Turn Up the Heat

by Kimberly Kincaid

  Bellamy shook her head. “No, this is all my fault. If I hadn’t come down here like a total lunatic, we wouldn’t be stuck here like this. God, my screw-ups know no bounds.”

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

  Bellamy lifted a golden brow at him, a look of stubborn doubt belying the delicate features of her face. “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 call your friends to let them know you’re okay, 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 make me feel better. And I really am sorry.” Bellamy twisted the sleeve of her sweater in a tight spiral with her thumb.

  On legs that didn’t quite belong to his free will, he stepped in close to meet her eye to eye. “No apologies.”

  Sure. Except for the big, fat sorry, you may not kiss the rich girl that his neurons were trying to send to the impulsive part of his brain.

  “Okay.” Bellamy took the phone and dialed, pacing the floor in a loop. She brushed her free hand through her hair until her forefinger snagged on a lone curl. Moving her wrist through a gentle roll, she wound the curl around her finger as she assured Jenna that she was safe but definitely stuck until the storm passed through.

  The graceful way she carried herself was so unexpectedly beautiful that it captivated him, and even though he knew he was supposed to be doing something, he’d be damned if he could remember what it was. His stomach growled, sending up the hungry-man’s version of a slap upside the head. Right! Food.

  “So, what’ve we got?” Bellamy finished her lap around the garage, returning to where Shane stood with nothing to show for his efforts but a smile made up of pure bravado and a prayer that she hadn’t caught him staring.

  “Well, we always keep bottled water around, and there’s half a case of it in the office.” Thank God he knew that without looking, having snagged some the day before. “I’ve got a turkey sub and two apples in the mini-fridge, but there’s not much else. Oh, except for the jelly beans.” They were such a staple around the garage that Shane had almost forgotten about them.

  “Jelly beans?” Bellamy looked at him, surprised.

  He nodded. “Grady keeps a stash of them in ajar in the office. He swears they’re how he quit smoking,” Shane replied, going into the office to retrieve the jar. The thing was half full, and while they might get one hell of a sugar high for their trouble, at least it looked like he and Bellamy wouldn’t starve.

  “That’s kind of an unorthodox way to go.” She looked at the jar with curious eyes.

  Shane thought of the old man and grinned. “Yeah, he has a helluva sweet tooth. Those damned things work, though. It’s been sixteen years since he had a cigarette.”

  He put the jar down on the workbench with a plunk and shuffled through the contents on the shelf over the coffeepot. “We have plenty of coffee, too. That and the blanket from my truck should keep us from getting too cold.”

  A look of panic seeped into her glance. “What?”

  Shane was quick to diffuse her worry. “Relax, as long as we have power, there’s heat. It’s just that it’s drafty in here with all the windows, and we’re not exactly well insulated, like a house. So you might want to keep your coat handy after it gets dark and the temperature drops, that’s all.”

  “Oh. Okay.” A hopeful look flickered over her face. “You know what? I think I saw a safety kit in Jenna’s trunk when she took her suitcase out the other day. It might have something useful in it.”

  Shane laughed. “Like maybe a snowmobile?”

  Bellamy crossed her arms over her chest, but the laugh she was trying to press between her lips was obvious. “Well, there might be an extra smartass in there. Just in case I need a matched set.”

  Okay, he had to give her credit. That was pretty good. “All right. I have to venture out there to get the blanket from the truck anyway. Give me the keys and I’ll check the trunk.”

  The indignant look he got in return was just as much of a turn-on as the banter that followed. “I think I’m capable of making it to the side lot to check the trunk for a safety kit, Shane.”

  The way her lips kicked up over his name sent a blast of heat right through him. He shouldn’t flirt with her. He should. Not. Flirt with her.

  Oh, fuck that.

  He took his coat from the hook by the door and pulled his ski cap low over his brows. The wind could get bitter enough to curl a polar bear’s toes in a storm like this, but far be it for him to stand in her way.

