Inarticulate (5 page)

S
avannah inched from the bathroom
, unable to see or hear Keenan. As she’d used the facilities, the soft pad of his footsteps had disappeared down the hall. If he left her alone in this huge monstrosity of a house, she would track him down and slay him. No matter how enjoyably her lips still tingled from his kiss.

She tiptoed to the basin, gently squeezed the tap, and let the cold trickle of water wash her hands. An excited prickle of awareness buzzed at the base of her neck. His presence hummed against her skin, making her aware of him before she raised her chin and caught sight of him staring back at her from the mirror. His large frame loomed in the archway, one shoulder lazily resting against the wall.

“We should leave.” The tremor in her voice spoke of fear. Only she wasn’t scared of any physical injury from him. No. She feared for the pain he could emotionally inflict. Her thoughts were already incoherent around him, yet his eyes spoke of cold detachment. She was sure the weight of a million female heartbreaks rested on his shoulders, along with the scorn of a thousand ex-lovers. Another Spencer in disguise, but Keenan seemed far more accomplished.

He pushed to his full height and stalked toward her. One step. Two. He came up behind her, his gaze scrutinizing her in the mirror. She knew what he wanted. Even through the sterile disconnect, she could still sense his desire, could even see it in his unwavering focus.

His hip brushed hers and she sucked in a breath. Stiffened. He turned into her, his chest to her back, his pelvis to her ass, and enticed labored inhalations from her lungs. The rush of static in her ears was deafening and she was sure he could hear the coarse scratch of her throat as she swallowed.

There was no doubt where this would lead. No misconception. She craved whatever he had to give. The only thing nudging her conscience was the where, when, and why. She couldn’t be caught trespassing, especially not when Penny was lurking outside. Her time in Seattle was meant for work. More bad publicity for the Rydel name would ensure a horrific occupancy rate and an end to her secure employment.

“I need to leave.” She needed to run.

He wove an arm around her waist, bringing a silencing finger to her lips and a rush of adrenaline to her veins. With his free hand, he smoothed her hair back from her neck and placed his mouth below her ear. Her skin prickled beneath his lips, a thousand tiny sparks from heaven where their skin touched.

Her hips began to sway of their own accord, the gentle rock, rock, rock causing her ass to brush against something hard and unforgiving behind her.

His arousal.

His cock.

Her cheeks heated. She was far from chaste, yet she hadn’t imagined a man like him would be as turned on as she was. Not when his movements were smooth and calculated. From his reflection in the mirror, his attention seemed almost lazy, absentminded in a completely attentive way.

Christ. She was going insane.

“Keenan…”

He trailed his lips lower, along her neck where it joined her shoulder. He devastated her nerves and made her shake. Every breath she took was filled with his spicy scent. She drew him deep into her lungs, holding it within her, savoring him. Any man in her future would have to smell this good to gain even a sliver of her respect, because every man preceding him already paled in comparison.

She didn’t take her attention off their reflection in the mirror. It was like watching a movie. An out of body experience. Too captivating to be real.

She wanted more from him. Something that wasn’t slow or deliberate. Something entirely unrestrained. She wanted to glimpse a replica of the delirious passion which pounded through every inch of her.

As his lips continued to devastate her, she sank her teeth into her lower lip, fighting delirium. She moved her hips in a rhythm now, harder than before, and ass rubbed with unapologetic strokes against his cock.

She thought she could hear him growl. That a deep, intoxicating vibration was seeping from his chest. She closed her eyes and sank into the fantasy, wondering what he would say if he could speak. How he would sound. How his words would make her feel.

He ground into her, their movements becoming a simulation of sex. The finger against her mouth delved deeper, parting her lips in an erotic gesture that had her opening her eyes to gain a visual.

He stared at her, their gazes mingling in a silent appreciation that tore a whimper from the back of her throat. He flashed a smile at her, pure seduction, and scraped his teeth from her shoulder to the sensitive skin below her ear.

She ached to hear something dirty whisper from his lips.
I’m dying to fuck you. To taste you.
But nothing came. Only harsh inhalations and the continued thrum of her pulse in her ears. She sucked his finger into her mouth, just the tip, and this time she was certain his growl wasn’t a hallucination. It was deep and dark and devilishly sexy.

