Chapter 3

Ana felt like someone being released from prison when Chase picked her up from the hospital the next morning. As part of their bargain, she’d agreed to spend the night in the hospital. He’d reciprocated by promising to see about getting her car towed to a local mechanic he trusted and getting her things from the car.

It had been a long night. Ana had alternated between second-guessing the deal she made with Chase and reprimanding herself for turning into a mistrustful person who didn’t deserve help. It wasn’t until yesterday that she’d realized what a dramatic change had come over her since the day Giovanni turned on her and beat her to a bloody pulp.

She told herself time and again that she could not measure anyone else against him, then immediately questioned whether her judgment had ever been sound. After all, in the initial phases of the relationship she had believed in and trusted Giovanni. And look how that had turned out.

Several mental messages from Fergi convinced her that she needed to fall back on standard operating procedures. Namely, let it go. The past was the past and could not be changed. It was the here and now that needed her attention, and right now her path had led her to Chase Hawks.

Trusting that Fergi was right, she drifted off into a troubled sleep dreaming of a tall, dark-haired cowboy who made her want to remember what it felt like to be in the arms of a passionate lover.

Now here she was, climbing into his truck to be met by one of the biggest dogs she’d ever seen. “Ana, this is Cody.” Chase reached over and gave Cody a shove to move him over on the seat. “He’s a mixed breed, like me. Harmless.”

Ana raised one eyebrow and cut her eyes at him. Somehow, she didn’t believe that either of them was harmless. “Hi, Cody, I’m Ana.” She extended her hand for Cody to sniff. He took one whiff and wiggled all over. By the time she was seated beside him, he was licking her face and doing everything he could to climb into her lap.

Chase climbed in behind the wheel and grabbed Cody by the collar to drag him off Ana. “Don’t know what’s gotten into him. He’s never like this.”

“It’s chemistry,” Ana said as she rubbed Cody’s big face with both hands. “Right, Cody?”

Cody barked in reply and lay his head down on her lap. She looked up at Chase and shrugged. “Animals like me.”

“Apparently,” Chase commented as he started the truck and pulled out. He had to admit that he couldn’t blame Cody. He wouldn’t mind putting his head in Ana’s lap. Of course, if he did, he’d never be content to just having his head rubbed. Nope. He had entirely different ideas about having his head in her lap.

“So…” He looked for a way to divert his attention. “You introduced yourself to Cody here as Ana. Thought that was reserved just for friends.”

“It is,” she said and turned away to hide a grin. For someone who had agonized over her decision all night, she was feeling remarkably cheerful today. She was by nature an optimistic, take-it-as-it-comes kind of person. But she thought her today’s high spirits were connected with the dream she’d had of her grandfather.

Her grandfather had been dead for ten years. He died doing what he loved. Riding a bull. He was working with some young aspiring riders and was thrown and trampled. Ana thought it was a horrible way to die, but something told her that her grandfather wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Just before waking, she dreamed about being at his home in the mountains of North Carolina. It was dawn. Light was just beginning to filter down through the canopy of trees as they followed a deer path. He stopped and turned to her. “You don’t need me to show you the way anymore, Little Cat. You can follow a trail as well as I, and your heart will tell you when you’ve lost your way. It’s time for you to trust yourself to know the wise course and to stand on your own.”

“But I don’t want to,” she replied. “I make bad choices, Grandfather. I trust the wrong people and end up getting disappointed and hurt.”

“True disappointment and hurt comes from mistrust, Ana. When you cut yourself off from your own spirit and give less than what you are capable of giving, you become a person who not only forgets how to trust, but you become unworthy of the trust of others. Better to have given freely and be disappointed than refuse to give and miss what might be the greatest joy in life.”

“Maybe.” She knew he was right. She couldn’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch, as her mother was fond of saying. “But it’s hard to get rid of the fear.”

