Page 29 of Turn Up The Heat

The view was easily the most stunning thing Bellamy had ever seen in her life, the simplicity of the stars themselves so at odds with the complexity and depth of the way they were strung together in the sky. Tears formed, hot in the corners of her eyes, and mirrored the glitter above them in flashes of starlight.

“Thatis why I didn’t tell you,” Shane whispered.

10

As soon as Bellamy’s soft sigh registered in his brain and then followed through with a whisper to his anatomy due south, Shane knew he was going to need a cold shower to get out of this hot mess. Still, rendering her speechless was worth it.

He gave her a few minutes before bringing her down out of the sky. “How’s your astronomy?”

She didn’t move, save for the rise and fall of her chest that sent the breath from her body in small, billowy clouds. “Truth?”

“Of course.”

“Pretty bad.”

Yup. Everything on the table.

“Oh! Wait!” Bellamy sat upright, rummaging through her coat pockets. “I’ve always wanted to use this.”

Shane laughed as she brandished her iPhone with a triumphant flourish. “What are you doing?”

“I’m using the constellation app,” she crowed, swinging the phone upward with glee. “All we have to do is point it up at the sky and it’ll tell us…” Bellamy’s voice faded out on a curse.

“That you still don’t get cell service up here,” he finished, shaking his head. “You don’t need it anyway.”

Her pout was obvious, even in the dark. “How am I supposed to know what I’m looking at, then?”

Shane crossed his feet at the ankles and folded his arms beneath his head, getting comfortable. “Well, if you’d lie back down and listen up, I’d be happy to tell you.”

She swung her head toward him, probably to glare, and the smell of her shampoo filled his senses like clean laundry on the line. If she lay back down, he was in for a long fucking night.

“Fine,” she grumbled, getting situated next to him, bringing the heat of her body with her.

Long night for the win.

“Okay.” Shane cleared his throat, willing himself to concentrate on the sky. “See those three stars, right up there, that are kind of in a line this way?” He pointed up at Orion’s Belt.

Bellamy snickered. “Shane, there are like six billion to choose from. Can you be a little more specific?”

Looked like they were going to do the Smartasses Guide to Astronomy tonight. He gave her a playfully dirty look, hoping she could make it out in the shadows. “As a matter of fact, I can.” Shane used his right hand to scoop up her left, lining his fingers up under her palm. Extending his index finger lifted hers along with it, and he aimed them right at Orion’s Belt.

“Lean your head in and follow the line of my finger straight up. See them now?”

Wordlessly, Bellamy curled her hand around his and did the lean-and-look. “Ohhhh. Those three, in the middle of that hourglass-looking shape?”

Bingo. “Yup. That’s Orion’s Belt. And you’ve already got the basic idea of the rest of the constellation from the hourglass. That bright one down there”—Shane dipped their hands lower and to the right—“is Rigel. And the reddish-tinted one up on Orion’s shoulder is Betelgeuse.”

She peeked at him over her shoulder, then shifted her hand over his. Crap, after having Marcus put the sleazy moves on her earlier, she probably thought this looked just as bad. After all, they were out in the middle of nowhere and he was lying in the dark holding her hand. Not that he hadn’t planted a kiss on her a mere hour ago, but that had been more in the interest of public service. Even though her skin was just as soft as he remembered.

“Sorry.” Shane replaced her hand down by her side. “It’s just the best way I know to show someone the sky.”

“No, it’s actually helpful. If you don’t mind, I mean.” She paused, inching her hand back toward his. “What else is up there?”

She didn’t have to ask twice. Shane pointed out a handful of the bigger constellations, using their entwined fingers to trace the night sky. The fuzzy patches of stars forming the few nebulae visible to the naked eye were easy to make out against the clear canvas overhead, and Shane gave her the Reader’s Digest version of some of the stories that went with the bigger constellations. They were lucky— there wasn’t even a hint of a cloud in the sky. Still, despite the clear weather, the crisp, earthy smell of impending precipitation hung in the air. If he didn’t know better from the weather report he’d caught over at Grady’s, Shane would swear a decent snowfall was on its way.

“So, how do you know so much about this stuff? I mean, the iPhone app isn’t exactly going to spit out the mythology you just told me, and you know right where everything is.” Bellamy dropped her arm back down to her side, but didn’t let go of Shane’s hand.

He shrugged. “My grandfather taught me when I was a kid.”

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