by Unknown
“The horses will be all right here. Let’s go to the top of the hill—there’s a great view.” She crossed the stream, stepping from rock to rock. In the middle she stopped to glance back at Mike, who looked pale and stricken.
“Mike? Are you all right?” she asked.
He blinked and shook his head. “I’m fine. Savannah, let’s go back and join the others.” He mounted and turned his horse to ride away.
She didn’t know what had happened, but she knew something was wrong. In silence she mounted her horse and moved up beside him, noticing that a muscle tightened in his jaw and his fists were clenched.
They turned the horses to follow the creek, and by the time they reached her family, Mike was his usual self, acting as if nothing unusual had happened.
When they rejoined the others, Mike was aware that Lucius gave him a long, intent look, then turned his gaze to Savannah. At last Lucius resumed his ride, but the rest of the morning and over lunch, Mike thought Lucius had lost some of his animosity.
When he was in the car with Savannah going home, he told her and she laughed as he drove.
“You have a smudge of my makeup on your shirt collar, and I came back with my hair down and my shirt wrinkled, so he probably guessed we were off by ourselves and kissing. Also, we asked my folks to keep Jessie tonight so you and I can have the evening to ourselves. That sounds like people who have more than a paper-only marriage.”
“So it does,” Mike said, becoming solemn again in a day that had been relaxed and fun and filled with anticipation for the night ahead. “Why didn’t you tell me I had makeup on my collar?”
“It’s nothing much, and I don’t think you can get it off without washing the shirt, so I didn’t see any point in telling you. Besides, aren’t you glad that Lucius likes you now?”
“That just makes my day,” he said, and she wondered about him. He was cooler than he had been, both to her and her family.
Then while they talked and he seemed to relax again, she forgot about his puzzling behavior and her attention shifted to the night ahead.
At home in the early evening, they swam for an hour and then Mike grilled steaks, which they ate on the patio.
Savannah was acutely aware of Mike in his brief navy swim trunks, able to remember in total detail how he looked naked.
And drawing her to him just as much as his high-caliber sexuality was his increasing attention to Jessie. All through lunch today at her parents’ house, Mike had held Jessie on his lap. When they had ambrosia salad, Mike had cut bites of oranges into tiny pieces and fed them to Jessie—she’d never had table food before and smacked her lips eagerly.
“This is a life I never dreamed of,” he said quietly now. “Come here, Savannah.”
She moved to his lap and he wrapped his arms around her. She leaned down to kiss him, and within moments, his hands were sliding the straps of her swimsuit down her arms. She leaned away.
“I don’t care how much privacy we have here. It’s broad daylight and you’re not undressing me out here for the world to see.”
He looked amused as he stood and lifted her in his arms, carrying her into the house. As soon as they stepped through the door, he set her on her feet and pulled her into his embrace to kiss her. This time when he slid her suit down her arms, she didn’t stop him.
Their suits had dried since they’d climbed out of the pool, and now her suit dropped around her ankles. She kicked it away while she peeled away his suit and freed him of its constraints.
Mike leaned down, taking her nipple into his mouth, to stroke and draw lazy circles around the tip with his tongue. She gasped, fiery tingles centering low in her body. She wanted him with increasing urgency.
She wound her fingers in his hair and then slid her hands over his muscled chest down his abdomen to his manhood, and began stroking the thick shaft.
Winding his fingers in her hair, Mike groaned and whispered her name until he stopped her, catching her hands to hold them up and kiss her wrists and then her fingers.
“I want you now, Savannah,” he said gruffly, pausing to grab a condom and then picking her up and carrying her to the thick rug in the family room, where he lowered her to the floor. He stretched out on his back, pulling her over him and settling her on his shaft.
Tremors shook her and she abandoned herself to passion, moving with him, while he caressed her breasts and drove her to a frenzy.
“Mike!” she cried out, moving wildly, feeling him arch tightly beneath her, and then he pulled away, moving her.
