“I’ve never hiked at night before.” And I’m plenty hot. Believe me.
I waited until he was sitting beside me with his feet submerged, then drew his face to mine, my hand on his short beard, turning his head. Isaac followed, letting me lift both hands to his face and feel over the shape of him in the dark before he was reaching in return.
“I’m sorry,” I said into his lips. “I probably taste like fish.” Should have taken another thirty seconds for real teeth brushing.
“More like vanilla and beer,” he said. “An added treat since I like it but avoid it.”
“Does it make you sick?”
“Not too bad. It does for some. But we’re delicate when it comes to the stuff. Elisabeth’s mead is splendid.”
“You should take some of that home.” I slid my foot over his in the water.
“Would that be more illicit cargo?” Isaac lowered his hands from my face to my jacket, pulling down the zipper.
“Might as well be hanged for a chicken as an egg.” I slid the jacket off to fall on the packed dirt that was part of the footpath along the edge of the waterfall’s pool. I wished the fall was not rushing in my ears, afraid I would miss some of his soft words.
“We’d probably be all right with it.” He bit my throat as I turned my head back. “But the less baggage the better when it comes to border crossing.”
“And life.” I pulled my feet from the water to drape my knees over his and let my feet dry.
Isaac shifted away, turned so he could lift my foot in his hand and kiss my icy ankle down to my toes.
I watched him, mesmerized, though I could hardly feel his touch at first, my foot was so numb.
“Feel better?” he asked, rubbing my feet and looking around at me.
“What?”
“You said your foot soak on a hike makes you feel cool and hydrated.”
“I feel very … in the moment.” And definitely hydrated. I turned even more so I was facing him with my legs across his lap and pulled his face to me again.
Isaac opened the buttons on my blouse and left my lips to kiss along the line of my bra, down the straps, across the tops of my breasts.
I inhaled with my nose in his hair. “Take your shirt off.”
I was grateful he managed to do this without breaking contact with me. Hot skin burning with his touches and beyond each touch. I wanted more and more from him, all of him. Yet I also had this one moon, with nothing but a dark uncertainty to face tomorrow.
We drew out getting our tops off for ages. I pulled Isaac by his belt to the ground and he dropped back on my jacket with me following, my bra against his bare chest.
Even having been around them so much lately, I couldn’t believe the feel of him. It was as if I’d spent my adult life thinking there was nothing but marshmallow and ice cream for dessert. Then someone gave me chocolate bark and biscotti and I couldn’t stop feeling and tasting.
I ran my hands over the hair on his chest, pressing into the muscles, fascinated. I slid back to sit on his legs and kiss his abs, tracing my fingers over the lines like puzzle pieces. He was just lying there. He wasn’t flexing. He wasn’t doing anything.
Well, he was laughing at me, having been watching me while I studied him.
“What are you doing?”
I had to grin as I sat up and brushed my hand as if by accident over the bulge in his slacks. “Do you do anything? Work out at all? Have a gym membership?”
“No.”
“I don’t know why you’re not the dominant species. If more women knew about this—” I tweaked his stomach. “You would be.”
“I'd rather not judge but, now that you mention it, I’ve learnt to lower my expectations with my human workmates.”
“You learn to stop saying things like, ‘Harold, could you grab that steel support beam and bring it over here?’”
He was laughing again. “Something like that.”
“Thank you for keeping those expectations in check. I’m no she-wolf either.” I leaned back over him until I could kiss his mouth again.
“You’re beautiful. But you must hear that all the time.” He stroked his fingertips down my ribs, across the dip in my waist to the curve of my hips where he hit my jeans. “Instead of generic … what are you for me? My blessing.” He looked up from my body to my eyes again. “Moon blessed me with meeting you. You bless me with your favor. I love you, Cassia, and I don’t say that lightly.”
“I thought you might have.” I was unhooking my bra in the back, watching him. “When you said it last night. One of those things people say when they think they’re about to die.”
He grinned. “I wasn’t that far gone.”
I leaned in, kissed him, let him pull the bra off. “Love you,” I said into his mouth.
Isaac sat up, pushing me back into his lap so he could bend and find my nipples with his mouth. I moved away on his legs, Isaac following me, and opened his fly. He already had his belt unbuckled from removing his shirt.
He responded instantly to my hand on him, pushing me back more, turning until I was the one on the ground, scrambling with sudden haste to get his slacks off.
No more talking. Only a rush to finish stripping. My tight jeans were a bit more difficult to remove, but Isaac caressed them down my legs, kissing my thighs, knees, and feet as jeans and underwear came away.
I lay back on the blanket we’d made of jacket, jeans, and slacks, pulling him after. Isaac leaned over me, holding his weight with one hand while he stroked my face and hair with he other, kissing, playing with my tongue. I held his hips with my knees, his erection in my hand, twisting the fingers of my other hand in his short hair.
