A Rogue And A Pirate

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‘How dare I?’ He raised dark brows, his mouth thinning angrily. ‘The drive that took us all of an hour last night took a mere twenty minutes this evening. Of course I knew that at the time, but I thought I’d let you have your little bit of fun——’

‘You——’

‘Don’t add obscene language to your list of faults,’ he bit out caustically. ‘You were enjoying yourself,’ he shrugged. ‘And so I thought, what the hell? That takes care of wilful and spoilt,’ he rasped. ‘And tonight when I arrived your father told me he and your mother were just having a small family dinner party in honour of their daughter’s wedding on Saturday. I thought he must have two daughters, but no, he told me there’s only his Caity!’ He looked at her disgustedly.

‘So?’ she challenged defiantly.

‘So,’ he was so close the warmth of his breath stirred the feathered fringe above her eyes, ‘where was your engagement ring last night?’

‘I’m not engaged,’ she snapped. ‘My family doesn’t believe in them.’ Mainly because they never knew their partners long enough to bother with them!

‘You didn’t act like a woman about to be married in five days!’

‘I didn’t act?’ she repeated incredulously. ‘You were the one who kissed me,’ she hissed.

‘And you kissed me right back!’

A guilty flush darkened her cheeks at the truth of that. ‘You took me by surprise——’

‘For fifteen minutes!’ he derided harshly.

‘Rogan, please,’ she looked about them awkwardly, very conscious of where they were, and of her family in the room, even if he wasn’t.

‘Take me outside to look at the garden. Or something,’ he instructed hardly, his eyes narrowed.

‘No, I——’

‘You would rather we continued with our conversation here?’ he mocked tautly.

Brian and Beth were still talking with her parents on the other side of the lounge, but it was only a matter of time before they became curious about the intensity of the conversation between two supposed strangers. ‘All right,’ she agreed irritably. ‘But Graham and his parents will be arriving in a few minutes.’ She hoped!

‘The man you’re going to marry?’ Rogan prompted.

‘Yes,’ she confirmed defensively.

‘I pity the poor bastard,’ Rogan rasped as he accompanied her out on to the terrace that overlooked the gardens. ‘God knows how you’re going to behave after the two of you are married!’

‘Will you keep your voice down?’ She turned on him as soon as he had closed the door behind them, the September evening was warm, the sun not having gone down yet. ‘Must I remind you that you were the one who kept following me last night,’ she snapped agitatedly.

‘All you had to do was calmly tell me you were getting married in five days’ time; why didn’t you?’

She had asked herself the same question all day, and not found a single answer. ‘I don’t know,’ she admitted heavily.

‘Caity——’

‘Please don’t.’ She moved away from him as he would have enfolded her in his arms. ‘I’m not proud of what happened last night, but I—I’ll learn to live with it.’

‘Why?’ His eyes were narrowed to emerald slits, his hair taking on a blue-black sheen in the sunlight.

‘Because I did respond to you,’ she acknowledged gruffly. ‘And I shouldn’t have done.’

‘Caity——’

‘Let’s go back inside.’ Once again she avoided his arms. ‘I heard a car just now; it must be Graham and his parents.’ She deliberately evaded looking at him as he politely held the door open for her to enter.

The Simond-Smiths were just being shown into the lounge as the two of them entered from the garden, and Caitlin’s eyes lit up as she saw Graham, reassured by his boyish smile, moving forward to receive his kiss before acknowledging his parents, Joanna and Peter, and his sister-in-law, Gayle.

Gayle kissed her on the cheek. ‘I really am so sorry about last night. I was helping Graham with some research for his book, and it completely slipped my mind that I’d arranged to meet you.’

The other woman had telephoned her first thing this morning to apologise for the oversight, and once she had heard the reason she had forgiven Gayle for the lapse; the book Graham was writing on the Vikings was absorbing stuff. An accountant by profession, in partnership with his father, Graham had a passion for Viking history.

