Chapter 8

Thanks to his brothers ending up spending the entire day and half the night, Chase’s chances to get Ana alone were slim to none. The following two days he was busy with ranch chores, and obligations to Charlie to help him purchase several mares and a stallion Charlie had been itching to own.

He was looking forward to time at home, alone with Ana. But when he pulled up in the driveway and saw Caleb’s truck, he saw that wish go wafting out the window.

Inside he found his brothers and Ana in the den. She was sitting on the floor with funny-looking cards spread on a cloth in front of her.

“You’re home!” She beamed up at him. “Your brothers want us to go out with them. Is that okay?”

It was far from okay, but Chase didn’t have the heart to say so. “Sure,” he agreed. “But right now, I need a shower and some food.”

“Dinner’s almost ready,” she said with a grin. “I made you a meatloaf.”

Chase nearly groaned. Ana was a whiz when it came to vegetable dishes but made a disaster out of cooking any kind of meat.

“Don’t worry, Clay brought me a recipe from Miss Clara, and I followed it to the letter.”

That didn’t inspire Chase with confidence, but he didn’t voice the thought. Instead, he showered, dressed, and when he emerged from his room, followed his nose to the source of the delicious smell and found everyone in the kitchen.

All of his brothers were helping Ana. Cole was setting the table, Clay was dishing the food into serving bowls, and Caleb was pouring tall glasses of iced tea, while Ana was setting a vase with cut wildflowers in the middle of the table.

Chase stopped in the doorway for a few moments just to watch. Everyone was talking and laughing and working together, just like a family. Or like he’d always dreamed a family would be. He let himself indulge in a small fantasy that maybe one day his family could always be like this. Then Ana spotted him and pulled out his chair at the table.

“Dinner is served, sire,” she said with a smile and curtsy.

“Smells good,” he said as he took a seat.

“Keep your fingers crossed that it tastes as good as it smells,” she replied.

Everyone sat down, served their plates, and dug in. Chase sampled the meatloaf with trepidation. Ana watched him nervously. When he looked at her in surprise, she grinned. “Good?”

“You bet. This is great, Sassy.”

That brought a smile to her face that Chase wished he could frame. Her eyes sparkled and face glowed with happiness. He didn’t think he’d ever known anyone who got that much pleasure out of something as simple as fixing an edible meatloaf. But then, it had become abundantly clear to him, that there was no one in the world like Ana Stillwater.

The dinner talk was of ranch business, horses, rodeos, and the night’s entertainment. Ana seemed as excited as a kid who was being taken to the county fair. When they finished eating, they all pitched in to clean up, then Ana disappeared into the bathroom to get ready for the evening.

Chase and his brothers retired to the den to wait. Thirty minutes later, Ana stepped out into the den and did a slow twirl. She stopped, looking at the three men expectantly. “Well?” she asked.

“Good lord and a quarter, let’s take this woman to town!” Clay grinned.

“You’re wearing that?” Chase asked at the same time, earning raised eyebrows from his brothers and Ana.

“Excuse me?” Her hands went to her hips. “What’s wrong with it?”

Chase knew he’d stepped in it, but damn it all, when he let his brothers talk him into them all going to one of their favorite hangouts to introduce Ana to the mechanical bull and country karaoke, he had not imagined that she would dress for the event in something that made his dick jump up and salute.

Her denim skirt was low on the hips and high on the thighs, soft and worn so that it clung smoothly to all the right places. Her top was a buttery-soft suede halter that dipped to a point just above her navel, like an arrow pointing to the small silver belly ring. It scooped low at the neckline with two thin strips of leather that attached to the bodice and circled her neck. Fringe with beads, feathers adorned the neckline and hem, and the back was nothing more than a thin strap. It was cut so that the sides of her full breasts were displayed, and it clung to her, emphasizing her breasts and nipples.

She wore knee-high, lace-up moccasins that looked worn and soft, and on her head was one of his old battered brown hats. She was, without a doubt, every cowboy’s dream of a fantasy Indian princess come to life.

“Well?” Ana asked.

“You look fucking amazing!” Caleb bounded to his feet.

“Amen to that, brother,” Cole seconded.

