Page 24 of Ace (The Deuces Wild #4)

How was a man supposed to work with a warm, sensual body like Savannah Church’s pressed hot and willing against his loins?

Concerned she could read his salacious intentions as easily as a book, Keller didn’t dare spare her a glance despite, or maybe because, his wayward, all-male mind had moved onto a lovelier scene.

One that had everything to do with crisp, clean sheets, bare tangled legs, and her black hair spread like a silken fan on rumpled white pillows.

With his body tight inside hers, pumping for home base.

The musky scent of her sex in his nose. She’d be smiling.

He’d be in heaven and ready to go again.

Damn, he was a pathetic monster to be aroused now, at a time like this.

It took all Keller had to not plant his body between her legs and thrust into her.

He already lay over her in a compromising enough position, fighting the primal urge to not only protect her, but to claim her and do it now. Right here.

Growling at his sudden lack of restraint in what was a most dangerous situation, he glared at the lanky man hidden in the shadows at the opposite end of the mowed lawn. The idiot thought he was invisible just because he hadn’t moved.

That simple mental shift in targets did what Keller needed.

His mind snapped off Savannah and onto the bastard who’d meant to kill her, damn him to hell.

He’d have to come closer if he intended to use that shotgun.

It was probably just loaded with birdshot, and birdshot couldn’t kill at this distance. But Keller’s Sig could.

“You know that guy?” he asked as he adjusted his weight and finally allowed Savannah enough room to get a better look.

Not a good idea. Her taut belly strained against his when she curved her body to see around his arm.

Her small breasts mashed soft and melt-in-your-mouth sweet against his chest. He’d already been fighting the urge to bury his face in her hair.

Now strands of it lifted into his mouth, and the lovely scent she surrounded herself with was mighty distracting.

Keller filled his lungs with mouth-watering temptation as he turned his head to tug her hair off his lips. He blinked and…

Pffft! The would-be killer had vanished. “Shit!”

“Let me up,” Savannah ordered as her palms hit his chest. “My dogs—”

Like she stood a chance of moving him. “Will you forget about your dogs and birds?” Keller snapped, forcing her flat again—where every nerve and fiber in his being wanted her.

Even so, a sudden calm infiltrated his adrenaline flooded body.

She was doing it again. Comforting him, this time through the fabric of his shirt.

“Stay down. You’re more important than—”

“Possibly…” she agreed, but Keller felt outright denial in her vague reply. “It’s just that once I set them loose, they’ll go after that guy and whoever else is inside Sanctuary. They’ll track him and his friends, if he brought any with him. You’ll see.”

“But won’t they get out? Aren’t you worried they’ll run away?” Now Keller was worried about her dogs.

“No, silly,” she chided gently. “I give them the run of the place when I’m here. They know to come when I call. You’ll see.”

They were trained? Keller hadn’t thought about that.

Calmer now, he pulled Savannah to her feet along with him, but kept one arm around her shoulder, one weapon holstered, the other still in his hand.

The car, the alligators, her house, and now this stranger with a shotgun all added up to someone holding one helluva grudge against Savannah.

What was more interesting was all this happening the day Gran Mere died. Coincidence? Not on your life.

“You make anyone mad enough to want you dead lately?”

She shook her head as he steered her back to the barn, his senses on high alert even as the feel of her slender body bumping against his spiked every last protective instinct. “I don’t think this is about me. It’s got to have something to do with Gran Mere. ”

“Why do you say that? I thought everyone loved her.”

“Every reasonable person loved her. But there are always haters.”

Keller couldn’t shake the image of those alligators and Savannah’s house burning behind them.

Or that she’d answered as if she were an inconsequential detail in the attempts on her life.

They were completely cut off from emergency responders, and someone had tried to kill her.

There was no way this was just about Mariposa Church.

“But you’re the dog rescuer,” he argued, his pistols still at the ready.

“And that truck meant to run you down. Hell, it hit the passenger side. That guy could’ve killed you right then and there. ”

“I doubt it. She was the one people came to when their babies were sick or trouble struck. She was the heart of this parish. I’m just…

” Savannah shrugged one shoulder. “To be honest, I’m just the kid no one wanted.

