Carol Finch (11 page)

“Savanna?”

The unspoken question hung in the evening air. It was her choice, he told himself. Did she want him to sit or to undress? He supposed he was taking advantage of her vulnerability, but he promised himself that he wouldn’t push her. It had to be her decision.

“If you don’t want me—” His voice dried up when she rose gracefully from the pool like a mystical siren.

Gone was the modesty she’d displayed the first time he’d seen her naked. The indignation she’d spouted at him
when they’d kissed as if the world were about to end the night of the storm was nonexistent, too. She came steadily toward him, her gaze locked with his, her luscious body glistening with diamond water droplets in the moonlight. She was so perfectly shaped, so bewitching, that she took his breath away.

“Is that a yes?” he croaked as he devoured her with his eyes.
Please let this be a yes,
he mused. If not, he was pretty sure that he was going to die of sexual deprivation, right here on this very spot.

W
hen Savanna said, “Yes,” then looped her arms around his neck and pushed up on tiptoe to kiss him hard and desperately, Fletch groaned in relief. He lifted her clean off her feet and kissed her back, savoring the addictive taste of her.

When he came up for air, she stared at him and said, “Make me forget everything, Fletch. I don’t want to think or remember anything but you.” Her forefinger skimmed his lips. “But please don’t hurt me because that’s more than I can bear right now.”

His heart caved in, right there and then. He didn’t consider himself a gentle man, but he swore Savanna would feel nothing but pleasure at his hands. The thought of disappointing her or hurting her while she was so disillusioned and vulnerable was intolerable. He would become what she needed, he vowed.

He scooped her up and walked into the warm pool without shedding his breeches. When Savanna twisted in his arms to wrap her legs around his waist, he felt the hottest, most intimate part of her body brush against his belly. That
just about did him in. Then she kissed him and desire blazed through him like a torch, making every inch of his body burn with need.

Fletch didn’t know if the passion bubbling between them was enough to make Savanna forget the hell she’d been through, but it made him so dizzy that he barely remembered his own name. In fact, the hungry need twisting inside him made it hard to recall anything that had happened up to this point in his life.

Sweet mercy! How could a woman have such a devastating impact on a man? Savanna was as dangerous as a woman could get. She made him feel too many emotions and sensations, as if he had just now come to life instead of existing for years on end. He didn’t know what kind of overpowering spell she wove around him, but he couldn’t fight it. Didn’t want to fight it.

Tomorrow his conscience would probably beat him black and blue, but not tonight. He wanted Savanna so badly that the burning ache consumed all other thought.

“I need you, Fletch,” she whispered against the corded tendons of his neck. “I didn’t want to admit how much.”

“That makes us even,” he murmured as he moved her away from him, urging her to float on her back.

Savanna started to object, but the moment he set his hands and lips on her skin, reality flitted into oblivion. She felt herself drifting in a world of erotic sensations. Her breath hitched and her back involuntarily arched in her eagerness to press closer to his warm mouth. He set her on fire and filled her with incredible sensations of pleasure when he suckled her breasts and stroked his hand up and down the length of her responsive body.

When his palm splayed over her lower abdomen and he
guided her legs apart with his hand, her breath stalled in her chest. When his fingertips brushed against her sensitive flesh, she swore her body temperature shot up a quick fifty degrees, turning the pool into a cloud of steam. Her eyes flew open to find Fletch staring down at her with that vivid blue-eyed gaze that mesmerized and beguiled.

He caressed her again, and the intimacy of the moment was almost too much, especially when he dipped his finger inside her. Another coil of scalding heat radiated into her very core. She gasped for breath and blushed furiously while he watched her succumb to the inexpressible pleasure of his caresses.

When she tried to glance away, he cupped her chin. “No, Vanna.” Shortening her name seemed symbolic of the new intimacy they shared. “Look at me. I want to
know,
to
see
that you feel nothing but absolute pleasure.”

He stroked her gently, intimately, driving her just short of crazy. A helpless moan tumbled from her lips as burning splinters of desire singed her body.

He angled his head to flick at her nipple while his hand moved rhythmically between her legs. Fire and heat exploded through her. Pleasure so intense that she swore she was about to pass out bombarded her while he continued his wildly sensual assault that pelted her with one astounding sensation after another.

