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Something in the intruder’s words finally began to cut through the fog of shock enveloping Ellie’s brain.

“Did you just accuse me of being faint?” she said, ire edging her words.

The ire sparked against a host of other feelings—most of them various forms of horrified outrage—and Ellie’s shock was replaced by a sharp, dangerous focus.

“Get out of this room,” Ellie demanded, her tone deceptively calm.

“Listen, lady—I’m trying to help here.”

The stranger had a flat Yankee drawl. His eyes were a startling blue. The color stood out starkly against the mud that streaked across his sun-darkened features.

“Remove. Yourself.Now.”

Ellie’s last syllable was a threat. Fury rose under her skin. It felt like the rage that had recently gotten her arrested.

The maniac with the knife looked ready to make a retort—which would most certainlynothave gone well for him—but the creature in the tub chose that moment to whip across the surface of the foamy water.

The stranger lunged across the floor and shoved Ellie against the wall. He pinned her there with his broad, solid back as he held his ridiculous blade ready in front of him.

There was, of course, an entirely reasonable way for a normal, sane person to respond to the presence of an unknown reptile in the tub. It involved dressing, fetching the hotel proprietor, and safely removing the animal so that she might possibly continue with her bath.

It did not include being squished into a corner by a beastly American in his shirtsleeves.

“Get off me!” Ellie barked as she shoved at him.

It was like trying to move a boulder.

“Stop wiggling,” he retorted, his eyes glued to the surface of the tub.

Ellie had never wished quite so much that she had made the time for Sensei Tani’s jiu jitsu classes. Still, though she lacked martial arts skills, she was quite familiar with the basic principles of physics—like the center of gravity.

She gritted her teeth, making a concerted effort to keep her tone reasonable.

“If you do not remove yourself from my person, I will be forced to use more extreme measures,” she informed him.

His eyes narrowed with irritation as he glanced back at her.

“If you’d shut up and think for five seconds, you’d see that I’m trying to—”

Ellie didn’t give him a chance to complete the sentence, as it was obvious he had no intention of ending it by getting out of her washroom.

She shoved her right leg between his thighs, feeling him jolt with surprise at the unexpected contact. Hooking her calf around his shin to hold it in place, she twisted her body, forcing more space between his hips and the wall—and then shoved.

The muddy brute flew forward with an ear-burning curse… and promptly tripped into the tub.

Time slowed to a crawl.

His knife clattered against the tiles. The better part of the bathwater washed across the floor in a gentle tide, punctuated by little patches of bubbles.

The foam-covered surface of the bath roiled as the stranger slid to a stop, mud rinsing from his face in long streaks. He went perfectly still as his eyes locked on the surface of the bath framed by the twin peaks of his soaked knees… and Ellie wondered whether she had just inadvertently murdered him.

Her pulse thudded, low and regular, in sync with the drip of the water on the tile. She distantly observed that the man had an objectively nice face. It was strong, with well-cut angles.

A flicker of motion cut through the still-soapy water.

The stranger’s arm flashed out with a quick, cat-like movement. He grasped hold of an oily black form—and chucked it across the room.

The snake slid to a stop against the wall. It coiled, hissing with outrage, but the mud-streaked maniac was already surging out of the tub, taking most of the remaining water with him. He snatched up the brass towel rack as his bare feet slapped down against the tiles. He whirled the brass in his hand like a javelin and thrust it at the black, sinuous form of the reptile, pinning the creature’s neck.