Playing With Fire

by Alison Bliss

  He brought one hand around and removed the glasses from my face, then reached up with the other and let my red hair fall out of my clip.

  Again? Seriously?

  It was nerve-wracking the way his gaze roamed aimlessly over my face and body. As if he were imagining me naked in his arms, writhing beneath him while he thrust into me. And that thought alone horrified me as much as it delighted me. God, help me.

  I didn’t stamp my foot, but I wanted to. “Are you done, yet?”

  “Nope. Not even close. I want to know the real reason why you won’t go out with me.”

  “Okay, fine.” I crossed my arms to show my exasperation, but mostly to hide my body’s response to his proximity. “You’re someone who appreciates bluntness, right? You like to call a spade a spade?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” He was still smiling.

  “The reason I won’t go out with you is simple.” I heaved out a breath and pushed the loose hair behind my ear, knowing I was about to wipe that smug smile off his stupid perfect face. “You’re a king on a throne, and your sordid reputation with women is well-known throughout the land.”

  “What?” His brows lowered over his eyes and his smile dissipated. “That’s your reason for not—”

  “I’m not finished,” I stated firmly, tapping my foot on the tiled floor. “Like I told you the other night, we’re not a good match. Way too different, in fact. I’m predictable and dull and, without a doubt, you’d become easily bored with me.”

  His eyes softened. “You’re not—”

  “Not finished,” I chastised, placing my hands on my hips. “I’m perpetually behind everyone else in most things, including fashion, and I’m a compulsive neat freak. I’m also logical and conservative.”

  “You probably recycle,” he said with a smirk.

  “Actually, I do. But then again, so do you.” When he looked at me funny, I continued. “You recycle women. Use them up and toss them aside, leaving them for someone else while you wait for a new one to come along and replenish your stash.”

  “That’s not true. I—”

  “I’m still not through,” I said, raising my hand to stop him. “Face it, Cowboy, we’re nothing alike. Therefore, I think us going on a date would be futile and one hundred percent counterproductive.” When he didn’t say anything right away, I asked, “Do you understand what I mean by that?”

  He tipped his hat back, and I could see the indignation blazing in his eyes. “Being a southern redneck don’t make me stupid,” he drawled, clearly offended. I started to apologize, but he spoke up first. “Just one date.”

  “I’m sorry, Cowboy, but I have no interest in having dinner with you…or anything else for that matter. I don’t want to be just another anonymous name on your list or another temporary playmate in your bed. For the last time, my answer is still no.” Then I closed my mouth and bit down on my tongue before I did something stupid. Like change my mind.

  We stared at each other momentarily before his jaw tightened and he said, “You done?”

  I gave him a terse nod.

  “Good. Then it’s my turn.” He relaxed into a seemingly more comfortable position. “First off, you should be less critical of yourself. You’re not nearly as dull as you make yourself out to be.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Not finished. I’ve got the floor, remember? You’ve had your turn.”

  I made a sweeping motion with my arm for him to continue.

  “Second, allow me to put your foolish concerns to rest.”

  “Fine.”

  “You telling me that you’re not my type is total bullshit, and you know it. You purposely make yourself unattractive to men with your long skirts and buttoned-up blouses. Hell, nuns wear less clothing than you do.” Cowboy chuckled at his remark. “But let me assure you of one thing, sweetheart. Out of the two of us, the only one who mentioned anything directly related to sex is you.”

  My eyes narrowed at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “Darlin’, just because I make a flirty pass and ask you to dinner doesn’t mean I expect to bend you over the nearest flat surface. That’s your hang-up, not mine.”

  Oh God. He was right! He hadn’t actually asked me for sex…yet. Great. So now I was the sexual deviant. How the hell had that happened?

  “You would’ve eventually—”

  “Not done,” he said, pulling a page from my own book. “Let me tell you what else I know.” He shifted his weight, as if he planned for us to be here a while. “Something about you is off. Last night you reacted to that fire the same as you do to me—you panicked. I don’t know what it is or why, but there’s something you aren’t telling me.”

