Page 22 of Turn Up The Heat

Come to think of it, nobody’s had.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a brief second to block out the memory once and for all before swiping a couple of apples to top off her basket. Exhaling a slow breath, Bellamy turned toward the checkout line, leaving all thoughts of Shane Griffin in the dust.

* * *

Shane was takingthe shortcut to the frozen dinner section in Joe’s Grocery when he caught sight of a fall of blond curls that could only belong to one woman. Great. He had to run into Bellamy at the grocery store, of all places. She couldn’t eat room service like everyone else up at the resort? And was that a wheel of Brie in her hand?

Christ. Kiss or no kiss, he sure had her pegged. He turned, intending to slink behind the tall stand of fresh cut flowers in order to avoid her. But the way she looked in profile made him stop, halfway hidden from where she stood, and stare.

Bellamy’s face was shrouded by a light blue hat that softened her features, and her fair hair spilled down her back in its trademark ringlets. Shane could see the bruise on her cheek, right by her eye, and he was shocked to see it was already starting to fade. Her green eyes glittered in the light pouring through the giant store windows, and she wore a smile that was as honest as a day’s worth of work.

What rooted him to the spot wasn’t any of those things, although each of them captured his attention. The thing that made him pause, watching surreptitiously from behind buckets of lilies and greenery, was the look on Bellamy’s face. She studied everything she touched with tender reverence, cradling the avocados carefully as she chose the ones she wanted, letting her fingers sweep over the pears like they were made of glass. She looked wholly in her element, her expression open and carefree and absolutely beautiful. The sight fascinated the hell out of Shane.

Right up until she turned around and caught him blatantly staring at her.

“Oh!” Bellamy gasped across the row of apple bushels, her eyes flying wide. “What are you doing here?”

The way Shane saw it, he only had two options. He could either stand there like the dumbass he currently was, or he could joke his way out of this mess.

And he’d never been too partial to looking like a dumbass.

“Well, it’s a little known secret, but we mechanics do eat.” He stopped to let out a half-smile. “I’m grocery shopping. What are you doing?” Shane stepped away from the flowers and met her gaze head-on over the bins of produce. It wasn’t lost on him that Bellamy got kind of cute when she was unnerved, and he both hated and was turned on by how endearing it suddenly made her.

“Grocery shopping,” she said, as if she wished she had something more clever to say.

“Imagine that,” he bantered back. The edges of her lips curved upward into the barest hint of a smile.

Okay, that was hot.

Not quite sure how else to fill the silence, Shane figured he’d give polite conversation a go. “I, ah, managed to get your transmission out today. The parts should be shipped first thing Monday, so it looks like you’re on track. Should be done by Friday afternoon as long as everything arrives on time.”

Bellamy’s smile made a full appearance then, and it was one that prompted him to forget all of the fire and brimstone he’d seen from her yesterday.

She looked happy.

“Thanks. Although I have to say I hope you’re better at fixing cars than you are at grocery shopping,” she replied, nodding toward his empty basket.

Shane’s grin covered his face before he could reign it in. “I eat as well as the next guy,” he argued, and she crinkled her nose at him from across the produce display.

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

Damn, that little half-smile thing was disarming. He wanted to make a courteous excuse, grab some frozen dinners and get the hell over to Grady’s. He really did.

But then she laughed, and his legs made it clear that carrying him away from the spot where he stood wasn’t on the current menu of options.

“Okay, smartass. What’ve you got in there that’s so good, then?” He made a show of peering over the low aisle and into her basket.

Bellamy tipped her head, and her curls tumbled across her shoulder as she looked down. “Oh, nothing really. I mean, we barely have a kitchen in our suite, so, you know. Just some stuff to tide us over. The room service at the resort is, um. Just okay.”

“That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement,” Shane said, lifting a brow.

She bit her lip, which jacked Shane’s cute-o-meter up a little higher.

“Well, you said it, not me.” The look on her face suggested the room service was pretty bad.

Shane catalogued the contents of her basket in his head. “How many avocadoes does one girl need?” he queried, keeping his face as serious as possible. What a weird thing to have four of. You didn’t exactly eat them out of hand like apples.

Bellamy gave a nonchalant shrug. “When the girl in question is making guacamole for her two friends who will certainly inhale it after consuming way too much alcohol at a bonfire? You err on the side of caution.”

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