скачать книгу бесплатно
A sudden burst of male laughter caught her off guard.
‘That shocks you, does it?’
‘I don’t know if shock is the word I would have used. It surprises me that you’re so open about it, I guess.’ She smiled a small smile. ‘But maybe that’s what they had in mind when they chose you. An experienced liar might be able to teach me the ropes.’
He continued smiling. ‘Could be. But they certainly got the opposites thing right.’
Her eyes moved over him again as she nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, so it would appear.’
He removed his hands and started slowly down towards her. Each step seemed measured, controlled. And when he stood on the step above her he leaned his face closer to hers to ask in a low voice, ‘So, how do we make them all believe we’re in love, Caitlin Rourke?’
She swallowed hard as she looked into his eyes close up. They were really stunning. And another sense awoke to discover he actually smelled extremely good. She took a deep breath and found the scent almost calming. Reassuring in its maleness. He was just some guy, after all.
She tilted her chin slightly upwards. ‘I guess it might be an idea to try getting to know each other better.’
Aiden quirked a brow at her. ‘And how do you suggest we do that?’
‘Talking would be the traditional route. And we’re supposed to have been doing months of that on the internet.’ She thought for a moment, trying to get her brain around the problem. ‘Or we could make out a set of questions for each other and write it all out.’
‘Like a study guide?’
‘Exactly!’ She smiled at his understanding. ‘That makes perfect sense.’
Aiden watched as her face was transformed with enthusiasm. Her dark eyes sparkled and she smiled more openly at him. Hell, what was she? Alice in Wonderland, or something? She had the same enthusiasm levels as a ten-year-old. ‘Keep your panties on, honey, it’s only a handful of questions. It’s not an unbreakable guide to cashing the big cheque.’
The smile disappeared. ‘You really are very rude, aren’t you?’
‘Because I mentioned your underwear or because I just rained on your parade?’
Her hands planted themselves firmly on her hips as she glared up at him. ‘Just because I happen to get enthusiastic about the fact that we might actually manage to do something pro-active about this it means you should shoot me down, does it? Why are you even doing this show if you have no intention of us winning at the end?’
‘Oh, I have every intention of winning at the end. And I’m all for anything that achieves that.’
‘So the idea of doing some work towards that would be a bad idea because…?’
‘I didn’t say it was a bad idea.’
She was flabbergasted. ‘But you just said—’
Aiden smiled calmly below his beard. ‘I just said you shouldn’t get so thrilled at the prospect of having to swot up on each other. It’s not exactly riveting stuff, learning what toothpaste we each use.’
Caitlin rocked back on her heels. She had never met anyone like Aiden before. How on earth were they supposed to get on well enough to fool everyone if they couldn’t even hold a simple conversation?
He watched the varying emotions play across her face and continued smiling his secret smile. She didn’t get him at all. And he quite liked that. It made him feel he was in control. Something to knock her neat little world out of joint. That would be one way of punishing her for having such a damned perfect life.
‘You really are something out of a 1950s TV show, aren’t you?’
Caitlin blinked up in the dim light at the voice that sounded from across her hall. It made sense that they should spend some time in her house playing the ‘getting to know each other’ game. But when she’d agreed she hadn’t realised she was going to be stuck under the same roof with someone so damned annoying.
They’d made out a set of questions for each other, swapped them to fill in the answers, and had then retreated to different parts of the house to ‘study up’. After four hours of learning how many sugars he took in his coffee and what side of the bed he slept on her head had gone numb, so she’d opted for fleecy pyjamas and the security of her huge bed.
But with the door to her room slightly ajar she could still see the light shining from where Aiden lay in bed across the hall from her. She was only too aware of where he was in the house at any given time. Aware of the sounds of another human being sharing her space. But there wasn’t the same comfort associated with those noises as there would have been if it were a friend or a family member staying.
She sighed into the air. ‘What does that mean, exactly?’
‘Everything in your life is just so bloody neat and pretty.’
‘I happen to like a tidy house.’ And she wasn’t normally in it much, which helped. But she didn’t mention that.
‘I don’t mean just your house.’
She rolled over to face the door, moving the pillow to fit underneath her neck better. ‘So what do you mean?’
‘I mean your whole life. Neat little family, neat crowd of friends, neat career direction. Your life is all wrapped up with ribbons and bows.’
Caitlin wished.
‘You have no idea what my life is like.’
‘That’s what I’m in here studying.’
‘You don’t get a picture of someone’s life from a set of questions dealing with what size feet they have or their favourite colour.’
There was silence for a few moments, and then Caitlin heard his bed creak slightly as he moved. ‘So tell me something that’s not on the questionnaire.’
‘Like what?’
‘Something that only someone you love would know.’
She pursed her lips and frowned at his words. He was looking for personal information. Something that meant she would have to give something of herself to him. And she really didn’t want to do that. Didn’t want this person she didn’t like much knowing things he would still know when he walked away in three months.
