Josh Read Online Free

if you’re not satisfied with my explanation, I’ll be more than happy to leave.” He stared down into her eyes, which were narrowed on him with utter contempt. “Your call.”
    From between clenched teeth she said, “I’ll listen. But only after you let me go.”
    He eased his grip on her hands, and got carefully to his feet. When he offered her a hand up, she ignored it, and got to her knees, before standing and facing him.
    She was dressed all in black, from her skintight leggings to the black turtleneck, revealing a reed-slender body and long, long legs. Straight, waist-length blonde hair fell in disarray around a face that would have looked right at home in a toothpaste commercial, with high cheekbones, porcelain skin, and dark lashes outlining golden-flecked blue eyes that were, at the moment, staring daggers at him.
    He saw the way she darted a glance downward, as though searching for her weapon. “Don’t even think about going for it. I’m not here to hurt you.”
    She crossed her arms over her heaving chest and fixed him with a hateful look. Her voice was soft and breathy from their skirmish.
    “If that’s true, say your piece and leave me alone.”
    “Happy to.” He indicated the tiny cooker. “That throws a lot of heat.” He was sweating, and he wasn’t sure whether it was because of the exertion from the fight, the heat of the tent, or the heat generated by this female.
    She wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting. She was the exact opposite of a timid, frightened female. Because of the rugged location, he’d assumed she would be athletic, and she was. Everything else was just a bonus, especially those eyes. Right now they were narrowed on him with such fury, he could imagine them shooting bullets through his heart.
    “Whenever a storm hits, it’s the job of the rangers to make certain that all the hikers in their district are safe.”
    He waited for her to say something.
    Instead, she held her silence until he added sarcastically, “In case you haven’t noticed, the mountains have been hit with a hell of a storm. Mitch Carver tried unsuccessfully to reach you by phone before asking hisrangers to fan out to search for you. But as you know, you weren’t where you said you’d be, and that caused alarm bells to ring in the mind of every ranger on this mountain.”
    She said nothing in her own defense, though her eyes had turned to pale icy chips.
    “Mitch and his rangers take great pride in their work, even when careless climbers don’t do their share. So he called on me to find you.”
    “You’re a ranger?”
    “I’m a rancher. I live in the area, and know these mountains.”
    “You must know them pretty well to be out hiking in this storm.”
    He arched a brow. “I see you noticed that it’s storming. That’s the reason I’m here.”
    She flushed slightly. “I told the ranger that I intended to get some good shots of the mountains covered in snow. When the storm started raging, I figured it was heaven-sent. The perfect opportunity to capture something that is rarely seen.” She pointed to her camera. “I was just going over the shots I took, and some of them are really amazing. I could have never found these images anywhere else but here, right in the middle of it.”
    Josh could hear the thread of excitement and pride in her voice, a far cry from the tone she’d used with him moments earlier.
    “I’m glad you got what you came here for. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that you neglected to contact the ranger station to let them know you were safe. They’ve been trying to phone you since the storm first broke.”
    She glanced toward the phone lying on her bedroll. “Inever thought to check in. Sorry. If they tried calling me, I have to guess my phone isn’t working.”
    “Mine’s working just fine.” Josh’s patience was wearing thin as he turned slightly and retrieved his phone from his pocket. “If you didn’t want to be disturbed, all you had to do was file a