Grounded: Michaela

by Leanne Karella

  His gut clenched.

  "I don't trust me." He pushed past her out the door. As he walked down the hall, away from her, he said, "Take a cool bath. I have some cream to put on your face when you're done."

  He had to get her out of his house. Get her out, but make sure she was safe. Safer than with him. He wanted her body. He hadn't been with a woman in three years. Michaela was too tempting.

  He sank down in his chair on the porch, and Stryker sat down at his feet, propping his head on Ty's boot. "Sure. Now you act like my dog. When she's shut up in the bathroom." Ty shook his head. "She's awfully irresistible, isn't she?"

  Stryker whined.

  Ty's back burned. He did need Michaela to look at it, to make sure there weren't any splinters in it. And then he'd drive her into Unegi—the thought of stepping foot in town after three years made his stomach hurt—and drop her off with her sister. Trent would look out for her. Seeing Trent was very happily married, that thought wasn't too repugnant.

  Stryker whined again.

  "You're no help," Ty informed the dog. "She's going. Today."

  * * * *

  Michaela bit her lip. He was going to send her away. Today. She had to think of some way to stop him. If she failed… Well, she had no idea what happened if she failed. Gabriel already told her and Electra they were stuck on earth for the term of their mortal body's life. So why was it so important to help this man? What was the punishment if she didn't? This mortal body seemed like the biggest punishment that could be placed on her.

  She peered at him through the small crack he'd left the door open. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. And a huge red scratch across his lower back. How could she not help him? He was the only mortal she knew. He'd been so patient with her while she tried to learn how to clean his house. He cooked her vegetables and didn't make her eat cow. He made her smile sometimes, too. And when he smiled at her and his eyes crinkled, when he rolled his amazingly beautiful eyes and smirked at something she'd done or said…

  "I don't have anyplace to go," she blurted out. "Please. Give me one more chance." She pushed through the door and knelt on the floor next to his chair. Gripping his forearm, she begged, "I promise I won't break anything else. I promise I'll…I won't…please. Please, Ty. Don't make me go. I'll do anything for you, if you'll just let me stay here."

  "Why can't you stay with your sister? Trent said she's got the apartment above his office." He pulled his arm from her grasp and stood up, moving to the other side of the porch. "You're not made for ranch work. Not even the housekeeping. There's got to be something out there better for you."

  She shook her head. "Ty Brock, if you send me away…"

  "What?"

  She swallowed. She had nothing to say. Nothing she could tell him, anyway. Then it came to her. Something she saw on the television. Ty had called it a soap opera, though she still couldn't figure out what that meant. "If you send me away, I'll never forgive you."

  Ty crossed his arms over his wide, bare chest. My, oh, my. She loved the way his muscles bunched under his skin. And when he'd lifted her from the field and she laid her head against him and breathed in his incredible scent, she'd never wanted to leave his arms. Being held by him made her feel tingly, soft, excited and relaxed all at the same time.

  "You'll never forgive me, huh?"

  She raised her eyes to meet his gaze. Cinnamon. That's what the color of his eyes were. Like the color of a spice he had in the cabinet called cinnamon.

  Shaking her head, she came to her feet. She straightened the robe around her, then crossed her own arms over her chest. "That's right. I never will."

  His lips twitched. His shoulders began to shake. Michaela wondered if he was having some kind of fit. And then he threw his head back and laughed. He practically howled with laughter. Michaela glanced down at Stryker who stared at Ty with a cocked head and pricked ears.

  "Ty?"

  "You are something else, Michaela." Ty wiped the back of his hand over his eyes. "Damn, woman, what am I going to do with you?"

  She could think of one thing she'd really like, but she supposed asking for another hug wasn't a smart idea, since he'd gotten so upset the last time.

  "Can I stay?"

  He took a deep breath. Still smiling, he shook his head. "I just don't think it's a good idea."

  "I know you don't like me much, and I understand. I do. But please, this is very important to me."