Ana gave them a smile, but her attention returned immediately to Chase. “Okay, Hawks, let’s have it.”

Chase stood, hoping his brothers didn’t notice the bulge in his pants. Ana did and smiled as he walked over to her. “You ashamed to be seen with me in public, cowboy?” she asked softly.

“Good lord, no,” he answered. “I just don’t cotton to the idea of having to stomp every cowboy in town. And sure as shit, they get a look at you, and they’ll be drooling like a dog after a bone.”

“Well, I guess that’s about the…oddest compliment I’ve ever gotten,” she said.

“You look… incredible, Sassy,” he said in a soft voice.

“Why, thank you, Mr. Hawks.” She executed a quick curtsey. “So, can we go?”

“Might as well,” he replied and took her arm.

“Shotgun!” Caleb shouted and took off out the door.

“Damn fool,” Clay groused. “You’d think he was still ten.”

Ana laughed as the brothers gibed each other all the way to the truck. She climbed in the front between Chase and Caleb, while Cole and Clay rode in the backseat of the double cab.

The ride to the bar was spent listening to the brothers tell stories about times they’d shared in the past. Even Chase was laughing by the time they arrived. It made Ana happy to see him laughing and enjoying the company of his brothers. As an only child, she’d never known the joy or annoyance brought by siblings and felt a tinge of envy.

The bar was packed when they arrived. Yells and greetings rang out when they entered. It was clear that Chase and his brothers were not only regulars, but quite popular.

A very large, heavyset man was on stage, stumbling through the words to Willy Nelson’s “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys,” earning cheers and a lot of laughs. Chase worked them through the crowd to a table.

Ana was looking around at everything and jumped at a touch on the shoulder. “You want something to drink?” Chase shouted.

“Tequila?” she asked.

“How?”

“Straight up.”

That earned her a round of hoots and cheers from the boys. Chase turned to give the waitress their order and Ana turned her attention back to what was going on around them.

A small dance floor was in front of the stage, but at present there was no one dancing. Over to one side was a big mechanical bull, also unoccupied. Most of the tables were full, and there was a large crowd at the bar.

“Jimmy sure knows how to butcher a song,” Clay said.

“You got that right,” Chase agreed. “Somebody buy that man another drink and shut him up.”

Everyone laughed, even the man on the stage. “You think you can do better, you get your ass on up here,” Jimmy challenged good-naturedly.

“Not me, brother.”

“Ah, come on, Chase.” Caleb poked at him.

“No way.” Chase shook his head.

“You don’t sing?” Ana asked.

All of the boys laughed. “I wouldn’t call it singing,” Cole said. “More like…what the hell would you call it, Clay?”

“A wounded elk,” Clay said solemnly.

They all laughed, and Ana laughed along with them. The waitress returned with a bottle of Patron silver, four shot glasses and a beer. Caleb frowned and complained when a glass was not put in front of him. “Drink your beer and be glad the folks around here pretend not to know you’re underage,” Clay ordered.

Caleb shrugged and lifted his beer bottle when Chase had poured shots for everyone. “To Ana,” Caleb toasted. “The hottest thing to hit this town since…”

Everyone waited for him to finish. He scratched his head and lifted his bottle higher. “Ever.”

“To Ana,” the rest of the men echoed.

Ana grinned and tossed back the shot. “Whoooo!” She blew out her breath. “Now that hit the spot.”

“Then have another.” Cole poured before Chase could stop him.

Ana tossed back the second drink. The man at the microphone finished his song and everyone cheered and booed good-naturedly as he vacated the stage.

“Anybody else?” The owner of the bar, Garrett Smith, took the mike.

“You go, Ana!” Clay reached over and raised Ana’s arm.

“Here we go!” Garret spotted her. “Come on up here, little lady.”

Ana stuck her tongue out at Clay. “Brat!”

“Chicken,” he teased.

“Like hell,” she countered and got to her feet.

She went up on stage and conferred with Garrett over the songs available, then nodded and took the mike.

