The Secret Sin by Darlene Gardner Read Free Book Online Page B

happen.”
    Too bad it had had to happen while he was watching. Annie trudged ahead of him, silently cursing her bad luck. If she’d stuck to the original plan to guide the early group down-river, she could have at least avoided one-on-one time with him.
    “I thought you were going rafting,” she said.
    “I thought you’d be the guide.”
    She looked down at the trickle of blood running down her leg instead of at him. The scrape on her thighsmarted so she doubled her efforts to walk as though she was injury-free.
    “All our guides are capable,” she said.
    “Yeah, but only one of them has been avoiding me for almost fourteen years.”
    She kept walking, determined not to let him know his comment had thrown her, irked that it had. “I haven’t been avoiding you. I just haven’t had anything to say to you.”
    “If I was the kind of guy who took advantage of the injured,” he said in a conversational tone, “I’d take exception to that comment.”
    “I’m not injured,” she denied.
    “I’d disagree with that one, too.”
    She increased her pace, which should have been enough to put distance between them. She was in hiking shape, and he was rolling a broken bicycle, but the fall had slowed her down. The sun was shining brightly overhead, heating up the August morning and making her feel even more uncomfortable.
    “You should let me take a look at you when we get back to your shop,” he said as though she hadn’t already refused him. “Then there are a couple of things I want to talk to you about.”
    Before alarm took hold, the rational part of her brain kicked in. He sounded too cool and calm to have figured out the volatile secret about Lindsey.
    “You can’t always get what you want,” she said.
    It was a childish retort, one she immediately wished she could take back. She was a grown woman who successfully dealt with men in both her business andpersonal lives. She’d had a serious romantic relationship, even though it hadn’t worked out in the end. It bothered her that she became a quivering mass of nerves in this man’s presence.
    “You’re right,” he said. “I learned that lesson when I was sixteen.”
    He was wrong. He’d gotten exactly what he wanted that night when she’d had sex with him. She’d later found out it was precisely what he’d set out on having.
    She felt her face heat and could have kicked herself. She was no longer a teenage virgin. What had happened with Ryan had been a long time ago. She couldn’t let it matter. She couldn’t let him matter.
    They’d almost reached the main building. Jason must have seen them approaching because he came outside. He’d changed the black T-shirt he’d worn to work into a green one with the Indigo River Rafters logo. In black jeans and with his sandy hair falling to his shoulders, however, he still looked like he was headed for a rock concert.
    “What happened to you?” Jason asked.
    “The pedal came off the bike,” she said. “Could you put it in the storeroom with the extra rafts? I’d rather the customers didn’t see it.”
    “Sure.” Jason took the bike and the broken pedal from Ryan before disappearing around the corner.
    Annie turned to face Ryan once they were alone again. He was possibly even more handsome than he’d been in their youth. His hair had darkened slightly so it tended more toward light brown than blond, and therewere laugh lines around his eyes and mouth she didn’t remember being there.
    In khaki shorts and a T-shirt, he looked more like the athlete he used to be than a doctor. His legs were long and leanly muscular, and his arms and chest were nicely developed. His features—sensuous mouth, clear blue eyes, long straight nose—packed a powerful punch. She’d never thought it fair that one man had so much going for him.
    “Thanks for your help,” she said and headed for home.
    “You’re really not going to let me check those scrapes?” His voice stopped her progress.
    She answered without