Kiss of the Winter Moon

by Amanda LeMay

  “Dain?” There was no answer. He wasn’t in his room. I sat up and threw back the covers. “So, had your way with me and left me here to sleep, eh?”

  My body was gloriously sore in all the right places. Give me some food, an hour to heal up and I’d be ready for round two. Or was it round three? Or maybe four. Either way, we would try the shower position. And after that, well, I was so glad Dain was adventurous and open-minded because he had a stack of roughly ten how-to books we needed to get through. Not that we needed any directions at that point, but with Dain’s amazing degree of stamina and eagerness to try new things, I didn’t want to waste one minute figuring out a new way to enjoy him.

  I grabbed my bra and pulled my OLV nightshirt over my head. I looked around for my panties, but didn’t spy them anywhere. Oh crap. I’d left them where they’d landed in the mini-movie theater. Oops. Shit.

  The smoky aroma of bacon hit my nose along with sausage and eggs, potatoes, and bread baking in the oven. And coffee. Glorious coffee.

  But first—panties.

  “YOUR DAD AND I ARE driving into town. You want to come along?” Maygan hung the damp tea towel over the oven handle as we finished up the breakfast dishes.

  “Nah.”

  The second you leave, I’m going to find Dain, strip him naked, and try a few new positions we didn’t get to last night.

  I didn’t say that, though.

  “I’ll just hang around here.”

  She wiped the countertop with a smile on her face. She knew. Or she had an idea.

  Oh crap. Don’t blush.

  Too late. My cheeks tingled and flushed. Did she mind that I’d spent the night with her son? I wasn’t going to ask.

  “We’ll be gone a couple of hours, doing a little Christmas shopping.” That knowing smile flashed across her face again before she turned and walked out of the kitchen.

  I practically skipped to my room. The anticipation of having Dain to myself for a couple of hours had my heart racing, my skin tingling, and everything inside of me warm and tight.

  I slipped into a dress, white with big, red poppies all over it, and yards and yards of fabric in the skirt—kind of girly, but that’s how I felt after a night of making love with the freaking sexiest male on the planet: girly. Feminine. Sexy. I slid my feet into little, red flats, brushed my teeth, fluffed my bed-head hair, applied a bit of mascara, and was out of the front door in enough time to wave goodbye as Dad’s old truck rolled down the long, long driveway.

  The moment I stepped into the barn, Dain’s arms were around me, his mouth pressed against my neck, his teeth nipping at my skin.

  “Two hours...” His hands moved to cup my ass and lifted me up enough to grind his erection into my pelvis.

  The smile on my face was huge. “I know.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and brushed my lips over his, teasing him with a flick of my tongue.

  He backed me into an empty stall, where a variety of tack hung from the walls and the earthy smell of worn leather surrounded us, along with his natural, clean scent.

  “Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, they’ll be gone longer than two hours.” His teeth grazed the mating mark on my neck and made me shiver. “And I’ve got everything I want right here.”

  Fire burned through my blood, touching off a storm of desire and need only Dain could quench. Wasting one more precious second fully clothed when I wanted to be completely bare-ass naked was a crime.

  “You better unwrap me, then.”

  My male was prepared, and laid me out on a makeshift bed of blankets he’d arranged on the wood-plank floor. He peeled off my dress, threw it to the side over a rail. My bra and panties followed. My hands wouldn’t work to get him naked fast enough. At least he’d had the good sense to unbutton his long-sleeve shirt before I’d strolled into the barn, and after that, the T-shirt came off. I fiddled with his belt, unbuttoned his jeans, and once I had them pushed down around his knees, his damn big boots got in the way. And, freaking forget struggling with those. I wasn’t waiting another damn second.

  “On your back.” I gave him a little push.

  He didn’t hesitate. I straddled him, wiggled my hips, and his hard body slipped deep into mine.

  Oh. Yeah. Heaven.

  “Jess...” He moaned as his strong fingers dug into my thighs.

  Arching my back, I didn’t move up and down so much as from side to side, enjoying how well he filled me, stretched me, made me crazy with need for him.

