Gone With the Nerd (Nerds, #4)(32)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Adrenaline shot through him. He shook Zoe awake. "We have to get up. He’s out there."

"Who?" She sounded groggy. "Phew! What stinks? One of us needs to hit the shower, and I don’t think it’s—"

"Bigfoot." Flynn was already out of bed and pulling on his clothes. "I’m going out there."

"If you’re going, I’m going." She scrambled out of bed and tripped on a section of sheet.

He caught her before she went down. Holding her luscious body reminded him of all he hadn’t done after their last round of incredible sex. No acknowledgment had been made.

"Zoe, when we get back, I’ll say all those things I should have said after we had such great sex. I apologize for zonking out like that."

"Don’t worry about it." She gave him a quick kiss. "Right now you want a Bigfoot sighting."

"Yeah, I do." Although the longer he held her, the less important it became. Maybe they should just go back to bed. If he gave his dick a vote, that’s exactly what they’d do.

She wriggled out of his arms. "Come on. Don’t let yourself get distracted. We can do that anytime."

He wished he could believe that. But she was rummaging around in the dark looking for her clothes, so he might as well do the same.

"Can we turn on a light?" she asked.

"Better not." Flynn thought he heard heavy footsteps on the pine needles and paused to listen. Maybe just the wind. "In fact, we’d better keep our voices down. I don’t want him to know we’re awake."

Zoe lowered her voice. "Are you sure it’s not a family of skunks? We haven’t heard that howl yet."

As if on cue, a haunting whistle echoed through the forest.

Flynn caught his breath. "There’s your answer. That whistle is a trademark sound, too."

Zoe shivered. "Creeps me out."

"You don’t have to come. You can stay here." He buttoned his shirt, and the holes and buttons came out wrong. He wasn’t going to worry about it. And there was no point in searching for his socks, either. He did pick up his PDA, though, and put it in his shirt pocket. He liked knowing where it was.

"I’m not letting you go out there by yourself."

"Zoe, they’re harmless."

"Easy for you to say. You’ve never met one. Listen, should we take it anything? Cheese, crackers, beads, trinkets … a Mennen Speed Stick?"

"I don’t think we want to lure it closer."

"I was thinking more along the lines of appeasing it." She stepped into a pool of moonlight and grabbed her Einstein sweatshirt. "I thought maybe we should demonstrate our friendly intentions, like they show in the movies when the aliens land."

"Uh, I don’t think we have to worry about that." In the moon’s glow he could see her br**sts. Even though his view was fuzzy, he could tell she hadn’t put on a bra. He waited to see if she’d go braless under the sweatshirt. She did choose that option, which gave him all sorts of friendly intentions. He’d have to work hard to concentrate on Bigfoot.

"I’m ready." She glanced at him. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. No, wait, my glasses." He fumbled around on the chair but couldn’t find them.

"Here, let me." Zoe pawed through the stack of clothes and came up with them. "I’m sure you’re not used to working with messes."

"Not so much." He put on the glasses.

"You’ve been very tolerant of mine."

"It was easy." If she only knew that being allowed in this bedroom, messes and all, had been the highlight of his whole damned life—but now wasn’t the right time to tell her all that. "Okay, let’s go."

"We should take the flashlight."

He’d forgotten all about the flashlight. Between Zoe and Bigfoot, his brain was mush. "Where is it?"

"I left it in the living room." She started down the hall. Then she turned, her voice hushed. "Are we going out the front or back?"

"Out the back. It’s closer to—"

A long-drawn-out howl cut him off. The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention. Sasquatch was definitely still in the neighborhood.

Zoe clutched his arm. "Omigod. This is so scary."

"You should stay here." He gently removed her hand and headed toward the living room.

"No way." She hurried after him. "I’m not letting you get eaten by Bigfoot."

"They don’t eat people." He scanned the shadowy living room, hoping to see the flashlight.

"No one you know about. I mean, nobody’s ever done a dissection of one, right? People disappear. You don’t know what you might find in Bigfoot’s tummy. Jimmy Hoffa maybe."

