Heart of Love

by Shanna Hatfield

  Jake settled his mouth on hers timidly, tenderly. Her lips were warm and sweeter than he imagined. He planned to give her a quick kiss to satisfy his hunger, but once their lips touched he felt drawn to her in a way that completely baffled him.

  Gently placing a hand on either side of her face, he drew her deeper into the kiss, slanting his lips harder against hers. An explosion of sensations rocked through Jake as he savored her lips.

  Anna pulled back and gazed at him with trusting eyes. Eyes that held longing, and hope, and curiosity.

  Jake drew in a deep breath and attempted to collect himself after a kiss that shook him to his core. About to be consumed by something he didn’t fully understand, his only thought was to kiss her again. He’d kissed many girls in his dating years, but not once, not ever, had anything affected him like this one unbelievable kiss with Anna.

  Frustrated with the gearshift between them, Jake jumped out of the car and ran around to open Anna’s door. Swiftly reaching inside he unbuckled her seatbelt then pulled her out to stand in front of him. For a moment, he simply stared at her. She was so beautiful, so innocent, and so sweet.

  All his good intentions to take things slowly disappeared when he wrapped his arms around Anna and pulled her close. Heat and something else, something wild and unnamed, crackled between them.

  He buried his hands deep into her luxurious hair and pressed his lips to hers again, losing himself in the desire rocketing through him.

  Anna slid her hands up Jake’s muscled arms and clung to his broad shoulders, sure she would melt into a puddle at his feet if he let her go. She opened her mouth to catch her breath and Jake wasted no time in using that to his advantage.

  Without waiting to see if she might protest, Jake kissed her more thoroughly than she’d ever been kissed in her life. Startled by the foreign feelings assaulting her, she wanted more. As they pressed close together, she felt his heart racing, keeping rhythm to her own runaway pulse.

  The pressure of Jake’s fiery hands on her back urged her closer against him. She willingly surrendered to his demands.

  When his warm breath stirred the air by her ear, she was afraid he’d said something she couldn’t hear and gathered her courage.

  “Jake, I don’t want to miss anything you say. I’m deaf on that side. Please say it again?” She leaned back in his arms, embarrassed to interrupt a passionate moment with her hearing problem.

  “Anna,” Jake groaned, lifting his head and looking her full in the face. “I’m sorry. I said that you’re every bit as sweet as I dreamed you’d be. You’re beautiful, Sugar. So very beautiful, and completely wonderful. I’m so happy you’re here with me.”

  Certain there wasn’t a shy bone in his entire body, Jake suddenly felt bashful saying something out loud and to a girl’s face that would have been so much easier to whisper in her ear. At least Anna knew he meant it when he had to look her straight in the face to say the words that had long been on his heart.

  Much to his pleasure, Anna responded by kissing him. He marveled at how right it felt to hold her. She fit so perfectly in his arms, as if she was the one person God created to be in them.

  He deepened the kiss, stopping only when they both were breathless and disoriented. After one more hug, he took a step back, putting some distance between them.

  In countless dreams, he’d envisioned the real Anna, the Anna she was starting to be around him when she left her defenses down, would be passionate and exciting. In reality, he had no idea she’d be all that and more.

  If he didn’t get a handle on what happened between them, they’d end up carried away and he didn’t want that for Anna. He wanted each moment they spent together to be special.

  Jake lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her palm, then opened her car door and gently guided her inside. He bent down and buckled her seat belt, seeking any excuse to be close to her, to touch her.

  “I think you’d better get on home while we both still have a few wits about us.” Jake’s grin was cocky although his eyes still glowed with heat and yearning. As he kissed her palm again, he couldn’t remember ever struggling so hard to tell a girl good night. “Thank you, Anna, for one of the most amazing evenings I’ve ever had.”

  Anna smiled up at him, adoration and something Jake feared identifying written on her face. “Thank you for asking me, Jake. It was wonderful.”

  Jake kissed her cheek and stood, forcing himself to step away from her and the temptation she represented. “You get yourself on home, Sugar, and have sweet dreams.”