“Mike!” she gasped. “Please!”
He moved between her legs and entered her, kissing her and then pausing. “I want your legs tighter around me, darlin’. I want all your warmth around me.”
His head came down as he kissed her again and she arched her hips, tightening her legs around him, clinging to his back. They moved together as he carried her over the brink and she crashed into sheer rapture.
“Mike!” she cried again, clutching him and spinning away in ecstasy. “I love you,” she said softly.
She felt his release and then he held her tightly in his arms, still moving with her, slowing while they both tried to catch their breaths.
When they quieted, he rolled onto his side, holding her close and keeping her with him. “Ahh, darlin’. I’ve been dreaming about that all day long. We have a long, grand night ahead of us.”
She traced his jaw with her finger, realizing he had shaved again when he’d changed into his swim trunks. She settled in his arms, content to take the present and not think about tomorrow.
“You have a nice family, Savannah. I wish you could get to know mine. They’re nice folks, too.”
“I’m sure they are,” she said. “They’d have to be to have raised such a super son.” He nuzzled her neck, tickling her and making her giggle. “I meant that, but I’m going to take it back if you keep tickling me!”
He leaned away to smile at her, stroking long, silken strands of her hair away from her face. “This is really good, Savannah. I’m glad you twisted my arm into this.”
She made a face at him. “I didn’t have to twist your arm to get you naked on the floor here with me.”
“No, you didn’t. Darlin’, this is good and I’m glad I hung around Texas.”
She wanted to ask him if it was so good that he would continue to hang around Texas, but she didn’t. Instead, she again stroked his jaw with her fingers. “Mike, you keep a lot of yourself shut away from me.”
He shifted to look at her. “Only the bad parts. The parts you don’t want to know.”
“Maybe they wouldn’t be so bad,” she said quietly, “if you shared them with somebody.”
That shuttered look came over his features and an expression of pain, and Savannah remembered this morning at the stream.
“I don’t want to pry, but I want you to trust me.” She was lying on her back with her side pressed against him.
“I trust you,” he said gruffly. “It just hurts to remember.” He gazed beyond her. “There’s nothing anyone can do. There’s no way anyone can help.”
“Yes, there is. It always helps to talk it out.”
He played with her hair and was silent so long she thought maybe he’d dozed off. Then, “Colin and I lived on neighboring West Texas ranches. There was a creek on our ranch, and Colin and I used to cross the creek the way you did this morning.”
As he talked, Mike’s words slowed and his voice became more raspy. “Sometimes memories come back as clear as if it were yesterday, and then it hurts all over again. Maybe not as badly as when he was killed, but it hurts,” Mike said, grinding out the words while a muscle worked in his jaw.
He fell silent again and she didn’t push. If he wanted to tell her, he would, and if he didn’t, he wouldn’t.
He rolled onto his back and flung his arm up to shield his eyes. “He shouldn’t have died. That’s what makes it so terrible. I should have saved him.”
“What happened?”
/> Mike was quiet and she waited, turning on her side to hold him close.
“We had a covert assignment—all four of us, Jonah, Boone, Colin and me—to get an agent, a spy who had been taken hostage. There is still a double agent—as far as I know, he was never caught—but he blew our cover, as well as that of the man we were to rescue, which is why he was a hostage.” Mike paused and she continued to wait in silence, hurting for him.
“Colin went in first. The three of us were behind when he slipped into the house. Our cover had been blown, but we didn’t know it. Someone set off a bomb and it killed Colin and the hostage and the men holding him. The terrorist leader was the only one who escaped. It was a car bomb that exploded. The car was parked only feet away from where they were,” Mike said in a rasp. He paused and Savannah held him tightly.
“Everything was smoke and flames, sirens blazing. We were on a covert mission so we had to get out of there.”
“You can’t help what happened,” Savannah said.