  “By all means. Ladies first.” His stare offered no quarter, mostly because he wanted to make her squirm, but a tiny part of him just couldn’t look away from the sexy fire in her emerald gaze.

  She didn’t flinch, but the longer he held the eye contact between them, the more her glance softened, as if she were surprised he’d conceded. “Okay, then.” Bellamy sauntered to the side door and slid into the coat she’d abandoned there earlier. She set her cute little knit gloves in place and palmed the key fob to the BMW, squaring her shoulders before opening the side door. The gasp that flew out of her turned into a squeal as soon as she was met by the wall of wind and snow four steps past the threshold.

  “Oh my God! That is so unfair!” She cursed in Shane’s direction, hugging her arms around her body to ward off the blast of cold air as she took a few more steps through the relentless snow.

  Shane bit back a shudder. Damn, it really was bone-chilling, and he was used to the weather up here. “What’s the matter? I thought you were all over this,” he joked. Guilt didn’t let him stand there for very long, though. She stopped, and he stepped in close to block her from the stinging wind, letting it force the snow against his back instead.

  “I was. I mean, I am,” she said, but her cheeks were already flushed from the biting wind.

  Reaching down to catch her gloved hand in his, he slipped the keys from her fingers. “You proved your point, tough stuff. I can get the safety kit.”

  Bellamy lifted her eyes up, unwavering. “I’m not going back.” She shivered, but her determination was crystal clear.

  He curled the keys back into her palm, returning her gaze with his own surety. “Suit yourself.”

  Neither one of them moved, and Shane knew right then and there that he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off of her this time.

  Bellamy couldn’t tell if it was the frigid temperature around her or the blazing heat coursing through her, but either way, if she stayed where she was, it was going to land her in deep shit.

  “I’ll just take a quick look in the trunk, then.” She ducked her head and stepped away from Shane’s guard, regretting it the second the wind slapped her in the face for her trouble. A furtive glance told her he’d turned to trudge toward his truck in the side lot, so she made quick work of slogging through the shin-high snow to the spot in front of the garage bays where she’d parked Jenna’s BMW. She dusted off the lock on the trunk to spring the latch, silently kicking herself.

  How could she have been so stupid? she thought as she rummaged past a handful of reusable grocery bags. Her fiery attitude had gotten her stranded out in the middle of nowhere with a sizzling hot car mechanic whose sharp tongue wasn’t limited to his snappy wit.

  Good Lord, maybe a quick stint in the arctic wind was a good idea after all. How the hell else was she going to cool off?

  “Find anything?” Shane called from over her shoulder, blanket in hand.

  Bellamy brushed off her overactive imagination to zero in on the plastic crate in the trunk. She yanked it from the car, balancing it on her hip as she r
eplaced the trunk lid. “I’m not sure what’s in it, but I’m not going to stand out here to find out.” She hustled back to the side door of the garage, noticing the thick layer of snowflakes clinging to Shane’s dark ski cap. It had only taken five minutes, and they were both covered in a glittering crust of ice and cold.

  “Here,” Shane said, gesturing as he removed his coat to shake the snow from it. “You’re pretty much soaked. We can put this stuff over by the heat vents to dry.” He reached for her coat and gloves as she took them off, throwing them over his arm with his own.

  Bellamy scooped up the blanket and the crate, bringing both over to the workbench. She placed the crate in front of her and started rifling through the contents. “Oh, thank God. There are a couple of those heat packet thingies in here. You know, the ones you use to warm your hands. Brilliant.” After rummaging past two bottles of water and a set of flares, Bellamy struck gold. “Granola bars never looked so good.” And the fact that there was a whole box of them made her feel like she’d won the oatmeal raisin lotto.

  “Excellent.” Shane nudged a fresh cup of coffee into her hands before looking over her shoulder from behind. He was barely a step away, and she let out an involuntary shiver.

  “You’re freezing,” he said, so close she could smell the warm, woodsy scent of his skin.

  Bellamy was far, far from cold.

