Tides of Passion by Tracy Sumner Read Free Book Online Page A

at her the way Zachariah Garrett had for a moment or two through the lazy shadows of a summer evening, she doesn't want him to snap right back to anger.
    "I'm not trouble," she finally said, and by placing the table between them, gathered the nerve to look him in the eye. "A certain joie de vivre , perhaps, which has unquestionably embroiled me in diverse skirmishes in the past. I wouldn't—"
    " Stop . For the love of God, please. Stop."
    Bending down, he grasped his fallen wineglass, turning it in his hands. "Always, in my experience, troublemakers never know they're troublemakers. They go along causing problems and making everyone else's life hell, all the time thinking their actions are fine and dandy with the rest of us. Not a consequence out there that they're concerned about. I make my living dealing with them. Pilots who run aground because their bellies are too full of drink to steer clear of the shoals; men who can't handle their finances so I'm forced to auction off their houses and break up their families; busting up brawls every time payday rolls around. That's what I do in this town, clean up messes."
    He shoved to his feet, his eyes blazing. "So excuse me if I swear on the holy book that I can spot a menace at ten paces. And you, ma'am, are a menace to any unmarried man in this town. And by the way, I don't have a ghost of an idea what you said to me in French."
    "Why, well...." She gestured broadly, frustration blocking clear thought. "I'm so glad to see you never have to clean up your own messes, Constable. My, how fortunate."
    "I have plenty of my own, don't you worry. My life's been full of them. But just now, in the last two months, since Noah came home to us, things are starting to settle. Starting to look right. You"—he pointed the glass at her, a rather lethal jab in her opinion—"are not going to put me on a path to destruction."
    She stalked around the table, forgetting her need for a protective barrier. "How could I possibly set you on a path to destruction?"
    He raised a brow, gestured mildly. "I'm not going to marry again, Miss Connor. I did it once and it failed. I failed."
    "I don't understand."
    He shook his head. "You don't have to."
    She halted, uncertain. Was he considering going further with this experiment? It was an intriguing notion, one that had her heart skipping beats, her palms perspiring. "I'm not looking for marriage, either. I have my own funds, my own life. I have no need for a husband. That is without question. As to the other, I won't tell. Discretion is key." In the event he wasn't talking about the future, she added, "What happened tonight is between us and no one else."
    "Someone will find out. In a town this size, they always do." He tugged his hand through his hair, tussled locks falling back across his brow immediately after. "I have my son to consider and, blessed Lord, you to consider. People can't feel safe coming to me if my life is a great big mess."
    "I know what I'm doing."
    He rolled his eyes at that.
    She couldn't summon enough evidence to disagree.
    "Granted, perhaps I don't know precisely what I'm doing, but I know who's responsible." She walked forward, stopping before him. "And it isn't you."
    He lifted the glass to his nose and sniffed, probably wishing for another drink. "How do you figure that?"
    "My life is my choice. Your life is your choice."
    His straight white teeth flashed as he released a sarcastic gust of laugher. "My life hasn't been my choice since I was twenty years old."
    She didn't understand what he meant; she didn't know much about Zachariah Garrett other than his name and his occupation. Nothing but the trivial bits and pieces about the Garrett brothers that Elle had written to her over the years.
    If Savannah wanted more information, pressure was not the way to get it. The man standing by her didn't play father to an entire town because he was a man easily led. "Then you're owed," she said with a small, negligent shrug.
    He licked a drop