Turn Up the Heat (20 page)

“So, um, do you want to watch TV or something?” Bellamy's eyes flitted over the darkened screen before settling on Shane. He stacked a handful of logs in the stove and lit the fire as if he'd done it a thousand times before.

“I only get a couple of channels, and the reception's not the best.” Shane's eyes were back on her, sending that
whoa, Nelly
feeling right into her gut again. He had something on his mind, all right, and it wasn't the Tuesday night lineup on ABC.

“Oh, right.” She peeked up at him. He was kneeling down, next to the fireplace, but his eyes were fully on hers. Want mingled with need and moved through her, replacing her blood and breath.

“What are you thinking about?” Shane asked, his voice a perfect balance of genuine curiosity and suggestive huskiness.

“Me?” Bellamy felt her cheeks flush as soon as the word was out.
No. The other babbling blonde in the room, you dumbass.

Shane's laugh was a low, sexy rumble. “Yeah, you. You've got a look on your face.”

“What kind of look?” Maybe if she stalled, she could come up with something non-embarrassing to say.

He raised a delicious brow. “You looked like you wanted to come over here.”

Holy hell. Now he was a mind reader, too. She'd better get it together, otherwise she was going to be reduced to a great, big puddle of wine and hormones, right there in his only chair.

“Okay.” All it took was three steps before she was next to him, sitting cross-legged in front of the woodstove. The fire crackled, filling the room with intimate warmth. “This is nice.” Bellamy gestured to the stove. “Although if I'd known, I'd have bought marshmallows.”

“Do you always think about food?” Shane picked up her hand and curved it over his, pausing to kiss the top of each of her fingers. Ohhh, mixing sweet with sinful like that was downright criminal.

“No.” She hesitated when he lifted his eyes to meet hers, the doubt on his face clear.

“Not
always
. But a lot,” she admitted.

His lips parted in a smile that she felt in every inch of her body. “Then we can do the marshmallows next time.” He grazed his fingers up her arm, toward her shoulder, and she felt powerless to resist how electrifying the simple touch felt, even through her shirt.

“Oh, that's good,” she murmured, letting her eyes fall closed.

Shane leaned in nearer, his lips so close to her ear that she had to fight back a sigh. “You must really like marshmallows.”

She squeezed her eyes even tighter, torn between a laugh and the sigh that was still fighting for escape. “No, I meant . . .”

Shane feathered his lips over her neck, and the sigh won out.

“I meant you.” Her eyes fluttered open just in time to see him tense before her, and for a second she thought she'd said something wrong. But then Shane pulled back so she could see his face, his eyes black and round with desire, and her breath caught in her throat. Everything about him, from the woodsy, masculine way he smelled to the feel of his rough hands on the softest parts of her filled her up and tangled in her mind, mingling inextricably with all that had been there before in a way that she was certain could never be undone.

And she wanted it that way.

“Do you know what you're doing to me?” His voice sent tiny quakes through her insides that only intensified as he hovered over her ear again. Bellamy shook her head, unable to find the words to answer, and Shane's breath heated her skin as he continued. “How every time I see you, I can't think of anything other than how good you taste?” Shane dipped his mouth to her neck again, and she felt a soft moan slip from her lips. Bellamy wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in. If she didn't have him right
now
, she was going to explode, plain and simple.

But he resisted. “Uh-uh. No more floors, no more backseats of cars.” He sent a look over her that positively sizzled on her skin. “I want to make love to you in bed, like you deserve.”

Something hot and wicked snapped in Bellamy's veins, and it screamed with raw satisfaction as she curled her fingers around his shirt to push him onto his back.

“I like the floor,” she breathed, swinging a leg over him to settle in his lap. The feel of his arousal, hard and ready and oh so snug against her, derailed any chance she had at rational thought. She bent down, greedy for his kiss, but when he arched up into her hips, she stopped over his lips to bite back a groan. The split second was all the leverage he needed to make her insides go liquid. Again.

