by Zoe Adams
She was reminded of a dull ache in her palm. She had gotten a sliver that morning, and hadn’t had time to take it out yet.
She pulled a sewing pin from the leather wall of her boot.
“As long as I am sitting here, there’s something I need to do.” She lined up the needle with the wood splinter in her palm and remained oblivious to Royce as she pulled at her skin.
Royce sat forward, all business. He looked at her finger and grunted. Susanna started to pull back, and he stopped her.
“Just wait, Susanna. I have to get my tools.” Royce opened up his breast pocket and pulled something out.
“I told you I carried a microscope with me.” Royce put the magnifier up to his eye. Susanna felt silly as he proved himself.
Royce held the needle in his hand and just stared at her. “Do you miss your husband?” he asked.
In that moment Susanna knew he had looked up her life. There were probably not very many secrets she could keep from someone that wealthy. It was the information and technology age, but she had nothing to hide except bank account numbers, and he didn’t look or act like he needed money. Susanna looked at him with resignation.
“Yes, there are a lot of things about me that I can’t hide.” Susanna looked at him knowingly. “Of course I miss my husband, and the times we had. They were days in another life. But that was before my life changed. I have a different life now.”
“It must get lonely out here. I bet that’s why you work so much.”
“Everyone is an expert.” Susanna laughed. This was all part of her well-rehearsed line of excuses. “I am an independent American woman. It’s my choice to do whatever I want. As long as no one’s getting hurt, I should be free to live however I like.”
“What would your husband think of the way you live now?” he asked, clamping his hands on her arms.
When he touched her, it broke her reserve. His eyes were so deeply brown and open that she started to see herself in them. Suddenly her excuses seemed dim and narrow-minded. Her eyes widened at the new truth.
She was powerless in his arms. Royce’s hands were a magnetic clamp. There was a moment of silence as she realigned her stance on being single. It had been a long time, and she had forgotten how to reach out to a man.
“I would like to spend more time together,” he said with his dark eyes set in determination. “You can show me what you do for fun on the prairie.”
Susanna’s heart thudded in her ears. She contemplated escaping a little while with him. She had been working hard the last few years of her life on the ranch.
She thought back further to her old marriage and career. She had worked hard on those as well. Susanna had had a hard life. She didn’t notice it until she was with him. The last few years of her life had been hard, to say the least. She never did anything without considering countless consequences. The idea of doing something spontaneous filled her with an excitement that was undecipherable from fear.
Royce lowered his gaze. “I know that you like your privacy, and I respect that. In fact, that’s one of my favorite things about you.” He raised his hand to his temple and scratched. “I just don’t know if it’s a privacy issue or a trust issue that brings your gun everywhere you go.”
Susanna’s brain was working overtime. Respect, trust, and favorite things? She hadn’t considered him having a favorite thing about her already. She wondered if she was playing the game in a slow, drawn out, Midwestern way.
Royce continued unhindered, “You wear a dress and carry a gun. I can think of so many good rock-n-roll songs that I want to dance with you.”
Now they were speaking the same language.
Susanna loved music and spent a lot of her time with it. She could keep a beat and tap her foot any time. The thought of dancing with Royce made her lungs drop into places in her chest she didn’t know existed.
His smile broadened as he looked at her expectantly. She didn’t understand what he was waiting for, until she looked down. He was holding out a gift to her. Susanna lost more breath.
It was a flat jewelry box, with a big red bow. She opened it up and found a very shiny watch. She looked at it questioningly. “Wow,” Susanna said loudly, “I can’t wear this on the ranch.”
Royce nodded clearly and remained on course. “My watch broke when we met. I could only think of you, and how much time would pass before I got to see you again. I have had these watches for a long time.” He lifted the cuff of his sleeve, revealing gold and diamonds with a watch face somewhere on it. He shifted forward to help her compare. “See? We have matching watches. Except yours is a little more feminine.”
Susanna looked at his watch for a moment, then looked back at the box. It was very forward of him to get them matching jewelry, especially an everyday accessory. The face of the watch and its band were both made up of tiny diamonds. She looked at it from end to end. There were a thousand diamonds on the watch, and she shook her head.
“This is too nice for me.” She smiled at Royce and looked at the watch again. “I can’t work in something like this. I would lose these diamond settings in a day. There would be little diamonds on the ground everywhere I went.” She laughed at the image of a shiny trail following her. Susanna looked up at Royce and immediately felt chagrined. He had given her a gift, and she had literally laughed in his face. “It’s very beautiful.” Susanna tried to cover for herself. “I just want it to stay nice, so I probably won’t wear it very much.”
Royce stepped forward and took the box softly from her hands. He loosened the watch from its velvet bed and held it up to the sun.
“I designed these myself.” He held his matching band beside hers. “See? They’re matching his and hers watches. It’s something I was told to do when I was fourteen. My grandma told me that I had to look to the future, and envision myself with the perfect woman. She told me I had to make something we could both use.”
