Chapter 5

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 sex 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.

“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.

“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, Sassy?” 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.

“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, Sassy. Play with fire and you’re liable to get burned.” Chase’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. Chase was not a man to play with. As many women as 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 erection 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 him 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.

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 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.

“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?”

“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, which 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 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 screamed and started running blind.

Chase didn’t understand what was happening but did recognize fear when he saw it and at that moment Ana was consumed by more terror than he’d ever seen in another human being. Whatever devil she was running from was one that scared the life out of her, and he didn’t know how to help. But he couldn’t let her just run off. Now that night was falling it would be dangerous.

He ran after her and caught her just as she reached the fence. When his hand closed around her arm she whirled around fighting, hitting, and kicking as if her very life depended on it. Chase didn’t want to hurt her, but she made it difficult. In the end, he had no choice but to take her down and pin her to the ground, straddling her body to hold her still.

“Nooooo!” she screamed. “Not again. Get off me, Gio, or I swear on my mother’s grave—”

“Ana, snap out of it!” Chase did the only thing he could think of. He slapped her.

Ana’s head whipped to one side and then she went limp, her chest heaving rapidly. Chase eased his hold on her to turn her head. Her eyes were clamped tightly shut but tears still streamed down her grimy face.

“Ah, Sassy,” he murmured, gathering her up against his chest. “What did that bastard do to you?”

Ana stiffened at first, then wrapped her arms around him and sobbed. Chase held her while she cried, smoothing her hair down her back, and crooning softly to her. “It’s okay, baby. Let it out. It’ll all be okay.”

Finally, the sobs diminished to sniffles and a short time later she loosened her hold on him from the death grip she’d had. “You okay now, Ana?” he whispered against her hair.

She nodded and drew back to look at him. “Had a rough time, haven’t you?” Chase asked.

She shrugged. “A little.”

“Your husband?” he asked.

She nodded. “Giovanni.”

“He’s the one who broke your ribs.”

Again, she nodded, but looked down in embarrassment. Chase put his fingers under her chin to tilt her head up. “Don’t you hang your head, Ana. The shames on him, not you. But you’re shed of him now and he’ll never hurt you again.”

“You promise?” she asked, her eyes locking with his.

“On my life.” Chase didn’t realize until he had said the words how much he meant them.

“How can I trust you, Chase? Everyone I’ve ever loved has either left me or hurt me. How do I know you won’t be the same?” She wanted to believe him, really believe him deep down in her soul but the memory of what Giovanni had done to her was making it hard. She didn’t even know Chase. And despite what Cody and Fergi said, how could she know that one day Chase wouldn’t hurt her just as bad?

Chase considered his words carefully. “You can’t know that, Sassy. At least not yet. But in time you will. I’ll show you how to trust again if you’ll let me.”

Ana heard the sincerity in his voice and saw it shining in his eyes, and her heart felt a swell of hope so strong that it made her smile. “Okay,” she agreed. “You teach me how to trust and in return I’ll teach you…” A frown creased her brow as she thought about it. “How to dance sky clad under the moon.”

“Sky clad?” Chase asked, being completely at a loss as to what that meant.

Ana laughed. “Naked.”

Chase couldn’t help but smile. Ana Stillwater was the singularly most unique person he had ever met, as fluid and changeable as quicksilver and as quirky as they came. “Sky clad, huh?”

Ana’s smile brightened. “Trust me, Chase. You’ll love it.”

He had no faith whatsoever that she was right on that score, but there was no sense in voicing it. The smile on her face had ignited something warm inside him, and he’d just as soon keep it that way.