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.