Page 29 of Ace (The Deuces Wild #4)

Between the extra wipes in her first-aid kit and an extra roll of paper towels, Savannah took care of her business, while Keller did whatever he did with the condom.

Embarrassed at her lack of experience as much as her lack of decent clothes, she made quick work of dressing even as she watched him from the corner of her eye.

The man’s thighs were thick and muscular.

They made hers look like skinny twigs. But that chest.. .

Dusted with crisp, dark blond hairs, she couldn’t stop thinking how she’d felt pressed into those pecs when he’d held her tight.

She’d never forget what his skin smelled like.

How he tasted. Her tongue slid around the inside of her mouth before she licked her lips, still savoring the decadent man she’d just tasted.

She had a one man show all to herself. He’d already pulled his pants up, but his zipper was half down, his fly unbuttoned.

He’d left his shirt off while he washed at the utility sink in the corner.

After a quick once-over his chest and arms with a handful of sudsy paper towels, he rinsed, then bent over and stuck his head under the gooseneck faucet.

Note to self: This barn needs a shower stall. That’d be a sight worth remembering, Keller naked in her shower. All that rugged bare muscle wet and on display, him hard and ready.

Savannah growled as her imagination took a delicious day trip. Fever swept over her. The fire between her legs was scorching hot. One look. One touch. And she’d climb that man’s body again.

The wounds on his back needed cleaning, but none were serious.

Not another mark marred his tanned body, only that star shaped scar by his eye and those hashtags on his bicep.

What on earth were they? Too evenly spaced to be normal workday wounds, she stored her question for another time.

But she couldn’t make her eyes not watch what her body craved.

Sputtering, water in his eyes and running down his chest, Keller tossed his head back. A tiny rooster tail of crystal droplets sailed over him, and Savannah’s pulse slowed at the gorgeous man in her barn. Forget the shower. This was a heart-pounding sight she’d never forget.

“Hey, you still with me?” Keller had yet to step away from the sink. He stood there holding paper towels out for her. “You want to wash up? Not that you need to, but we did land in the swamp today. It might feel good.” He’d caught her staring .

Oh. That. Savannah snapped out of her lust-fueled haze. Oh, yeah, I’m so with you… All. The. Way.

She’d forgotten how dirty she was. Most of that slimy swamp goo had probably sweated off on their mad dash to Sanctuary, but a shower wouldn’t hurt.

She had landed on Keller, but then she’d nearly lost her mind at the scorching heat of his body between her legs and the strength of his arms crossed resolutely behind her back.

Like her very own guardian angel. She’d known then she’d have to straddle him again—and soon.

But for the first time, Savannah worried how she must smell. Her hand went automatically to her hair, smoothing, checking for clots of mud, twigs, rats, and just generally ashamed that he looked so good, while she must look like a whore on Bourbon Street.

“Um, yeah, s-s-sure,” she stuttered like the total backwoods hick she was.

A no-kidding smile breached the sharp corners of his beautiful face. “Man, you’re something,” he murmured, shaking his head.

At last by his side, she turned the faucets to warm, and there she stopped.

He hadn’t moved. Just leaned his hip to the edge of the counter beside the sink.

He crossed his arms over that magnificent chest, the towels still in his hand.

A small grin tweaked his sexy mouth. Was he just going to stand there and watch? Apparently so…

Trembling at the wicked thing she’d just done with this handsome man, Savannah took the towels, held them under the water enough to dampen them, and turned to face him.

Keller’s crossed arms were no help. Her gaze dropped to the pecs he’d just framed.

His biceps bulged tight and round and solid.

If he were one of her dogs, she’d reach out and pet him, but her courage flagged.

Apparently, lust was like adrenaline. It didn’t last long.

He touched her first, one hand cupping her shoulder. “May I?” he asked as he took the towels back.

“I can do it.”

“But I want to do it,” he murmured, his voice low and gravelly. Sexy.

Despite a sense of trepidation, Savannah’s body burst into flames once more. Sizzling. Liquid. Flames. Because she wanted to do it again, too.

Keller pulled her toward him, her butt against the counter, and her legs between his knees.

Her palms and all five fingers landed on that manly chest. Warm and rough, hard yet smooth, she could barely stand still while he wiped those cool, damp paper towels over her forehead and cheeks.

Down her neck. Across her shoulders. Gently. Kindly.

The first hint of his crystal-clear compassion and tenderness hit like an ocean wave.

Closing her eyes, Savannah let it wash over and through her as if she were an empty vessel.

Keller’s empathy was a powerful force, crashing into her, flooding her, filling every nook and crevice, every hidden part of her soul with uncommon comfort for all she’d suffered and lost today.

This man’s understanding and genuine kindness knew no bounds.

He knew and understood Gran Mere’s death at an intimate level most others never could, and he wasn’t judging her.

He wasn’t just picking up on her grief, smoothing it out and pouring in kindness to buoy her up.

Somehow, he’d incorporated her loss into his soul, as if it were his to bear.

Not only had he been there when she’d passed—although he hadn’t known it at the time—he was now shouldering Savannah’s grief as if it were his. Who does something like that?

Only this golden man who was as fierce and as proud as Isaiah. But like Isaiah, Keller gave his gift away as if there were no rules for anyone but him. As if everyone deserved his compassion, while he did not.

“Lift your hair,” he ordered gently.

Opening her eyes, Savannah reached both hands behind her head to tie her hair up into a messy knot.

