Chapter 3

Clay peeled off his shirt and mopped his face with it. Rusty Blackhawk had nearly worked him to death and it was still a good hour until dusk. They’d been out repairing fences all day, hauling new posts from the barn and stringing wire.

She might have been a small woman, just a tad over five feet by his estimate, but she was a damn workhorse. He cut a look over at her, watching her string wire. In faded, sweat- stained jeans, a wife-beater t-shirt that had enough sweat on it to encourage a man’s eyes to her nipples, work gloves and an old hat, she was about the sexiest thing he’d ever laid eyes on.

Which lead him back to thinking about how his family had set him up with Rusty Blackhawk. Did they all think it would just be a good laugh to put one over on him, or was there more to it? He planned on finding out when he called Ana.

He’d purposely not called her after he discovered Rusty Blackhawk was a woman. And he’d not answered his cell phone either, even though she’d called a dozen times every day for the last five days. He’d call when he was good and ready, even though he still wasn’t sure whether to raise hell or thank her.

Rusty walked over and picked up the gallon jug of water sitting near Clay and turned it up for a long drink. Water spilled out over her face, running clear down to that white t-shirt. Even Clay’s eyes felt hot watching her. How the hell could a woman look so damn sexy guzzling water? And make no mistake, she was guzzling. Nothing ladylike about it at all.

She lowered the jug and grinned at him. “Want some?”

Clay’s dick actually jumped in his pants. This woman was clear as glass and not a damn bit ashamed of it. She’d phrased the question in that low sultry voice on purpose, knowing his eyes were fixed on those hard nipples beneath that wet t-shirt, and that he’d been watching her tight ass all afternoon in those snug jeans.

“You bet,” he replied.

Koda, who was lying in the shade cast by the truck, gave a warning growl. Clay cut his eyes over to the dog then back at Rusty. “You think that fella’s gonna warm up to me any time soon?”

Rusty shrugged. “Depends.”

“On?”

“On whether he decides he can trust you,” she said as she walked over with the jug in her hand. “It’s hot,” she said as she handed it to him.

“Can’t get too hot for me,” he replied and took the jug to turn it up to his lips.

Rusty watched him drink, his head tilted back and the water pouring into his open mouth, little rivulets running over his full bottom lip to the short goatee on his chin, and then spilling onto his neck and on down the center of his muscular chest.

She was so caught up in watching the trail of water as it made its way down his rippled abdomen to the waistband of his jeans that she jerked her eyes up to his in embarrassment when he spoke.

“Got any more?”

“Huh?”

He smiled at her, that slow sexy smile that made a flutter start in her belly. “Water,” he said, holding out the empty jug. “Got any more in the truck?”

“Oh! Yeah, I think there’s another gallon.”

Clay’s smile widened into a grin as he walked past her to the truck and Rusty blew out her breath. Working with Clay Russell was enough to tempt a nun. She hadn’t had sex since Danny died, and the sex she’d had with him couldn’t be described as mind-blowing. How the heck she was going to work with Clay day in and day out was beyond her. Either she was going to have to invest in a dildo or she was going to end up raping the man.

Which sounded pretty good at the moment and made delicious thoughts dance in her mind. Wasn’t there some kind of spell in her mama’s old book of shadows on bewitching someone and them not remembering what happened during the time the charm was in effect?

Clay’s voice cut into her thoughts. “You look like a cat eyeballing a bowl of cream.”

Rusty blushed and hurried over to the next rotten post to be replaced. “Just dreaming of a shower and a beer, cowboy,” she said as she shoved at the post.

“A woman after my own heart,” he commented and hefted the last post from the bed of the truck. “Tell you what. We get this finished in the next half hour and the beers on me. Anywhere around these parts for beer, good food and a little music?”

Rusty grinned and rocked the rotten post harder to loosen it. “I think I might know just the place.”

* * * * *

Twilight was falling when Rusty and Clay finished feeding the stock. “Nice work, Mr. Russell,” Rusty said as she walked to the bunkhouse. “Wasn’t expecting you to do any hands on work.”

“You figured on me being of the dime-store cowboy variety?” Clay asked as he followed her inside. “Just because I’ve been busy with paperwork the last few days doesn’t mean I don’t intend to pull my weight.”

Koda, who trailed one step behind Rusty, gave a couple of short yips that made Rusty laugh.

“Okay, this has been going on long enough,” Clay complained. “What’s the deal with you and Koda? You speak wolf?”