The music started and Ana began to gyrate and sing. Every man in the place stopped to watch. The song was not one Chase would have chosen—a Gretchen Wilson song, “Here for the Party.” Ana seemed to know all the words and wasn’t a bit shy about performing. She pranced and postured, belting out the song and playing to the crowd, earning hoots, whistles, and cheers.

But when she got to the words “gonna have a little fun, gonna get me some,” she pumped her hips and looked straight at Chase. His stomach did a little flip, his groin tightened, and his mouth went dry. By all that was holy, she was definitely a witch. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Apparently neither could anyone else, because when she finished a cheer when up that was deafening. She bowed, blew a kiss, and hopped off the stage. “Your turn, hotshot,” she challenged Clay.

“No way,” he said. “Clay don’t sing.”

“Then what does Clay do?” she asked.

“Clay will kick your ass on the bull,” he said with a cocky smile.

“You got any money to back up those big words?” She arched one eyebrow and poured another shot.

He fumbled around in his pockets. “Forty-three dollars.”

Ana looked at the money on the table then at Chase. “How ‘bout you front me forty-three bucks, Hawks? I’ll double your money.”

Chase started to say no, but something in Ana’s grin changed his mind. “All right, Sassy, but you lose my money and we’re gonna have to talk about payment.”

“You got it, stud.” The tequila had her feeling loose and free.

His eyes widened at the comment but closed when she slid off her chair and straddled him to give him a kiss hot enough to set his boots on fire.

“For luck.” She grinned and motioned to Clay. “Okay, hotshot, let’s see what you got.”

Chase, Caleb, and Cole switched tables to be closer to the action. Within ten minutes half the bar was crowded around, bets being shouted. Clay finished his third ride and hopped off, sweeping his arm in front of him. “Top that, hot stuff.”

Ana grinned, took a shot of tequila, and hopped on the bull. Chase couldn’t help but grin. She couldn’t have cared less that every time she climbed on the bull, she gave the crowd a shot of her firm ass and silky thong. And watching her ride was like watching public sex.

She rode the machine like she was riding a lover, flowing with every move, her body as flexible as a willow reed. All Chase could think was how he wished he was the bull. He’d sure like to have her riding him like that.

The contest stretched on much longer than he anticipated and had she not lifted her top and given Clay a bird’s-eye view of her breasts it might have gone on all night. Clay’s eyes bugged, his face split in a grin and a moment later he hit the floor. Clay got up laughing and dusted himself off. “Now that’s just mean, Ana. I mean, damn! Talk about fighting dirty!”

Ana laughed and grabbed him in a hug. “You’re a hell of a rider, Clay.”

“Thanks. You’re pretty damn good, yourself. Where’d you learn to ride?”

“My grandfather was one of the original pro bull riders.”

“Really? Who was he?”

“Jonas Stillwater.”

“No shit? He’s a fucking legend!”

She laughed and looked up. “You hear that, Grandfather?”

Chase walked up and wrapped one arm around her. “Okay, boy,” he addressed Clay in a good-natured gruff voice. “Time for you to mosey on.”

Ana smiled up at Chase and he hugged her to his side. “What say we take it down a notch and have a dance?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” She walked hand in hand with him to the dance floor.

The song was what some called a belly-rubber, slow and seductive and made for two people getting all tightened up in one another’s arms and moving in concert.

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, Sassy?” he asked as she moved into his arms. “Singer, dancer, bull rider.”

Ana laughed. “Don’t you like surprises, Hawks?”

“Depends on the surprise. How ‘bout you?”

“Well, I’d love being surprised that you know how to do more than stand here and sway, cowboy. We’re supposed to be dancing.”

“Then dancing it is,” he said and pulled her closer.

Chase definitely knew how to dance. Within a few seconds he had Ana’s blood singing in her veins and her body rubbing on his hungrily. “You’re doing this on purpose,” she whispered when he leaned down and kissed the top of her bare shoulder.

“Doing what, Sassy?”

“You know what.” She nipped at the side of his neck. “Making my blood run hot.”

Chase drew back to smile at her. “You’re a fine one to talk.”

She raised her eyebrows in question, and he chuckled. She snuggled up tight, grinding her pelvis against him in such a way that he damn near lost the beat of the music. “You keep that up and we’re gonna have to go home and start that fire,” his voice rumbled sexily against her hair.