  “I, uh . . . well, it’s kind of snowing.” Great. Because that little mouthful of obvious didn’t make her sound ridiculous at all.

  Bellamy squeezed her eyes shut. Come on. They were both grown-ups, here. She could handle close quarters with a member of the opposite sex without it becoming . . .

  Shane stepped in to reach over her head for the box of sugar packets on the shelf, inadvertently brushing against her. They both froze for a second, his chest a tight fit against her back, and every rational thought Bellamy had been fighting for was lost in a sea of oh, so good.

  “You’re trembling.” There was the barest hint of hesitation before he swept her hair over one shoulder, the rough calluses around his fingers a sharp contrast to the heated skin of her neck.

  “I’m sorry,” she blurted.

  He chuckled, a low rumble that Bellamy felt vibrating under her skin, and his warm breath fanned out over her neck. “No apologies, remember?”

  Bellamy answered in a rushing sigh as he wrapped a lean arm around her rib cage, muscles flexing against her with hot suggestion. “Okay. I’m not sorry.” Leave it to her to botch being seduced. Oh, God, the heat of him, so unyielding against her, was distracting as hell. She felt him smile into the spot where her neck sloped into the soft knit of her sweater, his lips parting over the skin there in the barest of kisses.

  “You are very beautiful when you’re flustered. Did you know that?” Shane held her fast, sliding his mouth over her neck in a silken trail that threatened to knock her knees out from under her.

  “I’m not flustered,” she protested in a voice so velvety, she wasn’t convinced it belonged to her.

  “Mmm.” The kisses teased behind her ear before returning back down her neck, each one shattering her resolve further. “Do you want to be?”

  With that, Bellamy loosened her grip on the workbench in front of her and kicked any illusions of holding back to the curb. She swung around, and Shane met the hollow of her throat with a groan.

  “Bellamy,” he whispered into her skin before lifting his face to hers. She wrapped her arms around his taut shoulders as he parted her lips with a deep kiss that marked every inch of her. Just when she thought she would explode from the intensity of it, Shane pulled back, creating just enough space between them to be excruciating.

  “This is still a bad idea,” he murmured with a wicked grin, tracing her neck with two fingers all the way down to the top of her chest before stopping to trace a lazy circle over her heart.

  Oh, two could play at that game. Her mouth curved into a flirty smile. “Hideous,” she agreed, running the tip of her tongue in a delicate swirl over his earlobe. Bellamy wasn’t about to be one-upped, no matter how hot he made her.

  And he made her hot enough to know that the standing O she was bound to experience if he kept it up had nothing to do with the theater.

  She worked her way from his ear across the line of his jaw, trailing little, feathery kisses back to his mouth. The friction of his stubbled chin against her lips was almost enough to blow her dwindling composure.

  Bellamy gasped, low in her throat, as Shane answered by cradling his hands around her low back to guard against the rough wood of the workbench behind her, brushing his hips against her belly. He nudged her knees apart with his own, leaving no guesswork to his intentions, and she pushed forward to meet his body heat with her own.

  Her hands skimmed the lean muscles of his chest, feeling the tight pull beneath his thermal shirt as his palms rounded the curve of her hips to fist the edge of her sweater. With the muted, gray light from outside creating shadows and nuances on the chiseled lines of his face, the look he met her with sent an unparalleled ache between her thighs.

  “You’re killing me, you know,” he groaned, slipping a hand over her skin. Lifting slowly, he brushed the backs of his fingers against her lacy bra, and the mere hint of sensation over her nipples sent a shock wave clear through to her spine.

  Oh, God, was the feeling mutual. She arched into his hand, kissing him hard enough to make her lips sing as her tongue swept against his.

  “Do you have any idea how badly I want you?” Shane’s hands were at exquisite odds with her body as his fingers dove beneath the lace and lingered.

  “Yes. Yes.” Bellamy was powerless to stop the keening sigh from spilling over her lips when his words made it past the thick heat of her body and into her brain.