Royce smiled down at Susanna. “I designed two watches. I started on the girl’s watch and did half of the settings myself, before having a professional finish it.”
The middle of the band was pure diamonds with white gold settings and rings. The face of the watch was a round circle of opal. The hands were yellow gold. There were no numbers to calculate it by, but four gems held the quarterly spots where the numbers should have been.
Even those four gems had been intricately picked, cut, and sliced to make a colorful flat addition. There was a ruby shaped into a red heart, and it held the twelve o’clock position. A blue star was across from a circle. The bottom gem was shaped like a half-moon.
He turned the watch over. The back of it was smooth and plain. “I could never think of anything to engrave on it.”
Susanna looked at the watch again. “While most kids are playing with erector sets, you are making things from gold?”
Royce smiled. “I had no choice. I was surrounded by gold.”
He said it so extravagantly that Susanna thought he was kidding. She kept her attention on the watch.
“It’s a really nice watch,” she said.
He got excited and leaned over. He pointed out a few other features of the watch.
“It’s really too nice. I can’t accept it.” She held the watch out to him.
He took the watch with a confident hand. He swung it like a pendulum into his palm. Royce continued to keep his eyes on her when he took her left hand with his. He held her hand smoothly and put the watch on her wrist. The band snapped together.
Susanna gasped when she realized how thoroughly quick and disorienting he could be. She looked down at the watch and twisted her around. The weight was new, and she slid it back and forth. It would not go into a comfortable place. The heavy and shiny timepiece felt like a cold adhesion.
She looked for the clasp at the end of the band. The whole band looked like a bracelet.
Susanna looked at Royce with a question in her eye.
“Ha.” His laugh was a long exhale of air. The baritone timber rose from dee
p inside him. It was a spicy and manly laugh, and just as assertive as he was.
Susanna had to be careful. When Royce was around, her emotions changed quickly. In less than a minute she could range from surprised, skeptic, pleased, or horny.
“You look like you’ve been caught.” Royce scooped her against his chest with one big arm. “I was planning on catching a tiger.”
One more time Susanna realized how quick and smooth he could be. She was stuck against his chest, and she could feel his heart beat against his shirt.
“I just have to snatch you up and make you mine,” he said possessively. “You already let me put one thing on your left hand.”
She looked at her wrist in shock. He released her and gloated.
Susanna could not find the clasp and knew the watch would not come off until Royce wanted it to. He wanted to control other things as well. He eyed her dress dangerously.
Time was going very slowly for Susanna, and she was simultaneously aware of everything around her. A light wind came up and moved some of her hair forward. Royce’s nostrils flared, and she was rooted in place.
George had finished a loop with the tractor and parked it. He was back at the gravel road.
“That was fun,” George said and wiped his hands on his shirt.
Royce talked to him without turning aside from Susanna. “Will you drive up the road and pick up Lawrence and Sarai?”
“Sure,” George said with a wide smile and walked toward the car.
Royce called over his shoulder as he eyed Susanna wildly, “Drive slow, they are probably lying down in the field.”
George laughed as he climbed into the car and slammed the door.
Once they were alone, Royce grabbed her and stroked her cheek. “I just want to take you with me.”
Susanna stalled. “Where to?”
Royce’s eyebrows rose at the serious question. “I was planning on going on my first official underground tour of Homestake Mine.”
It was Susanna’s turn to raise her eyebrows. He did have allure, and it was much more than his beautiful skin coloring.
Royce grinned and put his finger to her chin. “Ahh, it seems I have found your button. I can’t seduce you with private islands or Paris, but a dirty, dark mine attracts you.”
Susanna lost her breath at the realization that he could read her quite well. The air of expectation that accompanied all he did was somewhat unsettling, but how could she fight it? Then she wondered why she should fight it.
She had expectations herself. She had worked hard at molding the ranch into a friendlier place, but Royce was something already formed. He already knew about his dependency issue. It was just one more part of his personality that had been smoothed over like butter. He knew about them and accepted them. It added to his charm considerably.
“I don’t think I can leave without you. I think you should come with me. Right now. You should stop working, and come to the goldmine with me.” Royce smoothed the hair off her shoulder, and it only placed his hand on her more firmly.
“Yes.” It was the only word that could come to her mind.
He took the news happily. Susanna’s brain slowly tabulated what she had done.
She looked at her truck. It was still loaded up with hay and waiting on the road.
“I at least have to take my truck home.” Susanna smiled sheepishly. “I can’t leave my truck sitting in the middle of the road.”
“Sure,” Royce said. He pulled out his cellular phone and dialed. He put it to his ear expectantly. After a moment, he checked it in shock. “I can’t believe my cell phone doesn’t get a signal.”
“You can use the phone at my house,” Susanna offered.
He nodded and slipped the mobile phone in his pocket.
He seemed a little emasculated without his cell phone. He looked at the obstacles in the road. The table, chairs and water bottles sat abandoned in the sun. He looked lost without his servants.
