Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas, #2)(20)

As the machine finally slowed, so did my heart rate. That’s when all of my senses returned, and I fully realized the intimate position Cowboy and I were maintaining.

Startled by the pleasure I felt, I pushed away from him so abruptly that he frowned at me. “What’s the problem?” he asked as the ride came to a full stop and the lap bar automatically disengaged.

“Don’t you have to get back to peddling your calendars?” I asked softly, wondering how the hell he managed to get past my defenses. I stood up and stepped shakily out of the bucket, still feeling a little wobbly from the ride. Or maybe it was from the way he had held me.

Cowboy followed me, but I kept going, pretending he was no longer there. Once we made it outside the exit gate, he grasped my arm gently to stop me from walking away. “Anna, why do you keep running away from me?”

Because I have to. “I’m not,” I said, shaking my head in denial. “The ride is over and I’m moving on to the next one. But since I know you have to get back, don’t let me stop you. Please tell Bobbie Jo I’ll check on her soon.”

With that, I turned and speed-walked away. I was in such a hurry to get away from him that I didn’t even pay any attention to which direction I had gone. I’d somehow ended up on the backside of the gaming booths where the carnies had parked their big trucks and travel trailers.

The area was much darker and I had to be careful not to trip over the large electrical cables that powered all of the rides and were running across the trail. I thought about turning back, but I was too afraid Cowboy would still be there, so I kept moving forward, looking for a path that would cut through the booths and take me back to the other side.

I caught sight of a glowing light up ahead and quickened my steps, hoping I’d run into someone who could tell me how to get back to where I came from. But when I rounded the bend, I found it wasn’t a light at all. It was a stack of wooden pallets…one that happened to be covered in flames.

I skidded to a stop. The fire wasn’t large and looked to be contained, but my chest still tightened as turmoil sloshed through my veins. My heart rate accelerated, and my pulse roared in my ears. Every fiber of my being wanted me to turn around and run in the opposite direction. But I couldn’t. I remembered how those all-too-familiar flames had ruined my life by taking something precious from me. I couldn’t—no, I wouldn’t—allow it to happen anymore. I welded myself in place.

Focus, Anna. I could beat this.

As I watched the orange tendrils lick at the sides of the wood and grow higher and higher, I became mesmerized by the dancing flames, and the urge to get a closer look came over me. Slowly, I placed one foot in front of the other until I was standing directly in front of the terrifying demon I’d feared so long.

I wanted to see inside the flames. Needed to understand how it worked in order to rid myself of my fear once and for all. But the heat from the fire was too hot to get any closer. Then the wind suddenly shifted and smoke surrounded me. My eyes watered and I choked on the toxic fumes. I barely registered the sound of my name as Cowboy appeared through the haze of black smoke.

“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted, scowling at me. “Move!”

But I couldn’t. My sweat-dampened palms reached for him, but my feet weren’t cooperating. He grabbed my arms as I clutched at his shirt, trying to hold myself up and keep from passing out from the amount of smoke I’d inhaled. “I…c-can’t,” I coughed out, feeling weaker by the second.

His firefighter training must’ve kicked in, because his face changed from a perplexed, what-the-hell expression to a look of sheer determination and confidence.

Without hesitation, he snaked his arm around my back and lifted my wobbly legs out from under me, drawing me tight against his hard chest. My face buried into his warm neck, and my fingers dug into his broad shoulders as he carried me out of the smoke.

I gasped in a breath of clean air, and coughed it right back out. My throat burned a little from the effort. Cowboy kept moving with me in his arms until he had toted me twenty yards away, where some of the carnival workers had gathered and a fire truck had just pulled in. I remembered seeing it parked near the firemen’s chili booth, and figured someone had probably notified them of the fire around the same time I’d stumbled upon it.

In full bunker gear, Mandy stepped out of the passenger seat. Her eyes widened, as if she hadn’t expected to see me standing there. “Something wrong with her feet, Captain, or did you just feel like playing hero?”

“I don’t know what happened,” he said, concern lacing his deep tone, along with a smidgen of petulance at Mandy’s remark. He looked at me, as if waiting for me to answer for myself, but I still couldn’t speak. He nodded his understanding and told Mandy, “She just sort of…froze.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Anna,” Mandy said, her tone registering her sincerity. “You seemed fine after the booth fire. I didn’t realize—”

“What booth fire?” Cowboy asked.

“When Anna and Bobbie Jo stopped by our booth earlier, some napkins caught fire on the table behind Anna. We had to use a fire extinguisher to put it out.”

Cowboy’s suspicious eyes met mine once again and his jaw tightened. “Go see if Reynolds needs any help, Mandy.”

She bit her lip. “Are you sure? I can help you with—”