  Anna backed her car out of the parking space and waved at Jake. Without a doubt, all her dreams would be of him.

  Chapter Nine

  The air was stifling for late June. Without a breeze, the humidity of the morning made the air thick and unpleasant.

  As she pounded another staple into a fence post, Anna looked back at her handiwork. She’d been out since six that morning, repairing fence. The air was muggy down in the draw where she worked. Sweat trickled down her back, soaking through her tank top.

  Uncertain how she ended up with this job, it definitely wasn’t her ideal way to spend a beautiful Saturday. She, Sam and Ken divided the list of chores for the day. Thanks to Sam’s inability to get around on the uneven pasture ground and Ken’s need to attend a meeting in Portland at noon, Anna was stuck with fence repair.

  She pulled off her ball cap and removed her sunglasses. After wiping the sweat from her forehead with her forearm, she took a long drink of water from the bottle she’d brought with her when she left the house. She returned it to the bucket with all the fencing supplies, tugged the hat back on, slid her sunglasses into place, and walked to the next post.

  A dark blue pickup drove down the lane and stopped next to the four-wheeler as she tapped another staple into a fence post.

  Recognizing the visitor as Jake, Anna wanted to crawl in a hole and hide. With no gaping craters readily available, she glanced down at her filthy clothes. She could do nothing to fix her appearance. When she returned to the house, she’d be sure to thank her mom for sending Jake out to the pasture. Anna thought she looked and smelled like she’d clawed her way out of a briar patch after wrestling a Billy goat.

  Jake waved and sauntered toward her dressed in a light blue T-shirt, snug jeans, and a straw cowboy hat. Her mouth went dry as he approached, looking far too handsome for her heat-addled mind to process.

  “Hey, Anna, could you have picked a muggier spot to work this morning?” he teased, pecking her on the cheek. “It’s stifling down here.”

  “Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know, fancy boy?” Anna raked her gaze over his neat appearance while she felt like a trampled, wilted flower. “Are you volunteering to take over, or are you afraid you might break a nail or mess up your hair?”

  “I’ll have you know I’m perfectly capable of fence building.” To prove his point, Jake grabbed the wire stretchers in one hand and the bucket of fencing supplies in the other. “But maybe this one time I’ll pack the tools and watch you work.”

  Anna gave the staple one last tap then started toward the next post. Jake walked beside her, glad he’d decided to pay her a visit. Disappointed to find she wasn’t home, he thought he’d have to wait to see her until Sue gave him directions where to find her.

  Even if she was hot, dirty, and perspiring, Anna looked utterly tantalizing to him. Her tank top, soaked with sweat, clung like a second skin to every curve while her tanned arms and shoulders glistened in the morning sunlight.

  His head had a hard time wrapping around all the different sides of Anna: the library mouse, the gorgeous racecar driver, the hard-working farm girl, and the domesticated cook. He wondered how many other sides of Anna he had yet to discover. The thought intrigued him and he chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Anna swung the hammer in her hand as they walked.

  “Oh, nothing, I just…” Jake looked over at Anna and caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Right in fron
t of them, a snake stretched out in the sun. Involuntarily, Jake shuddered and jumped a step back. “Anna!” he warned, stretching his arm out toward her.

  She saw the snake at the same time as Jake. Instead of stepping back, she took a step forward and leveled a deadly blow with the hammer to the snake’s head. Its body twirled and twisted, tail rattles shaking.

  Jake dropped the bucket and stretchers, grabbing Anna’s arm in disbelief. His pulse galloped madly while his knees wobbled.

  “Are you insane? That’s a rattlesnake! What if it had bit you? That was a fool crazy thing to do!”

  Anna studied Jake, attempting to figure out what had him all in a dither.

  “It wasn’t crazy, it was smart. I can’t hear the rattles, so I make it a habit of killing snakes first and asking questions later. This is only the third rattlesnake we’ve ever had out here, but we have to be careful. It’s no big deal, Jake. I knew I was going to kill it, and I did. There’s nothing to get so worked up about.”