He kept his finger in place, while his free hand lowered to her waistband, tugging at her belt. The clink-clink of her buckle startled her, flushing some of the adrenaline from her system. Were they really going to have sex in the bathroom? In the dark? In a complete stranger’s house?

“We should go somewhere else.” Back to her hotel. Any hotel. Christ, the dampness in her panties announced she’d take him in the back seat of her rental if given the chance. She just didn’t want to be here.

Short wisps of hair shimmied over his forehead with the authoritative shake of his head. The denial shouldn’t have turned her on. Nope. Yet it did.

Everything he did was purely erotic. His undeniable control. His strength in the face of demanding arousal. She craved his discipline and wanted him to crack at the same time. Push, pull. Breathe, suffocate. Mindful, careless. She couldn’t keep up with her own mixed messages.

She turned in his arms and placed a firm hand on his chest. “Keenan, we need to leave.”

A smirk tilted his lips and he leaned in, brushing his mouth over hers. She couldn’t deny his kiss. The sweep of his tongue was lethargic, as if he were savoring the taste of her, memorizing every second of her surrender.

His body pressed into her, pushing her ass against the counter and his cock to her pubic bone. It wouldn’t take much. The lowering of a zipper, the yank of her jeans. Five seconds and he could be inside her, burying himself deep, taking away the ache and replacing it with euphoria.

Damn it.

She reluctantly tore her lips away and pushed harder against his chest. “It isn’t right to stay here.” Her voice was filled with indecision. Her mind, too. “I really should go.”

He kissed the curve of her mouth, her cheek, the side of her jaw. She whimpered, defenseless against his A-grade seduction. He pushed the jacket off her shoulders and dragged it down to rest on the counter behind her, her hands still bound in the material of the sleeves.

She couldn’t move, couldn’t flee. At least that’s what she told herself. He stole her strength and made her feeble. Weak and needy. This time when his mouth brushed hers, he was savage. He consumed her, his tongue dancing with hers, his lips stealing her breath.

The tension on her wrist loosened and she trembled at the grate of her descending zipper. Coarse fingers slid into her panties, over the slim patch of trimmed curls, and lower, across the smooth skin directly above her pussy.

She felt like the goddess of lightning. As if a gazillion volts of electricity were flowing through her veins, all of them on a collision course with one throbbing, aching part of her body. The need to stop him filtered in and out of her consciousness, but the necessity for an orgasm far outweighed any contemplation that they were breaking the law.

She was sure the owners of the narcissistic mansion would understand. The police would understand, too. Anyone with a set of eyes and a fully functioning libido would realize that passing up this opportunity with such an undeniable man would compare to spitting in the face of a winning race horse.

She leaned back, starved of oxygen, and released a faint cry as he guided his touch through her slick flesh. He held her gaze, those guarded eyes seeing into her soul as he inched deeper, breaching her sex.

Her name flittered through the air and she frowned, wondering if her ears were deceiving her. Keenan’s lips hadn’t moved. He hadn’t flinched at all.

“Did you…”

She lost track of her thoughts as he pulsed his fingers inside her, his thumb deftly stroking her clit. Her panties were soaked, uncomfortably so, and her nipples beaded painfully hard, begging for his touch. The dull pulse of an impending orgasm clenched her core. He already had her strung tight.

“
Savvy
.”

There it was again, this time louder. Unmistakable. She straightened, standing to her full height, and yanked her arms from the confinement of the jacket. Her hands landed on his chest, firm, hard, and undeniable as she pushed him.

“Did you hear that?” She cocked her head, trying to listen.

Keenan’s sigh was filled with annoyance as the faint call of her name drifted in from outside.

Dominic.

Her silent seducer didn’t remove his hand from her flesh. His mind was still on the game and he was tallying major points for perseverance, but Dominic’s voice wasn’t a soundtrack she could have sex to.

“I need to go.”

His thumb continued to stroke her clit in a way that spoke of mass disappointment if she walked away. There was a promise of pleasure in his eyes. A solemn pledge of ecstasy in his sensuous lips. She couldn’t move. Her legs wouldn’t allow it.

She trailed her hands from his chest to his neck and dug her nails into his nape. “I don’t want to leave.”

