Page 50 of Shine For Me

I open the door. “Hey, what’s—”

The sentence cuts off abruptly when he reaches for me, wrapping an arm around my middle and pulling me close as he steps into the room. He kicks the door shut a second before pressing me into the wall and my head spins. What the hell is happening right now?

As if in response to my unanswered question, Fox cups the side of my face and kisses me. He just…kisses me. Not a little peck. A full-blown, melt-your-brain, steal-your-breath-away kiss.

And I’m kissing him back. I might not have any clue what’s going on but Fox’s lips are on mine, damn it, and I’d have to be a crazy person to pass up this chance.

“Is this okay?” he mutters against my mouth.

I make an incomprehensible noise—because, hello, Fox is pressing me into a wall—but he must take it for confirmation since his lips come back, just as demanding as before.

Then he’s lifting me, those big strong arms coming around me, and I wrap my legs around him like it’s the most natural thing in the world. He carries me into the suite and there’s a part of me that’s disappointed when he opts for the couch, rather than continue on into my bedroom.

But the rest of me is too busy kissing Fox Ransome to care.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he tells me, pulling me onto his lap on the couch. “How are you more beautiful than when we met?”

“Blergh?” is my stunningly intelligent reply, because apparently my brain really is melted. He grins against my mouth.

“I want you so badly, June,” he says, his voice a sandpaper scrape across my taut nerves. “That scene—”

“It wasn’t just me?” I ask, my vocabulary finally making a comeback.

He lets out a laugh that sounds more like a growl. “No, sweetheart. It wasn’t just you. I felt it, too. That chemistry was…” he trails off, shaking his head. “I’ve never felt that.”

Chemistry. That’s what Rick had called it on set. And I suppose that’s what it was, that electric popping between us for the duration of the scene. A strong enough jolt to bring him up to my room, unable to stop thinking about it, an hour later.

But I already know that for me, it was more than just chemistry.

A fact you are going to keep entirely to yourself,I order my vocal cords. I’m sitting on Fox’s lap and he wants me and there’s no way I’m going to screw that up by getting all sentimental.

So I kiss him again (because apparently kissing Fox is a thing I get to do for the time being), pressing my body as close to his as possible. He groans into my mouth and I’m pretty sure it’s the hottest sound I’ve ever heard.

Until he tears his mouth away and says, “I want you. All of you. Right now.”

Yes,please. I move in to kiss him again but he holds back.

“I need to know this is okay,” he says, eyes darting back and forth between mine. “If you don’t want this—”

“I want it,” I say so quickly I know I’ll be embarrassed later. “I’ve wanted it. For longer than just today.”

His face softens and he presses a gentle kiss to my forehead. “Me, too, sweetheart.”

We should probably talk about this more. I should ask him what this means. Is it a one-time thing? A simple reaction to the way that scene got our libidos going? Will things be awkward later?

But I can’t seem to bring myself to ask any of those questions. All I can think is that I’ve wanted this for so long and life is too short—isn’t that what Peggy told me out on the boat?You shouldn’t wait around for a man like this.

Well, I have no intention of waiting. I’m going to seize this too-short life right by the neck and go after what I want, for once in my stupid, cowardly life.

I pull away from Fox just long enough to reach down and grab the hem of my old t-shirt. I have it up and over my head before I can second guess myself.

Fox releases a long stream of low curses. “How are you even real?” he whispers, before his mouth is running down over my collarbone, his lips leaving a trail of fire everywhere they go. He peels my bra strap down over my shoulder, his mouth covering every inch of skin he exposes.

It occurs to me that I get to touch him, too. The thought makes me feel giddy. I’ve spent so long looking at this man, thinking about him, dreaming about him. And now I get to actually touch him as much as I want. I get to see all those hidden parts of him that were always off-limits to me.

I slide his t-shirt over his head and bring my mouth down to drift across all those miles of taut, golden skin on his chest and shoulders. He makes a low groaning noise deep in his chest and that giddiness slams into me all over again. It isn’t just his body that I get to discover tonight. It’s his reactions. His expression when I kiss him. The noise he makes when I run my tongue across his skin.

All those months of looking at Fox, thinking I knew him so well, and now there’s a whole new world to discover. To obsess over. To remember for the rest of my life.