My lips parted and eyes went wide at the reminder.
“Right,” I said, trying to sound apologetic and probably totally failing since I really didn’t want to be present for that dinner. “Sorry. I’m on my way.” I snapped the phone shut without saying goodbye and faced an irritated Beau.
“I hate Philip Rowe,” Beau said as soon as the phone left my hands, having heard my mom.
“I know.”
“I fucking hate him,” he repeated, voice soft and lethal.
Just the mention of the Rowes was enough to change Beau. Tremors rolled through his body as that anger he always fought back tried to push through to the surface.
I slid my fingers into his hair and pulled his face close enough to brush a feather-soft kiss across his lips. “I know.”
“Need to get you home.” When he started moving away, I locked my ankles around his back and pulled him closer, relishing in the heat that flared in his eyes as they darted over my face.
“I need you more right now.”
His large body curled back over mine, his head dipping down but staying just out of reach. “You have people waiting for you.”
“I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
Those eyes locked on mine, saying so much with just a look.
He felt the same. He never wanted to leave. He loved me.
“I can’t be easy with you right now.”
A scoff sounded in the back of my throat at his familiar warning. “All I want is you, however you are. You always ask what I want . . . how I want it. Every time, all I want is you. Easy. Rough. It doesn’t matter. But when you need it rough, you warn me against it. Like I might suddenly change my mind—like I should. But I’m here, and I want you. I want this every way you or I need it or want it,” I said, ending on a whisper. “Understand?”
From the way his eyebrows had slowly drawn together as I spoke, he didn’t agree. “Right. You know where that side is coming from. What happens the one time you’re not expecting it the way I need it, and I end up hurting you physically? Emotionally? Any fucking way? I can’t do that, Savannah.”
“I see you in a way no one else does,” I reminded him. “I know when you’re struggling. I see the change in you as soon as it happens.” Sitting up, I pressed my mouth to his.
The kiss was hard.
Slow.
And full of everything I felt for him.
The rumble that built in his chest when I bit his lower lip had my belly flooding with heat and my body buzzing with need. And then he was laying me down and taking control of the kiss. His fingers tight on my wrists as he brought my arms over my head and dipped down to make a trail of bites down my neck.
Once he was settled between my thighs again and staring down at me, driving me crazy as he teased me with what was about to come, I said, “Understand? However you need it or want it, I’m already there with you.”
His mouth shifted. Just the smallest twitch of acknowledgment, but the carnal way he was looking at me had my heart pounding out a wild, beautiful rhythm. “Rough then.”
“I’m here!” I called out as I burst through our front door sometime later, still breathless from all things Beau Dixon and then rushing to dress and sneak back out of the plantation house.
It felt like I’d run all the way home instead of racing through town in my car.
My mom’s voice preceded her from where she and Mrs. Rowe were coming out of the kitchen area. “What took so long? I was getting ready to call you again.”
“Sorry,” I said quickly as I nervously smoothed down my hair and inched toward the living room. “Sorry, Mrs. Rowe. I couldn’t find my keys and then Nicole showed up.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed enough to let me know she was on the line of not believing me. “To where you and Madison were dancing?” She forced a smile that I knew was for Mrs. Rowe’s benefit and said, “I thought Nicole only cheered with you. When did she start dancing?”
“She doesn’t, but she still has a project due with Madison.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.
Like I wasn’t about to pass out with fear that my mom would see straight through everything I was feeding her. At least the last part was one hundred percent truth and actually what Madison and Nicole were doing at that moment.
“I’m gonna go change,” I said before she could ask anything else. I gave Mrs. Rowe an apologetic wave as I started for the living room again, my feet getting all tangled up beneath me and a gasp ripping free when another Rowe stepped into the room behind them.
“Peter!”
He’d barely gotten a greeting out before I barreled into Philip’s older brother, hugging him tight as he struggled to keep us upright. His voice all a familiar tease as he said, “Hey there, Anna.”
I took a step back and feigned annoyance at the back-and-forth we’d done since long before I’d ever moved to Texas. “It’s Savannah.”
“Hannah?”
I scrunched my face up and stuck my tongue out for good measure before a soft laugh broke free. “Can’t believe you’re here. It’s been so long.”
His brows lifted in an I know kind of look as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure our moms had left. When he continued, his voice was just loud enough to be heard. “And I can’t believe you think anyone’s gonna buy that.” At my confusion, he said, “Dancing, my ass.” He glanced down for just a second, his mouth forming a tight line as he struggled not to laugh. “Your shirt is inside out and backward. You smell like a guy. And your hair is a wreck.”
“Don’t be rude,” I hissed even as another laugh left me.
“I’m not the one who tried to ditch out on dinner to get laid.”
I murmured a curse and looked behind him to make sure no one was close enough to hear him. “I’m here, aren’t I? Besides, you know I’d ditch out on anything for him.”
“I know.” He playfully rolled his eyes, then jerked his chin to the side. “Go change before someone else notices.”
“So bossy,” I muttered even as I turned, but I abruptly stopped when I found Philip there, smirking like he was in on some secret that I didn’t want to know.
“Savannah.”
I hated the way he said my name. Intimate. Passionate. Like he knew me in ways he never would.
“Go fuck yourself,” I mumbled as I wove around him.
Peter’s loud laugh was the only response as I finally darted into the living room and up the stairs to my room.
And oh my God, Peter was right.
My shirt was inside out and backward, and I did look like I’d just finished having sex.
Either my mom was going to start screaming at me the instant the Rowes left, or she was refusing to acknowledge what was happening in my world. Because we all knew I didn’t look like this after dancing.
Once I was changed and looked a little more Savannah-like again, I hurried down the stairs and came face to face with the younger Rowe.
“I hate you.”
He smiled in response. “You keep saying that, but you wanna know what I think?”
I snorted and started around him. “No.”
“I think you’re afraid to admit that you want me.”