Page 30 of Turn Up The Heat

It was the first thing Shane had said about himself out loud for over a year, and it tumbled out of his mouth before he even realized what he was saying. His muscles pulled taut, freezing the words in place, and the ensuing silence was palpable as it wrapped around them in the frigid air.

“Ah.” Bellamy shivered, sinking down into her coat a little further, but didn’t press him for details. Which was good, because he’d already opened his yap more than he should’ve.

Shane stiffened. It had been a little too easy to bring her up here on the spur of the moment, and it occurred to him that he’d never been up to the Ridge at nighttime with anyone else. Sure, flirting with her had been fun, and yes, she was definitely sexy when she got irritated, but there was no way around the bigger picture. Being up here with her topped the list of very bad ideas, and they really shouldn’t stay.

Shane had an exit strategy on the tip of his tongue when she turned to her side to look at him, her face so close to his that he couldn’t possibly ignore her.

“Can I ask you something?”

His gut buckled down, and he didn’t return her stare.Just play it cool so you can wrap this up.“Sure.”

“Why did you kiss me last night?”

He whipped his head toward her, wide-eyed and stunned. “What?”

Bellamy’s eyes shone on his, unwavering in the starlight. Most of the women Shane knew wouldn’t have dreamed of being ballsy enough to bring up something potentially embarrassing like that—after all, he and Bellamy had kissed under some strange circumstances, and they’d both been skirting around the issue. But she just stared at him, no-nonsense, waiting for an answer, and all he could think of was how badly he wanted to kiss her again.

“Truth?” he whispered, and he felt her breath hitch as she nodded.

“Of course.”

“I have no idea.”

Unable to resist the heat of her, he closed the space between them, his mouth on hers as if it had never left. She tasted even sweeter than before, warmth drawing him in and keeping him like a secret. Shane parted her lips with his, searching with intensity, and she responded with a deep, drawing sigh.

“This is a bad idea,” he murmured into her skin as he broke from her mouth to trail kisses down her neck. God, she smelled unbelievably good. Shane unzipped the front of her coat to dive lower into the neckline of her sweater, letting his tongue slide across the planes of her collarbone.

How could she taste even better than she smelled?

“I know,” Bellamy murmured, yanking off her gloves to rake her hot, bare hands through his hair. Oh, shit, Shane was on the bullet train right to hell, but he didn’t care. He could feel her pulse hammering as he swept his mouth from her neck all the way back to her lips, and it only spurred him on harder.

“Just for the record,” she bit out on a gasp when he slid his hands to her hips and pulled her in tight to his body, leaving no space between them. “Ireallylike bad ideas.”

Shane’s smile grew wicked against her parted mouth as he tightened his grasp on her. “Then you’re gonna love this.”

In one swift move, he pulled her on top of him, keeping as much contact with her as possible while he guided her over his body. Even through the layers of clothing, she fit against him perfectly, and the heat shared between the lock of their hips made him bite back a moan. Unable to keep his hands off her, he sat up to cradle her in his lap. Shane slid his hands into her open coat and wrapped his arms around the curve of her lower back, taking in every nuance of her movement with precision fueled by pure, raw want.

“Shane.” His name escaped from her lips on a velvet sigh, and she kissed him hungrily, fingers tight on the back of his neck, keeping their bodies entwined. Thick need shot to his cock, screaming to be acknowledged, and the way she arched against him did nothing to make him want to deny it.

Bellamy curled her legs around his waist from where she sat, balanced in his lap, and sent a path of hot kisses from his ear to his neck. Her tongue flickered and teased, heightening the need building within him. A slide of her hips over his cock brought a sigh from her lips, and the thrust Shane gave in response turned it into a moan.

“Oh, my God.” The rhythmic movement between them grew faster, more urgent as she dug her fingers into his shoulders, thrusting slow and hard against his cock. She caught his mouth with hers in a greedy, searching kiss, the ache in his balls reaching epic proportions as she tightened her thighs around him and let out another sigh. The kiss intensified, and Shane wanted nothing more than to linger and take her hard and fast, all at the same time.

But if Bellamy didn’t stop, he was going to keep kissing her until they were pared down, hot and vulnerable and very naked in the back of his truck.

She had to stop.

“Bellamy.” Shane cupped her face between his palms, pulling away. The skin on her cheeks was flushed with dewy warmth, and he resisted the urge to say “fuck it” and slide his mouth back over hers. Pushing her away like this was wrong, he knew. But not more wrong than what was bound to happen if they didn’t stop, because he didn’t have any intention of seeing her again after the last bolt on her transmission was tight and ready to roll, no matter what kinds of ideas his dick had to the contrary.

“What’s the matter?” She froze against him, and even though every fiber of his body roiled against his brain’s command to do it, he slid her carefully from his lap back onto the blanket.

“We shouldn’t…” He broke off, raking a hand through his hair. “I’m really sorry, but I never should have brought you up here.” Damn it, there had to be a way to say this without hurting her feelings. “It’s not—”

“If you so much as evenimplythe words ‘it’s not you,’ so help me God, I will scream,” she said, cutting him off with the steady, controlled whisper of a hiss.

Ah, shit. Of course she was going to be pissed. “Well, it’s…” Shane stopped mid-sentence at the flash of unadulterated anger in her eyes, the only thing he could make out in the glow cast down by the sea of stars over their heads. He tightened up and cleared his expression to a blank slate before finishing.

Better for her to think he was an asshole, anyway. Hell, right now, she wasn’t far from the mark.

---