Chase Wheeler's Woman by Charlene Sands

smelling their scent, wanting what you can’t have.”
    He stroked Tornado’s long snout affectionately, then began combing the stallion down. Tornado relaxed, and Letty Sue watched man with animal, noting how very alike they were. How untamed they could be one moment, then tender. How high-strung and temperamental in one instant, then so at peace, so calm the next.
    “Letty Sue?”
    She froze. How had he known she was there, standing in the dark shadows as she was? She’d been spying on him—the very thing she’d accused him of doing at the diner. “I just came for a currycomb. Starlight needs a good combing.” She lifted up the bristled brush to show him her intent.
    He came out of the stall, latching it and headed her way. Taking the comb from her hand, he said, “You don’t have to do that. I’ll take care of her tonight.”
    “All right,” she said.
    “’Night, Letty Sue.” He turned away, ready to leave the barn.
    “Uh, good night. Chase?”
    He stopped and spun around. “Yeah?”
    “Why’d you come after me tonight?”
    Chase lifted a neckerchief from his rear pocket and rubbed the back of his neck. He blew breath out, a sound much like Tornado’s impatient snort. “You know why and I won’t be repeating myself.”
    She wouldn’t let the subject drop. “Because I left and you didn’t know where I was?”
    He nodded.
    “So then, when you found me at the diner, why’d you come barging in, ready to shoot?”
    He didn’t respond, except for the smallest shake of his head.
    “What’d you think I was doing in there?”
    Chase closed his eyes briefly, then shot her a hard look. “A woman goes off in the dead of night to meet up with a man…what’d you suppose I was thinking?”
    Letty Sue rolled her eyes. “Petey’s hardly a man and I was cooking. ”
    He took a step toward her. “I didn’t know that.”
    Letty Sue smiled. “But you thought I’d be meeting a man for…for—”
    “That’s right, damn it, that’s what I thought.”
    Letty Sue lowered her voice, in sharp contrast to Chase’s thundering one. “And you didn’t like it, did you?”
    “Hell no, I didn’t like it one bit.” He took another step toward her, pointing his finger. “I’m responsible for your doings, woman. Get that through your head. I can’t have you running off whenever you fancy, and I sure as hell can’t be chasing you down every night.”
    Letty Sue approached him. She stopped when her boots met his. “Or just maybe there’s another reason you came toting that gun tonight, Chase.”
    He looked down at her. “Doubtful.”
    She tilted her chin up. “Is it?”
    “Just what in blazes are you getting at?”
    She met his eyes directly and spoke ever so softly. “How’d you know I was in the barn just now?”
    Chase flinched as though she surprised him with her sudden change of conversation.
    “Well?” she asked.
    He cast her a solemn look of resignation. “You smell…pretty,” he said, “better than anything in this here barn.”
    She smiled. “Thank you.”
    He grunted in reply. “I’ve gotta bed down Starlight. You coming?” he asked as he headed for the barn door.
    Letty Sue matched his strides, but just as he was about to throw open the wide door, her boot tangled with a coiled rope on the ground. She struggled to stay upright, to no avail. She felt herself falling.
    Chase caught her just in time, bringing her up against him. This was the second time tonight they’d been thrust together. This time, he didn’t let her go. He held her close, his powerful chest crushing her bosom, her head tucked under his chin.
    Chase huffed out air. “Sometimes I wish you’d just stay the hell away from me.”
    Letty Sue wound her arms about his waist, but pulled away enough to look up into his eyes. Theywere black as coal now and just as hot. “Is that really true, Chase?”
    Tension ripped through the air in the stuffy barn. Letty Sue felt the evidence of his desire, crushed to him like she