’ He stepped onto a flattish rock in the stream, the water flowing all around him, and stretched out his hand. ‘Come here.’

Cautiously she reached out and put her hand in his. His clasp was dry, warm and firm, and with his other hand on her arm he helped her onto the rock. Their hips bumped. Heat flared.

‘This is cosy,’ she murmured and he gave a tiny smile.

‘That’s the idea. Next rock.’

He stepped backwards onto another rock, sure and agile, and Aurelie followed him. She could hear the water rushing past them, felt the warm spray of it against her ankles. In the middle of the stream she looked down and saw a bright blue fish darting very near her toes. She slipped and Luke slid an arm around her waist, balanced her. Easily.

‘The secret is not to look down.’

‘Now you tell me.’

Another rock, and then another, and then they were on the other side. Luke smiled at her rather smugly, and Aurelie shook her head.

‘This is all a big lesson, isn’t it? How to Trust 101.’

‘Is it working?’

‘A little,’ she admitted. ‘What if I’d fallen?’

‘But you didn’t.’

‘But what if I had? What if you’d slipped?’

‘Me? Slip?’ He shook his head, then gazed at her, his head tilted to one side. ‘Do you think it would have ruined everything?’

Her lips curved. She liked being with this man. ‘Not everything. But after the
lanzone
...’