“And you look like you’ve been trampled by rabid steers.”
The man ignored her sarcasm with ease. “I feel like it too.” He nodded at her hair. “At least you look more like an heir now.”
Toren felt Samantha’s chemical levels go from disgust to murder in a second, and his mercury itched to fuse with it and create a lethal weapon to impale the human with. It was part angelic instinct to put down wickedness in all its forms, no matter how subtle, but he especially wanted to impale the guy who’d hurt her. And this male had done far more than make a few nasty remarks. Toren needed to remember not to do anything rash or the demons he smelled all over the bastard would see through his shield. There was no getting around using human-like traits to accomplish those types of jobs for him.
But for the moment, he needed to convince Samantha that throwing the punch itching in her slender arm and fist wouldn’t serve a purpose other than his satisfaction. “I’m Toren.” He held a hand out, focusing on not measuring the man’s sins or anything else his angelic instincts would demand.
The male slowly stretched out his hand as if it were a concealed weapon. “Josephus is my given name.”
Toren shook his hand wanting so badly to weigh his filth. If he had to guess by Samantha’s judgment, the human had enough evil in him to form a cruel, diabolical dictator capable of mass deaths. Toren released him and met Samantha’s glare. She clearly didn’t like him showing an inkling of kindness to Mr. Josephus. He leaned and kissed her on the forehead. “I think she looks beautiful.”
Toren held his breath, hoping she caught on. One look in her eyes, he realized did she ever. She gave him a sweet smile and patted his face softly. “You are so sweet.” She leaned up and kissed him on the lips. Toren took full advantage of the divine gift, slipping his arms around her slender waist and pulling her body to his, wrecking her effort to keep it light. Pushing her lips open with his, he kissed her like she deserved to be kissed, sliding his tongue along hers with a hunger that startled him.
“Get a room,” the human muttered as he exited through the screen door.
She shoved him and broke the kiss with a gasp, glanced at Joe’s retreating back before whirling around to slap Toren across the face.
Toren groaned at the stinging feeling, closing his eyes from the pain of needing her so badly. Father help him. If his future was going to be full of that feeling, he'd need all his angelic strength to bear it.
“You!” she gasped like somebody hyperventilating, “had better not…do that shit again.” She wiped her mouth with a trembling hand and stormed into the house, slamming the door behind her.
Toren couldn’t stop his ear to ear grin at recalling the sweet moan she’d given when his tongue met hers. That was clear indication that she’d liked it. And that made him feel like he’d all but won the war.
He followed her into the house and looked around the small kitchen, where Kassie bent over at the oven. She straightened and wiped her hands on her worn flowered apron and eyed him from head to foot then up again. He smiled at her and the suspicious glare in her eyes melted away. She pointed up. “What on earth did you do to that girl, I haven’t seen her in that much of a hurry since she was seven years old, runnin from trouble she got caught in.” She held a steady eye on him and it suddenly seemed respectful to glance away.
“I just said she was beautiful.”
Her loud snicker followed a brief moment of silence. “Well that explains it.”
He met her lit up steel blue gaze. “And I kissed her.”
She sucked in her breath and a huge smile bloomed on her face. “Ohhhh my word.” She nodded eagerly and shooed him. “Well go on and go check on her, stairs are right there. Get.” She shoved him and Toren followed her orders.
Toren found his way fairly easy but she wasn’t in either of the two bedrooms so he went to the only closed door. He stood next to it and listened, his mercury nearly boiling when her soft sobs reached his ears.
The door sat ajar a scant inch and he couldn't resist looking. She was fussing over her hair, hating the reflection in the mirror. Toren’s chest tightened. She examined the bald spot on her head and another sob escaped as she tried to fix the surrounding hair so that it hid it better. Toren released a breath, his body hurting with her pain, and his need to erase it.
