Collide by Juliana Stone

him.
    Shane leaned against the countertop, his dark
eyes settled onto Bobbi with an intensity that took her breath
away. She didn’t know what exactly lit them up, desire? Need?
Hatred? Did it matter?
    Heat ripped through her and she was afraid
her cheeks were as red as the box of Valentine candy left on his
kitchen table. She doffed her jacket and placed it across the
nearest chair and then turned back to Shane. The silence between
them was heavy and she needed to crack it.
    “You have any wine?” she asked in an
uncontrolled Monroe kind of voice that came from where?
    “You don’t want wine,” he said, his voice low
and hitting that timber that rolled over her skin like little
fingers of pleasure. It was a statement, not a question.
    “No, I don’t want wine.”
    Her gaze dropped to his mouth.
    “What exactly is it that you want?” he asked
dangerously. He spread his legs slightly as he continued to lean
against the countertop.
    She could play the game. Keep the banter
going. The back and forth. The verbal foreplay.
    But she didn’t want to. It had been too long
since she’d felt this aroused. Sex with Shane had always been hot
and wonderful and amazing and adventurous. So, why couldn’t she
have some of that again? Even if only for a brief moment?
    “You,” she said simply, loving how his eyes
widened slightly as if he was surprised at her answer.
    “You want sex,” he said matter of fact.
    Something about his tone caught her attention
and maybe she should have listened to the warning bells that
clanged loudly in the back of her head, and yet…she didn’t.
    “I want sex,” she said slowly taking two
steps until she was between his legs, her body humming with desire.
Already she pulsed with anticipation. She was wet and ready.
    “Why?”
    God he smelled good. It took everything in
Bobbi to keep still when all she wanted to do was rub her body all
over him like a cat.
    She tilted her head and gazed up at him, her
eyes taking in the stubble that shadowed his jaw, the cleft in his
chin and the adorable dimple that softened an otherwise very
masculine face.
    Why? There were a hundred and one reasons why
this wasn’t a good idea, and yet…
    “Because I can’t remember the last time I had
an orgasm.”
    Surprise lit his eyes and for a moment he
said nothing. Any other man would have been all over that
information. Belittling her ex-fiancé Gerald and his inability to
either please his woman, or the fact that he hadn’t been getting
any.
    But not Shane.
    Silence stretched for several more moments
and when he spoke it was anti-climactic. She might have jumped. Who
knows, maybe she did.
    “This is going to get complicated,” he said
slowly.
    “It doesn’t have to be,” she answered. Her
heart was beating so madly that she was sure he heard it.
“Complicated, I mean. Not if we don’t let it.” Pia whined and
retreated into the shadows but neither of the adults paid her any
mind.
    His eyes darkened to liquid chocolate and
Bobbi shivered. She was hot and cold, her skin clammy.
    He shoved off from the countertop and she
took a step back, startled. “This is just about sex,” he said.
    She nodded.
    She whispered, “Yes.”
    “No emotional attachment because you and
I…”
    Again she nodded, mesmerized by the look in
his eyes. They were hungry and they looked like they could devour
her without even trying.
    “We’re not exactly good for each other,” he
continued.
    She moistened her lips. Was that a groan she
heard? Had it come from inside her?
    “I know,” she managed. “But there was
something we were damn good at.”
    Shane gazed directly into her eyes so that
there was no mistaking the raw desire she saw there. “You have one
minute to get your stuff and get the hell out of here or…”
    Her legs turned to jelly and she clutched the
chair behind her. “Or what?”
    He took a step forward but didn’t touch her.
He leaned down, his breath hot against her neck and when he pushed
aside her