Authors: Ciana Stone
he reached the wide back porch, his half-brother Caleb barreled out the back door.
“Where the hell you been?” Caleb mumbled around a mouthful of Clara’s apple
pie, a huge wedge he held in one hand. “Old man’s been raising hell ‘cause you didn’t
get that mare over to Smiley’s place.”
Chase had completely forgotten about the mare. Charlie had been itching to breed
her to one of Smiley’s stallions and there would be hell to pay if he didn’t get what he
wanted.
“A hundred bucks if you do it for me,” Chase offered.
Caleb thought about it for a second or two then grinned. “Done, but cash in
advance, brother.”
Chase reached for his billfold. “I’m short twenty. I’ll make it up tomorrow.”
Caleb grabbed the money and stuffed it in his pocket. “Plus a twelve-pack.”
“You know Charlie’ll kick your ass if he finds you drinking.”
28
Chase ‘n’ Ana
“What Charlie don’t know won’t hurt him,” Caleb replied. “Come on, Chase. I’ll
come over to your house and bring a porn flick and we’ll knock back a few.”
Normally Chase would have given in. At least that way he’d know Caleb wasn’t
drinking and getting behind the wheel of the new pickup Charlie had given him for his
high-school graduation present. How to say no without revealing he had a woman in
his house was a problem.
“How ‘bout we hold off ‘til the weekend on that? Then I’ll have Harvey drop off a
keg and you can drink ‘til it runs out your gills.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Caleb agreed.
They slapped hands together, grasped and released and Caleb ran down the steps
and headed for his shiny new Dodge pickup. Chase watched him climb in his truck,
then turned and entered the house.
The kitchen of the Circle R was the hub of all activity, but today it was quiet. Clara
was just taking a big loaf of what smelled like fresh apple spice cake from the oven. The
smell made Chase’s mouth water. He snuck up behind Clara and grabbed her around
the middle, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Think you could spare a slice of
that cake for a hungry ranch hand, ma’am?”
“Get on with yourself.” She turned with a smile that faded the moment she looked
at him. “You got trouble all over your face, child.”
“No trouble with me.” He turned away rather than tell the lie to her face. Clara was
as much a mother to him as the one who lay in the ground in the small family plot on
the north ridge. He’d never been able to lie to her and get away with it. While he could
fool most everyone else, Clara read him like a grammar schoolbook.
“Humph!” She turned back to the counter to turn the cake out onto a cooling rack.
“So what brings you here? Charlie isn’t home.”
“Came by to pick up my trailer. Left it here last week.”
“Getting a new horse? Clay says that Nightmare isn’t any closer to getting broken
than a month ago. You figuring on getting rid of that loco horse and getting you
another stud?”
Chase’s mind went to Ana and the way Nightmare had taken to her. It was peculiar
to say the least. He’d had the horse six months and so far she was the only person who
could even get near the animal. Charlie and several others thought he should take a
hard stance and break the horse whether he wanted to be broken or not. And that could
be done with most animals. But Chase saw spirit in Nightmare that he did not want to
break. He wanted the horse to keep his fire. Charlie had laughed at him and so had a
couple of his cronies, but Chase had long learned not to care what Charlie thought. If he
lived his life to Charlie’s dictates, he’d never step a foot inside another rodeo arena, or
spend another night outside where he could listen to the whisper of the wind.
Somehow he got the idea that Ana would understand that. Why exactly, he didn’t
know. Maybe it was the way Nightmare had taken to her, or her complete ease with the
animal. She’d had no fear, like she’d known the horse wouldn’t hurt her.
29
Ciana Stone
Which made the mystery of Ana Stillwater even more tantalizing.
“Earth to Chase,” Clara’s voice broke into his reverie. She shook her head and
laughed, handing him a plate with a big slice of warm cake. “Sure as I live and breathe,
there’s something afoot with you, Chase Hawks. But I won’t pry. Just you promise me
that you’ll be careful.”
“Always.” He smiled and dug into the cake.
* * * * *
Ana backed out of the kitchen door with the mop. The house was clean from top to
bottom. Not that it had been dirty to begin with. But a deal was a deal, so she’d
scrubbed and dusted and polished and mopped until there was nothing left to clean.
The house had an aura that was distinctly male, except for the room Chase had
given her to stay in. Ana was positive that the furniture and quilt on the bed belonged
to a woman. She’d stood, eyes closed in the room for a long time, soaking up the
vibrations, and she was convinced that whoever the woman was, she had owned the
furniture when she was very young, very much in love and also very unhappy, which
seemed sad, and also made Ana curious.
She had not gone into Chase’s bedroom at all. Well, she’d started to, but then
decided against it. He might be offended if she entered his bedroom without permission
and she didn’t want to upset him the first day she was there.
As soon as the kitchen floor dried, she’d start looking to see what the choices were
to fix for dinner. But at the moment, she was content to sit down on the back porch step
and drink up the energy of the place.
Cody lay down beside her, working his head into her lap as she arranged herself in
a meditative position, and Fergi perched on the back of an old wooden rocker, making
it sway back and forth. Ana took a good long breath and closed her eyes.
Once again she was enveloped in a sensation that translated in her emotions as
“refuge”, a place a safety. She knew beyond all doubt that despite the face Chase
Hawks showed to the world, he needed this sanctuary in order to be able to deal with
the rest of the world. Here was where he found peace. And she did not think finding
serenity was an easy task for him.
But there was an underlying current of something deeply buried. His house
contained vestiges of old emotional wounds, energy that had diminished but not
disappeared. Whatever emotional baggage he carried, he was dealing with it but was
far from free of it.