“Fear is good, Ana. It keeps our senses sharp. But being a victim to fear is living a coward’s life. You must give in to it—urge it to come and when it does, feel it pass through you. And when it has passed, look around and realize that the fear is gone but you are still standing. Then that fear can never again control you, for you have realized that fear itself is not the enemy.”

Ana went to him and wrapped her arms around him, pressing the side of her face against his broad chest. “Why can’t there be someone like you out there for me? Someone wise and strong. Someone who will love me for me, and not for who they want me to be?”

“Who says there isn’t, Little Cat? Now come, it’s time for us to part. Give your old grandfather a smile.”

Ana drew back to look up at him. He kissed her on the forehead and then she woke.

Now she thought about the dream and wondered if it was nothing more than her own mind conjuring things that she would find comfort in, or if it was more. And how did a cowboy who seemed conjured from her dreams fit into the picture. Thoughtfully, she looked over at Chase.

Chase was lost in thoughts of his own. Thoughts regarding Ana and the situation he found himself in. He glanced over at her, surprised to find her watching him. For a moment their eyes locked, then Chase looked away. Something about Ana unnerved him and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what. Sure, she could give him a hard-on with a look, but that was just hormones talking. He’d met plenty of women who turned him on, and never once had he not failed to lose the thrill once he’d slept with them. He figured it would be the same with Ana. If he had her just once, then her ability to give him a rock-hard dick with a bat of her golden eyes would disappear.

No, he decided. It wasn’t the sex thing that perplexed him. It was something else. He’d figure it out sooner or later. Right now, he had to think about the plans he’d made to house Ana while she recuperated.

He’d shot off his mouth before he’d considered what he was saying when he offered to put her up. One thing he’d learned way back was to never bring a date home. Not that Ana was a date, but the principle still applied.

Chase had been fortunate enough to be born into a family of prestige and wealth. That fortune carried a price, however. There were a lot of females who fell more in love with the idea of money than the man, and Chase had long ago had his fill of that kind of woman. To prevent repeat performances, he’d made a practice of not letting on who his family was, and never, never took a woman to his family home. If he ever found a woman who truly wanted him for who he was and not who his family was then he’d introduce them to the family. Until then, he was just a simple rodeo cowboy with a few horses.

He owned a spread adjacent to the Circle R, his family’s sprawling ranch, and that’s where he spent a good deal of his time. The Circle R covered more than 30,000 acres of the mountains of Graham County. Bordered to the west by Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, to the east by national forests, and to the north by the San Carlos Indian reservation, it was a land rich with diverse wildlife. Black bear, deer, desert bighorn sheep, bobcat, mountain lions, javelina and coatimundi were just a sampling of the animals Chase had seen while growing up on the Circle R.

Chase inherited his land from his mother’s family. It comprised only five thousand acres but was unique in that it bordered a historic ghost town.

He figured he must have inherited more from his mother than he realized. From what Clara, the housekeeper who raised him at the Circle R had told him, Charity Hawks had never been comfortable at the Big House, as she called it. Charity would rather have been in a pair of horse-shit-stained jeans and boots, training a new horse than be inside having tea with the society folks.

Chase was the same. He could clean up pretty good when the situation demanded, but if he could get out of being gussied up then all the better.

He cut a look over at Ana. She had adjusted so that Cody could stand across her lap and both of them had their heads hung out the window. Ana’s eyes were closed, her face tilted up, the wind whipping her long hair like strands of black silk.

A twinge in his gut made Chase turn away. The last thing he needed was to let himself get worked up over this woman. He didn’t know the first thing about her, and he made it a policy to measure his passion with a strong dose of caution.

Ana looped her arm around Cody’s thick neck and looked out over the unfamiliar landscape. Arizona was about a different as it came from her home in the mountains of North Carolina. Accustomed to a preponderance of lush green and towering trees, it made the scenery seem almost alien. But it was not the vacant desert she had expected. Mountainous and rough, there was a beauty to it that called to her, and she longed to get out and touch the earth, feel its energy, and explore the area.