“Nice try. But you're not getting what you want. Not this time,” Shane amended, reaching his arms under hers to scoop them back to sitting. In one swift move, his legs were beneath him, carrying them both to his room. Bellamy was getting
exactly
what she wanted.

And she wanted it forever.

Shane couldn't breathe or think or see. The only thing he knew as he carried Bellamy to his bedroom was that he wanted to have her until the sun rose. He wanted to watch her eyes fly open, glittering bright green like summer grass under sunrise, as she unraveled beneath him. He wanted to bring her to the sweet edge between aching need and lusty release so many times that she forgot her name. He wanted to follow her there with reckless abandon, lose himself in the smell of her hair and the salt of her skin.

He wanted her to stay.

Bellamy squeezed her legs around his waist, and the wicked friction of her hips over his jeans almost made him walk into the doorjamb. Holy
shit
, every time she came out with one of those breathy little sighs, it damn near killed him. She buried her face in his shoulder, lining his neck with kisses hot enough to make him question his sanity.

“Bellamy,” he ground out, loving the exquisite feel of her name in his mouth. There was something so passionate about her, so unguarded and real, that he didn't even want to let her go to lay her down. They tumbled onto his halfway-made bed, and Shane relished the tight fit of her body under his in the midst of the rumpled comforter.

Bellamy unlaced her legs from around his waist to let her knees fall open, reaching down between them for the edge of his shirt. The heat of her sex against his cock was just a tantalizing sliver of what he knew would follow, and it made him harder still as he fit himself tightly against her hips.

She teased tiny circles around his tongue with hers before letting him in more deeply, and when she gave in, he didn't wait. He'd never been with a woman who could drive him out of his mind just by kissing him, but the push and pull of her was goddamn flawless.

“You are so beautiful.” He parted from her only long enough to utter the words, and the thrum of noise it brought from her in response made it worth it. He slipped a palm under her shirt, the hot silk of her skin enticing him to take it off.

Bellamy beat him to the punch, though, winding her fingers into fists and pulling his shirt over his head. She was the perfect combination of give and take as she moved under him, rocking up into his hips with irresistible heat.

Desperate for the delicious slide of his skin over hers, Shane drew back to lift her shirt over her belly, circling it with his palm before pressing back into the cradle of her hips. It was going to take every ounce of control he had not to rip those cute little pants off of her, but he was going to do his damnedest to take his time and savor every nuance, from the honeyed taste of her skin to the unfettered look on her face when she came.

“Do you want me to take this off?” Shane shifted his hand upward, toward the breasts he ached to touch, and lifted her shirt to reveal what lay beneath.

“Yes. God,
yes
.” Bellamy writhed under him, knocking his concentration down a peg. Man, he'd wanted to do this slowly, to feel every second of being with her, but if she kept it up, he wasn't going to make it.

They'd just have to do it again. Maybe twice.

Shane pulled her shirt over her head to expose her creamy skin, bound softly by a black satin bra that made him cut out a groan. Bellamy arced up, eager for his touch, but he grazed over her with gentle caresses, savoring her taut nipples beneath the glide of the fabric. His fingers turned lazy circles over one, then the other, driven by the feel of the hard peaks under lush satin. Aching to taste her, he dipped down to circle his tongue over one perfect pink nipple, still sheathed in the thin fabric of her bra.

“
Oh
, don't stop doing that,” she keened on little more than a whisper, so provocative that he couldn't deny her. Heating both the satin and her body with his mouth, he laved her, meeting her want with his own. Bellamy reached down on a gasp, cupping his face with her slender fingers. Her hands moved from his face to the curve of her rib cage as she slid them beneath her breasts.

Ohhhkay, he definitely wasn't going to make it, because that was hot as hell.

Shane lifted his eyes to Bellamy's just in time to watch the recognition flash over her face. The corners of her lips kicked upward into the sexiest smirk he'd ever seen, and she braced her elbows under her body, fingers still lightly cupping the underside of her breasts.

