Dear Reader,

I really can’t express how flattered I am and also how grateful I am to Harlequin Books for releasing this collection of my published works. It came as a great surprise. I never think of myself as writing books that are collectible. In fact, there are days when I forget that writing is work at all. What I do for a living is so much fun that it never seems like a job. And since I reside in a small community, and my daily life is confined to such mundane things as feeding the wild birds and looking after my herb patch in the backyard, I feel rather unconnected from what many would think of as a glamorous profession.

But when I read my email, or when I get letters from readers, or when I go on signing trips to bookstores to meet all of you, I feel truly blessed. Over the past thirty years I have made lasting friendships with many of you. And quite frankly, most of you are like part of my family. You can’t imagine how much you enrich my life. Thank you so much.

I also need to extend thanks to my family (my husband, James, son, Blayne, daughter-in-law, Christina, and granddaughter, Selena Marie), to my best friend, Ann, to my readers, booksellers and the wonderful people at Harlequin Books—from my editor of many years, Tara, to all the other fine and talented people who make up our publishing house. Thanks to all of you for making this job and my private life so worth living.

Thank you for this tribute, Harlequin, and for putting up with me for thirty long years! Love to all of you.

Diana Palmer

DIANA PALMER

The prolific author of more than a hundred The prolific author of more than a hundred books, Diana Palmer got her start as a books, Diana Palmer got her start as a newspaper reporter. A multi–newspaper reporter. A multi–New York Times New York Times bestselling author and one of the top ten bestselling author and one of the top ten romance writers in America, she has a gift for romance writers in America, she has a gift for telling the most sensual tales with charm and telling the most sensual tales with charm and humor. Diana lives with her family in Cornelia, humor. Diana lives with her family in Cornelia, Georgia.

Visit her website at www.DianaPalmer.com.

Evan
Diana Palmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my very special friend Suzanne Hewstone

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 1

It wasn’t that he minded the dinner so much, or the business talk that followed it. What bothered Evan Tremayne was the way Anna sat and watched him.

She was nineteen, blond, buxom and blue-eyed, a statuesque young woman with long tanned legs that looked incredible in shorts. Evan had tried for the past year not to notice her, despite the fact that he and her mother did a lot of business together. At thirty-four, he was the eldest of four brothers, and he had almost total responsibility for their mother. The family business was mostly under his control and his life was one long tangle of cattle, personnel problems and financial headaches. Anna was the last damned straw.

Especially, he thought, in that pale blue dress that showed too much of her golden tan and her full breasts. Surely her mother should have said something about that. He wondered if Polly Cochran noticed how fast her daughter was growing up. Polly was never home, though. She seemed always to be busy with some new facet of her real estate business. Anna’s father was an airline pilot, but he and Polly had separated years ago. He lived in Atlanta, Georgia, while they lived in Texas. In fact, Anna had been given most of her upbringing by Lori, the family housekeeper. Nobody seemed to have had much time for her.

Polly had excused herself to take a phone call, and Evan was left uncomfortably alone with Anna.

“Why have you been glowering at me for the past ten minutes?” Anna asked softly. Her blond hair was piled on top of her head, and she looked sophisticated and very mature for a change.

“Because that dress shows too much of you,” Evan replied with customary bluntness. His dark eyes glanced from her face to the swell of her breasts. “Polly shouldn’t have bought it for you.”

“She didn’t,” Anna said with a grin. “It’s one of hers. I borrowed it when she wasn’t looking. She hasn’t even noticed that I’m wearing it. You know how unobservant she is. Everything with Mama is business.”

“Your mother’s dresses are too old for you,” he replied, softening the words a little with a smile. He tended to be more abrasive with Anna than with anyone else in his life because of his unwanted attraction to her. “You should wear something more appropriate for your own age.”

She took a slow breath and her eyes gently worshipped him before they dropped to the table. “Do I really seem so young to you, Evan?”

“I’m thirty-four, little one,” he said, his voice deep and slow in the silence of the dining room. “Yes, you seem young.”

Her blue eyes settled on her folded hands. “Mama’s giving a party Friday night to celebrate the opening of that new mall in Jacobsville that she sold the property for,” she said. “Are you coming?”

“Harden and Miranda might,” he murmured. “I stay busy.”

She looked up, her eyes searching his dark, broad face relentlessly. “You could dance one dance with me. It wouldn’t kill you.”

“Wouldn’t it?” he asked with graveyard humor. He touched his linen napkin to his wide, chiseled mouth and laid it down beside his plate. He got to his feet, towering over her. He was a giant of a man, all muscle and streamlined, from the broad wedge of his chest to his narrow hips and long, powerful legs. “I have to go.”

She stood up. “Not yet,” she pleaded.

“I’ve got things to do,” he said.

“No, you haven’t,” she said, pouting. “You just don’t want to be alone with me. What are you afraid of, Evan, that I’ll assault you on the table?”

He lifted an eyebrow over twinkling brown eyes. “And get mashed potatoes all over my back?”

She let out an irritated breath. “You won’t take me seriously.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” he said, fending her off with the ease of years of practice. “Tell Polly I’ll see her tomorrow at the office.”

“I could be dying of love for you,” she said quietly. “And you don’t even care that you’re breaking my heart.”

He grinned. “Hearts don’t break, especially at your age.”

“Yes, they do.” Her eyes ran up and down his big body, lingering on his broad chest. “You might at least kiss me goodbye.”

“Let Randall do that,” he replied. “He’s still at the experimenting age, like you.”

“And you’re over the hill, I guess?”

He chuckled. “Feels like it sometimes,” he confessed. “Good night, little girl.”

She colored delicately, which heightened the blue of her eyes. “I’m not a child!”

“You are to me.” He picked up his Stetson from the sideboard without looking at her. “Give my apologies to your mother. I can’t wait for her. Thanks for dinner.”