She spotted Fergi and grinned. “Look, Cody,” she whispered to the dog and pointed at the hawk paralleling their course from several hundred feet above them. “That’s Fergi. You’ll love her. Only never, never, never try to lick her.”

Cody barked in acknowledgement and Ana laughed and hugged him.

When the truck slowed, she pulled her head back inside the cab to look across Chase to the opposite side of the road. A lone road turned to the left, winding through the brush, and disappearing into a bend at a thick stand of trees. As they turned onto the road, Cody barked once and started prancing on the seat. Ana laughed at his excitement and hugged him, a little excited herself to get her first look at their destination.

Chase suppressed a grin. Ana looked about as excited as Cody. She was leaning forward in the seat, her neck stretched up as if to give herself a better view of what was around the next turn. He kept an eye on her as they rounded a bend in the road and the house came into view.

Her eyes widened and a big smile took shape on her face. The moment the truck came to a stop she was out the door, Cody one step behind, jumping around her excitedly as she turned ‘round and ‘round, her eyes raking over everything in sight.

“It’s so beautiful!” she exclaimed, continuing to move and look. “You’re so lucky. Is that yours? The barn back there, behind the house? Oh my! Are those horses yours?”

Before Chase had a chance to answer, she was headed toward the fence. “Oh, you beautiful boy.” She reached the fence and extended her hand to Nightmare, a three-year-old stallion no one had yet been able to break.

“Ana, no!” Chase raced after her. One thing Nightmare was not, was friendly. He’d as soon bite your hand off as breathe.

“What?” She had already climbed up on the bottom rung of the fence and swung her leg over the top rail with her hand on Nightmare’s nose.

Chase stopped dead in his tracks. “Uh, just be careful.”

“I’m not an invalid, silly.” She dismissed the warning and turned her attention back to Nightmare. “You beautiful boy,” she crooned, lifting his head up to breathe into his face. “I wish I had something to give you.” She stroked him then turned to Chase. “Do you think I could feed him something sometime? What are his favorites? Apples? My grandfather used to have a horse a lot like this that couldn’t get enough apples. He’d eat it out of your mouth if you weren’t careful. What’s this guy’s name? Do you ride him? Do you think I could?”

Chase laughed, wondering if Ana ever asked just one question. “First off, his name is Nightmare and—”

“Nightmare?” she blurted indignantly. “What a horrible thing to do to a being as magnificent as this! That’s just mean. You could give him a complex or something.” She turned back to the horse. “Don’t worry. I’m not calling you that. I’ll call you…ummmm, let’s see…I’ll call you Zephyros. That’s the West Wind god in Greek mythology. Now I know you’re not Greek, but we are sort of in the West and I bet you’re fast as the wind. So, what do you think? Zephyros?”

Ana waited patiently for the horse to give her a sign. When he did not move, she scrunched up her nose and pursed her lips, her brows drawing together. After a moment she smiled. “Okay, then how about West Wind? Does that sound good?”

Chase nearly fainted when Nightmare tossed his head and whinnied. Ana grinned and leaned out from the rail to put her arms around the horse’s neck and hug him. Chase was sure she was going to fall off the rail and leapt over to put his hands on her waist to steady her. When he did, Nightmare jerked and pranced. Ana was thrown off balance and would have gone face first into the corral if Chase hadn’t wrapped one arm around her slim waist and pulled her to him, cupping his free arm beneath her legs as she swung off the fence to him.

“Youch!” she yelped at the pressure of his arm around her back and his hand gripping her at the ribs.

“Sorry.” He went to set her down and she kind of slithered down his body in this fluid, sinuous way that made the blood rush out of his head and straight to his dick. With one arm still up around his neck, her breasts flattened out against his chest and her head tilted back to look up at him, it was enough to tempt a priest. Which he was not.

