Page 33 of Ace
She had to say something before she kissed him. “I should go to them. They’re scared.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” he snapped without sparing so much as a quick glance down at her.
Keller Boniface was a magnificent sight to behold, so Savannah beheld. He meant for her to live, and he meant to die to make it so. How could she dismiss love like that? She couldn’t. Savannah had never felt safer. More certain. This was how he showed his love. He protected. He fought for the people who meant the most to him. He’d die for her.
Closing her eyes, she let her inner sight seek out whoever had destroyed her home. They hadn’t yetaccomplished what they’d intended. They were merely watching at this point. She was frightened, but she’d bet they hadn’t expected to run up against a federal agent. Bullies weren’t that kind of brave.
Ah, there he is. A male.Standing in the shadow just under the eaves at the far side of the cat barn. Thinking he was invisible. Tall. Wretchedly thin. Dark-eyed but pale-skinned. Evil incarnate twitchy, like he needed a fix. Or like he’d just realized who and what he was up against, and that he’d made himself a target.
Stretching her neck to see around Keller, Savannah ended up pressing her lips to the soft underside of his taut chin instead. She breathed in the luscious scent of manly sweat and bourbon and tobacco. Of him...
“Do you mind?” he bit out, ever the strait-laced federal agent just doing his job.
Yet there on her concrete patio with the heat of her burning home radiating over her like a gigantic oven, Savannah didn’t mind at all. “Look toward the far end of the cat barn,” she told him quietly. “See the man in the shadows? He planted the bomb and he set it off. But he’s not the one behind everything that happened today. He’s just the tool.”
Keller’s manly jaw slid forward in defiance, exposing more luscious neck. “How the fuck do you know that?”
“I can see,” Savannah said as she breathed deeply, oddly aroused when she should be angry or scared or—anything besides romantic. “I have the same sight as Gran Mere.”
“Got him.” Keller stretched his weapon forward and bellowed, “FBI. Drop your gun and— Oh no, you don’t!” His right arm flexed as he fired three deafening shots.
Wincing from the thunderous noise, Savannah cried, “Wait! Was he armed?”
“Ah-huh, twelve gauge. Long barrel.”
“A shotgun?” Why hadn’t she seen that?
But Savannah knew. She hadn’t seen because she’d been distracted by Keller.
Chapter Fifteen
How was a man supposed to work with a warm, sensual body like Savannah Church’s pressed hot and willing against his loins? Concerned she could read his salacious intentions as easily as a book, Keller didn’t dare spare her a glance despite, or maybe because, his wayward, all-male mind had moved onto a lovelier scene. One that had everything to do with crisp, clean sheets, bare tangled legs, and her black hair spread like a silken fan on rumpled white pillows. With his body tight inside hers, pumping for home base. The musky scent of her sex in his nose. She’d be smiling. He’d be in heaven and ready to go again.
Damn, he was a pathetic monster to be aroused now, at a time like this. It took all Keller had to not plant his body between her legs and thrust into her. He already lay over her in a compromising enoughposition, fighting the primal urge to not only protect her, but to claim her and do it now. Right here.
Growling at his sudden lack of restraint in what was a most dangerous situation, he glared at the lanky man hidden in the shadows at the opposite end of the mowed lawn. The idiot thought he was invisible just because he hadn’t moved.
That simple mental shift in targets did what Keller needed. His mind snapped off Savannah and onto the bastard who’d meant to kill her, damn him to hell. He’d have to come closer if he intended to use that shotgun. It was probably just loaded with birdshot, and birdshot couldn’t kill at this distance. But Keller’s Sig could.
“You know that guy?” he asked as he adjusted his weight and finally allowed Savannah enough room to get a better look. Not a good idea. Her taut belly strained against his when she curved her body to see around his arm. Her small breasts mashed soft and melt-in-your-mouth sweet against his chest. He’d already been fighting the urge to bury his face in her hair. Now strands of it lifted into his mouth, and the lovely scent she surrounded herself with was mighty distracting. Keller filled his lungs with mouth-watering temptation as he turned his head to tug her hair off his lips. He blinked and…
Pffft!The would-be killer had vanished. “Shit!”
“Let me up,” Savannah ordered as her palms hit his chest. “My dogs—”
Like she stood a chance of moving him. “Will you forget about your dogs and birds?” Keller snapped, forcing her flat again—where every nerve and fiber inhis being wanted her. Even so, a sudden calm infiltrated his adrenaline flooded body. She was doing it again. Comforting him, this time through the fabric of his shirt. “Stay down. You’re more important than—”
“Possibly…” she agreed, but Keller felt outright denial in her vague reply. “It’s just that once I set them loose, they’ll go after that guy and whoever else is inside Sanctuary. They’ll track him and his friends, if he brought any with him. You’ll see.”
“But won’t they get out? Aren’t you worried they’ll run away?” Now Keller was worried about her dogs.
“No, silly,” she chided gently. “I give them the run of the place when I’m here. They know to come when I call. You’ll see.”
They were trained? Keller hadn’t thought about that. Calmer now, he pulled Savannah to her feet along with him, but kept one arm around her shoulder, one weapon holstered, the other still in his hand. The car, the alligators, her house, and now this stranger with a shotgun all added up to someone holding one helluva grudge against Savannah. What was more interesting was all this happening the day Gran Mere died. Coincidence? Not on your life.
“You make anyone mad enough to want you dead lately?”
She shook her head as he steered her back to the barn, his senses on high alert even as the feel of her slender body bumping against his spiked every last protective instinct. “I don’t think this is about me. It’s got to have something to do with Gran Mere.”