  I shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about. But lucky for you, I can help with both of those things. And that is not by any means me asking you for sex.” Cowboy displayed a smug grin. “Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I’m a catch.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And modest, too.”

  “Anna, all I’m asking for is dinner. What we do—or don’t do—afterward is completely up to you.”

  “Give me one good reason why I should.”

  “Huh?”

  I crossed my arms and huffed. “Go on, tell me. Why me?”

  He squinted at me. “Is this a trick question?”

  “No. I really want to know. Why are you so insistent when I have repeatedly refused you?”

  “You intrigue me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know enough about me to be intrigued.”

  He sighed. “See? No matter what I say, you’re not going to believe me, anyway,” he said, waving me off.

  “That’s because you’re only saying what you think I want to hear. Why don’t you try it again, but this time, throw in a little truth?”

  Cowboy stood a little straighter as he glared at me. “Fine,” he snarled. “You want to know why I asked you out? It’s because…” He hesitated, then shrugged and turned away from me. “Never mind. This is stupid.”

  I stepped around him and faced him. “Why? Are you afraid to give me an honest answer? Or maybe it’s because you can’t?”

  He threw his hands in the air. “Because I knew you’d say no, okay?”

  I blinked, not expecting him to be so forthcoming.

  “That is what you wanted me to admit, right? That I’m intrigued by you because you don’t want anything to do with me.” He hooked his thumbs into the loopholes on his jeans and ground out, “Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

  Yes. Unfortunately. But it didn’t change a thing.

  Obviously, brushing off his advances hadn’t worked. In fact, the whole thing had backfired. Even worse, his little speech had nearly coaxed a yes from me. But self-preservation demanded I end this once and for all. That left me with no choice but to bruise that precious male ego of his, which would require something drastic, since he had an ego the size of Texas.

  “Come with me,” I told him, turning to walk up the aisle.

  He followed behind me silently, but I felt his eyes burning into my back, the question looming in the air, as we neared the circulation desk. I veered around the counter and pulled my purse from the bottom cabinet. I took out my wallet, searching through it until I found my library card.

  I scanned it, then picked up the book Cowboy had left on the counter and did the same with it. Only then did I shove the book into his hand. “There. I’ve checked the book out for you. It’s due back in two weeks. There’s a drive-up book return drop outside under the portico.”

  He glanced to the book, then back to me. “What’s the catch?”

  I sighed heavily, letting out the irritated breath I had been holding in my lungs. “In return, I ask that you don’t come back into the library again.”

  Chapter Six

  Cowboy had probably expected me to turn him down, not banish him from the library altogether. But the day before, I’d done
just that. Lucky for him, today was Sunday, which meant the library was closed. Unlucky for me, I forgot to also ban him from my home.

  It was almost dark outside when he pulled up, and I was stretching a garden hose across my front lawn. Fresh from the shower, I’d put on a white terrycloth robe and left my wet red hair hanging loosely around my shoulders. Both were decisions I immediately regretted, but I didn’t detour from my mission.

  By the time he joined me on the side of my little white cottage, I was doing something he undoubtedly found rather strange: watering my house. He stepped up beside me and glanced at the wet rooftop and dripping eaves. “Think it’ll be ready to harvest by the end of the season?”

  “What are you doing here?” I frowned, my face already heated and my body vibrating with anger. “I thought I told you I wasn’t interested.”

  Cowboy held up his hands in mock surrender. “Whoa. No need to get pissy. I just came by to talk.”

  “We did enough talking yesterday. Good-bye.”

  But he ignored me. “Where are your glasses?”

  “Huh? Oh.” I reached up to my face, realizing I didn’t have them on. “They’re reading glasses. I don’t wear them all the time, just at work and…” I shook my head, feeling even more frazzled than I’d been before he’d shown up. “Never mind. I don’t know why I’m explaining anything to you. You’re leaving.”

