She was considering a smallish rock as a last resort when the figure rose up in the shallows lapping against the beach. A dark head appeared, then broad shoulders, gleaming with rivulets of water. The lake fell away from a distinctly masculine torso, revealed a muscular belly and Joey blinked. Long legs, quite as bare as the rest of him, strode onto shore.
Joey did not need much time to recognize him. What a strange and unfortunate coincidence, she thought as she wrapped her arms tightly about her chest.
It was Luke Gévaudan.
If Luke was the least bit concerned over his undressed state, he did not reveal it in the bold way he marched up the beach. To the contrary, Joey thought in some chagrin, he seemed totally unaware of the effect he was having on her. She could feel the slow flood tide of heat rising over neck and face as he stopped to look down at her from his imposing height.
Hugging herself even more tightly and shivering with far more than the late-afternoon chill, Joey tried to keep her eyes turned away. Her efforts were not successful. They kept straying, quite against her will, to the muscular legs at eye level calves and shins with their masculine dusting of hair, sturdy knees and corded thighs, and higher still. Joey used every last shred of willpower to keep from staring at that very prominent part of him. It was rather difficult to ignore, as Lukes state suggested he was very much aware of her after all. His total lack of modesty made her own discomfort—and attendant resentment—all the more acute.
With a deliberate façade of nonchalance, Joey allowed her eyes to slide up, linger half-unwillingly on the bunched muscles of his rock-hard belly, and take in the powerful chest and shoulders. Naked, he didn’t really look much different than she had expected, what she hadn’t expected was that she’d be seeing him this way in the middle of the forest, or that he would make her feel both helpless and incredibly amazingly ravenous. For him. And not just because she needed his help.
Drawing in a deep, shaky breath, Joey grabbed control of her raging hormones and allowed her eyes to meet his at last. He had been gazing at her the entire time, unmoving, whatever he thought of her examination of his well-displayed body was not revealed in his pale eyes. They were, in fact, as bleak and hard as she had ever seen them. There was no sign of any desire to seduce her, no will to continue the pursuit he had so suddenly broken off several days before. His expression, in fact, was coldly threatening, and Joey felt herself shiver for yet a third cause.
“You’re trespassing on my land,” he said, so softly it came out as a growl from the depths of his chest.
So shocked was Joey at this greeting that she momentarily lost the power of speech. Then the heat rose in her face again, this time a heat of outrage and emotions pushed to their limit.
“I’m terribly sorry, Mr Gévaudan . She bunched hands into fists under her arms where they folded tight against her chest. “It just so happens I had wondered what had happened to you. When you didn’t come back to town.” She cut off that line of explanation with an angry toss of her head. “The fact is, you had a lot more trespassers than just me. And right now I’m a little cold and tired, and I would like nothing better than to get off your land as quickly as possible.” She debated making her point clear by getting up and starting back for town then and there, but something in his eyes held her in place.
“I heard noise on this side of the lake, and came to see what was going on,” Luke offered softly. Some of the threatening harshness of his voice was gone, though his expression remained taut and cold. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Joey considered saying nothing just to annoy him, she didn’t care for the casual way he commanded her. But she found herself telling him anyway—everything that had happened since she’d arrived at the lake. As she described her confrontation with the town roughnecks, he listened intently, when she told him the gist of what the men had said to her, how they had made their intentions clear, his already icy expression took on a remote savagery that made Joey falter. She could almost see his upper lip curl in a soundless snarl, his eyes narrowed to slits.