Before she could come up with a reply, he was out the door and gone, without even seeming to hurry.

The hell of it was that he was fiercely attracted to her. In fact he could probably fall head over heels in love with her. But she was much too young for a serious relationship. At her age she was likely to fall in and out of love weekly. Besides, she was almost certainly a virgin. Evan was six-four and weighed over two hundred and thirty pounds. A brief love affair had ended in near tragedy because, in his desire for the woman he loved—an innocent woman, like Anna—he hadn’t been able to control his great strength. Louisa had run from him, terrified. It had scarred him, made him hopelessly wary of innocents like Anna. His size had been a sore spot with him ever since childhood, when he was forever coming to the defense of his three brothers. He’d always had to pull his punches. He’d even put a man in the hospital once when he’d underestimated his strength. The risk with a sheltered girl like Anna was just too great. No, he couldn’t afford another episode like that, he couldn’t take the chance. Better to stick to experienced women who weren’t afraid of him.

Back at the brick mansion, Anna was raging over the things Evan had said. He was treating her like a teen with a crush, when she was dying of unrequited love for him!

“Where’s Evan?” her mother asked, pausing in the doorway. She was tall and thin and fiftyish, dark, where Anna was fair like her father.

“He left,” Anna said curtly. “He was afraid I might bend him over the table and seduce him in the green beans and mashed potatoes.”

“What?” Polly asked, laughing.

“He’s afraid to be alone with me,” Anna muttered. “I suppose he thinks I’ll get him pregnant.”

“Child, do watch your language,” Polly chided. “Never mind Evan. You’ve already got a beau, much closer to your own age.”

Anna sighed. “Good old Randall,” she mused. “With the wandering eyes. I like him a lot, but he flirts with every woman he sees. I can’t believe he’s serious about me.”

“He’s only in his twenties,” Polly said. “Plenty of time to get serious when you’re older. Marriage is for the birds, honey.”

Anna glared at her. “Just because you and Daddy weren’t happy together doesn’t mean that I can’t have a good marriage.”

Polly’s eyes darkened and she turned away to light a cigarette, ignoring Anna’s disapproving glance as she reached for an ashtray. “Your father and I were very happy at first,” her mother corrected. “Then he started flying overseas routes and I got into the real estate business. We never saw each other.” She shrugged. “Just one of those things.”

“Do you still love him?”

The older woman cocked a perfect dark eyebrow. “Love is a myth.”

“Oh, Mama.” Anna sighed.

Polly just laughed. “Dream your dreams, child. I’ll settle for CDs in the bank and plenty of stocks and bonds in my safety deposit box. Where did you get that dress?”

The younger woman grinned. “It’s yours.”

Her mother gave her a mock glare. “How many times have I told you to stay out of my closet?”

“Only twenty. You won’t buy me anything this sexy.”

“I suppose you wore it to tempt Evan,” Polly mused. “Well, you might as well give up. Evan’s too old for you, and he knows it, even if you don’t. Go and change. I’ll treat you to a movie.”

“Okay.”

It was nice to have a mother who was also a good friend, Anna thought as she complied with the request. But nobody seemed inclined to take her feelings for Evan seriously. Especially Evan himself.

Sometimes Anna thought it would be nice if she had a job that would put her in constant contact with Evan. But she couldn’t work cattle and she knew nothing about bookkeeping or finance. The best she’d been able to manage was secretarial work at her mother’s real estate office. That did bring her into fairly frequent contact with Evan, because the Tremayne brothers were always looking for investment properties. Since Evan was the eldest and headed the company, he was the one her mother saw most frequently. That meant Anna got to see him. She was working on the premise of water dripping on stone. If he was around her enough, he might notice her more.

There were, of course, better ways than just sitting around hoping. Anna had the pursuit of Evan down to a science. She could wrangle invitations to parties he’d attend, she found ways to track him down at lunch and accidentally run into him. She occasionally waylaid him at the post office or the feed store. Most people found her relentless chase amusing, but more and more she sensed that it was affecting Evan. If only he’d just look at her!

It was a well-known fact that Evan hated alcohol. He had an intense aversion to it for reasons nobody understood. So all Anna had to do to attract his interest at her mother’s office the next day was to sit two bottles of unopened whiskey on her desk before he was due at the realty company.

He stopped dead when he saw them, his dark brows knitting over deep-set brown eyes shaded by the brim of the Stetson pulled low over his forehead.

“What the hell is that for?” he demanded, gesturing toward the bottles.

“Medicinal purposes,” Anna said smugly. She was wearing a white linen suit with a pink blouse, her hair in a plait, and she looked both businesslike and feminine.

He glared at her. “Try again.”

She glanced around to make sure none of the other women in the office were listening, and she leaned forward. “It’s to treat snakebite.”

The scowl got worse. “There aren’t any rattlers in here.”

She grinned. “Yes, there are.” She pulled open her bottom drawer to reveal two huge plastic snakes with realistic fangs.

Evan’s eyes widened. “Good God!”

“These are for people who need an excuse to drink the whiskey.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“If I was, how could I be using it to talk to you?”

He gave up and went past her, shaking his head. Anna watched him, her blue eyes lazily adoring on his tall, powerful body. He was perfectly built, with broad shoulders tapering to slender hips and long legs. He had a rodeo rider’s physique, except for his great size. Evan had hands the size of plates. He was even intimidating to some of the women in the office, who made innuendoes that Anna was too sheltered to understand. But Anna found nothing frightening about him at all. She loved him.

He was aware of that silent stare, but he didn’t react to it. She was playing games again, he knew it. She had to be aware that the whiskey would draw his attention. It had worked. He had to be more careful from now on, not to fall into her little traps.

But it wasn’t that easy. When he came out of Polly’s office, Anna wasn’t at her desk. He found her outside near his car, on her hands and knees beside the small white Porsche her mother had bought her, looking through a small toolbox.

