them, but that doesn’t mean I’m ever interested in them. Bought sex isn’t something I’ve ever had to resort to,’ he added without conceit. ‘When it is I’ll consider myself too old to be interested any more. No, I bought the lady a drink and then politely left. She’s only doing her job, after all. As for you, I’ve already told you what I think you are.’
‘A bored married socialite looking for excitement in my life,’ she remembered disparagingly.
He tilted his head at her consideringly. ‘Maybe not a married one,’ he conceded.
‘But bored,’ she snapped. ‘A boredom you would have been only too happy to help ease, I suppose?’
‘More than happy,’ he acknowledged, his eyes brimming with laughter at her fury.
‘How kind of you,’ she said with saccharine sweetness, rising gracefully to her feet, the blue dress shimmering lovingly against her body to rest just below her knees, high sandals the same shade of blue elevating her height a good three inches. ‘But I’m afraid I’ll have to decline your gracious offer,’ she looked pointedly towards the doors where a man who was obviously her awaited mechanic hesitated, the blue overalls stained with grease and oil, although he was self-consciously trying to straighten his hair as he became increasingly aware of the elegance of his surroundings.
‘I don’t mind waiting,’ Rogan drawled suggestively.
She looked down at him coldly. ‘I don’t think you will still be around in a hundred years!’
‘Neither will you,’ he reasoned.
‘Exactly!’ she said with satisfaction.
‘Ouch!’ He gave a pained wince.
‘Goodbye, Mr McCord.’ She nodded dismissively, a smile of welcome plastered on her face as she moved to greet the mechanic.
She took him outside to look at her car, listened for the next five minutes as he poked about under the bonnet talking about things she didn’t even recognise the name of but which he talked about so lovingly she knew he understood what every single part of the engine should be doing—but obviously wasn’t.
‘What does it all mean?’ She frowned when he at last straightened, wiping his hands on a cloth from his pocket.
The young man shrugged. ‘It means I’m going to have to tow your car back to the garage and work on it there.’
That’s what she had thought it meant! ‘Thank you,’ she sighed. ‘I suppose I’d better go and organise a taxi——’
‘No need for that,’ cut in a voice that really was beginning to grate on her nerves.
Caitlin turned to Rogan McCord with icy eyes. ‘What?’ she bit out resignedly.
He strolled over to join them, enjoying a few minutes’ consultation with the mechanic about her car before acknowledging her presence once again. ‘I’ll drive you home,’ he stated arrogantly. ‘I have my car over there.’ He nodded in the direction of a dark grey Jaguar.
‘Like hell——’
‘Whew, English women aren’t at all as cool and ladylike as they like to make out,’ he confided in the mechanic. ‘They aren’t forgiving either.’
‘What——’
‘I offer to drive her home as an olive-branch after our argument and she throws it back in my face!’ He shook his head, his expression pained.
It would be even more pained if he didn’t stop giving the man who had introduced himself as Paul Raymond the impression the two of them were lovers who had just had a fight! They had certainly done nothing but fight since they first met, but they would never be lovers!
‘I think you should accept the offer, Miss O’Rourke,’ Paul Raymond advised softly.
‘That’s it, Paul,’ Rogan grinned. ‘We men have to stick together.’
The other man shot him an amused look. ‘I’m sure you would be more comfortable in the Jag, Miss O’Rourke, than in the taxi.’
Rogan gave a mock groan of despair. ‘Don’t encourage her, she’s already resorted to calling me names!’
The only name she had called him had been pirate, and that was proving even more true by the minute!
‘Perhaps you’re right, Paul.’ She gave him a conspiratorial smile as she thought of the home she shared with her parents, and its distance from town. Rogan McCord was in for a surprise if he thought he just had to drive around London a bit to her home, where he would be invited up to her apartment for a nightcap as a thank-you for his kindness.
‘Does that mean you accept my offer?’ He couldn’t hide his surprise at her unquestioning compliance.
‘Why not?’ she agreed. ‘Why look a gift-horse in the mouth, hmm, Paul.’
‘Right, Miss O’Rourke,’ the mechanic gave her a conspiratorial wink.
Rogan watched them frowningly. ‘Why do I get the feeling I’m being outnumbered?’
‘Probably because you are,’ Caitlin mocked. ‘Give me a call about the car, Paul,’ she added warmly. ‘Ready, Rogan?’ she prompted tauntingly.
‘Sure,’ he nodded, unlocking the car door for her before climbing in beside her, lifting a hand in parting to the other man as he walked away to get his tow-truck. ‘Where to now?’ Rogan prompted as they reached the hotel exit.
‘It will be simpler if I just direct you as we approach the correct roads,’ she evaded, secretly wondering what on earth had prompted her to accept this lift home from a complete stranger. Bravado and vengeance, she finally decided. Bravado because Rogan McCord obviously thought he had the upper hand, vengeance because after the drive he would have to her home, with no return for his trouble once they got there, she doubted he would harass a woman the way he had her for some time to come. She decided the latter was well worth the uncertainty of trusting him at all!
After twenty minutes of driving, Caitlin could see he was starting to frown, five minutes later he began to scowl, five minutes after that he began to glower.
‘Shouldn’t be long now,’ she told him cheerfully, rubbing salt into the wound.
‘Really?’ he answered with barely concealed impatience, increasing the car’s speed.
Caitlin grinned to herself, she had deliberately directed him to her home by the longest route possible, had even added a few detours to make it even longer. She was enjoying herself immensely.
‘Do you work in London?’ Rogan finally grated after another fifteen minutes’ driving.
She nodded. ‘I’m a nursery teacher.’
‘It’s a long trip to make each day.’
‘Is it?’ she widened innocently surprised eyes. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’
He shot her a look that was clearly sceptical,
