Evan

“I imagine he’ll be pleased to be off the endangered list, all the same.” She laughed. “You were getting pretty relentless. I, uh, heard about the whiskey bottles and the plastic snakes.”

“Another ploy in my relentless campaign that failed.” Anna sighed, managing not to reveal how hurt she really was. She concentrated on her canvas. “Well, it’s over now. He did look relieved, didn’t he?”

Polly nodded, but her eyes were saying something else. She wasn’t sure exactly how Evan had looked, but relief wasn’t the word she would have chosen. She had the oddest feeling that Anna had shocked him.

Chapter 3

In fact, perplexed was more the way Evan felt as he drove back to the Tremayne ranch. He hadn’t slept well, remembering the way Anna had looked when he and Nina left the party. He’d used the prospectus as an excuse to come over and see how much damage he’d done.

What he’d found had surprised him. Anna was apparently indifferent to his presence and not at all anxious for his company. After two years of being pursued, teased, flirted with and vamped, it was shocking to have Anna treat him like a stranger.

He pulled up at the house and went inside, scowling.

“Something bothering you?” Harden asked from the study doorway.

Evan went in and closed the door. He could talk to Harden as he could to no one else, and he needed a sympathetic ear right now.

“Anna’s bothering me,” he said shortly.

“That’s nothing new,” Harden replied. “You’ve been complaining about Anna for as long as I can remember.”

Evan scowled, turning. “No,” he said. “You don’t understand. She’s ignoring me.”

Harden’s blue eyes twinkled. “A new ploy?”

Evan sat perched on the edge of the desk. “She hasn’t been the same since last night. She’s decided that she’s been ruining my life, so she’s giving me up.”

“Nice of her,” Harden commented.

“It’s the way she’s doing it that worries me,” came the quiet reply. “She’s too calm.”

“You didn’t see the way she looked when she saw you with Nina,” Harden replied. “It cut her up.”

Evan cursed under his breath. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t want to hurt her. I just wanted to get her off my back.”

“You did. So what’s the problem?”

The bigger man sighed wearily. “I didn’t know how it was going to feel, having her ignore me completely.”

“Quite an admission from you, isn’t it?”

“I guess it is.” He studied his worn boot. “But I still think I did the right thing. She’s years too young.”

“So you keep saying. I guess she finally listened.”

“I guess.”

“Nina seems smitten all over again. Is it serious?”

Evan’s dark eyes met his brother’s blue ones. “I don’t want Nina. That was over years ago. I financed some new publicity for her and she’s paying me back.”

“I see,” Harden murmured. “She’s helping you fend off Anna.”

“Unnecessarily, as it happens. Anna’s dropped her mad pursuit. She said the game was over. Was that what it was all along to her—a game?”

“Maybe you’re the one who was taking it too seriously,” Harden said gently. “Anna played with you, brought you out of your shell. There were times when you almost seemed to enjoy it. Then you’d get your back up and complain that she was hounding you.”

True enough, Evan thought, because just occasionally he felt a raging desire for Anna that he had to quell. It had been building for a long time, but lately it was explosive. Nina had been an act of desperation, as Anna had said. But the action seemed to be backfiring. He was the one who’d been burned.

“Anna’s a virgin,” Evan said shortly. “I’m almost certain of it. I had a rough experience with an innocent woman. These days, I look for sophistication.”

“I know that,” Harden replied kindly. “But that woman wasn’t Anna. If she loved you, really loved you…”

“Anna isn’t old enough to be that serious about a man.”

“I hope you’re right,” he murmured. “Because if she really cared, and you’ve killed it, you may have cost yourself the brightest star in your sky.”

Evan scowled. “I told you, she said it was only a game!”

“Would she be likely to confess undying love when you’d just thrown one of your old conquests in her face?”

Of course not. This was getting him nowhere. “I’ll get back out to the stockyard. Coming?”

“In a minute. I’ve got to drive Miranda in to the doctor,” he said, grinning.

Evan shook his head. “First Pepi, now Miranda and Jo Anne. I’m surrounded by pregnant women.”

“Uncle Evan,” Harden mocked.

The big man smiled gently. “I love kids. I guess it’s going to be up to mother and me to spoil them all.”

“You might have some of your own one day.”

Evan’s eyes grew quiet and sad. “That isn’t on the books.”

“Anna’s not afraid of you, for God’s sake!” Harden growled.

“Of course she isn’t, I’ve never made a heavy pass at her!” Evan replied levelly, his dark eyes unblinking. “Louisa was fine until I tried to take her to bed!”

Harden stared at him. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“Even if Anna was old enough, I’d never have the nerve, don’t you see?” He stuck his hands in his pockets and stared out the window. “That one experience spoiled intimacy for me. I lost control and hurt Louisa. I’ve been afraid ever since that I’d do it again. I put Randy Hardy in the hospital when we got into that brawl a few years back, didn’t I?” he added to emphasize his concern.

“Accidentally.”

“Yes. Well, I could do the same thing to a woman if I lost my head,” Evan returned hotly. “My size is no joke.”

“You’re big,” Harden agreed. “And strong as a bull. Nobody’s arguing with that. But you’re giving yourself a complex, and it’s not necessary. Just because one hysterical woman accused you of breaking her ribs…”