Read Online Secrets Of The Heart (Book 1, The Heart Series) by Laurie LeClair - Free Book Online

intoxicating combination of his tangy after-shave and his male scent. Bree leaned into him more, pressing her aching breasts to his rock solid chest, bringing an answering thrill to her blood.
    Suddenly, he clamped his hands on her shoulders, pushing her away. “We need to talk.” His words rang with strained determination.
    Hurt, she pulled back. She berated herself for her fanciful notions; she had grave doubts he’d ever see her in a favorable light. The humiliation of her actions burned in her cheeks. “I owe you an apology.” The stiffness in her voice could have starched a shirt.
    Nick sighed, his hot breath fanning her face.
    Twisting away, she turned her back on him. As she made her way to the porch steps on shaky legs, she heard him close the door with a definite click, stemming the stream of light.
    Now only silvery moonbeams washed the landscape and the porch. Bree plopped down on the top stair, circling her knees with her arms. “I’m sorry. I thought that’s what you wanted.” That’s what you wanted, she said silently, her body still humming with delicious delight, her heart still thumping in her chest.
    “It is and it isn’t,” Nick said, confusing her even more. He took a seat beside her. A mere four inches separated them.
    “You’ve…lost me.” She shivered. From the chilly night or from him, she couldn’t say.
    He yanked his sweatshirt off, and then handed it to her. “Here, take this.” When she hesitated, he put it on her.
    Some strange, invisible thread tugged at her heart as he tenderly smoothed the garment over her, making certain to cover her fully.
    “Thank you,” she whispered. The heat from his body clung to the fabric, surrounding her in badly needed warmth and sandalwood after-shave. Something low and deep tightened in her core, sending an ache mushrooming through her soul.
    Why did she always want what she couldn’t have? She knew Nick held fast to his loyalty to Vinnie, to his distrust of her.
    Silence reined, blanketing Nick and her in a shared moment of awareness.
    The peep frogs sang to each other in a song of loneliness, strumming a similar chord in her.
    Bree looked on in wonder as stars twinkled in a rhythm all their own. The sweet scent of pine on the cool night air swirled around her, heightening her senses.
    The world went on as it always had and always would. And Bree realized how strange life turned out; here she sat in awe beside the most appealing man she’d even known, her husband.
    “I guess I have some explaining to do,” Nick offered with a hint of reluctance, his rich voice a salve to her injured pride. Taking a deep breath, he went on, “In all my years on the force I’ve learned one vital key to relationships: communication. That’s something you and I lack.”
    A stabbing pain speared Bree’s chest; she knew he spoke the truth. She chuckled. It came out raw and strangled. “You can say that again. We’ve used others as a buffer, haven’t we?”
    “Yeah. Too much, it seems. Do you realize that for everything we’ve gone through in the last five and a half years we barely know each other?”
    “I think I did that on purpose.” She bit her bottom lip, afraid she’d revealed too much.
    He turned to her. She felt the heat of his stare on her profile. Silently, she sensed he questioned her. Refusing to meet his gaze, she waited for him to speak.
    “I did, too,” his deep voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “I’ve read all the manuals, taken all the required courses while on the force, but when it comes to reality it’s a different ball game all together.”
    She smiled, warmed by his insight, his willingness to form a healthy, happy marriage. Hope blossomed. “We’ve got Sydney’s welfare in common, that should help some. It’s a beginning.”
    “We have more than that in common. We both grew up as only children and lost our parents before we were twenty. Mine to a car accident, yours to illness.”
    “You were lucky to have