Oh, help. This was terrible.
‘But you don’t want me to get the wrong idea,’ Sally said quietly.
He grimaced and looked more uncomfortable than ever. ‘There’s something I should have told you, Sally.’
A cold chill gripped her stomach. ‘There’s someone else?’
‘No, of course not.’
‘You’re not secretly engaged, or anything like that?’
‘Nothing like that.’
Sally waited.
‘But I should have warned you that I’m totally committed to my business and I will be for some time. I can’t afford any kind of emotional attachments. I’ve put my personal life on hold.’
‘Really? How long will it be on hold?’
‘For another five years,’ he said.
This sounded ridiculous to Sally. ‘So last night was the last time you’ll make love for five years? Get serious, Logan.’
He looked embarrassed. ‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘But you’re telling me that you’re not even open for a casual relationship.’
His eyes registered surprise and he seemed to have to think about this before he replied. He sighed heavily. ‘You’re not that kind of girl.’
No, she wasn’t, but this was a battle and she was a fighter. ‘You don’t know what kind of girl I am.’
‘I know enough to be sure I’m not right for you. You’d end up getting hurt, Sally, and I’d hate that. That’s why I think it would be wise if we took a step back from each other. Put everything back on a business footing.’
How could he be so calm about this? Hadn’t last night meant anything? Damn him. He was as bad as her bossy brothers, deciding whose emotions he was going to protect and whose he was going to stuff up. ‘If you’re trying to protect me, don’t bother. I don’t need it.’
Logan’s attempt at a smile failed. He looked unhappily at his mug and fiddled with the handle.
Sally found it hard to keep anger from her voice. ‘Just for the record, Logan, I wasn’t expecting you to get down on your knees tonight and offer a proposal of marriage.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ve offended you.’
‘I’m tougher than you think.’
Warmth crept into his eyes and the skin around them creased sexily.
Unfair. Why did he have to look so attractive when he was busily rejecting her? ‘I think you owe me a better explanation,’ she said but, before he could reply, she remembered, with a sharp pang of dismay, her last conversation with Hattie. She groaned.
Logan sent her a wary glance.
‘Your grandmother warned me that this was likely to happen.’
‘I’m cursed with a family of interfering women.’
Sally couldn’t let him get away with that. ‘Hattie and Carissa are wonderful. I really like them. And I’m sure your mother must be nice too.’
‘She’s very nice. But at least she’s safely out of the way at the moment—caravanning around Australia.’
‘Hattie told me that too.’ His parents were travelling together. And Hattie had also mentioned that Logan was funding their travel. Did he have an urge to manage and protect everyone? Hattie? His parents? Her?
‘Did Hattie also tell you about my father’s bankruptcy?’
‘No.’ But Sally realised that it must be significant. Logan had mentioned a family bankruptcy yesterday and he’d indicated his fear of it happening again.
‘My father had no real head for business,’ he said. ‘He gambled on the most reckless schemes. Our family lost everything.’
‘Was that when you had to leave your private school?’ she asked, remembering what he’d told her at the team-building workshop.
‘Yes, but I coped.’ His face was stony. ‘My father didn’t. He had a nervous breakdown and couldn’t work again. My mother had to go out to work just to feed us.’
‘And you’ve never forgiven your father,’ Sally said quietly. She wanted to cry. How could Logan let his father’s mistakes rule his life?
‘It’s not so much a matter of forgiveness.’ Logan’s jaw jutted stubbornly. ‘I learned a valuable lesson about planning for the future. I have to make absolutely certain that my finances are completely secure before I consider marriage or a family. I won’t be looking for a permanent relationship for at least five years.’
‘What happens then?’ This time Sally didn’t even try to hold back her anger. ‘Will you take a quick look around and find Miss Right just sitting there, waiting to be snapped up?’
‘It’s not as simplistic as it sounds.’