Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(95)

He couldn’t make out Savanna’s expression. His body blocked the moonlight, casting her face in shadow. But he could feel her beneath him, could hear her breathing escalate as the pleasure built. Demonstrating what they were feeling physically came as a natural conclusion to the evening, but they’d held off touching each other for so long that it also provided a much-needed release.

“You’re still on the pill, right?” he muttered as soon as he felt her shudder her climax beneath him. He was free to let go, but he wanted to come inside her and stay inside her for as long as possible.

She responded by tightening her legs around his hips so that he couldn’t pull out, and that was all it took to throw him over the edge. He groaned as that familiar wave of ecstasy started in his groin and sent a wave of goose bumps throughout his body.

After some time, he dropped beside her. “Any chance you’ll reconsider going to Nephi?”

She started righting her clothes, and he did, too. It was unlikely anyone would come strolling down the beach at this hour, but it was a possibility. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“I don’t want to do anything to draw Gordon’s attention back to you. Why provoke him?”

“Because of Emma, remember?”

“I feel bad for that girl. I do. But she’s probably dead, Savanna.” He knew that was an entirely practical approach—probably a selfish one, too. But Savanna was the person he most wanted to keep safe. “You’re what matters to me.”

She smoothed the hair from his face. The tie had fallen out while they were making love. “If I don’t get something else on him, something more than the police have now, he could get out of jail, Gavin. Going to Utah and getting him to implicate himself is the best way to protect against that.”

He rolled onto his back and let his breath go in a long exhale as he stared up at the sky.

“I have to do it,” she added, and he didn’t say anything because he knew it was true.





27

Savanna was embarrassed when they returned to pick up her kids. It was nearly four-thirty in the morning, and the bar had closed at two. But Aiyana didn’t seem to mind having her sleep interrupted at such an ungodly hour. She seemed as pleasant as ever when, wearing a robe, she let them in. “Did you have a nice time?”

“It was wonderful,” Savanna said.

“I’m glad.” Gavin’s mother came off as sincere, and yet there was something about her smile that seemed to suggest she knew Savanna hadn’t been referring strictly to the show. Had she spoken with too much enthusiasm? Was her hair mussed despite the number of times she’d combed her fingers through it?

Savanna cleared her throat. “I hope the kids were good for you.”

“They were wonderful.”

Gavin was busy carrying a sleeping Branson to the truck. Branson had been afraid he’d wet the bed, but Gavin gave her a quick shake of his head to signal that he hadn’t. Thank goodness. Savanna had been worried for him, hadn’t wanted him to be embarrassed. “Thank you for watching them,” she told Aiyana. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.” She realized she’d spoken as if she and Gavin were a couple and quickly corrected herself. “How much I appreciate it.”

“It was an excellent opportunity to get to know them better.” Aiyana touched her arm. “Maybe you and I can go to lunch one day so that I can get to know you better, too.”

“I’d like that.”

After Gavin returned from depositing Branson in the truck, he offered his thanks and dropped a kiss on Aiyana’s cheek before scooping up Alia.

“Your mother knows what we did on the beach tonight,” Savanna said as they were pulling away.

He didn’t seem overly concerned, but he did seem curious. “Why do you say that?”

After mumbling a few words, enough to show they were aware they’d been picked up, Branson and Alia had gone back to sleep.

“I don’t know...” She pictured the knowing expression on Aiyana’s face. “That’s the impression she gave me.”

“Does it upset you that she might think we’ve been intimate?”

“Considering the situation with Heather, it makes me self-conscious.”

“She didn’t seem upset...”

“No. I’d say she was amused. That’s the strange thing.”

He started to laugh. “Then I was right.”

“About...”

“She never liked Heather.”

Savanna loosened the chest restrainer on her seat belt so that it wouldn’t choke her. “Why not?”

“She’s never admitted it, so I don’t know.”

Savanna frowned as they rolled under the arch at the entrance to the ranch. “What if she doesn’t like me? She means so much to you.”

“We have plenty of things to worry about, but that isn’t one of them. I can tell that she likes you already.”

“She seems to really like Cora,” she mused.

“She does. And for good reason. I’ll have to tell you that story sometime.” He reached over to take her hand. “But not tonight. Tonight has been eventful enough. For now, let’s just take my mother’s behavior as a good sign.”