Bound for Me (Be for Me #4)(31)

“I want her to tell me.” Connor muttered. “Herself.” Certainty settled into his bones. “I want her to take me on face to face.”

And he meant that in every way.

A funny look crossed Hunter’s face. Was that guilt? Regret? What the hell was that chink in Hunter’s normally impenetrable facade?

“You okay?” Connor frowned, distracted by that rare display of something more than unmoved.

“Yeah. No. I’ll be fine.”

What did that mean? Since when was Hunter indecisive?

“Oh yeah!”

A call from near the bar snapped his attention back to Savannah. Someone had ordered half a dozen flaming who-knew-whats and she’d just lit the bar up like a Christmas tree. Smack in the center of screaming chaos, she was the ultimate in cool.

“Well, let me know if you need anything.” Connor tilted his head from side to side, stretching out the tension in his neck muscles. He’d let his cock wipe out his cognitive function for a while there, but he was back to full brainpower now. So she’d come here with the intention of setting the media hounds on them? Dragging the Summerhill name down?

Anger surged. Not on his watch she wasn’t.

He’d set her straight on a few things. Disarm her legitimately.

Then he’d screw her so f*cking hard neither of them would be able to walk for days. And rid himself of the desire for her.

Hunter slowly lifted the bottle towards his mouth, eyes trained on the woman working behind the bar. “Seems to me you have your hands full enough.”

Not yet he didn’t.





Chapter Eight





The icy anger was back in Connor’s eyes. Savannah straightened instinctively, sending a quick glance at the tall man he’d been talking to. He was staring at her almost as hard as Connor was, except his expression wasn’t as obvious. She looked back at Connor.

Yeah, that was anger all the way. All the incendiary desire of moments before?

Obliterated.

“Problem?” She tackled him as soon as he got within earshot.

The best defense is offense. Always.

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“You.”

She ran her tongue along the inside of her lip. Her system flooded with adrenalin as her body switched to fight-or-flight mode but she wasn’t letting him know how close she was to calling it.

She never let it show. High school bullies had taught her well.

“Nice,” she said. “I’m not paying you to stay.”

For a fraction of a second he stilled. Then walked right to her. “Speaking of staying, how long you planning to be in Summerhill?”

“Why?” she braced with her feet wide. Not gonna run.

He glanced behind her. “Take a break and talk to me.”

Talk? Was that all he wanted now?

“I’m still on shift,” she muttered. She didn’t want to face him alone when he had this level of aggression going on. Not that she didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust herself.

The sexual energy underpinning his words? His stance?

Heavens, it was like ambrosia to her suddenly sex-mad senses.

“Come on. A two minute break. Dante can cope.” Connor jerked his head towards the younger brother currently looking slightly overawed by the number of gorgeous women wanting to order complicated cocktails.

Poor kid was like a lamb to the slaughter.

“Two minutes?” Savannah mocked. “That’s all you’re gonna take?”

“We’re only gonna talk, Sugar. Why, was there something else you wanted?”

Asshole. “As I recall, you were the one planting kisses and playing with ice cubes.”

But the real problem was the ferocity of her own response. She couldn’t lose control like that again—not in public, or private.

His eyes glinted. “You scared, Sugar?”

Too freaking astute. It was such a juvenile attempt to bait her, but she let it work. Mainly because she sensed he wasn’t backing away from her any time soon. Not ’til he’d had his say and she’d rather that happened away from all the ogling eyes.

She stomped to the far corner, away from the crowd and turned to face him. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I’d like to poach you to work at the restaurant at the Lodge. We could use someone with your skills.”

She gaped. He was offering her a job? He kissed her like that and then wanted to be her boss? He really thought he was king, didn’t he?

“Too bad. I’m not planning on staying long.” She needed to scrape together enough money to get out of here. Only now did she realize what a mistake she’d made in coming here. There was no beating Connor Hughes on his own turf.

“Enough to get a feel for the place and then move on to the next?” He put a hand on the wall just above her head and leaned in, blocking the rest of the room.

She shrugged and tried to step to the side.

“You know,” he leaned right against her, stopping her from leaving with devastating effect. “My father’s had some correspondence with a guy called Tony Nash…”

“Nash is a fairly common surname.” She stiffened.

“Hmm,” he nodded. “What’s your father’s name?”