Page 17 of Bad Rio
That one small movement roused her, sharpened her attention. “All you do? What does that mean?”
His expression made no change. “Means I don’t have hobbies.”
She eyed him narrowly. “Not a big social life?”
As though finished with the subject, he shrugged. Moving to the cooler, he knelt down and busied himself rummaging around inside.
Becca got the sense he was uncomfortable. It was the first sign of unease she’d seen in him, a crack in his carefully constructed, detached persona. She sat back on her haunches. So, Mr. Cool wasn’t the robot he wanted her to believe. She guessed it was worse than that. He had a dearth of human contacts, little family, few friends.
Thinking of her own busy life, her deep friendships, her family, her social agenda, she wondered at his isolation.
“You’re not married, are you?” she asked, already sure of the answer.
Over his shoulder, he glanced back at her. Hesitating, something in him seemed to change, to lighten. The tension eased. “Naw. No time. Besides, no woman would put up with me. I’m an adrenalin junky. I live for excitement. Wherever the action is, I’ve gotta be there.” Shocking her, his mouth turned up in a half smile, revealing straight white teeth and, surprisingly, a dimple.
Becca caught her breath.
Suddenly, she realized that with his attractive face and strong body he could have easily become a high fashion male model. Or an actor. The camera would love this man.
Despite all she’d been through, she could no longer deny one compelling fact: he was extremely attractive. Becca wasn’t sure if she even liked him. So far, he hadn’t been all that charming.
None of that changed one element; he was damned good-looking.
And at least he wasn’t going to kill her.
Chapter Seven
Rio wasn’t really madat Becca for her escape attempt. If he were honest with himself, and he was scrupulously so, he knew that in her position, first violently kidnapped by one entity, and then stolen from them by another unknown, he’d have done the same thing.
He’d have run, too.
Seeing the mountain lion stalking Becca had frozen his very veins. In winter, food for such an animal, possibly nursing babies, was scarce. While normally it might keep shy of humans, the cat could be near starving and driven to hunt creatures it usually wouldn’t.
It had been a big cat, running fast and right at her. He shuddered, and pushed aside thoughts of what would have happened if the beast had caught her. No sense in dwelling on that.
Soon after they hashed things out, she fell asleep and he spent time sitting quietly, just watching her. Over her full breasts the quilts rose and fell softly. Her lashes lay like dark butterflies on her cheeks. Studying her face, he found he enjoyed looking at her. She was pretty.
