He nodded slowly. ‘Perhaps it’s because I can remember endless gallons of the warm stuff when I was a kid. The first time I ever tasted beer was a family party when we sneaked a few bottles and hid in the potting shed. At ten years of age it was pretty potent stuff and we drank it like pop. We were well and truly loaded, and boy, did we learn the hard way.’
He had been faintly smiling, but then, as Robyn said, ‘We?’ the smile died. She stared at him, wondering what she’d said.
‘My brother and I,’ he said shortly.
She couldn’t hide her surprise, her eyes widening. ‘I didn’t know you’ve got a brother?’ she said, searching her mind. He had never brought a brother along in the old days and she couldn’t remember Cass or Guy ever mentioning one.
‘Had.’ It was terse. ‘He’s dead.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry, Clay.’ She was horrified at her innocent blunder and it must have shown, because the closed expression on his face softened a little.
He shrugged wearily, walking over to stand beside her and looking out over the rooftops into the blue sky above as he said quietly, ‘There was an accident when we were eleven. Mitch…Mitch was my twin brother. We were very close.’
‘How terrible for you.’ She didn’t know what to say. Why hadn’t Guy or Cass ever mentioned it? Did they know?
And then she had her answer as Clay said flatly, ‘It was a long time ago and I never talk about it. Or think about it.’
He was lying. As she looked at the hard profile she knew he was lying. He thought about it all right; whatever had happened had affected him so deeply he still found it difficult to talk about it. She knew she ought to leave it at that—he couldn’t have made it plainer without being rude that he didn’t want to discuss it—but this was the first time she felt she was seeing something of the real man inside the outward persona of wealthy playboy and ruthless business tycoon. ‘Were you injured too?’ she asked carefully. ‘In the accident?’
‘No.’ The abruptness was painful rather than caustic, and Robyn could feel the darkness inside him. ‘I wasn’t with him at the time.’ He stepped out onto the balcony, which was too tiny to take more than one small cane chair along with the tubs of flowers, lifting his face to the sunshine as he said, ‘This is very pleasant. I can imagine you curling up out here with a good book.’
‘That’ll be the day!’ She spoke lightly, knowing he needed to change the subject although she was intensely curious about his brother. ‘I keep promising myself I’ll have a day or even a few days of doing nothing, a holiday of sorts, but somehow it never happens. It’s one of the things Cass reminds me about often,’ she added wryly.
Her forbearance was rewarded by one of his rare smiles as he turned to face her again. Her heart turned over and she forced herself not to visibly react. ‘She can be like a dog with a bone,’ he agreed softly, adding immediately, ‘but a very gentle, loving dog of course.’
‘Of course.’ Keep it light, Robyn. Light and easy. She took a small step backwards, waving at the chair as she said, ‘Sit down and I’ll bring you your drink. You can soak up a few rays while I freshen up.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it. You’re just as tired as me if not more, if you’ve been with Jason and Luke for any length of time. I’ll come with you for the drink. I presume the beer is in the fridge in the kitchen?’ he asked easily.
The beer was in the fridge in the kitchen, but she wanted him sitting up here, immobile, under control. He was too male, too virile, too much of everything just to be allowed to wander about! Tethered she could just about cope with him here.
She recognised the absurdity of her thoughts even as they entered her brain, but it didn’t make them any less real or change the fluttering in her stomach.
‘No, really, you relax,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s no trouble.’
‘I will relax.’ It was very even and reasonable but the thread of steel was back. ‘Once I have my beer I will return to this very spot, okay? I’m not into peeping through keyholes if that’s what you’re worried about.’
She stared at him, mortified. She was about to speak, to challenge him, but then common sense warned her that she wouldn’t even stand a chance of winning this one. And twin brother or no twin brother Clay was still an arrogant pig! Whatever had happened in his past she still loathed him, she did. She did. The reiteration still wasn’t as convincing as she would have liked. She stared at him a moment more and then admitted defeat.
‘Please yourself,’ she said a touch tartly.
‘I will, Robyn.’
She didn’t doubt that for a minute. Pleasing himself was a criterion men like Clay lived by. The waspishness of the thought was strangely comforting, fuelling, as it did, her determination to keep in mind that he was the enemy.
Once in the kitchen she poured the beer into a glass despite Clay’s protestation he would drink it from the bottle, and then flounced immediately into the bathroom. He could sit on the balcony, he could sit in the sitting room, he could sit and watch her in the bath if he so desired! It really wouldn’t affect her one way or the other what he did, because he didn’t affect her. She wouldn’t let him.
It was sheer heaven to divest herself of the sand, and once she had bathed she washed her hair too before climbing out of the bath and wrapping the bath sheet round her body sarong-style. Clean and scrubbed she felt more herself again.
She opened the door cautiously but all was quiet, and she padded through to the bedroom where she applied body lotion with reckless abandon on her arms which had also caught the sun, and then rich moisturing cream on her neck and face. Her nose was glowing like a beacon. She peered at herself in the mirror and groaned softly. Come home, Rudolph; all is forgiven, she thought wryly. A touch of make-up was definitely called for here.
Foundation cream toned down the redness to a warm glow, and she used just the merest stroke of mascara to enhance her lashes. She didn’t want him to think she had made up for him. She had, but she didn’t want him to think it!
After grabbing a pair of cotton combat trousers from the wardrobe and a black vest-top, she dried her hair as quickly as she could and piled it up high on top of her head in a loose pony-tail. She was going for casual. Non-dressy, non-girly, non…come-on. Okay, so the vest top showed her figure off somewhat…satisfactorily, and the mass of burnished curls high on her head was a subtle contrast to the vest and combat trousers, but that wasn’t her fault, was it?
She looked at herself in the mirror just as she was leaving the bedroom. Silver studs in her ears? Yes. A feminine touch without being too obvious. And a dab of perfume at her wrists and throat was just womanly, that was all.
She took a long, deep breath before she emerged out onto the landing, and then walked steadily over to the stairs and ran lightly up them after extracting another beer from the fridge. ‘Reinforcements?’ she called brightly as she saw Clay sitting on the balcony.