The door jerked open and Toren froze. He’d been too immersed in feeling her needs to even pick up on the fact that she was done whining about what couldn’t be changed. “I was…”
She stood there with her hands on her hips, those sky blue eyes narrowed and bright on him, head shaking in yet another disappointment. “Didn’t I tell you to leave me—”
“Kassie asked me to check on you.”
Her mouth snapped shut and she stepped aside and held her hand toward the bathroom. “I’m guessing you’d want to take a shower. Everything you need is in there.” He noticed her tone had taken on a nicer edge by a millisecond degree. It was better than nothing.
“Thank you.”
She hardened her gaze. “Do you always have to act like a delicate daisy?”
He stared at her lips. “No. I can be hard for you.”
Her anger dissolved and she swallowed. Probably because Toren couldn’t keep his desire for her out of the words. He realized what he’d actually said and how it sounded.
“I didn’t…”
“Sure you didn’t.” She stormed past him. “I’ll be downstairs watching the news and figuring out what the weather is going to do, then we need to get ready and tour the ranch if the weather permits. I need to see how many head we lost.”
Her voice rose harder as she descended the stairs.
Toren grinned at the automatic 'we' she used. She was already including him. “You need to eat,” he called to her.
“Yes daddy.”
Toren smiled and went into the bathroom. A shower? He’d never had one of those. He opened the medicine cabinet and stared at the contents. His eyes landed on a pair of scissors and almost immediately the idea hit him. Then he saw a razor and another idea decided it.
Toren showered, truly at awe with the amazing feeling of the hot water. Hanging around humans was probably wearing off on him through his mercury properties. And he liked what he experienced so far.
** ** **
Sam made her way to the office at the back of the house where her computer was. She learned as she went just from observation that her Daddy must be well. His cane was leaning against the office wall and the air smelled like his pipe smoke. Dumb fool was already smoking, begging for a relapse or maybe pneumonia this time. She settled into the office chair. Did that mean the rest of the hands were up and about too? She wouldn’t need to waste money on that new guy if that was the case. And really, they couldn’t afford it. At all.
She logged on to the comp and drummed her fingers rapidly on the desk. Fifteen minutes and she got all she needed to know. The storm had somehow gone around them before the worst of it hit. Worst? She hoped neighboring ranches faired as lucky as hers. Now all that was left was checking on the other hands and getting the ranch running again.
"What the hell you doin, girl?" Her Daddy's hard voice made her leap from the chair and spin to face him. "I'd think you'd know better than show your whoring face here." He turned his back, noticeably thinner and more frail than before.
She swallowed the unwelcome sob the nasty words brought, forging ahead to deal with the problem. "What are you talking about?"
The old man whirled on her, nearly falling in his anger. "You have the gall to speak to me? After you've spent the last week holed up somewhere fuckin a new hired hand? Look at yourself. Not even the decency to wash his stench off you."
She gasped and swallowed another sob, but she couldn't keep the single tear from rolling out of the corner of her eye. A deep breath stiffened her spine and she met his flinty dark eyes head on. "For your information, there was a fire at the second hay shed. I dragged a calf out and the smoke nearly killed me. The hand too
k me to the line cabin until I got well enough to move. Nothing happened that shouldn't have." The flames of his mouth on her skin burned through her mind but she resolutely put them away. "And how dare you question my integrity?"
The old man's gaze burned her with devastating intensity. "Integrity? Hah. What a laugh. You're just like the bitch that birthed you. Spread your legs to anything with a dick."
Wounded to an unimaginable depth, Sam couldn't hold the tears back any longer. She jerked her gaze up at the soft knock and her heart froze right in her chest as Toren stalked into the office. With no hair.
He halted just inches from her father, fury radiating off him until he seemed to glow with it. He looked a foot taller despite his now bald head, towering over the old man. "Mister, you don't know me and I don't know you, but you are not going to talk to Samantha that way. Apologize to her." Sam’s heart stuttered at the highly unusual male defense she knew her daddy would scorn without a doubt.
The buzzard dragged himself up to his full five foot ten and thrust his bony shoulders back. "Boy, you better get the fuck out of my house and off my ranch before I shoot you."
