Touched By The Devil (Devil's Riders 7)

I began by salvaging some of the scraggly survivors from the hundred-year-old garden and started harvesting the seeds. I even started buying seeds on message boards and searching out plants in some of the old houses and farms in town. And just like that, Suzanna’s Seeds was officially in business.

It wasn’t the kind of money I was used to from working for a large advertising firm. In fact, it wasn’t any money at all those first few years, but it was so much more satisfying. And relaxing.

Or it had been, until now.

A moment of silence. I closed my eyes in bliss as the soft chirping of birds filled the air. I reached for my cup of coffee as a jackhammer started, making me nearly drop my cup. I stared down at my striped shirt and floral apron, now covered in my delicious wasted coffee. I drank the last bit in the cup with a grimace.

“That’s it! I have had enough!”

I shoved my bare feet into a pair of dark-green-striped wellies and stomped out the door.

Chapter 3

Mac

I was looking at my clipboard with Drake, going over the groups and subgroups we had working onsite today. I frowned at the sudden silence. All the mechanical noises had stopped. I looked up to see that everyone had stopped working.

Drake let out a low wolf-whistle.

I turned around to see what everyone was staring at.

“Excuse me!”

A girl stood there. No, not a girl. She was a woman. A very, very pretty woman. She looked like a rainbow had exploded. She wore blue and white stripes and flowers, and her bare, shapely, very sexy legs were wedged into big rain boots.

It should have been too much. Too girly. Too loud. But it wasn’t. I couldn’t look away.

“Who is in charge here?” she asked peevishly. Slowly, I raised my hand, my eyes devouring her. I’d never seen a girl who looked like that. She was almost too pretty. But she wasn’t dolled up. It was all-natural.

She honestly looked like she didn’t care that she was standing in a crowd of dozens of men. She wasn’t here to get our attention, although she more than had it. She came closer and I squinted my eyes.

Was that… dirt on her cheek?

“I am in charge, ma’am.”

“Ma’am?”

She looked outraged. I guess she didn’t like being called that. I would have to remember that if I wanted to piss her off again.

She sure was pretty when she was mad.

Huge hazel eyes peered at me belligerently, intelligent thick-lashed eyes that looked almost gold in the sunlight. A mop of golden brown hair was shoved haphazardly onto the top of her head, with wavy tendrils spilling everywhere, revealing a slender, elegant neck and a stubborn jaw. High cheekbones, a cute as hell button nose, and lush, unbelievably sexy lips that begged for a man’s kisses.

Not any man’s. Mine.

I could hardly believe the way I was reacting to this woman. I was looking for a shy, quiet girl, I reminded myself. But the gorgeous rainbow tornado in front of me had wiped that notion away.

Her mouth wasn’t the only part of her that was speaking to me. Despite the bright and colorful clothes, the woman didn’t look crazy. She was far too stacked to look anything but hotter than hell, curvy from top to bottom and in all the right ways.

I started to grin at her like a buffoon, not realizing the danger I was in.

She marched right up to me, and I couldn’t help but notice the way her chest jiggled. Man, I wanted to lay hands on her and see how buoyant those curves really were. Her jeans were tight, worn in, patched, and shredded in spots. But she hadn’t bought them that way. No, I could tell she’d earned those patches.

I faintly registered the sharp-looking clippers hanging from her belt before she tore into me.

A gardener. She’s a gardener, I thought as I smiled at her stupidly.

“…disturbing the peace! Nonstop noises, which is really not good for the plants, and the smells coming through the trees are toxic!”

“The smells?” I asked politely, which earned me a scowl. She sure was pretty when she was fired up.

“Yes! You can’t come in here, tear down trees, and just make it smelly and noisy!”

“Noisy?”

“Yes! Since early this morning. It’s almost two, and there hasn’t been a moment of silence. Don’t you take lunch?”

“We take it in shifts.”

“What about your neighbors? What if they want a lunch break?”

Something about the sound of her voice snapped me out of my trance. I looked at her again, really seeing her, and not just focusing on how damn sexy she was. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“Neighbors? There isn’t anybody out here. Just one crazy…” I stopped, looking at her again. “You’re Suzanna,” I said flatly. The developers had warned me about her. They’d said she was batshit crazy and a pain in the ass. They had failed to mention that she looked like a swimsuit model and smelled like sunshine and peaches.