“Looking for something?” he asked.

“Yes. For my left-handed Johnson wrench.”

He sighed impatiently. “There’s no such thing.”

“There is so. Johnson is the local mechanic and he’s left-handed. I borrowed his wrench and now I’ve lost it.”

He threw up his hands. “What’s gotten into you today?”

“Maddened passion,” she said, standing up, her eyes wide and theatrical, like her audible breathing. “I’m dying for you!” She threw her arms wide and sprawled against the side of the car. “Go ahead, ravish me!”

He was having to choke back laughter. “Where?” he asked, glancing around the big car park.

“On the hood of the car, in the trunk, I don’t care!” She was still holding the pose, her eyes closed.

“The hood would break under your weight, never mind mine, and I don’t think I could get my head and shoulders in that tiny trunk.”

She opened her eyes and glared at him. “On the pavement?”

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 teach him.

“You wouldn’t like to shuffle around the floor?” she tried yet once more.

He shook his head. “Sorry. I’m tired. I want to get off my feet, not on them!”

She lifted her shoulders as if she didn’t care. She got a cup of punch, looking around for familiar faces. When she spotted Harden and Miranda Tremayne, her eyes went helplessly past them, hoping for a glimpse of Evan. But he wasn’t there. Her face fell, even as she smiled a greeting at the couple.

Miranda was wearing a black maternity dress with flowing lace, and she had a radiant Harden beside her. Anna had always felt a little sorry for Harden, because he’d seemed so alone. But these days, he smiled a lot, and the old coldness was gone from his blue eyes.

He had a possessive arm around Miranda’s swollen waist, and he looked devastating in a dinner jacket. Almost, Anna thought, as good as Evan looked similarly clothed.

“Nice turnout,” Harden murmured dryly. “Your mother outdid herself.”

“Indeed she did,” Anna said, grinning. “Do I get introduced? I’ve seen Miranda, but I’ve never actually gotten to meet her.”

“Miranda, this is Anna Cochran,” Harden obliged. “You met Polly at the Chamber of Commerce banquet a few days ago. Polly sold the property for the new mall and helped coax in some new businesses.”

“I’m very glad to meet you,” Miranda said, smiling back, her silvery eyes almost the color of Anna’s dress. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Anna sighed. “About my relentless pursuit of Evan, I guess,” she murmured ruefully. “It’s a hopeless cause, but I can’t seem to get out of the habit. One day he’ll marry somebody and I can give up with good grace.”

“That doesn’t seem likely,” Harden replied on a sigh. “Evan is sure he’s doomed to perpetual bachelorhood. He’s forever moaning that women won’t give him the time of day.”

“His excuse used to be that they trampled him trying to get to Harden.” Miranda laughed, swinging her long, dark hair. “Nowadays, he’s convinced that he’s too old to appeal to anyone.”

“Thirty-four and ready for ‘the home,’” Harden agreed. He shook his head. “Save him, Anna.”

“I’m trying,” she laughed. “But he won’t let me put away my baby dolls and my play tea set. He thinks I’m a mere child.”

“He wouldn’t if he saw you in that dress,” Miranda said with a conspiratory smile. “You look very elegant.”

“At least Randall noticed,” Anna grimaced. “Want to meet him?”

She turned to drag Randall over by one arm while he nibbled on chicken wings. “This is Randall Wayne,” she told them. “He’s a medical student.”

“I’m a resident, thank you very much,” Randall said, glowering at her. “Only a short leap from my own practice, when I finish my residency next year,” he added, grinning at them. “Remember me if you break anything.”

“I’ll do that,” Harden promised.

“Oh, Randall.” Anna sighed. “You’re hopeless.”

“Patients are scarce for young doctors,” he reminded her. “Can’t blame a man for trying to drum up business in advance.”

“Certainly not,” Miranda said laughing.

Anna didn’t want to ask, but she couldn’t quite help it. “I don’t suppose any of the rest of the family came with you?” she asked.

“Just Evan,” Harden murmured reluctantly, watching the way her eyes brightened. “He’s parking the car.” He didn’t want to tell her the rest. Anna’s helpless attraction to Evan was so obvious that he was already hurting for her.

“He may be out there all night,” Randall pointed out. “It took me thirty minutes to find someplace to leave my car.”

“Evan’s resourceful,” Harden said. He glanced regretfully at Anna. She was going to need time to steel herself before Evan came in. He owed her that. “And Nina’s with him. She’s a whiz at finding the impossible.”

Chapter 2

Anna didn’t know how she managed to respond to that casual comment, but she saved her pride with a smile and an offhand remark. Evan had made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want her adulation, now he was pushing the knife home. He’d brought Nina, whom everyone knew was his old flame. The woman was now a successful fashion model in Houston, and she was visiting locally. Probably she was doing her best to rekindle those embers. If Evan had brought her to Polly’s party, he had to be encouraging her.

“My brother is an idiot,” Harden told Miranda as they moved away, his blue eyes glittering. “My God, did you see what it did to her? Evan thinks she’s a child, but the kind of hurt I saw in her face isn’t juvenile.”

“Doesn’t he feel anything at all for her?” Miranda asked.

“I don’t know. If he does, he’s buried it. He’s stubborn, and he can be cruel when he’s pushed. Anna’s made a game of it, playing at flirting and teasing. He thinks that’s all there is to it. He doesn’t think she’s serious.”

“But she is.”

He nodded. “I’m sure of it. It’s a camouflage. After all, the safest way to hide your feelings is to exaggerate them. Poor little thing. Randall isn’t a patch on Evan, but she’ll wind up marrying him out of unrequited love for my brother.”

“Such a waste.” Miranda sighed.

He pulled her closer. “Indeed, it is. Thank God we’re past all that uncertainty.”

She smiled, lifting radiant eyes to his. “I love you.”

