Phase (Phoebe Reede: The Untold Story #1) by Michelle Irwin Page A

everyone else did.
    “I, uh, yeah,” I said, rolling onto my back but tipping my head to watch him. “This is so not what I expected from tonight.”
    “Me either, darlin’, me either.” He sighed and lay on his back as well. “So how long are ya in town for?”
    “Tonight’s my last night. I’ve been stuck while waiting for parts for my bike. But now it’s fixed, I’ll be taking off.”
    “Where to?”
    I drew one leg up so my heel was against my arse and laid my arm over my forehead. “I actually don’t know.”
    “Ya don’t have a plan?”
    “Not as such. I mean, I’ve got things I want to get to and some that I have tickets booked for, but I don’t really have a specific itinerary. That’s the point of this trip, actually. The last four years have just been work, work, work, and doing everything expected of me. This is my time to just be me.”
    “I can’t imagine being that free,” he confessed.
    I chuckled as I thought back to just over a month earlier. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible either. “You should try it sometime. It’s great.”
    “Ya meet all sorts of interesting people?”
    “Definitely. I mean, I might meet even more if I could make it out of Cali.”
    “Ya ain’t found anyone interestin’ in California?” he asked.
    “No one that lives here.” I wasn’t sure whether I wanted him to catch my drift with both hands or let it pass him by.
    “Why, li’l miss, I do believe that was a compliment.” I could hear his smile in his voice.
    I rolled over so I was facing him again, only realising at the last second that it took me so close to him.
    Too close.
    And somehow not close enough.
    An instant later, his arm shifted to curl under my neck. Instead of pulling away from the increasingly intimate touches, I rolled onto my back at his side, laid my head on his chest, and stared at the stars above us.
    There was nothing above us but the open sky. Moonlight beamed down on us from beyond, as if the man on the moon approved of our meeting and granted his blessing.
    The moment was so peaceful.
    So still.
    I’d never experienced anything like it before. With so many younger siblings, there was always noise. And when I wasn’t at home or school, I was on the track.
    The only sounds I could hear in that moment were his shaky breaths and racing heart.
    I closed my eyes and swallowed down the worry that this wasn’t going to end well.

 
     
     
    “THIS IS REALLY nice,” I said after the silence had stretched a little beyond comfortable. “A much better birthday than the one I had planned.”
    With a slight tilt of my head, I met his gaze and time did the weird stopping completely thing again as our gazes locked and he licked his lips. My tongue slicked across my own lips in response.
    One of his hands came to rest on my cheek, and he rolled so that his body was flush alongside mine, and then an instant later I was under him. I barely had time to draw in a breath before his lips were on mine. Demanding but patient, all at once. Needful but restrained.
    Within a fraction of a second, all doubt and confusion washed out of me, and I lost myself to the moment. It was the sort of kiss I’d only ever dreamed of. It rolled through my body in waves, rushing from my lips right down to my toes. As it moved through my body, it dragged a blissful tingling with it so that it wasn’t just my lips kissing his; it was my entire being.
    I’d never kissed anyone that way before. Only one other kiss came close, and even that was in a different league. When his tongue trailed a little path across my lips, seeking entrance, I gasped. The tiny parting of my lips was all he needed. My whole body lit from within as his hands caressed my face and his tongue explored my mouth. I mewed and moaned as his skilful lips twisted mine into place.
    Because of our position, I could feel the way the kiss was affecting him. His cock was rock hard against my hip, pressing against me with the same force as