The One She Left Behind (Harlequin Super Romance) (9 page)

That got her undivided attention. “Stop it, Sam.”

Her mouth might be saying stop, but the fire in her eyes said go. “What’s the matter? If you don’t feel anything, then you shouldn’t give a tinker’s damn what I want to do to you.”

“I don’t care about your fantasies as long as you don’t try to act on them.”

“Sure, Savannah. Right now you’re shaking like a leaf. You can lie to yourself, but I know you better than you think I do.” He brushed a wisp of hair away from her cheek. “And I’m thinkin’ you want to kiss me.
Real
bad.”

She blew out a shaky breath. “You wish.”

More than she realized. “I
know
. And I’ve got to tell you, Savvy, I’m disappointed in you. I remember the girl who never ignored a challenge. That girl didn’t stop until she got what she wanted. Guess the Windy City’s made you soft.”

Realizing he might’ve gone too far, Sam backed up and leaned against the truck. He shouldn’t be all that worried. Just because he’d thrown down the gauntlet didn’t mean she’d actually grab it and run. Or that’s what he’d thought until she strode toward him.

Sam saw his plan to avoid this very thing go up in smoke the minute Savannah took his mouth in an all-out assault. His fault for striking the match and lighting up an old flame. Not that he was complaining. He was fairly uncomfortable in a real nice way with her body rubbing against his and her arms draped around his neck. Good thing the truck was offering some support, otherwise he might have dropped to the ground—and taken her with him.

Many a night he’d fantasized about kissing her again, but nothing beat the reality. She could give as good as she got and he was giving her his best effort. He didn’t see any sign of this little make-out session ending anytime soon, unless he found some superhuman strength.

Instead, he found her butt with his palms and nudged her closer, letting her know exactly what she was doing to him. What she’d always done to him, like it or not.

When Savannah released a moan against his mouth, he ran his palms up the backs of her thighs, taking the dress with him while ignoring all the reasons why they shouldn’t be doing this. If he had any consideration for what was best, he’d come to his senses and back off. But the way he was feeling right now, that would probably take a miracle.

“Daddy! Where are you?”

T
HE CHILDISH SHOUT COMING
from somewhere in the distance was as effective as a bucket of snow on Sam’s libido. They simultaneously broke the kiss and while Savannah turned her back on him, Sam ran both hands over his face in an attempt to recover—and then let go a loud laugh when he opened his eyes to one hell of a humorous sight.

Savannah spun around and scowled. “This is not a laughing matter. Stupid on my part, but not at all funny.”

“Oh, yeah, it is. My hands are on your butt.”

She looked like he’d taken complete leave of his senses. “You mean they
were
on my butt.”

He rubbed a palm over his jaw. “Well, seeing as how you’re an attorney, let me put this in legalese so you’ll understand. The evidence that my hands
were
planted on your backside is imprinted on the dress in question.”

She glanced over her shoulder, then gave him a fairly fierce look that said he was going to have hell to pay. “I can’t believe you did that.”

He held up both hands, greasy palms forward. “Hey, you started it.”

“And you didn’t try to stop me.”

“Do you blame me?”

She propped both hands on her hips. “Let’s just say we’re both to blame and leave it at that.”

“Daddy!”

Jamie was definitely getting closer, and so was Sam to the heart of the matter. Savannah had come down with a serious case of lust, and he’d definitely caught it. “In here, sweetheart,” he called to his daughter now that he was sufficiently calm, at least on the outside.

Savannah’s eyes went wide as wagon wheels. “How am I going to hide the mess you made?”

In two strides, Sam grabbed her by the waist, turned and sat her on the truck’s hood. “Don’t move and she’ll never notice.”

Jamie rushed into the shop and pulled up short when she spotted their guest. “Hi, Savannah!”

Savannah put on her best smile but to Sam it looked forced. “Hi, sweetie. It’s good to see you again. I’m just watching your dad work on the truck.”

Jamie looked at Sam, then Savannah, and started giggling. “No, you’re not. You were kissing my daddy.”

Sam exchanged a what-the-hell look with Savannah before he asked, “Why would you think a thing like that, Joe?”

“’Cause you’ve got lipstick on your lips, Daddy.” Jamie rocked back and forth on her heels, like she couldn’t quite contain her excitement over the discovery.

Sam immediately wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. No need in offering up an explanation because knowing his kid, she wouldn’t buy it. “What do you want, Jamie?”

“Grandma Gracie told me to come get you for dinner. She wants Savannah to come, too, and so do I.”

Sam saw a little desperation in Savannah’s eyes before she gave Jamie a smile. “Honey, I wish I could but—

“Please, Savannah?” Jamie pleaded. “You’ve gotta stay for dinner because Grandma Gracie’s making her famous ham and sweet potatoes and the banana pudding you like and she’s already set a place for you at the table.”

Sam noted a moment of indecision in Savannah’s eyes before she said, “I would need to go home and change first.”