Savanna cried out hoarsely when burgeoning passion erupted inside her. She panted Fletch’s name repeatedly as her body convulsed in helpless abandon. She whimpered, uncertain of what she wanted. But whatever it was, she needed it
now.
In another moment she was going to die, she was sure of it.

“Please…” she rasped, clutching urgently at him.

“That’s the general idea,” Fletch teased as he felt her curvaceous body quiver with frantic need.

He marveled at her uninhibited response and he felt empowered when each stroke of his fingertips sent her spiraling out of control all over again.

“Do something, damn it!” she practically yelled at him in maddening desperation.

He did something, all right. He unfastened the placket of his breeches then guided her hips toward his. He watched her eyes widen and her bow-shaped lips form a silent Oh as he pressed carefully against her. Although he wanted to be inside her more than he wanted his next breath, he battled to control the fierce urges of his body. He’d vowed to be gentle with her, even if need clawed him to shreds while he set a slow pace.

When her body stiffened and she shoved the heels of her hands against his shoulders to hold him at bay, he stroked her back, trying to coax her into relaxing against him. She was so hot and tight around him. So right. So perfect. When he felt the delicate barrier give way, he knew for certain that she hadn’t been with Roark Draper or any other man.

That intimate knowledge was pleasing and daunting at once.

“I’m trying not to hurt you,” he murmured as he skimmed his lips along her collarbone. “But there are some things that, um, take some getting used to.”

Blazing need assailed him when Savanna shifted, trying to accommodate him, trying to adjust to the unfamiliar pressure of masculine invasion. If she didn’t hold still, his willpower, which had turned to dry kindling, was going to go up in flames.

“I’m not sure this is going to work,” she said on a seesaw breath. “You’re so big and—”

“Vanna?” he interrupted with teasing amusement.

She stared at him wide-eyed. “What?”

“Now’s a good time for you to hush up and let me show you how well this works when we both cooperate.”

The wide, breathtaking smile he bestowed on her made her forget about the discomfort and the unfamiliar sensations bearing down on her. His smile was so full of tender humor and his blue eyes sparkled with such gentle promise that she fell in love with him right on the spot, at that very moment when she discovered the how-tos and what-fors of passion.

Savanna didn’t want to love him, because she knew he would break her heart when he left her to avenge Elaina’s death. Her life was unbelievably complicated already. Loving and losing Fletch would take an emotional toll she wasn’t sure she could overcome.

Savanna stopped fretting about the future when he moved inside her, penetrating deeper and deeper until he became a living, breathing part of her. He glided away from her and her sensitized body instinctively arched upward, longing to hold him in place. The sensations that pelted her defied imagination. They multiplied upon themselves like fire feeding flames, building into a crescendo of burning ecstasy.

“Phenomenal,” she murmured, holding his gaze as he pressed deep inside her then retreated gently. “I never dreamed this could be so—”

“Shh! I can’t concentrate on not hurting you when you’re yammering,” he said hoarsely.

“Then maybe you should kiss me because I can’t seem to stop talk—”

His lips slanted over hers, his tongue plunging between
her teeth at the exact moment that he surged ardently toward her. He knew the instant talking became the furthest thing from Savanna’s mind. It was the exact moment that his brain broke down and turbulent passion uplifted him like cyclonic winds to send him spiraling off in reckless abandon.

He drove into her, worried that he was being too forceful but helpless to control the frantic pace demanded by his masculine body. He clamped his hands around her hips, demonstrating the technique that brought them erotically together and then apart. He moved faster and faster and deeper and deeper until he felt her delicate body caress him intimately.

When she convulsed around him, he heard her gasp of astonishment. Her nails dug into the corded tendons of his back like spikes, but he was feeling no pain. Rapturous sensations surged through him and exploded the same instant that Savanna cried out his name.

Fletch shuddered repeatedly, stunned by the fierce intensity of his release. Nothing had ever hit him so hard or lasted so long. The sensations just kept bombarding him, zapping his strength to such extremes that his knees gave out. He accidentally dunked them before he resurfaced to brace his legs beneath him.

Savanna didn’t seem to mind, though. She gave him a loud, smacking kiss on the lips, smiled impishly and wiggled sideways.

“Be still, woman.” He clutched at her hips to hold her where she was—warm and tight around him. “It won’t take much to set me off again. You have the damnedest effect on me.”

“Do I?”

“Yes, you do.” The words were out before he could bite them back. He cursed his runaway tongue.

