Page 10 of Charmed
Even as he was thinking it, and indulging in a spot of male superiority, he saw Daisy streak across her lawn, chasing the sleek gray cat.
He had a hand on the window, prepared to shoot it up and call off the dog. Before he could make the move, he saw it was already too late.
In slow motion, it might have been an interesting and well-choreographed dance. The cat streaked like gray smoke between Ana’s legs. She swayed. The clay pots in her arms teetered. Boone swore, then let out a sigh of relief when she righted them, and herself, again. Before the breath was out, Daisy plowed through, destroying the temporary balance. This time Ana’s feet were knocked completely out from under her. She went down, and the pots went up.
Though he was already swearing, Boone heard the crash as he leapt through the terrace doors and down the steps to the lower deck.
She was muttering what sounded to him like exotic curses when he reached her. And he could hardly blame her. Her cat was up a tree, spitting down on the yipping dog. The pots she’d been carrying were little more than shards scattered over the grass and the edge of the patio where the impact had taken place.
Boone winced, cleared his throat. “Ah, are you all right?”
She was on her hands and knees, and her hair was over her eyes. But she tossed it back and shot him a long look through the blond wisps. “Dandy.”
“I was at the window.” This certainly wasn’t the time to admit he’d been watching her. “Passing by thewindow,” he corrected. “I saw the chase and collision.” Crouching down, he began to help her pick up the pieces. “I’m really sorry about Daisy. We’ve only had her a few days, and we haven’t had any luck with training.”
“She’s a baby yet. No point in blaming a dog for doing what comes naturally.”
“I’ll replace the pots,” he said, feeling miserably awkward.
“I have more.” Because the barking and spitting were getting desperate, Ana sat back on her heels. “Daisy!” The command was quiet but firm, and it was answered instantly. Tail wagging furiously, the pup scrambled over to lick at her face and arms. Refusing to be charmed, Ana cupped the dog’s face in her hands. “Sit,” she ordered, and the puppy plopped her rump down obligingly. “Now behave yourself.” With a little whine of repentance, Daisy settled down with her head on her paws.
Almost as impressed as he was baffled, Boone shook his head. “How’d you do that?”
“Magic,” she said shortly, then relented with a faint smile. “You could say I’ve always had a way with animals. She’s just happy and excited and roaring to play. You have to make her understand that some activities are inappropriate.” Ana patted Daisy’s head and earned an adoring canine glance.
“I’ve been trying bribery.”
“That’s good, too.” She stretched out under a trellis of scarlet clematis, looking for more broken crockery. It was then that Boone noticed the long scratch on her arm.
“You’re bleeding.”
She glanced down. There were nicks on her thighs, too. “Hard to avoid, with pots raining down on me.”
He was on his feet in a blink and hauling Ana to hers. “Damn it, I asked you if you were all right.”
“Well, really, I—”
“We’ll have to clean it up.” He saw there was more blood trickling down her legs, and he reacted exactly as he would if it were Jessie. He panicked. “Oh, Lord.” He scooped an amazed Ana into his arms and hurried toward the closest door.
“Honestly, there’s absolutely no need—”
“It’s going to be fine, baby. We’ll take care of it.”
Half amused, half annoyed, Ana huffed out a breath as he pushed his way into the kitchen. “In that case, I’ll cancel the ambulance. If you’d just put me—” He dropped her into one of the padded ice-cream chairs at her kitchen table. “—down.”
Nerves jittering, Boone raced to the sink for a cloth. Efficiency, speed and cheer were the watchwords in such cases, he knew. As he dampened the cloth and squirted it with soap, he took several long breaths to calm himself.
“It won’t look so bad when we get it cleaned up. You’ll see.” After pasting a smile on his face, he walked back to kneel in front of her. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Gently he began to dab at the thin line of blood that had dripped down her calf. “We’re going to fix it right up. Just close your eyes and relax.” He took another long breath. “I knew this man once,” he began, improvising a story as he always did for his daughter. “He lived in a place called Briarwood, where there was an enchanted castle behind a high stone wall.”
Ana, who had been on the point of firmly telling him she could tend to herself, stopped and did indeed relax.
“Growing over the wall were thick vines with big, razor-sharp thorns. No one had been to the castle in more than a hundred years, because no one was brave enough to climb that wall and risk being scraped and pricked. But the man, who was very poor and lived alone, was curious, and day after day he would walk from his house to the wall and stand on the tips of his toes to see the sun gleam on the topmost towers and turrets of the castle.”
Boone turned the cloth over and dabbed at the cuts. “He couldn’t explain to anyone what he felt inside his heart whenever he stood there. He wanted desperately to climb over. Sometimes at night in his bed he would imagine it. Fear of those thick, sharp thorns stopped him, until one day in high summer, when the scent of flowers was so strong you couldn’t take a breath without drinking it in, that glimpse of the topmost towers wasn’t enough. Something in his heart told him that what he wanted most in the world lay just beyond that thorn-covered wall. So he began to climb it. Again and again he fell to the ground, with his hands and arms pricked and bleeding. And again and again he pushed himself up.”
His voice was soothing, and his touch—his touch was anything but. As gentle as he was with the cool cloth, an ache began to spread, slow and warm, from the center of her body outward. He was stroking her thighs now, where the sharp edge of a shard had nicked the flesh. Ana closed her hand into a fist, the twin of which clenched in her stomach.
She needed him to stop. She wanted him to go on. And on.
