Thor's Hammer Read online

  She stared up at him with wide eyes. Lines of sorrow and fatigue marred her face and suddenly his terrible need was gone. The steady ache in his balls was replaced with the urge to help and comfort her any way that he could.

  “I heard that you needed a farm hand.”

  Her eyes widened. “How did you...?”

  “It’s a small town, Miss Thornton.” He lifted a brow. “You are Emma Thornton, aren’t you?” He knew she was, of course, but she had no idea he knew that.

  He stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans to keep himself from touching her and scaring her half to death.

  “News travels fast—especially bad news. I’m sorry about your brother.”

  Before she could tell him that she couldn’t afford a laborer, he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.

  “You won’t find a better deal anywhere. I’m cheap and good. I work for ten bucks a day plus room and board. You can’t afford to say no.”

  She had to agree. He knew farming. Maybe not as well as he should for this modern age, but he knew enough to know she stood to lose a hell of a lot more than some food and a few dollars a day without his help.

  He watched her struggle with indecision. A cool breeze blew in from the west, lifting her hair from her shoulders and exposing the gentle curve of her throat. He swallowed thickly, wanting nothing more than to kiss the vulnerable curve, nibbling his way to her shoulder and down to the rise of her breasts.

  She bit her lip. The action drew his attention to her full, inviting lips and caused his cock to jerk in response. He met her gaze, watched as the indecision left her eyes and she made her choice.

  Sighing, she held out her hand. “You have a deal, Mr....”

  “Thor,” He said with a grin.

  Accepting her hand, he welcomed the illusion of electrical currant that danced up his arm. It only served to prove to him that she was the one meant to bear his children.

  “My mother liked the name and,” he said with a shrug when she turned wide eyes on him, “what father wouldn’t want his son named for a God?”

  He heaved an inner sigh, glad that he didn’t have to lie to her so far. Well, except by omission. The less he was forced to do so, the better off he would be.

  “The daylight is fast dwindling and the full moon isn’t for another five days,” he said, turning toward her car. “Shouldn’t we get to work?”

  Walking around to the passenger side of her little car, Thor folded himself into the front seat. Her scent surrounded him immediately. It wrapped itself around him, his body absorbing it though his pores. The sensation moved down low in his stomach, hardening his cock and squeezing his balls until just the smell of her nearly sent him over the edge.

  He gritted his teeth and pressed his hands to his crotch, trying to hide his hard-on and determined that he would not embarrass himself. If he wasn’t careful, he may just lose control and empty his load in his pants like an untried youth. He refused to humiliate either of them that way due to a lack of control.

  His flesh tingled and the fine hairs covering his body stood on end as she slid into the seat next to him and started the car. Mimicking her movements, he secured the seatbelt around him and waited as she drove them to the barn.

  He stretched as he unfolded himself from the car. Walking into the barn, he strode around the combine. Knowledge flooded his brain on the operation of every piece of equipment in the large barn.

  “Where do you keep the keys for this monster?” he asked, staring at the huge metal dinosaur. She grabbed a set of keys from a rack beside the door and threw them to him.

  “I assume you know how to drive a combine?”

  Nodding, he caught the keys, climbed up into the large machine and started the engine.

  He climbed back down without a word, hitched the large empty trailer to the large farm tractor and strode back to the harvester, ready to get to work.

  “We have about an hour of daylight left,” he said looking up at the sky. “We should be able to make two passes easily, before it gets too dark to see. Then we’ll bring the trailer back and offload it into the truck.” He looked past her to the second tractor and trailer sitting silently in the back of the barn.

  “Tomorrow, we’ll use that too. That way we can load the combine three times before we both have to head back here to load the truck and start over.”

  Emma shook her head. “I wish we could, but the other tractor is broken down. Mr. Hanson, our neighbor, is renting this one to us,” she called up to him before turning to climb up on the tractor. She put on a headset and indicated that he should do the same.

  “Can you hear me?” she asked when his was in place over his ears.

  “Yes,” he said with a nod. “I can hear you. After we’re done in the field, I’m going to fix your tractor.”

  Did you hear that, old man? Either fix her tractor or give me the knowledge and the parts to fix it for her.

  “You’re welcome to try. Two tractors would certainly make the going a bit faster.”

  Thor shifted gears and the machine lurched forward. He drove it out to the field that he knew needed harvested first and lowered the mechanism to harvest the corn.

  He was amazed at how far humanity had advanced as the machine cut the stalks, removed the ears and ground the remainder of the plant into mulch before dumping it back onto the field. After he made two passes, he slowed the combine to a crawl and waited as Emma pulled along side him with the trailer. After the flip of a switch, the corn dumped through a chute into the trailer she pulled behind her. All the while, the huge combine kept harvesting the corn as they moved across the field.

  When the trailer was full, she signaled him to turn off the chute and pulled away to head back to the barn. Two more passes filled the hopper again and he headed back to help her dump the corn into the truck that waited there.

  She smiled at him when he climbed down. “You drive that thing like my dad.”

  She put on a pair of heavy work gloves and began to activate the dump lever on the trailer.

