Rich Love

by Zoe Adams

  He looked at her hungrily and didn’t relax his grip.

  “Be careful,” she teased, “you’re starting to resemble a predator.”

  “Am I?” he questioned, completely unconcerned.

  She rolled her eyes and stepped away from him, then picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. She set it on the table and walked away fast.

  Susanna picked clothes quickly from her bedroom before stepping into the bathroom. She turned on the overhead water. Fifteen minutes later she walked back into the living room with fresh makeup, clean clothes, and very wet hair.

  “Did you use the phone?” she asked.

  “Yes.” Royce was sitting on the couch and looked at her impatiently. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Good.” He picked up the handheld phone and dialed. “I’m ready.”

  That was all he said before hanging the phone back up.

  Susanna looked at him skeptically.

  A helicopter was slowly getting louder in the distance, and she tilted her head toward the sound.

  “That’s our ride,” Royce said, standing up.

  They left the house a moment later.

  Chapter 4

  It’s Mine

  The decision had been made for Royce and Susanna to spend the rest of the day together. She was off balance with the heavy state of his attention.

  “Come on,” Royce said and pulled her hand toward the helicopter.

  She had no choice but to comply. Part of her followed him willingly, and part of her wanted to withdraw. This sort of contradiction was new for her, but she didn’t have time to question it. She chalked it up to usually being alone and independent.

  Royce opened the door of the helicopter and helped her climb aboard.

  She went to the far seat and gingerly sat down. Royce climbed in behind her and closed the door, then he put on a headset, and pointed one out for Susanna.

  “Are you ready to go for a quick ride?” he asked as he adjusted it.

  Susanna swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yes. I didn’t know we’d be flying.”

  Royce looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I can fly whenever I want. Maybe you should get used to it.”

  She looked at him silently. Royce was obviously wealthy and could hold any woman. It was his honesty that grabbed her.

  She had expected him to be different. As much as he expected her to swoon for him, she expected him to disappoint her. He had a right to his expectations. She did not.

  Royce was easy to spend time with. She knew it was not his extravagance that had attracted her. He held another magnetism. Susanna wondered if every lady felt it, or if it was extra strong for her. She reminded herself to tread carefully. He was the type of man who could make you forget everything you want or believe in and follow him without question.

  Susanna looked down on her ranch. Even from the bird’s eye view it was a large plot of land. A few minutes passed, and they crossed over another landmark she had built. The familiar items placated her.

  “Wow.” Susanna was proud. “I haven’t seen the ranch from here before.”

  “Yes, it is a really nice piece of land you have here. I’m quite impressed with how you have undertaken it.” The smile was wiped from his face when he looked at her questioningly. “I just don’t know why you would buy land and put it under someone else’s name.”

  “It’s not just someone else, it’s my family. I’m continuing the Hanson tradition.” Susanna looked down at the ground until her land disappeared.

  They talked back and forth on the headsets as their shadow rolled over prairie and then city. From here the town looked quainter than the usual small Midwestern town. Susanna enjoyed the quick jaunt with Royce.

  From the passenger seat it was easy to pick up on his tendency to overdo things. It was a trait she could enjoy and relate to, even if it was to a point of greedy self-infatuation. He was entitled to feel that way. Not very many men could skip across the countryside in a helicopter.

  The helicopter landed at the edge of a large parking lot. The blades quit whirring, and the blinking dashboard was put to sleep. Royce sat back for a moment and looked at Susanna.

  Silence dropped in between them. The stillness of the craft brought them a lucid awareness of each other. They looked into each other’s eyes, neither one of them wanting to be the first to turn away. She thought there were a lot of things Royce wanted to do. There were a lot of things Susanna would never do.

  Royce’s cell phone beeped, and he answered it quickly. He looked out the windshield, and then he looked out the side window. His glance bounced around as he focused on the call.

  Susanna shuffled self-consciously. She didn’t want to be in on his personal calls. He was talking big numbers, and she didn’t feel comfortable having his information so soon. She figured he was doing it on purpose. It was probably a ploy that worked with most women he was trying to impress.

  It made her nervous to hear about how much money he had. It reminded her acutely that she was not like most other women, and she wondered if it would be rude to walk away from the phone call.

  Susanna smiled at him and considered jumping out of the helicopter. He winked at her, and it made little blonde hairs on her arm rise. It was the look of someone who would exploit anything. She felt the weight of being a country girl fall on her shoulders. However sheltered she was from neighbors and cities, she felt innocent. She had liked her life the way it was until that current moment. Susanna silently promised herself to not be taken for a fool.

  There was something about the way Royce presented himself that was comfortable and un-nerving at the same time. The comfortable part was that he had a lot of friends and was easy to talk to. The unnerving part was how he expected her to respond before she could even make a choice.

  She realized she really was slow. Most women would fall over backward if Royce smiled at them. Staying on her feet and keeping her A-game intact was enough to slow down her brain.

  Susanna unbuckled her seatbelt and looked around the helicopter for a mirror. There was a round mirror on the dash, and she leaned forward. She looked clean and decent. Smoothing her hair back from her temple, she turned her chin from side to side, then shrugged inwardly.

