The Heat is On (2 page)

“Oooh, a soldier,” she teased, running a manicured hand through her long, blonde hair. “I guess I’m lucky I decided to cash my check today. And to think we never would have met if I did it yesterday.” She tilted her head. “Then again, if I did it yesterday, I wouldn’t be late for work right now. Good thing I’m my own boss, because I don’t think ‘I was caught in a bank hold-up’ would fly as an excuse for being late.” He grinned at the sarcastic note to her voice.

“Yeah, I don’t think my team commander would accept it either.” He paused. “I’m Matt, by the way.”

“Savannah,” she replied, sticking out her hand.

He shook it, and a tremor of heat went through him the moment their palms touched. This woman was extremely hot, and definitely amusing. He had a date tonight, with a waitress he’d met last night at a club, but suddenly he had no desire to hook up with the voluptuous brunette. He was far more interested in this leggy blonde in front of him.

“Savannah,” he echoed, hearing his southern drawl rear its head. Damn accent always seemed to get stronger when he was flirting. “Your parents like the South or something?”

“No, they like eco-systems.”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“My dad is a geography professor at Stanford. He’s a big fan of grasslands.”

For the life of him, Matt couldn’t figure out if she was joking.

“I’m not joking,” she said, as if reading his mind.

“He teaches an entire unit on the tropical savannahs of Northern Australia.”

“Oh. Wow. I honestly don’t know what to say to that.”

“Yeah, most people don’t.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder, then lifted an electronic car remote and clicked a button. Two sharp honks came from the shiny red Toyota parked a few spots away. Savannah took a few steps toward it. “Okay, gotta run. Thanks for saving us from the bank robbers.”

“Wait,” he cut in.

She stopped. “What?”

He suddenly felt awkward. He wasn’t used to women being completely indifferent to his charms.

Though in his defense, he hadn’t been giving her his A-game. That eco-system thing had thrown him off.

“Do you want to get together sometime?” She seemed to think it over.

To
think
it over.

Since when did women need to mul over the idea of a date with him? The other members of his SEAL

team, including his best friend Ryan, were either married, engaged or in serious relationships, but Matt was stil carrying on the tradition of hot hook-ups and no-strings flings. He loved women, and he had no desire to settle down with just one. Where was the fun in that? There were so many gorgeous females out there, and he’d spent the better part of ten years sampling each and every one. He was twenty-eight years old and he always got what he wanted in the sex department—and right now, he wanted Savannah.

“Naah, I think I’l pass,” she final y said, then had the nerve to give him a sympathetic smile.

He returned the smile, but his was loaded with heat.

“Are you sure? You were just caught up in very dangerous situation—I think you might need some comforting.”

She gave an unladylike snort. “Comfort sex?

Seriously, you’re offering me comfort sex?” Matt faltered. Again. This woman was total y throwing him off his game here.

He pushed aside the disconcerting thought, gathering up every ounce of charm and confidence he possessed. “I think you might need it,” he said solemnly.

She just raised one dark-blonde eyebrow. “I think I need to get to work, actual y.” She took off walking again.

Matt hurried after her, catching up as she reached for the door handle of the Toyota.

Ah, a chal enge. Okay. If she wanted to play hard to get, he was al for it. But he knew this attraction definitely wasn’t one-sided. He had plenty of experience with the ladies, and he
knew
when one liked him.

Didn’t he?

“Take it easy, Matt,” she added as she opened the car door and slid into the driver’s seat.

“I know a great Italian place,” he persisted. “Just me, you, a bottle of wine…”

“Yeah, Italian’s not real y my thing,” she said, cutting him off. Then she leaned out of the car and pointed to the sky. “Hey, I think the Bat-signal’s cal ing you.” He fel for it. And when he turned back, she had reversed out of her parking space, giving him a sassy wave of the hand before she peeled off.

Savannah Harte was smiling as she drove away from the bank and headed toward Market Street.