  “Everything went so smoothly. Just like—” Her voice broke and she turned away.

  “Just like when your father was here?” he asked, finishing her sentence.

  She nodded, letting him take over the chore of emptying the trailer.

  “Everything always ran smoothly when he was here. Until just before...” her voice trailed off and she stared into space. “He’d climbed up on the roof to fix a leak. It was something he’d done a million times before. Yet, that time he fell and broke his neck.” She closed her eyes. “It was a stupid accident. He didn’t anchor himself to the roof properly and it killed him.”

  “You’re angry at him for that aren’t you?”

  Her back was to him but he felt the anger rolling off her. The aura from her negative emotions surrounded her and was so thick he could see it. Yet, her posture alone would have given her anger away. She held her gloved hand clenched at her sides, and her back ramrod stiff.

  She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “It doesn’t matter now. We need to get the harvest in. That’s all that really matters now. I need this harvest.”

  The dump mechanism stopped, the trailer reached its highest point and Thor climbed up to make sure the trailer was empty before lowering the box back down. He watched as she climbed back up onto the tractor and pulled it away from the truck.

  Climbing back onto the combine, he pulled it alongside the truck, flipped the switch that sent the chute out to the side and started dumping the corn into the truck as he watched her drive the tractor into the barn.

  After the equipment was stored away and he repaired the other tractor, they went into the house. Emma fixed sandwiches for dinner and he nearly swallowed them whole. He’d never been so hungry in his life.

  “Sorry it’s not more of a traditional supper...Thor. It’s just that there’s—”

  “Not enough hours in the day to work and cook. I understand. Besides food is nothing more than a fuel for
the body. It wasn’t meant to taste good.” He grinned around a large bite of ham sandwich and winked. “Though, it definitely helps.”

  She smiled at him and suddenly the two sandwiches he’d just eaten felt like two lead balls lying in his stomach. His heart slammed erratically in his chest and his hand squeezed his glass of milk so tight it was a miracle it didn’t shatter.

  She stared into his eyes for a moment, the smile slowly fading from her face, replaced by sudden awareness.

  Thor watched, entranced as the soft pink tip of her tongue darted out to wet her lips. A small smear of yellow marred the perfect dusky rose of her mouth and he wanted nothing more than to lean over and kiss it from her lips.

  Who knew mustard could be sexy? His father said dryly. Kiss her and get it over with before you both spontaneously combust.

  Stop eavesdropping on my thoughts, old man. I thought you were a God, not a voyeur.

  The sound of his father’s laughter rang through his mind and he found it difficult not to smile.

  Thank you for cooling my lust, father. I must take it slow with her, lest she runs.

  They do not call me the Odin, the wise, for nothing, my boy.

  Chapter Three

  Emma woke slowly, her muscles protesting. She stretched and glanced at her alarm clock.

  “Damn!”

  Scurrying from the bed, she hurried to the bathroom and jumped into the shower, barely able to hold back a squeal of protest as the cold water beat down on her skin.

  “Nothing like a cold shower to clear the cobwebs from your mind,” she whispered to herself, shivering as she dressed.

  She frowned, wondering if last night had been a dream or if she’d really been lucky enough to find someone to help her harvest the fields. Lucky enough, or stupid enough... Hurrying to the window, she looked out over the west field. Four neat passes had been cut into the stalks and ears of corn were stored in the tractor-trailer box next to the barn. Another four passes would fill that trailer and they would start on the next.

  A tingling shot up her spine and she bit her lip. Had she really trusted that strange man enough to allow him to sleep in her parent’s bedroom?

  Someone knocked on the door and she jumped.

  “It’s past daybreak, Emma.”

  She closed her eyes when that wonderfully deep and husky voice filtered through her door to make her womb clench and sent shivers up her spine. Fisting her hands at her sides, she fought for control of her senses.

  “Time’s a wasting.”

  She rubbed her arms and shivered. The man had a voice to die for. After she finished dressing, she looked in the mirror and grimaced. Well, she wouldn’t have to worry about the man making any sort of sexual advances, that was for sure. She looked like a bag lady with her holey jeans, frayed work shirt and dark circles under her eyes. She frowned after a moment and stuck her tongue out at her reflection. She was supposed to work in the fields today, not enter a beauty contest. It was a good thing too. With the way she looked, any beauty contest officials would probably set dogs on her.

  Emma followed the delicious aroma of coffee into the kitchen and felt her eyes go round with surprise. Thor handed her a thermos full of the strong smelling brew, two bacon sandwiches and a heavy picnic basket.

  “Lunch,” was all he said when he handed it over.

  He picked up a second thermos, took the basket from her, hung it over his arm and grabbed one of the sandwiches out of her hand.

  “What?” he asked when she stared at him, still stunned. “You didn’t think both of those sandwiches were for you, did you?”

  “Actually, I’m just surprised that you cooked.”

  He paused in the middle of taking a bite.

  “You’re not mad, are you?”

  “Me? Of course I’m not mad.” She took a bite of the sandwich and walked toward the door. “I’m a bit surprised, that’s all.”

