by Gold, Kristi
“You don’t need one.”
Now she was beginning to see where this whole swim idea could be heading. “I’m not going to go skinny-dipping, if that’s what you have in mind.”
His slow-burn smile told her that was exactly what he had in mind. “You can wear your clothes, or you can wear your underwear. It’s not like I haven’t seen you in less before.”
Before, she hadn’t minded if he did see her. But now that didn’t seem so prudent. She’d also left her bra at home and that meant she’d either have to wear a wet T-shirt or go topless. Either way, she’d be rather exposed. “I don’t know, Sam. Bandying about half-naked in a murky pond with you seems a little scandalous, don’t you think?”
He used the truck for support while he toed out of his boots and took off his socks. “First of all, I’m damn sure not going to bandy about. Second, there’s not one soul in sight to start a scandal. And last, if you’re worried that I might try to compromise your reputation, don’t. It’s a big pond, which means we don’t have to get near each other. But if you want to stay here and fidget instead of working off some frustration with a swim, be my guest. I’m going for it.”
After Sam pulled his shirt up and over his head, the sight of his bare chest made speaking almost out of the question. “You are absolutely crazy, Sam McBriar.”
He tossed the T-shirt onto the hood, reached for his fly and grinned. “Maybe so, but you always liked me that way.”
Yes, she had. In a way, she still did. She hoisted herself back up on the truck and tried to keep her dangling legs completely motionless, a difficult task considering she had a near-naked, muscled man standing nearby. “I believe I’ll just sit here and fidget while you fend off the fish.”
Sam shrugged. “Your loss. But just so you know, I’m about to take off my jeans, in case you want to cover your delicate eyes.”
She wouldn’t close her eyes now if her life depended on it. “My delicate eyes have seen your boxers before.”
“I’m not wearing any.”
Savannah couldn’t manage even one appropriate comeback for his commando status. She simply stared at him, mouth partially agape and imagination running full steam ahead.
At least he had the decency to turn his back before he stripped out of his jeans, yet that didn’t stop Savannah from shamelessly studying his narrow hips and the back of his well-defined thighs and calves as he sauntered toward the bank. He could definitely serve as grand marshal in a butt parade, she mused as he walked into the pond, obscuring her view.
Once he was waist-deep in the water, he turned and said, “Feels great. Are you sure you don’t want to try it?”
She started to comment on the possibility of snakes, but she knew exactly where that would lead. “I’m fine.”
No, she wasn’t. Not when he dove down beneath the surface and came up a few seconds later, skin glistening in the diffused light as he slicked one hand through his hair and ran a palm down his sternum in perfect male-model form. “Come on, Savannah. Back in the day, you wouldn’t have let a few fish stop you from having a good time.”
At the moment, the wildlife had little to do with her reluctance. The wet, wild man did. “Give me one good reason why I should jump into a catfish-infested body of water with you.”
“I’ll give you two.” He counted them down on his fingers. “You need to relax, and you’re itching to take a risk or two even if you won’t admit it to me or to yourself.”
He could read her like the Sunday paper. As uncertainty crowded her thoughts, she recalled her first summer in Placid when she’d come to this place with Sam. They’d been only buddies at that point, yet poised to move beyond friendship. He’d convinced her to take her turn with the rope tied to a tree that hung over the deepest part of the pond, encouraged her to let go while he waited below to catch her. The feelings had been thrilling when she’d released that rope, dropped into the water, surfaced in his arms—and kissed him for the very first time, changing everything.
She dearly wanted to experience those emotions again. She wanted to toss her structured life to the wind and act on impulse.
In the name of lunacy, she was going to do it. She was going to bare it all and have a watery frolic with the former boyfriend.
“Okay, I’m coming in,” she called out, garnering Sam’s attention.
“I figured you would eventually.”
Savannah couldn’t see his face in the dim light, but she could hear the satisfaction in his voice. “First you have to promise not to look until I’m completely covered by water.”
He raised his hand as if taking an oath. “I promise to be the gentleman my daddy taught me to be.” Then he lowered his hand and added, “But I can’t promise I won’t grin while you bare it.”
“You can grin all you want as long as you keep your eyes closed.”
“It’s a deal.”
In spite of her suspicions that he might not comply, Savannah pulled her shirt over her head, just as he had a few minutes earlier. She shimmied out of her shorts and briefly weighed leaving her panties intact, but that meant she’d have to wear soggy drawers home—or not wear them home at all. Either way, she could be setting herself up for a questionable invitation. As if she wasn’t doing that now.
Savannah pitched all her clothes aside along with her inhibitions and headed toward what could be another experience to deposit in the memory vault. Sam appeared to be obeying her request to keep his eyes shut as she tested the water with a toe. He confirmed that she’d given him too much credit when he said, “Nice tan lines.”
She practically flew into the pond, inadvertently falling forward and landing facedown in the water. She swam a little beyond Sam and when she emerged, she tried to appear as if she’d planned the whole thing, only to be met by Sam’s laughter.
“I’m so glad I amuse you,” she said as she pulled her sopping hair back and twisted it into a knot at her neck.