Keller’s gaze slid down her neck to her meager cleavage.

His top teeth slid over his bottom lip. She’d forgotten the feminine power she held over him.

It was such a simple thing to lift her arms, but he wanted her again. And she wanted him.

She took extra care securing every last wayward strand.

He needed this private little show, and she could tell by the way his breath hitched that he liked what he saw.

A tender darkness enveloped the gold in his eyes.

He didn’t blink or swallow, just stared like a hungry man standing outside a bakery window, with only the thinnest pane of glass between him and a tray of warm-from-the-oven, powdered sugar frosted beignets.

At last, Savannah cupped his jaw in both hands, her heart opened wide to whatever Keller wanted from her. As freely as he gave to others, she would give to him. “Do I stink?” she asked to draw his gaze back to her face .

“Uh uh,” he growled, his tongue darting out to quench his lower lip. Reaching behind her, he grabbed another handful of towels, dampened them, then left the faucet running as he wiped her arms.

Teasing she asked, “Would it be easier if I took my shirt off?”

“God, no,” he groaned. “I mean, yes, yes, but not until we’re some place where I can worship you like you deserve. I’ve never done this in a barn before.”

“That makes two of us,” she said blithely as she took the towels and made quick work of refreshing herself. A shadow stole his smile, and she knew he considered himself a lowlife for what he’d just done to her.

Tossing the crumpled towels into the trash bin beside the counter, she walked into Keller’s arms and put both hands on that massive chest. “I wanted this,” she breathed. “Don’t, please don’t let the fact that we made love in a barn ruin it.”

He didn’t flinch, didn’t even blink. Instead he circled her inside his arms, holding her as gently as if she were a child. She snuggled in where she wanted to stay. Could things get more perfect?

“We need to talk,” he murmured as he rested his chin on the crown of her head.

“We do?” Now was the moment she’d been waiting for. She nuzzled, rubbing her nose along his collarbone and breathing in every last male epithelial she could. Now she could tell him she loved him. Once he said the word—

“What we just did was fantastic, no doubt about it,” he purred, his hands so warm against her back. So big and strong. “A guy could get used to coming home to you. But it can’t happen again. We’re—”

Wait. What? Savannah tipped back in his arms, needing eye contact. “You don’t love me?”

Didn’t that make her sound high school pathetic?

But they had just made love. That was what sex between consenting, caring adults was called, wasn’t it?

Making love? And if they’d made love, didn’t it just naturally follow that he loved her?

He certainly cared enough for her. He’d used a condom, and he’d said all the right words.

He’d been gentle and kind, possessive and dominant.

He’d made her think that he felt the same way she did.

How could they have done what they did and he not love her? Was that even possible?

“I do care about you, Savannah,” he answered, the sexy glow in his eyes replaced by an earnest light. “What we just did here today rocked my world, too.”

Okay, that sounded promising. He had felt the same things she did. She let him explain, certain he was getting to the good part.

“But we’re from two different worlds. I work a dangerous career in the District, while you have a steady business and a full life here. It’s my fault. I’m a bastard for misleading you. I shouldn’t have let this go as far as it did. I’m sorry.”

She had no idea what to say to that. The man she’d just given herself and her heart to didn’t love her back. Because of his job? “But I, umm…” Her heart fell with a soggy splat at her feet. I am so dumb.

“I’m sorry,” Keller said even as he cupped her jaw in the same gentle hands she’d fallen in love with back at the boathouse, the same hands that had earlier caressed Gran Mere’s pretty face.

Savannah knew she loved this guy then. How could he say these untrue things to her now?

She knew better. He did love her, he did!

Yet the warmth left her when he dutifully untangled his hands and legs and set her apart.

The instant loss of his body heat chilled Savannah to her soul.

He didn’t love her. He never had. He’d just used her.

Yet that didn’t make sense, and it didn’t feel right either.

The righteous words coming out of his mouth didn’t match the tender vibes rolling off him.

That was his gift, his empathy. But right now, Keller needed to knock it off.

Empathy was something he could walk away from. It wasn’t love.

Savannah closed her eyes, not ready to face what truth she might read on his handsome face. The instant her eyes shut, her inner sight opened with a rush. Once again all the threads of the universe flowed through her. This was her gift, and she saw the real Keller clearly.

He was a proud man of finely-honed honor that gleamed around him like a halo.

That honor was the code he lived by, his pledge of allegiance.

He was a combat-hardened warrior more than a sleek federal agent.

Yes, he’d killed for his country, and he’d do it again.

But while he’d dealt with the personal aftermath of taking those lives, a few of those deaths still clung to him.

A woman in the tangled Amazon jungle. A young man—no, a boy—in some far-off desert.

Of all things—a dog that ran beneath the wheels of his car while chasing a cat across a busy highway. . .

He knew the cost of war and loss, yet he’d pledged his whole heart and soul to his country.

He’d seen the worst of mankind, but in the camaraderie of the men he’d fought with, he’d also seen the best. She didn’t know what a ranger was, but Keller did and he was proud to be one.

So proud. Those intangibles were all he’d had left after he’d lost his wife.

His black suit and tie were just another disguise.

Despite the gleaming honor, a darkness lingered within him. It breathed. It slithered. And he believed it would eventually consume him. That was why he guarded his heart. He refused to drag anyone down with him. Especially her.

“You’re lying, Keller Boniface,” she whispered, “and you know it.”