Claiming Emma (6 page)

"People come from all over now to see the gardens and I sell as much local metal art as I can fit along the paths, not to mention I have a deal with the antique shop in town, if she finds anything in her travels for her shop that would work for the garden she buys it and I sell it here for a small percentage."

Emma pointed to an elaborate Victorian white iron bench they were passing that had a small informative plaque displayed telling buyers the price and significance of the item historically along with the date it was made.  The name of the shop in big letters at the bottom.

"They sell better when people can see the potential beauty old pieces add to a garden, and its free advertisement for both of us.  She can send people antique shopping to the garden center for old ironwork that she doesn’t have the room for in her shop, and gardeners from out of the area will find out there’s an antique shop in town worth stopping for.  Win win."

Since Noah, who she was learning was not gregarious, made no comment to this it compelled her to ramble on just a bit more.  Not that she needed an excuse to talk about her farm.  She loved what she had built here, and had no problem waxing on about the way she ran it.

"The retail shop sells potted flowers, vegetables and herbs we grow ourselves, compost and soil conditioner we make ourselves, plus I have a few local artists and craftspeople’s work that I sell here as well. As long as it is herb or garden related and I like it, I sell it here.  For instance, we have a local lady who makes the soaps, sachets and lotions that my grandmother used to make.  As well as a lovely woman who mixes custom teas.  I supply them both with what they need and they make them.  What we don't sell retail, we sell wholesale to shops all over California, and in the last year we’ve branched out to Oregon and Washington as well."

"Impressive," Noah finally said.  And Emma looked over to see his eyes on the old barn that housed the garden center.

The single word should not have had her practically preening under his approval but there it was, for some reason his opinion mattered a great deal to her, when he was practically a stranger and it shouldn't matter at all.  She was in so much trouble.

Emma knew Margo was already here because she had seen her manager’s SUV pull up when she had been feeding Lucy first thing this morning.  Since Paige was her daughter and they came in together most days, that meant she could introduce them to Noah together, then leave Lucy while Paige watched the baby, answered phones and worked on the on-line orders.

Margo had already opened the office and Paige started the coffee when Emma, Lucy and Noah arrived.  Paige was seventeen, a senior in high school with long coltish legs and absolutely no idea how pretty she was, with her shy hazel eyes and glossy hair.  She was great with Lucy and way better on the phone and through e-mail then she ever would have been on the sales floor.

Since she had known the girl since her mother came to work for her nearly the day she opened the shop, it was a good fit.  Margo had just lost the job she hated in town to cutbacks and since she was raising a teenager without help, had a mortgage and a need to eat, she’d really needed the job.  Emma had hired her.  She hadn’t needed the help, nor could she afford it at the time, but she’d hired her anyway and never regretted it for a moment.  Now she could not imagine being without her.  Especially now that so much of Emma's time not spent in the gardens was spent with Lucy, or visiting Hannah.

Margo Reynolds was six years older than Emma with the same brown hair and eyes as her daughter.  Hers came to just below her shoulder with a natural curl, unlike her daughter that wore hers straight and long to the waist.  Margo had the kind of good looks and curves that drew a man’s attention.  She carried an extra fifteen pounds but she wore it well on her five nine body.  Unfortunately for the male populace, like Emma, Margo had no interest in companionship, having had her heart broken in a bad way long ago.

Unlike Emma though, who just ignored any interest coming her way like she was deaf and blind, Margo was abrasive and sarcastic and might as well have worn a sign that read.  "Be it on your head if you annoy me."  She did not suffer fools kindly, and she had been known to give crushing set downs to even the most benign flattery.  And if you were a good looking man, watch out.

Since the second floor hay loft had been transformed into both the office and the break room for the garden center there were desks on the side opposite the kitchenette and table.  One with a computer, the other two with lap tops.  Four big windows that looked out over the gardens and through which you could see both the greenhouses and beyond that, Emma's house in the distance.  Office supplies and a commercial printer sat along one wall and the kitchenette with a dining table and four chairs along another.

If you went down the hall, you would find stairs that led down to storage closets, public restrooms and the entrance to the main retail space.  The public could enter through the big open barn doors or through a double door they kept open to the back gardens and greenhouses.  One of which was open to the public and one that was not.

