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.”
Her head lifted from his shoulder, blond curls brushing the space between their bodies. Goddamn it, he knew he shouldn’t have opened his mouth, or his heart, or whatever it was that had made him ask her to stay. He knew he couldn’t be with her in the long run, but the way she made him feel every time she looked into his eyes or said his name had pushed the stupid, reckless words right out of him.
“You want me to stay here with you,” she said, like she was making sure she’d heard him correctly. Shane could feel her stare, honest and unfeigned, and he met it even though it scared the hell out of him.
“Do you want to?” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say that yes, he wanted her to stay more than he wanted to fucking breathe, but Bellamy seemed to get the idea just fine without words, which was one of the reasons he wanted her to stay so badly to begin with.
She got it. Despite how different they were, she got him. And even though Shane couldn’t have her in the long run, he wanted her for every second until she had to go back where she belonged.
“I do want to. As long as you want me to.” Bellamy paused to give him one last glance in the shadows, searching for an answer.
Shane nodded, pulling her close. He didn’t want to waste a single second of the time he had with her worrying about the fact that, eventually, he had to let her go. For the next couple of days and nights, he had her.
And he was going to make the best of it before she went back to her life, in the only place he couldn’t follow her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bellamy rolled over and slid her arms beneath her pillow, cradling it under her cheek as she inhaled the fresh cedar scent she was fast becoming addicted to. She didn’t open her eyes, just breathed in deep and memorized the feel of the flannel sheets, soft against her body, and the comfortable quiet of the cabin.
She’d told him she would stay.
In the grander scheme of things, staying with Shane made sense. It wasn’t exactly a secret that she liked him, and the feeling seemed pretty darned mutual, especially after last night. They had some time before she had to leave to go back to the city, and he wanted to spend it with her. It wasn’t as if they were getting married or anything, for Pete’s sake. It was four days. Ninety-six hours. Nothing major.
Then why did she feel it would make or break her?
“Hey, you awake?”
Bellamy fluttered her lids open just in time to catch Shane putting a steaming mug on the bedside table. He leaned in, his hand brushing her curls, but didn’t sit down on the bed.
“Coffee’s fresh.”
Her insides tightened. Shane was already dressed in his trademark jeans and thermal top, lean muscles of his forearms showing just enough from the pushed-up sleeves to make Bellamy’s pulse hopscotch through her veins.
“Mmm, thanks.” She sat up, rubbing her eyes for a full ten seconds before she realized she was naked as the day she was born. Modesty made her scoop the covers to her chest, trying to hold them in place with her palms. Shane’s eyes flared darkly from where he stood next to the bed, but then he looked down, probably to give her at least a little dignity as she tried to figure out where her unmentionables had gotten to. Bellamy patted awkwardly through the bed with one hand, using the other to try to cover her nakedness.
Oh, screw it. It wasn’t like Shane hadn’t seen her sans apparel. He was the one who’d taken the damned things off in the first place. She twisted her hair up in a knot and launched a full-on rummage for her bra while he examined the floorboards. Her cheeks burned as she found it tucked in the folds by her feet and put it on, following quickly with her shirt. Looking around for her clothes like this should feel awkward, right? Things could be so different by the light of day, after all, and . . .
Was that bacon?
�
�I have to go to work in a little while, but I made breakfast if you’re hungry. It’s nothing fancy,” Shane added. His eyes were back on her, and they’d lost none of the intensity of the moment before. “But I kind of figure you can’t go wrong with bacon and eggs.”
Bellamy’s stomach rumbled, letting her know it was more than interested. “That sounds really good.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll just let you get dressed then.”
She waited until Shane had his back turned before sliding out of bed to scoop her pants and panties off the floor, grimacing slightly at the thought of putting the torturous G-string back on. Measuring her options, she decided to forgo undergarments in favor of good old-fashioned commando. After all, she was only headed back to the resort.
Or was she? Her heart played a healthy game of pinball in her rib cage as she remembered Shane’s request. Maybe he hadn’t been serious when he’d asked her to check out of the resort and stay with him for the rest of the week. Worse yet, maybe he’d said it in the heat of passion and was now totally regretting having asked her. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the universe, right? I mean, sure, it would be a blow to her healing ego, but still. The sex they’d had would’ve made her babble like a topographical map full of brooks . . . if she’d been able to speak at the time. So he’d let it slip in the thick of things. People said all kinds of crazy things in bed.
Please let him have meant it.
“Bellamy?” Shane’s dark gaze rested on her face. He’d stopped in the door frame, eyes crinkling in what looked like concern.
She pasted on a too-bright smile and scrambled for her wits. “Sorry, I’m slow to wake up sometimes. You were saying?” She brushed an errant curl from her face and tucked it behind her ear, fully dressed except for the tiny slip of lace and string surreptitiously balled up in her fist. Shane’s eyes swept over her hand, and his jaw ticked under tight muscles. Good Lord, this was embarrassing.
“I just said to help yourself to whatever you need in the bathroom.” He gestured to the narrow door right outside the bedroom, but didn’t move otherwise.
Turn Up the Heat Page 20