"I don’t see the flashlight."

"Right here." She picked it up from the end table. "I’ll be in charge of it." She started toward the kitchen.

"Wait. Let me have that. You stay inside. You can lock the door after me."

"Nope. My flashlight. You gave it to me."

"Zoe, there’s no reason for you to go out there. You don’t have a lifelong dream of sighting Bigfoot."

She unlocked the back door. "You shouldn’t go looking for Bigfoot by yourself. You need me."

Well, he did, but not for chasing after Bigfoot. "I’ll be fine."

"No, you won’t. What if you lose your glasses?"

"I won’t lose them."

She turned, blocking the doorway. "Answer me this. Have you ever had a Bigfoot sighting before?"

"No."

"Then you have no idea what will happen. You don’t know if you’ll end up running away, or jumping in surprise, or what. You don’t have a leash for those glasses, so losing them is not out of the question."

He couldn’t help grinning.

"Are you laughing at me? I can’t see your face too well, but I thought I saw the flash of your pearly whites."

He had such an urge to kiss her, but he controlled it. "Zoe, that was one of the finest nerd speeches I’ve ever heard. You attacked the problem with pure logic. I think you’re getting the idea."

"Glad to hear it. And now that I’ve passed that test, I’m also going with you and I’m keeping this flashlight."

"But you’re scared."

"I’m scared, but I’m going. I am Plucky Girl."

Yep, the votes were in and the tally was confirmed. Flynn loved Zoe. "Don’t turn the flashlight on yet, okay? I want to try and go out there undetected."

"I think undetected is great. I wouldn’t mind being permanently undetected."

"Good. Me, either. I just want a good look. I don’t have to have an encounter."

She nodded. "Agreed. So, I won’t turn on the flashlight unless absolutely necessary, like when Bigfoot is running straight toward us and we have to blind him with it to give us that crucial five seconds to get away. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll throw it at him, and maybe he’ll be intrigued because it’s an itty-bitty version of—"

"Zoe."

"What?"

"You’re babbling."

"Right." She took a deep breath. "Let’s go." Opening the door slowly, she peered out. "Do you see anything?" she murmured. "Because I don’t see anything."

"I can’t see anything because you’re still blocking the door."

"Oh." She edged out onto the small cement stoop, but she kept her hand on the doorknob.

"Maybe you should come back inside. I can tell you’re very frightened."

"No, I’m good."

"Then you’ll have to move away from the door. I can’t get out."

"Sure." Keeping hold of the doorknob, she inched a little farther out onto the stoop, but she was still blocking his way with her outstretched arm.

"You’ll have to let go of the door."

"Okay. I’ll—" A shriek from the woods sent her hurtling back inside. Something clattered to the cement as she almost knocked him over trying to shut the door.

Flynn sighed. "This is silly. Just let me go by myself."

"No. I’m going now." She threw back her shoulders and opened the door wide. "And I won’t hold on to the door this time. And I’m staying out there, no matter what awful noises that thing makes."

"What fell a minute ago?"

"The flashlight. I’m sure it’s fine."

Flynn wasn’t so sure. It was a novelty flashlight to begin with, not a heavy-duty kind that could take some hard knocks. But he wasn’t going out with a butane lighter, not this time. At least the moon was bright.

He stepped out onto the stoop. Zoe was already standing below him holding the flashlight.

"Come here," she murmured.

He tried to see what she might be looking at, but nothing seemed to be moving in the shadows of the forest. He took the steps slowly, not wanting to accidentally trip and make extra noise. The wind had picked up, though, which should help disguise any sounds they made. But it would be harder to hear Sasquatch, too.

Standing next to Zoe, he leaned down so he wouldn’t have to raise his voice to be heard. "Did you see something?"

"No." She moved so that she was facing him. "Put your arms around me."

He should have known she’d start to freak out the minute he closed the door. Maybe he’d have to resign himself to not seeing Bigfoot after all. She wouldn’t let him go alone, but she was too scared to go with him. With a sigh he wrapped his arms around her.