  His brows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about. It’s my problem, and I’m handling—”

  Loud, thumping music sounded from up the road. Within seconds, a dark blue Bronco appeared and pulled into the driveway next to mine. I put one hand on my hip and watched the Barlow brothers climb out, hooting and hollering, and carrying a brand new eighteen-pack of beer.

  Sloppy. Rowdy. And drunk, as usual.

  Joe Barlow wore his cap backward. Stray tufts of his dark hair poked out between his eyes, his sideburns, and the back of his neck. His dirty white tank top left his tattooed arms exposed, though I couldn’t make out the red ink blob on his left bicep. As he rounded the hood of the Bronco, he guzzled the last of the beer in his hand, then crushed the empty can on his chest. His brother chortled at the sight.

  Clay was shorter than Joe, heavily overweight, and laughed like a snickering hyena. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and the too-tight jeans he had squeezed himself into only emphasized his large pot belly and tanned ass crack. A toothpick dangled from his yellowed teeth as he turned, set down the case of beer, and did something with his hands I couldn’t quite make out.

  There was a shrill whistle and a loud pop as a fire cracker shot through the air and over my house, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake. I threw down the hose and started for the two men. I’d made it halfway across the lawn when Cowboy caught up to me. To him, it must’ve seemed like a random burst of energy. He hadn’t been there for the first round of fireworks before the brothers had taken off on their apparent beer run.

  Cowboy latched onto my arm and shook his head. “Hold up, tiny. You don’t want to do that.”

  I glared at him. “Oh, really?”

  “Those guys are bad news. Most people—at least the ones in their right minds—tend to avoid them.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Those boys are known bullies,” he said, letting go of me. “They live to intimidate others, plain and simple. They were a few grades ahead of us in school, but I’ve known them my whole life. Even saw them in action firsthand when they got into it at The Backwoods with my captain the day of my promotion party. If you go over there, you’re asking for trouble.”

  I crossed my arms and sighed. “So I’m supposed to keep quiet and do nothing?”

  “When they were younger, Clay had an itchy trigger finger, taking a notion to shooting things with his BB gun just for the hell of it. Joe wasn’t much better. He may be older, but he’s always had a problem with authority. Ended up in jail more than once after a scuffle with the sheriff. You don’t want to get mixed up with—” He glanced back at them and said, “Oh, shit!” Then he grabbed me and spun me sideways.

  A whoosh sounded as something whizzed past us like a rocket, hit the side of my house with a loud thump, and exploded on impact. The fireball fell into the bush directly underneath, and the shrubbery instantly caught fire.

  Joe and Clay burst into hysterics.

  “You idiots! Watch where you’re shooting those things!” Cowboy sprinted away from me, picked up my abandoned hose, and soaked down the greenery, as well as the side of my house.

  Maybe most people in their right mind avoided the Barlow brothers, but I was no longer in mine. I marched across my yard and right into theirs, sticking my finger in each of their faces as if it were a loaded weapon. “That’s it. I’ve had enough! Every night this week, you two have shot fireworks over my home.”

  Clay grinned. “So what?”

  “So what? Are you kidding me?” Outraged, I flapped my arms and squawked at him like a hen. “It’s a fire hazard. You could kill somebody doing something so stupid and reckless.”

  “Ah,” Joe said, waving me off. “Why don’t you shut up and go home?” He turned away from me, dismissing me completely.

  But I wouldn’t allow it.

  I circled him and stepped in his path. “Look, I tried to ask nicely the other day, but you just laughed and ignored me. I won’t sit back and watch you set my house on fire. If you don’t knock it off this time, I’m going to…to…”

  Joe’s eyes narrowed at me. “You’re going to do what?”

  “I’ll call the police.”