Despite herself, her body was stil reacting from the encounter with Matt. Her heart was doing little flips, and her palms were actual y a bit damp. Weird. She flirted with sexy men al the time but something about Matt the Navy SEAL aka Bank Savior had total y and instantly turned her on. Maybe it was the shaved head.

Or that unbelievably hard and appealing body. Even his awkward pick-up lines had succeeded in making her al hot.

But as appealing as he was, she hadn’t been about to blow off Jake for a total stranger. She didn’t play by many rules in her life—rules just sucked the fun right out of things—but there was one strict guideline she fol owed: one man at a time.

She wasn’t the kind of girl who dated a whole bunch of guys at once. That just seemed tacky and insensitive to her. And at the moment, she was seeing Jake, the tal sexy surfer she’d met on the beach last week. Not that she’d be dating him for long. She had no interest in committed relationships. Commitment only led to ruts, and she didn’t want to be fal ing into any ruts. Like her parents. Jeez, talk about boring.

She loved them both to death, but growing up, she’d decided she wanted nothing more than to
not
fol ow in their footsteps. Their life was so monotonous it made her want to shake them by the shoulders and say,
This? This is what you always wanted from your
lives?
Sitting on the couch every night taking turns with the remote. Weekly bridge games with their neighbors. The same old Sunday brunch at Applebee’s.

Nope. Definitely not for her. She lived for the thril of first kisses and whirlwind romances, and once any hint of comfortable domesticity entered the equation, Savannah Harte was outta there. No thank you.

But she did have some code of ethics, and seeing two or more guys at once was where she drew the line.

Too bad, though. That Matt… He real y had been cute. And the way he’d taken down those three idiots at the bank—she’d actual y felt a streak of arousal watching him do that. Rare these days, finding a man capable of kicking total ass.

“Ah wel ,” she murmured to herself, steering the car toward the end of the street, where her corner flower shop was located.

She pul ed in around back and parked in the miniscule lot, then hopped out of the car, grabbed her purse, and headed into the shop from the rear door.

Fortunately, when she walked into the bright, sunny main room, she saw it was void of customers.

Savannah’s new assistant, Chad, stood behind the narrow red counter, and his brown eyes fil ed with relief when he spotted her. He’d only been working with her for a couple of weeks, not long enough to leave him in charge of the store, which got busy this time of year. No comparison to Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, of course, but September was also a peak time. For some reason, parents liked to buy their col ege kids flowers to celebrate the new school year, or the
new life journey
, as many of her customers liked to harp.

“I’m sorry,” Savannah said as she reached the counter. “I swear I didn’t abandon you. Some people decided to rob the bank while I was there.”

“For serious? Are you okay?”

She appreciated Chad’s concern. She liked the guy, in spite of his tendency to say things like “for serious”. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Was everything okay while I was gone?”

He pushed his sagging wire-rim glasses up the bridge of his nose. “It was fine. I sold a wreath, and three dozen roses.”

“Any problematic customers?”

“No. They were al pretty nice. Oh, but you did get a phone cal .” Chad rummaged in the drawer underneath the counter and removed a pink message slip. He handed it to Savannah. “It was an event planner. She’s planning a wedding and was interested in a quote.”

Savannah glanced down at Chad’s neat block writing.
Annabelle Holmes, Prestige Events.
She’d never heard of either Holmes or the company name, but Savannah liked the idea of doing flowers for a big event. She’d only recently started handling parties and weddings, and the money they brought in was pretty appealing. She didn’t have another wedding scheduled until the end of the month, so hopeful y she could squeeze this event in for some extra cash flow.

“I’l give her a cal ,” she said absently, tucking the message into her pocket. She glanced at Chad with a sudden grin. “So, are you ready to learn how to arrange centerpieces?”

Her new assistant brightened. For a twenty-year-old man, he was oddly interested in flowers. Not that she blamed him. Flowers were her livelihood. There was nothing that brightened her day more than a bouquet of pretty, colorful flowers.