  She was wearing light makeup, just enough to accentuate her eyes. Her hair had dried, and she combed it straight. She really was a country bumpkin, but at least she was always prepared. She reached into her pocket and retrieved her lipstick. It was applied smoothly, and she smashed her lips together before fixing a few lines and checking her teeth.

  Susanna sat back once more as Royce finished up his phone call. She had her hand on the door handle and turned it before he could say anything.

  They walked across the parking lot together.

  Royce stopped in his tracks. “Just look at the main entrance of the mine.”

  She nodded. “Yes, it needs some work.”

  “Some work?” Royce laughed. “It needs to be replaced.”

  “But some parts are over a hundred years old,” she argued. “Look at how big those lumber planks are. I think it’s cool how they aged and turned black.”

  “The lumber can be re-used somewhere else.” He picked up her hand absently and started walking again. “I was thinking of building a brick building. It does need a lot of updating.”

  Royce continued to talk of things he wanted to do. The future didn’t seem that far off when he spoke of it.

  There were a few cars parked outside the main entrance of the mine.

  “It looks like my guys are already here,” Royce stated matter-of-factly.

  Two men had been standing behind the front door. When Royce and Susanna neared it, they stepped outside and held the door for their boss.

  Susanna stepped through the door and waited for Royce. The inside of the building was just as humble and inobservant to the beauty of gold as the outside. The only thing that made it look like it protected something were the wide wrought-iron ba
rs that crossed the middle of the room. It looked like a rusty old bank. Cobwebs and dust stood out wherever they could.

  The couple stood together as their eyes traveled the room. Susanna was prepared to let Royce do all of the talking, but she was the only one who smiled.

  “Mr. Blackwater, I have made arrangements for the superintendent and foreman of the mine to meet us here.” The informant nodded toward the men standing in the middle of the room. “They have agreed to give us the tour.”

  Royce nodded. “Thanks, Vinny.”

  The groups met up in the middle of the room. They could not have been more opposite. Royce’s men wore suits and gold chains, while the mining men wore jeans and flannel shirts.

  Vinny read off his e-file when he made introductions. “This is the Superintendent Billy Stevens. He has been at the mine for fifteen years. And this here is the Foreman Sam Brasaac. He worked for the mine for twenty-eight years.”

  These were hard men whose knowledge of this mine momentarily superseded the importance of the newcomers. Introductions were made, and the group eyed each other warily. Superintendent Stevens unlocked the first gate. The other side of the iron division looked just as neglected as the first side.

  The group was led into a conference room with a good layer of dust on the table, desks, and chairs. It was exactly what Susanna had been expecting for an underground mine that had been closed. The men who had previously worked at the mine had no trouble with the dusty table, and cobwebs couldn’t last that long.

  Royce didn’t appear to be impressed. It was obvious the office was light-years away from what he and his men were used to.

  They flipped a couple of switches and the room lit up. An overkill of fluorescent lights flickered for a second. A large map of the mine was laid out on the table, and Royce looked down at the graph intently.

  The superintendent started pointing out destinations. “We are here. Shaft A is the oldest shaft in the mine. Shaft B and C are currently underwater, but they were being actively mined right up until closing. Shaft D is probably the one you will want to see first.”

  Royce looked down at the map thoughtfully. “I would like to see both shafts, and as much of the flooded ones as possible,” he said in the tone of a man who was used to his orders being followed.

  The foreman and super gave each other a silent look. Their first glimpse of the new owner was a little overbearing.

  Foreman Brasaac said something for the first time. “There is only so much that can be done in a day.”

  Royce cut him off. “Mines don’t know the difference between night and day. I’ll stay here until I am done.”

  This attitude stiffened the old-timers, but it reaffirmed the toughness of Royce’s men. Susanna stood softly in the middle. She could relate to both the miners and the security team, but the only side she really needed to worry about was the one she was getting pulled into.

  Royce wrapped his arm around her waist and turned her toward the door.

  “Are you ready for this?” he asked.

  Susanna nodded. “Yes.”

  They were back in the main hallway, and Royce walked her around the perimeter of the room. There were dusty shelves with safety manuals, while coat hooks held sporadic harnesses and jackets. The whole place looked like it had been abandoned overnight.

  Royce was lost in thought, and Susanna tried to bring him back. “Are you already thinking about the changes you will make to this place?”

  “Yes,” he said as he quit walking and faced her. “I’m trying to remember how far this building goes into the mountain. You know, on the outside.”

  Susanna thought back. “This building only goes up like fifty feet. The mountain is way higher. Why, are you going to replace the mountain too?”

  She said it with a glint in her eye and waited for him to sputter. She didn’t know how serious he was when he said yes.

  The whole group had caught up with them. They were each given harnesses, ropes, and hardhats.

  Sam held up his arms. “The mine has been closed, so there is no oxygen. Here are the masks. Keep them on.”

  A few minutes later they were all headed down the hall toward Shaft A. They walked straight back into the mountain.