  “Shane . . .” Her heart skittered in her chest as she realized all at once exactly where they were headed and exactly why they couldn’t go there.

  “Bellamy,” he replied with a smile so heady that she almost forgot her name, let alone what she was going to say.

  She shifted her hands on either side of his face, drawing his shuttered gaze upward so she could meet it. “I, um. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Jenna didn’t throw any condoms in her safety kit.” If it had been happening to anyone else, the irony would’ve been fucking priceless.

  A flicker passed over his dark eyes, but then Shane’s grin turned even more mischievous. “That’s okay. We’ll just have to be a little imaginative.” His tongue darted and danced around hers in an intoxicating rhythm, proving that his creative side was raring to go.

  Gotta love a man who could think outside the box.

  Without warning, Shane scooped her toward him, gripping her hips with strong hands and lifting her up to settle her on the workbench.

  “Oh!” Bellamy kicked her hips up with a giggle as she rolled her weight off of whatever was caught beneath her left leg. She lifted her knee to retrieve what turned out to be Shane’s wallet.

  “You should be more careful with this,” she teased, handing it over.

  Shane drew her hips to the edge of the bench and ran his tongue along her collarbone before he answered. “It’s Jackson’s.” He tossed the wallet to the side with a thunk, and it popped open to reveal twenty bucks and two telltale foil packets peeking out from the top.

  Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus.

  Bellamy gave a catlike smile. “So does your offer still apply now? Or am I just out of luck with your imagination?”

  Shane looked up from where he stood, hands still wrapped around her hips. “Well, that depends. You sure you want to do this?” He ran his fingers around the top edge of her jeans. Bellamy had a sassy retort preloaded and ready to roll off her tongue, but then she caught the seriousness on Shane’s face. It wasn’t seductive banter or sexy flirting. He was really asking.

  She didn’t even blink. “Yes.”

  In a motion so swift it made her breath freeze, Shane had his arms around her hips t
o lift her off the workbench, fitting her into his body and holding her fast. She curled her legs around him, which sent a groan from his chest, but he didn’t stop moving until they were next to the car.

  Putting her down in one gentle motion, Shane popped the door open and slid the front seat forward without pause to reveal the bench seat behind it. He jerked his head toward the backseat, mouth caught up in a full-on smirk. “You comin’?”

  Oh, hell yes.

  As soon as she settled into the narrow space of the backseat to face Shane, he was on her like wildfire, hands lifting her sweater over her head while hers returned the favor. She clutched the edge of his shirt when his kisses followed the trail of his hands, nails digging into her palms through the thick cotton as his chest brushed against hers.

  “Oh.” The single syllable came out like the moan it was meant to be, and Bellamy’s nipples tightened and peaked through the white lace. She leaned back against the small side window of the backseat, and Shane hooked a thumb beneath the strap on her shoulder, following it around to her back to spring the hook with a nimble twist. Heat shot straight through her and settled between her hips, merciless as his touch became soft and teasing.

  “So beautiful.” The curve of her spine deepened at Shane’s words, his honeyed voice driving her in a way that felt both forbidden and brand-new. He slid over her, and the friction against her jeans was almost unbearable. She arched up, fumbling to both lie down and meet his body at the same time.

  “I don’t think your backseat was designed for this,” Bellamy murmured, trying to shift under Shane’s hips, but it didn’t deter his ministrations.

  “I respectfully disagree.” The cool whisper of his breath tightened her nipples even further, and she braced a hand on the front seat to fit herself under his hips. Her composure disappeared like it had never existed as he cupped her breasts with both palms, and when he dipped his mouth reverently from one to the other, Bellamy was certain that she would die from the intensity shooting through her blood.

  Out of instinct and pure need, she lifted her hips in search of his touch. The urgency coursing through her was like nothing she’d ever felt, and it wasn’t happy about deferring to the restrictions of the car’s backseat. Shane lifted his chin to look up at her, his expression hungry and purely male. Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he returned to her mouth, his kiss surprisingly tender.