  She shrugged her shoulders and waited for him to calm down.

  Although he understood the reason behind her action, Jake couldn’t reconcile himself to Anna’s reckless behavior. She could have been bitten. She could have been down in this draw, far from the house, where no one would see her and died of snakebite.

  He didn’t even know there were rattlesnakes in the area, but the Zimmerman farm had some open rangeland behind it.

  Everything in him demanded he shelter her. Forbid her from working outside where there were dangers she couldn’t hear. Drag her to a cave and keep her out of harm’s way under his Neanderthal protection. He didn’t know what it was, but the more time he spent with Anna, the more he felt the need to keep her safe and secure.

  In spite of his tormented concern, Anna didn’t seem bothered in the least. In fact, she picked up the bucket, stepped around the snake, and moved on to the next post where she expertly pulled out old staples. When she glanced back at him, she noted his attention remained focused on the writhing body of the snake.

  Aware of his aversion to snakes, she hoped to distract him. “So what brings you out here today, anyway?”

  When Jake didn’t answer, Anna noticed he seemed a little pale and his breath came in gasps.

  “Are you okay, Jake? You look a little green around the gills.”

  “I’m fine,” he said weakly, picking up the fence stretchers from where he’d dropped them and taking a wide berth around the snake. It reminded him of the snake that terrorized him the summer he worked for Josh and Jenna. The small house he lived in at the time didn’t give him much room for running away from a persistent bullsnake. It slithered all over the house and even climbed into his bed, leaving him traumatized before Josh had finally trapped it. “I’m not fond of snakes and I’m really not fond of the idea of you being out here by yourself. What was your dad thinking?”

  Her temper began to boil. Anna leveled a cool glare at Jake, one even he could sense through her sunglasses, as she stubbornly set her chin.

  “My dad was thinking that I’m perfectly capable of fixing the fence and taking care of myself. I’m not an invalid, Jake, I just have trouble hearing.”

  “I didn’t mean it like, that, Anna.” Exasperated, he stepped close and rubbed his hand up and down her back. “I just don’t want you to be in situations where you could be in danger and not know it.”

  Anna’s biggest danger wasn’t in a snakebite, but being near to Jake. His hand on her back made her lightheaded and her limbs languid. To stay alert, she had to stay focused. That was impossible when Jake stood close enough for her to smell his spicy aftershave and see flecks of light and dark blue in his eyes.

  Mindful that Jake meant well, she pasted on a smile. “Thanks, Jake, I appreciate your concern,” Anna said in her common sense manner, handing him the pliers as she picked up the hammer again. “But I really can take care of myself.”

  “Obviously.” Part of him wanted to shake Anna until her teeth rattled for scaring him and endangering herself. Part of him wanted to kiss her senseless and never let go. Then there was a part of him that wanted to shout, “What a woman!” and let everyone know she was the most unique and complex female he’d ever encountered.

  He’d never expected to meet a girl who didn’t run screaming from a snake. He certainly never expected to watch a girl pop one on the head with a hammer and go on about her business as if she did it every day.

  Anna, his sweet innocent Anna, turned out to be quite a handful.

  Jake took a fortifying breath and grabbed the hammer from her hand. “Let me help.”

  Two hours later, they sat at the house nursing cold glasses of lemonade. Anna was surprised how fast they finished the fence repairs. She knew Jake grew up on a farm, but she’d never seen him dirty or with a hair out of place. He jumped in to help her like he knew what he was doing, which he did. It didn’t take long to finish fixing the fence.

  It hadn’t been a hardship for her to watch while Jake stretched the wire, his shoulder and thigh muscles straining as he pulled the wires tight. Blatant in her interest, she’d gaped at the way his biceps bunched as he pounded in the staples. In a matter of moments, Jake took over her job and she became the tool caddy.

  Now, sitting at the kitchen table, sweat and grime covered his shirt and his hair was a tousled mess. Anna didn’t think she’d ever seen him look quite so appealing.

  “I didn’t know you had it in you to work that hard, fancy boy. I’m impressed,” Anna teased, passing him a plate of sugar cookies. “You didn’t say what brought you out this morning, besides hunting for snakes.”

