His Scandalous Mistress. Кэрол Мортимер

back to face Elizabeth. ‘Well, that was—’

      ‘Stupid!’ she supplied forcefully, her cheeks flushed and her eyes brightly accusing, her breasts rapidly rising and falling beneath her blouse in her agitation.

      His mouth compressed. ‘I was going to say unexpected… ’

      This spiky woman—a lecturer in History who catalogued libraries in her spare time, for heaven’s sake!—simply wasn’t his type. Absolutely not.

      Except it had aroused Rogan just to be able to pierce through all that prim self-righteousness. To see this obviously controlled woman totally come apart in his arms…

      Rogan lived his life as he wanted. As he chose. And where he chose. With no involvements, emotional or otherwise. That had worked for him for the past fifteen years, and he fully intended for it to continue working for him for the foreseeable future.

      Even if Elizabeth Brown had succeeded in getting to him, in breaching his guard, in a way Rogan couldn’t remember any other woman ever doing before…

      His mouth thinned. ‘You’re right, it was stupid,’ he ac-knowledged harshly. ‘Let’s just forg—’ He broke off as his mobile began to vibrate against his hip. ‘Excuse me.’ He took the mobile off his belt to take the call—no doubt a telephoned answer to one of the e-mails he had just sent.

      Elizabeth didn’t know which of them she was most angry with. Herself for having responded to Rogan in the way she had. Or Rogan for the way he had so readily agreed their behaviour had been stupid.

      The latter, probably…

      ‘Tell her I’ll call her when I have the time,’ Rogan said decisively into his mobile, even as he kept his coldly dark gaze fixed steadily on Elizabeth. ‘I don’t give a damn what she wants, Grant; you can tell her I’ll call her when I’m good and ready!’

       Her? Don’t give a damn what she wants? I’ll her call when I’m good and ready…

      Rogan couldn’t have told Elizabeth any more clearly that there was already a woman in his life. No doubt a woman who also lived in NewYork. A woman who had believed she could trust Rogan to be apart from her for the few days he would be in England without the fear that he would end up with another woman in his arms.

      Another woman who had allowed Rogan to kiss and touch her in a way she had never been kissed and touched before!

      ‘What did I do wrong now?’

      Elizabeth had been so full of self-condemnation for her own gullibility that she hadn’t even realised Rogan had ended his call and was now studying her from between narrowed lids. ‘Who said you had done anything wrong?’ She glared at him.

      He scowled. ‘Your disgusted expression said it for you.’

      Elizabeth scowled at him. ‘I can’t imagine what makes you think that.’

      ‘Male intuition?’

      ‘Men don’t have intuition!’ she flashed back.

      ‘Ah.’ He grimaced. ‘You’re one of those.’

      Her eyes widened. ‘I beg your pardon?’

      Rogan shrugged. ‘A man-hater.’

      Elizabeth felt heat in her cheeks at the taunt. ‘I don’t hate men.’

      ‘Just me, hmm?’ he said knowingly.

      Elizabeth only wished that she did hate this man. But the truth was just being in the same room with Rogan disturbed her more than any other man ever had. As for being kissed by him, touched by him… !

      ‘Not at all, Rogan,’she denied coolly. ‘But I had no sooner walked in here and found you using my laptop than you began kissing me—which begs the question, how did you get past my personal security code?’ Elizabeth frowned as she suddenly realised access to her computer was supposed to be protected by that code. Supposed to be. It obviously hadn’t been enough to stop Rogan from accessing it.

      So much for Rogan’s thinking that kissing Elizabeth might divert her attention away from the fact that he had been using her laptop earlier!

      ‘You really don’t want to know.’

      Her stance became one of stubborn determination. ‘Oh, I really think I do.’

      Rogan smiled nastily. ‘I have a doctorate in Computer Analysis, remember.’

      Auburn brows rose challengingly. ‘And that allows you to violate another person’s personal laptop any time you feel like it?’

      It actually allowed Rogan to access almost any computer system anywhere in the world any time he felt like it!

      He grimaced. ‘More or less.’

      Elizabeth folded her arms in front of her chest. ‘How much more or less?’

      Elizabeth Brown was dogged as well as intelligent, Rogan acknowledged ruefully. ‘Give me a computer, almost any computer, and I guarantee that in a matter of minutes I will have access to all its stored information.’ He gave an unapologetic smile.

      ‘Isn’t that illegal?’

      Rogan’s smile widened into a hard grin. ‘Some might call it that, yes.’

      Her mouth thinned. ‘What do you call it?’

      ‘Useful.’

      Elizabeth gave a disgusted shake of her head at the complete lack of apology in his tone. ‘And you don’t see anything wrong in that?’

      Rogan made an impatient movement. ‘Why should I, if it gets the job done?’

      She became very still. ‘What sort of job could you possibly do that requires that you intrude on information stored on other people’s computers?’

      He snorted. ‘If I told you that I might have to kill you afterwards!’

      ‘Stop teasing me, Rogan.’

      ‘Who says I’m teasing?’ He quirked dark brows.

      ‘I do.’ Elizabeth glared at him.

      ‘I’m not in the habit of explaining myself or my actions to anyone, Elizabeth. And, where I come from, sharing a few kisses with someone doesn’t give them the right to question, or to poke and prod into other parts of that person’s life.’

      She drew her breath in sharply. ‘I wasn’t—’

      ‘Oh, yes, you most certainly were,’ he rasped. ‘And, enjoyable as those kisses were—and probably would be again, given the opportunity—’

      ‘Which there won’t be!’

      ‘I think you should know that I don’t do permanent relationships!’ Rogan concluded harshly, as if she hadn’t interrupted.

      Elizabeth had never felt so uncomfortable and humiliated in the whole of her life!

      Rogan couldn’t have told her any more clearly not to read anything into the kisses they had just shared. As if! Elizabeth was as anxious to forget them as he obviously was.

      She gave him a scathing glance. ‘Well, that’s just fine—because neither do I!’

      He looked at her speculatively. ‘Does that mean you do casual instead?’

      ‘It means that where you’re concerned I don’t do any sort of relationship whatsoever! We’re only here together at all because of circumstances.’ And Elizabeth wished now that she hadn’t been goaded into staying on. ‘I suggest that for the rest of your time here we stay well out of each other’s way!’

      Rogan gave a terse inclination of his head. ‘I’m glad we got that straightened out.’

      ‘So am I!’ Elizabeth had never felt quite so much like hitting someone as she did Rogan