He shook his head. “Too hard.”
“The grass.”
“Chiggers and fire ants.” He folded his arms over his chest, and his eyes ran down her body slowly and without his usual detachment. In fact, the bold gaze unnerved her. No one, not even Randall, had ever looked at her in that particular glittery way, as if he knew what she looked like with her clothes off.
Defensively, she folded her arms across her jacket. “Don’t do that,” she said softly.
“You started it, honey,” he reminded her, and moved deliberately closer, threatening her with his size and strength. She looked nervous now, which was what he intended. Playing games with grown men could be dangerous. Someone needed to prove it to her.
“Evan…” she said uneasily.
The car park was deserted, and Anna’s bravado was quickly disappearing. Flirting was one thing, but she still wasn’t quite sure of herself in any intimate situation. She could handle Randall, but Evan had an untamed look about him. He might seem like a big teddy bear at times, but the Tremayne brothers were a fiery bunch and he was the eldest. Probably Connal, Harden and Donald had learned all they knew from his example.
“What’s the matter?” he asked with a mocking smile when she backed against the car like a kitten at bay. “Not as safe as you thought?”
She didn’t know what she thought anymore. He smelled of cologne and soap, and his height and size were intimidating.
“It’s broad daylight,” she pointed out.
“I know that.” He pursed his wide lips and smiled down at her, but it wasn’t any kind of smile she’d ever seen on his lips before. Or on any other man’s, come to think of it. It was sensuous and masculine and very arrogant, as if he knew that her knees were weak and her heart was beating her to death.
“I really have to go, Evan,” she said, sounding frantic.
He could have pushed it. He almost did. Her very vulnerability attracted him as her blatant flirting never had. His eyes fell to her high, full breasts and narrowed. She was voluptuous in the very best way, well-endowed enough to almost fill hands even the size of his. He started at the direction his thoughts were taking. Anna was a virgin. He reminded himself of that silently and forced his eyes back up to her flushed, stunned face.
“I thought you wanted to get ravished,” he said softly, the velvety depth of his voice a threat in itself. “Running away before we even get started?”
She swallowed down her fear and eased away from him, laughing nervously. He made her feel young and totally green. “I’ll need to take a lot of vitamins first, to get in shape,” she said, glancing at him as she opened the door of her car and climbed in. “Hold that thought, though.”
He laughed gently at her grit. She had courage, and she bounced back fast. If she’d been a few years older, anything might happen. “Okay, rabbit, hit the road. But next time, be sure you know what you’re asking for,” he added, and his eyes were serious. “A man won’t usually turn down a blatant invitation, even if it’s against his better judgment.”
“You’ve been turning me down for years,” she reminded him, catching her breath. “You’re experienced.”
His dark eyes narrowed on her face. “Yes, I am,” he said quietly. “Keep that in mind. You’re still at the stage where you think a man’s appetite can be satisfied by a few soft kisses. Mine can’t.”
She glared at him. “I wasn’t offering…!”
“Weren’t you?”
She averted her gaze to her fingers on the key in the ignition. “No, I wasn’t,” she said curtly. “I was only teasing.”
“That kind of teasing can be dangerous. Practice on Randall. He’s safer than I am.”
“At least he wants me,” she muttered, and she abruptly started the car.
“Good for him,” he replied. “Don’t speed in that toy car.”
She moved the toolbox from the passenger seat to the floorboard. “I never speed,” she lied.
He watched her fasten her seat belt. “Through for the day already?” he taunted softly.
“I’m having lunch with my best friend,” she said evasively.
He lifted his eyebrows. “I didn’t know you had one.”
She didn’t answer him. She backed out of the parking spot and managed to take off without stripping the gears. Tears glittered in her eyes, but he wouldn’t see them.
She stopped at a nearby restaurant and had a hamburger, all by herself. She had no girlfriends. She liked Randall very well. He was a resident at the hospital, the son of the local doctor, and not bad looking. Of course, he did have a wandering eye, but Anna got along with him and didn’t feel threatened by him. Her heart was Evan’s, sadly enough. How terrible, to love a man who treated you like a child and made fun of you when you offered yourself to him. She could have bawled. Actually, everything was bravado with her, where Evan was concerned. She’d teased him just to get his attention. But having gotten it, she didn’t know what to do with it. He was experienced, and she wasn’t. She didn’t know how to handle a man like that. She’d just been shown graphically that she was totally out of her element with Evan.
She went back to the office late, and her heart wasn’t in her work for the rest of the day. Polly didn’t even notice. Anna wondered sometimes if her mother paid much attention to anything that she didn’t want to see.
The party her mother gave to celebrate the opening of the new Jacobsville mall gave Anna an excuse to dress to the back teeth. Not, she told herself, that Evan was going to notice. He’d already said he probably wouldn’t come. Randall would be there, though. She could certainly dress up for him.
She wore a witchy, silver, crystal-pleated dress that fell in layers to just below her knees. She let her blond hair waft loosely around her shoulders, straight and heavy, and she wore sexy little high-heeled sandals on her feet. She knew she looked good, but the evening felt flat. She added a hint of pastel lipstick to her full lips and brushed her hair, but her heart wasn’t in her preparations. Without Evan, her whole life was flat and uninteresting.
Downstairs Randall was waiting for her, looking very trendy in his sports coat and neatly pressed slacks. He wore wire-rimmed glasses, and he was very dignified. Not a hair out of place, although what he had was thinning above his forehead. He wasn’t handsome. But women loved him. He had a gentle, caring demeanor and he was good company, even if he did have the worst kind of wandering eye. Anna liked him, and the feeling was mutual.
“You look very nice,” he told her, glancing around at the very elegant crowd Polly was entertaining. “Your mother knows everybody, doesn’t she?”
“Everyone who moves in her circles,” Anna replied. Randall’s interest in the wealthy set disturbed her. Anna had never mixed with people simply because of their wealth or social status. Neither did the Tremaynes. Randall was thinking ahead to the time when he would be in practice, she was sure. His preference for an uptown medical practice was something he made no secret of.
He took Anna’s arm and guided her through to the canapé table, where ruby punch and savories were being offered to the guests. “I’m starved. I had to forego lunch for exams. I wish this was a sit-down affair.”
“Lori did honey chicken and salmon croquettes,” she told him, gesturing toward platters of food. “And there are little blueberry muffins, too. If you load enough on your plate, you’ll get full.”
He smiled at her. “I guess so.”
She noticed the couples moving to the soft music of the live band. She loved to dance, but Randall couldn’t. He had no desire to learn, even though she’d offered to