His blue eyes kindled. He bent and kissed her softly. “I can send that back, multiplied.”

“Yes,” she whispered, pressing close. “I know. We have so much, Harden.”

His lean hand lightly touched the soft swell of her belly and his eyes blazed into hers. “More than I ever dreamed,” he whispered. “Did I ever tell you that you’re my life?”

Miranda was too choked with emotion to even answer. She pressed close against his side while his lips brushed her forehead with exquisite tenderness.

Anna, watching them covertly, wanted to cry. What they felt for each other was almost tangible. She’d never known that kind of intimate caring. She probably never would. Randall’s idea of romance was a few kisses punctuated with groping. He might make an excellent doctor, but he had a long way to go as even a lukewarm lover. And he wasn’t, could never be, Evan.

She sipped her punch while Randall spoke to someone he knew from the hospital. She wouldn’t look at the door, she absolutely wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to give Evan the satisfaction of knowing that he was killing her with his indifference.

“Finally, something to drink!” came a husky, purring voice from behind her. “Hello, Anna!” Nina Ray said, smiling faintly. “I hope that punch is spiked. I really need a drink. Evan had to park almost in the pond! My feet are killing me from so much walking.”

“That’s nothing unusual is it, for a model?” Evan taunted.

Anna couldn’t meet his eyes. She glanced at his white shirt and black tie and dinner jacket and averted her gaze to gorgeously dark Nina in a white and black gown that put everyone else’s dresses to shame.

“You look great,” Anna said sincerely. “I see you all the time in fashion magazines. For a small-town girl, you sure hit it big.”

“I had a lot of help, lovey,” Nina mused. She glanced up at Evan with a self-confident sexiness that made Anna grind her teeth in frustration. She’d never learn how to do that.

“Where’s Polly?” Evan asked as he filled punch cups for Nina and then himself.

“Circulating,” Anna said, smiling. “She’s very much the lady of the hour.”

“She deserves it,” Evan replied. “That mall will bring in a lot of new businesses, and plenty of revenue.”

“Everything helps to swell the tax base,” Randall remarked, joining them. He smiled at Nina. “You look lovely!” he enthused, and Anna could have hit him. He hadn’t been half that vocal about her own appearance.

“Thank you. And who’s this?” Nina asked, her dark eyes flirting with Randall.

“Randall Wayne,” he said, taking her slender hand in his. He actually kissed the knuckles, just above the red-painted nails. “Nice to meet you, Miss Ray.”

Nina beamed. “You know who I am?”

“Everyone does. Your face is unmistakable. I see it on magazine covers all the time.”

“Yes.” Nina sighed complacently. “My career has taken off since Evan helped me find that new agency.”

“Anything to help,” Evan said suavely. He was trying not to notice Anna and failing miserably. In that silver gown, her exquisite skin was displayed almost too blatantly. Her honey-brown tan made her complexion even prettier and emphasized her big blue eyes. It was an effort to keep away from her.

“The band is very good,” Nina remarked. “Evan, do let’s dance!”

She took his hand and headed for the dance floor without giving him time to speak to Randall or Anna. Not that he would have, anyway, Anna thought. He was giving her a blatant message—hands off. She lifted her cup of punch to her lips with a sigh.

“This punch needs help,” one of the guests remarked, slipping a bottle of whiskey from under his dinner jacket. “Here goes!”

Anna watched him fill the bowl with a wry grin. She knew one of the guests would have hives if he saw that. Evan didn’t like punch, though, so there was little likelihood that he’d imbibe. He hated alcohol. Anna had heard that he actually took a glass of wine back to the kitchen one night when he was having dinner with Justin and Shelby Ballenger.

She mentioned that to Randall after the punch spiker had sampled his handiwork and retired to the dance floor with his partner.

“Yes, I heard about that,” Randall remarked. “Justin and Shelby have three boys now, haven’t they?”

“Yes. They’re neck and neck with Calhoun and Abby.”

“They have two boys and a girl,” he reminded her. “I heard Harden and Evan’s brother Connal mention it at a party I attended a week ago.”

She laughed gently. “Connal insisted that Calhoun and Abby had a daughter just after their second child was born. They don’t. They have a son named Terry, and when Connal heard the name, he assumed they’d gotten the daughter they wanted. He knows better now, of course, but it’s become something of a family joke. Not that anybody mentions it to Calhoun or Abby.”

“Terry is kind of a unisex name,” Randall said.

“It’s short for Terrance, which isn’t,” she corrected. “Imagine that—two brothers and six sons and not a girl in the bunch.” She shook her head.

“What about Shelby’s brother, Tyler?”

“He and his wife can’t have children,” Anna said with quiet regret. “But they’ve adopted five! Nell was very upset, but Tyler involved her in one of those foster parent programs. In no time, she was knee-deep in kids who’d had no real home at all. They said the children are the greatest miracle of their lives.”

“A unique solution,” Randall agreed. “One couple in seven is infertile. It must be difficult, although they seem to have found a way to cope with the loss.”

Anna lowered her eyes to the punch table and thought about never having Evan’s children. Not that she would, because he had Nina. It was sad and sobering.

“I suppose if you love each other, no obstacle is insurmountable,” she said dimly.

“I suppose. Here. Try some of this. It’s rather good.”

He handed her a cup of spiked punch and she sipped it, wincing at the sting of the alcohol on her tongue. The ice fruit ring hadn’t diluted the whiskey very much, and Anna seldom drank.

“That’s strong stuff,” she remarked.

“Only if you aren’t used to it.” He chuckled. “You’re just like Evan about alcohol, aren’t you?”

She averted her face. He obviously had no idea how much that remark hurt her. “I don’t like alcohol,” she said absently.

“Yes, I’ve noticed.”

