Tides of Passion (25 page)

"This any closer, Irish?" Letting her nipple slide free, he scooted lower in the chair, bringing their hips into alignment. Hands on her bottom, he lifted. "Like this. See?"

Her gaze met his. Her lips were swollen, her cheeks flushed. She looked amazingly beautiful, and the tiniest bit unsure.

A dangerous combination, he had learned.

"Guide me," he instructed, beginning to think they'd better start this. That, or he would make a fool of himself and lose control before he even made it inside her.

Her lashes fluttered as she looked down. She did as he asked, wrapping her hand around him and adjusting the fit. When she had it right, more by feel than sight he was sure, she sighed and sank slowly down his length, wriggling along the way. Just to drive him wild.

Closing his eyes, he prayed for restraint, picturing every toy in Rory's room.

"Do that thing I like again," she panted, ruining his strategy by pushing her nipple between his slightly parted lips. Sucking the taut bud into his mouth, he latched on, doing what she liked as charged. Hands on her waist, he helped her establish a maddening, steady rhythm.

And kept her from making him climax before she did.

She caught on quickly, locking her legs in place and hanging on to his shoulders. Doing a slow rise and fall, sliding down just before he popped out. She laughed seductively, wiggling at the bottom. "This is perfect. Oh, I can see why they put this in the book. On an early page. Better than the bed. More, oh, more
leverage
."

Dear God, he wasn't going to make it long if she kept talking. "Slow down, Irish. I'm going to lose it."

Bending, she sucked his earlobe into her mouth, swirled her tongue inside. "Lose it. I want you to. You can"—she exhaled gustily—"pay me back in other ways."

Their last encounter in the coach house had included her first introduction to the joys of oral pleasure. Obviously, she had liked it if she was willing to go that route. "No. I couldn't leave you like this."

Her muscles clenched around him. "I can feel every inch of you. Every glorious... inch." Her lids fluttered; her breathing escalated.

"That's not fair," he said between clenched teeth. "And you know it."

Pressing her lips to his, she sent her soft laugher into his mouth. The kiss grew reckless, mimicking the movement of their hips, each thrust and retreat. She teased with her tongue as his hands traveled her body, squeezing her breasts, testing their weight, thumbs working her nipples.

"I'm wet," she whispered, drawing back to watch him with a wicked smile. Seducing by degrees. "And all because of you."

He shut his eyes as colors flashed behind them. He couldn't think of a thing to say or do. His hand strayed below her waist to bring her closer to climax. She blocked his move, saying, "Think of yourself. Later. You can take care of me later."

He felt his scrotum rise and tighten, felt the orgasm build as she continued to suggest and tease, murmuring in his ear.

She'd gotten the best of him, he realized, heat flooding his body. Surrendering, he shouted and shivered and bucked, pouring into her.

When his vision cleared and he regained the ability to carry weight on his trembling knees, he moved them to the cot and "took care of her". Tormenting until she begged for release and agreed that a snail's pace wasn't so bad after all.

It was only after she fell asleep, her body a perfect fit against his, that he realized he had not withdrawn.

* * *

The sound of the lock's tumblers turning woke Zach. Groaning, he glanced up, squinting into the dazzling sunlight. His eyes adjusted slowly, his mind just behind. He recognized the weight pressing into his side at once.
Savannah
. It felt good to wake with her.

But a moment later he was sorry. Once he realized where they were.

And how much trouble they were in.

Magnus stood in the doorway of the jail, and as Zach watched, Caleb and Caroline pushed in behind him.

Chapter 12

It's all right to tell a wife

 
the brutal truth,

but you've got to go sort of easy
 

with your lady-love
.

~Zoe Akins

"I'll be damned if you and your brothers aren't good at stealing my women," Magnus snarled and took a hasty step into the office. Savannah groaned, sinking deeper into the thin mattress, remembering that the good doctor had once been engaged to Elle.

A vase she thought held nothing but a withered carnation hit the floor, spraying glass. "I guess she wasn't so hard to steal though, Constable?"

The man in question smoothed the blanket over her, making sure she was tucked in. Thank God he had put his pants back on last night.

Unfortunately,
she
was the naked one.

"Couldn't you have gone out of town for entertainment, Garrett? Or had Miss Connor already been put through the paces? I wondered, I have to admit."

The cot creaked as Zach shot to his feet. "Shut your mouth, Leland, or I'll shut it for you. I would enjoy it, so don't goddamn tempt me."

Savannah lifted the edge of the blanket and peeked out. Yes, it was Zach making those threats. Of course; it was
his
voice. However, even her antics had not triggered that violent a tone.

"Don't worry, I wasn't thinking of marrying her, either. I simply would have tried to get her into the same situation you did." He chuckled darkly. "A more luxurious bed, granted, but the outcome would have been the same."

Savannah slammed her eyes closed, knowing Zach too well. She heard the pop as his fist connected with Magnus's jaw. They rolled to the floor from the sound of it; then another crack echoed in the room before Caleb and Caroline began shouting for them to break it up.

"Magnus, get outta here. Now, or I'm gonna have to make you. My skinny brother here might not be able to do it, but I sure can."

Savannah peeped out in time to see Caleb shoving Magnus out the door by the scruff of his stiff collar. Turning back, he offered his brother a hand up, pulling him to his feet. Zach scowled and shook off the assistance the second he could.

"Skinny? I ought to split your lip for that, you ungrateful son of a bitch." Zach rubbed his hand over his face with a grimace of pain, massaging his jaw.

"Only one of us needing a busted mouth right now, Constance."

Zach glanced back, but not long enough to catch her eye. An abbreviated grunt was his only reply.

