Page 26 of Ace (The Deuces Wild #4)

Never did a man look so torn. So conflicted.

Broad in the shoulders. Long in the waist. Long where it counted, too.

Yet she was still mostly dressed, and Keller had slowed things down as if he carried the weight of the world on those broad, tense shoulders.

Savannah could now feel him springing back to life in her hand.

Pulsing. Thick and ready. Hard and silky soft at the same time.

So hot that her eyes watered. Yet she wouldn’t ask again. He had to want this, too.

Instead she whispered coyly, “The supply room locks from the inside. There’s a kennel release switch beside that door. Carry me so I can let the dogs out?”

That seemed all he needed to hear. Savannah found herself straddling his hips after he pulled his pants up, then hurried past the kennels to the far side of the barn, his zipper still open.

Giggling, because this was the most delightfully daring thing she’d ever done, Savannah leaned out of his arms and smacked the release pad as he walked into the supply room with one hand while still holding onto his manhood with her other.

Thrilled for the hunt, every last one of her dogs launched out of their kennels.

“There,” she sighed at the first baying of her precious, one and only coon hound. “Let’s see how smart that guy with the shotgun thinks he is now.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll shoot one of them?”

Savannah shook her head. “My dogs are smart, and they know the lay of the land. Lots of swamp and scrub brush to keep them hidden. You’ll see.”

“If you say so,” Keller grumbled as he set her on the nearest stack of grain-free kibble before he locked the door and secured their privacy.

Keller turned, his shoulders wide as he shrugged out of his jacket and stripped the tie off his neck.

He hung them off to the side on a stack of cat food.

His holster went next, but he laid it carefully nearby, within reach.

Savannah’s heart melted at the sight of her Secret Agent Man.

This was insane. It was foolish. She’d just lost her home and there was a killer on the loose, but were those things stopping her?

Uh-uh. Until her sight included what had once been a white shirt, now tinted swamp-water tan and splotched with red streaks.

Holy Mother, what was she thinking? Mugging an injured man?

This man had sheltered her. He’d taken the brunt of her home exploding.

Those wounds needed to be cleaned and dressed before infection set in .

“You’re hurt,” she cried, tears washing her vision clear as she finally looked closer. Even her fingers were stained with Keller’s blood. How selfish was she?

“I’m fine,” he answered, running a hand over his head like he’d just realized his condition. “Really, I’m—”

“No, you’re not.” Savannah slid to her feet. “You’re hurt. Sit down. At least let me doctor you before we...” Before we get carried away again.

Like a well-trained dog, he sat on the bag she’d just jumped from. Sex would have to wait.

With her heart still fluttering as if a flock of butterflies were caged inside her ribs, she retrieved her first-aid kit from the cupboard beside the supply room door. She’d doctored plenty of animals before, even birds. They’d all lived How much different could doctoring an adult male be?

He’d removed his dress shirt by the time she turned around, but still wore what had once been a white t-shirt. Now dingy brown and wet, it clung to his massive chest, delineating the rigid valley between his pecs and the well-defined six-pack below.

“Holy Mother,” hissed out of Savannah. Keller wasn’t one of those massive, thickly muscled bodybuilder types. But he was athletically fit and larger than life, and so-o-o-o much better than any animal she’d ever laid eyes on.

Shaking his dress shirt, he spread it on the nearest bag before he looked over at her.

Deep dark amber eyes locked on her .

Her heart zeroed in on Keller Boniface. On the hashmarks up and down his magnificent bicep. On the amber heat in his eyes. On the tiniest quirk of a smile curling his lips. He was a magnificent golden panther, tanned from head to toe, and he was stalking her.

“Savannah,” he said with a deep throaty purr.

“Keller,” she whispered back, her feet moving toward him. Her heart already his. The hummingbirds in her chest fluttering up her throat for release. This patient wasn’t like any she’d ever treated. He was wilder. Hotter.

“You’re right.”

“I am?” Wait. What? She couldn’t imagine what he was talking about.

“I need a couple band-aids.”

