Page 62 of Them Bones

“Here,” he said, taking her hand and putting the sandwich in it. “You look like you need it more than me.”

“Um, thanks…” she said, forcing herself to look away.How can ANYONE look that good in florescent lights?

“Rough night?” he asked. He picked up an apple from the shelf behind him and tossed it twice.

“Rough shift,” she said, gesturing to her paramedic’s uniform. “Too many ODs. I hate drugs, I really do…”

“Mmhmm…” the guy said, a strangely amused look on his face. He took a bite of the apple, looking at her intently.

“Well, um, thanks…” Kim said, inching away. He made her feel like she was naked.

“Any time,” he drawled, taking another bite.

She could feel his eyes on her the whole way to the register.

SHANE

Laney read out loud to him for all of July.

She devoured books the same way the woodchipper at Jerry’s went through the saplings he was pulling out to make room for a vegetable garden. She’d read himThe God of Small Things, American Psycho, The English Patient, Angela’s Ashes… He’d laughed out loud despite himself atBridget Jones’s Diary. They’d suffered through half ofInfinite Jestbefore giving up. She’d read himFight Clubtwice.

They’d gone to the beach one day, Shane fighting off a headache from staring down all the guys who kept checking Laney out in her little pink bikini, Dustin building a strangely intricate sandcastle with multiple towers and a very realistic-looking drawbridge, dragons carved into the sand with the skinny end of a plastic shovel. She’d read himThe Giverall in one shot, his back burning in the sun.

The second Harry Potter book came out that summer,Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.She’d read it herself on a weekend while he was with Jenna and he begged her for spoilers that Monday when he got back, but she refused, reading it to him late into the night after dinner, until her voice washoarse and her eyes were drooping, the book tipping over in her hands and flopping against her chest as she nodded off.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes, “can we finish tomorrow?”

He scooped her up off the couch and she cradled into him, her arms snaking around his neck, just like she used to. He inhaled the smell of her as he walked her into her room, and it set his nerve endings on fire.

Her hair was longer now, almost to her chin, wavy and shiny and smelling like lavender. As he placed her down in her bed, their faces so close he could feel her breath on his cheek, he caught a lock in his fingers and tucked it behind her ear. She made a gentle humming noise and he saw goosebumps rising on her neck.

He traced them with the back of his hand, his forefinger stretching out and mapping the line of her jaw before lightly tracing her lips… and he couldn’t help himself. He brushed his mouth over hers, soft and sweet, once… twice…

She sucked in a breath, shifting her body slowly, slightly, like she might scare him off.

His heart was pounding, but he didn’t pull back.

They stayed like that, eyes closed, lips unmoving and barely touching, frozen in place... And before he could get a grip on himself, her lips parted. It was so soft, like a question, like she was asking if it was okay.

Please let me,she was saying.Please…

He wanted to say no. He really did. He wanted to push her away and tell her he got carried away and had to go. But his fingers drifted to her throat, aching for the feel of her skin, her pulse thundering, and then she started to move her lips against his.

When she slid her tongue into his mouth, he felt his body buckle onto her bed, sinking into her like sinking into a pool.

It wasn’t fireworks, fast and desperate, like that time in the truck. It wasvolcanic.A slow-moving, devastating heat that was going to exenterate his insides.

And he didn’t care.

Her hand found his chest and she smiled against his lips, tapping her fingers rapidly in time with his thrumming heartbeat.

Fast,she thought.

He tapped his fingers against her carotid.

You, too,he thought back.

A little moan came out of her mouth, and he fought to keep his lower body away from her, to keep himself from pressing his throbbing erection against her tiny frame. Alarm bells were going off in his ether as he tried to keep his distance, but she wasn’t having it.

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