  Jake grinned. He wasn’t a stranger to hard work, but he really hadn’t planned to get dirty or stay so long. He wasn’t sure he was ready for Anna to see him dirty and sweaty then he realized his practical girl wouldn’t care. Knowing her, she’d probably like him better this way than pressed and polished.

  He’d driven out that morning to ask Anna a question and still hadn’t gotten around to it yet. No time like the present.

  “I was coming out to see if you had plans for the Fourth of July. If you don’t have anything already in mind, I’d love to spend the day with you.” Jake remembered to look into her face when he spoke since she wasn’t wearing her hearing aid.

  Anna smiled. “I’d like that very much. What do you have in mind?”

  “Just the usual festivities like the events in the park, the rodeo, and fireworks. Aunt Bobbi and Uncle Steve are hosting a big barbecue. You could invite your folks, and Sam and Lisa, to come if you wanted.” Jake wasn’t sure he was ready for her family to meet his, but he’d throw out any incentive that would convince Anna to spend the day with him.

  “It sounds like fun.” Anna swirled ice around in her glass. “Sam’s going to be with Lisa’s family all day, but I’ll see if Mom and Dad would be interested in the barbecue. You’re certain we wouldn’t be imposing?”

  “Not at all,” Jake’s answered truthfully. His aunt and uncle opened their home to half the county when they hosted barbecues. The more the merrier was Bobbi’s philosophy when asked about adding another guest or two.

  “Let’s plan on it then.” Anna looked forward to spending the holiday with Jake.

  “Great.” After eating another cookie, Jake tipped his head and gave Anna an inquisitive grin. “Do you have plans this afternoon?”

  “Not really. Why?”

  “I promised Jace and Jaret I’d take them to the zoo. There’s a new dinosaur exhibit where the dinosaurs actually move and roar, and all that stuff. Do you want to go with us?”

  Anna smiled, relishing the thought of spending the afternoon with the adorable little twins and one very big, very attractive boy. “I’d love to. Are you sure Josh and Jenna won’t mind?”

  Jake shook his head. “Jenna will probably be relieved to know someone else is going along. For whatever reason, she often accuses me of spoiling the boys.”

  “I can only imagine.” Anna pictured Jake out with the twins
, indulging their every whim. “What time should I be ready?”

  “I’ll pick you up at one then we can get the boys.” Jake got to his feet and carried his dirty glass to the kitchen sink.

  “I could meet you in town. It would save you another trip out here,” Anna offered, picking up the plate of cookies and setting them on the counter.

  “Not necessary.” Jake opened the kitchen door. When Anna walked over to see him out, he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. He placed his lips close to her good ear. “If I come get you, it means extra time with you and the opportunity to sneak in a few extra kisses.”

  When Jake lifted his head to look at her, Anna blushed, although her eyes shone with pleasure. “I’ll be ready and waiting.”

  A few hours later, Jake and Anna headed toward Portland with Jace and Jaret chatting up a storm from the backseat.

  “Are you gonna be our aunt?” Jaret asked Anna as they took the exit toward the zoo.

  Anna shot Jake a deer-in-the-headlights look while she tried to think of a suitable response.

  Jake came to her rescue. “What makes you ask that, buddy?”

  “Anna’s pretty and nice and we like her bunches,” Jaret said, nodding his head toward Jake.

  “Yeah, whole bunches,” Jace added, joining in the head nodding. “More than cupcakes and frogs.”

  Jake swallowed back a laugh and settled a serious look on his face before he glanced in the rear-view mirror at the twins. “That’s pretty intense, guys. You must like her a lot.”

  “Yep, we do.” Jace answered for them both.

  Anna turned around to gaze at them with a bright smile. “I like you both heaps and bunches, too. How about, just for today, I pretend to be your aunt. Would that be okay?”

  “Sure!” Jaret unbuckled his seat belt as Jake pulled into a parking spot. “We can call you Aunt Anna all day. Right, Uncle Jake?”