She didn’t hear the faint mockery in his tone. Her eyes had been drawn against her will to Evan. He was so tall and husky that he dwarfed almost every other man in the room. He had the lovely Nina close in his big arms and he was holding her with casual intimacy. Both her slender arms were looped around his neck; his hands on her waist held her carelessly close. He’d never held Anna like that. Probably he never would.

Her eyes softened and saddened at the sight of him. In evening clothes, he was devastating. His dark tan was emphasized by the white shirt he wore, and the black tie, dinner jacket and slacks made him look taller and very dignified. Just looking at him made Anna feel warm and safe, like coming home. If only he felt that way about her. It would be heaven.

Evan felt her rapt gaze and met it across the room. It was like lightning striking. His body tautened helplessly, and his eyes narrowed. Anna again, he thought angrily, playing with matches. She didn’t know what she was doing. At nineteen she was just beginning to feel her power as a woman, and she was using it blatantly with every man who came close to her. That was all it was, so he’d better remember.

He tore his gaze away and bent to kiss Nina in front of the whole assembly. He did it thoroughly and with fierce need, to banish the sight of Anna’s wounded face.

Nina was breathless when he let her go, and Anna had vanished. At least he’d accomplished that much.

“Want to take me home right now, big man?” Nina asked huskily. “I’m willing.”

But Evan wasn’t. He shook his head. “We’d better not vanish before Polly makes her speech,” he said with forced humor.

Nina sighed. “You still don’t really want me, do you?” she asked quietly. “I can’t get you within a mile of my apartment.”

“We’re friends,” he reminded her, smiling. “Otherwise, why would I be giving your career a helping hand?”

“To make some other woman jealous, I’m beginning to think,” she said candidly, watching his eyelids flinch. “Or to use me as camouflage. Because you certainly don’t want me just for myself. You hardly ever take me out.”

He smiled. “I keep busy.”

“Not that busy, and you don’t go out with many women. That’s right—” she nodded when she saw his puzzled expression “—I still have friends in Jacobsville who keep me up-to-date on who’s seeing whom. You don’t date anyone regularly. The gossip is that Anna Cochran has been seen pursuing you everywhere except up a tree.”

He drew in a heavy breath. “That’s partially true.”

“So that’s why you brought me here. Probably why you kissed me, too.” She smiled lazily. “Okay, lover. If you need protection, here I am. Do your worst. We’ll say it’s for old times’ sake.”

“You’re very generous,” he mused.

“You’ve been that,” she replied seriously. “I’ll help you scrape the kid off, no problem.”

He didn’t like it put that way, as if Anna was a leech. He frowned.

“She’s a babe in the woods, isn’t she?” Nina was saying, her eyes on Anna standing at the punch bowl with Randall. “Is she going to marry the medical student, do you think?”

“How should I know?” he asked irritably. He’d never thought of Randall as much of a threat to Anna’s maidenhood, but she was spending a lot of time with the younger man lately.

“She’s well-to-do. Or her mother is,” Nina mused, thinking aloud. “A young doctor going into practice needs a rich wife.”

Evan stiffened. “Anna isn’t that stupid.”

“Darling, she’s a teenager. What does she know about men? My God, I’ll bet she’s even a virgin!”

Evan didn’t want to think about that. It made his blood run hot. He turned Nina to the rhythm. “Anna is Randall’s business, not mine. Dance. Help me get her off my neck.”

Nina smiled warmly. “My pleasure.”

Anna watched them dance and took another sip of her punch, and then another. “I wish you could dance, Randall,” she said, the words sounding a little slurred. She felt very relaxed.

“So do I, sometimes. Want to try it?” he asked, putting down his cup. “I feel pretty loose right now.”

“Good.”

She went into his arms and taught him the basic two-step. He began to grin, and his hands brought her gently closer.

“This is nice,” he said wonderingly.

“So it is.” She lay her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes, barely moving as the music continued. The devil with Evan, she told herself. She didn’t care if he made love to his old flame right there on the dance floor. She just wouldn’t look.

“Having a good time, Anna?” one of Polly’s friends asked as she danced nearby with her husband.

“Oh, yes,” Anna replied politely. “I hope you are.”

“It’s lovely. Evan’s brought someone with him, I see,” the woman added with a faintly mocking smile. “Warding you off, is he?”

Anna flushed. Over the years she’d gotten used to being teased about her pursuit of Evan, but tonight it stung. “Nina’s an old friend of his,” she pointed out.

“Yes, but he doesn’t usually come to Polly’s parties with a woman in tow. In fact,” she said cattily, “he doesn’t usually come at all these days, does he? I suppose he’s really desperate if he has to look up old flames to discourage you.”

Anna pulled away from Randall, who was openly scowling, and moved back to the punch bowl, leaving the woman with her mouth open.

“What are you so upset about?” Randall asked, joining her there. “Everybody knows that you used to chase Evan. You’re not doing it now, so why let people bother you?” He slid an arm around her waist. “You’ve got me, now.”

Had she really? Every time a new woman came into the room, she could see Randall’s eyes sizing her up. He was a born flirt, and despite his lack of conventional good looks, he could be utterly charming.

“I guess I didn’t realize how blatant I must have seemed,” Anna said quietly, her eyes downcast. “I was only playing.” She hadn’t been, but it salvaged some of her pride to pretend she was.

“I know that,” Randall said. “So do most other people. Don’t worry about gossip. I’ve been ignoring it for weeks.”

Her head jerked up. “What have you heard?”

He shrugged and smiled a little. “Just that you’d been madly pursuing Evan all over town. Accidental meetings that weren’t accidental, hanging around him at parties and flirting shamelessly, that kind of thing. They said Evan couldn’t go anywhere in Jacobsville without your turning up there. I thought it was funny.”

“Evan didn’t,” she said miserably. “I went overboard and he’s finally reached the end of his rope. I wish I’d realized sooner how silly I was behaving.”

“Was that woman right? Did he bring the lovely Nina to ward you off?”