This made her question again why he had brought her there. This place was
obviously very important to him, almost sacred. Why offer to bring a perfect stranger
into the one place you protected from the rest of the world?
She didn’t know the answer, but she did suspect that he was afraid that she would
seek to retaliate legally against him for running over her. Maybe he was afraid he’d lose
30
Chase ‘n’ Ana
this place if she pressed charges against him or tried to sue him. Maybe the fear of
losing what was so dear to him made the risk worth it.
But she did not think that was the sum of it. There was more to Chase Hawks than
met the eye. And what met the eye was awfully tempting. Ana had never felt such
energy from anyone as she did when his eyes met hers. It was like something physical,
it was so strong. And while she knew part of it was purely sexual, she thought perhaps
there was something beyond the animal attraction.
Without warning, sadness settled on her like a heavy cloak. Ana tried to decipher
the feeling. It was not her own sadness, but from another. She opened herself more to
try and touch the center of the sadness, and when she did, an image of Chase appeared
in her mind. He stood alone, watching the sun rise, and instead of being awed by the
beauty, his heart was filled with sadness and loneliness.
Ana’s eyes popped open in surprise. Boy, wasn’t she a superficial Sally? Just
because he was amazing to look at, had this great house, horses and the greatest dog in
the world, she assumed he had it all. There had to be scads of women who would darn
near kill to get a taste of him, so why was he so lonely?
Maybe she was wrong, she decided. Maybe her receptors were misaligned or
something. But even as she tried to convince herself, she knew what she’d felt was true
and that brought out what was either her biggest strength or deadliest weakness. She
wanted to ease his sadness.
Which meant that the first thing she had to do was to get dinner started and then
she was going to give his house a good cleansing. Once that was done, she was going to
recharge the house with positive energy and when he got home, it would be to a house
filled with good, happy vibes.
With her mission clear, she rose and went into the house, Cody one step behind.
31
Ciana Stone
Chapter Five
Chase parked the truck in front of the house but made no move to get out. He was
two hours early for dinner and he was annoyed. All day Ana Stillwater had crept into
his thoughts, the way her golden eyes lit up when she smiled, and the way they
darkened into pools of liquid fire when she was angry. Her lithe, supple body and the
sensual, smooth and fluid way she moved. The way light bounced in little shards of
indigo on her long silky hair. And that voice. That low, husky, please-fuck-me voice.
He groaned and leaned his head back. He’d only known the woman a day and
already she’d bewitched him, crept into his damn head and taken up residence. There
was only one thing he could do to rid himself of the spell she had him under and that
was to have her. Sure as the world, if he had her, he’d be able to put her out of his mind
and stop fantasizing like a damn schoolboy.
That’s what he would do. He’d give her a few days then he’d make his move.
Charm the pants off her then fuck her brains out. With his decision made, he felt more
himself. In control, just the way he liked it.
He got out of the truck and walked to the house. Music was playing inside, but it
wasn’t anything he was familiar with. He opened the door, and all the control he
thought he had fled like fog in sunshine.
Ana had her back to the door, her legs spread and was bent over at the waist with
her head touching the floor, her forearms on the floor, hands clasped lightly. She saw
him when he entered and smiled. “Hey! I thought you weren’t going to be here until
seven?”
But Chase wasn’t looking at her face. Her firm rear was completely exposed except
for a tiny strip of black material that bisected her ass cheeks. Her breasts were
threatening to spill out of the low-cut top of the thong bodysuit.
“Chase?”
He forced his eyes to her face and she laughed. “Yoga,” she said.
“Huh?” He hadn’t gotten blood to his brain yet, it was still concentrated in his little
head which was not so little at the moment.
“Yoga.” She straightened gracefully and turned to face him.
“Oh, yeah, right.” To keep from staring at her tight little body encased in that sexy
getup—cut high on her hips, barely covering her pussy and low at the top, giving him a
good view of most of her breasts—he looked around the room.
And that’s when he noticed them. Crystals. On the coffee table. On top of the
television, on the windowsill, the bookcase, the gun rack and even on the frame above
the door to the kitchen. All sizes and colors.
32
Chase ‘n’ Ana
“What’s all this?” He gestured around.
“Charging,” she said and watched him with amusement. Ana wasn’t a fool. She’d
seen the way he looked at her. And she’d checked him out in return and noticed the
impressive bulge in his pants. It was enough to make her mouth water.
“Charging?”
“Yeah, charging the room.” She turned and picked up a large, dull, yellowish
crystal from the coffee table, affording him another look at her ass. “This is calcite.
Actually golden calcite which is a unique Welsh variety. It was my mother’s. Nothing
better for energizing the crown chakra, and a wonderful energy amplifier.”
Chase didn’t quite know what to say. Although it did explain why that oversized
duffel bag of hers weighed so much.
“This makes you uncomfortable.” Ana wondered why it had taken her so long to
pick up on that. Maybe because of the sexual energy that was arcing between them. It
had been a long time since she’d felt sexual attraction and she was positive she’d never
felt anything even close to the intensity she felt from Chase.
“Sorry.” She snatched up a cloth bag from the sofa and hurried around the room,
gathering up the crystals and putting them into the bag. She fumbled one as she started
past Chase. It fell, but before it hit the floor, he caught it.
“Oh, thank you!” She smiled at him. “I would have been heartbroken if it had been
damaged.”
“It belonged to your mother, too?” he asked as he handed it to her.
“Yes.” She placed the dark crystal in the bag and tied it closed.
“What does it do?”
“It relieves sorrow. Well, not really relieves it. More like it helps us to recognize that
everything happens for a reason.”
“You think there is a reason, Ana?”
In that moment it came to her. It was all for a reason. All she had been through had
been to lead her here, to this moment, and this man.