Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
H e was definitely not going to go over there.
But he might text her. Just to check and make sure everything was okay.
Not that he needed to. She now knew that he was next door. He hoped that she would come over if she needed anything. Or text him, at least.
It had been a couple of hours since he'd seen her. There was no reason to think that she wasn't okay.
But just in case, he should probably text her.
Then again, they'd left things on a good note. Hadn’t they?
He’d felt good about it. He never would have guessed that Savannah Lee would be vulnerable and even…soft.
Okay, he’d thought she’d be soft but not that kind of soft. Her lips? For sure. Her skin? Definitely. Breasts? Yep. That sweet area between her legs where he’d bet a man could happily get lost for days? Oh, fuck yeah.
He took a breath. He really needed to stop thinking about her. It was only a few hours until he could take her back to Autre. And she could successfully say that she'd spent the night on the bayou.
But wait, he didn't want her to successfully spend the night, right? If she didn't make it through the night, then he would have a good reason to shoot down her project.
Which was what he wanted.
And he really did. Bringing luxury cabins down here to the bayou was a terrible idea. He really did believe that.
But did he want Savannah to hate the bayou?
Theo sighed. No, he didn't. Even if he knew that her love for it, and potential fondness for anyone down here was temporary, he still wanted her to like it.
Because he was kind of a dumb ass.
Because she looked just as good in tennis shoes as she did in high heels.
He reached for his phone, even knowing that texting her was a terrible idea.
But it rang before he could finish dialing her number.
Thank God.
It was Zander.
“Hey,” Theo answered.
“Before you get mad at me, I want to go on record as saying I had nothing to do with this.”
“That has got to be one of the worst ways to start a conversation.”
“Say you understand I’m not the one you’re going to be mad at,” Zander said.
Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. Oh, this was going to be a pain in the ass. “I understand.”
He braced himself for whatever Zander was about to say.
“You need to go over to Savannah 's cabin.”
Shit, shit, shit. “Why?”
“Because there may be a situation.”
Theo sat up straighter on the couch where he'd been lounging, tricking himself into thinking that he was watching the baseball game on television.
“Did she call someone?” And if she had. Why? He was right here.
Because she doesn't want you to know that she has a situation .
Dammit.
But she had to know he'd find out.
“No, she hasn't called anybody,” Zander said. “Yet.”
“What is going on?” So something was happening that she would potentially be calling someone for?
“Okay, it's going to sound like they were trying to drive her out of the cabin, which…okay, they were. But not for the reason you’re going to think.”
Theo shifted so that his feet were on the floor, and he could lean his elbows on his knees. He dropped his head into one of his hands. He wasn’t going to like this. “Who did what?”
“Zeke, Owen, and Cian —”
That was all Zander had to say. Theo was already on his feet. But he did want to know exactly what they had done.
“I'm putting my boots on,” he said. “Fill me in.”
“With some help from Mitch,” Zander added.
Theo frowned. “Mitch?”
Mitch Landry was one of the nice ones. A really good guy. He wasn't really a prankster. Well, he could be talked into pranks, but they were almost never his idea and they were generally the good-natured ones. Whereas Zeke, Owen, and Cian were definitely more prone to pranks that were mischievous, borderline annoying, borderline offensive, borderline you–will-probably–want–to-kill–them.
“Tell me,” Theo said firmly.
“Well, there might be a dead nutria or two over there. In cupboards and stuff,” Zander said.
Theo blew out a breath. He probably could've guessed that. Nutria were the large, very annoying rodents that lived in the marshlands.
“Find out what cupboards.”
“That's not the worst of it,” Zander said.
Theo went to his kitchen to set his beer bottle down. “What else?”
“Remember that big life-sized, very real looking rubber alligator that Owen got a year ago?”
Theo’s eyes widened. “The one that almost ended his marriage and his life?”
Owen’s wife, Maddie, wasn't a fan of alligators, found her husband’s sense of humor less than adorable much of the time, and Owen had ended up spending three nights on Zeke’s couch after he'd bought that rubber alligator.
“That's the one. It's now somewhere around that cabin. Somewhere she could stumble upon it.”
“Those assholes,” Theo said.
“Yeah, but the worst part is coming up. And you're about ten minutes away from it.”
Theo scowled and started toward his door. “What is it?” If there was a timer on it, whatever it was, he needed to get over there.
“This is where Mitch comes in. Somehow they rigged it so her power’s going to cut out. And it’s not just the circuit breaker or anything. It’s something Mitch will have to come out and repair.”
“And it’s on a timer?” Theo asked. “How?”
“No idea. But yeah, they wanted it to happen when it’s nice and dark.”