Aiden strained to hear any movement when she didn’t reply, holding his breath to keep silent.
‘Caitlin?’
‘I’m still here.’
He smiled at her small voice. She didn’t want to tell him anything, did she?
‘What’s wrong? Skeletons in your closet?’
‘Only ones wrapped neatly in ribbons and bows.’
Her sarcastic answer brought a larger smile to his face. ‘Come on. One thing. I promise to forget it when the show ends.’
She turned her face into her pillow to call him a name, then came out to take a deep breath. ‘We’ll swap. You get one subject; I get to ask about one in return.’
He considered the proposal for a moment and then quirked a brow at the doorway. What harm could it do?
‘Okay.’
Caitlin waited. Then waited some more. ‘So?’
‘I’m thinking.’
‘Don’t strain yourself.’
‘Funny.’ He propped himself up on an elbow and continued to stare at the door, as if by staring harder he would be able to see through it to read her face. ‘So how come there’s no neat boyfriend around to complete the picture?’
Damn. He just would ask that, wouldn’t he?
‘Maybe I like being single.’
‘You’re twenty-eight years old. In the fifties you’d be a spinster already. Don’t you want neat little kids so you can scrub their little faces and read them fairy stories at night?’
‘That’s a second question.’
‘Oops.’
She raised herself up on an elbow and thought about her answer. To tell or not to tell. That was the question, really.
‘I used to have a boyfriend. A fiancé.’
He wasn’t surprised at the first part of her answer, but the second part caught him off guard. ‘What happened?’
She took a breath. ‘He died.’
Aiden flumped onto his back and frowned at the ceiling. ‘How?’
‘He had this stupid motorcycle that he loved nearly as much as he said he loved me.’
‘Was it long ago?’
Yesterday, she wanted to answer. There were still odd moments when it felt as if it was. But the moments were further apart now than they had been at the start. The pain she’d felt back then was a bearable numbness now.
‘Nearly five years. We met in high school.’
Aiden heard the matter-of-fact tone of her voice as she recited facts that must have hurt like hell at the time. Her perfect life had hit a glitch. A big one. And that made him think. ‘I’m sorry.’
Caitlin was surprised by the softness in his voice. It was a completely different tone for the sarcastic edge he’d had with her for most of the evening. She sank back down into the haven of her duvet and lifted the bottom of it with her legs to tuck her feet in. Those two words spoken with that softness making her reach out for a simpler form of comfort, she supposed.
She blinked upwards for several long seconds, then replied with an equally softly spoken, ‘Thanks.’
The house fell silent again, until Caitlin’s voice sounded out with, ‘So, no neat little girlfriend for you, then?’
He laughed. ‘No, nothing neat in my life.’
‘You’re this charming to everyone, then?’
‘Careful, Caitlin. I’ll get the impression you don’t like me much.’
‘Oh, and that would hurt your feelings, would it?’
‘Well, if you still think I have feelings then I’m not a lost cause just yet, am I?’
She smiled. ‘Every human being has to have a feeling on something or another. I’ll allow you that much.’
‘Cheers.’ He turned his head to smile back at the door.
‘You’re welcome.’
Aiden was surprised when it went silent again. She was quitting that easily? He was almost disappointed that she was. Not that he was up for a deep psychoanalysis of his own life. But she had told him something very personal, had allowed something painful to be talked about, even briefly. And he felt he owed her something back for that.
‘Six months.’
‘What?’
‘Six months. It’s how long I can manage to stay in a relationship with a woman, apparently.’
Caitlin thought about the unexpectedly volunteered information. ‘How come?’
‘I wear them out.’
She laughed at his joke. ‘I’ll bet.’
He smiled. ‘I guess I’m just not neat little marriage material.’
‘No kids to scrub and read fairy stories to, huh?’
The ache in his stomach came back. ‘I don’t have any experience on either of those things.’
She turned her head towards the door at his answer. ‘Your mother didn’t scrub your face and read you fairy tales when you were little?’
None of them had. They’d had so many kids in their care that it had been miraculous enough if they all made it through each day fed and watered. Fairy tales hadn’t exactly been on the menu at any stage.
‘That’s a second question.’
She opened her mouth to push him on it, but he got there first. ‘That’s probably enough to add to the lists—for one night anyway.’ The bed creaked again as he turned away from the door and switched off the bedside light. ‘Goodnight, Caitlin Rourke.’
Caitlin blinked into the darkness, her eyes adjusting to make out the dark forms of her bedroom furniture while her mind worked overtime. Aiden had more facets than he first appeared to have. And that intrigued her.
The fact that it intrigued her bothered her.
She’d never met anyone like him before. But the simple fact was in three months’ time she’d probably never meet him again.
‘Goodnight, Aiden.’
CHAPTER FOUR
