She huffed, an action that made her wet breasts heave and his cock jerk in response at the sight. “I don’t need saving, Colt. I need to find my sister.”
She was so outraged at the sight of him. It was damn funny to watch. And, okay, a little arousing. “You look like something out of a horror movie,” he drawled, unable to quit looking at those magnificent, heaving wet breasts. She was something out of a horror movie all right. The hot, sexy starlet that took her top off and got fucked by someone for five minutes on screen. Damn. He shifted in the mud. Why the hell was he so turned on by the sight of her all wet and helpless? She had a fine body, but it came attached to that yapping mouth of hers.
A mouth that had just dropped open in shock. “A horror movie?” Beth Ann repeated, stunned. “How dare you!”
“That’s not what I meant,” he began, and then scowled when she glared at him and turned her back. She was determined to misunderstand him, it’d seem. Prickly woman. Madder than hell and still trying to be a lady about things. “You’re misunderstanding me. I’m here to rescue you.”
“Rescue me? Oh, really.” Beth Ann turned as if the word made her furious. She put her hands on her hips, the wet bag bouncing against her side as she did. “Here to be the big hero?”
Well, he didn’t like to think of it that way. “I guess.”
“Is this some sort of macho joke?”
He raised an eyebrow. Why would he joke about a rescue?
She laughed, the sound bitter and harsh. “Oh, this is unreal. You really do think you’re here to rescue me, don’t you? How cute. I’m sure that’s what everyone told you—that poor little Beth Ann Williamson is desperate for a man to sweep her off her feet and rescue her from her situation. That I’m just waiting for Prince Charming to swoop in and save the day.” Her mouth pursed into a polite little smile, made all the more ridiculous by the makeup running down her face. “Look, Colt, I don’t know why you feel this need to show up here and try to play the hero, but the last thing I want is another man deciding that I can’t take care of myself and trying to take over my life. So you can just go away now. I don’t need saving, and I don’t need your help. Oh, and tell Miranda that I said nice try.”
He didn’t see what Miranda had to do with anything. “You’re turning down a rescue?”
She laughed and flicked her hand, as if shooing a fly. “Oh, I am turning down the entire kit and caboodle. The rescue and the person it came attached to.”
All right, now he was getting annoyed. He leaned back, studied her. “Oh really?”
“Yes, really,” she said viciously. “I don’t know if you were aware, but not every woman in the vicinity needs saving.”
“I don’t know,” he drawled, knowing any response he made would irritate her. “You look pretty helpless to me.”
That did it. Her entire body stiffened and she jerked upright. Her mouth clenched into a firm line. Beth Ann Williamson definitely had a stick up her ass tonight. “I am not helpless,” she seethed. “Just because I am female does not mean I need you to swoop in and be a hero. Sometimes we can save ourselves, you know.” She gestured at him with incensed, quick little motions. “I realize that’s difficult to get through that pile of meat on top of your shoulders that men like to call a brain, but it’s true. Not all women are helpless. Not this woman, for sure. And I certainly don’t need you stomping in and making my life miserable like you always do, so why don’t you just go away?”#p#分页标题#e#
Go away? He was here, standing in the rain and waiting to save her ass, the ungrateful woman. But that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to rescue herself. As if the thought of a man helping her out of the woods was somehow insulting to her. Fine. “You expect me to just leave you flailing in this mud all night? In the dark?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I don’t need your help and I sure don’t need you here right now, following me around. Go bother someone else.”
He was beyond annoyance now. The woman was irrational. “And so you want me to leave?”
She turned and looked off into the woods, as if in exasperation. As if he were keeping her from finding her sister. “Did I stutter?”
Ah yes. This was the Beth Ann he knew. Colt put his hands up. “Fine then. I will leave you alone. Out here. Just like you want.”
“Good,” she bit out, then glanced down at his pants. He thought she was going to comment on the wood he was sporting despite her nasty attitude. But she pointed at his pocket, where he’d tucked his flashlight, with a finger that was wrinkled and shaking with cold. “Can I buy that flashlight from you?”