Reflection Point: An Eternity Springs Novel (18 page)

As soon as she spoke the words, she winced, and he knew she hadn’t meant it as a double entendre. Because she looked so miserable, Zach took pity on her and swallowed the suggestive remark that popped into his mind. “Great. I’ll pay cash.”

Five minutes later, Zach exited Heavenscents wondering just how the hell he’d just spent $105.62 on soap. After his comments to his deputy earlier, if Savannah told Gabi, he’d never hear the end of it.

At the threshold he paused and glanced back over his shoulder. She watched him with a curious combination of yearning and regret. Zach sniffed at the soap and considered.

When the last of her guests departed and only her girlfriends remained, Savannah gave them all enthusiastic hugs, gushing thanks, and huge gift baskets filled with lotions and soaps.

“It was a lot of fun,” Sarah said.

Nic nodded. “I had a blast.”

“Me too,” Ali added. “The party gave me an excuse to try out a couple of new recipes. The crab cakes were a hit.”

The women gathered up their things and departed, and when the door shut behind them, Savannah took a moment to gaze around her shop. She hugged herself and twirled around with a huge smile on her face. “Ah, Grams, did you see this? They love our soap. I wish you’d been here to share tonight.”

She waited, hoping that the message she’d read in the flutter of curtains and scent of peaches meant her Grams was back. She listened, hoping to hear the words
I was here, Savannah Sophia
. But the voice in her head remained stubbornly silent.

“Well,” she murmured, “I still feel your love in my heart and that’s what’s most important.”

But because she did feel lonely she went looking for her dog … and found more than she’d bargained for. Inny was in the backyard where Savannah had put her before the party, but she wasn’t alone. Zach Turner sat in the porch swing with Inny draped across his lap.

Savannah treated herself to a moment of drinking in the sight of him. Lamplight shining through the back windows cast him in a warm, honeyed glow. The man was so darned delicious to look at—in a totally masculine sort of way with his thick, dark hair, sculpted cheekbones, and squared jaw sporting a five o’clock shadow. He sat sprawled on the swing, his big hand stroking little Inny’s coat. Those glacier blue eyes of his watched her with an intensity that started her blood humming.

“You came back,” she said, sounding a little breathless to her own ears.

“I never left.”

“Why not? Is my dog okay?”

“I didn’t want to leave, and your dog is fine. Come sit with me.”

“I shouldn’t.” But she wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to.

“Why not? It’s a beautiful night. Your dishes are done. I looked.”

Because you’re dangerous
. “I need to make a night deposit at the bank.”

“I’ll walk you over in a little while.” He patted the empty space beside him. “Swing with me, Savannah.”

Temptation resonated in his voice, and Savannah couldn’t help herself. She crossed to the swing and sat beside him. Inny’s ears perked, but she didn’t so much as lift her head from Zach’s lap.

The dog knew when she had it good.

The porch swing was one of Savannah’s favorite spots in town. She sat there and drank her morning coffee and sometimes a glass of wine before bed at night. Ordinarily, sitting in the porch swing relaxed her. Tonight, though, she wasn’t relaxed. Tonight excitement hummed in her blood like her daddy’s moonshine.

“What a gorgeous night,” Zach said, staring up at the
star-filled sky. Then his gaze shifted and roamed over her with frank male appreciation. “Gorgeous night. Gorgeous woman.”

Deliberately he looked at her, his intention in his eyes. Savannah shivered as he reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, then skimmed his hand along her jaw to cup her cheek. “You left Reflection Point before I had the chance to say good night, Savannah.”

His mouth closed over hers and he proceeded to give her the sweetest, slowest, sultriest kiss she’d ever enjoyed. She melted against him in response.

He tasted dangerous and delicious and powerfully male, and as the kiss went on and on and on, a thick languor stole over her. She thought she might have purred. She knew he growled low in his throat. Savannah lost herself in the sensual pleasure of the moment, only vaguely aware that at some point Zach had shooed Inny down from the swing. He pulled Savannah onto his lap, her bottom set squarely between his rock-hard thighs.

