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asked. He sounded concerned, but there was something else there, too. Surely he wasn’t angry with her?
    “Yes, I’m fine, thank you.”
    He grabbed Bella’s leash off the ground, his movements stiff and jerky.
    “Are you angry with me?”
    He turned to look at her and she could see the answer in his eyes.
    “You’re angry? Are you freaking kidding me?” She actually felt her blood pressure shoot up. Was he the type of guy who blamed women for getting raped, or beat up by their spouses? Where was the sweet book-reading glasses-wearing nerd from the night before? “I was accosted. How does that result in you being angry with me?”
    He tossed Bella’s leash down, planting both hands on his hips. “You obviously weren’t using your head or you never would have jogged past them. You could see them from twenty feet back. You hesitated. I saw it. But you didn’t trust your instincts. Even after they started mouthing off you had plenty of time to turn around, but you didn’t.”
    “I had every right to jog in the direction that I wanted to go!”
    “Of course you did, but that doesn’t mean you should have.”
    “Well thank you for that,” she said, her voice laden with sarcasm. “Is that what you would have done? Turned and ran the other way when you saw them?”
    “No, but that’s not the same.”
    “Why? Because you’re a big, strong man and I am just a little woman? Me Tarzan, you Jane?”
    “No, because I’m trained to protect myself. From what I can tell, you’re not.”
    “Most people aren’t trained by the LAPD,” she pointed out angrily.
    “True,” he said. “But when you’re trained by anyone, anywhere, do you know the first thing they’ll tell you?”
    “If you’re an attractive woman, stay home?”
    He scowled, his chest rising and falling rapidly. A bead of sweat had collected on his brow and although she was pissed, she was oddly compelled to reach up and wipe it off before it ran down into his eyes. She just barely resisted the impulse.
    “Not exactly,” he said, ignoring her sarcasm. “The first thing they teach you in a self-defense class, whether you’re a man or a woman, is to be aware of your surroundings. If you sense danger, go the other way. The best way to protect yourself is to use your head and avoid the situation in the first place.”
    “Don’t you mean use my pretty little head ?” she practically snarled.
    He narrowed his dark grey eyes and his jaw clenched as he stared at her. His fists opened and closed as if he was working hard not to reach out and wring her neck. She could see the vein in his neck pulsing rapidly and every muscle from his bicep down was taut and ready for action.
    Her anger didn’t abate but it suddenly became difficult to tell where anger ended and red-hot desire began.
    She wondered what he would do if she just stood up on her tip toes, wrapped her arms around his neck and hard shoulders and pulled his lips down to meet hers. She’d like to taste him, run her tongue along his bottom lip, suck his tongue into her mouth. They were both breathing heavily, and just when she was about to step forward and reach for him, he turned and walked away. When Bella took off after him, he picked up her leash and headed towards the cabins without looking back.
    She stood there, shaking from head to toe from the release of adrenaline, from anger, from desire, and from the sting of what seemed like Luke’s outright rejection.

Chapter Six
     
     
    An hour later, Kat let herself into her cabin, still well and truly pissed—at Luke and at herself. Not even running twice the distance she normally did had helped subdue her rioting emotions. All she could think about was Luke and how annoyed he’d been with her and how arrogant he’d been and how angry she’d been and how badly she’d wanted to kiss him. She kept thinking and stewing and replaying what had happened—from the fear she’d felt when those men had harassed her to the intensity of her