Neal (Golden Streak Series) by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

Do you think they’ll be anything like her food at the diner?” He
put the flower in the dirt where she’d put hers only moments before. When he picked
up the next two and did the same she wanted to bash his head in.
    “What the hell are you doing?” He
grinned at her. “I won’t have time to repot everything if you mess them up.
Just back the hell off and let me do my job.”
    “I want to help,” he said. “Either let
me do this or I go to another part of the building and put some together to
help you without your supervision.” She huffed at him and he laughed. “What’s
it going to be?”
    She didn’t answer him. He picked up the
next plant and mimicked her every move until he got the large crock filled with
flowers. She reached over to give it her power before she could think about it.
They were on their fifth and sixth container when he spoke.
    “I never got to kiss you.” She almost
fumbled the flower she was putting into the hole she’d made for it. “I really
want to feel your mouth under mine when our bodies touch. Your skin tasted
better than anything I’ve ever tasted before.”
    “You’re not going to kiss me or anything
else. What happened in the kitchen was a mistake, and it won’t be repeated.” She
looked up at him when he snorted. “I’m serious. You can’t be around me. I don’t
even know why I’m letting you be here now.”
    He stood up and stretched. Her body
tightened. He was taller than most of the men she knew, and he was bigger too. She
was sure that most accountants like he’d told her he was didn’t have near the
muscles that seemed to move along his forearms like they were alive. She
dropped her head when he looked at her.
    “Are you sure about that? From where I’m
standing I can see that you want me to kiss you. Maybe even do a little more
than that.” He raised his nose to the air. “I can smell you, your arousal. It’s
not strong yet, but I can change that if you…are you afraid of me and what I
can make you feel, Rayne?”
    “I most certainly am not afraid of you.
If you remember correctly, I already showed you how unafraid I am of you.” She
snorted as she fixed the last two of the containers and moved to the area where
she had some small herbs that she wanted to transplant. “I’m all finished now,
so you should get the hell out of here.”
    She felt him follow behind her, but she
didn’t stop walking. He’d helped her get the larger items done, so she decided
that she’d fix these for tomorrow. It was nice to have the extra time, but she
wasn’t going to get used to him or it. She didn’t think he’d hang around if she
kept giving him the cold shoulder. Or at least she hoped he wouldn’t.
    “These smell much better to me than the
flowers.” He picked up the thyme and held it to his nose. “Lemony. And…I don’t
know what the other is but it’s good.”
    She pinched one of the little leaves and
watched his face as the scent hit his nose. He looked at her, shocked, and
picked up another one and pinched it as she’d done. He did this several more
times until he found the catnip. She wasn’t sure what it would do to him, but when
he sneezed three times in a row, she figured that big cats like him didn’t like
it like the little ones did. She laughed when he set it down and away from him.
He looked at her.
    “You should do that more often.” She
flushed. “Your laughter is like music to me, and I’d love to hear it more.”
    “I don’t have a great deal to laugh
about.” She picked up the long wooden container and put parsley into the middle
of it and then oregano on one end and the little thyme on the other. She did
this to three more containers, grabbing herbs at random and filling them as he
handed them to her. She looked up when there wasn’t one held out to her.
    “They’re all full. What do you need to
fill now?” She looked at the herb table and saw that working together they’d
filled nearly two dozen pots. They all looked