Susanna picked up on his moods easily. She was not the type of person to wait for help. She walked to the bigger car and opened the hatch.
“At least you didn’t lock the car,” she said appreciatively.
She walked back to the table and picked up the items off the top. Something appeared to click in Royce’s mind. He bent over to fold the table down.
Susanna set her items on top of the car. She turned around, and Royce was right behind her with the table, which he slid into the car. They packed up the roadside picnic quickly.
“Thanks,” Royce said as he shut the door of the car.
“Sure.” Susanna smiled. “I just don’t like to leave things unfinished.”
“Yeah,” he said and looked at her deeply. “I bet you never leave messes.”
“Well, of course not,” she bragged. “Everything is better off when I’m done with it.”
Royce looked at her possessively. “I will make sure you’re never done with me.”
The confident look on her face froze, and she looked at Royce carefully.
“Okay,” Susanna agreed, “I don’t want to argue with you, but hopefully you don’t need that much help.”
She ducked behind her truck and opened the door, pleased she had found a joking way to address his neediness. It was hard for her to tell him what she thought. She didn’t want to see his face when he digested her current beliefs.
Royce had been walking up to the passenger door. He stared at Susanna through the glass window as she climbed behind the steering wheel in one smooth and fluid motion.
She put her key in the ignition but waited to start the truck. She looked at him expectantly. He opened the door and sat beside her quietly. She kept her hands on the steering wheel and asked, “Are you ready?”
Royce’s only reply was to look at her hungrily.
Susanna’s eyes widened. If she were another woman, they would have had sex right there in the road. That was one thing she would have delighted in helping him with, but she wasn’t ready. She knew that once she started having sex with him, she wouldn’t want to stop.
Susanna thought sex covered up relationship problems. It would make her settle with things she would not normally tolerate. She knew she was attracted to Royce, but she needed more time, even if it was just a few more hours. Or maybe minutes.
“I can think of something I want you to help me with right now,” Royce said as he put his big hand on her thigh.
Susanna felt a surge of heat between her legs. Her mouth opened unexpectedly, and a soft gasp escaped.
Royce grinned appreciatively. “That is the response I was looking for.”
Susanna took a deep breath and blinked at her dashboard. She shook her head and started her truck, then slowly started driving down the road.
Royce’s hand stayed on her leg and roamed expertly down it. He approached the hem of her dress. His thumb massaged it for a second, and then he flicked it up.
Susanna tilted her head away from the road and looked at him.
“You are trying to distract me,” she said pointedly.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
He looked down at her legs, and Susanna watched him out of the corner of her eye. She pulled the dress back down to her knees and put her hair behind her ear. “We’re almost to my house,” she said.
“Is that an invitation?” he suggested.
Susanna looked at him, shocked. “How are we going to get to the mine? If we start having sex, we probably wouldn’t get to Lead City for a week.”
Royce looked at her heavily. “Yes. You distract me. I’d rather mine you for orgasms than anything else I can think of.”
She looked at him skeptically. “Even more than mining for gold?”
“Gold is replaceable. I’ve been searching for the perfect woman for a while.” He looked at her possessively. “You are already mine, and on the top of the to-do list.”
Susanna studied him quietly. If any other man claimed possession of her like that, she would have put him in a new spot, but something
about the look on Royce’s face stopped her.
He had a hungry look in his eye, but there was also an unspoken request. She was drawn to him once more. How or why would she argue with him?
She looked at him and smirked. “At least I’m at the top of the to-do list.”
“Oh my God, you are cute,” he groaned. “As soon as I get myself talked down, you do something else sexy. That little smirk on your face turns your lips up just right. You better be careful.”
Susanna checked the road but kept most of her attention on Royce. She saw the sedan George was driving stopped on the shoulder of the road, and George walking through the field.
“Do you want to stop?” she asked.
“Yes,” Royce said quickly.
He leaned out the window and yelled at George.
“We’re going to Lead City.”
George raised his arm in acknowledgement.
“All right,” he said to her, “you can keep going.”
Susanna kept driving. She was silent for a minute, and her house came into view.
“So that is the lucky house where you spend all of your time.” Royce looked at it interestedly.
“Yes. I hadn’t thought of it as lucky, though.”
Royce gave her a heavy look.
She parked her truck in silence, then sat and plucked at her dress.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“I always get itchy after I handle hay.” The confession made her blush.
“You’d better take a shower,” Royce said.
Susanna didn’t need anyone to tell her what to do, and she bit her tongue. She opened her door and jumped from the truck.
She walked forward toward the house. She stepped under the cool shade of the porch and picked up a hidden key. She unlocked the door and stepped aside for Royce, and he walked into the house slowly. Susanna watched him, wondering what his first reaction would be. He stopped two feet inside the door.
“The phone is over there.” She pointed across the room. “Do you want to watch TV while I take a shower?”
“No. I want to watch you.” Royce turned around and grabbed her.
“Ha,” Susanna laughed nervously, “that would slow me down.”