  “You okay with me on top?” Because I totally was okay with being on top.

  His dark eyes blazed with heat. His tongue licked out over his luscious lips as his gaze raked over me.

  “Yeah...” His voice came out choked and gravelly. “Oh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Jess, you are so beautiful.”

  My heart raced as chills broke out all over my skin. My face hurt from smiling so big and I was pretty sure I had a complete body blush going on.

  He thinks I’m beautiful.

  His hands slid to the inside of my thighs. “Spread your legs, Jess. Wanna watch you ride me.”

  A flash of heat slid over my skin because, damn, Dain made me so hot. I spread my legs wider, but I did it slowly, so slowly. At first, I rode him at an easy pace, angling my hips to thrust back and forth while moving up and down his length. Lost in the exquisite bliss of our unhurried glide, my climax built in the background, moved slow and easy, tickling my nerve endings.

  Dain moaned. “You’re killing me, Jess.”

  I smiled. “But it’s such a sweet torture.”

  I ground my body down on him, swaying circles as his fingers dug deeper into my thighs and spread me wider.

  “Jess...oh yeah...so good...”

  The climax I’d been teasing rushed up fast and slammed me down hard. I shuddered in pleasure over and over again. Every muscle in my body clenched tight while I burst like an exploding star.

  A tight growl rumbled up from Dain’s chest. “Don’t stop, Jess, please don’t stop.”

  No way would I stop. If Dad and Maygan drove right up into the barn and honked the horn, I wouldn’t have noticed.

  I rode him as his hands cupped and roughly kneaded my breasts. I rode him while he begged, harder, faster, more. I obliged until my thighs quivered from the strain and I could barely move. When my legs began to tremble from exertion, his big hands wrapped around my waist and held me still as his big body pounded up into mine. When he finally came, I collapsed on his chest and caught his howl in my mouth.

  We lay there, panting and holding each other for the longest time. I traced circles around his hard nipple and his fingers traced little lines up and down my spine, making me shiver.

  “You cold?”

  I rolled to the side and lay next to him, already missing the fullness of him inside of me. The chilly air licked at the sweat coating my skin, making me shiver again, but not in a bad way.

  “Not at all.”

  Feeling completely satiated, for the moment, I stretched my arms above my head. Dain’s mouth found my breast as his hand smoothed across my belly.

  His lips moved over my nipple as he spoke. “I have wanted to make love to you for so long. That first time I saw you at the Moon Dance, I swear my knees went weak. I kept thinking, don’t let her see you drooling.”

  My fingers tangled in his long hair. “Did you know I was above you on the next level? I was staring at you the entire time.”

  His tongue, teeth, and lips did marvelous things to my nipple.

  “Yeah, I felt it in my bones, in my skin, but I didn’t dare look up. Knew I would’ve crawled into a hole somewhere if you had caught me looking at you.”

  I threaded my fingers through his ponytail, brushing it back and forth across my belly and enjoying the tickle of those silky strands. “Do you have any idea how hard I tried to get close to you at our parents’ mating ceremony?”

  “You were directly across from me, downwind. I smelled you...” His fingers moved between my legs. “I br
eathed it in through my teeth and over my tongue and through the entire ceremony all I wanted to do was mount you, sink my teeth into you until I tasted your blood.” His teeth nipped at my breast before his tongue worked its magic.

  “Why did you run?” The words came out on a moan.

  “When one of the other males approached you, you practically bit his head off, so I thought, well, you weren’t interested in having sex. And, hell, sex was the only thing I wanted. I was kind of crazy that night.”

  “I did not almost bite his head off!”

  “Yes.” His fingers did unexplainable things inside of me. “You did.”

  “Yes.” With what his fingers were doing, at that point, I would’ve agreed to anything he said. “You were the only wolf I wanted.” I murmured. “The only wolf I want now.” Forever.

  My back arched up from the blanket as another slow, sweet orgasm traveled through me. Somehow, Dain already knew exactly how to touch me, how to play my body, how to make me come so hard and so fast he left me breathless and panting.

