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Elizabeth’s expression remained calmly noncommittal as she nodded ‘You already told me that’
‘Well, now I’an scowled at her fiercely
Elizabeth placed her knife and fork carefully against the side of her plate before reaching out to lightly touch one of the hands Rogan had clenched on top of the breakfast bar ‘I realise this is going to be a difficult day for you, Rogan…’
‘Do you really?’ He turned his hand over and tightly gripped Elizabeth’s between steely fingers ‘And how can you possibly know that?’ he scorned ‘Have you ever had to attend the funeral of the father you despised?’
No, she had never had to do that Not yet, anyway But one day Elizabeth knew she would have to do so And, just like Rogan, she was going to hate the hypocrisy that would necessitate her being there
Rogan watched the eh or quick enough to hide them from him He saw her pained expression Her disht
So was he
‘Tell ed persuasively, his fingers gentling as they becaled with hers and he ran the soft pad of his thuly across her palm ‘Tell me about your father’
Those blue eyes flickered briefly to his before she looked quickly away again ‘There’s nothing to tell’
‘Elizabeth…’
She ran the pink tip of her tongue over dry lips Completely unaware, it seemed, of the eroticism of the movement
Unlike Rogan, are and responded to everything that Elizabeth Brown did and said…
‘Please, Elizabeth…’ he urged softly
She closed her eyes briefly, before raising her lids to stare at a point over Rogan’s left shoulder, her gaze unfocused as her thoughts and emotions all became channelled inwards ‘My father nant’
‘Why deliberately?’
Elizabeth sed hard ‘My mother ell, she was…My mother came from a wealthy fae and ive him, and so when her father died unexpectedly he—he—’ She broke off to shake her head sadly ‘This certainly doesn’t get any prettier in the telling’
Rogan frowned as he inwardly processed the little Elizabeth had already told him Her mother had been an heiress Her father’s name was Leonard Brown Why did that name sound so familiar?
‘Your mother was Stella Britten?’ he breathed incredulously, as the inforan to fall into some sort of order and he remembered what else was already stored in his memory
Stella Britten Only child of millionaire industrialist Jaranddaughter—although he’d died alo Within a year of his death he had been succeeded as Chairman of Britten Industries by his son-in-law, Leonard Brown, a playboy and serial adulterer From all accounts a total louse to the ho had adored hi out the hu herself instantly ten years ago, when she had driven her car into a brick wall, blind drunk Obviously the reason Elizabeth herself didn’t drink alcohol The pallor of Elizabeth’s face and the pained darkness in the depths of her eyes was enough to confirm the truth to him
Rogan drew in a ragged breath ‘I’m sorry, Beth—’
‘What do you have to be sorry about?’ she ca the selfish rat that he is any more than I am’
Rogan shook his head ‘I should never have pushed the subject’
‘Why shouldn’t you?’ Elizabeth said, as she wrenched her fingers from his to stand up and ht your parents’caught in the h ‘The worst of it is that when I was a child I absolutely adored him—’ Her voice broke emotionally
‘Beth—’
‘No, let an,’ she insisted ‘Maybe if I talk about him I will finally be able to put all this behind me It’s easy to see how my mother fell for hi So incredibly handsohtly ‘He was always laughing Forever buying eously expensive presents for no reason whatsoever The latest toys A pony A diamond bracelet on one occasion, because I had said I liked the rainbow lights inside it’ She shook her head bleakly ‘I was too young at the tiiven as a way of salving Leonard’s conscience because he was such a lousy husband He had never loved nant and et his hands on the company and the money she had inherited from her own father’
There was so i…