Emma turned to introduce Noah to Margo and Paige.  Margo was looking at Noah as if he was a snake that had slithered in when they weren't looking.  Paige took one look at all that was Noah Hale and bobbled the pots.  The coffee grounds fell and splattered on the floor, and while she was fumbling around in a teenage girl awe she nearly dropped the electric tea kettle full of water as well.  Emma put Lucy in her bassinet they kept at the office, and ran to help the poor girl cope.

"Margo," Emma said indicating her for Noah's sake, and then she patted Paige.  "And Paige, this is Hannah's brother Noah.  He's going to be staying at Lavender Farms to visit with Hannah and Lucy for a while.  Noah, this is Margo, my Manager, and Paige, who watches Lucy and mans the phones, while Margo is on the floor and I'm in the gardens."

"Really?" Margo said at hearing who he was, her eyes narrowing in broad sweeping accusation.  "Well.  Where have you been?"

"Margo," Emma snapped.  Her eyes warning the other woman.

Margo looked at Emma for only a moment before she turned her suspicious eyes back to Noah.  "It's a valid question," she said unapologetically.  "One I'd like to put to that whole family."

"And none of your business," Emma shot back making it as clear as she could that Margo needed to back off.

"Nice to meet you," Paige spoke quietly but with some haste, heading off her mother’s tight lipped answer.  Her cheeks pinking even more when Noah met her gaze and tipped his chin at the girl.  Emma put down the tea kettle she had rescued and stepped over to him, taking the diaper bag and dropping it beside the bassinet.  "Noah, is going to help me out around the farm today.  I expect," Emma snapped her eyes to Margo pointedly.  "You all will make him feel welcome while he's here."

She didn't wait for an answer but grabbed his arm and started pulling him away from the two woman and back towards the door where she slipped off her sneakers and pulled on purple galoshes and an apron with the Lavender Farms logo on it over her standard jeans and t-shirt with the same logo.

"We'll be back in a few so Noah can get some coffee."  She smiled at Paige.  "Just text me if Lucy gets too fussy."

"She won't," Paige said, then she smiled shyly at Noah and turned back to the coffee pot with enthusiasm.  "I'll have the coffee ready when you get back."

Emma headed out into the fields by way of her usual stroll through the retail area.  She did not stop to water with Noah at her back, knowing that Margo would take care of it.  Abrasive to men she might be, but she was good at knowing when to water and when to hold back, she decorated pots with whimsy and her people skills assured that most customers wanted to come back.

It allowed Emma to do what she loved to do, and that was work the fields, the cottage garden and the greenhouses.  Which is where she headed now, anxious and pleased for some reason to be showing it all to Noah.  She finally turned back to him when they were inside the sultry heat of the greenhouse and the door was closed.

"There a reason your manager wants to eject me bodily from the place?"  Noah asked and had Emma snorting out a laugh at the picture his words painted in her head.

"She was once in Hannah's position, so she feels pretty strongly about the whole thing.  Worse, she had a bad experience with a good looking man, and when I say bad I mean as bad as it gets."  Emma gave Noah her most apologetic smile, her nose crinkling and drawing his intense gaze from her mouth.   "She tends to be abrasive with men, especially when they’re good looking."  Emma looked him over pointedly.  Feeling her humor at the situation bubble up, and could not resist teasing him.  "With the way you look, you’re probably lucky she didn't try to stab you in the face with her ink pen."

His eyes sharpened.  "The way I look?"

Emma felt a tingle up her spine at the low timber of his words.  "Um, well yes," she said blinking up at him, her mind closing down momentarily.  "Well, the way you look."  She motioned her hand up and down to indicate all that was him.  "You know, hot army ranger?"

When he raised a brow and just looked amused she cleared her throat and turned to lead him further into the lavender and herb scented space.  "Moving on."

This time when he chuckled she couldn’t stop herself from looking over her shoulder to catch it.

She caught it alright and then promptly ran into an herb bedecked table before she could get her head to look away.

She caught the table and steadied it before anything could fall off, at the same time thinking she was an idiot.  Not helping matters much. Noah chuckled again.

Just shoot me now.

***

Noah watched Emma steady the table with a look of horror on her face that made him want to chuckle again. So he did.  The look of consternation she shot at him over her shoulder had him wanting to do other things, like lay her down over one of the tables with free space and fuck her brains out.  What he did was step closer, his hand going to her arm to steady her. 

"You hurt?"

"Only my pride," she mumbled almost too low for him to hear. 

Shit, she was cute.

"You sure? You hit the table pretty hard."

