bounced off her dark hair, finding threads of red and gold he hadn't noticed before. "Did you do all right with Desiree?"
"She's very generous. With her clothes, with her space." Hannah sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and Tanner pretended not to see it. "But she seems, I don't know - lonely?"
"Well...yeah." Hell. Tanner hated thinking sympathetic thoughts about Dez, but the longer she hung around Coronado, the harder it was not to. "I'd say you're a quick study of character."
Hannah suddenly smiled, rounding her blush-apple cheeks. "When you get up every morning to face twenty or more students with just as many different family situations, scholastic strengths, and personality traits, being a quick study is called survival."
Tanner nodded. "Secret Ser vice work is like that too. Minute to minute a new situation that needs to be recognized, assessed, and then dealt with."
"So you're a quick study as well."
"I suppose I am." Tanner watched the breeze toss the ends of Hannah's hair, sending one strand across her mouth. It caught in the corner of her lips, and he shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't be tempted to take care of it himself. When the urge still itched at his palms, he tilted his head to study the pale blue of the sky.
Which brought back instant thoughts of her panties. The pale blue ones she'd been wearing last night. They'd felt sleek beneath his fingers and -
Hell!
Desperate for distraction, he jerked his gaze to the gray, pitted sidewalk and asked the first question that popped into his head. "So what did you think when you first saw me?"
"That's not fair." He could hear the frown in her voice. "You tell me what you thought first."
He looked up, a smile tugging at his mouth. "Truth?"
"Yes."
"I wondered about the color of your nipples."
There was a shocked moment of silence, and then she let out a startled laugh. "No!" Her hand swatted his chest, even as pink color crawled up her neck.
He caught her hand and held it flush against his sternum. "Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. Don't kid yourself about the domesticity of the XY half of the world, sweetheart."
"I know men - "
"When you haven't gone to bed with one in four years?"
The color on her face deepened and she pulled her hand away from him. "I said that when I thought that...that..."
"That we were going to bed and then never see each other again? Well surprise, surprise, we were both wrong there. And I just want you to realize that any other male you meet over this vacation has brain patterns the same as mine."
God, it was smart of him to hit her with the truth. Because now that he thought about it, if Hannah was out looking for jollies that had been on hold for four years - and since he was out of the running to provide such jollies - then she might go searching farther afield, never realizing what rough country she could wander into.
Out of nowhere, that urge to protect her was rising inside him again.
But hell, it wasn't out of nowhere, right? She was Brooks's niece, and as such, Tanner's ticket to life the way it should be again. He had an important stake in this. If she hooked up with the wrong guy or got hurt by some jerk while she was here, Geoff Brooks was going to blame it on the man he had assigned to protect her.
The Secret Ser vice motto was "Worthy of Trust and Confidence," and Tanner knew he needed to prove to his former and future boss that he was still a credible source of both.
"Obviously I wasn't looking for hearts and flowers last night," Hannah said, now starting to look irritated. "But that doesn't mean every man I meet - "
"There will be no men you meet while you're here. Got it?"
Perhaps he'd grown another head. She looked at him as if he had. "I don't even know you," she said, her eyes wide, her tone incredulous. "You're not in charge of my life."
He didn't like the stubbornness. He was helping her, for God's sake!
"I'm in charge of your good time," he replied from between clenched teeth. "I'm supposed to make sure you have a hassle-free, photo-worthy vacation."
She started sputtering, and the air between them heated with their rising tempers. Her breasts were moving in and out with her annoyed breaths, and he found himself staring at the smooth skin of her chest and