"Good. Now hold on a minute while I shove the flashlight up under my sweatshirt."

"While you do what?’

"Flynn, pipe down. I need to test the flashlight. I’m putting it right between my boobs, so they’ll shield the light from the side. Hunch your shoulders over mine so you can block it from the top. I’ll see if any light comes up from my shirt."

He groaned.

"What’s wrong?"

"Now I’m thinking about you with a flashlight tucked in your cl**vage. Do you have any idea how suggestive that is?"

"I didn’t look at it that way, but maybe you have a one-track mind."

"I wouldn’t be surprised."

"I guess that means you’ve also heard of a game called hide the flashlight. I wondered if it was a universal kid’s code for sex."

"I’ve heard of it, and thanks to that association, I’m getting hard. Happy now?"

She pressed her mouth against his shoulder to muffle her laughter.

"Zoe, turn the damned thing on, okay?"

She cleared her throat. "Sorry. I didn’t mean to turn you on at the same time. At least I’m not so scared now. Whoops, this will take two hands. I forgot you have to swivel his feet."

So maybe it didn’t matter if he never saw Bigfoot. He would always have the memory of standing in the dark holding on to Zoe while she played with a flashlight under her shirt. Not every guy could say that.

"Ah. Einstein’s hair lights up. We’re in business. You can let me go now."

"Maybe I don’t want to."

"Yes, you do." She pulled the flashlight out and stroked it over the bulge in his pants. "After we find Bigfoot, we can go inside and have after-the-Bigfoot-sighting sex. All that adrenaline has to go somewhere. We might as well use it to boink our brains out."

"To hell with Bigfoot." He slipped both hands up the back of her sweatshirt. "Let’s go insi—"

"Nope." She pushed him away. "We’re doing this, Flynn. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t."

An earsplitting shriek made them both jump.

Zoe gulped. "Wh-where do you think that came from?"

"Over there." Flynn pointed into the dark woods.

"Then that’s where we’re headed." Clutching the flashlight in both hands, Zoe started off.

Flynn had to hand it to her. That shriek had made him think twice about tracking down Sasquatch. Fortunately, it had also taken care of his erection problem. Heart racing, he caught up with Zoe as she walked bravely into the forest.

* * *

Zoe didn’t know what the hell she was doing, charging off after some fourteen-foot monster she didn’t want to find. This was so not her style. She didn’t like monsters and things that went bump in the night, which was why she’d turned down every single horror role that had come her way.

She didn’t belong here. She belonged in her beach house surrounded by all the luxuries and a state-of-the-art alarm system. But whenever she tried to imagine Flynn going into the woods without her, she got a really bad feeling in her tummy.

Could be she was falling for him. That would explain this irresistible urge to make sure nothing happened to his nerdy, Sasquatch-loving self. She wasn’t quite sure where to put this new emotion that might be love, though.

Concepts such as marriage and babies were popping up in her brain, and she didn’t know what to do about that, either. She’d assumed that those things would eventually become part of her life, but not now, for heaven’s sake, when she needed to pour all her energy into getting this breakout role. Later, after she’d nailed the role and won a Golden Globe—that would be time enough to think about settling down with someone.

Unfortunately, the only someone she could imagine settling down with was currently walking beside her through the forest, pine needles crunching under his shoes. He had a girlfriend to deal with, and even if that got straightened out, he might not have any interest in a long-term relationship with a movie star. He liked an ordered existence, and her life was anything but.

"There." He put out a hand to stop her progress.

Immediately her thoughts stalled and the hum of her fight-or-flight mechanism buzzed in her ears. The smell, she realized, had gotten worse. She swallowed. "I don’t see anything."

"In that small clearing."

"Where?" She had to strain to hear him over the wind in the trees. She prayed he was imagining things.

"Through there, in that small clearing. About a hundred yards away. Sitting on a log."

Peering into the darkness, she saw an area where the trees gave way and moonlight spilled down like a spotlight. On the edge of that space was a shadow darker than the surrounding tree trunks. As she focused on that shadow, which did seem to be sitting on something, the shadow moved.