Wild Flower by Eliza Redgold

Author:Eliza Redgold [Redgold, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B010N8RX3U
Goodreads: 25906270
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

For such men orchids are a blessed relief. Fancy has not conceived such loveliness, complete all round, as theirs—form, colour, grace, distribution, detail, and broad effect.

About Orchids: A Chat—Frederick Boyle, 1893

‘This isn’t quite what I had in mind.’ Wade grinned. ‘But I’m not complaining.’

Dianella stirred her drink with a straw. ‘No?’

He tried to ignore the adorable creases between her fine dark eyebrows as she attempted to appear innocent.

‘Singapore Slings sure are pink.’ The concoction tasted sweet too. Gin. Cointreau. Fruit juice. Some kind of cherry liqueur. Grenadine. Not really his kind of drink, although it had quite a kick. He’d order a Tiger beer next round to go with the hamburger he’d nearly devoured.

He’d built up an appetite in the Fragrance Garden.

‘Yum seng!’ Dianella raised her glass.

‘Yum seng.’ He clanked his glass against hers. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means drink to victory and success. Officially.’

‘And unofficially?’

She giggled. ‘Lots of Chinese phrases are double entendres. Yum seng also means bottoms up.’

He drained his drink in one gulp.

Dianella’s mobile phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen.

‘It’s a message from Dewei.’ De-ah-we-ay, she pronounced it.

On the flight from Australia to Singapore they’d filled in a few gaps in each other’s family histories. He knew she had one younger half-brother, from her father’s second marriage. They’d grown up in different countries, but were as close as they could be. She had aunts and cousins in Singapore too.

He’d watched her relax in the Botanic Gardens. He’d planned to be a friend to her on this trip after she’d told him the reason, but the connection between them had built to fever pitch.

Hot. Steamy. He could swear he was running a temperature.

Could he really have orchidmania?

‘Is your brother coming to join us for a drink?’ Wade wanted to meet her family. Almost as much as he wanted to have her all to himself tonight.

Almost.

As Dianella tapped in a text message she shook her head. ‘Dewei’s still at work.’

Yum seng. With his Singapore Sling glass he made a silent toast to his victory. The evening was theirs.

‘People work long hours in Singapore,’ he commented.

‘Day and night. The city comes alive in the evening when it’s cooler.’

Wade had noticed that. In the Long Bar the tables and booths were crowded, mainly with tourists, it seemed, from all corners of the globe, talking different languages, sipping Singapore Slings and throwing peanut shells on the floor.

Outside, the sun had set, the air cooling in the dusk.

The best time for aroma. That’s what she’d told him.

As he leaned towards her, he had to agree. Had she applied more of her amazing perfume? She still looked amazingly fresh in the short pink dress that showed off her legs, and her tiny waist.

‘Dewei says I have to go to the new floral displays at Garden by the Bay before I go back to Australia, so I’m meeting him there tomorrow.’ She tapped on her mobile phone again. ‘It’s been built on some reclaimed land, down by the river. It’s fairly new to Singapore, so they’re adding new plant species all the time.

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