  Clay elbowed his brother in a “get this chick” capacity and chuckled. By now, anything I said would fall on deaf ears, so I spun around and headed back onto my own property to get my phone and make good on my promise. I wasn’t sure if Joe caught a glimpse of the determination in my eyes, but he jumped in front of me, blocking my path.

  “Get out of my way.”

  “And what are you going to do if I don’t?”

  Cowboy was still busy snuffing out the burning bush, but I wasn’t willing to back down. I crossed my arms and glared at Joe. “You’re already in enough trouble. Do you really want to add holding me hostage to the charges?”

  He snorted. “Lady, you’d have to prove it first. Besides, I’m not in trouble for nothing. My dipshit brother shot the fireworks off, not me.”

  “True. But maybe when the cops get here, I’ll tell them about the little side business you’ve been running.”

  Joe’s brows rose slightly. “Uh, side business?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You think I haven’t noticed the multitude of cars stopping at your house at all hours of the night? It’s obviously something illegal you don’t want the sheriff knowing about.”

  He glared back at me. “What are you doing—spying on us?”

  “Oh, please. Anyone with half a brain could figure out you’re doing something shady over here. Did you really think you wouldn’t get caught sooner or later?”

  “Look, you little bitch—”

  “No, you look!” I yelled, poking him in the chest. He grunted, but stood his ground as I continued. “Since I moved in a few weeks ago, you two have been nothing but rude and obnoxious. You play your music too loud, you have friends coming and going all hours of the night, and setting off fireworks is dangerous. I’m not going to tolerate this crap any longer. I won’t allow you morons to burn down my home with me inside.”

  In retaliation, he leaned over and grasped my arm in a bruising grip, his hands cold as ice. “You may not have much of a choice,” he snarled.

  “E-excuse me?”

  “You heard me, lady. Better watch yourself. That sassy mouth just might get you into trouble one of these days. I don’t know where you came from, but ’round here, neighbors who go buttin’ their noses where they don’t belong tend to get…burned.”

  My eyes widened at his insinuation, but I couldn’t speak. I glanced in Cowboy’s direction and realized that, altho
ugh he’d finished putting out the burning bush, he’d been oblivious to the heated argument going on next door. Between the distance and the whipping wind rustling the leaves on the trees, he hadn’t heard a single word.

  With no witnesses, I had no way to prove what Joe said to me. Not only did he threaten me, but he chose the most terrifying way imaginable.

  Fire.

  A hoarse sob broke from my throat.

  Shoulders slumped and fighting back the tears stinging my eyes, I stood in their pea gravel driveway as the Barlow brothers disappeared inside their house, letting the screen door bang against the jamb behind them. Part of me wanted to march in after them and give them another piece of my mind, but the other part—a much bigger part—was afraid of what would happen to me if I did.

  I glanced back over my shoulder just in time to see Cowboy toss the hose aside and cut across the lawn, heading in my direction. I swiped the tears that had dropped onto my cheeks and blinked to clear any additional moisture from my eyes. I couldn’t let him see me like this.

  By the time he reached me, I had taken a few deep breaths and calmed myself considerably, though I hadn’t moved an inch.

  “Where’d Tweedledee and Tweedledum go?”

  I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. “They went inside.” My voice cracked on the last word and I cringed. The last thing I wanted was for Cowboy to see or hear how they’d affected me.

  “Anna…?”

  I turned to walk past him, but he grasped my shoulders and held me there, his eyes searching mine for answers. No doubt they were still shiny from the tears that had been there moments before. “What happened?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  His face hardened and his jaw tightened. “Bullshit. Tell me.”

  “It’s nothing, okay? I told them I’d call the police if this didn’t stop and…well, he threatened me.”

  I barely finished the sentence before Cowboy’s intense eyes sparked with fury and his mouth twisted into a frightening sneer. “I’m gonna kill ’em,” he said, dropping my arm and starting for their house in a full-on bout of rage.