Wel , that and sex. But she’d have to wait for tonight to experience that particular joy. She had a date with Jake later and was already imagining al the naughty things he would do to her body. For a second, though, the image of Jake’s dark eyes and dimpled cheeks was replaced with the one of Matt’s green eyes and chiseled features, but she quickly banished the thought. Matt had been cute, sure, but it wasn’t like she would ever see the guy again.

In Savannah’s life, cute guys, after al , were always in constant supply.

“Would you quit sulking?” Annabel e Holmes grumbled as she steered the olive-green Jeep down a street littered with little boutiques and a vast number of coffee shops. “So you got rejected. Big deal.

Actual y, it’s about time. I feel comforted knowing that even sluts like you strike out every now and then.” Matt just glared at her. Normal y he enjoyed Annabel e’s endless sarcasm, but he wasn’t in the mood for it today. It had been almost two weeks since the encounter with Savannah at the bank, and he stil couldn’t fight his disappointment that she’d turned him down. He’d even gone so far as to try and track her down, but al he had to go on was her name. He’d typed Savannah into Google, hoping maybe he’d get lucky, but he got over six mil ion results. He’d tried Facebook too, but there was a ridiculous amount of Savannahs registered on the site, and he’d given up after scrol ing through the first ten pages of photos.

So yeah, Annabel e was right. He did have to quit sulking. Obviously he was never going to see Savannah again. He knew that. But Annabel e didn’t have to gloat about it.

“You’re being very insensitive about this whole thing,” he grumbled back, then lifted the straw of his McDonald’s cup to his mouth and sucked the last drops of Dr. Pepper from it. Setting the empty cup in the holder between their arms, he added, “And I’m not a slut.”

Annabel e hooted, her big brown eyes lighting up in delight. “Yeah freaking right. You are
so
a slut. You had sex with me less than an hour after we’d met.”

“You wrote up a sex list,” he shot back. “So who’s the slut, hmmm?”

“I was exploring my sexuality,” she said in her defense. “You, on the other hand, finished exploring years ago. Now you’re just a man-whore. Wait, I think this is it.” She squinted. “Yeah, it’s here.” A two-story corner shop came into view. Hanging on the storefront was a big purple sign that read
Harte
to Harte
Flowers. He rol ed his eyes. How cute.

“Besides,” Annabel e said as she executed an unbelievably impressive paral el parking job across the street from the shop, “you don’t know, maybe you’l run into her again. If you’re meant to, you wil . Fate makes things happen.”

“I don’t believe in fate.”

“You should.” She grinned. “I mean, look at me and Ryan. He slid into my bed in the middle of the night thinking I was someone else, and now we’re in love.

Fate.”

“Luck,” he corrected.

“Stop being such a Negative Nancy.” She kil ed the engine and yanked up the parking brake. “Al you have to do is snap your fingers and you can get laid.

Why don’t you cal up your new BFF Aidan and set up a pub crawl or something, you know, have a three-way or fourgy or whatever it is you guys do.”

“He’s not my BFF,” Matt grumbled. “We just hang out sometimes.”

Because all my friends are in love,
he wanted to add, but didn’t because he knew Annabel e would just accuse him of being jealous. He wasn’t, though. He was happy for his friends, he truly was, but their no-longer-single status made it hard for Matt to find a wingman for a night on the town. A few months ago he’d gone for beers with Aidan Rhodes, who worked in Naval Intel igence out on the base, and the two men had instantly hit it off. Aidan was a couple of years younger, and like Matt, was always up for a good time.

And though he wasn’t going to admit it to Annabel e, he and Aidan did have a threesome last month, with a hot redhead visiting from Kansas.

“I don’t want a fourgy,” he added with a frown. “I want some good, old-fashioned one-on-one with the hot blonde I met. Is that too much to ask for?”

“Stop whining. It’s unattractive.”

“That’s not what you said the night I rocked your world.”

Annabel e didn’t even have the decency to blush.