Authors: Ciana Stone
“Absolutely.” She looked up at him with eyes that beckoned like a siren to a
doomed sailor.
Her eyes brought him a step closer to her. “Like you breaking down in Arizona and
me running over you? You think there’s some reason for that?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t you fill me in, Fancy?” His voice dropped to a low sexy growl that
sent a shiver racing through her.
“You can call me Ana.” She slid closer, so close that she could feel the wave of heat
coming off his body.
“Does that mean we’re friends now?” He moved in, placing one hand on her bare
hip to pull her against him.
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“No.” She traced one hand up from his chest to his neck then on up to push his hat
off his head and rake her fingers through his thick hair. “But we will be.”
With that she pulled his head down. Her eyes remained locked with his and for the
space of several heartbeats they remained frozen, eyes searching and breath mingling.
Then her lips touched his, soft and gentle, a butterfly’s wings brush of the skin.
“Careful, Fancy. Play with fire and you’re liable to get burned.” Chance’s hand
tightened on her hip, feeling the smooth soft skin and firm muscle beneath.
Ana heard the warning as clear as the need in his voice, and she agreed. Chance
was not a man to play with. As many women has he’d had in the past, and as sure as he
was that he would not be a victim to love, he was as vulnerable as she in many respects.
The smart thing to do would be to back down, not push it. But that would go against
her nature. She smiled and brushed her lips against his again, this time flicking her
tongue out to run it over his bottom lip. “I like it hot,” she whispered.
“Then you’re going to love this,” he murmured just before he seized her lips in a
kiss that had her vibrating like a plucked guitar string. Chase was not gentle or shy in
his approach. His tongue plundered her mouth, as hot and hard as the hands that
gripped her hips and pulled her more firmly against him, sandwiching his stiff cock
between them.
Ana gave in to the kiss, matching his passion, their tongues battling for dominance
as she undulated against him, her belly pressing against his cock in a sinuous fluid
grind that had his hands moving to cup her firm ass and pull her even tighter against
him.
When they finally came up for air, her eyes were a dark molten gold, her face
flushed. She wanted more, wanted him to press for more, but knew instinctively that
this was not their time.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to change.” She backed away from him.
Chase reached out and grabbed her arm as she turned away. “I like what you have
on.”
His passion-induced compliment delighted her. She chuckled, a low throaty laugh
that had his hormones doing a fast two-step and something completely unfamiliar swell
in his chest.
“What was that about playing with fire?” she teased.
“You think you could burn me, Ana?” He drew in close, his maleness
overwhelming and compelling.
She smiled up at him coyly. “Believe me, Chase. When the time comes, you’ll need
to bring a fire hose.”
And then she turned and walked away, her enticing little ass swaying
provocatively down the hall.
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Chase ‘n’ Ana
Chase groaned and reached down to adjust the bulge in his pants. A witch. That’s
what she was. A damn sexy, little beautiful seductress. If he didn’t have her soon, he
just might have to leave home.
With a muttered curse, Chase snatched up his hat off the floor and stomped to the
bathroom for a long, cold shower.
* * * * *
Chase looked down at the charred mass of meat on his plate then at Ana who sat
across the table from him. “What is it?”
“Meat?” she asked rather than answered.
“You sure?” Chase poked at it with the knife.
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
Chase stabbed down hard into the tough slab and raised the knife with the
boardlike charred meat skewered on its tip. “How long did you cook this?”
“Half an hour?”
“How hot?”
“Five hundred?”
He plopped the knife back down on his plate. “And you purposely cooked it like
that? Surely you don’t eat—” That’s when he noticed there wasn’t any meat on her
plate. Just a neatly cut-up potato, some green beans and a few carrot strips. “You don’t
eat meat?”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head with an expression of revulsion on her face.
“Oh, crap. You’re not one of those ‘But it used to be a living thing’ freaks, are you?”
“Well, it did used to be a living thing,” she pointed out. “But I don’t make a habit of
saying that to people who are carnivorous.”
“But you disapprove.”
“Well…” She really didn’t want to get into a discussion on her ideas about eating
meat and using animal products and all that. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that the
majority of people didn’t share her views and she was not the sort to challenge people
about their lifestyles or eating habits. She believed in the “live and let live” way. But
that did also include animals. “Let’s just say it isn’t right for me and let it go at that.”
“Fine,” he agreed. “But that being the case, we’re going to have to change the
rules.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you don’t do the cooking.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with the vegetables,” she pointed out.
“A man can’t live on just vegetables,” he argued.
The way he said it struck her as funny and she laughed. “What?” he demanded.
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“Sorry. It’s just…well, it’s funny. I mean, technically, man can live just fine without
meat. Probably with a lot less health issues into the bargain.”
“Oh, no, here we go.” He leaned his chair back on two legs, prepared for the
sermon.
“Nope,” she disagreed. “Tell you what. Since I messed up your meat, then I’ll make
it up to you. You eat your veggies and after dinner I’ll give you a massage.”
Chase jerked so hard he nearly turned over his chair. “You’ll what?”
“Give you a massage.” She picked up a green bean with her fingers and bit off the
end of it. “I used to work in a massage place.”
“A massage parlor?” he blurted. Ana was an ex-hooker?
She laughed at his expression. “Not that kind. Get your mind out of your pants,
Chase. As a masseuse. You know, rub down, and work the kinks out?”
Chase let his chair settle back on all four legs, intrigued not only at the idea of Ana’s
hands on him, but that she did that as a living. “So how long have you been in that line
of work?”
“Oh, I don’t do it anymore,” she replied, turning her attention to her meal. “That
was way back.”
