Page 32 of Savored Sins
I pound on the door, the rain pummeling me from all sides. My tank top is completely soaked, my jeans sticking to my skin.It suddenly occurs to me that Zeke might not even be here. I don’t keep track of his coming and going, but if his little key debacle the other night is any indication of how he spends his evenings, he may well be out on a booty call right now.
Even thinking about it makes me livid.
“Zeke!” I bang on the door harder. “It’s me! Please—if you’re there?—”
The door cracks open and Zeke sticks his head out, his eyes wide in confusion. “Jesus, Autumn! What the fuck?”
There’s another flash of lightning overhead. Zeke pulls the door wider, and—without even answering, without any explanation as to why I’m suddenly at his doorstep, banging on his door in the middle of a goddamn downpour—I throw myself at him.
As he catches me in his arms, too stunned to even ask again what on earth’s going on, I sling my arms around his waist and pull him close, my rain-soaked cheek pressed up against his bare chest. We stand like that for a minute, the door still open and the lightning still flashing across the sky outside.
And even though I haven’t even said a word to him yet, my panic is ebbing. With every rise and fall of Zeke’s chest beneath my cheek, my breathing gets a little more even, my heartbeats a little calmer. Because without even needing an explanation, Zeke’s got his arms around me, his fingers in my hair, stroking delicately. And I feel exactly what I knew I would.
Safe.
sixteen
ZEKE
The rain outside is like a racehorse pissing into a bucket, and the door’s hanging wide open. I can already see the puddles starting to form on the hardwood entryway where Autumn just came bursting into my cabin and threw herself at me with zero explanation.
But I don’t care. I’ll grab some towels in a couple of minutes. Because right now, Autumn Carroway has herself nestled in my arms, and I’d be the world’s biggest dipshit to end this moment early. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but she’s clearly scared out of her mind. I’m not big on comforting people—especially women, that shit bogs you down—but with Autumn? Who’s usually pretty damn good at taking care of herself? Something’s wrong.
And she came to…me.
So here we are, her dripping water all over the floor and me with my chin on the top of her head, breathing in the coconut scent of her wet hair. I’m a little alarmed at how easy this feels. How my only thought as Autumn yelled out over the thunder of the rain was that she needed help—and how all of a sudden I’m like—boom. I’m there.
Even now as I’m holding her, I kind of don’t want to let go.
It’s fucking with my head.
I also don’t want to think about how I’m supposed to be at Jenny’s place in thirty minutes. That shit—trying to distract myself with a booty call—feels so far away. Right now, I just want to be here. With Autumn. But preferably with the door shut because that lightning is absolutely crazy.
“Hey. Um.” I loosen my grip on Autumn, shifting only slightly so she doesn’t feel like I’m trying to pull away or something. “Could we, like, shut the door?”
Autumn’s head whips around, and she gasps. In an instant, she’s untangled her arms from around me and has shut the door with a thud. She’s already glancing around the cabin, making her way to the tiny kitchen to snatch a towel from the back of a chair.
“Oh my god,” she says, kneeling down to sop up the rain with the towel. She doesn’t look up at me. “I’m so sorry. I was just—I wassofreaked out that I just came running—and therain! Holy shit, I wasn’t thinking. I completely lost my head.”
“No biggie.” I grab a couple more towels from the kitchen and get down on the floor next to her. “But what the fuck had you so freaked out you’d go running across the lawn in the middle of a thunderstorm?”
Autumn grimaces. I can tell she’s embarrassed, but the way she looks me in the eyes when she answers also tells me the fear’s not quite gone. She sighs. “Okay, don’t be mad...”
I break out into a grin. “Uh-oh. That’smyline. That means shit’s about to get real.”
“Yeah, a little too real.”
I quirk an eyebrow at her. “Oh, yeah? I’m listening.”
Autumn swallows hard, getting up to carry the sopping towels to the sink so she doesn’t have to look at me when she tells me the thing I’m not supposed to be mad about. “I, uh. Kind of used the spirit board.”
I toss a towel in the sink and stop, staring at her. “You did what now?”
“Oh, miss me with that judgy tone,” she snaps. “You heard me. I used the spirit board, andyes—if you’re wondering whether I know it was stupid, the answer isyes.”
“Okay,” I snort. “Glad we’re in agreement there.”
She narrows her eyes at me. As she wrings out a towel, rainwater splatters into the sink. “Hey. You’re the one who left the board—andyou’rethe one who’s causing drama in my goddamnhouse.”