  Her father had never once thought of letting her sleep in while he fixed breakfast and lunch for them. It had always been the other way around.

  She looked up at him and wondered why he seemed so attractive to her.

  Are you kidding? A man who cooks and thinks about letting you get some much needed sleep while he wakes up before the dawn, fixes breakfast and makes coffee? What’s not to love?

  Still, she’d never been attracted to a redhead before. Her tastes usually lead to tall, dark and handsome men—not giant, red, and hairy men. The tall, dark and handsome guideline became more like a rule in high school. Now though, looking at Thor with his unruly mop of red hair and bushy beard, she realized the color was growing on her.

  “After we’re through for the day, I want you to take a shower before we eat.”

  He frowned, sniffed his armpits and blushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I’d become so...aromatic.”

  Laughing, she shook her head. “I’m going to cut your hair.”

  She had never shaved a man before in her life, but if he didn’t do it himself after his shower, she was going to make the attempt. She wanted to know exactly what he looked like underneath all that hair.

  “What?”

  She almost laughed at his genuine look of horror.

  “Cut my hair? You’re not serious!”

  She smiled and nodded, leading the way to the barn.

  “As a heart attack, buddy,” she said, looking back at him pasting a grin on her face. His expression was nearly enough to bring her to her knees. She was almost afraid to uncover his face. “And the beard goes too. I find it hard to talk with you when I’m trying to stare past all of that hair.”

  His eyes had grown round and he just stood staring at her speechless. You’d think she just told him he resembled a wooly mammoth.

  “Don’t be such a baby, Thor. The way you’re acting, a person would think you’ve never had your hair cut. You can’t possibly be afraid of a pair of scissors.”

  He just gave her a glare and pushed past her.

  “You are not cutting my hair.”

  Emma decided to drop the argument while they worked. Besides, it was all she could do to keep her mind on what she was doing. She watched him as he worked through the day. He didn’t take one break, constantly moving, bringing the end of the harvest closer with each hour he spent on the farm. It was endearing the way he always did the harder work, leaving the less strenuous jobs for her.

  Around noon, he finally got hot enough to remove his shirt. She practically swooned when he exposed all that hard tanned flesh. No amount of body building in a health-club could build that kind of muscle. That kind of sinew could only be honed by years of hard work brandishing heavy hand tools.

  Watching his muscles bunch and flex beneath his bronzed flesh, Emma could almost imagine him as a hero in one of her romance novels—a hero in old England—a blacksmith, swinging a large, heavy hammer.

  The similarities between him and the God she renounced came back to her than and she pressed her lips together at the reminder. She would not begin to care for this man. She refused to care for this man. If she needed to, she would sleep with him and get him out of her system, but she would not allow herself to become emotionally involved with the man.

  Still, she watched as the perspiration glistened on his chest, arms and back as he worked.

  She closed her eyes, stifling the urge to wrap her body around him and beg him to ride her like a racehorse—like the obvious slut she’d become.

  She shook her head. What in the world is coming over me? I’ve never felt this way about a man before in my life! When did I start imagining myself having sex with a man?

  Looking up at Thor, as he pushed the remaining corn from one of the trailers, she realized when she’d started having such thoughts. It was yesterday when she met Thor.

  Thor, what kind of name was that to give your son? Wasn’t that showing the Gods some sort of disrespect or was it some form of flattery?

  Staring up at the hard planes of his body, she came to the decision that it wasn’t
him she was attracted to. She’d just been stuck here too long, caring for her brother the last six years. With no time for a relationship or even casual sex, her twenty-four year old virgin’s body was restless with all of the testosterone emanating from the only man she’d been exposed to who was not related to her.

  Why shouldn’t she be restless? She was only human. Women had needs too, didn’t they? It just wasn’t natural for a woman to reach her age, never to have been kissed by a man.

  Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a hair tie and pulled her hair off her neck into a ponytail. The sensation of her hair brushing against her shoulders made her hot and she had begun to sweat.

  She lowered her arms, her hands lightly skimmed over her breasts, oblivious to the show she was giving to her employee. Her sharp breath as her hands skimmed her nipples drew Thor’s attention from dumping the trailer. He stared at her with such intensity that her knees buckled and she almost fell to the hard-packed dirt at her feet.

  Everything happened so fast, it was though it was a blur. Thor jumped from the box, stopped the trailer from dumping and ran to her. He moved so fast, she could have sworn he had been too fast for her eyes to see.

  Catching her up into his arms, he stared down at her for a moment. She felt his look like a touch. It danced over her skin, heating her blood, nearly driving her mad with the need to bury her fingers in his unruly hair and pull his head down to hers.

  Silently, she begged him to lower his head and press his lips to hers. The attention of any man, even this scruffy giant of a stranger was better than wondering about what it felt like to be pressed intimately against a lover.

  Slowly, he bent his head toward hers, giving her plenty of time to pull away if she wanted.

  She didn’t. She couldn’t. She had to know what it was like. She could only stand and stare, speechless as his head lowered, his lips growing ever closer to hers. She stood mesmerized as he lowered his mouth to hers and groaned.