“What do you do now?” He picked up his fork and started eating.
Her hand stilled in motion to her mouth. “Well, I…I…actually, right now I’m in
between jobs.”
Chase knew sure as he lived and breathed that there was more and since she didn’t
want to tell it, he wanted to hear it even more. “Yeah, well, that’s a given. But what kind
of work do you normally do?”
“This and that.” She resumed eating. “I teach yoga and belly dancing and tai chi
and…” She looked up at him, gauging whether to just go ahead and blurt out the truth.
Chase’s eyes were glued to her. She saw curiosity dancing in their dark depths, and
something more. She decided she might as well take a chance. “And I read the cards
and make potions and cast spells.”
Chase choked and she jumped up. He waved her back down to her seat and gulped
down some tea. “Cast spells?” he croaked.
“Umm-hmmm,” she murmured, carefully slicing her potato into thin slivers.
“As in cauldrons and bat wings and…whatever the hell wicked witches use?”
Ana laughed at the absurdity of it. “No, nothing like that.”
“But you’re saying that you’re…that you’re a witch.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “Is that a problem?”
Chase stared at her in amazement. Either she was crazy as a bedbug, or was trying
to jerk his chain. “You can’t honestly believe that you’re a witch.”
“Why not?”
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Chase ‘n’ Ana
“Because there’s no such thing. I mean there are probably pseudo-wannabe-pretend
witches. But there’s no such thing as a real, magical powers, turn-you-into-a-toad
witch.”
Ana smiled. “Well, you’re right. I definitely have never turned anyone into a toad.”
“But you still think you’re a witch.”
“Yes.”
“Okay then. Do something.”
She looked up at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Do something—witchy.”
She put her fork and knife down and folded her hands in her lap. “The Craft isn’t a
game, Chase, or parlor tricks to entertain.”
“Well, excuse me for being ignorant about all that, but I say if you’re really a witch
then you should be able to prove it.”
Ana considered it for a long time. Exposing herself was not something that came
easy. It was the fact that he was a minechicudet, a Sardinian male witch, that had
originally attracted her to her husband, Giovanni. His powers were very weak, having
been corrupted over the years by an overindulgence in drugs and alcohol, but at least
he didn’t get freaked by the fact that she was a witch.
“Chase, it’s not something you do for entertainment. Powers are sacred and should
only be used when necessary, and for the right reason.”
“So what you’re saying is that you’re full of it and no more a witch than I am.” He
could not help goading her. “That you’re telling me this load of horseshit because you
think I’m some ignorant cowboy who will fall for it and—”
Ana’s eyes flashed and suddenly the door blew open. Chase jumped in his seat and
jerked around to look at the door banging against the wall. He looked back at Ana.
“You don’t expect me to believe that you did that.”
“I don’t expect anything from you, Chase Hawks.” Ana was annoyed and she knew
that was dangerous. Needing to put space between them she jumped up and ran out
the door, across the porch and down the steps. She was climbing the fence to the
pasture by the time he bounded off the porch after her.
Ana ran to the middle of the pasture and suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. How
magnificent it was there. The sun was beginning to set, streaking the sky with strokes of
gold and red, mixed with varying hues of blue. The mountains were tinged with red
like glowing tongues of fire had licked them into ignition.
She forgot her anger, forgot about Chase and all that had led her there and gave
herself up to the moment. Throwing her arms wide, she turned, her head tilted back
and her long hair blowing in the breeze, golden eyes taking in the beauty.
Chase stopped as Ana spread her arms as if to embrace the world and began a slow
pirouette, turning gracefully, her long skirt swirling out around her and her face
wearing an expression that seemed to him as if she were in a trance. He could not recall
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ever seeing anything quite so beautiful as her standing there with the mountains
reaching up behind her to touch the fire of the sky. He felt enchanted. There was no
other word to describe it. As if he was standing in the presence of something that
belonged in myth or legend.
Ana felt Chase watching her and stopped, turning to face him. Her golden eyes
seemed lit, as if by an inner fire. God how he wanted her at that moment. To slowly
peel away her clothes, touch her, taste her, feel himself buried in her wet core.
She felt it, too. Chase was aware he was attractive and wore it well, casual and
confident in his sex appeal. What he could not know was the raw sexual energy he
broadcast, so strong that it nearly took her breath away. He was a man that a woman
would never get enough of, and it made her nervous that she wanted him so badly.
How could she ever have one drink of him and be denied quenching the returning
thirst it would inspire?
She had to turn her mind from the thoughts or they would overwhelm her, cause
her to do something foolish. “It’s so beautiful here,” she gestured around them. “So
much energy. So many whispers from the past. As if there are people here with
us…whispering their tales of joy and sorrow, offering wisdom. It’s so strong…so vital
and primal. It makes me want to…” An impish smile took shape on her face. “Run like
the wind.” She ran over and poked him in the arm. “Tag, you’re it!”
With that she took off running across the pasture. Chase blinked, considered it for
half a second and took off after her, his long legs eating up the distance between them.
Ana did not see him closing in on her and when he grabbed her arm, she went
white as a ghost and froze. “Hey, you okay?” He tried to pull her toward him but she
would not budge.
Ana could not see the concern in his dark eyes, or the gentle way in which he
touched her. All she could see was Giovanni, reaching to hold her still so he could hit
her again, and again. She couldn’t take more of the pain. It was too much. He was going
to kill her.
But she could not fight back, couldn’t use her ability to harm. She felt herself
starting to slide away into a dark, cold place and that scared her more than anything.
She couldn’t let herself be sucked into that darkness where only pain existed. She