Page 3 of Turn Up The Heat

Shane’s head snapped up just in time to catch the conflicted look on Grady’s weathered face.

“You pay me just fine, Grady. You know this is something I’ve got to work out on my own.” He let his eyes rest on the Mustang, his gut flickering with unease. “If it comes down to it, I can sell the car.” The words tasted like a battery acid lollipop as they came from his lips.

“Shane,” the old man started, but Shane waved him off.

“I’m going to return Mrs. Teasdale’s car, then go for a run on my way back. Unless you need me for something here?” The look he gave Grady said the conversation was over.

Grady nodded slowly. “You know you’re gonna freeze your ass off, don’t you?”

Shane tipped his dark head at Grady and went to grab the spare set of running gear he always kept in the office. “I’ll be fine.”

Sure. As long as money grew on trees, he’d be freaking stellar.

* * *

“Let me get this straight.You took a job in San Diego and you’re starting nextweek?”

Well. Didn’t she just put the sucker in sucker punched.

Derek cleared his throat and looked largely uncomfortable. “That’s putting a rather fine point on it, but, yes.” He smoothed a hand over his perfectly arranged hair and looked down at her with an equal mixture of sympathy and guilt.

Bellamy should’ve known better than to trust a man who was prettier than she was.

Disbelief made her heart race, but she watched the waiter place their lunches in front of them and let him depart before she replied. “Were you going to, I don’t know,tell meat any point?”

She wanted nothing more than to be angry, to deliver the words with the sassy-girl malice she knew she had every right to feel at his lack of candor.

Somehow, though, she just couldn’t work it up.

“It’s, ah, a little more complicated than that.” Derek leafed through his spinach salad with quick, nervous stabs, refusing to meet her eyes.

Bellamy’s brows popped. “It didn’t seem complicated when you told your entire viewership about it a couple hours ago.” Okay. Maybe she could drum up alittleattitude. He’d practically dumped her in front of a bazillion people, after all! A girl had her pride.

“Look, Bellamy.” He shifted his crystal blue eyes around the room. “It’s not you, okay? I got this great job opportunity, and I couldn’t pass it up. My career is very important. People depend on me, you know.”

A hot prickle of irritation filled her chest. He was an anchorman, for God’s sake. Sure the news was important, but it wasn’t like he was going to give Mother Teresa a run for her money.

Derek smiled and patted her hand. “And, let’s face it, the long distance thing just never works out. You understand, don’t you?”

Bellamy couldn’t handle another nanosecond of delaying the inevitable, and the whole thing sent her stomach into a quick churn. “Frankly, I don’t. You couldn’t have told me this when you’d been offered the job? Jesus, Derek. Did you think I’d flip out or something?”

He cleared his throat ever so softly, and oh.Oh. She whispered, “You did, didn’t you?”

“Well, Iama public figure,” he said, his smile as polite as it was condescending. “I didn’t think a scene would be in either of our best interests. Like I said, it’s really nothing personal.”

Wow. She could admit to maybe being a little bit star struck in the beginning, but how had she missed the fact that this guy was sporting an ego the size of Mount McKinley? Her intuitive skills needed one hell of an overhaul. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind when the last six months flashed over her with startling clarity.

There really wasn’t anythingpersonalabout it at all. Kind of like their entire relationship.

“You know what, Derek? You’re absolutely right.” Bellamy’s pride overrode the sting of Derek’s words, and she gathered her purse in a swift grab while offering up a saccharine smile. “Although I’ve got to say, for someone with such aprominentposition in the field of communications, your one-on-one skills suck. Good luck in San Diego.”

Before she could even register that her legs had shifted to accommodate the weight of her body, Bellamy had turned on her heel to stride out of the restaurant.

* * *

“I’m sorry,Mr. Griffin. There’s really nothing I can do.”

Shane had known the words were coming, but his gut sank toward his boots anyway. “Look, my payments have always been on time up until now. Isn’t there some way we can put off the increase just a little longer?”

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