“Promise, promises,” she teased.

He broke away from her and looked around for his brothers. “Time to ride, boys.”

The brothers were not ready to leave, and Ana was feeling mischievous enough to side with them. In the end, they and the rest of the diehards closed the bar. By the time they got back to Chase’s ranch, all of his brothers had to be wakened to stumble into the house.

The short walk revived them, and when Ana said her goodnights, they were all in the den, drinking beer and talking.

Now the house was quiet. Ana eased her way through the den, where all of Chase’s brothers were sprawled out asleep. Caleb on the couch, Cole in the recliner and Clay in the easy chair with his legs stretched out on the ottoman. She did not see Chase anywhere and wondered if he had given up and gone to bed. She stood watching the sleeping men, thinking.

His brothers were an interesting lot. Cole was not as boisterous or rowdy as he put on. Ana had been given a glimpse of his serious side when they were cleaning up after dinner and he volunteered to dry the dishes. Cole’s family did not know that he was studying forestry and wanted to work as a ranger for the state park system. As much of a party animal as he pretended to be, he was more like Chase than he let on, feeling a need for solitude and quiet.

Clay was the opposite in almost every respect. He was loud, energetic, and filled with a craving for excitement. He’d been secretly a part of the rodeo world for more than a year. Bull riding was his thing. He and Ana had gotten into a long, animated discussion about it at the bar and she encouraged him to pursue his dream, even if his father did not understand it. He had his own path in life and if he let someone else guide it, in the end he would be unhappy and resent that person into the bargain.

Caleb was a mixture of all the others. He was as excited about partying as he was about entering college in the fall and studying to be a large animal vet. His father wasn’t keen on his choice of career either, but Caleb figured he’d either come around or learn to live with it. He’d wanted to be a vet since he was five and wasn’t going to let anyone stop him. If his father didn’t want to pay for his education, then he would take it out of the trust fund left to him by his mother.

Ana had gotten the scoop on all the family from the brothers. She knew Chase had not liked them telling her about the family. She could feel his tension.

Chase’s mother, Charity, was Charlie’s first wife, an Apache girl who had fallen in love with the rough and rowdy Charlie when she was in her teens. Neither family had approved of the union and tried to prevent it. Charity and Charlie settled it for everyone by getting pregnant.

Charity died when Chase was eight, killed in a rodeo accident. Apparently, she was a champion barrel racer. Charlie didn’t want her to go back to it after Chase was born but Charity was strong-willed. On Chase’s eighth birthday, she was in an event. She laid her horse out too far, it fell, pinning her beneath it and crushing her. By the time the ambulance got her to the hospital it was too late.

Charlie blamed Chase because when Charity had asked what he wanted for his birthday he said he wanted her to win the race for him. He loved watching her ride and was so proud every time she won. They were inseparable and had an unspoken language all their own, like souls joined beyond mortal comprehension.

According to the brothers, Chase blamed himself and had never forgiven himself for her death. Upon his sixteenth birthday he petitioned the court to change his name from Chase Hawks Russell to simply Chase Hawks, his mother’s maiden name. Charlie did not oppose the change. There was a rift as wide as the desert between he and Chase and neither of them knew how to bridge the gap.

Charlie had remarried a year after Charity’s death to a woman from a wealthy family, DeAnna Morgan. She and Charlie had trouble conceiving, and she lost three babies, a year apart, all before full term. They had been married five years when the twins were born. Five years later, she died giving birth to Caleb.

Charlie had never remarried after that. The boys had all been raised by Clara Mahoney, an Irish American woman who had gone to school with Charlie and had come to work for him and Charity when Chase was born. It was clear that all the brothers, including Chase, loved her like a mother and referred to her Mama C.

Ana could not help but think how ironic it was. For all their wealth and power, the Russell family had seen more than its share of tragedy and heartbreak. Her own heart went out to all of them, most particularly Chase.

She let herself out of the house and went to the pasture to sit on the fence rail and stare up at the sky. The smell of the new body products Chase had purchased for her wafted around her. It was a sensual dark smell, like night-blooming flowers, humidity, and stolen kisses. She loved it.

