Free Angel of Desire by Joann Ross Page A

he would definitely not be an easy man to love."
    "I think you've misunderstood our situation."
    "Have I?" Marianne gave her another of those fond yet probing looks. "No, I don't think so." She smiled and leaned back in her chair. "Your relationship with Shade is none of my business, Rachel, but you have to understand, he means a lot to me. Next to my husband, there's not a person on earth I love more than Shade Blackstone.
    "After all he's been through, he deserves some happiness. And I believe," she said firmly, "he's finally found the woman who can make him happy."
    Marianne O'Donahue was so open and so honest, Rachel felt guilty at not being able to tell her the absolute truth about her mission. "I think wringing my neck might make him happy," she allowed instead.
    Marianne laughed at that. "To tell you the truth, there have been times I've wanted to do the same to him."
    "Nevertheless," Rachel said, wanting to set the well-meaning matchmaker straight, "my association with Shade is purely professional. I merely wish to accompany him to Yaznovia."
    "Yaznovia?" Marianne's blue eyes widened with disbelief. "Why on earth would you wish to go there?"
    "That's the same question I've been trying to get Sister Rachel to answer." The rough, familiar voice shattered the convivial atmosphere of the homey, sun-filled kitchen.
    Both women looked up to see Shade standing in the doorway. The thunderous expression on his face was not encouraging.
    Marianne pressed a hand against the front of her gray Georgetown sweatshirt. "Honestly, Shade, if you don't stop sneaking up on me that way, I'm going to have a heart attack. The man," she said in an aside to Rachel, "never makes a sound."
    Rachel wasn't about to admit that she'd already discovered that disconcerting skill herself. The hard way.
    Shade entered the room on long, determined strides, stalking Rachel as if he were a predator. "If you'll excuse us, Marianne," he said, taking Rachel's mug from her hand and putting it on the table, "Ms. Parrish and I are going to take a drive."
    "I'll excuse you, Shade," the other woman said easily, "if you promise that you won't take whatever has you so upset out on Rachel."
    Shade could have spent hours relating ail the ways the woman in question was the one responsible for his ill temper. But unwilling to upset his best friend's wife any more than she already was, he said, "I promise, I won't lay a hand on her."
    "Of course you won't," Marianne agreed. "But I don't want you yelling at her, either."
    He wondered idly what Marianne would say if he told her the truth. That he believed that Rachel was somehow mixed up with (Ionian's murderous captors.
    "Shade." Marianne folded her arms across her chest. "I'm waiting."
    Shade ruffled her hair in a fond, fraternal gesture. "Sorry, honey, you know I'd do anything for you, but that's one promise I'm afraid I'm going to have to break."
    With that ominous statement ringing in Rachel's ears, he reached down and captured her wrist in a painfully tight grip. His fingers felt like manacles on her skin as he practically yanked her from the chair.
    "Move it, lady. Now."
    He dragged her from the room, across the small foyer, down the front steps, tossed her unceremoniously into the front seat of his rented sedan and fastened the seat belt across her chest.
    Shade was angrier than she'd ever seen him; as he threw his own hard body into the driver's seat, steam was practically coming from his ears.
    Knowing that he'd never respect a coward, and irritated by his bad manners, Rachel refused to flinch beneath his killing glare.
    "Are you always this out of sorts in the morning?"
    Hashing her a savage grin, he leaned toward her and placed his hand deliberately on her breast. "If you want a man to wake up in a good mood, Sister, you shouldn't get him all hot and bothered the night before."
    His touch was meant to humiliate rather than to arouse. Even knowing that, Rachel experienced a jolt of physical awareness at the feel