“Damn straight I could have. I should have noticed the car. A man drove up, parked, got out and walked away, and I was so intent on watching Colin and following him into the house, I didn’t think. That kind of deadly mistake shouldn’t happen. I should have noticed the car. I didn’t even go look for Colin’s body because we had to get out of there.”
“Mike, you can’t blame yourself and you know he wouldn’t want you to feel this way.”
“I tell myself that, but it doesn’t change a thing.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Colin was like one of my brothers. His parents have aged over his loss, and they’ll always hurt.”
“From what you’ve told me, you shouldn’t blame yourself.”
“I tell myself I shouldn’t, but in my heart I do and I always will. It’s a damned nightmare I have sometimes. And Colin and I were so close. Seeing you jump from rock to rock in that stream today—I saw Colin do that a hundred times. Out of the blue, something will remind me of him and then pain slices into me like a knife. It hurts to lose someone you love.”
She kissed his shoulder. “It does hurt terribly to lose someone you love,” she confirmed quietly.
“I guess you understand about loss and hurt as well as any soldier,” he said.
“Mike, you might not have saved Colin, but you saved Jessie.”
“She would have had a good enough life. Nothing like this, but okay.”
“Instead, you’ve given her a huge gift. Don’t be so hard on yourself about Colin.” Savannah ran her hands over him, kissing him lightly until he turned to look at her and he smiled.
“Thanks, Savannah, for listening. Want to shower and swim?”
“Sure,” she answered, feeling closer to him than she ever had and knowing he had just revealed a lot of himself to her that he’d probably never shared with anyone else before. Also, she realized that Mike might be as scared to love as she had been.
He stood and picked her up easily, carrying her to a downstairs bathroom and setting her on her feet in the shower with him. As warm water splashed over them and he began to soap her, she knew it would be some time before they swam….
That night Mike held Savannah in his arms while he lay awake. He shifted slightly to look at her, curled in his arms, locks of her hair spilling over the pillow. Carefully, he stroked a strand away from her cheek. She was so incredibly soft. Soft, warm, all curves. Full of fire and mischief and determination. He had heard her twice say, “I love you,” to him. Neither time had she thought he would hear her.
She wasn’t the first woman to tell him that, but it was the first time that the words had meant something to him. What did he feel for Savannah? He had a job in Washington waiting for him, his old life to go back to.
He thought about holding Jessie in his arms and her laughter and her smiles when he entered the room.
And Savannah—no woman had ever excited him the way she did. No woman had ever been as beautiful. Silken nights, constant excitement, someone who cared. What was he going back to? His solitary life, total freedom to do what he wanted. Did his freedom outweigh the other? Could he walk away from Savannah and Jessie now even if he wanted to?
He ran his fingers lightly down her arm and leaned down to brush a kiss on her temple. “I love you,” he mouthed silently, wondering if he really was in love with her. Love could hurt. But love was the good part of life.
Mike lay back, putting his arm beneath his head and staring into the dark, thinking about Savannah and Jessie, searching his heart for what he truly felt. Soon he would have to make choices, and when the time came to do so, he better know what he wanted.
Two days later, as Mike left the offices of V. R. Hunsacker, he made notations in a ledger he carried. Closing the ledger, Mike wondered how Savannah would react to his suspicions.
Over dinner that evening, he gazed at her, half-inclined to wait another day before telling her what he suspected. They were in euphoria, wanting each other constantly, making love as often as possible. He didn’t want shoptalk to destroy their happiness. He didn’t want to make Savannah unhappy, and he suspected his discoveries were going to make her very unhappy. She looked beautiful tonight, dressed in cutoffs and a blue knit shirt, her hair down.
As they ate, he decided to go ahead and tell her. “I’ve learned a few things about the clients you’ve recently lost.”
“You sound serious. What have you learned?”
“All the clients you’ve lost have gone with the same firm.”
Savannah arched her brows. “That’s odd. What firm is it?”