“It's in the front,” she said on a husky breath. She fingered the two edges where the inky satin came together to hug her curves, but didn't make a move to unclasp it. Shane could just make out her eyes, wide in the dark of his room, through the moonlight spilling in from the window. They were unwavering on his, striking a flawless balance between tenderness and desire.

He wrapped his fingers around hers, holding the weight of her breasts and her hands in his. Bellamy's chest hitched under them as she sucked in a breath, pushing hot need through his body.

“You do it,” he said on a hoarse whisper, watching her eyes gleam in response in the silvery moonlight.

“I . . . um . . .”

Shane sensed the hesitation mingling in with her hunger, and he kept his eyes on hers. “Do you trust me?”

Bellamy answered without pause. “Yes.”

“Then let me show you. Let me show you how beautiful you are.”

Shane slipped his fingers over hers, curling them into the warm V between her breasts. Slowly, he guided her hands around the clasp until it popped open. Twining his hand around hers so their fingers were side by side, he brushed over her, barely grazing the tips of her nipples first with her fingers, then his own. Bellamy dug into the pad of his hand with her thumb, and it stayed his focus on her body. The second pass came with bolder strokes, evened out by light caresses as he guided both of their hands from one breast to the other, using her fingers to build the sweet tension between them.

“Oh,” she murmured, her hair splayed across his pillow in a riot of golden curls. Shane shifted his body over hers to nuzzle the hot fold where her neck met her shoulder, inhaling the clean scent of her. Working her hand in quicker sweeps, he felt his breath catch in his lungs as she tightened and lifted beneath his body.

“Don't . . . oh my God,
please
don't stop,” she begged, her voice ragged with the plea. The words snapped through him, daring him closer, and he went without looking back. God, she was beyond compare when she danced right on the edge, and he knew he'd give anything to watch her eyes spring wide with pleasure.

“Open your eyes, Bellamy.” Shane bent down to take her nipple into his mouth at the same time she fluttered her lids to look at him. He felt the heat of her stare as his tongue slid over her, bringing her closer. “Can you see how breathtaking you are?”

She canted her hips to meet his just once before pulling back to drop a hand between them, firmly cupping his cock over his jeans. Every thought in Shane's mind was completely canceled out by the feel of her, replaced by raw want.

“What about you?” Moving her hand in a steady stroke, Bellamy tucked her bottom lip between her teeth as she gave him the most seductive, teasing look he'd ever seen in his life. “Can you see how breathtaking
you
are?”

The friction between her hand, the layer of clothing that separated them and his skin was excruciating in the best possible way, to the point where Shane was sure he wasn't going to make it out of his jeans. He had to turn the tables on her, do something,
anything
, otherwise this night wasn't going to end with the kind of bang she was surely expecting. Bellamy's lips curved into a wicked smile, her bottom lip still caught in her teeth.

Without thinking, he reached up to release her lip from her teeth, his fingertips barely touching her soft skin. Gasping, she stilled her hands halfway down his button fly, parting her lips to taste the rough edges of his fingers. The look on her face was pure passion, and as she looked up at him, green eyes sparkling in the shadows and moonlight, Shane felt something in his chest rise up and break loose. “I don't want to wait, Shane. Please don't make me stop.”

He didn't stop her as she unbuttoned his jeans, but when he went to slide her pants down her hips, she caught his hands with hers.

“My purse,” she said, catching him completely off guard.

“Your what?”

Bellamy turned to her side, bringing him with her. “There are condoms in my purse.” She buried her face in his shoulder and started kissing her way across his chest. If ever there was a way of making him not want to stop, she was hot on the trail to finding it.

Thank God they wouldn't need to go rummaging for wherever she'd left her purse. Shane turned to his back, reaching out blindly for his tiny bedside table. He'd covered every hopeful
maybe
earlier that day, not wanting to leave anything to chance.

“Got it.” He barely got the drawer open in between groans at her ministrations as she kissed her way across his chest, and when she drifted lower across his belly, he hissed out a breath.

