Ezekiel took a deep breath. "Look, he's a meth head. At best. I'm not leaving him here just so I can spend the next few weeks sniffing over my shoulder for his stench. You want to bring him along so you can dodge him through the hay loft at some isolated ranch?"
Her mouth hung open in the kind of shock that said she’d never had anything like this happen to her. Or maybe it was a look that said will my luck ever improve. It was hard to tell and that was a new one for Ezekiel. The idea that it could mean the second had him curious about her. Her stuttering done, she finally managed, "Well, he didn't actually do anything." She turned onto the street. "You can't kill someone for idle talk."
"Fine. Your ass." He should have known better than try to help the slut. She deserved everything she got.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sam fought her way through the inky blackness, fighting to reach that point of light above her. And the sound of her name. Echoing. She felt cold fingers slowly wrapping around her legs, preventing her from kicking to freedom. She fought harder. Suddenly she saw him at the light, waiting. He was familiar. The cold fingers wrapped tighter on her leg and she strained and screamed his name.
“Toren!”
He reached through that pin point of light and grabbed her hand and yanked her to safety. She burst awake into consciousness and found herself wrapped tight in his embrace and pressed possessively to his body. She gasped against the skin of his neck, gobbling up the air and scent of him.
“I have you, I have you,” he whispered, stroking her head and back. She realized he sat on a bed. Her gaze landed on the stained and faded painting with the little girl in a field of flowers and realized they were in the shack. She immediately became overwhelmed with the feel of his skin beneath her fingers and lips. Taste. It was a reflex. He tasted like something that should be licked all day long.
Then memory reasserted itself. Terror slammed her and she leapt out of his arms and scrambled back on the bed, away from him. “Oh God you’re…” she pressed against the wall at the head of the bed and pointed at him with a hesitant finger. “…you’re a-a-a.” God, was she still dreaming? “Am I dreaming? Am I in a coma or something?” She really was hoping he was real, but of course, he was way too good to be true.”
“You’re not dreaming. And I am real, and I do…”
She watched him lower his head with his hesitation.
“You do what? You have wings, you’re, you’re some kind of angel. I think. Are you bad?”
“Do you think I am?”
She shook her head then nodded. “Yes, I do. You must be.”
He grinned at her, it was such a sexy look. He couldn’t be good. “Why? Because I…”
Again he hesitated. “Why do you keep stopping, is it bad? What do you want with me? To kill me?”
He frowned. “No. Why would I want to kill you? You’re…”
She frowned. “Oh my God you did it again. Did you hit your head when you fell from Heaven?”
He chuckled. “I didn’t fall from heaven, I’m just…worried.”
“About what?”
“About what you will think and how you will feel about me now that…”
She swallowed nodding. “Now that you grew wings and did impossible things back there to those other impossible things. I think you need to be more worried about me losing my mind because I can say it’s not looking too great for me at the moment.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“But you didn’t because…because you got so distracted with my sex appeal and beauty.”
He leveled his serious gaze on her, making her heart skip a beat. “Exactly.”
She snorted a dry shaky laugh. “That was a goddamn joke,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Not for me.”
She covered her face with both hands and moaned. “I’m dreaming, I must be dreaming. I’m down with the flu bad.” She stopped her rambling when he moved and sat right next to her.
“I’m real.” He took her hand and placed it on his steaming hot chest. “Feel me. I’m real. And I…want you.”
She had to whimper at that one. “Why are you even here,” she barely made her voice work.
He lifted her hand to his lips and stared her in the eyes while he pressed soft kisses to her fingers. “I’m Toren. The Mercury Warrior of the Fifth Universe. And I’m on a mission to stop a great evil on Earth.”
She fought to focus on the meaning of his words but it was hard when his breath and lips warmed her fingers. “Those…things back there?”
“They’re part of it. A small part.”