Not the least effected, Toren leaned his face down closer to his. "You can fill me up with all the lead you like, human, but you will apologize to my woman or I will choke your scrawny neck."
The heart-stopping and amazing threat wouldn’t go over well, Sam knew and before she could shout a warning to Toren, her Daddy flipped his ever-present Derringer out of his sleeve and pulled the trigger.
Sam screamed in panic but the gun only clicked and the old man stared at it in shock.
"Jesus,” Sam gasped, barely realizing she’d snatched the snub-nosed .38 from the desk drawer and aimed it at her father. “Daddy, you better be glad that thing misfired." Her voice trembled as bad as her body and without a word she returned it to the drawer shaken to the core.
Without his weapon, her father cowered before Toren who stood like a determined bull, his stance as dominant as ever. The old man's shoulders sagged and he turned, slow, and shuffled from the room, all the piss and vinegar gone.
“Let him go,” Sam muttered, worried Toren would still demand the apology. She just wanted her father out of her sight and away from…Toren. She didn’t want the hired hand getting in the middle of her shit, that was just…unheard of. Wasn’t his business, hell, wasn’t good business period. And that’s what Toren was, business. Had to be.
The door closed and Toren turned to her. "I didn't mean to cause trouble."
The indignation she’d hoped to muster for the sake of returning things to professional, was nowhere to be found as she stared at him, the familiar stranger before her, tugging so hard at her heart. "You didn't.” She kept her voice small, not trusting it. “He's been like that since I was fourteen and got my period.” She smiled a little and pointed at his head. “What’d you do, brush your face and shave your head?”
He shifted immediately to the sexy Toren and slid his hand over his head in a way that made her want to do the same. He gave her one of his panty-burning smiles.
“It was time for a haircut.”
She snickered and picked at the patch of peeling varnish on the corner of the desk. “You’re bald!”
He shrugged a shoulder and looked down. “Tell me what you need me to do, and it’s done.”
Sam couldn’t help interpret that in all the wrong ways even though she knew he was trying to change the subject. But she wasn’t ready. “Why would you shave your head like that?” And look at him! How was the man somehow more beautiful without hair? That was so not fair! God, she needed to get rid of him. Fast. Before he got under her skin.
“It’s just hair. Like you said.”
She snorted then felt her face warm at the sudden realization. He’d done it for her. Oh my God. “Get your ass to the kitchen and eat will you? We’ve got a busy schedule ahead of us. If the ranch hands are well, I may not need you. I can’t afford it.”
He met her gaze. “I don’t need money.”
She stared at him, trying to keep her face from melting into holy orgasms Batman, as she sat there and devoured the rest of his body with her peripheral vision. He was in a white t-shirt and blue jeans that fit the man to a T. A touch me, lick me, bite me, ride me T! Oh Heaven on Earth what was he doing to her? She hadn’t thought those things in…oh no. Joe.
She pointed to the door. “Go eat. And you can stay at the hunting cabin if you do end up staying at all. Somehow I don't see you getting along with the others well enough to stay at the bunk house even if there was an extra bed. Which wouldn't be big enough for you.” She got busy typing gibberish into the address bar, willing him to listen immediately. Ha.
She stopped with a huff but refused to look at him and get sucked into ogling him again. No doubt he thrived on the attention. “You got a problem with taking orders bub?” She kept her tone light as she could.
“I uh…thank you. For letting me stay and help you.”
That was just it. She flicked her eyes at him. “What planet are you from? This here is Earth and if you’re gonna stay here, you had better act a little more…normal.”
“Sorry, I’ll try my best.”
Good God she was so not used to his personality. She remembered what a Godsend he was and closed her eyes with a sigh of guilt. She took a breath for courage and surrendered to the decency she knew ran in her blood. “No, I’m sorry. You don't deserve to be treated that way and I'm ashamed for being so nasty. It’s not your fault the only men I know are assholes and it isn’t right that I take it out on a real…gentleman.” She cleared the soft feminine out of her throat. “Haven’t seen one of them in…well hell, ever.”