“I’m not exactly amused, ma’am,” he responded in that deadly Southern drawl. “And you’re not exactly covered.”
She followed his gaze and only then realized that the waterline came right below her bare breasts. Her first instinct—conceal herself. Her second—let him look his fill, consequences be damned.
If wisdom got a word in edgewise, Savannah would head for the hills. Instead, she chose to swim a few laps as far away from Sam as she could get without straying so much that she couldn’t see him. Midway through her second round, something nibbled at her ankle, sending her toward the bank with a freestyle stroke befitting an Olympian swimmer. Right when she reached Sam, she felt it again, and this time she shrieked.
“What’s wrong?” he said as he grabbed her arm to keep her afloat since she could barely touch the sandy bottom.
“Dammit, I’m being chased by a sea monster!”
When Sam’s laughter echoed across the pond, Savannah dug her nails into his biceps. “It’s not funny, Samuel.”
He winced and then said, “Would you stop clawing me?”
She loosened her grip but didn’t let him go. “This is exactly what I was afraid would happen.” She’d end up fish food, and too close to Sam for any reasonable comfort.
“Settle down, Savvy. I’ll protect you from the minnow.”
“My name is Savannah, and it wasn’t a minnow,” she insisted. “It nearly sucked the life out of my thigh.”
He cracked a crooked smile. “Lucky fish.”
“You are so…so…” Darned sexy, Savannah thought as he clasped her wrists and pulled her closer. And she was so in trouble when he looked at her as if swimming had disappeared from the agenda.
He moved farther into the pond, taking her with him until her feet could no longer find solid ground, forcing her to hold tightly to his shoulders.
He slowly spun them around, making Savannah all the more dizzy, but not necessarily due to the movement. “What are we doing, Sam?”
“Finishing our dance.”
“Do you really think that’
s such a good idea since we’re both naked?”
“Probably not.”
With their gazes locked together, Savannah felt as if they were suddenly suspended in a defining moment, where the good part of their past had collided with that continual chemistry. Right then, she didn’t care about the possible penalty attached to acting on impulse. She only wanted to satisfy her curiosity.
As she slid her palms over Sam’s back, she became keenly aware of the changes since she’d done this over a decade ago. His shoulders were much, much broader, his muscles much more defined. He’d definitely evolved into a man. An extremely tempting man.
He stopped moving and surveyed her face with intense blue eyes. “Do you remember when we used to do this?” he asked, his low voice resurrecting more than a few magical moments.
“Yes, but we always wore our swimsuits back then.”
He grinned. “Yeah, at least for a little while.”
“True.” He’d always managed to divest her of her bikini top if nothing else.
“How about this?” He lowered his head and softly brushed her lips with his, once, twice, before he kissed her in earnest.
Sam had always been such a good kisser—the best, in her experience. So many men believed that the way to a woman’s heart meant sticking a tongue down her throat. Not Sam. He used tender persuasion and unhurried exploration. She found herself clinging to him for dear life, fearing the control he had over her yet in some strange way needing to be controlled by him. Needing more from him than she should.
As if he’d read her thoughts, he nudged her until she was flush against him where she contacted the confirmation that he wanted her. And he was very close to having her.
Apparently Sam had a brief moment of clarity when he broke the kiss and put some much-needed space between them without taking away his hold on her. “You better stop me now before this goes any further.”
The command hovered on Savannah’s lips, yet she could not force it out. She couldn’t manage even the slightest protest. “What if I told you I don’t want you to stop?”
He looked more than a little concerned. “And I don’t want to do anything we’ll both regret.”
She laid a palm on his cheek. “I don’t know how to explain this except to say I need to feel alive. I need to forget all the bad, even if it’s only for a little while. I just need—”
He halted her words with another brief kiss. “Trust me, I know exactly what you need.”
“I do trust you, Sam, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.” And that was a truth she never planned to admit.
“Then, babe, that’s all I need to hear.”
Other men had used that babe endearment during Savannah’s lifetime, and she’d never cared for it at all. Yet Sam wielded the word with familiarity and so much power that she suddenly didn’t give a darn about regrets. She only knew she’d been alone for far too long.
As Sam kissed her once more, Savannah immersed herself in the sensations. She became that girl again, the one who reacted to this boy—this first love—as if time had stood still. And when he breezed his lips down the column of her throat, nothing else seemed to matter except this moment and this man. Not all the old accusations. Not the hateful words. Not even the fact that this was only a temporary diversion from the stress of a hectic life that had had her in a choke hold for years. From the sorrowful reminders of loss.
As Sam closed his warm mouth over her breast, Savannah responded to the gentle pull of his lips with the same intensity as she had the first time he’d done this to her, with a surge of heat and an overwhelming longing for more.
He anticipated her needs by skimming his hand along her waist before sliding it to her belly and lower still. It all began to come back to Savannah, the realization that he did know exactly where and how to touch her. How to make her forget everything but him. How to make her tremble, which he did with every gentle stroke.
Too long, she thought as she began to slip into a welcome haze. Too long since she’d felt this way. Maybe never this way since him.
