A Rogue And A Pirate

‘Miss O’Rourke?’ Rogan prompted, his gaze fixed firmly on her flushed face.

‘Any friend of my father’s is most welcome,’ she assured flatly.

‘He’s just invited me to attend the wedding, too,’ he continued remorselessly. ‘Saturday, isn’t it?’

Oh God, now he must believe her to have been a panicked bride last night when she had responded to him so easily! ‘Yes,’ she rasped. ‘Please do come, Mr McCord,’ she regained some of her usual poise. ‘We’re hoping it will be a memorable occasion.’

‘I’m sure it will be.’ He gave an inclination of his head.

‘Excuse me,’ she said abruptly. ‘I have to say hello to my brother and his wife.’

Saying hello to Brian and Beth took all of two minutes, by which time Rogan was ensconced on one of the sofas with her mother, the two of them deep in conversation. Surely he wouldn’t—? No … Would he?

‘What do you think of him, then, little sister?’ Brian mused at her side, following her gaze as she watched Rogan charming their mother.

She sipped the dry sherry her father had brought over to her before answering, knowing how astute her brother could be at times. ‘I don’t really know much about him,’ she shrugged uninterestedly.

Brian, tall and whipcord-thin, raised his brows over laughing blue eyes. ‘You’ve never heard of Rogan McCord?’

Obviously not in the way her brother meant! ‘Should I have done?’ She sounded bored.

‘He’s a big shot in the real estate business,’ Brian drawled. ‘Although I think this is the first time he’s ever ventured across the Atlantic.’

‘And what lured him?’ she asked.

‘Dad, of course, and a partnership in a hotel chain they’re both interested in,’ Brian chuckled. ‘The two of them met while Dad was in the States a few months ago. Of course your head has been too filled with wedding plans to be interested in the dry old family business, otherwise you would probably have heard all about him.’

Caitlin deliberately took the time to sip her sherry, not wanting her brother to see just how curious she was about the man who had been able to talk her father into a partnership in anything. ‘Tell me now,’ she invited softly, her eyes narrowing as Rogan made her mother giggle like a schoolgirl. Her mother never giggled!

‘Self-made man—they’re always the toughest kind,’ her brother said matter-of-factly. ‘He’s made a bundle over the years in property speculation.’

‘That doesn’t tell me anything about the man except that he’s clever and shrewd,’ she bit out. And she needed to know all there was to know about Rogan McCord, needed all the ammunition she could get.

‘Sister dearest, you shouldn’t want to know any more about the man; you’re getting married on Saturday.’

‘Brian!’ his wife admonished as Caitlin blushed. Beth was a tiny blonde woman with warm brown eyes and a bubbly personality. ‘Caity was merely interested. I must say I’m a little curious myself,’ she added pointedly.

‘Elizabeth O’Rourke, behave yourself!’ her husband scowled.

Beth chuckled. ‘I never realised what a jealous husband I was getting when I married a reformed rake!’

Caitlin shared in the humour at her brother’s expense. Brian hadn’t just been wild in his youth, he had been untameable, always smashing up his cars, their father always warning that this would be the last time—before he replaced the car yet again. Caitlin smiled as she remembered the parties Brian used to go to that lasted weeks rather than a single evening. And the women——! Even Brian had stopped counting them.

And then he had met Caitlin’s school friend Beth. He seemed to change overnight, sure that a sweetly beautiful girl like Beth wouldn’t want a hell-raiser in her life. The month after they first met, Beth being eighteen to his twenty-seven, they had been married. Three years later they were happier than ever, and Caitlin’s nephew, three-month-old Matthew, had completed that happiness.

Brian was a changed man, had joined their father in his considerable business interests as his assistant, and was now the successor their father had always wanted him to be. Caitlin didn’t doubt that Brian was also a more contented man.

‘You knew exactly what you were getting when you married me,’ Brian said drily in answer to his wife’s taunt. ‘You realised the night I asked you to marry me and your old friend Jake asked you to dance and then held you too close for my liking.’

‘Poor Jake saw stars for hours after you hit him!’ Beth looked at her husband with indulgent affection.

‘He was lucky to be able to see at all with that black eye,’ Caitlin chuckled. ‘I didn’t appreciate having my date walking around looking like a panda all night because my brother acted like a caveman!’

‘You told me you didn’t like him that much, anyway,’ Brian dismissed. ‘You were just looking for a chance to get away from him.’

‘I could hardly walk out on him after you’d hit him!’ she pointed out drily.

‘He should have kept his hands to himself,’ Brian glowered at the memory.

‘He did, you were the one that didn’t,’ Beth scolded. ‘And stop changing the subject——’

‘Me?’ he said incredulously. ‘You were the one——’

‘He’s just trying to avoid telling us about Rogan McCord,’ Beth told Caitlin knowingly.

‘What’s to tell?’ Brian dismissed impatiently. ‘He’s in his mid-thirties—and handsome as the devil!’

Beth smiled at her husband’s disgruntled expression. ‘So are you, darling.’

He sighed. ‘You’re just trying to humour me now.’

‘Then stop acting like a baby,’ ordered Beth. ‘Is he married?’

‘Rogan?’ he frowned. ‘I don’t know why either of you should be interested in his marital status. You——’

‘Brian!’ Beth prompted firmly.

‘No, he isn’t married,’ he told them irritably. ‘Really, Beth, I don’t know why——’

‘Good evening.’

Caitlin turned sharply at the sound of that husky interruption, blue eyes clashing with green. She hadn’t noticed Rogan leaving her mother’s side as she and Beth engaged in one of their favourite pastimes, that of winding Brian up, but Rogan was standing all too close. She swallowed hard. ‘Mr McCord,’ she nodded, giving Beth and Brian an accusing look as they crossed the room to join her parents.

‘I believe Rogan will do,’ he drawled. ‘And of course, you’re Caitlin.’

She stiffened. ‘Yes.’

‘I told you we would meet again,’ he told her challengingly.

Her eyes widened. ‘You knew who I was all the time!’

‘Not all the time, no,’ he rasped. ‘But as soon as I heard your name, yes. Your father told me about his beautiful daughter Caity when he was in the States earlier this year. He was quite right about your beauty.’

‘Thank you,’ she accepted tensely.

‘He did forget to mention, however,’ he continued slowly, ‘that you’re also wilful, spoilt—and a liar.’

‘How dare you!’ she gasped.