Underworld Lover (A Guardian Angel Romance #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

of this. Please, have a seat and collect yourself.” It was a true and fair warning. He gently led her to a metal bench, making sure his palm was in contact with her lower back. Josh knew he shouldn’t be trusted in her company.
    Melanie sat down, surrounded by potted houseplants, then pushed her hair from her forehead and sighed. Her cheeks were flushed to a bright peach color.
    Josh bent down and carefully picked up the long stems, placing the headless ones to the side. The lush red petals and several stems that had survived intact he held in one hand. Pieces of glass he deposited in a wastebasket behind the counter. The broken stems and handfuls of petals he put on top of the counter.
    “I’ve…I’ve been all thumbs lately. Almost cut myself yesterday.”
    Joshua gazed down at her seated form as he stepped in front of her but did not touch her body.
    “You must never consider cutting yourself.” He made it a soft command, as soft as he could stand. He wanted to pick her up and shake her.
    “No, it wasn’t on purpose. Just an accident.” The pause was deafening. “I recently lost someone. Someone who…who…took his own life. I guess in a way I am still grieving. Thank goodness for hard work, right?” She looked up at him with that fresh face, those wide blue eyes full of trust,  and his heart melted.
    “That wasn’t your fault, you know.” He said it as the fact it was.
    Melanie frowned. “I still feel responsible.”
    Josh knew that in Melanie’s carefully crafted words there was the suggestion she should have tried to spare Felix. But Felix had been by that time already beyond hope. Probably nothing she could have done, even if she was willing.
    “Don’t blame yourself. It isn’t healthy.” How he wanted to hold her, comfort her. Tenderness had made a nest in his heart, something new to him. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, but it was odd.
    “Well, back to reality,” she said. Josh thought it was a nice way to put it. She had the reality of a common human, oblivious to all the evil and grace surrounding her. She brought out a shadow in him he had never seen before. A budding good side? Impossible !
    “Looks like three or four dozen to me,” he said calmly, with effort. His seductive tone was husky. “What do I owe you, then?”
    “No. No, this was my fault. You don’t owe me anything.”
    “Yes I do.” Josh was nodding, exploring the face of a true angel, her blue eyes, pink cheeks and lips, then dipped his gaze down and took in the way her blue T-shirt was stained with water and rose juices. How he would love to bury his head between her breasts. He took a calculated risk and spoke boldly, “I have done worse things with red roses.” He smiled to see what effect his statement had on her. She blushed. Josh was thrilled that she was so keen to his suggestion. Made it easier. Made it more fun. But then he stepped back, remembering himself.
    “How much?” Was he asking her what her price was in a subtle way?
    “Well, I hate to charge you for roses that…” She paused and restarted. “How about fifty dollars?” She squinted her eyes; her wrinkled brow was a pleasurable distraction to him.
    Josh reached into his hip pocket, produced a wallet, and handed her a one hundred dollar bill. “I insist you keep all of it,” he said.
    She took it.
    “Do you still want the flowers?” She looked at him with the clear blue eyes that danced all over his face, ending on his lips.
    Have I willed this?Or is this of her own volition?
    “Just the petals. I’ll keep the petals.”
    “You mean cut them short?”
    “Cut them at the base of the bloom and add all the loose petals. The beauty of these flowers is the smell, in the petals. I have no use for the stems.”
    “All right.” She smiled, and added a warm, soft chuckle. “I’ll put them in a box, okay?”
    “Perfect.” Josh didn’t watch the snipping and fast movements of her delicate fingers. He was transfixed in a fantasy just