Page 35 of When It Burns

Theo rolls his eyes and grabs my hand. He pulls me close to the front of his body until I can feel him everywhere before wrapping his arms around me. We twirl around for several songs while Theo impresses me with how well he seems to know my body. Each time I spin around he brings me close enough that his lips barely graze mine, and his hands leave the lightest touches on my hips and my breast. He leans down and whispers, “Caroline, do you have any idea how badly I want you right now? I feel like a damn sixteen-year-old.”

I look up into his blue eyes that seem to darken the longer we tease each other. “I think I have an idea, Cowboy,” I say with a smirk before grabbing his hat off his head and spinning away from his grip. I slip his hat on my head and turn to smile about him, but before I can make it all the way around, he is on me.

We are in the middle of the packed dance floor, but it feels like we are the only two people in the room. Theo wraps his hand around my neck and brings my face close to his again. “Sunshine, you are pushing every damn button I have right now. All I can think about is you in nothing but that hat. I am trying to take this slow, but all I want is to take you outside and taste your sweet pussy. I can’t stop thinking about you. Wondering what kind of sounds you would make if you let me push my cock into you. Imagining you spread open for me with your legs wrapped around my face until you scream my name.”

I feel warmth flood my core and before I can stop myself I’m throwing myself into his arms and attacking his mouth. He catches me easily and our tongues tangle for a few minutes, both of us unable to stop ourselves. He nips at my chin while he kisses down my neck, both of us completely oblivious to the fact that we are still inside amongst the crowd. I am seconds from wrapping my legs around his waist and rubbing myself against his jean clad cock, when the band starts playing “Dixieland Delight” by Alabama, signaling the last song of the night, and the jostling of the crowd jars us out of our fantasy.

I am tempted to continue kissing Theo, but my dedication to the Tide won’t let me. There is something about screaming the extra words to the song with hundreds of people weeks before the football season begins that makes me smile. The sound of “On beer” and “Roll Tide” fills the bar and Theo just runs his hands up and down my sides as we sing along.

As the song is about to end, a tipsy Hannah and Margaret make their way over to us. “Carolineeee!” they holler.

“You missed it. Some guy bought us two rounds of Scooter Shots after we beat his ass at pool!” Hannah screams, oblivious to the fact that she no longer has to scream since the band has stopped playing.

Margaret smiles at us before she says, “She’s too busy thinking about my brother fucking her eighteen ways to Sunday.” We all look at her in shock, and I briefly worry that she’s mad at me. I open my mouth to apologize, but she must see the concern on my face because she cuts me off.

“I swear I am not mad. It's the first time I’ve seen him happy in over fourteen years, and that’s all I care about. But let’s be real. You’re wearing his hat. We’ve all read Elsie Silver, so we know what that means. Gross but whatever. We’re totally gonna be sisters-in-law.” She looks at Theo before continuing, “Just so you know, I love you but if you screw this up, I’ll help them go all “Goodbye Earl” on your ass.”

Hannah bursts out laughing at Theo’s confusion before breaking into a terribly off-key rendition of “Goodbye Earl” complete with a dance solo. Unable to contain ourselves, Margaret and I dissolve into giggles while Theo shakes his head at us.

“Okay now that we have that out of the way, let’s drop these two off and go home,” he declares with a wink. He turns to make his way back to the parking lot, but he turns after a few steps and shoots me a look that lets me know we aren’t done with what we started on the dance floor.

Thank God.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

THEO

After getting the girls loaded up, I throw myself into the front seat and drive like a bat out of hell back to Springside. Luckily since it’s after one in the morning there is no traffic on the back country roads. I never go fast enough to put us at risk of crashing, but I am so desperate to get my hands on Caroline’s body, I can’t think straight.

Every few miles, I look over at the passenger seat and Caroline sends me a look with the same heat I am feeling. She is sitting on her hands while she talks to Hannah and Margaret like she doesn’t trust herself to keep her hands to herself. I look down and see how tightly I am holding the steering wheel, and I can’t help but feel the same way.

After what feels like forever; I wheel into Hannah’s long driveway and pull up at her farmhouse. I barely put the truck in park before saying, “Alright, it’s late. Let’s go. Bye y’all.”

Caroline and Hannah laugh, and Margaret rolls her eyes at me while she grabs her overnight bag. “Chill your tits dude,” she says while reaching out to knock my arm. “You keep this up, and I’m gonna make you take me home. Then you won’t get any time with Caroline. What do you think about that?”

“Sorry, sis. Love ya,” I say faking a smile so she will get the hell out of the truck.

“I guess that’s a bit better. Goodnight Caroline,” my sister says, turning her attention to her friend.

Caroline makes quick eye contact with Margaret and I swear they have a conversation with just a look. “Call me in the morning if y’all want help! Goodnight ladies,” she says. I can tell it’s killing her not forcing herself on them with help on the farm, but I think my sister was right that Hannah will respond better to accepting a little help at a time.

Hannah proves my point by scoffing, “I am good. Margaret just bribed me with the promise of breakfast. Plus you have that new band dance to make up since they decided to add ‘Radioactive’ before the game next week. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I would say don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, but that’s a pretty short list. Instead, I’ll just say you two have funnnn.” She winks and before either of us can come up with a comeback, the girls sprint from the car laughing.

I throw the truck into reverse, shaking my head at my sister and her new friends. “Ready, Sunshine?” I ask Caroline while throwing a smirk at her.

She leans over and runs her hand down my arm again before responding, “Let’s do it, Cowboy.”

We ride in silence for a few minutes before both of our phones buzz with an alert. She leans over to check the notification before saying, “Looks like we are about to be under a wind advisory and thunderstorm warning. I had no idea the weather was supposed to be bad.”

“Me either,” I reply before noticing that since we dropped the girls off the wind has picked up a good bit. The trees on either side of the county road are leaning and shaking debris into the road, and as we hit the city limits it’s like someone opened the floodgates. Rain falls so hard it’s almost impossible to see the road in front of the truck and lightning pops illuminating the truck every few minutes.

I’d been looking forward to taking Caroline to the farmhouse all evening, but I’m unwilling to risk driving the extra fifteen miles in a storm this bad. “You okay with waiting this out at your place?” I ask, and she nods just as a loud boom of thunder shakes the truck. I pull quickly into the parking spot in front of Caroline’s door and throw the truck into park again, watching as branches snap in the small downtown park across the street.

We sit for a few minutes watching the rain. Neither of us speak, and the sexual tension is so strong it feels like we could combust into flames at any second. Finally, Caroline grabs her phone and checks something before saying, “Radar says this is setting in for the next few hours. Wanna make a run for it?”

I nod my head at her and throw my phone in my pocket. We make eye contact and she says, “Let’s go!”. With that, we throw the doors open and sprint to the front door of her apartment. Lightning cracks and the rain hits my face hard, but I can’t help but think that this is the most alive I have felt in ages.

By the time we make it to her apartment door, she is laughing and we are both dripping wet. I look down at the wood floor in front of her front door where we’re standing while she fumbles with the key and see we have left a huge puddle of water in our path.

---