by a tableful of chattering people? And who knew the palm of one’s hand was an erogenous zone?
After a dessert of bananas Foster and coffee, everyone made their way back into the living room. Disturbed beyond bearing, Savannah sat quietly the rest of the evening, smiling and nodding but adding little to the conversation. As soon as the first guest got up to leave, she followed quickly behind them.
Offering her thanks to Lamont and Nesta, she zoomed out of the living room, toward the front door. Zach was on the other side of the room, but his gaze had caught and held hers before she could avoid him. There was no mistaking the message in his eyes.
Savannah practically ran from the house to her car. She started the engine and drove swiftly away, more disturbed than she’d been in years. Her thoughts were a mishmash of emotions and sensory overload, and her entire body felt flushed and unsettled, decidedly needy. The hand that Zach had held tingled as if he’d left an imprint.
She sighed shakily. If a subtle caress of his thumb could create this burning heat inside her, what was she going to do when he tried to do more? No use trying to deny … it would happen. The look in his eyes when she’d left had said it all. Zach not only wanted her, he intended to have her. Perhaps the scariest part of all was, she knew she wouldn’t deny him.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Binoculars in one hand, walkie-talkie in the other, Zach kept a close eye on both the dry cleaners across from him and Savannah’s car at the other end of the street. He wasn’t expecting trouble. If Savannah saw anything at Ava’s Bakery, she was to do nothing more than notify him on the walkie-talkie and then leave. That had been their agreement. And before they’d left her house, he’d made it clear there’d be hell to pay if she did anything else.
She had been unusually quiet all evening. He didn’t have to ask himself why. Their brief interlude at the dinner party was still very much on his mind, too. He’d gone to bed, hard and aching, and had dreamed of kissing Savannah, devouring her sweetness and burying himself inside her. The next morning, he’d woken up even harder.
There had been no doubt she’d been turned on, too. Her breathing had been elevated and the rapid beat of her pulse when his thumb had passed caressingly over her wrist told him what she was feeling. And it was exactly what he wanted.
It was going to happen. As inevitable as the tide, he and Savannah would soon ease the desire building between them. Problem was, he owed her explanations before anything more happened. Would that destroy the need? Not for him, but would it for her?
Hell, he still didn’t even know if she had someone significant in her life. Just because he saw the heat in her eyes didn’t meant she wasn’t committed to another man. Separation of feelings from sexual arousal was something he’d learned long ago. No one before or after Savannah had ever captured both his heart and his passion. Only with this one woman had he ever come close to complete fulfillment. And the longer she stayed in Midnight, the harder it was going to be to let her go.
If anyone had told her that she’d be helping Zach Tanner out less than a week after returning home, she would’ve said a few choice words about their sanity. Yet here she was, sitting in her car, keeping an eye on Ava’s Bakery on the off chance that she could catch sight of someone vandalizing it.
But he had no one else to trust. She didn’t know why she wanted to help him. Maybe because when they had talked at her house the other night, the pain she’d seen in his eyes was a reflection of her own hurt. Seeing Zach hurting in any way wasn’t something she wanted. Way too afraid of the answer she’d get, she didn’t question why she felt that way.
Zach was at the other end of the street, watching Green’s Dry Cleaning. They were taking a chance the vandals wouldn’t choose Frank’s Hardware store two streets over. Savannah had suggested she keep watch on it, but that idea had been instantly shot down. When he got that hard look in his eyes, she knew not to argue.
This harsher, edgier Zach was difficult for her to come to terms with. The