Return of the Runaway Bride (10 page)

"What?" she pressed. "I'd like to know what you thought I was talking about."

Daniel just shook his head, silently refusing to say more. But the light in his gaze and the delicious grin hovering at the corners of his mouth triggered a memory.

Her lips spread into a broad smile. "I haven't thought about that night in years." She settled back against the trunk of the oak tree. "There was a new moon. And about a zillion stars twinkled in the sky. It was so hot that night. But as you walked me home from the movies holding my hand, I wouldn't have cared if it was raining molten lava."

"I knew it was late," Daniel picked up the story. "I shouldn't have suggested we cut through the park. I shouldn't have lured you to sit on the bench, to linger under the stars, but I couldn't help myself."

"Daniel Walsh, you mean to tell me there was an ulterior motive attached to your suggestion of a shortcut through the park?"

His face actually tinged with pink, but Savanna's open laughter told him she was teasing.

"I was a red-blooded American boy, through and through," he admitted.

"That was the most romantic night of my life." Savanna curled her legs beneath her.
"My first date.
My first kiss.
It was all so wonderful."

"Wonderful?" Daniel's frown drew his brows together. "I was sweating like a roasted pig. And we'd barely touched lips before Marty shined that damned flashlight in my eyes."

"Don't you mean…" she mocked a deep, manly tone "…you'll-call-me-Officer-Brown-and-like-it?"

"He'd graduated high school a year ahead of me. Marty earned that badge and his head swelled twice its normal size."

Laughter bubbled up from Savanna's throat. "I thought I'd die when he threatened to arrest you if you didn't take me directly home. I was so embarrassed, and so afraid you'd never call me again. I felt horrible that he gave you such a hard time."

"He wasn't the only one who gave me a hard time." Daniel grimaced. "I was scolded by every person I came into contact with for the next week.
Miz
Ida topped the list. When I ran into the
Kwik
-E Mart to buy my mother a pint of milk,
Miz
Ida demanded to know my intentions where you were concerned. And, I swear, Marty Brown actually growled every time I saw him."

"Stop," Savanna pleaded. "I can't laugh anymore. My stomach muscles are aching."

Daniel gazed at her with dark, serious eyes. He leaned over and brushed her hair from her cheek. "I do agree, though, up until that point…" he let his thumb slide down her
jawline
"…it was a romantic evening."

He let his hand drop, but he remained close enough for her to smell his cologne, a dark, wild fragrance that enticed a woman to do things she might later regret.

She shook her head to clear the sensual thoughts. She and Daniel were sharing a heartfelt
memory, that
was all.

"We certainly did have some good times together," she remarked.

"We did."

Impulsively she reached out and touched her hand to his knee. "Oh, Danny, I'm so sorry I ran away like I did."

He drew away from her, but her verbal momentum surged ahead and she continued. "But I had to. I just
had
to, can't you see? It wasn't your fault. It was
me
. I tried to explain all that."

"
Explain
?" His voice nearly cracked as it elevated in tone. "You never tried to explain anything."

Savanna had never before seen such a lightning-fast change in a person's demeanor. One moment Daniel had been calm and serene in his reminiscence, the next he was a mass of bitter energy. His body had gone as stiff as the wood in the tree behind her. He'd actually pinched up a handful of the blanket beneath them.

"But I did," she protested. "I wrote you..."

Daniel just shook his head. "You may have meant to leave a note. You may have meant to get in touch with me, call me, something. But you never did." His eyes narrowed and he savagely repeated, "You never did."

Savanna opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get any words out she saw him struggle with the anger he felt. He took only a split second to control
himself and slide a blank mask down over his features. She was awed by the fact that he could so thoroughly hide such explosive emotion.

"I think I should go."

"Daniel," she said, "we have to talk about this. It isn't right for you to deny your feelings this way."

"There's nothing to deny or confess." The words were short and sharp.

"There is," she refuted. "You are angry with me. You're angry that I ran away from our wedding. You're angry that I left you to face our friends."

"I am not."

Savanna pursued relentlessly. "You're angry that I left you to explain everything to your parents. And mine." She moved closer to him. "You're angry that I left you to face the town.
All alone."
She leaned even closer and she lowered her tone in an effort to gain the biggest impact as she said, "You, Daniel Walsh, are so full of outrage that you don't even know how to deal with it."

His control snapped and his ire glittered brightly in his brown eyes. Savanna felt an instant of triumph, but it was quickly quashed and replaced by uncertainty when he reached up with both hands and firmly cupped her face.

"I guess there's just one way," he whispered, "to prove you wrong." And he covered her mouth with his.

Savanna felt as though she were under siege of his lips, not as if she were being kissed by them. His attack was hot.
Fierce.
His eyes were wide open and so were hers.

Panic flitted around the edges of her brain, but before the emotion could fully take hold, Daniel ended the kiss by jerking away from her.

