One moment I was standing defiantly in the mud, the next I was hauled upside down over his shoulder, his arm a solid band across the backs of my thighs, pinning me in place as if I weighed nothing.

“Put me down!” I pounded my fists against his back, each hit useless against the granite hardness of his body. “This is assault! Kidnapping! I’ll have you arrested for—”

My threat choked off when his palm pressed against my ass, fingers spreading dangerously close to the edge of my ...