Page 13 of Promise of a New Beginning
“Need anything else?”
He was still so curt that her nerves tightened. She held up her biodegradable wet wipes and wiggled them before his eyes.
“I’ll wait over there.”
Savannah felt her cheeks flush.
After she was done, she found him with his back to her. In an effort to crack the walls he had constructed around himself, she tiptoed to him and wrapped her hands over his eyes.
“Guess who?” she teased. She didn’t feel his cheeks lift in a smile or his back jump with a stifled laugh. Instead, she felt the tiny muscles at the edge of his cheekbones contract as he clenched his jaw. Savannah dropped her hands, her hopes at levity deflated. “Sorry.”
He turned to face her again with the same irritated look he’d given her enough times since they’d arrived that it was already etched in her mind.
“Why are you doing this?” he growled, grabbing her wrists.
His eyes had gone almost black, and the worddangerfloated through Savannah’s mind again. She wondered if she had misjudged him after all. Maybe he didn’t have that softer side. Maybe she’d imagined it.
“Why, Savannah? I’m an angry bastard,” he said in a harsh whisper.
She could barely breathe. His eyes were still black as night, but as she looked closer, she realized she hadn’t misjudged him. It was restraint that she read in his clenching jaw, the muscles straining in his neck, but it was desire, thick and lustful, in his eyes.
“I don’t know,” she managed. Her legs weakened and her pulse sped up at the flames igniting between them. “Maybe…I…”
“I’m broken, Savannah. I may not be fixable. You’re better off going back to your high-rise cement city and using your sexy charms on one of the men there.” His nostrils flared with each heavy breath, and Savannah could tell that he was at his breaking point.
“I’m here now.” Savannah touched his ripped abs with her fingertips. She felt him shudder beneath her touch, and she looked at her hand in surprise. He released her wrists, and she placed her palm over his hammering heart and stepped closer. He smelled like the earth and sheer masculinity, and as he stared down at her, she reached up and touched his cheek. It felt just as she’d thought it might as she was lying in her tent earlier in the evening, remembering every line of his striking features. Her finger trailed the edge of his clenched jaw, lightly touching the muscles as they rose and eased repeatedly, and Savannah couldn’t keep herself from stepping on her tiptoes and planting a soft kiss on the center of his chin, then running her finger over the swell of his lower lip.
He growled a dangerous indiscernible warning that only further stimulated her desires before whispering, “Savannah.”
His plea landed in her ears as an invitation. Without any conscious thought, she lifted up on her toes again and ran her tongue along the lip she’d just touched.
“Jack,” she whispered, hoping he heard the invitation in her voice, too.
His eyes opened wide and then narrowed again, and in the next second, he hauled her against him, taking her in a deep, passionate kiss, just as he’d done before. He devoured her as if he’d been starving for only her. His tongue moved forcefully through her mouth as he took a fistful of her hair and angled her mouth beneath his, opening it wider to him. The pleasure and pain was so intense that she moaned, earning an appreciative, greedy sound from him. His teeth found her neck, and his strong, sensual hands began roaming.
His eyes opened and “Savannah” came out full of desire.
His mouth covered hers like he’d been waiting for her his whole life. Savannah drew air from his lungs, clawing hastily at his shirt, pulling it from the confines of his jeans and pushing her hands beneath, grabbing the hot bare flesh of his scarred back. She lifted his shirt and bent to kiss his chest. She felt him breathing harder, his muscles flexing with restraint, as he lifted her face, taking her in another rough kiss.
“We should stop,” he said between feverish kisses.
“No,” she panted out.
His hands were rough and sure as they stripped off her shirt and she stumbled backward toward the boulder. He pressed her against the cold, hard rock, and then he put space between them to pull his own shirt over his head. The shock of cold air against her already heated flesh had her reaching for him again. His chest was dense and powerful as he held her close, kissing her neck. He touched the button of her jeans and drew back, piercing her with a hot stare—a fierce lion ready to take his lioness. She reached down and unbuttoned her jeans, then stepped from them, shivering with desire as much as from the cold. She’d never been that bold with a man before, but Jack was just that—all man—and she wanted every bit of him.
He trailed his eyes down her body, swallowing hard, his Adam’s apple jumping in his thick neck. His eyes landed on the little skin-colored patch on her lower abdomen.
“Birth control patch,” she whispered quickly.
He kissed her again. “Man, I didn’t even think about protection. It’s been so long.”
Jack unbuttoned his jeans, then drew the zipper down slowly, holding her against the rock with nothing more than his hungry stare and a silent promise of animalistic sex. He stepped from his pants, and Savannah raked her eyes over his incredible body, the ache of need simmering to a boil, and knowing as his powerful hands clutched her rib cage that he was tortured with the same burning need.
As they explored each other’s bodies, they both went a little wild, and Savannah openedallof herself to his rough, hungry hands. She wasn’t new to sex, but with Jack she was insatiable. She didn’t know or care why she’d allowed Jack Remington to touch her bottom in ways she’d never imagined wanting a man to, but she knew she neededmore, and no part of her wanted to hold back.
TOUCHING SAVANNAH WAS nothing like Jack had imagined it would be. He’d been with only a handful of women before marrying Linda, and their sex life had been fulfilling. He’d never felt like he was missing out on anything. But when he touched Savannah, the animal in him came out, and his desires went way past making love every Wednesday and Saturday night. The nagging guilt in the back of his head silenced the moment he’d put his lips to hers. And everything afterward was fueled by pure visceral need. He’d never have touched Linda in the ways he’d just touched Savannah. He’d always thought it was too dirty. Wrong. But with Savannah, it was neither of those things, and as her body trembled in his grasp, he knew he wasn’t going to stop there. He was powerless against the desires she’d unleashed. In one quick move, he lifted her off the rock, clenched fistfuls of her hair, and took her in another penetrating kiss. Every part of her was delectable. The need to possess her was so strong that he didn’t realize how forceful he was being, and as her back hit the rock, she whimpered.
He drew back, releasing her hair. “I’m sorry. I’m—”
