Page 74 of Do Opposites Attract?

Mitch hauled himself to his feet. He didn’t want to hear any of this. It was part of his past that he’d locked away and he didn’t want ever dragged out again. Feeling equal parts fury and fear he grappled around for his crutch, swearing as it clattered to the floor.

‘Wait, you have to hear me out.’

‘I don’t have to do anything,’ he replied curtly, lunging for the crutch and then propelling himself awkwardly towards the door. There he leant weakly against the frame, dreading the answer to his next question, but knowing he had to ask it. ‘Did you speak to her?’

She flushed, but still looked him directly in the eye. ‘Yes.’

His heart clattered against his ribs. ‘What did she tell you about me?’

Briefly she closed her eyes. ‘She told me how she found you squatting in her house, then became your legal guardian,’ she admitted quietly.

‘Anything else?’

When she shook her head, he sagged against the door frame in relief. ‘Good.’ When he’d mustered his strength, he grasped the crutch and set off down the hallway.

‘Don’t you want to know the rest? How Catherine didn’t have a clue about the letter that was sent? That she loved you, still loves you? That she visited you in hospital when she thought you might die, because she so desperately wanted to see the man you had become?’

The words rung in his ears but Mitch wasn’t listening. He ploughed all his efforts into escaping down the corridor and reaching his room as quickly as possible. Once there he hurled himself onto the bed, allowing tears he was ashamed of to falldown his cheeks. He didn’t want to think about Catherine. He didn’t want to be reminded about his past.

And there was no way in hell he wanted Brianna to know about any of it.

* * *

Mitch barely spoke to Brianna the next day. His anger towards her still simmered, though in truth he was now more angry with himself than her. Angry for not realising Catherine hadn’t been behind the letter he’d received. At the time he’d been so concerned with his own feelings of hurt and rejection, he hadn’t thought about it from her side. He should have known Catherine wouldn’t have done such a thing. It hadn’t been in her nature. Through his selfishness he’d managed to hurt the one person from his past who’d cared for him.

His bad temper wasn’t helped by the phone call he took from Frederick. Pompous ass. ‘Yes, she’s here,’ he barked down the phone. ‘I’ll get her.’

He found Brianna in her study. ‘Phone call for you.’ They were the most words he’d spoken to her all day.

‘Thank you,’ she replied, accepting the phone.

He didn’t intend on listening, really he didn’t, but he wasn’t very quick on his crutch, so he couldn’t help but hear her politely decline what was obviously an offer of dinner. ‘I don’t feel I can leave Mitch alone just yet,’ he overheard her saying.

He cursed under his breath. What did she think he was? Some sort of charity case? A kid who needed constant supervision? He barged back into the study just as she was putting the phone down.

‘You don’t have to babysit me,’ he told her cuttingly. ‘I’m not a child.’

‘No, I know you’re not,’ she agreed calmly. ‘Though at times you act like one. However, I would feel better staying in while you’re under my care.’

‘For God’s sake Brianna,’ he snarled. ‘You need to find yourself a life. Maybe it would stop you interfering so much in mine. Go out with the man.’

She appeared startled at the harshness of his words, but maintained her composure. He admired her for it, even as it irked him. Instead of crumbling, she jutted her chin forward.

‘Right then, I will. Please close the door behind you.’

He did more than that, he slammed it before stalking back to his bedroom in a foul mood. For years he had been almost viciously in control of his emotions. Now they were all over the place. His broken body frustrated him, thoughts of Catherine and how she must have felt when he stopped writing to her, haunted him. At the bottom of it all though was Brianna. He could snap and snarl at her all he wanted, but there was no denying that once again he was letting her get under his skin. If he wasn’t careful she’d go even deeper into his body. Into his closed off heart.

* * *

The following evening he watched Brianna greet Frederick with a kiss on the cheek, and wondered what on earth he’d started. This time he hadn’t just pushed her away, he’d shoved her straight into the arms of another man. Sure, he’d been angry with her, but what sort of excuse was that? Especially as it now seemed clear Catherine really hadn’t told Brianna anything about his early life. If she had, Brianna would have found it impossible to hide her disgust from him.

With that worry out of the way, he’d grudgingly started to realise Brianna had done him a great favour. Now he had the opportunity to see Catherine again. To put things right andmake up for the wasted years. The tragedy of it was, instead of going down on his knees and thanking Brianna, he’d bellowed at her. Then ordered her to go out with Frederick. Rich, titled, handsome Frederick.

The thought of them together was like a knife to his gut. And the more he pictured them, so similar, so flaming made for each other, the more that knife twisted.

Chapter Thirty-Four

How was it possible to miss a man so much? Especially when that man was grumpy, uncommunicative and angry with her. It had been three days since she’d taken Mitch to have the sling and cast removed from his arm. Three days since she’d dropped him back at his own house.

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