“I know.”
She looked at him wondering why he said it like he really did know.
“I mean, I get what you’re saying.”
She nodded absently, ready to be away from him. “I’m sure there’s coffee in the kitchen and something good to eat. You must be exhausted. Thank you too. For all that you’ve done. I don’t want you to think I’m an ungrateful bitch. Well, the bitch part I don’t care about… just…yeah.”
“Yes ma'am. I knew that too.”
Sam watched his backside as he turned and left. Holy hell the man had a set of buns. And those jeans made her want… She held her breath stifling the moan in her throat at recalling what he looked like in only his tight boxers. She bit her lip and jerked her eyes to the computer screen when he disappeared out of view.
She shut her laptop after checking emails and headed for the kitchen, nearly running into Toren in the hall. “Shit,” she gasped, letting her back hit the wall.
“Sorry, thought you might want coffee. Kassie said you take it black?”
She regarded the cup in his hand and took it, her head instructing her to go on ahead to the kitchen before she passed out from being in such close proximity. Smelling all clean and that other scent he carried. Was it his detergent? Cologne lingering on his clothes? Whatever the hell it was, he could make a million bottling it. Add his out of this world good looks, and you had a woman puddle of dripping need.
She needed to keep her distance. Stupid female parts just had to decide to start working full throttle in a crisis. Hell, no doubt that’s why they were, she was desperate and her levels were all whacky. “Thank you.” She regretted the barking tone but she didn’t know how else to hide the embarrassing truth.
The last thing she needed was falling for a guy that was way way way out of her league. Hell, if she thought Joe’s rejection had hurt, she could only imagine what being rejected by Toren would feel like once she let herself fall.
She’d need a nuthouse instead of a convent to save her ass. Someplace they could perform a lobotomy and wipe it out of her mind. But a man like him…Jesus, he had the power to mark a woman soul deep.
Sam was suddenly at a weird loss for words while standing there in the hallway feeling so many things, but especially like she owed the man something more than her damn sarcasm. �
��Come here.”
She walked ahead to the bathroom and looked back to ensure he followed, bristling at herself for the crass command like he was some subservient dog. Hell she didn’t talk to animals in the tone she used with him.
He followed with a slight smile and she wondered what was going through that beautiful hairless head of his. She opened the bathroom door and turned on the light, then got the stool from next to the tub and set it in front of the mirror. “You missed a few spots.” She cleared her throat a little trying to soften her voice. “If you don’t mind…I’d like to get them for you.”
She fought to hold his gaze and not get all dizzy. Such beautiful eyes. Eyes that bore into hers without hesitation or inhibition. Bold and demanding. Devouring even. She released a breath when he broke eye contact but then he removed his shirt in one move. Lordy help her.
Now she didn’t know where to look. Not meeting his gaze meant staring at his chest. Damn she’d never been so torn. His gaze, meet his gaze.
When she did, she forgot what the hell she was supposed to be doing. She closed her eyes, focusing.
“You okay?” Deep voice. Small space. Intimate as hell.
“I’m fine.” Still not looking. “Just um. Thinking. Sit. Please.”
“Yes ma'am.”
Sam found herself staring at the back of his perfect head feeling like she was about to jump off a bridge. She finally had the sense to get the razor. “Can’t have you halfass shaving your head now can I?”
“No ma'am.” His tone vibrated through her.
“Whooowee, hot in this little box, told them they needed to put a damn window.” She stroked his scalp looking for those missed spots she’d seen. No sooner had her fingers touched his head than she got lost in the feel of him. So soft. Wow. She turned on the hot water and stood to his right then slowly ran the razor over his head. She methodically repeated the steps in a pattern to make sure she got every spot, pretending his head was just another animal she was shearing.
Summon Toren (Archangels Creed #3) Page 9