She glared at him over her shoulder, knowing he was laughing at her.  "I'm fine."

He didn't say anything more, just watched as she extricated herself from the table and stepped back, trying not to let it shake any more than necessary when she did.

"Moving on," she said again.  Firmly.  "This is where I'm working today.  I have seeds that have grown enough to be transferred to pots, that will later be transferred to bigger pots to sell."  She turned and looked him over.  "Any gardening experience?"

Noah gave her blank face and said not a word.

She scrunched her nose up adoringly, reading his answer.  Then she brightened.  "Horses?"

Noah shook his head.  He was raised in the city, and farming was not something they taught in the rangers.

"Drat," she muttered.  Then met his eyes to explain her reaction.  "I had to send my horses to stay with my neighbors once what happened with Hannah, happened.  I had the baby in the morning, and it was too much trying to take care of her, and work, without trying to figure out how to do my chores and take care of the animals too.   But eventually I need to get them.  Mr. Norris is a nice old man and they like him, but he is like 102 and has three of his own horses he is already taking care of without adding mine to the mix."

Noah snorted.  "102?"

"That's only a slight exaggeration," she assured him.  "I need to bring my animals home."

"Then do it," he answered immediately.  "You can show me what I need to know.  I catch on quick."

Emma flashed him a sudden smile.  "That could work.  Or hey, if not, you can watch the baby while I take care of the farm chores and slave in the fields."

Since she looked a little too tickled with the thought Noah assumed she was teasing him again.  At least, he hoped she was.  He still growled at her on principle.  "No fuckin' way."

This time it was Emma who laughed.  At him.  "Don't sell yourself short," she said humor coating her words.  "I bet you would be a great house daddy."  She waggled her eyes at him as she started backing away as he moved toward her with intent.  She laughed and moved faster when he kept coming at her.  "Don't be like that." Then her back hit the wall with an oomph and he pressed his advantage, close enough to feel the heat of her skin through her clothes, then he had her pressed between him and the wall behind her and she was looking up at him with eyes rounded in surprise, her breath catching.  "Noah?"

Her scent blended seamlessly with the scents of the greenhouse, until he felt as if it surrounded them.  He leaned his face down next to her neck and breathed her in reflexively, his hands going to the wall on either side of her, he watched as her eyes dilated and humor shifted out to make room for something else, something he liked seeing even more in the depths of her green eyes, and in the flush of her creamy skin.  Desire.  For him.

He ran his nose up her neck to just behind her ear and breathed her in again.  She gasped and he pressed forward until he could feel those luscious breasts firm against his chest.

Noah forgot all about teasing her then.  He had been playing, but this was something altogether different.  He looked at the smooth curve of her neck beneath his mouth and wanted to bite it so bad he could already feel the taste of her in his mouth.  So he did, biting just hard enough that all her nerve endings sparked, but without breaking the skin.  Her head fell back and another gasp fanned out against his hair.

"I don't remember the last time a woman teased me the way you do," he said, his words dark and low.  He saw the goosebumps form along the neck he was currently studying and he felt her shiver.

"Probably too scared you'll take it the wrong way, and do that broody thing you do so well,” she answered, a little breathless and a lot challenging.

"But that doesn't worry you?" he asked, pulling his head back only far enough to meet her eyes. Her dark green eyes that she tried to hide from him by looking away.   He nipped her lip in warning and her eyes shot back to his.  Temper sparked in their depths along with the other heat she didn't want him to see.

Her eyes narrowed at his intimidation tactic. "You need to be teased and often," she stated boldly.  "And broody doesn't scare me."

The heat in the depth of hers met the heat he did not try to hide in his own and she sucked in a hard breath as sparks flew between them. 

"Good," Noah growled.

Before she could say anything to that his head shot forward and he took her impossible soft mouth.  She opened for him immediately with another gasp, and he took more, thrusting his tongue inside to catch as much of her taste as he could.  Claiming territory, he knew in his gut he intended to fucking keep, no matter that it was too soon.

He slanted his head for a better fit, exploring the heat that rose up between them like his life depended on it.  And maybe it did.  He could not remember the last time he did more than go through the motions with a woman to scratch an itch.  Not Emma.  This woman made him feel alive.  He pushed his hand into the hair on either side of her head to hold her just how he wanted.  She groaned into his mouth and he growled in answer, taking her deeper, wetter.  She held nothing back, and Noah was fucking going to take everything he could get.