‘Please don’t worry about it,’ she tucked her hand into the crook of Graham’s arm, ‘I know how carried away Graham can get over his book.’ She gave him an indulgent smile.

‘Aren’t you going to introduce us, Caity?’

She glared at Rogan as he used the term of affection deliberately. ‘Graham Simond-Smith, and his sister-in-law, Gayle,’ she bit out tautly. Graham’s parents were in conversation with her own and Brian and Beth, leaving them a curious quartet. ‘A business acquaintance of my father’s, Rogan McCord,’ she supplied pointedly.

His handshake with Graham was brief to say the least, Caitlin’s mouth tightening as Graham gave a perplexed frown at the other man’s coldness, looking completely baffled by his own treatment as Rogan gave Gayle a smile of lingering charm.

Caitlin wasn’t puzzled at all by his behaviour; she knew that he despised Graham as much as he pitied him, believing she treated the other man as a fool. And he couldn’t help turning his charm on Gayle, who, widowed for the last two years, was still very young and beautiful.

Gayle had been married to Graham’s older brother, and continued to live in the family home even after his death at the end of a long illness. Caitlin had never known Thomas Simond-Smith, but she knew Graham had admired his brother tremendously, and that Gayle hadn’t looked at another man since his death.

Until now! Gayle couldn’t help but look at Rogan McCord as he drew her away to talk quietly together in one of the bay windows fronting the house. Gayle was blushing prettily at what Rogan was saying to her, reminding Caitlin that the other woman was still only thirty years old, even though her widowhood occasionally made her seem much older.

‘Who is he?’ Graham frowned as he watched the other man across the room.

‘I told you, a business associate of my father’s,’ she dismissed, turning her back on the other couple. ‘How about a proper hello; I haven’t seen you for two days!’ she teased.

He grinned down at her, looking younger than his twenty-six years, his blond hair, kept cut short because of its tendency to curl, in need of the cut it was undoubtedly going to get on the morning before their wedding, falling untidily on to his forehead.

He was young and uncomplicated, and Caitlin had been attracted to him from the moment they met a year ago. Happily he had returned the attraction, and they had both looked forward to their wedding-day.

Had. Caitlin stole a glance at Rogan and Gayle as she and Graham strolled out into the garden; the other woman was totally engrossed in Rogan’s drawled words. Caitlin wondered what they were talking about.

‘Mmm.’ Graham drew his head back to gaze down at her with warm eyes, his hands linked at the base of her spine as he held her to him after their lingering kiss. ‘I’ve missed you.’

‘I’ve missed you too.’ This time she kised him with a fierceness that bordered on desperation.

‘Hey!’ Graham straightened, a flush to his cheeks. ‘Someone could come out to call us for dinner at any moment.’

‘Someone already has,’ rasped a harsh voice, Rogan’s gaze cold as it flickered over Caitlin’s dishevelled hair and slightly swollen lips. ‘Your mother said dinner is about to be served. Unless you would like me to tell them you’ve decided not to bother?’ he added suggestively.

A dark flush heated her cheeks. ‘Please tell Mummy we’ll be right there,’ she snapped.

‘Who is he?’ Graham muttered once again when they were alone.

‘Just someone Daddy felt obliged to invite to stay.’ She walked apart from him back to the house.

‘He makes me feel about ten years old,’ Graham told her uncomfortably.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Caitlin dismissed brittly, knowing the feeling only too well!

‘He almost makes me feel guilty for slipping out to the garden to kiss the woman who is almost my wife,’ he said in a disgruntled voice as they reentered the lounge.

‘Just forget about him,’ she advised, knowing that was going to be impossible with Rogan in this baiting mood.

Not that there was much evidence of that as he concentrated his attention on Gayle throughout dinner. Caitlin was very quiet, as was Graham, still resentful of the other man’s condescension if his glowering looks in Rogan’s direction were anything to go by.

But Gayle flowered under the undivided attention of such an attractive man, her blue eyes sparkling her enjoyment, even her dark cap of hair seeming to take on a new vibrancy. No one else but Caitlin and Graham seemed aware of the friction at the oval table, Brian and Beth enjoying themselves as usual, the two sets of parents talking over the last-minute details of the wedding.