She nodded, feeling conspicuous now. “I’m sure of it. Poor Evan.”

“I don’t know,” Randall murmured, smiling at her. “It must be flattering to be chased by a pretty young woman.”

“It must be exasperating, you mean,” she said, suddenly understanding. How could she have let things go that far without realizing the position she was putting Evan in? She’d teased and flirted, hoping to make him notice her. But all she’d accomplished was to scare him off. What an idiot she’d been!

As if realizing that wasn’t bad enough, she had to face the fact that everyone knew that his squiring of Nina was to keep her at bay. It was humiliating to have him publicly reject her like this. As she glanced around, she caught people looking at her and began to notice the faint pity in their eyes.

She had to fight tears as the evening wore on. Evan danced with no one except Nina and was so attentive to her that speculation on the rekindling of the old relationship ran rampant. The way he avoided Anna spoke volumes. Nobody noticed that Anna was doing her best to avoid him as well. She clung to Randall like a leech.

Polly gave a speech and introduced two of the mall’s main backers, along with the merchants who were already committed to opening businesses in it. The speech was well received, and it did divert Anna from her misery.

But despite Randall’s company, Anna felt dejected and empty inside. She put on a good front, laughing and glittering, so that no one would guess how badly hurt she was.

When the crowd started to dwindle, Polly paused beside her daughter with an affectionate smile. “I thought it went rather well. How are you doing, darling?”

“Marvelous, thanks,” Anna said airily, forcing a smile. “It’s been lovely, hasn’t it, Randall?”

Randall was watching her narrowly. “How many times have you hit that punch bowl, Anna?”

“Only three,” she said, blinking. “Why?”

He exchanged a knowing look with Polly.

“Somebody spiked the punch,” Polly guessed.

“How did you know?”

“Evan smelled his punch and put it down with a vicious glare in my direction,” Polly said dryly.

“I should have known he’d notice it first.” Randall laughed. He checked his watch. “Goodness, I’ve got to go. I’m on call at the hospital from midnight, and it’s almost that. I’ll be in touch tomorrow or the next day, as soon as I get some free time. ’Night,” he murmured, brushing a careless kiss across Anna’s forehead.

She watched him go with no real interest. Polly put an affectionate arm around her shoulders.

“It’s killing you, isn’t it?” she asked with unusual protectiveness. “You’ll survive, my darling. We all do. Evan just isn’t the type to settle down. You’ve always known that.”

“I was only ever flirting,” Anna said stubbornly. “It wasn’t for real. I thought he knew it.”

Polly didn’t contradict her daughter. She recognized the anguish in those blue eyes, though. Her arm contracted. “Let’s go and listen to the band. Randall will phone tomorrow. Maybe he’ll take you out to eat. You stay home too much.”

“I guess I do. Randall’s nice.”

“You’ll learn one day that we have to take what we can get out of life and not wish for the impossible things too hard,” Polly said gently. “One day at a time, pet.”

Anna smiled. “Yes.” But she was thinking of how many days it was going to take to get over tonight.

Evan and Nina gravitated toward them, and Anna had to fight the urge to cut and run.

“It was a lovely party. Thank you for asking me,” Nina said with a smile in Polly’s direction.

“It was my pleasure,” the older woman replied. “Evan, I’m glad you came, too. I didn’t really expect you. If Nina managed to pry you out of your office, good for her.”

“I plan to pry him out a lot more often, now,” Nina purred, leaning against Evan’s shoulder. Anna didn’t speak or look at him, and after a minute, he stared at her openly.

“How much of that punch have you had?” Evan demanded of Anna, his dark eyes sparking.

She didn’t look at him. “Only a little,” she lied. “I know it’s spiked.”

“You should have poured it out and made more,” he told Polly bluntly. “Anna isn’t allowed to drink hard liquor, surely?”

Polly started. “Evan, she’s nineteen, going on twenty,” she said with urbane amusement. “Of course she’s allowed to drink.”

“Alcohol can kill,” he persisted. “Especially if she ever gets in the habit of driving under the influence. She could go to jail…”

“I don’t drink and drive, Evan,” Anna said solemnly. “I never would. If the alcohol bothers you so much, why don’t you go home?”

She poured herself another cup—her fourth, actually—and lifted it to her lips, draining it while her blue eyes defied the angry dark ones glaring at her.

“Can’t you do anything with her?” he demanded of Polly.

Anna’s eyebrows arched. “My mother doesn’t tell me what to do anymore.”

Evan’s own eyebrows arched. That didn’t sound like Anna. Not at all. “You’re not used to liquor,” he began.

She smiled coldly. “Watch me get used to it,” she replied, still smarting from his public humiliation of her and wanting to hurt back. “Nothing I do is any of your damned business. You remember that.”

She whirled on her heel, a little wobbly, and went toward the staircase. The whiskey in the punch was lying heavily on her stomach and she felt nausea rising in her throat. But she felt as if she’d just declared independence, and it wasn’t a bad feeling at all. Evan wasn’t going to be her fatal weakness anymore. Even if she’d deserved his rejection, he could have simply spoken to her in private. He didn’t have to do it like this.

Evan stared after her, scowling. It was the first time in memory that Anna had talked back to him. He was used to blind adoration from her, or at worst, pert, flirting comments. Stark hostility was new and all too exciting. His body was reacting to her antagonism in ways he’d never expected.

“She’s a bit tipsy, I think, Evan. Don’t mind anything she says,” Polly said, waving it off. “By the way, I’ve got a new investment property that you might be interested in. Want to stop by the office sometime next week and look over a prospectus?”

“Yes, I’d like that,” Evan said, preoccupied.

“Let’s go,” Nina coaxed. “I’m so tired, and I’ve got a show in the morning.”

“Sure. Good night, Polly,” Evan said.