  In two big steps, Ty was standing in front of her. He gripped her upper arms in his big hands. His gaze took in her face, dipped to her neck, and then lower. She'd noticed he liked looking at her mammary glands a lot. She still didn't understand that. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to ask him about it, though.

  "Why do you think I don't like you, Michaela?"

  She frowned up at him. "You don't want me here. You told me earlier, 'I don't want you.' I know you don't like me, and I understand. If I were you, I wouldn't like me much, either. I can't do anything right. I ruin—"

  His mouth touched hers. In that instant, she couldn't think at all.

  * * * *

  Stop!

  But he couldn't. She tasted even better than she smelled. She was so sweet. When she gasped in surprise, he dipped his tongue between her lips. He brought his hands to her cheeks and gently tilted her head for deeper access. He groaned. Took a step closer to her until her breasts touched his chest, her thighs rubbed against his. Her belly pressed against his painful arousal.

  Her fingernails bit into his arms, but she gripped him, didn't push him away. She was as needy for this as he was. Maybe. Maybe he should take her and be done with it. Get her out of his system. Once the ache was appeased, he could think clearly.

  He backed her up against the rough wood wall and pressed against her softness. Oh, yes. He needed her. Now.

  He pushed the top of the robe open, dropped his mouth to her jaw, her neck, suckled the candy-sweet skin at the base of her throat. She whimpered and spread her fingers through his hair, pulling his head against her. The robe's belt gave way with a gentle tug, and he spread the lapels. Glory be, she was gorgeous.

  Carefully, with reverence, he brought his hands up her sides and gently brushed his thumbs against the underside of her breasts. Her dark rosy nipples puckered tight, begging for his lips.

  She whimpered, her hands fisted in his hair.

  He cupped her breasts in his hands, the milky whiteness of her flesh against his tanned skin made him near blind with lust. When he flicked his thumbs over her nipples she cried out and tugged him even closer. Oh, yeah, he thought again. She wanted this as much as he did.

  He sucked her right nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue.

  "Ty!" she cried, and her knees began to buckle.

  He lifted her into his arms and carried her into the house, capturing her lips in another mind-numbing kiss as he made his way down the hall to his bedroom.

  "I need you, Michaela," he whispered as he set her on the bed and came down on top of her. "I need you."

  "That's why I'm here." Her breathing was labored, her skin flushed pink. "I'm here to help."

  "Yes. Help me." He delved his tongue between her lips and pressed himself against the heated juncture of her thighs. "Help me."

  "Ty," she said on a breath. "Ty, what are these feelings? Tell me what to call them."

  "Lust, honey. Pure animal lust." He reached for the button of his jeans.

  "What is this thing with the mouths?" She kissed his shoulder, his neck. "It feels so good." She sucked his skin. "I've never felt such a thing before."

  His zipper halfway down, he stopped cold. "What?"

  Her hot little hands roamed over his shoulders. "This." She stuck her tongue in his mouth, slowly drew it out. "What is it?"

  "A kiss." His hands shook.

  "A kiss." She smiled up at him. "It is wonderful."

  "Oh, God. No." He rolled off the bed to his feet. "Don't…don't tell me this."
/>   She sat up, frowned. The robe fell away from her shoulders leaving her beautifully bare in the middle of his bed. "Don't tell you what?"

  "You've never been kissed before, have you?"

  She shook her head. "Is that bad?"

  Ty fumbled with his button, refastening it. "You're a virgin!" How could he not have realized that? She kissed like a virgin for crying out loud. How stupid could he be?

  Michaela's shrugged. "I don't know."

  Ty forked his fingers through his hair, gripped two handfuls, and pulled as hard as he could. Anything to take his thoughts away from what he'd almost done. He turned his back on her and grabbed the doorknob. "Get dressed, Michaela. I'm not about to take your virginity. I might be an ex-con bastard, but I'm no spoiler of innocent women."

  Chapter Five

  "Kiss," Michaela muttered as she flipped through her book. She knew now what a virgin was, and yes, she was one. She was an unmarried woman. Why would Ty ask that? Wasn't it obvious she was unmarried? She was here with him, wasn't she? If she were married, she'd be somewhere else with her husband.

