Free Tempted by Trouble by Liz Fielding Page A

one way or the other, will it?’
    And, in a heartbeat, the connection between them—sizzling, flashing like that dodgy plug ever since she’d opened the front door and seen him standing on the doorstep—overloaded, snapped. Confused, disorientated, Elle felt as if some internal power switch had tripped out and she’d lost her bearings. Momentarily blind. Adrift. In the dark.
    Sean McElroy hadn’t raged at her for impugning Basil’s character—if a gambler who ran away from his problems leaving someone else to pick up the pieces could be said to possess one. Or, worse, for impugning his own.
    He hadn’t lost his temper or raised his voice. He had simply switched off. Cut the connection.
    She did it herself, using a polite mask to keep the Mrs Fishers of this world at bay, but this was something quite different. She had never dropped her guard with anyone before. Not even her immediate family. But her defences had crumbled beneath the spell of Sean’s blue eyes.
    She’d never understood why her mother had fallen for thesame line over and over. Now she knew how; lost in the grip of a response so powerful that it overrode sense, you could forget everything. To have that withdrawn was like having the rug pulled out from beneath you.
    How could a man with such an expressive face, whose smile lit up a room, blank off his emotions so completely? More to the point, why had he needed to learn?
    As always, there were more questions than answers. Only one thing was certain. She’d finally woken up sufficiently to question his motives and, having done so, she’d got exactly what she wanted.
    Had wanted.
    Life would be a whole lot simpler if she stepped away from Rosie, forgot she’d ever heard the name Basil and let Sean drive away, out of her life, so that she could go back to worrying about tedious stuff like paying the bills. Finding the money for Geli’s school trip. Coping with her grandmother’s total inability to deal with reality.
    A lot safer if she could forget the way her pulse had quickened at the touch of his hand on her shoulder, her cheek, her hair. If she could tell him to walk away and leave Rosie to her. That she’d cope without him.
    If only it were that simple. The Pink Ribbon Club was relying on Rosie to turn up next Saturday and she was determined to fulfil that obligation. Not just for the PRC but for herself. Stepping outside her small world and doing something positive, meaningful would give her a sense of accomplishment, self-worth.
    Which left the small matter of the ice cream machine. While she might be able to work it out for herself, she could just as easily mess it up.
    One look at his face, however, warned her that it was going to take a lot more than a simple, I’m sorry, my mistake to switch Sean McElroy back on. Soften eyes that were now the blue of case-hardened steel. Tease out the melt-your-bones smile thathad been wiped from his face as cleanly as the incoming tide washed lines from the sand.
    She took a deep breath. Okay. She’d been dealing with difficult situations since she was a teenager, confronting adults who thought they were dealing with a child. In a situation like that you learned fast not to show weakness, fear.
    And, despite his annoyance, she had every right to question what he was getting out of this. He’d dumped and run yesterday, offloading Rosie without a second thought. So why had he come back?
    Her hormones might be drowning in drool, but she doubted it was her sex appeal that was the draw. After all, he’d had the possessively glamorous blonde more than willing to keep him warm last night.
    â€˜You’re right, Sean. I don’t know Basil. By his choice,’ she reminded him. ‘And, right again, I don’t know a thing about you either, but that’s a two-way deal.’ She didn’t wait for his reaction, but took a step further into the van, ran her hand over the serving