Sam brought his lips to her ear and told her how good she felt, how he’d been imagining this since the moment he’d seen her in the diner, and then softly whispered, “Let go, sweetheart.”
As much as she wanted the sensations to continue, Savannah couldn’t stop the powerful release, or the physical jolt that accompanied it. She couldn’t seem to stop shaking even as Sam held her close and kissed her gently while the climax began to ebb and her breathing returned to normal. Then came the tears, as unexpected as the quickness in which she’d responded to his touch.
She couldn’t quite peg why she’d begun to cry—shame or sentimentality. She couldn’t seem to halt the emotions any more than she could stop clinging to Sam.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he stroked her hair. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
He had hurt her, but not from his actions a few moments before. The wounds he’d inflicted years ago should have healed by now, but sadly they hadn’t, though Savannah had wrongly convinced herself they had. All that bottled-up pain had somehow worked its way to the surface, and she hated that she couldn’t temporarily live for the moment and let the past die.
“I’m okay,” she said as she tipped her forehead against his chest so she wouldn’t have to see his reaction. After she finally composed herself, she looked up at him and smiled. “I’ve developed a syndrome over the past few years. Orgasmic hysteria. Some people sing during the throes of passion, I bawl like a baby.”
That earned Savannah his notable smile. “That good, huh?”
“Don’t get cocky,” she said. “It’s just been a while for me.”
“I know what you mean.”
Savannah had a difficult time believing that. She also had one heck of a time ignoring the fact that he was still quite in need of attention. “Anything I can do for you?” she found herself asking against sound judgment.
He brushed a damp lock of hair away from her cheek. “Not unless you can manufacture some birth control.”
Now might be a good time to tell him she was on the Pill, even though she hadn’t needed it for a while. Then again, that would alleviate one major reason for not completely making love with him right then, and she wasn’t quite ready for that.
In spite of her continued caution, a boldness Savannah hadn’t experienced in a long while overcame her. She reached between them and followed the same path down his abdomen that he’d followed down hers. She wasn’t that naive girl he’d once known, and she was determined to establish that fact with a little touching of her own.
Before she reached her intended target, Sam pulled her hand up and clasped it against his chest. Apparently he didn’t appreciate her taking the lead. “Sam, I—”
He held his hand over her mouth, whispered, “Be quiet,” then nodded toward the bank.
Savannah followed his gaze to discover a beam of light bobbing in the distance. A light that—to her absolute horror—suddenly swung around and landed right on her face.
“Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, if it ain’t little Savannah Greer.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“THAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST mortifying experiences of my life.”
Savannah’s declaration broke through the cloud of silence that had hung over them since they’d climbed into the truck for the return trip to the farm.
As far as Sam was concerned, up until the interruption, it had been one of the best experiences he could immediately recall, even if he had momentarily forgotten his plan to prove he was a better man. “Do you mean getting caught or me copping a feel?”
“Both.”
He felt the need to defend himself. “Hey, I handed you the chance to stop me, but you didn’t take it. In fact, you encouraged me. It’s a little late to take it back now.”
She nailed him with a glare. “And you encouraged me to go into the pond without my clothes, knowing what might happen if I did.”
She had him on that. “Then let’s just
say we’re both to blame and drop it.”
“Agreed.”
As soon as he pulled into the drive, Sam shifted the truck into Park and cut off the ignition. “We were lucky Frank Allworth caught us and not Chase’s dad. Otherwise, we’d probably be sitting in the county jail for trespassing and public lewdness.”
Savannah’s eyes went as wide as tire rims. “Lucky? Do you not remember who’s married to Frank?”
He’d been trying to forget. “Yeah, and Pearl’s got a big mouth. But that doesn’t mean Frank’s going to say anything to her.”
“Oh, sure. I’m surprised she wasn’t with him. And on that note, what was he doing there?”
Messing up a damn fine time. “Since he lives across the road, seems Wainwright hired him to sit on the porch at night to protect the place from trespassing teenagers.”
“And overage idiots.” Savannah powered down the window, leaned her head back against the seat and sighed. “I swear, the minute I stepped back into this town, I haven’t been acting like myself.”
Sam didn’t share that opinion. “You’re acting just like the girl I used to know.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but that girl doesn’t exist anymore.”
He draped his left arm over the steering wheel and shifted slightly to get a good view of her face. “I think deep down she still does.”
She shot him a dirty look. “Just because we used to be high school sweethearts, and just because I had a serious lapse in maturity a while ago and we made out for about ten minutes, that doesn’t mean you really know me.”
Made out completely naked and he gave her one hell of an orgasm, he started to remind her but thought better of it. Instead, he chose to prove exactly how well he knew her. “I bet you still set your alarm an hour earlier than necessary because you hate to be late, but somehow you manage to make it wherever you’re going with only a couple of minutes to spare. I imagine you still eat cereal for breakfast, the fruity kind with the marshmallows. And it’s likely you still pretend you don’t care for pro football but you can rattle off statistics till the cows come home. Am I right?”