8
The Master Manipulator
As Zander made hisway toward his stepsister, her beauty stole his breath, her curvy body heated his, and her quiet strength brought peace to his troubled soul. He was in real trouble. Their no-touch rule wasn’t going to hold up. Savannah Morrissette was impossible to resist.
As if she could feel his presence, she stopped studying the test shots and faced him. Her anxiety from earlier had been replaced with a sense of calm that radiated outward, like the sun’s heat, warming everything in its path, including him.
“Do you spend any time outside?” she asked.
“Only when I’m at a construction site checking on a project.”
“I love being at the beach or the mountains, a park or a ski slope. I’m always up for biking, hiking, even rafting. There’s so much to appreciate about our planet by being out in it. My mom—you remember Debby—lived to gamble. If she wasn’t dropping cash at a casino, she was betting at the racetrack. Her idea of spending time outside consisted of walking from the parking lot into the building.” Though the climate was temperate, she shivered. While rubbing her arms, her smile fell away.
There it was. Therealreason Savannah was against the Starry Cove Casino.
His stepmother, Debby King, loved to spend his father’s money. Rarely home, she was all about buying designer clothing, handbags, and shoes, and less about her daughter. But his dad was too much in love with the flamboyant, flashy woman to mind her constant spending.
Before he could stop himself, he pressed his palms to her bare shoulders and caressed her soft, tanned skin. And the smoldering fire he couldn’t tamp down burst into a flame.
Though soft, a whimper floated from her pouty lips. “You’re. Touching. Me. Zander.” Her crisp tone might have been meant as a scolding, but her body spoke the truth. Her lips parted and her brown eyes darkened with desire.
He should have stopped, should have stepped away, but he couldn’t. Being around her, being by her side, wasn’t enough. He needed to touch her. “I’mcomfortingyou.”
She stared up at him. “You shouldn’t be.”
“Who better than family?”
Her lips curved. “Naughty stepbrother.” She knelt to tuck her cameras into their bags. When finished, she gazed up at him.
At the sight of her kneeling at his feet, an infusion of heat coursed through him. He envisioned her ultra-sexy mouth enveloping his cock.Stop.
She rose. “You ready?”
Beyond ready.He slung both camera bags over his shoulder. Touching her once wasn’t enough. He wanted to haul her against him and keep her there.
On the way back to the car, she closed the space between them and, on occasion, her arm brushed against his. Zander’s head spun from the contact. Why, if he couldn’t have her, did he want her so damned badly?
He stored the equipment in the Jeep and climbed inside. “Sandia Peak is next.”
She slid into the passenger seat beside him and shot him a little smile. He held her gaze before sailing out of the park.
“What kind of music do you like?” she asked.
“Classic rock, but I don’t listen to much of anything these days. I grew up listening to the Rolling Stones, Queen, and—”
“Aerosmith,” she interrupted.
“How’d you know?” He glanced in her direction.
“K-Dad listened to those bands all the time, especially on the weekends when he’d be in the shed tinkering with something.”
Zander nodded. “I forgot about that. He’d stay out there for hours on Saturdays.”
“He’d put on those paint-streaked coveralls and head out back. For lunch, I’d make him a sandwich and bring it out to him. I’d stay while he ate.” Savannah brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “He gave me more attention than my mom did.”
Again, Zander slid his gaze to her and held it for a beat before turning back to the road. “I’m glad he could do that for you.”
“You must have hated me,” she said and bowed her head.