“A new firm out of Austin. It’s Plunkett, Paine, and Marshall Associates.”
“I don’t know any of those names.”
“You wouldn’t. They’re not from these parts. Jeb Plunkett is from Dallas, Morgan Paine is from Houston, and Ty Marshall is from Kansas City.”
Savannah shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never had any dealings with them. How could they lure away our clients when they’re so new?”
“I looked into their backgrounds, and these men have not been tremendously successful in the past. One is basically an ambulance chaser. One has been investigated about ethics, but nothing came of it.”
“Why would our clients go with a firm like that?”
“That’s what I’m wondering. It can’t be coincidence. Someone recommended this firm highly to get those companies to switch their business. It wasn’t those guys. They’re not local and they don’t have the contacts.”
She rubbed her forehead. “I can’t imagine.”
“Do you have any enemies, Savannah?” Mike asked quietly.
“No! Well, I take that back. Any person who’s been defeated is unhappy with the lawyer who won, whether it’s a settlement or a trial. Yes, I guess there’re plenty of people who aren’t happy with me or with Troy and who have the assets to try to cause us trouble.”
“Can you make me a list of ones from this year?”
“I suppose, but it’ll be incomplete, and frankly, it seems ridiculous. People don’t go to that much trouble to get even with their opponent’s lawyers. They don’t like us, but we’re not usually the main target.”
“True,” Mike said. “So that leaves another possibility.”
“You think it’s someone from our own firm?” She shook her head. “No way. Liz and Nathan seem happy, and I can’t imagine they would have enough clout to change the legal staff of three corporations. Troy wouldn’t, because it would be like stealing from himself. He wouldn’t do that to me any more than I would do that to him. I work with him daily.”
“Did he still want to date you up until the time you married me?”
“Yes, but that’s not a big deal. We haven’t been on a date in two years. And then it was never anything serious.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Mike said.
She arched her eyebrows again. “Why would you care?”
He shrugged. “I care. I’m not the jealous type, but I don’t like Troy Sl
ocum and I’m glad you didn’t date him much.”
Savannah smiled, pleased, and wondering what Mike’s feelings for her were. She was surprised that it bothered him to know that she and Troy had dated. “It’s not my partner or associates. It has to be someone else.”
Mike dropped the subject, more interested in pulling Savannah into his arms. Jessie had gone down early tonight and he had Savannah to himself right now. He didn’t want to spend the time discussing business. He reached for her.
“You’re not eating, anyway. Come sit in my lap,” he said.
Her blue eyes changed, a sensual look coming into them. She pushed back her chair, got up and came around to him, then sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
On Tuesday, Mike called Savannah from his office. “I’m going to be gone tonight and tomorrow on a job. I’ll call and give you my hotel tonight, but my cell phone is always on.”
“I’ll miss you, Mike,” she said, knowing she would miss him terribly.
“I’ll miss you, darlin’, and if I can get home sooner, I will. Give Jessie a kiss for me. I wish I could give you a kiss right now.”
“Hurry home.”
Mike said goodbye, thankful she hadn’t asked what job he was working on. He had an unpleasant task ahead of him, and he suspected it was going to have unhappy results. He had a bad feeling about Savannah’s firm losing business. He suspected Savannah would know the person causing it quite well.
On Wednesday after work, Savannah hurried home to relieve Constance of Jessie’s care, feeding the baby and playing with her. Savannah changed to cutoffs and a T-shirt, fastening her hair behind her head with a ribbon. She missed Mike terribly and she loved him more every day. She prayed he would fall in love with her and with Jessie. She knew that daily she and Jessie were becoming more important to him, yet he was a tough, solitary man who had never had or wanted a long-lasting relationship, much less marriage.
When she heard a car, she scooped up Jessie to carry her to the back door. Her heart leaped at the sight of Mike climbing out of the car and approaching the house in long strides. If she hadn’t been holding Jessie, she would have run and thrown herself into his arms.