Not even my father hung around after I was born.

He handed me off to Gran Mere, then went and got himself killed. ”

The length of her stride increased. “Don’t get me wrong.

Gran Mere always wanted me. I knew that.

I was everything to her, but deep down, I’m just another stray she took in and loved.

” Another shrug. “Which suits me fine. Really. That way no one pays attention to me, and to be honest, I think that’s why I like working with animals so much.

We’re the same, you know. We’re strays. Rejects. We speak the same language.”

“Not buying that,” Keller grumbled as he stopped her at the door to her rescue barn, which all by itself proved she was more than she gave herself credit for.

Humility was all good and fine, but this woman should be proud of what she’d accomplished, with other people’s rejects no less.

“You’re not just another stray. I mean, look at you. ”

And time ground to an awkward halt. Yet again, he’d moved in too fast and he’d gotten too close.

Every cell in his body leaned forward like a vine seeking the sun.

Savannah was that sunlight, and he was a troll living under a bridge.

In the shadow. Afraid to get burned by the sun, but dying for the light.

Savannah looked up at his unplanned outburst. She blinked those big, beautiful, dark chocolate eyes.

Her lashes fluttered like an exotic, ebony butterfly’s wings.

Long. Enticing. The perfect frames to the windows of her soul.

The tip of her pink tongue moistened the lush bottom lip his whole body ached to taste.

Keller looked down at her. At her mouth.

It was the smallest glance. He meant nothing by it—honest. Yet in that instant he saw everything.

Her instinctive generosity. Her kind heart.

Her willingness to share her gift. The glowing love she had for Gran Mere and two barns full of strays. All those birds…

Damn, she’d sought out every last one of those creatures, then built and managed this complex to protect them from a world that hadn’t wanted them in the first place.

How could she not know how beautiful, sensitive, and charming she was?

How appealing that rare quality of kindness made her? How utterly seductive ?

But Keller was not a trusting man. Even stuck inside the FBI’s one and only psychic team, he’d fought the Deuces Wild welcome, but he’d fought harder against belonging.

Settling down wasn’t in his blood. A man didn’t work his ass off for a Ranger tab only to end up a family man. Life didn’t work that way.

Truth was Tucker Chase wasn’t that hard of a boss to work for. He was just so damned cock sure of himself. And every last team member had welcomed Keller with open arms. He was the problem. Not Tuck or Isaiah, not Eden or Ky, certainly not Tate Higgins, a man more remote and stoic than Keller.

Yet here it was again, a second chance, life and sun and all good things shining up at him. Enough love to make a man believe he wasn’t just another ugly cur in a world that ran over infants, the weak, and animals in its greedy quest for power, wealth, and fame.

His eyes tracked the sultry smile stealing over Savannah’s countenance. Man, she was everything he’d avoided since he’d lost Carol Marie. Comfort. Belonging. Finally, actually, being a man with a pulsing heart in his chest instead of a cold stone.

In the barest fraction of a second, Keller had Savannah inside the barn and the door locked. He holstered his pistols and wrapped her tightly in his arms like a treasure finally found. His heart hammered in his throat as he strived for control.

Federal agents didn’t do crap like this, not the honorable ones. Not him. Not ever! He’d never taken advantage of any woman like he was thinking of doing now. Even this hug was more sexual assault than friendly. Surely, unwanted. Certainly, unexpected. Never mind what else he was thinking.

She should shove away. She should tell him, “No!” She should scream at him to quit. Savannah should do anything but what she was busy doing now. Dragging his shirttails out of his pants. Loosening his belt. Making the sexiest frantic sounds of a woman who wanted the same thing he did.

Mind the gap. Mind the gap. Mind the bloody gap! his out of control brain sang like the conductor on some London train he hadn’t thought of in years.

“We’re not safe here,” he warned as she lifted her chin and closed the distance between their mouths. Instinctively, he sucked in his gut to help her questing fingers find their way under his shirt, down his belly and into his pants.

“I don’t care,” she whined as her hand closed gently around him. “I need this. I want you.”