3

      LONG BEFORE THE sun went down, Lily found out that Regan had brown eyes. He’d taken off both hat and sunglasses while he examined the horses. Whenever he’d glanced up to discuss something with her, she’d looked into the velvet depths of those brown eyes and wished like hell he hadn’t been dumped so recently.

      Later on, he’d delivered a line guaranteed to make a woman swoon—I’ll make the time. He’d compounded the effect of that by demonstrating that he knew exactly how to fix her broken gate. A man with multiple skills—now that was sexy. She was handy with a paintbrush, but she hadn’t taught herself to use the array of tools Mr. Turner had left her.

      She would learn eventually, but watching Regan took away a big chunk of her incentive, especially after he rolled up his sleeves to reveal the play of muscles as he worked. She’d have no trouble being into Regan O’Connelli. As she held the gate steady while he reattached the hinges, she wondered what sort of idiot would cheat on a guy who seemed so special.

      Then she chastised herself for making a snap judgment. She didn’t know the whole story, only the version presented by Nick, who was clearly biased in Regan’s favor. There might have been extenuating circumstances. If she kept her distance as she planned, she’d never know.

      Maintaining that distance would be more of a challenge than she’d counted on, though. He was definitely a wounded man in need of comfort. She’d sensed it when they’d met, but at that point his shields had been firmly in place.

      Apparently his thinking had changed in the intervening hours, because now he was lowering those shields. She heard it in his voice, as brisk efficiency was replaced with mellow goodwill. His body language was more open, too. No more crossed arms or clenched jaw when he talked with her.

      But mostly she saw it in his eyes. They flashed with interest now instead of wariness. Fortunately she could resist those flashes of interest. What sucked her in were the brief moments when she glimpsed sadness and pain in those beautiful brown depths.

      If a more powerful aphrodisiac existed, she didn’t know what it was. Responding to it was a huge mistake, as she’d long ago discovered to her sorrow. But he was a gorgeous man with a broken heart, and what woman wouldn’t yearn to help him heal?

      This woman. Taking a deep breath, she tightened her resolve to keep Regan at arm’s length. She’d learned her lesson, right?

      “That should do it.” He swung the gate back and forth a couple of times and made sure the latch fastened securely.

      “Thank you.” She gave him a smile and vowed to get comfortable with repair work. The less she needed from Regan, the easier it would be for her to resist temptation.

      “Let’s gather a few horses.” He started back toward the barn.

      She fell into step beside him. “I promise that’s the only handyman chore I’ll ask of you.”

      He shrugged. “It’s no problem. I’m used to repairing things.”

      “Maybe so, but if I’m going to run this place, I should make friends with hand tools.”

      “I would agree with that. Shouldn’t be too tough for you to learn. Nick said you were a smart cookie.”

      “He did?” That pleased her. “Just out of curiosity, what else did he tell you about me?”

      “That you created a video game that’s paying for all this.” He swept an arm to encompass the property. “That’s impressive.”

      “I guess. But I’m not sure it makes much of a contribution to the betterment of humanity.”

      “Why, is it violent?”

      “God, no. I’m not into that kind of game. It’s about elves and magic. There is a dragon, but he’s more comic relief than scary. If you give him enough treats, which are increasingly hard to come by as the game goes on, he doesn’t cause problems.”

      “Sounds like fun. Maybe we could play it some—” He was interrupted by the high-pitched scream of a horse followed by several loud thuds. “Shit.” He took off at a run toward the barn.

      Lily ran after him, her heart thumping. Two of the geldings, a big roan named Strawberry and a palomino named Rex, had never cared for each other. She’d put them in different stalls with horses they seemed to like, so it couldn’t be them fighting, could it?

      Regan beat her into the barn and grabbed a lead rope from a peg on the wall. He strode quickly to Rex’s stall. The palomino bared his teeth at a young gelding named Sandy who had never caused a single problem since he’d been brought in two weeks earlier. Sandy cowered against the far wall, eyes rolling with fright. At least he didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere.

      “Hey!” Regan’s voice rang out. Opening the stall door, he walked in, the tail end of the lead rope flicking back and forth in front of him. “Back off!” He edged into position and snapped the rope in front of Rex’s face.

      Lily held her breath. A rope didn’t seem like much protection against a riled-up horse, but it was working some kind of magic on Rex. The palomino backed up a step, and then another.

      Regan followed and kept that rope dancing in front of Rex’s nose. Then, in one quick move, he clipped the front end of the rope to Rex’s halter and pulled the horse’s head down. “Enough of that, mister. We’re going for a walk.”

      As Regan led Rex from the stall, Lily stood to one side and gave them room. “What can I do to help?”

      “Latch the door after me, then walk ahead and open the corral. We’ll put him in there to cool off.”

      “Right.” She wanted to comfort Sandy, but that would have to be put on hold. After securing the stall door, she waited until Regan and Rex had left the barn before scooting around them and heading for the corral.

      As she passed Regan, she heard him talking to Rex in a low, soothing voice. She didn’t like to think about what would have happened if Regan hadn’t been here. Of course, if he hadn’t, the horses would have been free to leave the barn once they’d eaten, so this confrontation wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Rex was used to eating and leaving for a far corner of the property. He usually took several horses with him. This time he’d been kept inside while all twenty-one animals were examined, and then the humans had disappeared without letting him loose. Apparently that hadn’t sat well with him.

      After opening the gate, which moved smoothly on its hinges, Lily watched Regan approach with the horse. Rex ambled along as if he had nothing on his mind besides walking docilely toward the corral. He didn’t crowd Regan the way Buck tended to crowd Lily, but he didn’t hang back, either. Instead he behaved like the well-trained horse he might be if someone like Regan was in charge.

      Speaking of the bodacious Dr. O’Connelli, he looked mighty fine coming toward her with that loose-hipped stride that emphasized the fit of his jeans. Each time he put a booted foot forward, the denim stretched across his thighs. She couldn’t help but notice that. Any woman worth her salt would agree that he was one good-looking dude.

      Fate wasn’t being kind to her. She’d broken up with her steady boyfriend last fall. He hadn’t approved of her plan to leave her job with a tech company in Silicon Valley and find a worthwhile charity to support in her hometown. Instead he’d been after her to create another moneymaking game and buy a Porsche or some other stupid luxury car.

      She didn’t miss Alfred, who’d turned out to have a completely different value system from hers. But she sure missed the sex. Until Regan had shown up outside her gate, she hadn’t realized how much she missed it.

      Unbeknownst to him, probably, he was a walking invitation to partake of those pleasures. Much as she strove to be nonjudgmental about his ex, the thought continued to surface—the woman was an idiot. Regan was brave,