Caroline walked around the room, gathering clothing and boots, mostly of the feminine variety. The sympathetic smile on her face held no I-told-you-so tilt, as it could have. She had warned Savannah not to play with fire and look at the mess surrounding her because she had ignored good advice.

Caroline entered the cell, closing the metal door behind her. Looping a sheet she'd found in the corner over the bars, she provided a means for Savannah to dress in privacy.

Savannah's heart warmed with the gesture even as everything else felt cold as ice. "Thank you," she said, pleased to hear that her voice sounded calm. On the other side of the curtain she heard Zach ask Caleb where the fire was and why the hell they'd busted into the jail.

"We were worried," Caroline whispered, throwing a look of caution toward the men. "No one had heard from either of you since the dance."

"Did anyone suspect?" Savannah fastened her chemise, frowning as she noted that one metal snap was missing.

Caroline smoothed Savannah's skirt with her hand. "I did, of course. And Magnus, perhaps." She laughed, clicking her tongue against her teeth. "Caleb wouldn't have believed Zach had bedded a woman unless he saw her tangled up with him."

"Like he did, you mean."

Caroline held the skirt out with a hesitant smile and a shrug. "Could be worse things that happen to a woman than marrying Zach Garrett."

Savannah laced her skirt strings, straightening it as best she could in its crumpled condition. "I'm not marrying anyone, Caroline."

"Oh, dear," Caroline murmured, frowning at the floor.

A strong tug ripped the sheet from the bars. Savannah watched it flutter to the floor, her gaze traveling the length of material to find Zach clutching the other end. His look screamed murder and was directed at her.

"Get that look off your face, Constable. It takes two to waltz, remember?"

He stalked forward, grasping the bars instead of her neck, she guessed. "What do you imagine Magnus Leland is doing right now, Irish?"

"Oh, hmmm." She tilted her head, pouting her lips and tapping a finger on them. "Having a cup of coffee at Christabel's? Or, telling everyone in town that he caught us in your office tangled up like two cats in a sack!"

Flinging his hands from the bars, he paced to the desk and gave an already wobbly leg a swift kick. Caleb stood to the side, looking like he was trying hard not to burst into laughter.

She turned to Zach's brother with a scowl. "What do you find
so
amusing about this situation, may I ask?"

He grinned then, covering his mouth seconds too late. "My brother has returned to the world of the living, ma'am. I, for one, am a very happy fella. Magnus Leland can jump off the lighthouse landing for all I care. The Garrett family has been spinning like a top for years, and it's finally stopped at normal."

"Shut up," she and Zach said in unison. Then they glared at each other for a long moment, wanting to share nothing right now.

How she could find him attractive at a time like this, with his hair mussed and his face stubbled and a cross glower on his lips, she would never know. His eyes were bleary from not wearing his spectacles, and his cheeks were red from something. Maybe her kisses. He had a scratch on his neck, and his shirt lay in a wrinkled spill on his shoulders.

Still, he looked breathtaking, enough to make her wish Caroline and Caleb would leave them to what they had found was a quite suitable cot.

She sighed, shoulders slumping. Her excessive attraction for Zachariah Garrett rendered her a hopeless case. Truly hopeless. Look at the muddle she'd gotten herself into. Worse than any in New York, far worse.

"I'm not getting married," she repeated when the silence began to make her fingers tremble, her stomach dance. Everyone was looking at her as though she had some momentous decision to make. "Ask Zach if you don't believe me. He said he would
never
marry again." She glanced over and found him watching her with an expression so grave it made her toes curl into the cool pine floorboard. "Right?" The word slithered out, dry as dust.

For the first time in his life she'd wager, Zach seemed to have no counsel to offer.

"Your morality is in question, Constable, not mine." When he remained quiet, she slammed her fist against the cell door. The burst of pain had her gritting her teeth and saying between them, "I won't do it."

Zach perched his rump on the desk and pressed his fingers to his eyes. She could see the headache twisting his brow. After a moment, he said, "Reason with her, will you, Caroline?" Then he left the office, slamming the door behind him.

"I hope he doesn't consider that a proposal, the arrogant, intractable...." She continued muttering as she slipped her boots on, wadding her stockings into a tight ball in her fist. That was all she had brought with her and all she would take home.

She felt Caleb and Caroline communicating over her head. Her blood bubbled over. "Stop it, you two. It won't work. I won't do it."

"Savannah," Caroline said, slippery as butter as Caleb crept from the office. "Why don't I walk you home. I know a back way. And darling, for a spell it might be better if you stayed with me and Justin. Miss Vin isn't likely to want the biggest scandal in Pilot Isle residing in her upstairs bedroom."

"That bad?" Savannah dropped her face to her hands. "Heaven, why did I have to do this in the smallest town I could find?"

"It never happens in a good place. At least it hasn't for me." Caroline gave her hand a squeeze, then helped her search for hairpins and a piece of underclothing she'd yet to locate.

As they walked home, using side streets and back alleys as Caroline had promised, she got an earful. At least the advice was coming from a woman who'd seen and done more than she had.

"It doesn't matter what Zach said before the fact, missy. He's far too respectable to let this lie like sleeping dogs and the rest. You must realize that." She nudged her front gate aside with the toe of her boot. "There's no help for it. It's the whole lot of them, honorable as preachers. Even Caleb, though he likes to imagine he's the wild one."

Savannah
did
realize it. That was the thought making her knees wobbly. "I explained to you all that it was Zach's morality in danger of defilement, not mine. I don't give a rip, as Rory says, what anyone in this town thinks of me. I won't be here long enough to care. If I can make sure Ellie's school survives the scandal—and I
will
—then everyone will be fine."

Caroline glanced back as she opened the front door. Unlocked, of course. Her eyes were sad, troubled. "What about Rory?"