  His lips curved into a satisfied smile, his dimples deep indentations in his handsome face. “So fucking beautiful.” He kissed me softly then lay back on the blanket, one arm tucked under his head and the other around me, pulling me into his side.

  He gazed up at the weathered wooden slats that roofed the barn, his muscled chest rising and falling with each easy breath.

  “I remember having two voices in my head—my wolf saying ‘she wants you, she’s ready, grow a set, get over there and make her submit’, and the other voice that yelled ‘run, you idiot, run’. You get which voice won that argument.” He sighed. “I thought I’d catch you at the party the next day, talk to you like a normal human being, get to know you. I thought if I talked to you it would be enough. But you didn’t come back to the house. I must have looked like some lovesick teenager right out of high school, just a kid to you.”

  “I never saw you as just a kid.” I wrapped my arm around his chest. “I have to admit, I didn’t come to our parents’ mating ceremony for them—I came for you.” I rolled into his body and laid my head on his chest. “The reason I didn’t come back to the house had nothing to do with you.” I slid my leg over his thigh and tucked my toes down the leg of his pants bunched up at the top of his boots. “It was my fault. I was horrible. I didn’t understand how my dad could take another mate so soon after my mom died. How could he possibly be done grieving for her? I said a lot of cruel things. He said I was a grown female and entitled to my feelings, and even though he would rather I was happy for him, he understood. I took his mating personal and, for some stupid reason I can’t even explain, I convinced myself that he didn’t love me anymore. Like it was me he was trying to leave behind. I couldn’t understand how he could suddenly—fall in love. How he saw another female and immediately knew who she was to him.” I leaned up on my elbow and looked into Dain’s warm, reddish-brown eyes. “I didn’t know forming another sakana bond was possible. I get that now. I totally get that. Back then, it seemed like we’d just gone through my mom’s Ceremony of Grace. It was so hard for me to let her go. So hard to accept the fact my dad had a second chance at happiness.”

  I lay back down and stared up at the dust motes that danced on the air.

  “I’m thankful my brothers ganged up on me and set me straight. I do wish they would’ve kicked my butt sooner, but I can see why they didn’t. I guess they thought I would come around in just a couple of months, but they forgot, not only did I inherit my dad’s hair and eyes, I also inherited his stubborn-as-hell attitude.”

  Dain turned toward me. His rough fingers stroked my cheek with the lightest touch then smoothed along the length of my neck to the curve where his teeth had marked me.

  “I’m thankful, too. Yesterday, when I marked you, those two voices in my head were shouting at me. Not carrying on an argument, shouting the same damn thing loud and clear and for the first time since I laid eyes on you. I’m thankful I didn’t listen to either of them.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HE PEELED OFF TWO MORE flakes of hay and tossed them in the metal feeding troughs at the next two stalls. In the few days I’d been here, I’d learned each horse had his own way of letting Dain know they were waiting for their breakfast. Some just whinnied. Others tapped at their stall door with a hoof. A few took hold of their feeding trough in their teeth and banged it impatiently until he tossed a flake inside.

  “I’ll take you for a ride later, if you’d like.”

  We crossed paths as I walked back to the bales and scooped up a couple of handfuls of loose hay that had fallen to the side.

  “Are we switching positions again?” I grinned up at him as we made another pass. Openly talking about sex was still new to him and there was nothing sweeter in the world than watching his cheeks take on a rosy hue. It was something I treasured. His shyness around me wouldn’t last forever. Not at the rate this relationship was swiftly progressing.

  “Ride a horse.” He grinned.

  I giggled as I held my hand out flat to one of the horses still waiting for his breakfast. Its soft lips wiggled against my open palm, catching the treat that rested there.

  “I’m not sure. Can we ride naked?” I touched a finger to my lips. “I wonder how that would work? I’ll have to think about it. But I’d much rather ride you.”

  Suddenly he was behind me, his arm around my waist crushing me to his body. His rough hand slid across the front of my dress and cupped my breast. I leaned my head back and his lips found mine, his tongue drove in and, damn, I loved kissing him.