  "Here it is. Kiss. To touch with lips as a sign of affection." She rolled over onto her stomach. The bed was so comfortable, sometimes she didn't want to leave it. Last night her mind had been so jumbled over what had happened between her and Ty she hadn't thought to look everything up. He'd been silent during dinner, then stayed out in the barn until very late.

  She'd had strange dreams last night, dreams that made her wake up with visions of Ty's naked, broad chest dancing in her head. Dreams that made her tingle all over just like his kisses did.

  She looked up "affection." A moderate feeling or emotion. Tender attraction. Fondness. She sighed. This was getting her nowhere. This book was so…stupid. She needed more explanation than this. Flipping to emotion, she laughed aloud. Disturbance or Excitement. She definitely could agree to those. When Ty touched her and kissed her, she became excited and disturbed. Emotion is the psychic and physical reaction experienced as strong feeling. Physiologically involving changes that prepare the body for immediate vigorous action. Vigorous action. The way his hands had run over her bare skin, the way he'd kissed and nipped at her skin, that could be vigorous action, couldn't it? She truly wished he hadn't stopped.

  She knew what feeling was, but she flipped the pages anyway. Perhaps there was more explanation there. A sensation experienced through the senses: Touch. An emotional state or reaction. That just brought her back to emotion!

  Groaning, Michaela tried one more thing. She'd never heard the word Fondness before. Tender affection. Foolishness. Folly.

  Michaela threw the book on the floor and growled. Foolishness? Whatever this kissing thing was, it wasn't foolishness. It was wonderful! She truly needed to speak to someone about this. But not Ty. He hadn't spoken to her since he'd walked out of his room, leaving her on his huge bed, tingling and aching and confused.

  Electra. She'd go talk to Electra. Maybe she'd learned something since she'd been around a lot more mortals since they arrived.

  Hopping off the bed, Michaela pulled on her boots and headed out to the barn. This morning she'd managed to wash the dishes and the kitchen floor without breaking or ruining one thing. She was pretty proud of herself, but Ty hadn't been around since before sunup, so he didn't know this.

  He was in the paddock with the bronc that had thrown him yesterday. Ty sat on the horse's back, arm muscles bunched as he tried to stay on the huge black beast.

  Her heart sped up. Sweat prickled her brow. She tingled in odd places in her belly and between her thighs. Just the sight of his bare chest made her feel so strange.

  Suddenly the horse stopped the jerking motions and raised its head. Its ears went forward and it blew out a loud breath.

  Ty spoke softly to the horse and patted its neck. Then the horse turned and came straight toward her. Michaela's eyes widened as it came to the fence and stuck a huge black nose through the rails.

  "Oh my goodness, aren't you pretty?" Michaela reached out.

  "No! Don't! He bites." Ty tried pulling its head up with the leather straps that came from the sides of the horses face, but the head didn't move.

  Michaela smiled up at Ty. "He won't bite me." She touched her fingertips to the soft nose. "We have a special bond with animals."

  "Who's we?"

  Michaela leaned forward and rubbed her cheek against the horses nose. So soft. It made her smile. "My…people," she answered carefully. Angels were created in such a way that they couldn't frighten animals. Scared beasties were difficult to be around if angels were trying to help the mortals.

  "And just who are your people?" His voice was harsh. He was angry.

  She sighed. "You know, people like me."

  He snorted, sounding a lot like the horse when it blew out its breath. She almost giggled, except she knew he was angry, and laughing when he was angry would not help the situation. "Icelanders?"

  Shutting her eyes, she shook her head. She would not start lying about this. She'd gotten away without a lie until now because she'd never had to actually confirm or deny anything about Iceland.

  "Maybe you could be some help," he said softly. "I've been fighting with Buster here for three weeks. You come over and he's as tame as a kitten."

  "He doesn't like to be ridden."

  When Ty didn't say anything, she looked up at him. He stared at her as if she'd lost her mind.

