Page 49 of Them Bones

Laney grinned at him and shifted slightly so that her elbow was touching him. Linette caught the movement.

“Shane honey, be a dear and help take some of the cases of empties outside? The kitchen is full of bottles, need the room you know – lots of people crowding in before the countdown.”

“Sure thing, Linette,” he said, lacing his fingers through Laney’s and pulling her behind him.

She giggled.

“My mom doesn’t like you,” she said.

“Your mom doesn’t give two shits about me. She’s jealous ofyou.”

Laney scoffed. “Yeah, okay.”

“She is, Laney. She’s watching you the same way she was watching some of the other women, upstairs. Like you’re… competition.”

“Right,” Laney said, “because a skinny kid like me has anything on a pornstar body like that –”

“Don’t,” Shane said darkly. “Do you have any idea how hard it is for me right now knowing that your bedroom is literally three feet away?”

Shit, I’m really wasted. No filter.

“Well.Thisisn’t confusingat all,” she muttered. She adopted a mock gravelly voice. “Let’s be friends, Laney. Don’t mind me, making all kinds of suggestive comments.You’re too youngfor me.” She rubbed the back of her head in an exaggerated motion.

Shane couldn’t help but laugh, plucking her coat out of the pile and holding it out for her. She put one arm in and then the other, a sour expression on her face.

“You know this blows, right?" she huffed. "It’s not… easy, for me. Watching Cary’s friends eyeballing you every time you’re here. Talking to you every chance they get. Touching your arm, your chest…” She scowled. “It sucks.”

“Wait, are you… jealous?”

“Of course I’m jealous! I don’t get to touch you, like that.”

Shane frowned but she plowed on.

“And it’s not because of Cary,” she snapped, holding open the door for him as they stepped outside with the empties. “You wouldn’t let me touch you like that before, either. When it was just the three of us.” She took a deep breath. “You only ever let me near you when you’re not expecting it. When you’re half asleep or I’ve surprised you in your car. How do you think it feels, for me? To know that you only let me in when you’re feeling… weak. That I’m…” her lips quivered “a moment of weakness, to you.”

Shane was fairly sure he’d been disemboweled, and his guts were spilling out all over the driveway.

He fought the urge to run his hand over his head and stared up at the sky, snowflakes drifting down lazily and catching in his eyelashes. He wanted to tell her she wasn’t aweakness.But really… when he’d been very, very drunk on Christmas Day, he’d kept calling her kryptonite to a highly amused, mildly annoyed Jerry.

“You’re perfect, Laney,” he said. And he meant it. “It’s me. I’m…”

“I swear to God if you say ‘it’s not you it’s me’ I will dropkick your dick with these pointy-toes boots.”

Shane threw up his hands. “What do you want from me, huh? I’m doing my best, here! I’mtrying,okay? My life is complicated, and you’refifteen.I’m trying to protect you! I’m trying to keep you…”

“Innocent?” She gestured back at her house. “Kind of hard to do that, don’t you think?”

“A virgin,” Shane blurted, drugs coursing through his veins and making his tongue move without his permission.

Laney looked a little astonished by his unfettered honesty, but it was what it was.

“Shane,” she levelled, “You said that you think I’m perfect… did it ever occur you to that I think the same thing?” She looked him square in the face. “You said you aren’t saying no, you’re sayingnot yet.And I can live with that. But you act like I’m not to be touched,at all, unless I bully you into it or – apparently – when you’re drunk and are willing tohold my hand.”

“Jesus Christ, Laney! I’m not doing this to be anasshole.I’m doing it out of self-preservation. Because either I’ll give in and do what I want with you -” his eyes pinned her with a terrifyingly delicious glare “- or your brother will notice andcrush whatever part of my body is touching yours with a sledgehammer.”

Laney looked like she had swallowed a lemon, and then she deflated. And for the first time, Shanereallyfelt how young she was. It hit him like a sack of bricks.

Jerry was right – about not rushing. But Laney didn’t get it. She was too caught up in what felt good. She was blinded by it, pushing him too hard. It was going to be up to him to be the responsible one. It was going to be up to him to set the rules.

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