“Savannah!”
“Yes!” I cry as he plows back in over and over. I don’t want it to end. He’s the only man who has ever made me feel every possible feeling at once, but at the same time feel each individually as well. It’s intoxicating. It’s erotic. It’s…it’s…it’s…I scream as every muscle clenches, sending me off toward the snowy night.
He shouts and grips my shoulders, his whole body shaking on top of mine. He pulls out, flips me over, and attacks my lips. He’s like a hungry animal and I’m his first meal in months. Within minutes he’s entering me again, but this time he has me straddling his lap, facing him. He does all the work since I’ve become like jelly, but it doesn’t take long for my senses to kick back in to match his rhythm.
“Cole,” I moan as he bites my neck and massages my breast. “I hate that you hurt me,” I confess, wanting to get it off my chest. “I hate that it wasyouwho hurt me.” My rocking has picked up pace; I’m close now. I’m panting, and I can feel him struggling with having to stop to talk, wanting to keep going, so I grab his face and kiss him. I’m torn too, but right now I need this closeness. I love him.
This sets him off and he stands, holding me with him and sitting me on the highest seat, nearly out of the water, and hooks my legs over his shoulders. He hangs on to the side of the tub, getting in as deep as he possibly can. I clench around him, feeling full as he hits all the right places. My eyes roll up to the roof of the tent, seeing many colors dance around as I fall into a sea of passion. I couldn’t be happier. Only he can make me feel this way.
“No one else,” he grunts as he fills me with another hot burst of him.
We’re both completely spent by the time we finish. I sit wrapped in his arms, watching the white curtain, the snowflakes dancing in a beam of light from the house. You can barely see three feet in front of us now. Cole slowly kisses my neck like he can’t stop.
“Cole?” I whisper, not wanting to break this moment, but I need to, sadly. That nagging feeling is still there.
“Mmmm.” His chest vibrates.
“I-ah, umm…”Fuck.
“Tell me. It’s nothing we can’t handle.”
Shit, I can’t. Ahhh…I chicken out, so I go with something else that has been on my mind. “What’s going to happen to my father?”
Cole sighs and holds me tighter. “It will take time, but he’ll make a mistake somewhere, and we’ll nail him.” He pauses. “Do you want your father to go to jail?”
“Yes,” I say simply because any father who can willingly hand over his daughter to someone the way he did and kill Derek and shoot Paul…this man is not my father. He is someone else. “I’m struggling with Derek’s death.”
Cole turns my face around with his finger, and his look is serious. “You need to understand something, Savannah. What Derek did was wrong. That was his mistake, taking you there with no backup. It went totally against all he should have learned in his training. Whether or not he thought it was a good idea, it wasn’t. That’s why Derek would never have made it on the Blackstone team. He makes dangerous choices. His death is not on you.” His hands cup my face so I look into his eyes. “Believe me, what happened is on him. No one blames you.”
I nod in fear of saying anything. I hurt like hell on this topic. What Cole is saying makes sense. I just need time…time…I try to open my mouth and say the words to him, but I can’t.
“Who hired you to find me? I know my father didn’t.”
Cole cups some water, warming my shoulders. He doesn’t answer right away. I know he’s thinking about my question and his answer. “Sometimes when cases get as big as yours and are splashed all over the newspapers, we look into it ourselves without being asked to by the family. It didn’t take us long to see there was something fishy about your case. The more we looked into it, the more things weren’t adding up, so I put my men on it, and we tracked you down.”
“Wow,” I whisper, picturing the guys chasing leads.
“When I saw your picture,” he pauses, making me look up at him, “I couldn’t stop staring at it. You drew me. You are so beautiful, Savannah. We pulled every string, asked every favor, sneaked in places off the grid, just to find a clue that would lead us to you. And I may have done a few things I’m ashamed of, but I don’t care.” His finger hooks my chin and tilts it up, his eyes dark as night. “Baby, I’d play dirty for you any day.”
I smile and give him a soft kiss under his jaw. Threading his fingers through mine, I sag back into his lap, resting his hand over my stomach.
“I had no idea that you and I would have ended up here.” He squeezes me a little tighter, then leans down, brushing his lips over the shell of my ear. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, but I’ll never be sorry for tracking you down and falling in love with you.”
“You’re awfully quiet.” Keith peers at me from the driver’s seat. I made a lunch date with Sue today. I miss her and have only seen her once since I’ve been back. Keith had to go into town to pick up something from Christina’s store, so he offered to drive me.
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“About…stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?” he tries again.
I shake my head. Nosy bugger. “I just need to process some things.”
“I’m a great listener.” He grins. Keith has taken on the role of an older brother.
I don’t want to raise any red flags with Keith since he can read me like an open book, so I go another route. “Is Dell back to replace—?