Annie opened her mouth to snarl back at him, then suddenly froze. It abruptly occurred to her that their faces were an inch apart, that he had crowded her against the car and now stood so close she could feel the angry heat radiating from him. He was perturbed with her because he cared about her, he had said. As a friend…or something more?
Her silence made him study her suspiciously. “Well?”
She wondered what he would do if she just reached out and pulled his beautiful, frowning mouth to hers. If she threw caution to the wind again—the way the new Annie Stewart was prone to do—and kissed him exactly the way she wanted to kiss him right now. The way she had kissed him last night.
“Stop staring at me,” he muttered, looking suddenly uncertain.
She lifted her gaze from his mouth to meet his eyes. Probably because she knew how he always reacted to the word, she murmured, “It’s really very sweet of you to be concerned about me, Trent.”
Behind his glasses, his eyes narrowed while he tried to decide how to interpret her sudden mood change. “I thought I’d proven to you once and for all that there’s nothing sweet about me.”
“You keep trying,” she conceded with a faint smile. “But, despite all evidence to the contrary, you haven’t completely convinced me yet.”
He laid a hand against the side of her face. He wasn’t smiling. “If you had any sense at all, you’d stay away from me.”
“I’m not the one who was lurking in the parking lot for a confrontation,” she reminded him.
“I wasn’t lurking. I was…waiting.”
“Because you were concerned about me. That’s very—”
He covered her mouth with his before she could say the word sweet.
She didn’t wrap her arms around his neck this time, but placed her hands on his chest, curling her fingers into his shirt and pulling his lips to hers. It only took a little accommodation to make it work between them—physically, at least. She didn’t know if there could ever be anything else for them, but for now it seemed like enough.
After a long time, Trent slowly lifted his head. “Since I know how you feel about me making suggestions for your own good, I guess I shouldn’t remind you again that you really should stay away from me.”
“If you did, I’d only have to tell you again that I make my own choices,” she replied, her hands still resting on his chest.
He nodded as if he’d expected her to say something like that. “Annie, I think you should know that this—”
Her attention was suddenly distracted by a dark vehicle sitting in an empty parking lot across the street. She didn’t know what had made her look that way, but she thought she recognized the car as the one she’
d seen on the road outside Trent’s house.
Noticing her gaze, Trent asked, “What’s wrong?”
“That car across the street—the black one. Do you know who it belongs to?”
Since the vehicle was on his right side, out of his range of vision, he had to turn his head to look. As he did, the car pulled away, disappearing down the otherwise empty street. “I didn’t recognize it,” he said, looking at her again. “Why?”
Feeling a little foolish, she shook her head. “It’s nothing. Just my imagination, I guess.”
“No, that’s not enough explanation. What’s going on?”
“I thought I saw the same car sitting outside your house when I left the other day. The driver sped away then, too, when he saw me looking at him. It could be a different car, I suppose.”
His hands tightened on her forearms. “Someone was watching you while you were alone at my house?”
“I didn’t say that. I said there was a car that looked a lot like that one parked outside your house when I left.”
He was scowling again, but this time his displeasure was not directed toward her. “Maybe we should call Wade.”
She looked amazed that he’d even made the suggestion. “And tell him what? That I saw a car? I doubt the police chief is going to waste his time on something so trivial.”
“I don’t find it at all trivial that someone might be following you around. Do you know who it is? Is there any reason you know of that someone could be watching you?”
“Trent, you’re overreacting. Nothing has happened. It’s probably not even the same car. I shouldn’t have even mentioned it.”