Fortunately for Nash, the river flowed fast enough that Kira moved quickly downstream from where he'd so unceremoniously dumped her. If she'd surfaced, sputtering and pissed off, anywhere within striking range of him, he wouldn't be standing there with that grin that, at that particular moment, looked a whole lot more annoying than it did sexy.
"What the hell, Nash?" Kira hoisted herself up and gained her footing in the quick-moving water. "Are you trying to lose your job?"
His grin only got bigger if it was possible, and with a ridiculously quick stride, he closed some of the distance between them. But not all of it; he was smarter than that. "If you could take my job, you would have done it already. Am I right?"
Kira clenched her hands into fists at her side. Water dripped down her face. Damn him for seeing right through her. Damn him for getting to her. And damn him for knowing there wasn't a goddamn thing she could do about it. What was more, the icy water had done nothing to erase the surge of desire that had been pulsing through her body from the moment he picked her up and pressed her against his shoulder.
Dammit.
Afraid she'd say something that would give her away, Kira took a moment, ran her hands through her hair, pasting the wet strands against her head, in an attempt to regain as much composure as she could before she turned and attempted to gracefully stalk out of the river to the opposite bank. It would take her farther away from the camp office, into the woods, but there was no way she was going to go back to face her staff when she was soaking wet. Especially not considering Nash would most certainly be right behind her and more than willing to tell the tale of how she'd ended up that way.
No way.
"The office is that way."
"I know exactly where the office is," Kira spat over her shoulder. Her boot slipped on a rock and she almost went face-first back into the river but Nash's strong hand on her upper arm held her fast. She straightened up and shook him off. "Let go of me."
"I was just trying to help."
Kira stepped quickly out of the river and onto the safety of the bank before she spun around to face him. "Really? Is that what you were doing by throwing me into the river? Helping me? Because if you were, you have a pretty messed up way of showing it."
Before he could respond, she turned and stalked into the trees.
He didn't say anything, but Kira could feel his nearness. Her entire body was ice-cold from the water. So why did her skin feel as though it were burning up? What was it about this wolf?
She needed to get farther away. She needed to get as far away from him as she could. If she shifted into her bear, she might be able to outrun him, or at the very least challenge him. There was no way a wolf would be able to go up against a grizzly. Not even one as cocky and arrogant as Nash.
But she wasn't going to shift. There was no point and it would only do more harm than good in the long run. Besides, she'd decided months ago to stop even attempting to get in touch with her bear.
And her brother.
She wouldn't even try to deny that after leaving Ryan and his clan, shifting into her animal had more to do with trying to reconnect with her twin brother and her clan back home than anything else. It had everything to do with that.
But she wouldn't. Not anymore.
The only way to get rid of this asshole would be to confront him. Anger welled up inside her to the point Kira thought she might explode. As soon as she was in the protection of the pines, she whirled around to face him.
"Leave me alone." She forced the words out through gritted teeth.
His lips flicked up into what might have been the start of a smile. Fortunately, he was smart enough to stifle it, or Kira would have wiped it right off his face.
"I'm not trying to piss you off, Kira."
He almost sounded genuine. Maybe he was, but she was definitely not in the mood to figure it out either way. But something about his voice stopped her. Or maybe she was just tired of being mad and trying to keep this feeling from completely consuming her. Either way, the fight sank out of her and she dropped her hands to her sides.
"Then why are you following me? Just leave me alone." She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. The very last thing she wanted to do was show any kind of weakness to Nash. She'd learned to swallow her tears very early on, growing up with three brothers. "I just want to be alone."
Nash took a step toward her. "I don't believe that."
She shook her head. "I don't care what you-"
"I think you do." He took another step closer but she didn't back away. "I think you care a lot about what I think."
It was such a strange and intimate thing for him to say. Especially considering from the moment they'd met, she'd tried to push him away.