"There," he said, his voice ragged as torn cloth. "That ought to prove it once and for all."

He got to his feet and stomped off across the open field, leaving Savanna gaping.

Chapter Four

Daniel slammed the door of his office and stalked across the room. How could he have done something so damned stupid?

He swore under his breath and raked his fingers through his hair. The view from the window showed
a calm
Sunday afternoon that was a monumental contrast to the fury simmering in the pit of his gut. He was so angry with himself!

Nearly the whole town had been in the park this afternoon. All of them had been watching as he'd had lunch with Savanna. Everyone had seen him kiss her. Hell, he'd practically assaulted the woman.

God, what had he been thinking, kissing her like that? He'd been nothing short of forceful and domineering. His effort to prove he wasn't angry had only served to prove the exact opposite. It
were
as if he'd been out to kill a spider with a sledgehammer.

He rued the day Savanna Langford had returned to Fulton. Murmurings from different people had alerted
him days before Savanna had actually arrived. Daniel had refused to give the situation much thought, really, remembering what his father used to say,
"
Don't worry until you know there's something to worry about. Don't pay interest on a loan you may never owe."

After Savanna arrived, the word around Fulton was that she wasn't planning on staying for long. Daniel had been surprised by the tremendous relief he'd experienced when he'd learned that news. It had felt as though he'd been permitted to suck in a lungful of cool, fresh air after having held his breath longer than was prudent.

Savanna was visiting Fulton for a month or so. He could live with that. Surely he could smile when he saw her, could politely ask how she was. He'd tolerate her visit, and then he'd gladly escort her to the town limits when she was ready to go back to wherever it was she had come from. He'd felt confident that he could handle the few situations that would arise when he'd be in her company.

But he hadn't. In fact, he'd failed miserably. Of the two times he'd seen her this weekend, the first he'd lost all control of his normally tightly reined emotions and had run like a frightened rabbit out the back door of her house, the second he'd once again lost control and…

"Damn!" The curse echoed off the walls.

What the hell had happened today?

He paced to his desk and sat down.

That fiasco of a kiss wouldn't have happened if Savanna Langford hadn't pushed him beyond the brink. Who did she think she was to come back into town—
his town
—and confront him about the past? The woman was obviously suffering from grand delusions to accuse him of harboring anger against her all this time
. How could he be angry with someone he hadn't thought about for six years?

He scrubbed at his face with open palms.

That wasn't quite true, he had to admit. Daniel put his elbow on his desk and rested his forehead in his hand. He'd thought about her over the years, but not because he'd wanted to.

He could remember many hot, sultry nights when the moonlight and thoughts of Savanna would draw him out into the darkness to walk the streets of Fulton. And during those times he was nearly driven mad by the crystal-clear images that formed in his head; the way the moonbeams turned her hair to liquid silver, the way she'd lift her chin and gaze at him with those huge blue eyes, the way her lips would purse softly as she waited for his kiss.

Then, unable to stop them, Daniel would suffer as his other senses would spark even more vivid memories. He could actually smell the fresh flowery fragrance of her hair, or the scent that he smelled every time he buried his face in the curve of her neck, a delicate, heated scent that drove him absolutely crazy. If he concentrated, he could literally feel the way her small hand used to fit in his, or the silkiness of her skin under his fingertips, under his lips.

He rose swiftly and stalked to the window. What was the matter with him? He could feel the pain building steadily. He'd thought he'd dealt with all of this sentimental mind-clutter concerning Savanna. He'd been certain he'd tamped it down until he'd pushed it so far in the back of his brain that he could finally forget the past. Until he could finally live with what she'd put him through. And he
had
lived with it.
Until now.

"Just hang in there," he murmured. "She won't be here long."

Suddenly he paled. What had she said during lunch? He searched his short-term memory for her exact words, but he couldn't seem to recall them. She'd said something to the effect that she liked the idea of living in a small town. No, no, he thought, that wasn't it exactly. His mind ran in a frantic attempt to remember. She'd said that she'd love to move to Fulton.

His heart raced. If having Savanna in town for two short days had rattled him to this extent, how in heaven's name could he
exist
living in the same town with her?

Impulsively he turned sharply on his heel and pulled open the top drawer of the filing cabinet nearest the window. He flipped through the manila folders. The letters were here someplace, he'd filed them himself.

When he had his hand on the folder, he relaxed a bit and took it over to his desk. He settled himself in his chair and opened the file. The senior partner of Richmond's largest law firm had sent him a partnership proposition annually for the past three springs running. Daniel had politely turned down each offer, but he'd kept the letters.

He stared at the latest offer, but he was so agitated he couldn't seem to focus on the words. If he lived in Richmond, he'd be near his mother. If he was working in Richmond, he'd be near Celia. If he moved away from Fulton, he wouldn't have to worry about running into Savanna. He wouldn't have to run the risk of ever again losing his cool around her.