  “Jessy...” He whispered against my mouth. “I can’t...” His tongue slipped deep into my mouth again, teasing me. “I can’t stay away from you. I close my eyes I see you naked on top of me.” His arm tightened around my waist as he ground his hips into my backside. “Your breasts in my hands...”

  A gentle squeeze and a little pinch made my skin tingle and flush. “Yeah?”

  “The way you make me feel and the way I feel when you come. Watching you surrender is so hot. In those few moments, I get a glimpse of the real you and, damn, I want to see that look on your face all the time. Love knowing I put it there.”

  I pulled his mouth back to mine and swiveled my hips just to hear him groan. I could taste hunger on his tongue. The need. The wildness.

  He rested his forehead on my shoulder as I caught my breath enough to speak.

  “Dain...”

  He growled and lifted his head. “Son of a bitch.”

  I heard it, too. After almost a week on the ranch, I didn’t have any problem at all recognizing the difference between one truck engine and another. Freaking Bobby Sanders.

  “‘Son of a bitch’ doesn’t apply to him. That’s like paying him a compliment.” I nipped at his jaw.

  Dain stepped back and smoothed the fabric of my dress as I straightened the bodice and rearranged my bra.

  “I think the guy has a death wish,” I said as I turned and watched Dain head back to the hay and peel off another two flakes. The bulge in his jeans looked almost painful. “Not to mention the worst timing in the world.”

  Dain grunted. The truck pulled up somewhere outside the barn and the engine shut off as doors slammed shut.

  “He doesn’t give a shit about me. He only comes around here to piss you off. You know that, right?”

  Dain grabbed his hat from the top of the hay bales, beat it against his leg, and shoved it on his head. “Yeah, I know.”

  “And you also know I can kick his skinny, human ass all on my own, right?”

  A show of fangs through a wicked smile accompanied his reply. “You have no idea how much I would love to witness Bobby Sanders getting his ass kicked by you.” His eyes locked on mine. “But he ever gets that close to you, I’ll be the one kicking his skinny, human ass.”

  “Well, growing up with three older brothers, I’ve learned a trick or two. You don’t need to rescue me. I’m not afraid of him. If he tries anything, I won’t
hesitate to act. I’ll break his arm, his nose, whatever.”

  A broken whatever from me was much less than whatever an angry, possessive wolf might do. If Dain knew that Bobby had already laid his filthy, animal hand on me, Bobby Sanders might not be alive to give me the satisfaction of breaking his whatever.

  “Now git.” I nodded to the other end of the barn.

  It would do no good for those two males to cross paths ever again. With the full moon so near and Dain in “protect” mode, there was a good chance Bobby would be beaten to a pulp and possibly dead before he knew what hit him, and even though he might deserve whatever Dain did to him, I didn’t want Dain carrying the weight of another death on his back.

  Dain walked to the other end of the stalls, but instead of going straight out the doors, he stopped, leaned against one side, folded his arms across his big chest, and he propped his boot heel on the rail behind him, hiding the bulge that stretched his pants.

  Yeah. The perfect silhouette of a cowboy-calendar model.

  He mumbled under his breath, a long string of cuss words ending with “I’m not leaving you alone with that grumble, grumble, grumble.”

  Okay. Fine. Whatever.

  So, he wasn’t going to git all the way. Typical. Damn jealous, possessive male.

  Yeah, I kind of liked it. And that classic cowboy pose was so mouthwateringly sexy.

  “Fine. Stay there. But I’m not playing tag-team with you. If he starts something, you let me finish it.” His dark eyes flashed up at mine. “I’m serious.”

  Even with the full moon only a night away, being a female, I had more control over my wolf half than any male, plus I had the added advantage of not being taken by surprise this time.

  “Dain.”

  He twisted his neck side to side, the cracking bones echoing throughout the barn. He looked up from under his cowboy hat, nodded, and went back to his calendar pose.

  The sound of two male voices spoiled my viewing pleasure. I turned to see Bobby, GW, and DJ stroll in from the other end of the stalls.