“We're not going to get to use this if you don't stop,” he ground out, and she looked up at him with a surprisingly naughty grin.

“I thought you liked creative,” she said with an arch of her brow.

Shit. She was killing him, she really was.

“I do like creative,” he replied with every last ounce of willpower he possessed. “And you're about to find out how much.”

The only thing better than the feel of Bellamy's hands on him was the feel of her body under him.

Taking care not to hurt her, but not giving her an inch to protest, Shane swept an arm under her to swing her firmly onto her back. He rolled the waistband of her pants over his thumbs, stroking her hips with his fingers while he served her with an exact replica of the wicked grin she'd just given him. Trailing his tongue down the column of her neck, he made his way to the sinuous curve of her belly, freeing her pants from her hips to reveal a triangle of lace and satin that made his heartbeat jackhammer in his veins.

“God, these are hot,” he rumbled, breathing into the skin just above the fabric.

“I hate them,” Bellamy blurted out, and he had no choice but to chuckle.

“Then let's take them off.” Shane guided the thin strings down over her hips, fixing her with his gaze. He slipped the panties from her, then worked his way back toward her center with slow, deliberate strokes of his fingers and mouth. She tasted just like heaven, and even though he wanted to be inside her so badly that he could have screamed with need, he held back, pleasuring her with his mouth and his hands instead.

“Shane.
Shane
.” Bellamy's hands fisted the comforter, and she arched her back off the bed. He slid his palms between the small of her back and the gorgeous curve of her ass, holding her fast as she shuddered under him.

Watching her come was the most striking thing he'd ever seen in his entire life, the intensity and pure sweetness of it so matchless that Shane wanted to have it forever.

“Shane,” Bellamy whispered, slipping her hands around his face. Her breath carried the word right through his chest. “Come here.”

He kissed his way gently past her still-trembling thighs, up the tenuous rise and fall of her chest until he reached her face. A sated smile played on her lips, and he outlined it with the pad of his finger.

She caught his hand with hers and laced their fingers together. “I want to make love to you.”

Honesty rang through her words, which made him want her all the more. Bellamy ran her hands reverently from his face down his neck, gliding across his chest to land around his waist. His fumbling for the bedside table hit the mark on the second try, and he found the condom he'd left there and put it on. Returning to the warmth of Bellamy's body, he snaked an arm around her ribs to cradle her shoulder with his palm. She gave an ever so slight shake of her head and hooked a leg over his hip.

“No. I want to make love to
you
.” Using the arm he had braced beneath her and the momentum of her weight against his, she swung him over so that the weight of her lithe body was poised right over his. Before Shane could even register being on his back, Bellamy had curled her fingers into his shoulders, the intoxicating heat of her core so close to his cock that he couldn't think about anything else.

“Bellamy.” Her name felt perfect coming out of him, as if he was made to say it, and she responded wordlessly by lowering herself over him. She balanced over his body until their hips joined together, skin on skin, heat on heat, and Shane knew that if a million girls came along after her, he would still never be the same.

Bellamy moved over him with slow fierceness, both intense and beautiful. The rhythm of her body on his felt so good, and he guided his hands to her hips to steady her while she made love to him. When her movements quickened, he held her even tighter, watching with awe as she shuddered over his body in a wave of release. Only then did Shane let go, grasping her so close that there was no space between them and calling her name as he came.

She leaned forward, breath still spilling out in ragged bursts, to cover him with her bare chest. Shane folded his arms around her to gather her in, tucking her into his body like she belonged there and nowhere else. Without thinking, the words in his mind found breath and tumbled out.

“Stay. Please stay.”

Bellamy nuzzled his neck, releasing one of those soft sighs that made him forget everything that stood between them.

“I don't want to go back to the resort tonight,” she admitted, settling against him.

Shane shook his head. “No. I mean don't go back to the resort at all. Stay with me for the rest of the week.”