She nodded, smiling curiously at the way Evan’s eyes kept going to the staircase. His possessive attitude toward Anna startled and amused her. Of course, Evan was thirty-four, too old to be taking any real masculine interest in her poor, lovesick daughter. She turned and went back to her remaining guests, thrusting his odd behavior to the back of her mind. Anna would get over him. It was just a crush.

Anna was sick most of the night, and not just from the alcohol. It had been an eye-opening experience to have Evan flaunt a woman in front of her. For all of the two years, she’d been madly pursuing him, he’d never used that counterattack before. Probably now that he knew it bothered her, it wouldn’t be the last time he resorted to it.

Well, she told herself, that was that. If he was desperate enough to throw himself into the arms of an old flame to escape Anna, it was time to retreat. She’d always known somehow that he was never going to take her seriously. She should have given up long ago.

The next morning she braided her long blond hair, put on her shorts and halter top and went out to set up her easel in the garden. She loved to paint. She was quite good at landscapes, having even sold a few. It gave her something to do when she wasn’t working.

Polly was at the office today—she sometimes worked seven days a week. But Anna worked five and painted the other two. Now she was toying seriously with the idea of quitting the office. She loved art and she had an eye for investment paintings. She could ask the owner of the local art gallery, who was a friend of the family, to give her a job. It would get her away from the office, where she was all too likely to run into Evan. He wanted her out of his life, so she decided that she’d give him a helping hand. It was the least she could do after having pestered him for two years. Cold sober, she could even understand why he’d brought Nina to the party last night. Poor man. He must have been at the very end of his rope.

As she dabbed paint on the canvas, she considered her options. She didn’t really want to leave home, but even that might be a good idea. She was going on twenty years old. It was time she had a life of her own, apart from her mother’s. She had to start thinking about her future. Marrying Randall was hardly an option, even though he’d been hinting that he wouldn’t be averse to the idea. Considering Polly’s wealth, it would be a strategic move on his part. It would give him the financial wherewithal to buy into an established practice, because certainly Polly would be willing to help her new son-in-law.

The landscape she was working on was a study of sunflowers against the sky. She was using a huge sunflower in the garden as a model. It was a lazy summer day with only a slight breeze, and the sun felt like heaven on her skin.

A car door slammed. She didn’t look up. It was almost lunchtime and she was expecting her mother.

“I’m out back,” she called. “If you’re ready, there’s a pasta salad in the fridge. I want to finish this before I come in.”

Footsteps answered her shout, but they didn’t belong to a woman. They were too heavy.

Her head turned just as Evan came around the side of the house. He was wearing work clothes—jeans and a dust-stained blue plaid shirt, with disreputable boots and a Stetson that was battered almost beyond recognition. She stiffened with hurt indignation, but she couldn’t afford to let it show. She turned back to her painting.

“Where’s Polly?” he asked without preamble.

So much for the forlorn hope that he might have come to see her, to apologize for dragging her pride through the dust the night before. She kept her eyes on the canvas, so that he wouldn’t see the disappointment in them.

“If she isn’t at the office, she’s on her way here for lunch, I guess,” she said.

His dark eyes slid over her with reluctant interest. “She was supposed to leave a prospectus for me on a new piece of land. Know anything about it?”

She shook her head. “Sorry.” She traced a sunflower petal with maniacal accuracy, to keep her mind off her breaking heart. “If you’d like to wait, Lori can make you some iced tea.”

Anna was so unlike her usual self that he felt out of his element. “What? No invitation to ravish you among the sunflowers?”

“I’ve decided to grow up,” she said without looking at him. “Chasing after unwilling men is for adolescents. From now on, I’m only going after men I think I can catch.”

“Like Randall?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Why not?”

Her attitude disturbed him. He leaned against the fence that surrounded the small garden. “I didn’t know you painted.”

“At the speed you always go around me, I’m not surprised,” she said imperturbably and dotted more yellow on the canvas. “No more games, Evan,” she said, looking up at him quietly. “I got the message last night. If you really came here to make it clear, there’s no need.” She managed a smile. “I’m sorry I made your life so difficult. I won’t embarrass you anymore, I promise.”

He felt empty. His eyes narrowed as she turned back to her canvas. She didn’t sound like herself. In fact, he mused, she didn’t look like the kid he’d always thought her. Those long, tanned legs were a woman’s, like the full breasts under that skimpy halter. She was delectable.

He quietly watched her. “Are you and Polly going to the Ballenger barbecue next week?”

“I don’t know.” She glanced at him shyly. “If you’re going to be there, probably not. I don’t want to do your social life any more damage than I already have. No wonder you’ve been staying away from local social occasions. I had no idea how difficult I’d made things for you until the gossip started to get back to me.”

He started. That didn’t sound like Anna. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could deny the insinuation, Polly’s car roared up the driveway. Seconds later she came around the corner, having seen Evan’s car. “There you are!” she said, laughing. “I’ve brought the prospectus. I was going to run it out to you. Anna, is lunch ready?”

“Lori said it’s on the table,” Anna replied. “I’ll be in later. I want to finish this while the light’s right.”

“Artists.” Polly sighed. “Okay, honey. Evan, stay and eat with me, since Anna’s bent on being eccentric.”

Evan’s dark eyes lingered on Anna’s profile. “I have to get back to work myself,” he said hesitantly. “We’re moving in new cattle today, so everybody’s out in the yards helping—even mother.”

“In a few years, you’ll have plenty of help,” Polly laughed. “All those babies coming along.”

“Yes.” He turned and took the prospectus Polly was holding out. “I’ll run through this with Harden and the others and give you a call when we decide.”

“Fine. Sure you won’t stay for lunch?”

He waited for Anna to say something, to second her mother’s offer at least. But she didn’t. She said nothing. She didn’t look up. After a minute, he shrugged and made his excuses.

When he was gone, Polly considered her daughter with open curiosity.

“Have you and Evan argued?” she asked softly.