The ferocity in his steely irises didn’t change. He rubbed harder, enticing tiny gyrations from her hips. She fell into him, grazing her mouth over the stubble of his jaw.

“I don’t want you to stop.” Her whisper was almost poetic in pitch. Whimsical. Erotic. “But I think you should.”

“
Savvy
.” Dominic’s yell echoed off the walls and doused her in a bucket of reality.

She lowered her hands from Keenan’s neck and slid away from him. Her chest heaved as she backtracked. He didn’t deny her retreat, he remained facing the mirror and leaned over, placing his fists on the counter. His stare was harsh, judging her and finding her lacking.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. Sorry for following him in there. Sorry for being unable to deny his kiss. And sorry for still wanting more.

He made no move to console her. Instead, he stole her voice with his scrutiny. Even though his expression was blank and his lips flat, his eyes crackled with denied pleasure. She wanted to believe that look was his way of begging her to stay. Wanted to believe it and had to deny it at the same time because the narrowed stare was too harsh to be kind.

With her heart pounding in her throat, she winced in apology, snatched her jacket out from in front of him, and rushed from the alcove, not allowing herself to look back.

S
avannah tried
to control her panted breaths as she ran on the tips of her toes to the back door. Her boots were still waiting for her, while her sanity was left somewhere inside the bathroom.

She flung her jacket over her left arm and clutched the footwear under her elbow. With the flick of her wrist she opened the door and snuck outside. Freezing air infiltrated her lungs as she rushed along the path in sock-covered feet. The smell of bonfire smoke flittered on the breeze, the brief wisps of white ascending into the sky above the head-high hedge she approached.

She increased her pace toward the drunken chatter, breaking into a run along a barely visible path. She was gasping by the time she reached the small break in the hedge and slammed straight into a chest that almost set her on her ass.

“Dominic.” She clung to the arms of her cousin’s jacket to stop from falling.

“Where the hell have you been?” He glowered at her, taking in her appearance and stopping at her socks.

Her toes were ice, mere seconds away from falling off. “Don’t ask.” She placed her boots on the ground and yanked on her jacket. Warmth slowly heated her veins, but it wasn’t from the added layer of clothing. It was entirely from the images of Keenan in her mind. She’d followed him into that house, stumbling over her expanding libido along the way. He was the exact opposite of every business orientated, straight-laced man she’d ever slept with, and the favorable taste that still lingered on her tongue made it clear her previous appetite would no longer satisfy.

“Have you seen Keenan?” Dominic crossed his arms over his chest, annoyance personified.

“Um…” She leaned over, shoving her feet into her boots to buy time.

“Savvy?” His voice was a growl.

“Look, I’m sorry I disappeared.” She fiddled with her socks, still unable to look at him. “But you don’t need to worry about me.”

“I don’t care that you disappeared. But disappearing with Keenan is a bad idea.”

She bristled. Straightened. “Because?”

“Because he’s not the type of guy for you.”

She opened her mouth, poised to retaliate, then snapped it closed again. Dealing with Penny and the stick up her ass was hard enough. She didn’t want to argue with Dominic, too. He was her only ally. Her only friend in Seattle.

“I’m not trying to be an ass.” He softened his tone. “I’m just looking out for you.”

“Looking out for me?” She gave him a half-hearted smile and raised a brow. “Or maybe inserting yourself into something that isn’t really your business.”

He stared at her for a moment, the weight of thoughts heavy in his eyes, then turned to face the fire. “Women assume Keenan is different because of his lack of speech. They think it sets him apart from other guys, but it doesn’t. He’s the same fuck ’em and leave ’em type. He’ll burn you, just like any other man would.”

A derisive chuckle escaped her lips. He thought she was naïve? Well, she wasn’t. Highly susceptible to charm, maybe, but she had no doubt Keenan wasn’t a safe guy. Trouble flickered in the flecks of his blue-gray eyes, it was forged into his DNA, and she’d willingly followed his lead. She’d do it again, too. “I don’t understand. I thought you said he was family. That he was good people.”

“He is…”

“Then why are you concerned? You know I’m only here for a few months. I’m not in the market for commitment, I’m here to work.” The crunch of heavy footsteps approached from behind and she lowered her voice. “What is this really about?”