Chase had seemed embarrassed by the gifts when he gave them to her. She had been touched beyond measure that he would take the time and energy to try and find a scent for her. That he had selected something so blatantly sensual and romantic thrilled her.

But then everything about Chase Hawks thrilled her. She felt like the old country song that spoke of a woman’s soul being invaded by a man and her losing all control, becoming a prisoner to him. And sure enough, she was. Even sitting here alone under the majesty of the night sky, she was a prisoner to him, enveloped in the scent he’d branded her with, victim to the wanting he evoked in her, captive to a love she’d never expected to feel.

Chase walked up behind her as quiet as a breath, put his hands on either side of her waist and lay his cheek against the bare skin of her back where the thin cotton shift drooped low. He inhaled deeply. The scent he’d bought smelled nothing on her like it did in the store. Now it was a heady mixture that spoke to him of sweat-tangled sheets, damp skin and the smell of flowers drifting in through an open window in a lush tropical retreat. Sweet, seductive, and just a little dangerous.

“Hmmm.” He kissed her skin. “You smell good.”

“Thank you again,” she said softly. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“You like it, don’t you?” Suddenly that was very important to him.

“I love it.” She executed a nimble maneuver so that she was facing him, the vee of her legs at the level of his chest, completely uninhibited of the fact that she wore nothing beneath her shift and the position offered him an intimate view of her sex. “I’ve never had anything so…decadent.”

“Decadent?” He smiled up at her.

“Well, maybe that’s the wrong word. It’s so…sensual.”

“Then it’s a perfect match.” He put his hands on her legs, his thumbs stroking the soft skin of her inner thighs.

“Thank you.” She reached down to caress the side of his face.

Chase’s world collapsed in on him at that moment, the past receding into unimportance in the face of the powerful emotions swelling inside him. “I want you, Sassy. More than I’ve ever wanted a woman. And either you’re going to give yourself to me now or I’m going to have to take you. Either way, I intend on having you.”

“Then have me, Chase.” She leaned down to kiss him, her lips soft and gentle.

Chase’s need was too great for gentle. His mouth slanted across hers, his tongue pillaged her mouth, hands moving up to cup and squeeze her breasts, palming the nipples.

“Christ, Ana.” He pulled back from the kiss to bury his face in between her legs. “I want to take you slow and easy, feel and taste every inch of you, but I need to be in you too much.”

He fumbled at the button of his jeans. In a moment they were puddled around his feet. He gripped her by the waist and lifted her off the fence. Ana felt between them, taking hold of his erection and rubbing it against her wet channel.

Chase pushed at her, trying to penetrate the tantalizing warmth of her sex, but she moved to prevent it. “You’re killing me, Sassy,” he rasped, his voice rough with need.

“You feel pretty alive to me,” she teased, and when his eyes met hers, she rewarded him with a slow sexy smile that had him close to throwing her on the ground and burying himself in her.

Her eyes drew him in, their golden depths urging him to lose himself in their mystery. And so, he responded to the call and let himself dive into that golden heat, the connection of their minds nearly as erotic as that of their bodies when she eased his hard length inside her.

It was almost too much. The fire in his body was matched by an inferno in his mind, his entire being enveloped in her.

Chase groaned and started to pump into her, but she stilled him. “Wait. Wait. Be still. Just stand there and hold me.”

With her legs wrapped around his waist, and supporting herself by her hands on his shoulders, she began a slow steady pulse inside, her inner muscles squeezing and releasing him in ever-strengthening pulses. Her hips swiveled and rolled.

Chase gripped her ass tighter, overwhelmed by the sensations created by her incredible body. He’d never experienced anything like it. His entire body felt electrified, arcs of sensation dancing through his veins. It was more than the heat of her sex squeezing his erection. It was as if every inch of his skin had become supersensitive. Even the whisper of breeze on his back was an aphrodisiac.

It took every ounce of his control not to buck against her, drive deep inside her. It was, he realized, an act of surrender, something he’d never known, and something he was quite certain he’d never have been willing to give. Until now.