She looked exceptionally pleased with that knowledge. He shuddered to think what would happen if she knew that she utterly defeated him with her sensuality and realized how much power she wielded over him. He shouldn’t have armed her with that information, but he couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut, either.

“Is that a good thing?” she asked playfully, then moved sensuously against him again.

“It’s bad unless you want to find yourself flat on your back in the grass, practicing lesson number two in the art of passion.”

“I’m a teacher by profession, Fletch. I love to learn new things.” She moved suggestively against him then grinned. “If I’d known what I’ve been missing I wouldn’t have run away from you in the beginning… Show me all there is to know about passion.”

Fletch did the only thing a man could do when seduced by dark, dancing eyes and a mischievous smile. He walked ashore and stepped out of his soggy breeches. He sank down on his knees—with Savanna still joined intimately to him. She turned him so hard so quickly that it astounded him. He looked down into her enchanting face and felt overwhelming emotion and sensations bombard him all over again.

Passion crested them like a tidal wave and they moved together in ancient rhythm. They gave themselves up to the glorious moment that went on forever and drifted in mindless ecstasy until they fell asleep, content in each other’s arms.

“Good morning,” Savanna murmured when Fletch appeared from the dark interior of the cave where they had spent the night.

A rakish grin spread across his lips. “Good morning yourself, Paleface.”

His gaze moved intimately over her while she lounged on an oversize boulder, admiring the glorious sunrise. A lump filled her throat. He was so ruggedly handsome, standing there bare-chested, his raven hair mussed and stubble on his jaw. Warm tingles flickered through her body. The memories of their passionate encounter exploded in her mind, momentarily overshadowing her disparaging thoughts of Willow.

When Fletch arched a brow, noting the blush that worked its way up her neck to pulsate in her cheeks, the intimacy of what they had shared—in the springs, in the grass and on the pallet in the cavern—bombarded her. The intensity of her feelings forced her to look the other way so her expression wouldn’t reveal too much.

For days now, Savanna had been haunted by the fear that she was slowly but surely falling in love with Fletch. What happened between them last night had confirmed the depth of her affection for him. He had been there with her during her darkest hour. He had offered her the support and encouragement needed to deal with her grief and torment. Then he had made love to her so tenderly that she had lost her heart and soul to this man who was forever tied to Elaina’s memory.

Before that discouraging thought took hold, and the pain of Willow’s death overwhelmed her again, Savanna surged to her feet to grab Fletch’s hand. “C’mon, there’s a special place I want to show you,” she said as she led him uphill.

His hand closed firmly and comfortingly around hers. Because of his own loss, she knew Fletch understood her need to move, in the hope of outrunning the torment that
followed like her own shadow. She knew there was somewhere else Fletch would rather be—chasing down Grady Mills, alias George Miller—but he’d remained behind with Savanna because she had needed him—and that made her love him that much more.

“Morningstar brought Willow and me here as special treats when we were teenagers,” she confided as they veered around the trees and boulders in the hilly terrain. “It was one of our favorite haunts, and so secluded that we could share our secret whims and no one could overhear them.”

Fletch halted beside her then smiled appreciatively at the scenic haven on the mountainside. If the look on his face was anything to go by, he was mesmerized by the isolated hideaway. The clear creek tumbled over a bubbling, three-foot waterfall into a sparkling blue pool that was so perfectly shaped that it looked manmade. At the south end of the six-foot-deep pool, frothy rapids splattered against outcroppings of boulders that surrounded another clear pool…and yet another that gleamed in the sunlight fifty yards below.

“Waynoka Falls,” Savanna murmured as thoughts and memories of her youth unfolded in her mind. “Mineral Springs was formed by water surging through underground rock channels that are filled with sulphur and bromine. But these waters don’t come in contact with the minerals. They form cool springs.”

Fletch whistled appreciatively as his gaze panned the towering trees then swept over the small falls and crystal-clear waters of the trio of pools. “I can see why this is sacred ground to the Chickasaw. There are several rugged, awe-inspiring views in Apacheria that have special meaning to my people. But this is like an incredible wonderland.”

Savanna gestured farther up the trail. “There’s another scenic point that makes you feel like you’re standing on top of the world.” And she desperately needed that now. She needed the healing power of this place where she and Willow had frolicked as carefree children. She needed to share it with Fletch, too.