Page 89 of The Beast's Heart

“Okay, now shrimp.”

He arches his back, but instead of throwing his weight to one side, he thrusts straight up andoh my god. His eyes fly wide. There’s no way he didn’t feel my boner. And I’m pretty sure I felt something too.

“Almost.” My voice comes out gruff and low. “One shoulder. It’s about offsetting the… the…”

Our faces are so close that I can practically feel the heat coming off his flushed cheeks.

“the… balance.”

Jonathan tilts his chin up and kisses me.

My heart stops. The whole world stops. There is nothing except the feeling of his soft lips brushing mine. Then my heart kicks again and everything rushes in.

Jonathan Belle is lying beneath me, flushed and beautiful, with eyes full of questions. “I’m sorry, I?—”

I cut him off with another kiss. Heat chases across my skin, pooling near my groin as he tangles his hands through my hair and opens up to me. He’s so soft, so warm.

He whimpers and I pull away, searching his face for any hint of doubt, but he chases my mouth and then my lips are on his again and explosions are going off in my chest as I lose myself in the intoxicating taste of him.

Someone clears their throat behind us and I shoot up, mortified.

Meredith is standing by the door, smirking, with her arms folded. “Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a call for you.”

I pull a hand through my hair, straighten my shirt.How much of that did she see?I’ve been waiting for a call from the States. I should have expected the interruption.What’s wrong with me?“Uh, thanks. I’ll be right there.”

“Long distance, Beast.”

“Yeah, I know.” I climb to my feet, turn to help Jonathan up, but he’s already getting up, pointedly not looking at me.

“We’ll, uh, talk soon?” I say.

He nods. “Yes, of course.”

I finish the call, send off an email and then head for my room and a much-needed cold shower.

Meredith corners me in the passage. “Are you certain this is a good idea?”

I should have known she wouldn’t let this drop. My heart is still thumping from that kiss. What a fucking kiss it was.

I wipe a hand across my face. “It wasn’t intentional.”

“You accidentally pinned our teacher to the floor and kissed him?”

“Yes, actually.” I start towards the stairs again, striding past the door to Geoff’s empty room.

Meredith follows. “I’m concerned about you.”

“You think I’ve finally lost the plot. The isolation has driven me insane.”

“Oh, I don’t think you can blame the isolation.”

I glance at her and find her smiling slightly.

“You think I’m in a downward spiral. One that started when I had the brilliant idea to host four American orphans in Scotland of all places.”

Doing this project here in this house was probably a mistake. Everything from taking children across the border to paying courier fees on each delivery are complications we didn’t need and we would have never faced doing this somewhere else, somewhere closer to home. I thought itcouldn’tbe anywhere else. I wanted so badly to make Lloyd’s dreams come true, no matter how impractical. But Lloyd’s gone and, as beautiful as this house is, it was nevermyhome.

“Malakai isn’t an orphan,” Meredith says. “His father will qualify for parole in four years.”

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