the freedom to take as much of him as she wanted. Inexperienced as she was with this kind of lovemaking, the groans and whispers of encouragement coming from above told her she was doing it right. A good thing, because she loved his taste.
“Stop … I can’t take much more.”
Neither could she. As much as she wanted to take him to completion and have him explode in her mouth, she couldn’t wait another second to have him deep inside the part of her throbbing to be filled.
She pulled away and scooted to the middle of the bed. Zach wasted no time pulling off his remaining clothes and then joined her. Before she could bring him to her and inside, she was startled when he pulled her into his arms and held her tight against him as if he never wanted to let her go.
“You okay?”
Breath shuddered through his big body. Not answering, he held her in his steely arms for a few more seconds and then he pulled back slightly to look down at her. The naked emotion on his face astounded her.
Her hand cupped his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Not a damn thing,” he muttered, and then covered her mouth with his. Plunging deep, his tongue tangled and dueled with hers. Grabbing his shoulders, Savannah held on, loving the fierceness and desperate need she felt in him.
Without taking his mouth from hers, Zach rolled her onto her back and came over her. Savannah wound one leg around his hip, inviting him inside. With one smooth, hard thrust, he was at last a part of her.
Sensation spiraled through him to Savannah, causing them both to climax simultaneously. Face buried against his shoulder, a small squeal erupted from her as a burning, consuming heat, like a thousand tiny suns, exploded within her. Zach stiffened in her arms and she felt his release. Holding him tight, she treasured the trembling of his big body, the groaning breaths, the gasping moans. Most of all, she treasured his whispered words: “Savannah … my love.”
Zach rolled over, surprised that Savannah was no longer beside him. For a man who’d spent much of his life hearing and reacting to the slightest noise, not hearing Savannah leave the bed should concern him. It didn’t. There was no one he trusted more than this woman. Years ago she’d stolen his heart with her honesty. Nothing had changed.
Raising his head, he spotted her across the room, standing beside the bureau next to the window. Rain bashed against the windowpane. It was abnormally dark for the middle of the day, but Savannah seemed like sunshine. Long, wavy blond hair reached below her shoulders, wild, untamed, and exactly how he loved it. Her skin still held that luminescent glow as if a candle burned within her. The shirt he’d worn earlier hung on her slender frame, landing at mid-thigh and revealing those long, silky legs that had recently been wrapped around him.
Apparently realizing she was being watched, she turned and gave a slow, sexy smile. “I didn’t realize you were such a good photographer.”
He’d been so focused on admiring her, he hadn’t realized that she was looking at the pictures on the bureau. “I never even owned a camera until I went into the army. I traveled to some amazing places and thought I’d just take a few shots here and there. The moment I put the camera in my hand, it was like I’d been missing an appendage.”
She picked up one of his favorites—a little Afghan boy, about five years old, holding a ragged teddy bear in one hand and a chocolate bar in the other. Zach had been on foot patrol and had spotted the kid. He’d taken the chocolate out of his backpack and offered it to him. The kid’s two front teeth were missing and every soldier who’d witnessed his smile that day had been touched. Zach had snapped the shot and knew he would never consider giving the photograph to anyone else. He’d had more than a few people offer him money for his work. He had never taken photos for money—every picture meant something to him that money couldn’t replace.
“That’s one of my favorites.”
She laughed. “The chocolate bar probably helped with that smile.”
He didn’t bother to tell her that later that day, the entire village had been wiped out by a tribe of militants who were punishing the villagers for accepting aid from the Americans. Some memories were meant to be buried a thousand miles deep.