done last night.
What he'd wanted to do when he unveiled her a few minutes ago. Flushed and tousled, her warm body had spoken to his without any words necessary. He'd just stared at her, fascinated by all her pink and creamy skin, his gaze snagging on the cute pillow crease that ran across her cheek and arrowed his attention onto her puffy, blush-colored mouth.
Her lips were naturally red, the reddest, sexiest he'd ever seen. To disguise his reaction to his wayward thoughts, he gathered the sheet around him and piled it in his lap. He needed to boot Dez out the door so that he and Hannah could -
Damn it! Damn it!
His mind should be off her. Off her and off her mouth and off how he wanted to touch it, taste it, have it. Geoff would skin Tanner alive - or worse, ban him from the Ser vice for life - if he didn't do right by his precious niece, and a one-night stand or even a ten-day fling certainly wasn't "By the Book" Brooks's idea of "doing right."
What the hell was Tanner supposed to do now?
Suddenly aware that both the women were staring at him, he frowned. "What?" Then, realizing he still held Hannah's slender wrist in his hand, he dropped it like a hot potato. His gaze met hers. "What?"
Oh, shit. She was doing it again, just with a look from her warm brown eyes. It was some sort of apple-pie and American Legion voodoo, which made him think of hay rides and picnics and having sex outdoors. He could see her standing naked in a sunlit mountain pool. Shadows from the leaves of the surrounding trees would dapple the sleek surface of her wet thighs and rounded ass, focusing his attention on the palm-sized curve at the small of her back and the sweet dimples above her butt. Her nipples would be raspberry hard and he'd wade through the cool water to taste them, only to halt, mesmerized, as she lifted her face to a waterfall and let it drench her hair and from there run in clear rivulets over all that sun-warmed flesh.
"Are you all right?" she said from her half-dressed and full-dry, nonimaginary place on the bed, a frown wrinkling the spot between her dark brows.
"No, I'm not all right," he snapped, yanking himself back to reality and his gaze away from her. This was all her fault, wasn't it?
Hadn't she landed on his lap?
Hadn't she come on to him?
Desiree's eyes went wide. "Gee, your bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired, pal. Maybe I don't want to marry you after all...Finn."
He shot her a look. "Cut it out, Dez. We're not getting married. Not even if you subject me to that special sand-and-scorpions desert torture you're always claiming as your birthright." Then, with a sigh, he let his glance fall back on Hannah. "I gave you the wrong name too. I'm really Tanner. Tanner Hart."
"Oh." Her hand, still holding the sheet to her silk-covered breasts, flexed, squeezing the cotton with white knuckles. "Oooh."
"Yeah."
Desiree perked up, her gaze darting between their two faces. "This sounds intriguing. What's a schoolteacher have in common with a disgraced Secret Service agent? Besides the same mattress, that is?"
Hannah looked a little green about the gills. "You won't...you can't...Uncle Geoff..." Her free hand made a little gesture. "My family would - "
"Don't worry about it," he said abruptly. "No one will ever be the wiser that you got any closer to a guy like me than my tour guide duties demand."
"No, no. You don't understand. My family worries - "
"Oh, but I do understand. I'm sure my family's not too proud of the 'disgraced' part either."
Desiree grimaced. "Tanner. That's just me and my big mouth. I was teasing. You know - "
He cut her off too. "Don't mention your mouth to me ever again, Dez."
She pressed her lips together. But only for a second, naturally. "Fine. But my marriage proposal still stands."
"I'll try to stop myself from rushing Hannah to Tiffany's as her first stop on her Southern California tour."
The woman in question squirmed against the mattress. "I know Uncle Geoff asked you to give me some vacation tips, but I don't want to impose."
"It's no imposition," he replied. "Now, whenever you're ready, I'll drive you to your hotel - or did you rent a car at the airport?"
Hannah looked down at her lap. "Believe it or not, I don't drive."
He blinked. "You don't drive?"
"Nope." Her fingertip drew