For a bride and groom they were singularly lacking in enthusiasm for this discussion!

‘I wonder what Graham would say if he knew that last night I was the one kissing you and receiving that passionate response that frightened the hell out of him!’

Rogan had moved to stand behind her as Graham went to get her an after-dinner brandy, having been delayed returning to her as her brother waylaid him, teasing him about the wedding Saturday if the good-natured laughter was anything to go by.

She turned sharply to Rogan. ‘It didn’t frighten him,’ she defended. ‘He was naturally cautious about our location!’

‘Like you were last night when we sat outside your parents’ home?’

‘Please keep your voice down!’ She looked about them uncomfortably, returning her father’s smile shakily as she caught his gaze on them.

Rogan shrugged. ‘I should think it would mess up all those expensive wedding plans somewhat if I were to mention who you were with last night.’

‘You wouldn’t.’ She frowned her distress. ‘Tell me you wouldn’t, Rogan!’

‘I wouldn’t,’ he repeated obediently.

‘You would!’ she groaned, closing her eyes, a deeper blue when she opened them again. ‘Do you have any idea how long my mother has been planning this wedding?’ she accused.

‘Since you were in your cradle, probably,’ he drawled uninterestedly.

‘Longer,’ she said flatly. ‘Brian was supposed to have been a girl. It was another nine years before I came along.’

‘And you’ve been spoilt ever since,’ Rogan grated. ‘Did no one ever explain to you that you can’t have your cake and eat it as well?’

Her eyes widened indignantly. ‘You must have heard Gayle say she was the person I was supposed to be meeting last night!’

‘I also heard you telling Graham how you missed him last night,’ Rogan taunted. ‘You didn’t seem to be coping too badly when we were together.’

She shot another frantic look about the room. ‘We were not together,’ she snapped.

‘Don’t kid yourself—or me, Caity,’ he rasped. ‘Another couple of minutes and we would have been making love on the front seat of my car in front of your parents’ house!’

‘No!’ She shook her head in firm denial.

Rogan gave her a scathing glance. ‘I know damn well that you wanted me.’

‘No. I——’

‘Here we are, Caitlin.’ Graham finally arrived back with their drinks, looking at the other man with questioning eyes as he noticed Caitlin’s flushed face. ‘Sorry, old man, I only brought two glasses,’ he dismissed smugly.

‘That’s all right—son,’ grated Rogan, taking both glasses of brandy out of the other man’s hand, giving one to Caitlin and keeping the other one for himself. ‘I’m sure Caity and I can amuse ourselves while you get yourself a drink.’

Good manners warred with indignation in Graham’s good-looking face, the former winning out as he left them with a mumbled ‘excuse me’.

Rogan raised dark brows at Caitlin as she demurely sipped her brandy. ‘No comment?’

She shrugged. ‘Graham doesn’t like you.’

The feeling is mutual,’ he bit out, his eyes narrowed as he watched the other man. ‘I wonder why that is?’

She turned away. ‘I have no idea.’

‘Don’t you?’ Rogan taunted.

Her face became flushed. ‘The time to make trouble for me was when we were first introduced, not now!’ She glared at him.

‘Oh, I don’t intend making trouble for you, Caity,’ he drawled.

‘No?’ she scorned.

‘No,’ he confirmed calmly. ‘I’m sure that in the end you’ll make the only decision that you can in the circumstances.’

She frowned. ‘There’s no decision to make; I’m going to marry Graham on Saturday.’

Dark brows rose over mocking eyes. ‘Why bother, when you’ll be unfaithful to him within a couple of months?’

Her eyes flashed. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about——’

‘Don’t I?’ he challenged softly, one lean hand moving up to caress her cheek. ‘I can assure you I do, you see I’ll be the man you’re unfaithful with! It’s going to be worth hanging around in England just for that,’ he taunted.