Dominic turned to her, but his focus rested over her shoulder, past the hedge. “Keenan,” he muttered, and she wasn’t sure if it was an answer or a greeting.

An unforgettable scent tickled her nose and her spine tingled at the advancing footsteps. The man of the moment stopped beside her, his spiked hair teasing her periphery as she fought to keep a smitten smile from her lips.

“Fancy seeing you out here.” Dominic didn’t mimic her mood. Instead, he scowled.

She waited for a response, needing two seconds of silence to remind her that Keenan wouldn’t fill the awkwardness.

“Penny is looking for you. She was wondering why you disappeared.” Dominic spoke as if Savannah wasn’t there. “You should go and explain where you were.”

Discomfort crawled over her skin, shuddering over her in a wave from her fingers to her toes. She’d never been bad at math, but right now she refused to put two and two together. After what she’d experienced with Keenan, the equation that also involved Penny was impossible to acknowledge.

“Does Savvy know the two of you work together?”

Savannah snapped her lips shut and measured the breaths through her nose, calming herself before she chanced a proper look at Keenan. His jaw ticked and his eyes were narrowed. Everything about him, from his expression to his stiff posture, spoke of his fury.

“It didn’t come up in conversation,” she murmured, hoping her poor attempt at humor might derail the upcoming train wreck.

A burst of breath left Keenan’s lips, the slightest laugh. He inched closer to her, right against her side, the strength and warmth of him making her solid. His gaze lowered, those haunted eyes reaching inside her to squeeze her lady bits. Pressure landed low on her back. His hand? She held her breath as he traced his palm down her jacket to her ass and slipped something into her pants pocket.

“That’s hilarious, Savvy,” Dominic muttered. “You should go and tell Penny all about it. I’d love to see her reaction.”

Keenan’s lip curled in a snarl and he snapped his fierce glare back to Dominic. He may lack the ability to speak, but the way he mouthed
fuck you
was clearer than an announcer on a megaphone. They stared each other down while Savannah’s chest thumped to the point of pain. Then Keenan strode away, heading toward the blonde goddess in question who was glaring at them, hands on hips, from the other side of the bonfire.

“For a man who lacks speech, he quite clearly made his feelings known.” She smiled, hoping to hide the jealousy eating her from the inside out.

“This isn’t a joke, Savvy. You’re here to facilitate a smooth sale transition with Penny’s company, right?”

She frowned. “Yes.”

“Well, if she finds out you’re fucking around with Keenan, she’ll make your life a living hell.”

The warmth from adrenaline and the growing bonfire didn’t penetrate the chill invading her bones. “They’re together?” She wished she could’ve hidden the resentment in her tone, but it was there, blaringly obvious. Along with the hint of disloyalty.

“I don’t know for certain. They’re close—physically and emotionally, but Keenan refuses to discuss my sister with me. What I can tell you, is that Penny has been in love with him for years, and seeing you anywhere near him will cause a shit storm you don’t want to be involved in.”

Discuss? With such a strong relationship, she would’ve thought her cousin had a better word to describe his communication with a man who remained silent. But focusing on specifics was only a diversion from the real issue—Penny was in love with the man who only moments earlier had his talented digits inside Savannah’s hoo-ha.

Déjà vu, eat your heart out.

“He gave me no indication he wasn’t single.” She tracked Keenan’s movements to Penny’s side. Even now, with disappointment making her stomach heavy, she still couldn’t see him as anything other than intensely gorgeous.

“Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t. But it won’t matter to my sister. I’ve seen her fight for him before. It’ll be worse now because you’re already her rival.”

Keenan stopped at Penny’s side and turned his back to Savannah. It seemed almost deliberate. The emotional cut off that severed his connection to a mistress so he could devote his attention to his girlfriend. Had she really become the other woman? And if so, how much did she care?

“I don’t owe Penny any favors.” She met Dominic’s gaze. “I kissed a guy she was infatuated with when we were teenagers. She hasn’t had a nice word to say to me since. The guy didn’t even like her. He thought she was a child. She
was
a—”

“She lost her virginity to that douche.”

No.
She shook her head. It wasn’t possible. Penny had been a minor. She’d been so young. A child.

