So, while it was true he hadn’t touched her except for that one time he’d held her in the kitchen, she knew instinctively that he shared her feelings. She felt his love in a thousand ways. Unspoken, but real. As intense as her own for him.

Yes, Grady had called her a fool, and perhaps she was. But if being considered a fool meant she was this happy, then he could call her whatever name he liked.

“Is there anything more I can do for you this afternoon?” Laredo asked.

She shook her head. “I’ll be leaving soon.”

“If you’re going into town, would you mind checking on my truck at Powell’s Garage?”

“I...I can do that for you later in the week, if you want, but I wasn’t planning on going into town.” Savannah had hoped to avoid any questions about her destination. She’d hoped to slip quietly away and return to the ghost town. It had taken her a full week to gather the courage to go back, but despite her reservations, she’d decided to do it. She was sure there were more old roses to be found.

“Savannah,” Laredo said, touching her hand. “You’re headed back to Bitter End, aren’t you?”

She lowered her eyes and nodded, knowing that, like Grady, he’d disapprove. “I want to look for more roses. If the plants in the cemetery survived, there’re bound to be others.” In the days since her last visit Savannah had managed to convince herself that the darkness, the sense of oppression, had come from her own imagination. It’d been nerves and excitement, that was all. Grady had warned her about the ghost town so often that her head had been filled with nonsense. After a while she’d come to believe it. And even if what she’d experienced was real, she’d managed the first time and would again.

“Your brother—”

“Grady disapproves of a great deal in my life just now. I’m going back to Bitter End, Laredo, with or without Grady’s approval.”

The strength of her objection appeared to catch him unawares. “Surely your brother has a reason for not wanting you there?”

“You know Grady,” she answered. “He’s overprotective.”

“I don’t know your brother,” Laredo told her quietly, “but everything he says and does is because he loves you and is concerned about you. It might be best to heed his advice.”

If Savannah hadn’t fallen in love with Laredo already, she would have lost her heart right then and there. He’d defended Grady, when Grady had done nothing but cause him problems.

“He doesn’t understand,” she murmured.

“Where is this place?” Laredo asked. “I haven’t heard anyone else talk about a ghost town in this area.”

“I don’t think many people know about it.” Grady had located the town as a teenager and promised he’d take her there himself. It was the only time she could remember her brother breaking his word. “Grady was there once, but he refused to talk about it afterward. No matter how much I pleaded, he refused to give in. All he’d say was that he was never going back and he certainly wasn’t going to take his little sister there.”

“Then how’d you find the place?”

She laughed lightly. “It wasn’t easy. It took me weeks.”

“Why now? Because of the old roses?”

Savannah smiled. “I read an article in one of my gardening magazines about a man who found a huge number of old roses in a ghost-town cemetery. I’d nearly forgotten about Bitter End, but once I remembered, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I asked Grady as much as I could without arousing his suspicions, but eventually he caught on and wouldn’t give me any more information.”

Laredo frowned. “Savannah,” he pleaded, “if your brother’s that worried about it, then so am I. Don’t go.”

Her heart sank. Not Laredo, too. “Please don’t ask that of me,” she whispered.

He got up and walked around the table to stand in front of her. “Then don’t do it alone,” he said urgently.

“But there isn’t anyone—”

“There’s me.”

Savannah leaned back to see him more clearly. “You’d do that for me?”

He nodded and knelt in front of her, his expression earnest. “Promise me, Savannah.”

“I promise.” She needed to touch him. She couldn’t have explained why, but the yearning inside her was too strong to ignore. Hesitantly she pressed one hand to his cheek, her palm curving around his jaw. The skin was stubbled with his beard, and yet she’d never felt anything more sensual.

Laredo closed his eyes and gripped her wrist with a strength she hadn’t expected. “You make it damn near impossible,” he said from between clenched teeth.

“Impossible?” she whispered. She found it difficult to breathe or swallow. Her heart beat at an alarming rate, and she feared he would guess how his closeness unnerved her.

“Don’t you know?” His words were half groan, half speech, as if her touching him, even in the most innocent way, caused him pain. She felt the urgency in him and the restraint. She honored him for that restraint—but she didn’t need it anymore.

“I want you to kiss me, Laredo. I’ve dreamed about you every night.” Her raspy voice was barely audible.

“Savannah, please.”

“Please what? Ignore my heart? I can’t! I tried, Laredo, I really did.”

He cradled her face, and their eyes met. In his she read determination and a kind of desperation. “Grady’s made it difficult enough for you,” he said. “I can’t, I won’t make it—”

“I don’t care what my brother thinks,” she choked out, stopping him by placing her fingertips to his lips. “I know my heart, Laredo, and my heart wants you very much.”

His hands slid from the sides of her face and into her hair. Then slowly, inch by thrilling inch, he brought her mouth to his.

The instant their lips touched, Savannah felt her heart leap with a burst of joy. It overtook her, drove everything else from her mind.

His mouth was warm and moist, and he tasted of iced tea and fresh mint. He moved his lips hungrily against hers, molding her mouth to his with a heat that seared her senses. Although her experience with lovemaking had been limited, she’d had her share of kisses. But never like this. Never with this kind of heat, this degree of passion. Had it happened with anyone else, it would have frightened her.

Soon their arms were wrapped completely around each other in a struggle to get closer. She realized the fierceness with which they clung must be hurting his ribs. She tried to say something, to shift her hands, but he wouldn’t allow it, his movements urging her to hold him closer, hold him tighter.

The kiss grew hotter and hotter as they each sought to give more, take more, be more. Laredo’s breath came hard and fast. Her own echoed his.

With a moan, Laredo finally broke away, his shoulders heaving. “That shouldn’t have happened,” he said in a tortured voice. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You could never hurt me,” she assured him, her face against his chest. In all her days she’d never been more brazen with a man, asking him outright to kiss her, to hold her. But hard as she tried, Savannah couldn’t make herself regret what she’d done. If anything she wondered why it had taken her so long. She’d had no idea kissing could be this...incredible. Her friends should have told her!

“Say something,” she pleaded. “I need to know you’re feeling it, too.”

“I think I knew the minute you stopped to offer me a ride.” He got to his feet and walked away from her.

“Laredo?”

“I promised Wiley I’d check on Roanie. Remember?”

In other words their discussion was over; he had nothing more to say. Nor did he wish to hear what she might say. “All right,” she said, hanging her head in defeat.

He got as far as the garden gate, then turned back. “You won’t go to the ghost town without me?”

“No,” she promised.

He nodded. He seemed about to speak again but hesitated. If he dared apologize for kissing her, she didn’t know what she’d do. Probably scream in frustration. That would be an unprecedented event—Savannah Weston screaming! She gave an involuntary giggle.