Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas, #2)(23)

He didn’t even bother denying it. “Do you blame me? You avoid my questions every chance you get, and you won’t stay in one place long enough for me to have a decent conversation with you.” When I walked faster hoping to get out of everyone’s earshot before he spoke another word, he said, “Damn it, Anna. Why are you always running from me?”

“I’m not. I’m—”

“Afraid I’m going to ask you out?” he asked, as if he were finishing my sentence.

My heart skipped a beat, but I pretended to be unfazed. I stepped inside an alcove and placed one of the books on the shelf where it belonged. “Don’t be absurd,” I said, lowering my voice.

“So it’s okay for me to ask you out, then?”

“What? No, I…I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth.” I marched down the aisle with him hot on my trail. “You’re not asking me out.”

“Why not? Since I closed the report, there’s nothing stopping me from doing so.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

He groaned. “What the hell is your problem with me?”

I stopped and turned to face him, lifting my brows. “You really have to ask that?” Then I moved further down the aisle.

“I’m trying to apologize for last night,” he said from behind me. “If you would just stand still long enough…” He grasped my shoulders and turned me to face him. “Look, I’m sorry. I was wrong, okay?”

“Fine. Apology accepted.” I spun away from him and scanned the shelves. When I found the spot I was looking for, I slid the book back into its rightful place. I pivoted and walked toward him, then passed right by him on my way back to the circulation desk.

“That’s it?” Cowboy asked.

I paused and looked back, shrugging nonchalantly. “What more is there?”

“Have dinner with me tonight.”

My stomach fluttered and I smiled, but didn’t hesitate with my answer. “No, thank you.”

He sighed. “Why? Because of last night?”

“No, not because of that,” I said, straightening a book on a nearby shelf.

“Just dinner. I’m not asking for anything more.”

Yeah, sure…yet.

To say I didn’t trust men was the understatement of the year. And Cowboy was definitely all man. Good-looking. Charming. The kind of guy who made hearts bleed in every female within a hundred-mile radius. Even with his lack of commitment and my plans to leave town, it would still never work between us. So why waste either of our time?

“I’m sorry, Cowboy, but my answer is still no.”

His face twisted in genuine confusion, as if he’d never been told “no” before. He hesitated and then said, “It’s because you think I’m butt-ugly, isn’t it?”

I bit my lip to keep from giggling at him. He couldn’t be “butt-ugly” if he tried. “No, that’s not it, either. You just…need to stop asking me out.”

“Why? What did I do wrong?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then what? Am I too damn pretty for you? Come on, there’s got to be something.”

I sighed at his arrogance. “Listen, Cowboy, what you did for me last night was sweet and I appreciate it. But we both know you carrying me away from that fire wasn’t some clichéd romantic gesture.”

He nodded in agreement. “More like a caretaker helping an invalid get from point A to point B. So?”

“That is exactly my point. You’re blunt, reckless, arrogant, and…frankly, a little conceited, which is something I’m not.”

“Just spit it out already. I’m a big boy. I can take it.”

I hesitated to tell him the God’s honest truth, but I had to say something to get him to leave me alone. “I don’t do short-term love affairs,” I blurted out.

Clearly caught off guard by my admission, he blinked rapidly before a smile tugged at the sides of his mouth. “You mean sex?”

I closed my eyes and sighed, embarrassment flooding my cheeks. “Yes, of course I’m talking about sex.”

“So what about long-term love affairs?” The inflection in his tone made his voice deeper, sexier.

I cracked one eye open and saw him grinning at me with a hand propped leisurely on the shelf beside me and the other at his waist, his thumb snagged in the loophole of his jeans. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“Darlin’, I’m not making fun of you. I’m only suggesting something a little longer than what you were expecting.” Then he shrugged his brows.

His cockiness pushed my buttons. “Okay, enough. Obviously you’re used to flirty women throwing their wishful hearts at your feet and their willing bodies into your bed without you barely lifting a finger. But I’m…well, I’m not interested.”

Wearing a sexy little grin, he stepped forward, forcing me to inch away from him until my back hit the bookshelf behind me. “Oh, really?” He actually sounded surprised. Arrogant jerk.

“Yes, really. I guess you find that hard to believe?”

“Sweetheart, as jumpy as you are around me, I don’t see you doing either.” His hands framed my face and his thumbs tipped my chin up. My breath hitched as his lips neared mine. “But the adorable way you’re blushing and stammering all over yourself… Well, darlin’, I’d say you have more interest than you’re letting on.” His emerald eyes twinkled with intimate knowledge of women’s desires and a blatant invitation for me to test him on it.