Jamie frowned. “Supper’s almost ready and I’m hungry.”

Patience wasn’t his daughter’s strong suit. At the moment, politeness wasn’t, either. “Mind your manners, kiddo.”

Jamie looked as contrite as a scolded puppy. “Sorry, Daddy. I just think Savannah looks pretty and she doesn’t need to change clothes. That’s all.”

When Savannah gave him a help-me look, Sam turned his attention back to his daughter. “Tell Gracie we’ll be at the house in a minute.”

“Okay.” Jamie backed toward the door, grinning. “You gonna kiss some more?”

Not if he wanted to save himself from another huge error in judgment. “Get out of here, Joe, or I’m going to make you shovel manure all day tomorrow.”

“No way, Daddy-o.” Jamie turned on her heels and left the shop at a dead run, leaving Sam alone with
Savannah, who didn’t look at all grateful for the dinner invitation.

She proved that when she said, “You shouldn’t have told her to expect me for dinner. I can’t very well go to the table with proof of your evildoing to my person all over the back of this dress.”

“Your
person
enjoyed my evildoing, just like I expected. And consider yourself lucky. If Jamie hadn’t interrupted, you might’ve had two more handprints on your top.”

She picked up the rag, balled it up and launched it at him like a cloth missile. “Wet this and see if you can undo the damage. And while you’re at it, wipe that smug look off your face.”

“Sweetheart, that ain’t smugness. That’s pain.”

She sent a quick look downward at the source of his distress, blushed like a fire engine and muttered, “Sorry.”

So was he. Sorry he hadn’t sent her on her way sooner. Sorry he’d provoked her. Real sorry he couldn’t do a damn thing about his pain.

Sam walked to the utility sink and soaked the towel before returning to Savannah. “Turn around.”

After she complied, he put one hand on her waist and rubbed at the stains with minimal pressure. He didn’t make much headway with the grease, but he did enjoy the effort. At this rate, he’d have to make up some reason to miss dinner.

She glanced back at him with an aggravated expression. “Is it working?”

“It’s worse.”

She abruptly faced him and snatched the towel from his grasp. “You’ll have to apologize to Gracie because I am not going in your house like this.”

Sam came up with a quick plan that might satisfy her, even if he couldn’t. “I’ll take you through the outside entrance of my bedroom and you can put on a pair of jeans and one of my T-shirts.” As long as he didn’t imagine her wearing only his shirt, he might get through the meal with his dignity intact.

She ran both hands through her hair. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m about nine inches shorter than you and I weigh less, too. How do you expect me to wear your jeans?”

This admission probably wasn’t going to go over too well, but he didn’t have much choice. He didn’t want her to think that his bedroom had a revolving door welcoming every woman in the county. Why that mattered at all, he couldn’t say. “They belonged to Darlene.”

“I see.”

No, she didn’t. She probably thought he’d kept those old clothes because he didn’t want to let go of his ex-wife. Wrong. He just hadn’t bothered to toss them out. “Which is it going to be? My plan or going home and explaining my greasy hands on your butt to your mother?”

After a slight hesitation, she sighed. “I’ll agree to your plan, but I have to go right after dinner. May and Bill went home and I don’t want to leave Mother alone much longer. I also told her we could sort through some of Dad’s things this evening.”

“Not a problem.” Actually, it was. He really wanted to get her alone again after dinner to set her straight on
a few things, namely that what had happened wasn’t all his doing, even if he had egged her on.

Hell, who was he kidding? If he got her alone, which was about as likely as Jamie keeping quiet about the lipstick, he couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t want to kiss her again, and not stop there. Better to leave well enough alone.

Sam pushed off the truck and gestured toward the open garage door. “After you.”

When she moved in front of him, he patted that grease-covered, knock-’em-dead butt, proving old habits died hard, even after a decade.

She turned and walked backward, just like his daughter had a few minutes ago. “What are you doing?”

“Just thought I’d try to remove some more of the mess.” Now he was lying. Big-time.

“You’re still that same old bad boy, aren’t you?”

When she reluctantly smiled, Sam saw the girl she used to be. The girl he’d come to rely on to save him from his rebel ways. The only girl he’d let close enough to hurt him. The woman he still wanted after all these years.

Savannah could cut him to the core again if he let her. And he’d literally be damned if he did.

T
HE WELCOME SCENT OF
good old Southern cooking permeated the dining room like a pleasant morning mist. The same yellow floral print cloth covered the table and the weathered wooden plaque that read God Bless Our Home still hung over the back door. The camaraderie of old friends sharing a meal provided a welcome
change for someone who’d spent most of their time away from work in the confines of a sterile condominium. Yet even in the familiar surroundings and in the presence of people she dearly loved, Savannah felt uncomfortable.