  She swallowed hard. She'd said too much. Way too much. How could a mortal know if an animal was happy or sad? They didn't have the same connection. Oh dear, oh dear.

  Ty cleared his throat, then threw his leg over Buster's back and slid to the ground. "So," he said carefully as he crossed his arms over the top rail of the fence, "what would make him happy?"

  Michaela looked up into his eyes. He was serious. Oh dear, oh dear. What do I do now?

  "Why doesn't he want to be ridden? I've never hurt him."

  "Someone else did. He's scared." He ran her fingers up the horses nose to scratch between his ears. He liked that.

  Ty nodded. "He's got some pretty bad scars on his flanks, probably from being whipped. But he's fine around me, until I try to mount him."

  She nodded. "He's afraid you will hurt him."

  "How do I convince him I won't?"

  Buster would never be comfortable with a rider. His fears were ingrained too deeply. "He wants to be left alone."

  Ty didn't say anything for a long time. She finally looked at him, worried what she might see in his eyes. He already didn't like her, now he'd think she was crazy, too. Sure enough, he frowned down at her. She couldn't do anything right.

  "I need to go into Unegi and see Electra."

  Ty nodded once and dug into his pocket. He withdrew a ring with two metal things dangling from it and held it out to her. "Take the truck. The gas is full."

  She took the metal things. She knew the truck was an automobile. A big one. But she didn't know what the metal things were for. She shrugged. She'd figure it all out. "Thank you," she said, and headed across the yard to the shiny black truck parked in front of the house.

  * * * *

  A half hour later, Ty had let Buster loose in the pasture to graze, and headed back to the house. The truck was parked in front of the house. Michaela had sure made a quick trip of it. He shook his head. What had that been all about? Buster was afraid of being ridden? Could a woman really know what a horse was feeling? He had to admit, he never would have believed that the temperamental bronc would walk right up to someone and let them pet him. And then there was Stryker. He hated everyone, yet he'd taken to Michaela from the start. She said her people had a special connection with animals. Was she from some sort of spiritual cult that communicated with them?

  Ty was just pulling the door open when Michaela called to him. She was sitting in the driver's seat of the truck. Oh, for Christ's sake. He walked over to the driver's door and folded his arms over the open window. "You don't know how to drive, do you?"

&
nbsp; She shook her head. Her cheeks were flushed pink, the butcher cut hair fluffed around her head. Her eyes sparkled. Damn, she was gorgeous.

  "You have a driver's license, yet you don't know how to drive. Explain that to me. It's an automatic, so that's not an excuse."

  Michaela's gaze roamed over the steering wheel and dashboard. "I can't explain it. Until Trent Godfrey picked us up, I'd never been in an automobile before."

  He mulled that over in his mind. It didn't make sense. Trent said he'd picked them up on the side of the road just outside Unegi. So, they got from Iceland to here somehow. And the only way to get to Unegi was by car or bus. Unegi was centered right between Tucson and Phoenix, just off I-10.

  "Could you please take me to see Electra? It's very important."

  His gut clenched. That meant going into Unegi. He hadn't set foot in town since the day Trent hauled him off to jail for cattle rustling.

  "Please, Ty." She laid her soft hand on his arm.

  When he met her eyes, he could see just how important this was to her. He took a deep breath.

  "Can't you call her?"

  Michaela rolled her lips inward, her eyes pleading with him.

  "Okay. I'll take you. Give me a couple of minutes."

  A smile that rivaled the sunshine split her face. "Thank you, Ty."

  "Yeah." He headed into the house to grab a shirt and a hat. He was actually going to go into Unegi because a sweet little homeless woman begged him to. What was happening to him? He'd never let a woman talk him into something he absolutely didn't want to do. He definitely did not want to go into town right now.

  * * * *

  "The letter on the door says the doctor is attending a party at the sheriff's house. Do you know where that is?"

  "Shit." Ty hadn't even realized it was Saturday. Today was Trent's daughter's birthday party. The whole town would be there.

  "Shit?" Michaela asked as she slammed the truck door after she climbed in. "What does excrement have to do with a party?"