Table Of ContentAn Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
www.ellorascave.com
Chase ‘n’ Ana
ISBN # 9781419908378
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Chase ‘n’ Ana Copyright© 2007 Ciana Stone
Edited by Sue-Ellen Gower.
Cover art by Syneca.
Electronic book Publication: January 2007
his book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means
existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave
Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 443103502.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of
the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.
Content Advisory:
S – ENSUOUS
E – ROTIC
X
-
TREME
Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading
entertainment: S (Sensuous), E (Erotic), and X (X-treme).
The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature
readers. This story has been rated E–rotic.
S- ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.
E- rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high
in volume per the overall word count. E-rated titles might contain material that
some readers find objectionable—in other words, almost anything goes,
sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both
sexual language and descriptiveness in these works of literature.
X- treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline
execution. Stories designated with the letter X tend to contain difficult or
controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.
CHASE ‘N’ ANA
Ciana Stone
Dedication
For the “real” Chase—a cowboy whose smoldering sensuality, quick wit, and
sexy, slow drawl when he calls me Fancy, makes this little new age witch think
of all sorts of things a person can do with a rope.
Acknowledgements
My deepest appreciation to all the people who were so instrumental in the
creation of this book: Ari, who shares my love of cowboys and is always there
with a hilarious comment about some of my ideas.
Susan, who is a mental gunslinger that cannot be outdrawn and whose wicked
humor makes me laugh even when I’m trying really hard to mope.
Suz, who gives me bellyaches from laughing at her stellar wit, and teaches me
every day how to be a better writer.
And Raelene, the publisher who really cares about each and every author, and
who I am sure is hiding all sorts of wickedly sexy tales under her hat.
And special appreciation to Patty Marks.
You are the one who makes it all happen, who keeps things going every day,
making Ellora’s Cave a welcome place for all of us. Your praise is not sung
nearly enough, but make no mistake, we all know that if there was an award for
the most dynamic, creative, caring and all-around most kick-ass CEO in the
world, you would win it hands down.
Thank you for all you do and how much you care. You are amazing.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the
following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Bewley’s: Bewley’s Cafes Limited
Colt: Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Crabtree & Evelyn: Crabtree & Evelyn, Ltd.
Dodge: Chrysler Corporation
iPod: Apple Computer, Inc.
Patron: St. Maarten Spirits, Ltd.
Wave Runner: Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation
Ciana Stone
Chapter One
The car coughed. Literally coughed. Then it died. In disbelief, Ana pumped the
accelerator. Nothing. Like an elderly animal giving up the ghost, it coasted down
the road for a few hundred yards, each passing foot getting slower and slower
until it was barely moving.
She steered it off the side of the road and just sat staring through the front
windshield. She was screwed. Here she was on—she had to check the map that
lay on the passenger seat to determine just where—Highway 70 in Bumfuck,
Arizona, with a broken-down car, no water, no phone and very little money.
Yep, she was officially screwed.
Ana let her head fall forward onto the steering wheel. Either she was paying off
some really horrible karmic debt, or she was having one of the worst runs of luck
in the history of man.
Her summer had started off badly. First the Wicca shop she worked for went
bust.
Literally. The owner got busted for growing hydroponic pot in the basement of
the store. That left Ana without a steady job. Teaching yoga and belly dancing
three nights a week at the senior citizen center, and the occasional card reading
wasn’t going to keep her in organic veggies and tofu for long.
Fergi, her ferruginous hawk, attacked her husband Giovanni, who tried to shoot
it.
Ana used a broom to knock the gun away, and Giovanni shot out the kitchen
window and the refrigerator. Fergi got pissed and took off and Ana was not able
to get her to come back to the house until the day Ana packed her bags.
Then someone let her rabbit out of the house and it got eaten by a Doberman
pinscher, grossing out the guy walking the dog and scaring the crap out of two
kids playing on the sidewalk. Not to mention earning her a fine from the
department for animal control. She still didn’t understand that.