The rest of the world came back into focus. Oh, that. “Y-yes, you do. Then take your t-shirt off,” she ordered before her brain melted again. “I’ve got antiseptic wipes, and I’ve stitched plenty of dogs and cats, and I’ll take good care of you, too, if you trust me.” And I’m rambling like an idiot.

“Yes, ma’am, I do.” Dutifully, he reached behind his head and dragged the t-shirt off.

Savannah never realized how hot the supply room could get with one gorgeous, half-dressed male in it.

He seemed so much larger now that she could see more of him.

“Whew,” she muttered as she blew a stray lock of her hair out of her sweaty face, trembling with the knowledge of where on his body her fingers had just been .

“Good,” he murmured when she set the kit on the bag beside him.

“Good?” she asked, her voice gone as limp as starched lace on a sultry southern afternoon. “What’s good about any of this?”

Keller captured her wrist and pulled her between his spread knees. “It’s good that you feel it, too.”

She couldn’t think when he touched her like this. “But I’m supposed to be helping you,” she reminded him though her voice had grown needy and soft. “You’re hurt. You need—”

Strong capable hands mapped her forearms to her shoulders, then slid to her waist, pulling her against his belly. “I need you. Stitches can wait. May I kiss you again?”

Her vocabulary narrowed down to, “Yes, please, yes!” before she closed the distance, and with her fingers fluttering on that magnificent abdomen, she gave him her mouth and her tongue. Her heart.

The sexiest sound vibrated through Keller as their tongues tangled. Savannah had kissed a few boys in her life, but this was no inexperienced kid in the backseat at a drive-in. Keller was all male and all man. He knew what he was doing. He was bigger in every way. Definitely in charge.

In seconds she found herself undressed and sitting on his lap, sucking raspberries on that strong neck while his fingers explored her naked body.

Every touch of his fingertips sent electricity sparking through her.

From the tips of her nipples, now hard and aching for his mouth, to the tingle in her toes, Savannah wanted him. All of him. Every last inch and drop.

He had to get out of his pants, but holding Savannah on his lap like this was more than Keller deserved or expected.

She was no little girl, and yet she was.

Wearing just those blood red beads and with them dangling between her small, firm breasts like they were, he knew the moment he took his pants off that he’d ravish her before he pleasured her.

Not his style. Women like Savannah were treasures, goddesses to be adored and honored, never cheapened, which was how this encounter had started. Yet he couldn’t do it.

Oh, he could do it all right. Getting it up was not his problem.

Taking her as if she were some tramp in the back room of a bar was the problem.

As fast as this thing between them was happening, Keller was nonetheless a gentleman, and Savannah was something special.

Something rare. She was a lady, so much like Carol Marie, yet different.

Savannah was strong and defiant. She was sexy and tougher than Carol Marie.

And why was he thinking of his wife now?

Here? With another woman in his arms and about to come on his lap?

Keller couldn’t restrain the way his thumb had zeroed down on that tiny nub between Savannah’s legs.

He could give her what she wanted. He could make her first time, this first coming—a thing of exquisite beauty for her.

Dipping his head, he licked at her nipple before he sucked it into his mouth. And that was all it took.

Savannah arched back. Her body tensed with what he suspected was her first orgasm. In doing so, she filled his mouth with a warm, soft breast. She ground herself into the palm of his hand, then exploded with, “Kellerrrrrrrrrrrr…”

The throaty, earthy sounds she made were the best. Aftershocks coursed over her bare buttocks and thighs, her tiny belly, itself a thing of beauty.

Her nipples hardened like the rarest rubies.

He stroked those nubs until she went limp, then covered her panting mouth with his and breathed the taste and scent of her into his soul.

There would never be another first time for this woman.

He’d given this to her. Pride in that surged through his veins, pride and a sense of ownership he had no right to claim.

Yet he did. For this singular moment in time, she was his, and he was hers. It could happen. Lightning was known to strike the same tree twice, and this had certainly felt like a lightning strike. Rare. Powerful. Else why was his heart pounding so hard?

Sighing, Savannah melted under his chin, one hand on his chest, her other around his back. Petting him like he was one of her dogs. Comforting him, though why she thought he needed comfort, he didn’t know.

Until she said, “Lose the pants, Keller. Your turn.”