“I’m going to kill them.”
“They did it for a good reason.”
“Don’t defend them,” Theo snapped. He was feeling even more protective now after the time they’d spent earlier. “She's not going to have any lights, or air conditioning.”
“Exactly. They’re trying to make her a little freaked out and uncomfortable.”
“This is cheating ,” Theo said, his boot hitting his porch. “If she bails on staying out here, it has to be on her terms. We can't drive her away.”
“That’s the thing,” Zander said quickly. “They were just trying to drive her into your cabin.”
Theo paused on the bottom step. “What does that mean?”
“They’re not trying to ruin her project. They’re playing matchmaker. They figure if she doesn't like staying in that cabin, she’ll come next door. To you. You can save the damsel in distress.” He paused. Then chuckled. “Sucks having us all know you so well, doesn't it?”
Theo swore under his breath. Because it really did. “I can get my own girl.”
“Well, they seem to like Savannah for you.”
“They're still assholes.”
“No question. But you're on your way over there, aren't you?”
“Of course. I can't leave her over there in the dark, with no air conditioning, stinky rodents, and a possible huge scare with a fake alligator.”
“But you could. If you really wanted her to hate her night on the bayou.”
“Like I said, if she bails it has to be because she decides this isn’t for her. Straight up, fair and square.”
But as he jogged along the road toward the cabin, he had to ask himself if before he knew about her anxiety, before he looked into her gorgeous blue eyes and seen vulnerability, would he have felt this way? Or would he have let her sit in the dark and sweat? Would he not have cared so much that she would've found a dead rodent? Finding dead nutria out here was really not out of the norm. That could even happen to her hoity-toity rich guests that might be coming to her luxury cabins.
Though he supposed she was going to hire people who would go through the cabins and be sure that wasn't an issue before guests checked in.
“Want me to drive down and pick her up?” Zander asked. His tone was completely teasing, and Theo knew that Zander knew what his answer was going to be before he even said it.
Still, he answered, “Nope. I've got her.”
Zander chuckled. “I know you do, buddy. I know you do.”
Theo climbed the steps to Savannah 's cabin, disconnecting with his best friend, without a single other word.
He knocked on her door and called, “Savannah? It's me.”
He didn't hear an answer. In fact, he didn't hear any noise at all.
He knocked a little harder. “Savannah!”
Still no answer.
He sighed. If he wasn't on a ticking clock, and she was about to lose power, he would've left. He could scout around the outside and at least find the rubber alligator. But she only had a few minutes of light, and God knew what she was doing. If the cabin was suddenly plunged into complete darkness, that could be dangerous.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted her. Hey, it's me. On the front porch. Open up.
He waited for a few seconds. The message showed delivered. But there was no answer and no little dots showing that she was in the process of answering.
He hit the button to call her instead.
It only rang once and went straight to voicemail.
Frustrated, he hung up and banged louder on the door. “Savannah!”
No answer. And he could see that several lights were on inside. The sudden darkness would definitely freak her out.
He tried the door and found it unlocked. That was kind of funny to him for some reason. He was sure the City Girl was very used to locking her doors. But he supposed that she had taken it seriously that there was no one else out here with the two of them.
He also stupidly took it to mean that she trusted him. He pushed the door open and leaned in. “Savannah?”
Then he heard the music. It was turned up loud and was coming from the back of the house.
So she was in the bedroom or the bathroom.
He sighed. With his luck it was the bathroom. And she was taking a bath in that claw foot bathtub she'd been so excited about.
Which meant that she was naked.
And he still had to go in there.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He was going to kick Owen, Cian, and Zeke's asses when he saw them.
He stomped into the house. “Savannah!” he yelled. “It's Theo! I'm in the cabin!”
He drew closer to the bathroom door. Sure enough, it was halfway closed, and he could hear splashing.
He sighed, focused his gaze on the ceiling, and knocked on the door.
He heard a little shriek. “Oh my God!”
“Savannah, it's me.”
“What are you doing?”
“Um, hey, something's come up.”
“Something? What are you talking about?”
“Well, I've been made aware of an issue,” he started.
He didn't really want to throw his friends under the bus. Well, he did, but he didn't think that was the right choice right now. It wasn't fair that they were trying to drive her out of the cabin, but telling her about the stupid prank wouldn’t make any of this better for her. Maybe he could play this off as an actual wiring problem.
If he was over here making an effort to keep her safe, that would surely give him points. He wouldn’t have to risk that she might not believe that he wasn’t trying to cheat. She didn't need to know what exactly was going on. His friends were dumbasses, no doubt about it. But it was easier to not drag them into this. She was going to be hanging out in Autre as long as Becca and Beau lived here. Which was going to be forever. He didn't want to make anything awkward.
