And it was all of those words, the tight need in his voice, and the way he was looking at her as if she was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen that pushed her over the edge.
She came with a nearly sobbed, “Theo!”
And then he dropped his face to her neck and groaned out his climax with a, “Fucking hell, Savannah. Jesus Christ, baby.”
Theo took his time with her, kissing her, stroking his hands over her, keeping her close as they both caught their breaths and came back to earth. But finally they cleaned up, and crawled under the thick, soft comforter together. Theo held her tucked against him, with her back to his chest, his big hand over her stomach.
“I like your shirt,” he said against her neck.
She grinned. It was the one she’d stolen from him the morning she’d left his cabin. “I sleep in it every night.”
He gave a little growl and his arm tightened around her. “That’s almost better than naked.”
“Yeah?”
“Almost.” He kissed the back of her head.
She wiggled in tighter against him and watched the snow swirl outside the window, smiled happily at the Christmas tree lights, and wondered how Theo felt about Paris.
He’d probably like something more outdoorsy.
But hell, if this is how they could spend their nights, she didn’t care where they were.
And they fell asleep by the lights o the Christmas tree.
Chapter
Eighteen
The next morning was the twenty-fourth. Christmas Eve day. The snow had stopped, but no one was going anywhere. They were buried, and Lucy explained over huge platters of waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and cranberry orange muffins that it would take them at least the rest of the day and into tomorrow to clear the roads.
Theo didn’t mind a bit. In fact, he decided to enjoy every fucking minute.
He was snowed in here with the woman he was in love with, and who he needed to convince she’d rather bewithhim, no matter where that was, than without him. Might as well start right here where they were.
In fact, being here together, far from home, just the two of them was perfect. He loved their friends and family in Autre, but he wanted Savannah to know that when she was happy and felt comfortable and could be fully herself, it wasn’t just in Autre if she was with him. She would be loved and protected and taken care of and appreciated no matter where they were together.
They’d known that there would be snow and colder temperatures here than in Louisiana, so they had both packed coats, mittens, and scarves. And now he couldn't stop lookingat her as he led her down the stairs and out to the back of the property.
She looked adorable. He always thought that she was beautiful. Gorgeous. Sexy as fuck. Now she looked damned cute.
She had a puffy white winter coat on, a pink hat and matching mittens, and a pink and white striped scarf around her neck. Within minutes of being outside in the cold weather her nose turned the same pink as her mittens. But her eyes were twinkling, and her smile was huge as they walked along the path that he had scooped behind the lodge.
"I can't believe you were out here scooping snow," she told him.
He grinned at her. "It was fun."
"So outdoors and doing manual labor is just your thing. It doesn't matter the temperature or the location? It doesn’t actually have to be the bayou?"
He shrugged. "I guess not. Scott let me drive one of the trucks with the plow on the front earlier when I helped with the front drive. But this back part I did with a shovel by hand."
"The only reason I'm not upset that I missed it is because you would've had a coat on, and I wouldn't have been able to fully appreciate all your big muscles bunching and working."
He grinned at her. “You don’t appreciate my muscles working when we’re back in Louisiana.”
“Oh, I most certainly do. And your ass.” She gave what sounded like a happy sigh. “I just used to be more sneaky about it. Now I guess I can just ogle you openly, though.”
Theo turned on her suddenly, moving in close, nearly standing on her toes. “Now? Why now? What’s changed?”