Her lips still tingled from their kiss. She placed trembling fingers to her mouth and looked up at him, her eyes wide.
Tears fought for balance on her lashes as she stared up at him. She would never be able to separate her feelings from her lust. With her, the two came hand in hand. Something told her the two were already irrevocably entwined.
“I can’t have a relationship with anyone now.”
She looked up into his clear blue eyes and knew she could go no further with this man. She could never make him her lover. To do so, would be the worst mistake in her life.
* * * *
Thor watched her. His thoughts raced as he did everything in his power to keep his face blank. She wasn’t ready. She had been through too much in her young life and she just wasn’t ready for a relationship. He needed to have patience but wasn’t sure how much patience he could afford her before the repercussions of his selfish behavior wrought havoc on the world.
If she needed to lie to herself—if she needed to tell herself that she didn’t want any emotional entanglements, that was her choice. His choice in the matter was to prove to her the lie that it was.
Tears she so desperately tried to hide still trembled precariously on her lashes. Those tears revealed her feelings, telling him it was already too late. They only served to prove to him that her emotions were already involved.
On some level, she had to know that she would never be able to separate her feelings from the all-consuming lust that filled her senses. The fates had drawn him to her. She was meant to be his. She would be his. He only needed patience.
She stood before him, looking more beautiful than any other woman he had ever seen before. Her platinum hair framed her face. Her pink, full, lips parted as she stood before him panting, her body trembling with need.
It was all he could do to keep himself from throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her to his room. He clenched his hands at his sides, nearly overcome with the desire to do just that and take the choice from her.
“Are you sure that is how you feel?” he asked thumbing a tear from her cheek. “It’s okay sweetheart. I shouldn’t have let it go that far. I lost control. I know you aren’t the type of woman to have a casual relationship.” He brought that up deliberately, wanting to remind her that, like it or not, her emotions were already involved.
Bending down, he kissed her gently on the cheek.
“I’ll go to bed so you can think. Don’t stay up too late. You wanted to get up early and drive into town tomorrow. You need your rest.”
Turning, he left the room. He hated leaving her alone. She was so hurt and confused and it was all his fault. Still, he knew she needed time to think, to come to terms with the fact that he was quickly becoming a permanent part of her life.
As he climbed the stairs to the second floor, he wondered how he was going to get any rest tonight. The longer he stayed here without his powers, the more sleep he required for his body to rejuvenate.
How did humans do it? How did they spend long hours, day after day, abusing their bodies without taking the proper rest they need? Yet, he could see why they skipped the necessary sleep. He couldn’t imagine spending a third of his life unconscious. How did they do it, knowing they would only die in a few short years?
Her scent hit him when he reached the top of the stairs and his body reacted, hardened with need. Every time he looked at her. Every time he smelled her, need slammed into him and made his chest and balls ache.
Be honest with yourself at least. Your unruly prick gets hard every time you even think about her. His father’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Go jerk off or something. You’re too tense and it’s making her nervous. If you’re not careful she’s going to run from you and if you don’t get her to the hospital tomorrow, she will lose her brother and feel she has nothing to live for.
His father’s words rang true. She would feel that she had nothing to live for if Alex died.
I know, I know. How can I even think about what needs to be done with you yammering in my ear at every opportunity, old man? Then he paused. Do you really think I frighten her?
Odin chuckled. Don’t worry about it. If she were very frightened of you she would never have kissed you. Besides, she’d be on the phone with the police right now if she were.
What is she doing?
Thinking of you. Now get some rest before you make yourself sick. You’re not omnipotent anymore.
Suddenly, the annoying presence was gone and he sighed. He may have been omnipotent, but he’d lived more in the last few days with Emma, than he had in the last several hundred years. He stopped outside her door, breathed in her lingering scent. Need hit him hard, his hand shot out and he leaned against the wall. No woman had ever affected him this way before. He smiled. As far as he was concerned, that was a good thing. It was just one more bit of evidence to prove she was fated to be his.
Chapter Six
Emma sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. A strange man stood over her bed, staring at her. His large frame wasn’t much more than a silhouette in the darkness. The moon casting a silvery glow into her room, shielded his face from her sight. Yet she wasn’t scared. If anything, she felt peace steal through her body as though she had been drinking the fine mulled mead the Norse God, Odin was said to favor.
“Who are you?”
“I am Odin. Your God. Don’t you recognize me?” He stepped closer to the window so the lunar glow shed light upon his face. The man didn’t look a day over thirty. Honey colored hair brushed his shoulders and his arms were huge. The man was a veritable giant, yet she didn’t feel threatened in the least.
“You don’t look like an old wise man who hung himself from the world tree for nine days.” She gave a soft laugh. No wonder she wasn’t scared, she was dreaming. Her subconscious mind was attempting to make her feel guilty for renouncing the Gods her family had revered for generations.
“Eons,” he said. “Your family has served mine for the good of all beings since the beginning of time.”
