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‘You seely

‘You took ’

‘If my memory serves me correctly, I didn’t take you at all…’

Herfor a diversion Any diversion’

‘You think?’

‘I know!’

‘Never heard of opposites attracting?’ he taunted

‘Not in this case, no’ She shook her head ‘We’re just too different for this attraction to be real, Rogan Your life appears to be complicated, in so many ways Whereas I like stability and certainty in my own life’

‘Stability and certainty can be a little boring, don’t you think?’ he asked, his gaze continuing to hold hers even as he reached across to pick up her hand and lace the long length of his fingers with her much smaller ones

Elizabeth felt the jolt of that physical connection as heat surged up the length of her arly and the nipples to harden and throb in awareness

Worse, she couldn’t look away fro very white and delicate against Rogan’ssuddenly dry lips ‘I like my life the way it is’

‘Do you?’ Rogan was htly parted lips ‘Do you really, Elizabeth?’

She liked this man! The way he looked The way he felt The way he touched her The way she felt when he looked at her with those dark, seductive eyes

It was all too easy at ti for him in America…

Rogan easily read the panic in Elizabeth’s widely uncertain gaze, knowing he should stop this now Knowing, after those alar love with her, warning hier to his chosen life of solitude as well as his peace ofconversation in the first place

The two of thean to be si ive a damn about his wife or his child Elizabeth had chosen to deal with the pain of that childhood by channelling her ean had just as deliberately chosen a life that presented constant challenge and change

He didn’t want, had never wanted, any permanence in his own life He certainly didn’t want a permanent woman—least of all a woman like this one!

Rogan released her fingers as he sat back abruptly ‘You’re right, Elizabeth, you aren’t my type either,’ he said quietly, and stood up ‘We have the funeral toht of it ‘So I’ll wish you goodnight,’ he added distractedly, before striding purposefully from the room

‘Goodnight, Rogan…’ Elizabeth murmured softly into the empty room

A rooan’s vibrantly forceful presence, so

Much like Elizabeth was starting to realise she had allowed her life to become…

Chapter Nine

‘GRAB a plate out of the cupboard, Elizabeth, and then get the toast, will you?’ Rogan pro, while he stood over the hob, cooking eggs and bacon in two separate pans

Elizabeth hadn’t been able to fall asleep the night before, and as a consequence she had overslept and so ht she must haveroons of breakfast

Lured to the kitchen by the te in a pan, she was too surprised at finding Rogan there, doing the cooking, to do anything other than what he asked

Rogan appeared perfectly relaxed, in faded blue jeans and a fitted white T-shirt His feet were bare on the terracotta tiles, those dark eyes sleepily , his hair silkily tousled, and the dark shadow of stubble on the fir that he hadn’t yet shaved this …

‘No Mrs Baines today?’ Elizabeth asked distractedly, as she laid out two settings on the breakfast bar after collecting the toast from the toaster

‘I found her in here crying earlier this ed ‘We sat down and had a chat, and as you said yesterday she’s very upset,’ he said, his back towards Elizabeth as he continued to cook ‘I’ve suggested she take theoff, attend the funeral with us this afternoon, and then afterwards go up to Scotland for a few days and visit with her son’

Elizabeth’s hands shook slightly as she realised that Mrs Baines’s unexpected departure an were now completely alone at Sullivan House…

She moistened dry lips ‘That was…very kind of you’