Page 19 of Bursting With Love
Savannah smiled at the surprise in Jack’s eyes. She supposed it had been cruel to tease him the way she had, but as she’d seen with her brother, she thought perhaps there was a kinder, gentler man who lay beneath the anger. She wasn’t Jade Johnson, and there was no family feud to contend with. The only thing holding her back from wrapping her hands around his beautiful, hard body and kissing him until she cracked that armor away was the memory of what it felt like to be hurt by Connor. Savannah had to believe that just because Connor hurt her didn’t mean all men would.
Jack cleared his throat. “Right.” They crossed the campsite and entered the forest on the other side. Savannah was aware of every breath as she walked just behind Jack, a little embarrassed that she had to pee at all, much less that she needed a babysitter while she went.
“See that rock over there?” Jack pointed to a large boulder. “I’m going to scope it out. Stay put.”
“I’m not a dog, you know.” Why did he have to speak so rudely?
He took a step forward and stopped, then turned to face her. He opened his mouth to speak, then looked to the side, as if he’d changed his mind. “I’m sorry,” he said a little less grumpily. “Please wait here.”
Feeling vindicated, Savannah grinned. “Okay.” She watched as he disappeared around the boulder with one hand on the leather sheath hanging from his belt. Then he came around the other side and motioned her over.
“Need anything else?”
He was still so curt that her nerves tightened. She held up her biodegradable wet wipes and wiggled them before his eyes.
“I’ll wait over there.”
Savannah felt her cheeks flush.
After she was done, she found him with his back to her. In an effort to crack the walls he had constructed around himself, she tiptoed to him and wrapped her hands over his eyes.
“Guess who?” she teased. She didn’t feel his cheeks lift in a smile or his back jump with a stifled laugh. Instead, she felt the tiny muscles at the edge of his cheekbones contract as he clenched his jaw. Savannah dropped her hands, her hopes at levity deflated. “Sorry.”
He turned to face her again with the same irritated look he’d given her enough times since they’d arrived that it was already etched in her mind.
“Why are you doing this?” he growled, grabbing her wrists.
His eyes had gone almost black, and the word danger floated through Savannah’s mind again. She wondered if she had misjudged him after all. Maybe he didn’t have that softer side. Maybe she’d imagined it.
“Why, Savannah? I’m an angry bastard,” he said in a harsh whisper.
She could barely breathe. His eyes were still black as night, but as she looked closer, she realized she hadn’t misjudged him. It was restraint that she read in his clenching jaw, the muscles straining in his neck, but it was desire, thick and lustful, in his eyes.
“I don’t know,” she managed. Her legs weakened and her pulse sped up at the flames igniting between them. “Maybe…I…”
“I’m broken, Savannah. I may not be fixable. You’re better off going back to your high-rise cement city and using your goddamn sexy charms on one of the men there.” His nostrils flared with each heavy breath, and Savannah could tell that he was at his breaking point.
“I’m here now.” Savannah touched his ripped abs with her fingertips. She felt him shudder beneath her touch, and she looked at her hand in surprise. He released her wrists, and she placed her palm over his hammering heart and stepped closer. He smelled like the earth and sheer masculinity, and as he stared down at her, she reached up and touched his cheek. It felt just as she’d thought it might as she was lying in her tent earlier in the evening, remembering every line of his striking features. Her finger trailed the edge of his clenched jaw, lightly touching the muscles as they rose and eased repeatedly, and Savannah couldn’t keep herself from stepping on her tiptoes and planting a soft kiss on the center of his chin, then running her finger over the swell of his lower lip.
He growled a dangerous indiscernible warning that only further stimulated her desires before whispering, “Savannah.”
His plea landed in her ears as an invitation. Without any conscious thought, she lifted up on her toes again and ran her tongue along the lip she’d just touched.
“Jack,” she whispered, hoping he heard the invitation in her voice, too.
His eyes opened wide and then narrowed again, and in the next second, he grabbed her hips and pulled her close, taking her in the same deep, passionate kiss that he had the first time they’d kissed. His tongue moved forcefully through her mouth as he took a fistful of her hair and wrenched her neck back, opening her mouth wider to him. The pleasure and pain was so intense that Savannah moaned as his teeth found her neck, his hands slipped beneath the waist of her jeans, under which she was naked, and he brushed her bare skin. His eyes opened wide and he slid his hands around her hips and grabbed her ass.
