Page 14 of Mountain Rescue
He ate the rest of his dinner while trying to think of other ways to impress her.
“Since you cooked, I’ll clean up,” she said when they finished.
“We’ll clean up together. It’ll go faster that way.” The cabin didn’t have a dishwasher, but he didn’t mind. They worked well together, her washing the dishes, and him drying and putting them away. While she wiped down the counter, he made a pot of coffee.
She glanced around the kitchen. “All done.”
“Good. Let’s sit on the deck and have a cup of coffee.” And then the interrogation would begin.
“Um...”
“It’s a beautiful night. You might want to grab a sweater.” He poured coffee into two cups. “Two sugars and enough cream to turn the coffee caramel color, right?” She lifted startled eyes to his, and he swallowed a smile.Surprised you again, eh?
“Ah, yeah, but—”
“I’ll take these out to the deck while you grab your sweater.” Not giving her a chance to answer, he walked out.
Would she come out or hide in her room again? If she decided to hide, he’d have to force her to come talk to him, and he didn’t want to do that. For her own safety, he would if he had to. The glass door slid open a few minutes later, and relieved, he settled back in his chair.
“Lots of stars out tonight,” he said, handing her one of the cups when she sat in the chair next to him.
She looked up at the sky. “Amazing. We don’t get to see stars like this in LA. Too many lights.”
“As amazing as this is, you should come to Montana sometime to stargaze. It’s truly remarkable.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, her gaze on the sky, and his on her.
What was it about this woman that so fascinated him? She was pretty, yes. But so were plenty of other women. Her well-toned body—which he’d very much like to explore—put all kinds of dirty thoughts into his head. But he’d known women with great bodies. It wasn’t that. Whatever it was, it went beyond the physical.
Maybe it was because she was the only woman who’d tried to bash him in the head with a tree branch.
“You’re chuckling. Why?”
What would she say if he told her that his chuckling was a fucking miracle? “I was thinking about how close I came to death by tree branch.”
“Not going to apologize for that. You could have been one of Robert’s men.”
He’d never want or expect her to apologize for trying to protect herself, but she’d just given him the perfect opening for what they needed to talk about. “Tell me about this Robert person. Who is he and why are you afraid of him?”
“You’re not going to stay out of this, are you?”
“No, Rachel Denning, I’m not.” He couldn’t see her face clearly, but he heard her gasp.
“How did you find out my last name?”
“The internet is a marvelous invention. I thought it’d be harder, but a search of Rachel stuntwoman and voilà, I instantly had a long list of hits. Color me impressed with your credentials.” He let a full minute pass, waiting for her to answer his question, then he sighed. Apparently, he was going to have to threaten her with telling Jack she was here.
“I’ll make a deal with you. You tell me how you got that scar, and I’ll tell you who Robert is.”
Now she was playing dirty, and as much as he did not want to talk about it, he had to admire her tactics. “That’s an ugly story, sugar.”
Chapter Five
“So is mine.” Rachel glanced over at Dallas, wishing he wasn’t so intent on pushing his way into her troubles. She’d been doing her best to put distance between them, going so far as to actually hide in her room when the Jeep came up the driveway.
It wasn’t only that she didn’t want him putting himself at risk, but he was just too tempting. He wasn’t like any man she’d dated, no doubt why he fascinated her as much as he did. She’d rubbed elbows with some of the hottest men on the planet—famous and rich ones—had been hit on by several and had briefly dated one. Not a single one of those men had bewitched her the way this one did. Not one of them had spiked her blood the way he had because of a kiss.
Then he’d gone and made her dinner. Damn him, anyway. She didn’t want to tell him about Robert, didn’t want him risking his life for her, and especially didn’t want to like him in aI wonder how his hands would feel on my skinkind ofway.
Maybe his allure was only because she couldn’t sense his emotions, something that had never happened before. She could always feel people’s feelings, even when she didn’t want to. The first time she really wanted to, the man was closed to her. Weird that.
