Dark brows lifted slightly. ‘Trespassing?’
‘I don’t do any harm,’ Bethany replied tightly. ‘Just——’
‘Just fall asleep and get stranded on rocks in the middle of the sea!’ he delivered with infuriating mockery. ‘Not an everyday occurrence, I trust?’
‘I’ve explained about that!’ Bethany replied swiftly. ‘There’s no need to talk to me as if I’m a total idiot!’
‘So it seems prosecution holds no fear for you, then?’
‘What?’ Bethany queried shortly. ‘Look,’ she continued, reading the undercurrent of mocking amusement correctly, ‘I’ve just told you the place is empty! And anyway I don’t see why I shouldn’t use the beach. It’s a crying shame to let such beauty go to waste, and as all I have to do is cut across a few metres of rough ground...’ She halted abruptly, aware that she sounded overtly defensive. ‘I don’t do any harm!’ she added, annoyed with herself for letting this infuriating man get under her skin.
‘Of course you don’t!’ He was winding her up. She saw his mouth curve into a smile and refused to acknowledge the effect it had on her. ‘So what happens when somebody finally buys the place?’ he asked. ‘Your little jaunts will have to stop then, won’t they?’
‘Buy the prison?’ Bethany saw his brows draw down in query. ‘That’s what I call it,’ she informed him hurriedly. ‘It looks as if it was built with the sole purpose of keeping people incarcerated, don’t you think? I shouldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind would buy that! Even if they were mad enough to like the depressing façade, they couldn’t be fool enough to take on such a crumbling wreck. It may look structurally OK from the outside, but inside it’s a mess.’
She saw his interested gaze and blushed madly again.
‘You know that for a fact? How?’
‘Well...well, I’ve had a bit of a look around,’ she admitted reluctantly, realising that nerves had made her gabble and consequently blurt out far too much. ‘Most of the main windows are boarded up, but there’s a small pantry window around the back that’s open——’
‘So, breaking and entering as well as trespassing!’ Chad shook his head in mocking astonishment. ‘You really don’t have any respect for the law at all, do you, Bethany Jones!’
She blushed again, much to her own annoyance, and wondered why she was even bothering to have this conversation with so infuriating a man. ‘I have to go!’ she muttered stiffly, turning away. ‘It’s getting late.’
‘Where exactly?’ His voice was blunt. A strong hand had reached out.
Bethany looked down at the tanned fingers which lightly clasped her arm and then into the arrogant face. ‘Would you mind letting go of me?’ she retorted stiffly.
‘There’s no need to react as though I’m molesting you,’ Chad informed her steadily. ‘I just want to know where you live.’
“That’s...my business!’
His gaze wandered with critical deliberation over her semi-naked body and Bethany felt the by now familiar surge of heat. ‘You surely aren’t going to walk back into town looking like that!’
‘And what if I am?’ Bethany enquired unsteadily, jerking her arm out of contact with his hand. ‘I don’t see that that’s any concern of yours!’
‘Look, lady, quit the play-acting!’ Chad drawled lazily. ‘You forfeited the right to act all high and mighty when you clung to that rock in the middle of the ocean and begged for rescue——’
‘I did not beg!’ Bethany retorted vehemently, glaring furiously at the relaxed handsome features.
‘No?’ He raised a dark brow and managed with that one expression to convey derisive disbelief. ‘Funny. I distinctly remember a pathetic wail carrying across the water.’ He threw her a challenging look. ‘Wasn’t that you?’
‘There’s no need to be sarcastic!’ Bethany retorted, eyes flashing furiously.
‘And there’s no need for you to act like a dense child!’ Chad commented smoothly. ‘You know damn well that you’re not exactly dressed for jaunting along the byways and highways—even rural Devon has its dangers! That outfit may be fine for the beach but it’s absolutely guaranteed to give you trouble with every red-blooded male between here and town. Good God, woman! Have you looked in a mirror lately?’ he asked, shaking his head disbelievingly. ‘You’re blonde and you’re beautiful. Don’t disappoint me and act like a bimbo to boot! Hardly a week passes without some report in the papers of women abducted, raped or——’
‘OK! OK! I get the picture!’ Bethany snapped, aware that this man’s references to her physical attributes had shockingly given her a little surge of pleasure. ‘I can do without the lecture, thank you very much!’ She hesitated a fraction. ‘I’m...I’m fully aware of how disgustingly men can behave! And despite what you so clearly would like to believe, I am not totally stupid! So there’s no need for you to concern yourself. I can take care of myself perfectly well, thank you!’
‘And there was I imagining I’d just rescued you from a rock in the middle of the sea!’ Chad drawled with perfect and infuriating timing. ‘How mistaken can a man be?’
‘That was different and you know it!’ Bethany blazed.
The firm mouth curved with derision. ‘How?’
‘Because...because...’ She floundered badly, hating the fact that she felt foolish and inarticulate in front of this assured, arrogant man. ‘Oh, I live over there!’ she replied with breathless irritation. She raised a hand and pointed towards a simple wooden shack that nestled in a slight hollow and was almost completely hidden by a clump of sturdy oak trees. ‘Well, go on then!’ she added sharply, as Chad surveyed the building impassively for several silent seconds. ‘Say it!’
The dark brows drew together. ‘Say what, exactly?’ His voice was cool, his gaze steady on Bethany’s flushed face.
‘ “But it’s a hovel!” or “You’re kidding me, surely? You mean to say you actually live in a place like that?”’ She was a good mimic and each line held a perfect imitation of the various voices that had uttered the phrases over the past eighteen months. ‘Everyone thinks the same,’ she informed him briskly. ‘So you may as well come right out and say what you’re thinking, like all the rest!’
She began striding towards her tumble-down home, regretting the loss of her well-worn and much loved sandals, that had disappeared into the sea along with the rest of her sunbathing equipment, as her soles came into contact with the rough, hard-baked earth of the mud track.
‘Is it a hovel?’
‘I don’t think so.’ He had fallen into step alongside. Bethany had hoped desperately that this far too attractive, far too controlled man would somehow just disappear and leave her in peace; she didn’t want strangers upsetting her equilibrium, she didn’t want this man from another world making her feel self-conscious and inadequate all over again. She had been through that once and it had not been a pleasurable experience.
Bethany threw Chad a glance that bristled animosity. ‘I think it’s perfectly habitable.’
‘You live here permanently?’
They were through the gate now, crossing Bethany’s intensively worked front garden with its neat rows of vegetables. ‘Does it look like a holiday cottage?’ she asked waspishly, turning to face him. ‘Look, I’m damp and I’m chilly. Would you mind?’
‘Would I mind what?’ Chad crossed his arms across his damp, sculptured, bronzed chest and surveyed Bethany with a casual gaze.
‘Leaving!’ Bethany enunciated clearly, knowing full well his density was deliberate. ‘If you don’t mind!’