Chase 'n' Ana (11 page)

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.

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“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, Fancy,” 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.”

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Chase ‘n’ Ana

“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!” Garrett 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 in

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 got dry. By all that was holy, she was definitely a witch. He

couldn’t take his eyes off her.

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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,

Fancy, 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!”

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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, Fancy?” 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, Fancy?”

“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.

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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