“Of course not,” Anna said. She turned, smiling, to her mother. “I’ve just decided to stop making his life miserable. Having me dog him at every step must have been wearing.”

Polly relaxed a little. “I’m sure he realizes it’s just a stage you’re going through, darling,” she replied gently. “Evan’s not a bad man. He’s just a card-carrying bachelor. You’re a marrying type of girl. Even if you weren’t years too young for him your goals are too different.”

“You’re right, of course,” Anna said, trying not to choke on the words.

“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…”

“I did bruise them pretty badly,” Evan said miserably.

“She bruised them by trying to fight you and falling out of bed,” Harden reminded him harshly. “She was half your size and all bones, and a terrified virgin into the bargain. Anna is a big girl, tall and sturdy and voluptuous. She’s much more your type.”

“I don’t want Anna!” Evan returned.

“Suit yourself. She’ll probably marry the honorable physician and have ten kids.”

“If that’s what she wants.” His blood ran cold at the thought of Randall giving her children. He stuck his hat over his eyes and walked out of the room.

Harden, watching him, shook his head. He couldn’t talk to Evan anymore. The older man was running scared, even if he wouldn’t admit it. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to make a mess of not only his life, but Anna’s as well.

In the days that followed, Evan noticed a difference in his life. He went to town, and there was no more Anna peering over his shoulder in the hardware store or peeking out of her mother’s office window to grin and wave at him. He went to a local social gathering, and Anna hadn’t begged an invitation so that she could flirt with him. He took the precaution of taking Nina with him, just in case, but it hadn’t been necessary.

He should have been jubilant, but somehow it wounded him that Anna didn’t want him anymore. All his arguments against the relationship didn’t help.

Two weeks after the party, Anna was shopping at the local boutique when Nina danced in, wafting expensive perfume and looking on top of the world.

“Well, hello!” she greeted Anna, smiling. “So Evan did finally beat you off! We didn’t see a sign of you at the Andersons’ get-together night before last! He spent the first few minutes peeking around corners in case you showed up. You really gave him a complex.”

Anna felt sick at the way Nina had put it. “Yes. Well, I’m devoting myself to Randall these days.”

“The doctor with the wandering eye, hmm?” Nina mused, fingering one of the more expensive dresses in the shop. “He won’t be easy to hold, I’m afraid. I don’t suppose you know he took Cindy Grayson to the swimming party at the Fords’ Monday? Or that she didn’t get home until daylight?”

Anna glared at the older woman. “Is all this malice really necessary? You’ve got Evan. What more do you want?”

Nina’s delicate eyebrows levered up. “I haven’t ‘got’ Evan at all,” she said. “He only asked me out to keep you away from him. He said he’d do anything to scrape you off.” Her eyes darkened as they studied Anna haughtily. “You should have known that his type of man doesn’t like being chased. You cut your own throat.”

“Well, he’s safe now,” Anna said, almost choking.

Nina shrugged. “I doubt he’ll believe it. Not that I mind,” she added cattily. “Because the longer he feels you’re a threat, the longer I’ll have with him. He’s quite something in bed,” she said deliberately, watching Anna blush.

Anna left the dress she was looking at and went out the door of the boutique as if her jeans were on fire. Nina watched her for a minute and then turned back to the dress racks. That had been easy enough. She didn’t like the way Evan was preoccupied since Anna’s defection. Only if Anna was kept away would Nina have a clear shot at Evan. The fiction of sleeping with him seemed to do the trick, though. She was actually humming by the time she left the shop.

For the rest of the afternoon Anna barely knew what was going on around her. She left early and went to the Taylor Gallery.

Brand Taylor was elderly, with a keen eye for art and a thorough knowledge of the market for it. He’d known Anna since she was a child, and he’d followed her interest in art with pleasure.

“I’ve been hoping you might approach me for a job one day,” he told her honestly when she asked about it. “I’m here alone, and it’s a bit of a grind sometimes. It would be nice to have an assistant. You have an eye for detail, and I can teach you how to evaluate paintings, how to predict the market. But it will be hard work. Nothing like sitting in your garden and painting.”

She smiled. “I’d like to try it, nevertheless.”

He nodded. “All right. When can you start?”

“Monday,” she said. Her mother had never really needed her. A job had been created for her, but they both knew she was redundant.

“Won’t Polly mind?” he asked.

She shook her head. “On the contrary, I imagine she’ll be delighted.”

Polly was delighted and surprised. “I didn’t think you’d want to leave the office,” she admitted.

“Because Evan spends a lot of time there,” Anna murmured dryly. “That’s the very reason I want to leave. If I’m going to let go, I need to do it wholeheartedly. I’m very fond of Mr. Taylor, and I do like the idea of a career.”

“I’d hoped you might think of marriage as one,” Polly said quietly. “God knows, I’d have done that if your father had been able to settle down with me. He was too much a wanderer, though. He still is.”

“You’ve never really dated anyone else,” Anna ventured.

“Neither has he,” Polly said with a smile. “Maybe someday he’ll get it out of his system and come home. I never stop hoping. Meanwhile, I have a career I enjoy and I’m making gobs of money.”

“That’s what I want to do,” Anna said seriously. “I want to do something useful with my life. Marriage—maybe someday. But not yet.”

“Good girl. You’re young. You have plenty of time.”

“Plenty,” she echoed. Her eyes were sad, but she wasn’t going to moon around the house. “How about going out to eat tonight?”

“Delightful,” Polly agreed. “The Beef Palace?”

Evan’s favorite hangout. Anna shook her head. “How about that new Chinese restaurant, for a change?”

Polly smiled her approval. “Nice. Very nice.”

As they were leaving the restaurant that night, talking animatedly about Anna’s upcoming new job, Evan spotted them as he drove past with Nina. Odd, Anna eating Chinese food. He was sure she didn’t like it.

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