Free Secrets by Brenda Joyce Page A

condition. I will not impose on you any further.”
    He grimaced, swiveling to look at her. “Do I seem like such a heel?”
    â€œNo! Not at all! I just don’t understand why you’re so angry with me.”
    He swallowed. His gaze slipped to her mouth before moving back to her eyes. “This isn’t your fault. I’m not angry with you.”
    â€œYou’re not?”
    â€œNo.”
    Regina was relieved, more than relieved; she was terribly glad. But his dark, brooding expression instantly chased away her smile. “If you’re not angry with me, then it must be your father you’re so angry with.”
    â€œThat’s right.” From his tone, she knew she was crossing into territory where he had put up inviolate boundaries. Yet she could not stop. For she kept remembering the last time she had seen Rick, she kept hearing the regret in his voice, and the love, and something else she hadn’t identified at the time but which she could label now in hindsight—the resignation.
    Regina could not restrain herself. “Because of what he said?”
    Slade looked at her.
    â€œBecause he insulted you?”
    â€œIt would take a lot more than a lousy insult from Rick to get my goat,” he said sharply. “Stop pushing.”
    â€œThen it is me. You’re mad at him, but it’s because of me!”
    â€œI was angry with Rick long before I ever met you, and I’ll be angry with him long after you’re gone.
    His words dumbfounded her. Her heart wept over his relationship with his father, a relationship she wanted to heal, one she wanted to interfere in—which she absolutely must not do. And the assumption that she would be gone, while the conflict remained, dismayed her.She didn’t dare question herself too closely and ask herself why.
    And of course, she knew that she was somehow involved in his roiling emotions even if he hadn’t said so. She sensed it; she felt it.
    She had been staring at him and he was finally compelled to turn his head toward her again. Their gazes leaped together, held, then darted apart. His profile was hard and handsome, almost too perfect, but he was clenching his jaw. He said through gritted teeth, “What in hell do you want from me?”
    Regina did not hesitate. “Friendship.”
    He jerked toward her, his expression amazed. She was motionless, unable to believe that she had been so direct. The incredulity on his face told her that he was disbelieving, too. Her palms began to perspire. She did not need her memory to know that ladies did not offer friendship to strange men, unless it was a certain kind of friendship, an illicit one, and that had not been her meaning at all.
    â€œFriendship isn’t possible between us.”
    Regina looked carefully at her gloved hands, folded in her lap, just as he carefully stared out over the horses’ heads. She should let this entire topic drop and they would both pretend it had never even been raised. Instead, she heard herself say, “Why not?”
    Abruptly he halted the mares, this time pulling down the brake and winding the reins around it. He sat very still, but Regina felt the incredible wave of energy rushing through him, coiling up in him. She mistook it for anger, and she regretted her brashness completely.
    He looked at her. Whatever secrets he had were no longer hidden in dark shadows—if she could only decipher them. His eyes were bright and intense. His needs were raw and powerful, they were needs she did not understand, and she was both attracted to and frightened by him in that single moment.
    â€œUnless you mean a certain kind of friendship—and even that would be impossible.”
    Regina could not speak. His regard was mesmerizing. His words might have shocked her had she not been consumed by the heat of his gaze. She was a woman and he was a very handsome man, and the attraction she barely understood was growing stronger with