I crossed my arms, glaring at him in disbelief. “You were going to have me arrested?”
Cowboy closed his eyes and let out a hard breath. When he opened them, the anger I’d seen in them was gone and only softness and sincerity remained. “No, I was just going to have him…talk to you, I guess. I thought maybe if it was somebody besides me asking the questions, you would—”
“What? Tell the truth? Because you still think I’m lying to you, right?” As he opened his mouth to speak, I knew an apology loomed on the tip of his tongue. But it was one I didn’t want to hear. His fury may have dissipated, but mine had just kicked into high gear. I shook my head and pulled the jacket from around my shoulders, shoving it into his chest. “Here. I guess it’s safe to say that I can go now.”
He took the jacket and reached for my hand. “Anna, wait…”
“Just leave me alone,” I said, walking quickly away from him.
Chapter Five
“Got my book?”
I’d seen Cowboy come through the library doors, but had refused to allow myself to acknowledge him until he spoke first. Even then, I only reached beneath the desk and handed him the book with the red spine.
“Guess you’re still mad,” he said.
I continued ignoring him.
He braced his hands on the counter. “Are you going to at least let me apologize for last night?”
“No.” I grabbed a couple of returned books I’d already scanned back into the system, rose and headed for the far aisles, away from prying eyes and bent ears.
He followed behind me, not giving up. “I talked to Bobbie Jo.”
“Good for you.”
“She vouched for you, so I’m letting it go…this time. I closed the report on the dumpster fire and chalked it up to an accident. She trusts you.” His tone sounded almost angry about it.
I kept walking, but glanced over my shoulder at him, noting his questioning eyes and the way he held his mouth in a flat, grim line. Suspicion and mistrust lit up his perfect face like a flashing neon sign. “Yet you still don’t.”
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.
An easy victim of wishful thinking, I licked my lips nervously and felt his breath warm them. A pulse developed between my legs as sexual undercurrents flowed rapidly through my veins. But lucky for me, it also heightened my sense of reality. Because a man like him wouldn’t go for someone like me. Not unless he was getting something in return. Cowboy always wanted something he couldn’t have. It was just the way he was.
That argument alone persuaded me to put an end to the standoff. It was self-sabotaging, I knew, but my heart and my mind threatened to form a conspiracy against me by sending me off to dangerous, Cowboy-infested waters. And that wasn’t a depth I was willing to go.