Page 34 of Ace
“Why do you say that? I thought everyone loved her.”
“Everyreasonableperson loved her. But there are always haters.”
Keller couldn’t shake the image of those alligators and Savannah’s house burning behind them. Or that she’d answered as if she were an inconsequential detail in the attempts on her life. They were completely cut off from emergency responders, and someone had tried to kill her. There was no way this was just about Mariposa Church. “But you’re the dog rescuer,” he argued, his pistols still at the ready. “And that truck meant to run you down. Hell, it hit the passenger side. That guy could’ve killed you right then and there.”
“I doubt it. She was the one people came to when their babies were sick or trouble struck. She was the heart of this parish. I’m just…” Savannah shrugged one shoulder. “To be honest, I’m just the kid no one wanted. Not even my father hung around after I was born. He handed me off to Gran Mere, then went and got himself killed.”
The length of her stride increased. “Don’t get me wrong. Gran Mere always wanted me. I knew that. I was everything to her, but deep down, I’m just another stray she took in and loved.” Another shrug. “Which suits me fine. Really. That way no one pays attention to me, and to be honest, I think that’s why I like working with animals so much. We’re the same, you know. We’re strays. Rejects. We speak the same language.”
“Not buying that,” Keller grumbled as he stopped her at the door to her rescue barn, which all by itselfproved she was more than she gave herself credit for. Humility was all good and fine, but this woman should be proud of what she’d accomplished, with other people’s rejects no less. “You’re not just another stray. I mean, look at you.”
And time ground to an awkward halt. Yet again, he’d moved in too fast and he’d gotten too close. Every cell in his body leaned forward like a vine seeking the sun. Savannah was that sunlight, and he was a troll living under a bridge. In the shadow. Afraid to get burned by the sun, but dying for the light.
Savannah looked up at his unplanned outburst. She blinked those big, beautiful, dark chocolate eyes. Her lashes fluttered like an exotic, ebony butterfly’s wings. Long. Enticing. The perfect frames to the windows of her soul. The tip of her pink tongue moistened the lush bottom lip his whole body ached to taste.
Keller looked down at her. At her mouth. It was the smallest glance. He meant nothing by it—honest. Yet in that instant he saw everything. Her instinctive generosity. Her kind heart. Her willingness to share her gift. The glowing love she had for Gran Mere and two barns full of strays. All those birds…
Damn, she’d sought out every last one of those creatures, then built and managed this complex to protect them from a world that hadn’t wanted them in the first place. How could she not know how beautiful, sensitive, and charming she was? How appealing that rare quality of kindness made her? How utterly seductive?
But Keller was not a trusting man. Even stuck inside the FBI’s one and only psychic team, he’d fought the Deuces Wild welcome, but he’d fought harder against belonging. Settling down wasn’t in his blood. A man didn’t work his ass off for a Ranger tab only to end up a family man. Life didn’t work that way.
Truth was Tucker Chase wasn’t that hard of a boss to work for. He was just so damned cock sure of himself. And every last team member had welcomed Keller with open arms. He was the problem. Not Tuck or Isaiah, not Eden or Ky, certainly not Tate Higgins, a man more remote and stoic than Keller.
Yet here it was again, a second chance, life and sun and all good things shining up at him. Enough love to make a man believe he wasn’t just another ugly cur in a world that ran over infants, the weak, and animals in its greedy quest for power, wealth, and fame.
His eyes tracked the sultry smile stealing over Savannah’s countenance. Man, she was everything he’d avoided since he’d lost Carol Marie. Comfort. Belonging. Finally, actually, being a man with a pulsing heart in his chest instead of a cold stone.
In the barest fraction of a second, Keller had Savannah inside the barn and the door locked. He holstered his pistols and wrapped her tightly in his arms like a treasure finally found. His heart hammered in his throat as he strived for control.
Federal agents didn’t do crap like this, not the honorable ones. Not him. Not ever! He’d never taken advantage of any woman like he was thinking of doing now. Even this hug was more sexual assault thanfriendly. Surely, unwanted. Certainly, unexpected. Never mind what else he was thinking.
She should shove away. She should tell him, “No!” She should scream at him to quit. Savannah should do anything but what she was busy doing now. Dragging his shirttails out of his pants. Loosening his belt. Making the sexiest frantic sounds of a woman who wanted the same thing he did.
Mind the gap. Mind the gap. Mind the bloody gap!his out of control brain sang like the conductor on some London train he hadn’t thought of in years.
“We’re not safe here,” he warned as she lifted her chin and closed the distance between their mouths. Instinctively, he sucked in his gut to help her questing fingers find their way under his shirt, down his belly and into his pants.
“I don’t care,” she whined as her hand closed gently around him. “I need this. I want you.”
It wasn’t mere comfort she passed to him then. It was the sweetest feminine need, raw, new, and delightfully rare. Keller was done fighting. The only question was where and how fast he could get there. He wasn’t about to nail her against the nearest barn wall. She deserved better.
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” she asked.
“Uh uh. No way,” he growled. He hadn’t meantnail. No, no, no. That was entirely the wrong word choice. This brave woman deserved soft, tender loving while surrounded by decadence and luxury, silk and candlelight, not dogs, kennels, and kibble.
“To hell with the gap,” Keller growled when Savannah’s other palm flattened under his shirt on his spine, shocking him with a stinging current of lust that felt so damned good. She had to be standing on her toes. He leaned over to accommodate whatever this amazing woman wanted to do next. If she said no, then no it was. He’d stifle and he’d quit, no questions asked.
But suddenly she was in his hands, at least her ass was. He’d had to grab hold where he could. She’d climbed his body like a woman on a mission, dragging her open mouth over every patch of bare skin in her path. Inhaling him. Licking and tasting his neck as if he were her mission. Like a heat-seeking missile, her mouth collided with his chin, her wet tongue sweeping over his lips before he wholeheartedly obliged and let her in.
God, yes. Yes, yes, yessss!He knew she’d taste sweet, but her mouth was heaven. Her lips, manna, honey and spice. Ambrosia!More.
Keller didn’t remember pressing her against the wall beside the barn door. He didn’t recall angling his chin for better access to her mouth. The little sounds she made drove him crazy, but there they were. Him standing with his belt undone and clutching her ass in his thrumming fingers. She was still dressed, but he knew her blood had to be on fire for maybe the first time ever. And him with her beguiling scent in his nose.
“Are you sure?” he asked before he stripped her bare. “I mean, your house is burning, and we’re not doing a damned thing to put the fire out.”
Her nose wrinkled with the cutest petulance. “I’ve got a brand new fire suppression system, sprinklers and all,” she mumbled around his lips. “Let’s see if it works.”
“How on earth do you have enough money to do all that?”
