Completely Smitten by Kristine Grayson Read Free Book Online Page A

it had betrayed him. “I thought I went all the way down your leg.”
    “What?” she asked.
    He blinked at her, as if hearing her for the first time, and said, “I didn’t know you’d broken your ankle.”
    “Me either,” she said, “until I tried to get out of bed and landed flat on my butt.”
    “That shouldn’t have happened.” He took a step closer to her.
    “That’s what I said. Well, what I thought. I think I probably said nothing intelligible …”
    She let her voice trail off as he knelt before her and held his hands over her swollen ankle. He flattened one hand and reached toward her injury with the other.
    The last thing she wanted to do was have anyone touch her swollen skin. She slid her leg back.
    He clenched his hand into a fist. “I’m sorry.”
    She shook her head. “No. I’m just skittish. It hurts.”
    “I’m sure it does.” He continued to stare at her ankle, as if he hadn’t seen anything like it before. “I had no idea. I’m really sorry.”
    Almost as if it were his fault. She smiled. Good-looking and kind. How lucky could a girl get? “It’s okay, really. I mean, it’s not okay. It hurts, but it’s not your fault. After all, what could you have done? You’re not a doctor, are you?”
    He bit his lower lip, and she had that sensation again. It felt like he was preparing to lie to her. “No.”
    And yet the word had a ring of truth. How odd. She thought he was lying and telling the truth at the same time. And she didn’t really care. She was so attracted to him that she could scarcely believe they were in the same room together.
    She had never had a reaction like this to anyone. Perhaps she was still in shock.
    “It’s just …” He paused, as if he were choosing his words carefully. “If I had known that you were hurt this badly, I’d have radioed for an airplane.”
    She sighed. She didn’t want to think about the plane and what it meant to her trip. Not yet. “You said that ledge was thirty feet down. How did you get me back up?”
    He glanced at her. “You don’t remember? You were talking to me.”
    She grinned. “I don’t think I was myself. I thought we were flying.”
    He studied her for a moment. Then he swallowed and glanced at her ankle again. “I guess that makes sense. I used a pulley system to lever you up.”
    She frowned. “I remember you carrying me.”
    “I did.” He rocked back on his heels and then stood up. “Once I got you off the ledge, I carried you to the house. You seemed okay except for the scrapes. How do you feel?”
    “Sore,” she said. “But otherwise pretty healthy. I mean, a broken ankle is a problem, but it’s not like I punctured a lung or something.”
    He looked away again. Her comment had disturbed him somehow, yet she couldn’t figure out how. What was going on up here? Did he have something to do with her fall? Had he booby-trapped the trail or something?
    But that didn’t make sense. She knew that the mountains slid all the time. Nothing set them off; the slides just happened. The books she’d read preparing for this trip had warned her. People who’d made the hike had warned her. Even the signs on the trail had warned her.
    Besides, she had seen the small bits of rock move even before the trail slid out from underneath her. He had had nothing to do with it.
    So why was he acting so guilty?
    He ran a hand through his curls. They fell back into place perfectly. “It’s getting dark. I can radio for help, but they can’t land a plane here at night. I have an airstrip. I suppose I could ask for a helicopter, if they’re willing to send one in. I’d tell them you were injured. That might bring them faster.”
    She was shaking her head even before he finished speaking. A plane was going to be expensive enough. She had researched that before hiking into the wilderness area and had opted not to hire one to get her in or out just because of the cost. A helicopter, sent to rescue her at night, would be even more