  Every twenty feet or so there were big lights overhead that lit up just enough of the path to keep it in continual light. This really did look like the oldest part of the mine to Susanna. Old railway ties made the walls shadowy and dark.

  It was easy to imagine old miners with pick axes and shovels working this pit. The walls got wider at the end of the tunnel. Ancient scrape marks and smooth holes of explosives had made the room into quite a cavern.

  The superintendent pulled a hammer down on a fuse box, and the area lit up properly. He checked for oxygen on a portable air gauge and took off his mask.

  “This is where it all started,” Superintendent Stevens said. “From here, the shaft branches out in three directions. On this first level of the mine things may have gotten a little out of hand. There is still a lot of gold in here, but the walls were getting too thin in between the tunnels.”

  “This is great,” Royce said excitedly.

  Susanna agreed.

  The walls were black and grey with a white marble and gold swirl. The yellow vein of gold branched out in a z-shape and showed no signs of disappearing. The room was studied by its curious members.

  Thirty minutes later they were walking back out the way they had come. Royce said he was excited to see the rest of the mine, and it kept the procession moving at a fast clip.

  Four hours later, they had successfully seen most of what there was to see. Royce looked at Susanna reluctantly.

  “I suppose I’d better get you back home to your ranch,” he said softly.

  “Yes, that would be good,” she agreed.

  “I have to stay here and tie up some loose ends. Vinny will fly you home.” Royce didn’t break his stride or slow down his words. “I will see you tomorrow.”

  He turned his back and hurried away. There was no hug and no kiss goodbye. It was kind of a strange way to say goodbye, but she didn’t mind lacking affection, especially so soon in a relationship.

  That night Susanna had a sleepless night. She blamed it on the watch. She wasn’t used to sleeping with jewelry on, and the watch still felt heavy. She didn’t need the wrist manacle to remind her of Royce, and all it did was bring up an irritant instead of a good memory.

  She woke up tired, before the sun was even a pink thing in the sky. Susanna worked all day, pushing her body to physical extremes. Her brain had something new to mull over. Something kept distracting her and forcing her attention to a man’s dark on dark eyes.

  She blamed that on the new watch too. It was cumbersome to her. She knocked it on a wall, and later swung her arm and scratched it on the door. Each time it had stopped her from what she was doing, and caused her to look down at her wrist.

  She wondered what Royce would do when he saw the scratch on the face and the missing diamond on the band. Maybe he would take the watch away. She hoped he would, and she laughed out loud.

  Then her thoughts would go to the story behind the watch, and she would soften. Just because the watch was cumbersome, didn’t mean the man was too, did it?

  The thought of Royce made her heart start pounding. The birds flitting around her head seemed extra excited about the guest at the ranch who was only a thought. Hell, she was in trouble. She hadn’t had butterflies in her stomach for years. Susanna realized how much she liked Royce. Finding a man was never a problem for her; it was finding the right man. Somehow, he had eased his way into her life and made her feel sexy and comfortable, which was a surprising combination for her to experience.

  What were the odds of meeting tall, dark, and handsome on the highway? She didn’t know what to think. She could hardly breathe when she faced mysteries about him. Forget about thinking, or forming a thought, when your body is starving for touch. She could wonder. All of her senses were in overdrive. It
had been a while since she had had brain or eye candy. Her body was being suffocated by him, and he was only a thought. She wanted more of him.

  More of him. That was an interesting concept. She knew the sex would be great. Their bodies already had a connection that two tall people would need. He was electrifying to her body, her whole being. Maybe, they really did have a future past a few months. Royce just seemed like a tall order, as though he would always need extra stimulation or more tender loving care, and she still wasn’t sure what he thought about living here or anywhere else.

  Thoughts like that rolled around her head all day, and they made her tired.

  It seemed that in one day’s work, the ranch could survive another day. Susanna had found a way to fill her time, and decided to call it an early day.

  She stepped up into the wide veranda of the farmhouse and picked up the hidden key from the low windowsill that looked out from the house. Unlocking the front door, she swirled on her toes and put the key back, before stepping through the solid door.

  The framework farmhouse smelled like old wood and flowers. She looked around the formal parlor and smiled. She liked to keep things simple, and tabletops were smooth and dust-free. The vases of flowers were ready to be changed, and only a beer could make the task a little more enjoyable.

  She walked to the kitchen and opened a nice cold one. She took a large sip of beer and drained the neck and half the label. Susanna was feeling better already, thinking to herself how nice and refreshed she felt as she grabbed her scissors and stepped back outside.

  She returned twenty minutes later with her arms full of flowers. Standing at the kitchen counter, she rinsed and filled her vases. One by one, the herbs, flowers, and what some people considered weeds were arranged in colorful and scent filled displays.

  Susanna didn’t use the house much during the summer, but it was always clean and presentable. Looking around complacently, she realized she was bored with her housekeeping, and the realization was a shock.

  The telephone on the table rang.

  Susanna didn’t recognize the phone number, but answered it on the third ring. “Hello?”