“Then it’s time we learned to survive on our own, don’t you think?” She said with a scowl.
Reaching over to the nightstand, she switched on the lamp and blinked. There was no one there… and she was wide-awake.
* * * *
“Wake up, boy!”
Thor heard the words just before his body hit the cold, hardwood floor. He looked up, giving his father a fierce look. The floor was damn cold and he was naked.
“What in hell do you think you’re doing, old man?” Thor sat up and glared at his father.
“I was just in your woman’s bedroom having a look, when I realized something was wrong,” Odin said, throwing Thor’s clothes at him. “Get your naked ass off the floor and get dressed before I go blind. Your woman’s barn is on fire. Get out there and to something about it before she loses everything.”
Thor glanced up at his father, anger and disbelief crowding through his mind. If he’d decided to interfere...
“You didn’t—”
“Of course I didn’t set the fire, you dolt. I came here to see your woman. I only had a healthy curiosity to see what my new daughter was like. She’s got spirit, that’s for sure. She talked back to me,” he said with a smile, obviously proud his son had picked such a strong woman. His father paced restlessly next to the bed as Thor rushed to don his clothes. “When I realized that all was not as it should be I reached out with my senses to see who would do such a thing.” He stopped pacing and leveled his gaze on his son. “Whoever it is, is not working alone. Only another god would be able to cover their tracks well enough to hide from me.”
Thor looked up sharply. “Another god, but who?”
“I don’t know who is behind it. If I did, you can bet I would be after them right now. And you can be damned certain that I’m going to find out who it is. No one messes with my family.” He looked out through the window, the occasional orange light flashing across his face. “You need to get your ass out ther
e before she loses everything.”
Thor ran to Emma’s room and pounded on the door.
“The barn is on fire, Emma! Call the Fire Department!”
Father, can you and mother make it rain?” He knew controlling the weather was an uncertain prospect. It took the power of at least two of his kind. Still he asked as he ran down the stairs, heading for the door.
We’re already working on it. She’s handling that with some help from the fates. They are pissed that someone is mucking about in their territory. They said this wasn’t supposed to happen.
Thor grimaced. Despite the fact that whoever it was, was hurting Emma, the Fates meted out punishment cruelly when their plans were thwarted. And they could be cold, hard, heartless bitches in the best of times.
Good. I hope they figure out who it is. I’d like a piece of him myself. If there’s anything left after the fates finish with him.
He ran into the burning barn with little thought to the fact that he was no longer an immortal. The intense heat from the barn grew every second he was inside the building. His lungs burned every time he took a breath, the heat of the fire searing the inside of his chest, burning his nose.
Grabbing the keys for the combine, he climbed into the huge machine and started the engine. Thankfully, it started on the first try. The large, clack-clacking of the powerful diesel engine seemed comforting somehow. He was going to get it out of here, along with every other piece of equipment she needed for the harvest.
His heart nearly jumped to his throat when a streak of pink covered in gray ran past him, heading deeper into the barn toward the animals.
“Damn!”
Why hadn’t he thought of them? All he could think of was saving the equipment to save her harvest. Leave it to her to remember the animals. Until now, his whole being had been centered on the combine and tractors. He hadn’t heard the frightened cry of the animals. The two horses’ high-pitched screams nearly chilled him to the bone as he started to climb from the combine in the now, raging inferno. He had to get to her, to help her.
“No!” She waved her hand and then pointed back to the combine. “You have to get the equipment out. We can’t afford to lose it!” Emma yelled over the screaming horses, the crackling of the flames and the eerie squeal of metal heating up too quickly.
He gave her a curt nod, settled back into the driver’s seat and put the harvester in gear.
It was just a damn good thing she kept the fuel in a one-thousand gallon tank that was five-hundred feet from the barn or they would never have had a chance.
As soon as he drove the combine clear, he shut it down, jumped to the ground and raced back into the barn. He’d get her equipment to safety and then he would get answers.
* * * *
“No!” Emma screamed, when Thor ran back into the barn for the third time.
The fire blazed hotter than ever. It was so hot, she couldn’t even get near the barn. How had he been able to stand that horrible heat? It was suicide to go in there again.
Tears streamed from her eyes as the roof caved in. There was no way anyone could have survived that.
It was her fault he was gone. She slumped to the ground, covered her face with her sooty hands and sobbed out her fears and frustration. The sound of sirens and large trucks barreling up the driveway barely registered, until one of them slid to a stop beside her.
Firemen ran about, pulling the hoses from the trucks and sprayed what was left of the barn.
A paramedic rushed over to her, put an oxygen mask to her face.
“Was there anyone else? Anyone in the barn?”
She nodded her head and pulled the mask from her face.
“Only one. He went in for the tractor and the roof collapsed,” she sobbed. “Why did he go back in there? He should have known he’d never get out.” Not alive anyway.
“He was damned lucky, that’s for sure,” the man nodded his agreement. “Like you, he has some minor burns, but what has me worried, is the fact that the blaze was so hot and he has inhaled a hell of a lot of smoke.”
