“Annie, you go to my head.”
She smiled up at him, a sweet, shy smile that made him feel ten feet tall. There was something very fragile inside this ultracompetent woman. He pulled her more fully into his arms, cradling her to his chest with one arm. She closed her eyes and buried her face in his neck. Each exhalation went through him. God, he wanted her.
But he was going to wait. Then he felt the minute touches of her tongue against his neck.
“Isn’t this sweet?” a voice suddenly said.
Jared glanced up and bit back a curse. Dave Jenner stood next to their blanket. Annie went totally stiff under him and turned red.
He rolled off Annie and got to his feet, drawing her up beside him and wrapping his arm around her waist. He refused to act like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have.
“What can we do for you?”
“Mom is looking for you, Annie.”
“Thanks for passing the message along,” Annie said.
Dave stood there, hands on his hips.
“Was there something else?” Annie asked.
“I want to have a few words with Jared here.”
“Dave…”
Jared had no problem talking to her relatives, but he could tell she was unsure of whether or not she should leave him with Dave. He tipped her head back and kissed her lingeringly, staking his claim on her in front of her brother. Then he gave her a small nudge in the direction of the RVs. “Go on. We’ll catch up with you in a minute.”
She shook her head. But she walked away, and he watched her go before turning to her brother.
“How many times are we going to do this?”
“However many it takes until you get the message.”
“What message is that?”
“That you’re not welcome around here.”
“Your sister seems to feel differently.”
Dave rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ll see about that.”
Dave turned to talk away. Jared appreciated the man’s sentiments and the fact that he was looking out for Annie, but Annie was his now. And he wished there was an easy way to let the Jenner men know that.
THE NEXT FEW WEEKS flew by. Dave won in Fontana, but Tucker beat him in Las Vegas. Dave had just lost to Tucker last Sunday. And their rivalry was really getting hot. Annie didn’t know if it was only because of Jared that she seemed more aware of Tucker, but for the first time she wasn’t just paying attention to her brother.
Annie had stayed in one of the hotels on the Vegas strip that was owned by a family friend. She’d had fun at the race, and gambling in Vegas.
She’d gone home for two days to her house on Lake Windemere in Orlando, Florida. The house had seemed too empty and quiet when she was there, probably because she didn’t want to be there. Jared had invited her to join him at his home in Atlanta for their days off, but she’d declined. Not for any good reason except that she was afraid to be alone with him. Afraid to take the next logical step in their relationship and sleep with him.
She wanted him. Had fallen to sleep almost every night in recent memory thinking of him, and had woken up to fevered dreams of making love with him. But she still wasn’t sure she wanted to take that final step.
Once she did, there’d be no pretending that she wasn’t falling for him. She glanced at the bracelet on her wrist?the one that she only took off once a week when Jared added another charm to it. It was a sweet reminder of all the time they’d spent together. And she wondered sometimes if the bracelet would be all she had left at the end of this NASCAR season.
Because no matter how close they were getting there was still a part of Jared that he kept private. The solid inner core of the man that he never allowed anyone to touch.
At first she hadn’t noticed the distance, but over time she’d started to observe it. She thought it was only because they were still getting to know each other, but she had observed the distance between him and Tucker as well.
Jared was careful to let people get only so close. With Tucker he did it by joking around with him and always using a kind of masculine bluster to keep from showing emotion. With her he fell back on the physical, to keep her from getting to close. He was always kissing or hugging her when she said something he didn’t want to respond to.
Her extended family had taken to arriving early on Thursdays for every race. Every one of her male relatives had at some point over the past few weeks taken Jared aside and spoken to him. She wanted to die of embarrassment but Jared had said only that she should enjoy the fact that they loved her that much.
The women in her family had all sided with Annie and were very supportive of Jared. The tension at Jenner Racing was reaching an all-time high. And if she hadn’t been falling for Jared, she would have called things off just to restore the peace.