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

his belt buckle.
    Taking courage from the way the kiss burned through my fear and doubt—he wasn’t kissing “Phoebe Reede,” he was kissing me —I moved my hand to the hem of his shirt, intending to wrap myself in his embrace and lose myself entirely in his kiss.
    When my fingertips brushed against the skin between his shirt and his pants, he gasped and pulled away.
    “Oh, darlin’, what’re ya doin’ to me?” He sat and dragged his hands through his hair as he said the words.
    “I don’t know,” I admitted.
    When I spoke, he glanced back at me and his thumb found his bottom lip where it traced a slow line back and forth—as if he were trying to imprint the memory of the kiss.
    “Everything tonight is so far outside of anything I’ve ever done before,” I continued. “I don’t usually leave pubs with strangers.” I didn’t feel the need to add that I’d never really been into a pub before to be able to leave with someone. After all, the sentiment remained the same whether we were talking about a seedy dive or the guys who hit on me at the track.
    “Well, I am mighty relieved to hear that, because it can be a dangerous pastime.” His statement seemed guarded, but I wasn’t sure if that was because he was familiar with the process.
    I needed to know. “Is it one you partake in often?”
    “No, ma’am. I, uh, I’m actually savin’ myself for marriage,” he said. “Maybe it’s odd that I’m twenty-four and still ain’t done the deed. But the way I figure it, the right lady will be worth the waitin’.”
    His words should have calmed me because they were an indicator that he wouldn’t expect anything more that night, but they didn’t. Instead, I just kept hearing him say his age over and over. Six years older than me. Fuck, Dad would have kittens if he found out. True, Flynn was almost ten years older than Luke, and Mum and Dad accepted that, but I’d learned long ago that things worked differently for me than for their friends and other family.
    “I’ve, uh, got to go.” I leapt to my feet and was back at the bike in an instant.
    “Wait!” he shouted as I turned the key. “Hey, wait up.” He charged up the hill toward me, an expression of panic on his face so endearing that I had to wait for him.
    “If that scares ya off, well, I can understand that. It ain’t the first time it’s happened. But ya brought me here, remember?”
    “It wasn’t like I thought we were going to have sex!” I was horror-struck that he might think that was the only reason I’d left the bar with him. The thought might have crossed my mind once or twice, but it wasn’t like I’d decided or that it was the only reason we’d come out to the quiet spot.
    He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I mean I ain’t got another way home if ya don’t take me back to my friends. Cell reception out here ain’t exactly fantastic.”
    “Oh. Shit. Of course. Hop on.”
    “We are talkin’ about the bike now, ain’t we?”
    “Ha ha. Funny. Get on or I’ll leave you here.”
    He slung one leg over the back of the bike and breathed against my neck. “Yes, ma’am.”
    As I rode, I had to squeeze my legs around the seat to focus my attention on the task at hand. By the time we got back to the pub, my body was shaking, and I didn’t want the ride to end. I even debated circling around and heading straight back up into the hills. With growing disappointment that it would all end soon, I pulled into the car park and stopped the bike.
    Beau climbed off and pulled his helmet from his head, resting it on the hood of the car he’d pointed to when I was pulling in.
    “So, darlin’.” His hands reached out to guide my helmet off my head. “Is this it? The end.”
    “Yeah. I guess it is.”
    “Ya got a number?”
    “A number?”
    “Ya know, ya digits. A cell phone number.”
    “Oh! Um, only my one from Australia, but I’m not sure how to dial it from here.” It was a lie, but a convenient