Page 43 of Do Opposites Attract?

‘I wasn’t.’

His blunt statement shocked her. As did the way his face suddenly turned as harsh as his voice. ‘What did she die of?’

For a fraction of a second his hand clenched on his glass. Then he carefully schooled his features back into a blank mask. ‘It’s not important.’

His reaction said otherwise, but she’d learnt enough about the man to know he wasn’t going to be pushed anywhere he didn’t want to go, so she changed tactics. ‘Who looked after you when your mother died? Did you have a stepfather?’

‘I didn’t have a stepfather, no.’

Brianna fought to keep the impatience from her voice. ‘So who took care of you? Relatives? Foster parents?’ When he simply gave a slight shake of his head, Brianna’s heart crumpled. ‘Oh, Mitch, you didn’t go into care, did you?’

‘No.’ He paused, his expression so guarded she thought that was all he was going to say on the matter. It was a surprise when he spoke again into the silence. ‘I was lucky to find a woman prepared to take me in. She looked after me for a while. Put me on the straight and narrow. She even paid for me to go to university.’

Briefly his eyes flickered, giving her a sense that this person was important to him. ‘She sounds like one special lady. Are you still in touch with her?’

Instantly the shutter came down again. ‘No, I’m not. She broke the contact.’

He stared broodingly into the fire, his face set back into hard lines and Brianna kicked herself. Why had she spoilt the mood by insisting on finding out more about him? She wanted the relaxed man back, the one she’d been with all day. Slowly she uncurled from the sofa and went to sit on his lap. ‘I think that’s enough questions for now, don’t you?’ she asked, smoothing his hair from his brow.

With a groan, he settled his arms around her and sought out her mouth. ‘Come to bed.’

She laughed. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

Chapter Twenty

It seemed natural they spend Sunday together. At least it did to Brianna, who’d shown no signs of heading home after breakfast. Mitch was surprised to find he had no desire to push her out. It was the first time he’d spent a weekend with a woman yet so far he’d had no urge to reclaim his space. He hadn’t felt irritated when she’d perched where he usually sat on the sofa, and had even enjoyed her commentary on the newspaper she’d been reading. As they strolled back from a relaxing pub lunch, he wondered what it was about her that made her such good, easy company.

‘Come on, show me your stone skimming skills. I’ll wager ten pounds I can do more skips than you.’ Brianna bounded down to the sea, her hair flowing in the wind, cheeks flushed and face alive with laughter.

There was his answer. She was such good company because she was fun. He’d never met anyone so full of life. She made him feel young. He bent down to snatch up a flat stone. ‘You’re on.’

The contest was hard fought and Mitch was more than a little surprised she was so good at skimming stones. ‘Where did you hone your skills then?’ he asked after one particularly good throw had bounced off the sea six times.

‘My parents have a house by a lake in Italy. We used to go there a lot when I was a child, usually with a group of friends who also had children. I was the only girl, so I was determined to beat the boys.’ She eyed up his stone. ‘Go on then, see if you’re man enough to beat a girl.’

Mitch grinned, put his arm back and produced a beauty. They watched it skip ten times before it sunk into the sea. ‘Ten pounds I believe?’

‘Damn you. I bet you wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t riled you.’ Just then her mobile phone rang. ‘Hello? Hi Melanie . . .I’m with Mitch.’ She cast a furtive look at him. ‘Umm, yes, very well. Details later.’ She giggled, blushing slightly, and he had no doubt what was being discussed. Before he had a chance to be put out, she was laughing. ‘Very funny. As it happens we’re not in bed, but it would take us too long to get there so we’ll have to pass. Thanks for asking though. Bye.’

Mitch quirked an eyebrow at her.

‘My friend, Melanie. A crowd of them are going to watch a polo game this afternoon. She was asking if I wanted to go along.’ She grinned. ‘Providing we’d made it out of bed.’

He chose to ignore the fact that these two women were discussing his sex life. ‘Polo?’ he asked instead. ‘Is that really what you do on a Sunday?’

Brianna sighed.Here we go again. Mitch was wearing that look. The one that said she was rich, and he wasn’t. Would he ever forget about her damn money? ‘No, of course it isn’t,’ she retorted sharply.

‘Never?’

She squirmed slightly. ‘Okay, yes we go to polo sometimes. Satisfied?’

‘What do you do when you’re not at polo?’

Relieved they were back onto more neutral ground, Brianna threaded her arm through his. ‘There’s a crowd of us that tend to go round together. Sometimes we go to each other’s houses, sometimes to a party or club.’ When he asked, she named a high profile club in London. ‘What about you?’

‘Very similar,’ he replied dryly.

She elbowed him sharply in the ribs. ‘Come on. This is called conversation. I tell you a bit about me, you tell me a bit about you. You’ll get the hang of it in time.’

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