Read The Doctor Claims His Bride for Free Online Page B

wear?’
    ‘Sun, fish, rock and pandanus. I’ll give you all the colours.’ Susie peeled layers from a reed until she foundthe firm centre. With experienced fingers she frayed the end until it acted like a brush. She made three brushes and put a circle of dots, yellow, red, white and black, across Mia’s forehead, down her cheeks and across her chin.
    ‘Smile.’
    Mia glanced over and saw Flynn holding a small digital camera.
    ‘The relatives down south will want to see this.’
    She gave a tight smile. He was being thoughtful and she didn’t want to break the moment by telling him there was no one down south, and she was the only person left in her family.
    ‘Now you can go sit.’ Susie instructed, and pointed to where Mia should go.
    ‘Thanks, Susie.’ She walked fifty metres and sat down again.
    Flynn bent down next to her, his breath caressing her ear. With a mighty effort she held her head erect despite the temptation to lean toward him.
    He spoke quietly so only she could hear. ‘Take your hat off so the bad spirits can leave you.’
    Bad spirits? Her breath caught in her throat. Surely he couldn’t know what lurked inside her? She pulled the hat into her lap.
    Susie approached her, holding smoking green leaves from the ironwood tree. Waving them over Mia’s head, she chanted in Kirri, touching her head and her shoulders firmly with her hands.
    Mia closed her eyes, letting the smoke waft around her, desperately wanting to believe that the smouldering leaves and a foreign language could remove fromher the illness that dogged her family. The illness that had taken her mother and brother from her.
    Knowing full well it would have no effect at all.
    She breathed in long, slow breaths, pushing away the thoughts that permanently hovered close by, and willed herself to focus on the here and now. She tried to take life one day at a time and grasp every opportunity that came her way, but it wasn’t always easy.
    Opening her eyes, she looked around as fifteen dancers with their dark skins decorated moved in front of her, swaying to the beat of the clapping sticks.
    ‘Crocodile dance, Mia.’ Walter led a group of men in their dreaming dance, followed by a group of children.
    ‘Rainbow Serpent dance!’ Susie enthusiastically stamped her feet with her arms outstretched.
    ‘This is amazing.’ Mia’s throat tightened as each group danced for her, showing their thanks.
    ‘It’s pretty special, isn’t it?’ Flynn’s voice had a reverent quality to it that she’d not heard before.
    Walter stopped in front of them. ‘Flynn, you do the turtle dance, turtle man.’
    Mia’s head snapped around. ‘Turtle man?’
    Flynn shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’s a long story.’ He lurched to his feet, his face creased in a huge smile and he joined the dancing throng.
    White skin flashed pale against the black but the dance didn’t differentiate colour. It accepted whoever chose to honour it. Voices merged as the song soared into the hot air, the joy of the dance evident on everyone’s faces.
    Mia couldn’t help it, her eyes zeroed in on Flynn, somuch a part of this group. How many sides were there to this man? Doctor, pilot, teacher, advocate and now ‘turtle man’.
    Flynn came toward her, stamping his feet, waving his arms, his black stubbled cheeks giving him the look of a powerful warrior. Her heart pounded hard and fast, but she felt no fear from the man, only fear for herself as need and longing swirled inside her.
    He stood above her tall and commanding. ‘Come on, Walter and I will teach you the whirlwind dance.’
    She shaded her eyes from the sun so she could see his face. ‘Why the whirlwind dance?’
    Walter laughed. ‘Because since you’ve come to Kirra you’ve been a whirlwind.’ He danced away, showing her the moves.
    Flynn’s large suntanned hands hovered in front of her, emanating strength, with tendons flexed and ready to pull her to her feet.
    She hesitated, knowing she should rise from the