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I'm a nature photographer

When the first big drop of rain hit her on the cheek, the cake she was trying to eat all but dissolved.

The next drop splashed on her nose at the same time thunder rumbled the ground and lightning zigzagged across the dark sky.

Bella might be the first one to admit she’d done a lot of foolish things, but never stupid.

She at least knew enough to get out of a lightning storm.

"Tomorrow is another day, I must know what this dark browned man has to do with Agatha"

Tossing her binoculars into her backpack, she rose on her hands and knees and started to crawl backward out of the thick cattails.

And froze when she hit something very solid, very human and manly.

Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder, then swallowed hard at the sight of one dark brown eye man towering over.

Miguel Rodriguez! That same man that took advantage of her at Empress Hotel.

“Hey Thomasina” He stared down at her; the tight smile on his mouth did not reach his narrowed eyes.

She opened her mouth to respond, but the only sound that came out was a whoosh of air when he lunged, then neatly flipped her onto her back and pinned her down.

Even in this suddenly embarrassing and demeaning situation, Bella had to admit that he was handsome. Damn good.

Nonetheless, he was also a man. And with him lying on top of her like he was, he was almost in perfect alignment for her best and most effective move, a move that would have her singing soprano for days.

Lying on top of her like the way he had did at the hotel room.

Adrenaline pumped wildly through her blood, but despite her finely honed instinct to slam her knee upward, she clenched her teeth together and resisted.

She didn’t come here to hurt him, after all.

"You wanna tell me why you’ve been spying on me all afternoon?” he asked smoothly.

She forced her heartbeat to slow down and struggled to concentrate on his face rather than the press of his hard body against hers.

His expression was calm, but his jaw was set tight, his eyes as sharp and focused as a cat with a mouse under its paw. What a strange time to notice that his eyes were brown, as she’d guessed.

Deep, dark brown, with a black ring around the iris.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” She feigned indignation and made a pitiful attempt to pull away from his grip. She’d always found it to her advantage to pretend weakness until her opponent was off guard and the time was right. “Get off me or at you planning to rape me like you did before?”

To her annoyance, his large hands tightened their hold on her wrists. He leaned closer, his broad chest pressing her down into the cattails.

Sweat dripped down his throat and disappeared into the open collar of his shirt.

The scent of hot skin and pure masculinity clung to him.

“I asked you a question, Thomasina. I want an answer. Now.”

Blast it, if the man wasn’t solid muscle and outweighed her by at least seventy pounds. But what she lacked in strength she always made up for in endurance and timing, both of which were on her side at the moment. She didn’t want to hurt him, but if he didn’t let go of her soon, her pride would insist on taking over.

Especially after the Thomasina crack. Lord, how she hated those obnoxious little names men gave women.

What had been a heavy sprinkle of rain gradually increased, and Bella blinked the drops out of her eyes.

“Look, pervert—” she chose her own annoying little name for him “—this isn’t private property and I’m not trespassing. I’m a guest in this hotel like you are, and I was just taking in a little scenery while I’m on vacation, so how is any of that your bussiness?"

“Really? Is that so?” He scanned the length of her, she was looking at him with those eyes like she did that night. “You always take in the landscape on your stomach with binoculars and even at my own direction?”

“I’m a nature photographer, I was watching an animal and there’s no law against that.”

His fiance twisted into a curled smirk, his dark hair fell over his damp forehead as he considered her answer. “What animal?”

“What animals?” What animal…what animal… Damn. She knew nothing about them.

His frown displayed his Impatience “What animal have you been watching for the past three hours?”

“Oh. A duck billed platypus was spotted here. Very rare.” She prayed there was an animal up there. Any animal, or something that even remotely resembled a nest.

“Is that right?” He lifted his gaze to the thick grove of trees and stared. “A duck billed platypus, huh?”

“Exactly,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Now get off me.”

The weight of his body matched the heavy gaze he dropped back down to her. The lines on his face were hard, angular, like his body, and the intensity of his narrowed gaze made her breath catch.

He shook his head slowly. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Thomasina. It’s your choice.”

She didn’t know what he meant by this, but she had no intention of doing anything with this jerk. She let her body go slack and turned her head away, as if she was a victim to him.

“All right.” She dragged in a shuddering, pathetic breath. “I guess we’ll do it—” her knee came up hard and fast and right on target “—the hard way.”

Miguel sucked in his breath as the first blast of pain ripped through the lower half of his body. Stars exploded in front of his eyes as a wave of nausea washed over him. Her voice had sounded so weak and frightened that he’d let his guard down for one, sympathetic moment. A moment he was now paying for dearly.

“Now get off me!,” he heard the woman yell through the sea of agony he was drowning in.

He’d collapsed on top of her, and she shoved furiously at his chest. Even if he’d wanted to, he hadn’t the strength to move. He’d been annoyed before, but now he was downright mad. She was definitely going to pay for this, and so was his grandpa because he had her brought to his room in the first place. Big-time.

He gulped in a deep lungful of air, swore heatedly on the exhale. Her clawed fingers were plowing toward his face when he caught her wrists just in time. Using one hand, he pinned her hands over her head again. With his other hand he reached behind him and pulled out the rope he’d tucked into the waistband of his jeans before he’d left the room.

Her big eyes widened at the sight of the rope, and for the first time he saw fear there.

He had been careful not to hurt her before, but that was before she set the rules between them, or rather, eliminated the rules. He wasn’t taking any more chances with this one, and if she got roughed up, that was her choice.

She bucked under him like a craned crayfish.

“Did I ever tell you that my father has a cattle ranch?” He had her hands wrapped and tied in two seconds, then moved to her kicking feet. Two more seconds and they were bound, as well.

“They called me Shadow! And you had the guts to spy on me! Then consider yourself a dead meat!.”

Her eyes spit green fire while she called him a few names of her own. Bella gulped hard. She knew she was in trouble.

Lightning punctuated one especially rude exclamation she shot at him; thunder drowned out the next. If nothing else, Miguel noted, she certainly was creative in her own ways.

But he wasn't going to let her off the hook easily she had to explain.

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