Page 41 of Turn Up The Heat

Her insides gave a little quake, but it was less scary than the full-on fear tremors she’d had earlier. “Yeah, remind me of that when the bills come rolling in. Still, you’re not wrong.”

“Oh, I bet that hurt to say,” Shane joked, and Bellamy had to laugh right along with him.

“Only a little.” She held up her thumb and forefinger, an inch apart. “But the reality is, I wasn’t happy at my job even before my terrible boss came onto the scene.”

Shane opened his mouth to answer her, but was cut off by the shrill electronic ring of the office phone.

“Ah, that’s probably Grady, calling to see if I’ve left yet,” he said, giving her a guilty look before swinging his legs down from the workbench to grab the phone.

“God, I’m sorry. It’s been really good of you to put up with my meltdown and all, but we really should get on the road.”

Shane looked at her over his shoulder. “I’m not worried about the truck handling the snow. Just let me grab this and then I’ll get you back to the resort.”

Bellamy stood up and stretched her legs, walking over to look out the window at the snow. Thick, fat flakes were still dumping from the sky, and they swirled in brisk drifts over the gravel drive and the road beyond.

Hang on a second…

She squinted through the glass in confusion. The tire tracks she’d left on her way in had been swallowed whole, and as she looked more closely, Bellamy realized she had no idea where the drive ended and the road began.

And there were easily five inches of snow on both.

“Uh, Bellamy?”

She knew without turning around that she wasn’t going to like the look on Shane’s face. He leaned in the doorframe, cordless phone still in his hand, and met her eyes with an oh-shit expression that made her stomach bottom out somewhere around her hips.

“What? What’s the matter?”

“That was my buddy Jackson, who drives a snow plow for the county. They just closed all of the roads going to and from the mountain due to whiteout conditions.”

Her eyes went round and wide as he shook his head and met them with his own.

“It looks like you and I are kind of stuck here.”

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Bellamy’s eyes were as round as pretty, green dinner plates. “Define ‘kind of stuck here.’”

Shane tried not to wince. “Well, they closed the roads to everyone but snow plows about fifteen minutes ago. Jackson said visibility is pretty much nil, so the cops set up roadblocks until the snow eases up.”

He didn’t add that two cars had skidded right into the guard rails, and that Jackson had almost gone off the road himself a time or two.

“Are you serious?”

Shane shifted in the doorframe, trying to look at anything other than the doe-eyed expression on her face. Keeping himself in check when she got all hot-girl-feisty was hard enough. The sweet, vulnerable thing? Shit, an army of him wouldn’t stand a chance against that.

“Unfortunately, yeah. Listen, I’m sorry. I should have just taken you back earlier.” He probably would’ve gotten stuck at the resort that way, but at least it would have been better than being stranded here at the garage. Just the two of them.

Alone.

Bellamy shook her head. “No, this is all my fault. If I hadn’t come down here in a huff, we wouldn’t be stuck here like this.”

The look on her face sent a hard kick of remorse to his gut. “If you hadn’t come down here, I’d be stuck alone. So look at it this way. It was kind of like doing me a giant favor.”

One golden brow rose, both stubborn and delicate. “You are so full of shit.”

Her blunt words made him do a little stutter step, stopping him short with a laugh. “Okay, fine. I won’t humor you. You’re stuck with me until it stops snowing. Why don’t you use the landline to call your friends to let them know you’re safe, and I’ll see what we’ve got by way of food. According to the weather report Jackson heard, the snow won’t start tapering off until later tonight.”

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up. And I really am sorry.” Bellamy twisted the sleeve of her sweater in a tight spiral with her thumb.

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