Rusty cut her eyes at him suspiciously. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Clay didn’t quite know how to explain it. Before Ana entered their lives, he’d have sworn that communication between people and animals was impossible. But Ana changed his thinking on that. Not only did she communicate with virtually every animal she encountered, but had made it possible for Chase to communicate with his dog, Cody.

“Let’s just say that living around Ana has altered the way I view communication between people and animals. And the way I think about…uh, a lot of things.”

Rusty threw back her head and laughed, at the same time Koda howled. “Good Lord and quarter I bet she has,” Rusty said.

“So are you…I mean…are you like Ana??” Clay asked.

Rusty looked from him to Koda. Their eyes locked for a long moment. When Rusty turned her eyes back to Clay, he took a step back, blinked and then blinked again. No, there was nothing wrong with his vision, but there was definitely something going on with Rusty’s eyes.

The normal violet color was now swirled with what he could only describe as light. “More than you want to know, Mr. Russell.”

For several seconds they stood perfectly still, eyes locked. Clay felt the energy between them as something tangible, something that made his skin tingle and his blood sing in his veins. “Don’t be too sure.”

Rusty smiled and the lights in her eyes faded. She turned away and picked up a couple of towels stacked on an old wooden table, and put them in a small wicker basket holding soap and shampoo. “You did good work today, Mr. Russell. I appreciate it.”

Clay wouldn’t admit that it had been a long time since he’d worked quite so hard. There was a lot of work to do on the Circle R, but repairing fences and hauling posts was work usually left to the hired hands. “I’ve done my share of hard labor.”

Rusty tossed her battered hat aside, loosened the band holding back her hair and kicked off her boots. “But not recently,” she said, hiding a grin as she bent to peel off her dirty socks.

Koda let loose with a series of yips and yaps that elicited a laugh from Rusty.

Clay was so caught up in looking down her t-shirt as she bent over that he completely missed the jibe, but the exchange between her and the dog interrupted his visual appreciation. “What was that about?”

“Nothing,” she said as she straightened and picked up the basket. “Here,” she offered it to him. “Seeing as how you’re the boss, it’s only fair that you get first dibs at the shower.”

Clay heaved a sigh. Taking a shower under the cold water from the hose at the well house was getting old. When the hell were those guys going to show up and repair everything? Not only was the shower situation getting old, but sleeping in a bunk above Rusty every night, listening to the sounds of her breathing, and thinking about those damn shorts and the man’s tank top she wore to bed was enough to have him ready to split at the seams.

Tired and dirty as he was, with the night air starting to fall, the idea of cold well water wasn’t a big appeal. “Ladies first.”

Rusty shrugged. “Have it your way.”

She walked past him and out. For a minute Clay just stood there looking after her. First thing in the morning he was making a call to Clara and have her light a fire under the delivery people to get the furniture for the bunkhouse and ranch office here and set up, along with a computer. She was also going to have to find a way to pull some strings and get the fire investigators off their butts along with the insurance people so they could hire someone to get started pronto on fixing up the house. No way he and Rusty could live in this bunkhouse much longer. It had been five days and already he felt like his balls were going to spontaneously combust.

Rusty was easy on the eyes and hell on the libido. Just watching her work was enough to have him yearning to throw her on the ground and ride her like a stallion.

The sound of Rusty singing had him turning to walk to the door. He stopped, wanting to look out and see her standing naked under the water, but knowing it was not the gentlemanly thing to do. Lust battled with manners. In the end manners won. Reluctantly.

He wandered over and sat down on an old sagging-bottom chair. This arrangement was going to be more of a challenge than he’d imagined. He could run a breeding farm without a problem, but Rusty Blackhawk was another matter. Try as he might he couldn’t get the images of her naked under that cold water out of his mind.

He thought about calling Ana. She had to have known that Rusty wasn’t normal, that she was…well, that she was a witch. But Rusty hadn’t come right out and admitted to that so maybe he was wrong.

Or maybe the damn woman had him so worked up with wanting that he just wasn’t thinking straight. And that brought him to a question he had no answer for. Did he follow the demands of the screaming male inside and do whatever it took to bed this woman, or did he heed good sense and keep his hands off her so they could work together?

He wished he knew the answer to that. Unbidden images rose to the forefront of his mind again, of Rusty’s firm body glistening with water, those perky nipples tight against the cold and the dark curls crowning her sex sparkling with beads of water like stars.

Clay groaned and reached down to adjust himself more comfortably in his pants. Right now, the idea of a cold shower was starting to have an appeal.