“Don’t let the stubble and tattoos fool you. This body has some mileage on it.”
She shook her head. “That’s okay—this one does too. You just can’t see it on the outside.”
“Damn. Here you go reminding me I still let my ego take the lead.”
“We all do. Look at me challenging you and then making a side dare,” she said because things were getting too intimate. She was starting to remember how good the first moment of that kiss in her kitchen had been. And that was dangerous.
“That’s because you have some big balls, lady.”
She blushed but laughed. “I don’t, but I like to act like I do.”
He smiled down at her. “What else have you promised that you’re not sure you can deliver?”
She shook her head. “I’m always sure I’ll deliver—I’m just not sure how. I mean, I’m trying to organize the Main Street retailers to put on the spring fling, though I’m really a shy person.”
“Your TV show would beg to differ,” he said.
“That’s different because it’s a few close friends and a camera. So not really the entire town. But I need them to work with me.”
“So you just power through until you get the results you want?”
She thought about it for a moment, realizing that she had always been like that. “I’m not six-five with a ferocious nickname. Sometimes...well, all the time, I just keep faking it, and usually people believe that I can do all the things I say.”
“Even you?”
She chewed her lower lip and noticed his gaze dropped to her mouth and then moved over to the horizon.
“Not all the time, but most of the time.”
Conrad was holding on to his control with more strength than he realized he had. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was about Indy that shook him and made him want her so badly. The ride hadn’t done anything but sharpen his desire for her. But it was the hint of her vulnerability and that feisty spirit that made him want more than just her body.
He’d never needed anyone in his life. He’d made it a practice to keep everyone at arm’s length and she should be no different. Given her ties to Gilbert Corners, she should be someone who sent him running in the opposite direction. Instead he had his arm around her shoulder trying to pretend she was just a buddy he was hanging with—except that he didn’t have friends like that. He never touched anyone except for casual sex, and that didn’t last as long as this.
Since the night he’d punched Rory’s attacker, angering Declan enough that he’d chased them down the icy road and caused the car accident, Conrad had kept his hands to himself. The accident had helped. The first few months he hadn’t been able to really use his arms and his strength had gone. But as he’d built it back, he’d made a promise to himself to keep his anger in check.
Like Indy with her confidence.
“I do that, too,” he said.
“Liar. You don’t have to fake confidence.”
“No. I have to fake anger. It gives me a buffer and keeps people from actually making me mad.”
She turned her head, and he noticed how big her brown eyes were up close. She had thick black lashes and a small birthmark under her left eye. She’d looked so prim and untouchable when he’d first met her that it had been hard for him to see the scars she’d mentioned. But they were there.
Hell, he knew that from dealing with Dash. His cousin had walked away from the car accident scot-free but dealt with more trauma than Conrad did on a daily basis.
“Why do you have to be angry?” she asked. “I didn’t get anger the first time I met you.”
“You didn’t?”
“I mean, you were definitely trying to intimidate me, but you weren’t like a bully,” she said.
“I’ll have to remember that for the future.”
She shook her head and a strand of hair that had come free brushed against his arm. It was soft and springy, a light touch, just like Indy herself.
“Why anger?” she asked again.