“Now it’s time to say hello.” He deepened the kiss, his tongue seeking, then taking. She inhaled his masculine scent, and even as her hands slid up and across the broad expanse of his shoulders, a little part of her brain wondered how she could re-create the fragrance.
I’d make a mint
.

She bubbled along in a current of sensation like a leaf drifting in a mountain stream. She wished this could go on forever. She needed this man’s mouth on hers.

She needed more.

He gave her more.

His hand cupped her breast, his thumb flicking across the hard peak of her nipple and sending a bolt of desire shooting through her. His mouth left hers and went nibbling across her jaw, instinctively homing in on the sensitive
spot on her neck that had her whimpering in response.

Zach gasped out, “Why don’t we take this inside before I have to arrest myself?”

The rueful laugh bubbled up inside her and spilled out onto the gentle night. “Good try, Turner, but no. I’m not that kind of girl.”

He groaned once more, then sighed. “You sure?”

No
. “Yes. It would be stupid. You’re a cop. I’m an ex-con.”

“I’ll let you use my handcuffs. On me.”

A fantasy image of the sheriff of Eternity Springs naked and spread-eagled on her bed, his wrists cuffed to her iron bedstead, flashed into her brain. He removed them from his belt and dangled them before her eyes. Temptation, like the apple from the tree.

In self-defense, she scrambled off his lap and sat on the far end of the swing. “I should be insulted. We’ve never even been on a date.”

“Want to go to dinner tomorrow night?”

She closed her eyes.
Yes
. “No. It’s a bad idea, Zach. Any minute now I’m going to be horrified by what just happened.”

“Why? We’re two single adults.”

“Like I said. You’re a cop.”

“Sheriff. And what does that have to do with … wait.” He scowled at her. “Wait just one damned minute. You’re not comparing me to your ex, are you?”

Of course she compared him to Kyle. That man had fooled her completely, hadn’t he? Experience had proved that she had no sort of judgment where men were concerned, hadn’t it?

Yes, everything she knew about Zach pointed toward him being a stand-up guy.
But like they say, Been there, done that, got the orange prison jumpsuit to prove it
.
Dodging the question, she said, “Look, I’m not myself tonight. I’m still on a post-party high.”

His scowl darkened. “You’re not claiming that I took advantage of you.”

I wish
. She shook her head. “Absolutely not. You should know I value truth more than just about anyone you’ll ever meet.”

“That’s understandable considering what happened to you.”

The unstated support of her version of the tale warmed her like brandy on a cold winter night. It also made her vulnerable. She couldn’t go there with this man. She was finally getting on with her life, and he would be a complication. A delicious complication, true, but … “Look, Zach. It’s been a very busy day and I honestly don’t know what I’m feeling tonight. I think it’s best for both of us that you leave now.”

“Here’s your soap; what’s your hurry?”

“Don’t be difficult. Please?”

“All right.” He sighed dramatically and stood, but the gleam in his eyes showed her he had no hard feelings. “Want me to drop off your deposit for you?”

Savannah opened her mouth to say no and surprised herself. “Yes, thank you. That would be very nice. Wait here and I’ll get you the bag.”

“So you do trust me.”

“With my money, yes.”

“That’s a start.” He laughed and grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. He bent and gave her another thorough, knee-melting kiss. “Good night, Peach.”

Once she handed him her money bag, Sheriff Zach Turner picked up his bag of soap and headed around the side of her house with a wave and a parting comment guaranteed to haunt her through the night: “Guess I’ll just go home alone and take a bubble bath.”

Memorial Day weekend kicked off the Eternity Springs summer season with a bang—literally. The Wounded Wings One Hundred charity bike race, which wound through the mountains above Eternity Springs on a hundred-mile-long route, started on a pistol shot. The streets bustled with people, and in shops and other businesses all over town cash registers dinged and beeped and rang up a satisfying number of sales.