It took a moment for his words to register.
“He—he’s alive?”
The man smiled and covered her mouth and nose with the oxygen mask again. He looked back over his shoulder to a place just next to and almost behind the barn. She was almost afraid to believe.
“Yes, ma’am, he’s alive. He’s covered in dirt and soot but he’s definitely alive.” He chuckled. “He wouldn’t let the rest of the guys treat him until I came over to care for you. He must love you very much.”
Emma barely heard the rest of what he said. She ripped the mask back off her face, stood and ran to the area filled with rescue workers. She stopped when she saw them pick Thor up and put him on a stretcher.
“So, your name is Thor, huh?” A tall, slender, brunette EMT asked, with a smile as she took his blood pressure. She frowned and then tilted her head. “I guess you do sort of resemble him, only you don’t have a beard. Wasn’t Thor supposed to have this big scruffy looking beard that made him look fierce so people would fear him?”
Thor glance toward Emma, his expression unreadable. He raised his hand and pointed at her. “She made me shave it off.”
The woman blinked. “She made you shave it off?” She shook her head and laughed. “Somehow, I don’t see anyone making you do anything you don’t want to do.” Then she grinned. “It’s just as well, you know. It’s better for women everywhere that you don’t cover up that pretty face.”
Emma frowned. Stepping up beside him, she laced their fingers together to show the woman that he was already taken. The EMT had a wonderful bedside manner, but she didn’t need to flirt with her patients. Besides, Thor was her...
She frowned again and bit her lip. What was he exactly? He was more than her employee after that sizzling kiss earlier. And she must mean more to him than a job and a roof over his head...
“How...” She cleared her throat when her voice cracked—it was dry and sore, most likely from the smoke she had inhaled. She needed a drink. “How did you manage to get out of the barn before the roof collapsed?”
She looked past him to the second tractor he managed to save.
“I drove it out through the side when the roof started to go.”
“Oh,” she said nodding.
Blinking back the tears in her eyes, she smiled. “Thank you, but the tractor was not worth your life.” Nothing is worth your life.
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. We have it and we can still bring the harvest in. It’s a good thing we left the trailers sitting out here though. If we hadn’t, they would still be in the barn.” He glanced over to the smoldering pile if rubble that used to be the barn and made a face.
“Well, they would still be in what’s left of the barn, anyway.”
He sat up and started to slide off the stretcher.
“Hey, hey hey! Stay right where you are. We need to take you in to the hospital. You could have internal injuries.” One of the men tried to convince him to lie back down.
The female EMT rushed back over to push him back down.
Thor glared at her, grabbing her wrists, he pulled them from his shoulders.
“Do not touch me.” He didn’t raise his voice, but somehow, he was able to make it sound menacing, just the same.
Chapter Seven
The woman backed off, holding her hands in the air.
“You need to go to the hospital. A doctor should check you over.” Her full lips drew down in a frown.
“I will be fine.” He stifled a cough and glanced at Emma. “I will only go to the hospital with you and no other.”
The expression on his face told her that he would remain inflexible on the subject and stilled any argument that came to mind. He obviously wouldn’t budge on this.
When he stood up and stretched, Emma almost couldn’t look away, her gaze drawn to the rippling of his chest muscles and the bunching of his biceps. Her mouth watered at the thought that just a few ho
urs ago, she had been necking with this man in her kitchen. A sound caught her attention and she spared a glance for the female EMT and scowled.
The woman was staring! Her mouth was opened slightly and Emma half expected her tongue to start hanging out. Didn’t they teach these people to comport themselves in a more professional manner?
Leaning forward, she wrapped her arm around Thor’s waist and suppressed a grin at the woman’s telling frown.
Under the innocent guise of helping him walk, she kept her arm firmly around his waist as she led him to the porch where they sat down to wait for the fire to be contained and extinguished. The porch swing was narrow. They sat close, their sides pressing against one another. Heat seeped from his body into hers and her heart began to race.
She looked over at him. How could she be sitting here next to the man practically ready to jump his bones when he almost died saving her livelihood? The poor man needed rest, not sex.
He wrapped his arm more firmly around her, pulling her closer to his side. He relaxed against her and sighed.
“I like this. It’s nice. I think we should make a habit out of sitting out here on this swing, looking at the stars.”
She swallowed thickly. Was he planning to stay? Would she let him?
Resting her head against the side of his chest, she made a decision. She would take this time with him and whatever it held. If she was lucky and there was more, great. If not, she would cherish every moment she spent in his company. It was already too late to keep her feelings from becoming involved. She may be able to lie about it to him and to the world, but it wouldn’t make it any less true.
His arm rested comfortingly over her shoulder as they sat together. The close proximity of his body to hers caused bolts of electricity to shoot through her blood. Her blood burned and she felt her temperature rise several degrees. The feel of his hard, hot body pressed against hers was heady, intoxicating.
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