The Master's Mistress. Carole Mortimer
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darkly. ‘You’re very nosy for someone who supposedly only came here to catalogue my father’s library for him.’
‘There’s no “supposedly” about it,’ she assured primly. ‘I was merely attempting to make conversation.’
‘Make it about something else,’ he bit out curtly.
Rogan didn’t discuss the work he did. With anyone. Least of all a woman he had only met eight hours ago.
Although it was starting to seem much longer than that…
‘If I’m nosy, then you’re completely lacking in manners!’ She frowned at his rudeness.
Rogan gave an uninterested shrug. ‘What else did you expect from a man whose father’s only means of contacting him was through a PO Box!’
A nerve pulsed in her cheek. ‘I wasn’t meaning to be rude when I made that comment.’
‘Weren’t you?’ Rogan asked knowingly.
Okay, yes, she had been, Elizabeth accepted guiltily. Which was a little unfair of her when she really knew nothing about their family situation. When this man’s father had just died…
‘What about you, Elizabeth?’ Rogan Sullivan arched a dark brow in query. ‘What does Dr E. Brown do when she isn’t cataloguing someone’s library?’
‘She teaches. History. At a London university,’ she expanded as he seemed to be expecting more.
‘Wow.’
‘It’s a subject I happen to love.’ She bristled defensively at the obvious lack of enthusiasm in his voice.
‘You’re comfortable with things that have already happened rather than those that haven’t?’
Elizabeth had never thought of it in that particular way before…‘Is there something wrong with that?’ she asked.
A shrug stretched the black material of his T-shirt tighter across the wide width of his shoulders. ‘Not at all. Except a life with no surprises must be…’
‘Comfortable?’ Elizabeth supplied tersely.
‘Boring,’ Rogan Sullivan finished with an unrepentant grin, his teeth very white and even against that lightly bronzed skin.
‘That happens to be the way I prefer it.’ She stood up abruptly. ‘With your permission, I think I’ll take my coffee with me into the library and get started on some work.’
Dark brows rose teasingly. ‘With my permission?’ he echoed.
It had occurred to Elizabeth shortly before she’d fallen asleep the night before that with Brad Sullivan’s death, if she stayed on here as originally planned, she would now effectively be working for Rogan…
She nodded tersely. ‘Unless you would prefer me to stop working on cataloguing the books?’
‘I—’ Rogan’s attention turned to the doorway as he saw Mrs Baines standing there hesitantly.
‘I wondered if I could get either of you something hot for breakfast?’ the elderly housekeeper offered huskily, the strain of the last few days evident in the paleness of her cheeks and the slight redness of her eyes.
‘Elizabeth?’ Rogan prompted crisply.
‘Not for me, thanks.’ She gave the older woman a regretful smile.
‘Or me,’ Rogan said. ‘We’ll both be finished in here in a few minutes, if you want to clear away then,’ he assured Mrs Baines lightly, having only vague memories of the sixty-year-old widow who had moved to Sullivan House with a sixteen-year-old son twenty years ago.
He leant back in his chair to look at Elizabeth with enigmatic dark eyes once they were alone again, arms now folded across that wide, muscled chest. ‘So, have you found any priceless treasures in the library yet?’ he wanted to know.
‘One or two, yes.’ She nodded. ‘A first edition of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species alone is worth a considerable amount of money.’
His brows rose. ‘How much money?’
‘Probably several hundred thousand pounds. And there are several others: a couple of Dickenses and a Chaucer. They’re also very collectible.’
‘I’m really not that interested, Elizabeth,’ Rogan rasped.
Her cheeks became flushed. ‘Then why bother to ask?’
He gave a shrug. ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’
‘And is your interest usually this fleeting?’
A slow smile curved those sculptured lips even as the dark eyes once again openly laughed at her. ‘It depends what that interest happens to be…’
There was no mistaking the deliberate innuendo in Rogan’s tone. Nor Elizabeth’s longing to wipe that smile from his ruggedly handsome face!
What was it about Rogan Sullivan that brought out these uncharacteristic feelings of violence in her? That caused her to be constantly antagonised by him?
The answer to that was easy! Everything about him made her feel defensive, while at the same time making her feel vulnerable and very feminine in a way that was totally unfamiliar to her. As well as uncomfortable…
Elizabeth Brown was defensive, nosy and confrontational, Rogan recognised as he continued to look at her admiringly from between narrowed lids. An interesting combination for a university lecturer in History who read steamy vampire novels when she was alone in bed at night and didn’t like surprises in her personal life.
Whereas Rogan was an adrenaline junkie who lived for the challenges in his own life, personal and otherwise!
Elizabeth’s mouth firmed. ‘Obviously your…interest doesn’t lie in rare books.’
‘Obviously not,’ Rogan agreed, inwardly starting to regret deliberately baiting her.
She had arrived two weeks ago to catalogue Brad’s library—Rogan had checked that out with Mrs Baines earlier—and, pleasurable as it might be, he shouldn’t be taking out his present frustration with the situation he found himself in on her.
Because his father’s sudden death had completely removed any possibility of the two men ever coming to any sort of understanding…
The two Sullivan men had never had the easiest of relationships. When the family had lived in the States Brad had owned and run one of the most prestigious advertising companies in New York, and his hours of work had been long and frantic. The family home had been in the suburbs, often meaning that Brad had spent weekday nights at the apartment he’d kept in the city. Not much had changed after the family had moved to England twenty years ago, so his father could open an office there. Brad had stayed in London during the week, only returning to Sullivan House for the weekends.
Consequently Brad hadn’t been around much, and had never attended any of the school events to which parents were invited—meaning Rogan’s mother, the Irish/American Maggie, had been the one to attend rugby matches, sports days, and the school plays in which Rogan had appeared.
Maggie had always been the bridge between Rogan and Brad, and when she had died so unexpectedly the two men had found they had absolutely nothing in common. Added to which, Brad had been furious when Rogan had refused to take up his place at Oxford University and instead returned to America and joined the army there.
Rogan straightened abruptly. ‘Continue to catalogue the library, by all means,’ he said brusquely. ‘Whoever inherits will no doubt consider selling them if some of the books are as valuable as you say they are.’
Elizabeth’s eyes widened. ‘You aren’t expecting that to be you?’
Rogan Sullivan’s laugh lacked all humour. ‘I have an appointment with Desmond Taylor, Brad’s lawyer, later this