“There might be some problems with the cabin that I need to check on,” he said.
The problem was he wasn't going to be able to fix the wiring. Mitch was the best electrical and plumbing guy they had. If he'd fucked around with it. There was a very good chance that Theo would not be able to fix it.
“What kind of problem?”
He was still staring at the ceiling and God, he wanted to look at her. “It might have something to do with the power?—”
And just then it happened. There was a click, and the entire cabin went dark. The hum of the air conditioner stopped, and there was a single beat of silence before Savannah gasped and he heard water splashing.
Instinctively, he righted his head…and realized that she had candles burning. So the bathroom was, in fact, not completely dark. It was actually bathed in a nice, soft golden glow.
A glow that allowed him to see every gorgeous, glistening, completely bare inch of her.
Because when the lights went out, Savannah had stood up from the bathtub.
She was now frozen in front of him, completely naked, water sliding off her body.
And, in her left hand, she held a vibrator.
They just stood, staring at each other for several long seconds.
Then they both had the same thought. They lunged for the candles. She started blowing the ones out that sat around the edge of the tub while he went for the ones that were on the shelves and vanity.
Within moments, the room was completely dark again.
“Well, shit, now I can't see anything,” she muttered.
“Yeah, I'm kinda disappointed with that, too,” he said without thinking.
There was just a tick of time, and then she actually snorted softly. “Thanks?”
“Yeah, you can definitely take that as compliment.”
She laughed softly. “So, I guess I need to get out of the tub.”
“Yeah. And you can use the flashlight on your phone. Be careful, don't slip.”
“Could you…”
“What?” He asked.
“Grab me the towel that’s over there by you?”
He remembered seeing the towel lying on the vanity when he was going for the candles. He reached for it, bumped into one of the candles, and heard it topple into the sink, then felt the soft, thick terrycloth. He grabbed it, turned, and started for the tub. In the dark, he was disoriented. In addition, he wasn't as familiar with this cabin as he was with his own. The tub had seemed farther away from where he was standing, and he was quickly right in front of her. The back of his hand bumped into one of her breasts. And one of the very hard nipples.
He froze. She gasped, and they froze.
Which meant his hand was still against her hard nipple and breast for another three seconds.
Then he jerked his hand back while she reached out for the towel. Her hand made contact with the fly of his jeans. And the very hard cock behind that fly. She grabbed her hand back as if she'd been burned while he grunted. But not from pain.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered as he fumbled for his phone.
He quickly swiped across the screen, found the flashlight app, and turned it on. Pointing the light down toward the floor so it would only bounce up and illuminate the room dimly, he was able to hand her the towel, keep his eyes on her face, rather than the rest of her gorgeous body and keep a tiny bit of composure as she wrapped the towel around her.
Of course, he made note of the fact that she was still holding the vibrator.
They finally made eye contact. And just stood staring at each other.
Then, without a word, they both leaned in.
Their mouths met, and they both moaned.
And just like that, they were up against each other. He wrapped his arms around her, and her arms went around his neck. They pressed close, the kiss immediately deepening. Theo slid his tongue into her slick, hot, sweet mouth. He kissed her the way he'd been fantasizing about ever since he'd first met her.
She arched closer, opening her mouth for him and meeting his tongue stroke for stroke.
He lifted her up out of the tub, and her legs came up to wrap around his waist.
He didn't give a crap that his jeans were immediately wet. He didn't intend to keep them on for very long.
“You need to come to my cabin,” he said against her mouth.
That was really the best solution. It solved the problem of her power outage, rodents, rubber alligators, and the fact that he needed a soft horizontal surface and this woman underneath him right now.
“Okay. I have everything I need right here.”
He squeezed her ass. So did he.
“You still have a hold of that vibrator?”
She nodded, her lips moving up and down against his. “I haven't had a chance to finish.”
“Oh, you're going to finish. Two or three times. Keep a hold of that.”
“You think you need help?” She teased, before she tipped her head and kissed him deeply.
He kept kissing her as he turned and started toward the front of the house.
But he pulled back long enough to say, “A great meal doesn't need the help of an appetizer, but having the appetizer first makes sure that you get good and nice and full .”
She shivered in his arms, even as she laughed against his mouth. “I like a man who’s not intimidated by toys.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we need to make sure you're nice and ready for me because when I get between these pretty thighs, I'm not going to be able to take it easy.”
She moaned and sealed her mouth back against his.
He carried her down the porch steps, over the road to his cabin, up through his front door, and down the hall to his bedroom.