Ana leaned in to run her tongue along his neck to his ear. She took his earlobe into her mouth, sucking and biting, the warmth of her mouth and the feeling of her breasts pressed against him making him nearly weak with wanting. His own breath sounded harsh and hurried, the dominant male inside urging him to take. But the torture of wanting was too sublime, making him all too aware of the smell of her, the feel of her skin against him as they both grew hot and wet.

Ana’s breath was fuel to an already out-of-control fire when she whispered into his ear. “Are you ready for the fire?”

“Christ, yes!”

She put both hands on his face and whispered, “Deflagrate muri tempi et intervallia,” just before she claimed his lips.

Chase spiraled into a realm of pure sensation. Pure sexual, erotic, supreme pleasure spiked through every cell of his body. In pounding wave after wave, the sensations washed over him, another beginning before the previous had finished. It was like fire in his veins, his mind incapable of any thought aside from her wet sex squeezing him, and the sharp thrills of her hard nipples raking his chest as her body rose and fell and rolled on him.

“Ahh…Ana,” he groaned as her lips met his once more.

“That’s it,” she whispered against his lips, riding him harder. “May angle ar te merel kadi yag.”

Chase’s body jerked under the force of sexual energy that coursed through him. He felt his control slipping away, felt himself sliding toward that freefall. Tingling tension streamed through his body. His hands tightened on her, and his breath hitched.

He was going to come and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it. He was sliding over the edge of a cliff with nothing to prevent the fall. “Sassy…ahhh…can’t…” His harsh whisper spoke testament to his struggle to hold back.

And then she stilled. He throbbed inside her, the need to come so intense that he groaned in protest, clenching his eyes closed against the wave that threatened to wash him into release.

When his eyes opened, they locked with Ana’s. In those golden depths he saw an awareness more powerful than he’d ever known. There was no doubt in his mind that she was completely in tune with his need, that she knew he was about to explode. All he needed was one small movement from her, one more of those delicious pulses from inside her, caressing his dick and he’d be a goner.

Ana leaned close, her breath warm and sweet as her tongue flicked out over his bottom lip, her eyes never breaking contact with his. Chase tried to capture her lips in a kiss. Just one kiss and he’d take the plunge. And he was past the point of wanting. He needed it with an intensity that bordered on desperation.

“Deflagrate muri tempi et intervallia,” she whispered against his lips then pulled back.

He saw it in her eyes at the same moment the unfamiliar words emerged in a sexy whisper from her lips. She was going to take him over the edge. And then it happened.

Chase’s mind exploded into millions of shining shards of light, and he plummeted into a well of pure sensation, pumping deep into her, his body quaking in the onslaught of an orgasm that lasted long after his seed had spilled.

Ana felt his climax as her own and joined him in the spiraling dance into bliss. When at last they were returned to reality, she drew her head back to look at him. Chase released her and she slid down his body, their combined juices running down her leg.

Chase braced one hand on the fence, searching for words to describe what he was feeling. He felt as if he’d just been awakened. What he’d just experienced was more than just an orgasm, far more than physical. It was something that had touched every part of his being. Something profound and almost spiritual. But try as he might he could not find the right words to describe what he felt.

“That was…” He shook his head. “I don’t know what that was…but damn…when I get my knees back can we do it again?”

Ana laughed and hugged him. “Absolutely.”

Chase returned her embrace. “Ana…”

She pulled back to look up into his eyes and found a tenderness shining in their dark depths that made tears well in her own eyes. “Yes?”

“Fair warning, Sassy. I don’t know that I’ll ever get my fill of you.”

It was the closest to a proclamation of love he’d ever spoken, and they both knew it. Ana smiled up at him, reaching up to stroke his face. “I hope not, Chase. More than anything, I hope not.”

“Then maybe we could take this inside?”

“With your brothers asleep in the den?” she teased, giving him an exaggerated look of shock.

“You planning on being noisy, Sassy?”

“Hmmm, that depends. You planning on making me noisy, Hawks?”

“Oh yeah.” He grabbed her hand and started for the house. “Before the nights over I plan on having you screaming, yelling, moaning, groaning and singing glory halleluiah.”

“Promises, promises,” she laughed and ran eagerly with him to the house.