She’d barely been able to make a dent in the pile of food Gracie had set before her, probably because she was too busy choking down her guilt. She kept wondering what she’d been thinking in the shop. Actually, she hadn’t been thinking at all. She’d run solely on impulse, completely reeled in by a sexy devil in denim.

Yet Sam had been surprisingly silent throughout the meal. He’d also been remarkably controlled even when they’d walked into his bedroom earlier. He’d simply tossed her the clothes and waited in the hall until she’d changed out of the dress. She, on the other hand, had recalled all the times they’d been alone in that bedroom. Back then, propriety had dictated they never close the door. But the converted room that had once been a garage was tucked away in the back of the house, allowing for a few stolen kisses during what should have been study time.

No more kisses for her today. She’d done too much of that already for reasons that defied logic. Not that logic had ever come into play when Sam was involved. He’d presented a challenge, and something primal had driven her to act the fool that she’d always been around him. He certainly hadn’t been wrong on one point—desire was a powerful motivator—and she refused to give in to it again.

Fortunately, Jamie had been seated between them during the meal, providing Savannah with some much-
needed separation from Sam. More important, Jamie had made it through the meal without mentioning her suspicions about the kiss. Accurate suspicions. And since the little girl had disappeared with Gracie a few minutes ago, it appeared they might actually be in the clear.

“I hear the two of you were swapping gum out in the shop.”

Savannah nearly spewed iced tea all over the table after Jim’s sudden proclamation. She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and sent a panicky look at Sam.

And like the cad he could be, he grinned as if he found the situation quite amusing. “Who told you that, Dad?”

“Your kid.”

“She’s always had one heck of an active imagination,” Sam said without looking at Savannah.

Jim snorted. “She’s got enough smarts to realize that country boys don’t wear lipstick.”

Savannah pondered how on earth she would escape this predicament. Leaving would be too obvious. Crawling beneath the table would, too. Fortunately, Gracie picked that moment to breeze into the dining room. And even better, she didn’t return with Jamie, saving the little girl from some questionable conversation. At least Savannah could count on Sam’s stepmother to be the perfect portrait of decorum, no matter what Jamie might have revealed.

Gracie stood behind Jim’s chair and rested her palms on her husband’s shoulders. “I’ve hung your dress up to dry, Savannah. But I’m afraid Sam’s hands aren’t going
to come out unless I wash it again and use bleach, and that would ruin it.”

So much for decorum. And so much for Sam taking care of it himself. “Don’t worry about it, Gracie,” she said. “I have other dresses.”

“But not with Sam’s mark on ’em, I bet,” Jim added with a smirk.

Both Gracie and Jim chuckled at Savannah’s expense. Worse, Sam chimed right in. Clearly not one of them recognized her mortification.

Savannah desperately wanted to turn the conversation away from anything having to do with grease or lipstick. “By the way, where is Jamie?”

Gracie pulled up a chair and sat next to Jim. “She’s on the phone with her mama. And she told me to tell you that you have to stay and listen to her play the guitar in a bit.”

Savannah wanted to bow out and go home, but she couldn’t in good conscience disappoint a child. Not to mention she no longer had a valid reason to go home. When she’d called to say she was staying for dinner at the McBriars’, her mother informed her that she was too tired to sort through the keepsakes anyway.

As wary as she was of spending more time with her former lover, as much as she didn’t trust herself around him, Savannah saw no reason not to be sociable with his family. A half hour longer wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things—as long as she didn’t end up alone with Sam. “I wouldn’t want to miss hearing Jamie play, so I’d be glad to stay for a while.”

“She’s pretty good,” Jim said. “Sam’s been teaching her since she was knee-high to a cricket.”

Savannah gave her attention to Sam, who was turning his fork over and over. “Jamie must come by it honestly,” she said.

Sam didn’t bother to look up from his current preoccupation with the utensils. “She’s going to be a lot better than me if I have any say in the matter. I want to make sure she knows enough while I still have the opportunity.”

He sounded almost despondent, as if for some reason spending time with his child might be coming to an end. Savannah couldn’t fathom Darlene taking Jamie away from him. Or maybe Sam just assumed that someday Jamie would choose other activities over her father. He had his mother’s abandonment to thank for that concern.

Jamie rushed into the room like a miniwhirlwind, guitar in hand, and declared, “We all have to go in the backyard. That’s where I can get my muse.”

This time everyone laughed, followed by Sam asking, “Do you even know what a muse is, Joe?”

Jamie shrugged. “Nope. I heard it on TV. What is a muse, Daddy?”

“I’ll explain it to you some other time,” he said. “It’s late and Savannah needs to get home to her mom.”

Sam was obviously intent on getting rid of her as soon as possible, which only spurred her desire to stay longer. “Don’t hurry on my account. I’m not afraid of the devil or the dark.”

She sent Sam a pointed look and he responded with a noncommittal expression.

Gracie pushed back from the table and stood. “Y’all go on outside while I clear the dishes. I’ll be out in a jiffy with the pudding.”