Dominic nodded. “I’m afraid it’s true. We were always making her feel like a bratty little kid, and Mom blamed me, saying she only did it to try to prove herself. That she looked up to us and all that shit.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“I probably would’ve told you at the next vacation, but it never happened.”

No, that had been their last summer together. Dominic’s father had passed away from a heart attack in the fall, and Savannah’s had packed his bags and taken off, never to return. Both their families had been torn apart, and celebrating the summer had been the farthest thought from their minds.

“I’m sorry, Dominic, but I still don’t believe it excuses her behavior.” She wrapped her hands around herself, trying to ward off guilt from the past. “We were kids back then. We’re adults now, and I knew nothing about her and Keenan.”

It was a tiny lie. She’d witnessed the way Penny had greeted him. She’d known something was between them. And why was the blame on her, anyway? It was Keenan’s responsibility to remain faithful if he was in a relationship. He hadn’t given her the slightest impression he wasn’t single. In fact, the way he glided his fingers into her pussy gave a vastly contrasting impression.

“I can apologize for the past, but what’s happening now is all her doing. I’m not responsible for tonight’s tension. She’s the one who arrived with a pole-vault stick up her ass.”

She took a step, heading God knew where. There was nobody else here for her to speak to. Unless she considered Fox a likely candidate, which she didn’t.

“Please, Savvy.” Dominic grabbed her jacket. “Be the bigger person. It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other. I don’t want this trip to end in an excuse not to see you for another ten years. Just leave and let tonight blow over.”

“You want me to go?” He was kicking her out. Sending her home like a child.

“I’m trying to save you from the inevitable crash and burn that is my sister. We both know what she’s capable of.”

“I don’t believe this.” She shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and shook her head. “You’re treating me like a whore.”

“That’s not my intention.” His tone was unconvincing. “Whatever you do is your choice, Savvy. But whether you decide to leave or stay, you might want to think about re-buckling your pants so it doesn’t look like you’ve been fucking Keenan in the bushes.”

Blood drained from her face as he gave her one last knowing look and then strode away. The potency of humiliation made bile rise in her throat and she tugged the sides of her jacket together, hiding her lowered zipper from view. She’d never felt so cheap or worthless. Fury mingled, too.

She refused to take responsibility for what happened tonight. Yes, the past was her fault. She’d kissed a guy her much younger cousin had fallen for. She hadn’t even apologized. But surely there had to be a time limit on holding a grudge over mistakes made by children. They’d been in school, for God’s sake.

“I guess I’ll see you around, then,” she called after Dominic.

He paused, shot her an apologetic smile and then kept on walking.
Fuck.
This was humiliation at its finest. The unmistakable bite of rejection nipped at her heels.

She stormed to her car, her chin high, her shoulders straight. She yanked her car door open and sank into the driver’s seat. After all these years, Penny was still a little brat. Nothing had changed. Not even Savannah’s desire to kiss a man she knew her cousin was infatuated with. Which reminded her… She shoved a hand into her back pocket and grasped the piece of paper Keenan had placed there.

Meet me for dinner tomorrow at the Sated Palate. 8pm.

She stared at his messy scribble and couldn’t pinpoint why her heart rate increased. Her feelings for this man she barely knew were crazy. Delirious. Unhinged. She felt tingly for the first time in years, but now those sensations were becoming clouded by guilt.

She glanced through the driver’s window and found Keenan focused on her. The narrowed intensity of his gaze splashed her with a bucket of delight. She shuddered, from her shoulders to her toes, every inch of her skin restless because of those eyes that spoke of an unsettling future. He was fixated on her, not Penny at his side. He didn’t even spare her cousin a glance as his severity rocked Savannah’s foundations.

Come talk to me
, she mouthed the words nonsensically.

Christ, what was she thinking? He wasn’t the typical, everyday man. He was someone far more intricate. Someone who couldn’t ease her discomfort with conversation.

She raised a hand, waved in farewell, and didn’t wait for his reply as she jammed the keys into the ignition and brought the engine to life.

Maybe Dominic was right. Removing herself from the Keenan equation might be the best option. All she had to do was convince the pulsing parts of her body there couldn’t be an encore tomorrow.

No matter how much body parts south of the equator protested at the thought.