Free TENDER DECEIT (Romantic Suspense Mystery Novel): First Love Series ~ Book 1 by H.Y. Hanna Page A

must be the midway station between Mount Faber and Sentosa Island, she remembered. She looked at Toran, wondering whether they were going to ride upwards towards Mount Faber or continue out across the harbour towards Sentosa. He didn’t say anything, but held his hand out to help her aboard.
    Leah put her hand into his and her heart gave a little kick as she remembered another life, another time, when she had felt his warm hand envelop hers. But she determinedly kept her mind blank as she settled into her seat and watched the exit gap loom towards them. And then the ground dropped away with a dizzying swoop as the cable car glided out of HarbourFront Tower Two and started its journey.
    They were heading up towards Mount Faber. Leah waited for Toran to speak, determined to leave the ball in his court now, but he sat silent beside her. A quick peek at his profile found him staring broodingly out the cabin window. He had jammed the baseball cap low on his head again and the shades hid his eyes. Against her will, the memory of their last cable car ride together flashed in her mind and Leah couldn’t help making a bitter comparison between Toran’s tenderness then and his remoteness now. 
    It’s a good reminder of how different things are now, she told herself firmly. She mustn’t let some nostalgic memories lull her into a false sense of security with this man. Toran James was now a stranger.
    She was bracing herself for the arrival into Mount Faber station and the flood of memories to engulf her, but Leah was pleasantly surprised to find that the station had been completely renovated, with hardly anything remaining of the old building to remind her of that school visit. Following Toran silently, she found herself back in another cable car ten minutes later, ready for the outbound trip back down to HarbourFront and then on to Sentosa Island. This time, however, a table covered with a white linen cloth, a flickering candle, and gleaming silver cutlery was placed in the middle of the cabin between them.
    “They do meals on the cable cars now?” Leah said incredulously.
    “Trust the Singaporeans to always find a way to involve food,” said Toran with a chuckle. It was the first time he had smiled all evening and it changed his face completely, showing Leah a glimmer of the boy she used to know. “Some clever marketing person came up with the concept. Three-course meal up in the air. It was part of the upgrade a few years ago.”
    “Yes, I noticed the cabins had changed.” She looked around the gleaming black and chrome cubicle, covered by a skin of tinted glass. “And I noticed the station’s been renovated too. All those fancy restaurants and arty décor and chandeliers. Very swanky.”
    He shrugged, the smile leaving his face now. “This is really for the tourists. A bit gimmicky. But it suits my purpose—lets us talk in private.”
    Leah realised that he was right as they glided out of the station again. Aside from the few seagulls wheeling in the sky, they were alone, suspended 200 feet up in the air. The lights of Singapore harbour and the city spread out below them, like a jeweller’s window of sparkling gems, with the roads criss-crossing like a glittering tangle of gold chains. In the distance, the setting sun lit the underside of the clouds with a vivid pink glow, while a deep indigo stain spread slowly across the sky. 
    “It’s beautiful,” she said, looking out through the glass walls of the cabin. “The view is even more stunning at night.”
    “Your food is getting cold,” he said.
    Leah looked down, surprised to see that during the time it had taken for their car to revolve around the carousel back at the station on Mount Faber, plates of food had been placed before them, as well as a flute of champagne each. She didn’t think that she would be able to eat with the tension of past memories and present unease humming around her, but a mouth-watering aroma wafted up from the plate and she felt