Free Unguarded by Tracy Wolff Page B

her like a runaway semi. So instead, she melted into Logan and let herself pretend, for a little while anyway, that she was safe.
    She didn’t know how long they sat there, Logan comforting her as she fell apart, but eventually the panic receded and her sobs quieted. She started to pull away, but he held her to him, refusing to let her go yet.
    â€œI made a mess of your sweater.”
    â€œScrew my sweater.” But he shifted her weight alittle, reached up and pulled some tissues out of the box she had resting on her desk.
    She wiped her eyes, blew her nose. Did everything she could not to look at him. Finally, when she could avoid it no longer, she murmured, “I’m sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this anymore.”
    â€œWouldn’t do what?” he asked, still rubbing her back in soothing circles.
    â€œFall apart like this. I feel like such a jerk.”
    â€œYou’re not a jerk—an idiot, maybe.”
    â€œHey!” She leaned back, punched him in the shoulder.
    â€œAnd she’s back.” Logan climbed to his feet, settling her in her desk chair as he did. “Nobody expects you to stay in control all the time, you know. Nobody but you, that is.”
    â€œIt’s been almost three years—”
    â€œSo what? Is there some kind of timeline for getting over something like this that I’m not aware of?”
    â€œYou can say it, you know. I won’t break if you say the word.”
    â€œNo, but I might.” He settled, grim-faced, onto the side of her desk. “Rhiannon, have you ever thought that maybe you should cut yourself some slack?”
    â€œI have! I’ve done nothing but make excuses for my behavior for two and a half years, done nothing but let you and Matt and the rest of my family make those same excuses.”
    â€œThat is such bullshit. Such self-pitying bullshit that I can’t even believe it came out of your mouth.”
    Rhiannon felt her mouth literally fall open as her eyes jerked to Logan’s. “What did you say?”
    â€œYou’ve been healing, Rhiannon. Getting a little bitbetter with every month and year that passes. Pretending differently just makes you look weak—something we both know that you aren’t.”
    â€œI just had a panic attack on my office floor because some guy sent me flowers. I wouldn’t exactly call that strong. Or healthy.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œWhat?”
    He shrugged. “You’ve spent more than two and a half years hiding from men, denying your own sexuality.”
    She started to protest, but he stopped her with a raised hand. “And that’s perfectly understandable. What happened to you—” His voice shook with repressed anger, but he took a breath. Shoved it back. “What happened to you was terrible. Awful. And then what Richard did on top of it? Is it any wonder that the idea of a man seeing you as desirable stresses you out?”
    â€œI can’t do this, Logan. I thought I could, I thought I was ready, but I just can’t.”
    â€œNo one says you have to. Thank Emerson for the flowers and tell him you aren’t interested in him that way.”
    She didn’t answer right away and Logan’s gaze turned speculative. “But you can’t do that, either, can you? Because you are interested in him.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYes. We’ve been friends for twenty-four years, Rhiannon. Do you really think you can lie to me? You’re doing that pencil trick again.”
    â€œI am not!” But damn it, she was. Shoving out of her chair, she paced from one end of the small room to the other, then turned and worked her way back. Againand again as she tried to get her thoughts together, to formulate what she wanted to say.
    â€œYou keep turning yourself around like that and you’re going to make both of us dizzy.”
    She pinned him with an annoyed stare. “You sound like my