Ana saw the darkness in Chase’s eyes intensify and felt his body go rigid against her, and for a moment it was all she could do not to pull his head down to her so she could taste those full lips. But the look that came on his face spoke of thunderclouds, and wariness joined the desire, battling for control. Unsure whether to jump him or run from him, she compromised and took a step back.

“Why don’t we get you settled, then I can show you around,” Chase suggested, ending the moment.

“Sure,” Ana agreed gratefully.

He got her things from the truck and led her to the house. She was stunned when she walked inside. She had been expecting something very bachelor, not the homey, comfortable surroundings that met her eyes. The only thing that seemed to be missing was family photos. Nowhere she looked did she see a single picture.

Thinking that he just wasn’t into that sort of thing, she let him give her a tour of the house. Aside from the living area, or den, as he called it, there was a kitchen with a small dinette area, a laundry room off to one side of the kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom.

Chase gestured for her to enter one of the bedrooms and he followed, putting her duffel bag down on the quilt-covered bed and placing the two other bags on the floor. Ana looked around and wondered who had selected the furniture for this room. It had a woman’s feel to it. That was the only way she could explain it. It felt like the room was filled with things that had belonged to and been important to a woman.

She dismissed the idea as Chase spoke. “So, do you want to take a nap or lie down and rest? The doctor said you should go easy on those ribs for a few weeks, and the same thing goes for your right leg.”

“Nope, I’m fine. But if you have things to do don’t let me get in the way. Just tell me what you want me to do and then you can go on about your business.”

Chase’s mind had filled with all sorts of tantalizing images the moment she said, “Tell me what you want me to do.” The rest of what she said was a mystery. “Do?” he asked, feeling like a clod.

“Yes. Do. Our deal was that I would work for you. Remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Right. Well…” He looked around. “Uh, I guess the place could stand a cleaning. If you’re up to it, that is.”

“Absolutely,” she replied with a grin. “Now, you just scoot on to whatever you need to do, and I’ll take care of it. Do you want me to cook?”

“Uh, sure, if you want.” Chase was as unaccustomed to having someone in his space as a coyote was to sleeping with a snake.

“Sure. What time?”

“What time what?”

“What time do you want me to have dinner ready?”

“Uh, seven?”

“Then seven it is.” She sailed past him and headed for the kitchen. Chase blew out his breath and followed.

“Where’s your broom and mop?” she asked.

“In the laundry room. Cleaning supplies, too.”

“Thanks.” She stood looking at him.

“What?”

“Don’t you have things to do?”

“Oh, yeah. Right. I do.”

“Then I’ll see you at seven.”

“Yes. Seven.” Chase didn’t know what else to do but turn and leave the room. Ana followed him to the front door. “You are leaving Cody here, aren’t you?” she asked. “I mean, it would be nice, if you don’t mind. This is all new to me and I’d just feel better if he was here.”

“No problem.” Chase hadn’t planned on taking Cody with him to the Circle R anyway.

“And he can come inside?” she asked, looking for all the world like a hopeful little girl, so adorable that he wanted to squeeze her.

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Thank you!” She impulsively grabbed him for a quick hug and stood on tiptoes to graze his cheek with her lips before she flew out the door, calling the dog.

Chase shook his head and walked out behind her. The woman was like quicksilver, always in motion and fluid as a stream. He couldn’t figure out if she was a little emotionally stunted, or just the most enthusiastic person he’d ever encountered. She bounced back from things as if she forgot them the moment they were finished. He was certain that he’d never met anyone like her. Ever. One moment she had a look that begged a man to take her and the next she was like a child who found joy in the simplest of things.

She wasn’t easy to figure. Chase had always prided himself on being able to get a handle on people right away. Ana was an enigma. And that intrigued him. Combine intrigue with sex appeal that was damn near tangible, and it equaled a woman to beware. Which gave him cause for concern. With a curse, he headed for his truck. Right now, he was only sure of one thing and that was, it was going take some doing to get used to having Ana Stillwater around.