The next blow came in the form of Jimmy Lowe, a sweet thirteen-year-old boy
two houses down, who was several bottles shy of a six-pack. Ana was taking a
shower trying not to let water go all over the bathroom. The shower curtain was
missing, torn off when her best friend Cecilia and her new boyfriend decided to
have a nooner in Ana’s shower. Apparently Cecilia slipped on the soap, fell into
her new honey man who toppled over, grabbed the shower curtain and ripped it
off on his way out of the tub.
Lucky for Ana he had decided not to sue her for the four stitches it took to close
up the gash in his head caused from whacking the toilet on his way to the floor.
Ana rinsed the soap off her face and turned to rinse the back of her hair. That’s
when she saw Jimmy, standing at the bathroom window, masturbating. She
yelled at 6
Chase ‘n’ Ana
Jimmy. Jimmy fell. And now Jimmy’s mother was threatening to sue Ana for
contributing to the delinquency of a “mentally challenged” minor.
And all that happened before the end of the first week. But the straw that broke
the camel’s back was when Ana’s husband, Giovanni, slugged her. Actually
balled up his fist and punched her in the gut. And all because she disagreed with
his narrow-minded stance on same-sex marriages.
She’d heard that love can’t die in a day, but knew beyond a shadow of a doubt
the moment Giovanni hit her that the saying was wrong. There wasn’t a drop of
love left in her heart for him. Truth be told, there hadn’t been that much for half
their married life, which was only three years. She’d put up with him because
she felt it was her own fault that she fell for the act he put on when he was
chasing her. Once the ink was dry on the marriage contract, he became someone
she didn’t know, and didn’t particularly like.
But she blamed herself as much as him and hoped that in time she’d come to
appreciate him for who he was and learn to view his shortcomings with
affection. It had not happened, but since Giovanni didn’t share his money, car or
insurance with her, she had little choice but to stay in the marriage. She couldn’t
afford the mortgage on the house by herself and wasn’t ready to get back into a
roommate situation. The last one had ended up getting her tossed in jail because
her roommate was running some kind of illegal porn site from a computer setup
in the room she shared with her boyfriend, a sleazy guy called Snake. That pretty
much made Ana’s mind up that she wasn’t equipped to deal with roommates.
Then, of course, she got married and figured wedded life had to beat the heck
out of the single game. Getting slugged changed everything. It was an
awakening, an epiphany, and hurt like hell to boot. Not as bad as the beating he
gave her when she announced she was leaving during their argument.
Ana had not imagined Giovanni had it in him to hurt her that badly, but when
she woke up in the hospital with two broken ribs, stitches in her scalp and
looking like she’d been…well, beaten, she realized how horribly wrong she had
been.
Ana was on her own and didn’t have a clue what to do. All she knew was that
she wanted to get as far away from Giovanni as possible. She remembered
hearing her parents talk about a place in Arizona where the people were laid-
back and openminded, and decided that’s where she would go. With all her
possessions crammed into the back of her car, three hundred dollars in her
pocket, a full tank of gas and Fergi with a death grip on the top of the front seat,
she hit the road, hoping that the house she left behind would fall in on her
worthless husband.
And wound up here. An image flashed in her mind of herself, hanging onto a
knotted rope and a little red demon hovering above her with a cigarette lighter,
burning the rope fiber by fiber. She knew she was teetering perilously close to
losing control of the tight rein she’d been holding to for the last few months and
that scared her. Thus far she had not cried, trembled or screamed at the course of
events that had turned her life into a gigantic pile of crap. But she was sure close.
7
Ciana Stone
Which meant she had to get it together and take action. And the only action
available to her at the moment was to get out of the car and start walking.
Which was exactly what she did. Fergi took to the air and Ana walked. Cars and
trucks passed her by but not one stopped to ask if she needed help and she was
too cautious to stick out her thumb for a ride.
Lucky for Ana, she wasn’t as far from civilization as she imagined. In a couple