The bike race kept Zach busy, but not so much that he didn’t spare a thought or twelve about a certain shopkeeper.

He’d spent a restless night following the open house. Sexual frustration and mental puzzles clamoring to be studied didn’t make for comfortable sleep. After devoting considerable thought and a good bit of fantasy to the events of the evening, he’d concluded that Savannah likely did look at him through eyes clouded by her experience with a dirty cop, and that he needed to do something to change that.

He wasn’t that guy. He wasn’t like any of the men who had let her down throughout her life, and she needed to know that. He decided to make convincing her of that a personal challenge.

After his bike race duties ended, he strolled his patrol route through town and supported local business by stepping into the Taste of Texas Creamery and ordering two cones. Five minutes later, having increased his pace so that the ice cream didn’t melt, he slipped into Heavenscents just as a pair of tourists took their leave.

Savannah stood at her register ringing up a customer. Otherwise, the shop appeared empty.
Perfect timing
. Gallantly he held the door open for her departing customers, then offered her the cone. “Can I tempt you?”

She gave him a droll look but accepted the ice cream. “I’m a sucker for sweets.”

“Feel free to call me sugar, honey.” He waggled his brows in a teasing leer.

She rolled her eyes, but that couldn’t hide the amusement twinkling inside them as she took a long lick of the ice cream cone. “It’s peach.”

“I was thinking about you. What else could I have chosen?” He stared her straight in the eyes and took a long, slow lick of his ice cream. Her cheeks flushed, and satisfaction washed through him. His purpose accomplished, he backed off. “How has business been today?”

“Slow until the cyclists made their way out of town. Then I got so busy I couldn’t keep up. It slowed down again once they were due back and people began collecting near the finish line.”

“Bet you sold a lot of soap to cyclists’ spouses. A shower is one of the first things I want when I finish a long ride.”

“You ride a bike?”

“I love mountain biking, though I’m not into races like we had today. I like to ride the back roads and explore. It’s great exercise, a wonderful way to see out-of-the-way places.” He paused, considered asking her to go on a ride with him, but decided against it. It was too soon. He had a plan and he needed to stick to it. “Well, enjoy your ice cream.”

He hadn’t intended to kiss her, but she had a little dollop of peach at the corner of her mouth that needed to be licked. So he did it. Then followed that with a quick press of his mouth against hers. “I’ll see you around.”

He whistled as he exited Heavenscents, leaving Savannah standing with a stupefied look on her face. “My work here is done.”

For today, anyway
.

The following day he didn’t stop by her shop, but he
did send her flowers. The day after that he dropped by with a bone for Inny. Savannah appeared genuinely impressed by that effort.

Like most Eternity Springs merchants during tourist season, she worked ten hours a day, seven days a week, closing only Sunday mornings. As much as Zach would have loved to spirit her away for a scenic alpine picnic on his day off, he knew that June was not the time to do it.

June was a good time to give her some pampering, however, so he arranged to have the masseuse from the spa at Angel’s Rest take her mobile table to Heavenscents at the close of a workday. At the end of the hour scheduled for her massage, Zach showed up with a bottle of port and a tin of chocolate-covered blueberries. He found Savannah sprawled bonelessly in her outdoor swing wearing a white spa robe and a languid smile.

“Hello, beautiful.”

“I’m not stupid, Zach Turner. I know you have an ulterior motive for being so nice to me. Massages and dog bones and flowers—you’re not fooling anyone.”

“An ulterior motive?”

“You want to get beneath my spa robe.”

“Well, of course I do, but I’ve made no effort to hide the fact.” He sat beside her. “This is something you need to understand about me, Peach. I’m a straight shooter, too. Unless I’m on the job and you’re under interrogation, I won’t lie to you.”