I was more than a little intimidated by the size of him, yet it didn’t seem to matter: I wasn’t going to admit that, and I wanted him regardless—my body crying out for him. Body and I would be all right. Gentle at first would help, though.
I only said, “You have to go slow.”
Isaac nodded against my hair, his mouth busy.
When he pushed into me, he gave me a minute, self-restricting. His breaths were ragged in my ear. I felt a tense vibration in the tightness of his muscles while he controlled himself. Although I found it noble of him, I also regretted I’d said anything. The last thing I wanted was for him to get like Zar all of a sudden—acting like he could break me with a touch.
“Okay.” I had to laugh a little as he was still moving with great delicacy. “I didn’t mean it like that. Only at first. I’m not fragile.”
He kissed my hair and my ear, moving more. “Tell me what’s good for you.”
“You are.” I eased my legs down some, him sliding up, and in half a minute we’d found what was good together—a balance and right contact without being too much for me or hamstringing for him.
I loved feeling him relax, supporting himself, but no longer all tensed up. Even more I loved him saying my name as he thrust, losing myself in the intensity of that pleasure with him.
It seemed fast, or should have, like we’d just met. Instead, I wondered why we hadn’t gotten to this a week ago. Then we’d have had a week together.
So what was it? Happening too quick? Or took too long?
Perfect: my only answer. We’d met in the middle while we still could.
He grew more urgent, biting my neck. Just knowing he was close pushed me farther. Which made it cross my mind that I hadn’t even considered protection. I wasn’t on anything. Since we obviously weren’t compatible that was no worry—Goddess, how I wished we were. There were only other concerns. But maybe none at all the way they’d talked? It made me wonder if any of them even knew how to put on a condom.
I mentally dropped the issue as quickly as it had arrived. Best to see this freedom as one more joy, another part of the dream. And I could at least fantasize about him impregnating me—that I could have a mate like Isaac for real, a father to my children, this man for the rest of my life. Even though he wasn’t a man at all.
I skip
ped that part also. I focused on him: pure contact as he came and brought me to a rolling climax right after, crowning the night and the perfection of him and the fantasy. Making it all seem less real rather than more.
I held on, wouldn’t let him pull away for a long time. Then he kissed my lips, my breasts, and lay beside me on his side. It made me want us in a bed as we still touched, all gentle kisses now.
I would take him into the house with me back at the farm. This “blanket” was not exactly comfortable. I already wanted him again, at least touching me more, his fingers in me. I wanted to wake up with him in the morning with the sun coming over those mountains and blazing into my window and make love, then for him to come with me to the shower. Again in the shower. Or just sweet in there. Only touching.
Then sit with him for breakfast, talk to Martha, go out to the wild flowers and honeybees and thank Goddess and Moon for our lives and blessings and love and this place.
We lay there almost drifting off on the hard earth with the sound of the waterfall and silver of the moon, for so long I began to feel cold and wanted either to climb on top of him or have him on me again.
I was just wondering if it had been enough time for him yet when Isaac kissed my brow and said, “We have to get back.”
“What?” I kissed his lips.
“It’s late, Cassia. We have to get back and go to the cemetery.”
“Oh.” I blinked and shook myself. “I … forgot.”
Chapter 43
After a three-minute shower, pulling back my hair for the helmet, shaking out clothes and redressing, I met Isaac, Andrew, and Kage in the farmyard with the bikes. Only Jason was there to see us off and I was glad. I was afraid Zar or Jed would be lurking in fur. I didn’t want them smelling around myself or Isaac.
Obviously, I’d made my choice now—even if I’d still wavered before. So perhaps I should have wanted Zar and all the rest of them to know. Yet … somehow…
“I know, princess. I’ve driven it before.” Kage was irritated because Jason was giving him instructions before handing over his keys. “Do you want to go? I don’t have to do this.”
“They said I can’t,” Jason said. “I’m the first suspect.”
“No one’s even going to know we did this.” Kage snorted. “They’ll never be able to find us.”
“How about if they catch us tonight?” I asked, walking up to Isaac.
“Not going to happen either,” Kage said.
“With that attitude, maybe it will. If you don’t intend to be careful tonight, you should stay here.”
“Moon, Sun, and stars.” He snatched keys from Jason and swung his leg over the bike. “I’m careful. We’re all being bloody careful and all. No one’s going to take us in.”
I glanced at Isaac, who was also watching Kage. Was taking him a mistake?
Isaac jerked his head and I climbed on behind him.
“Jay?” Andrew threw Jason his iPhone. “If we’re allowed one call, we’ll call you. Then you call Diana.”
Jason nodded.
Andrew’s seriousness at the matter made me just as uncomfortable as Kage’s belligerence. At least Kage’s attitude was normal.
“And don’t use your German on the cops if you meet any,” Jason told Kage.
“Have everything?” I asked Andrew. “The bag? Crowbar? Everyone have gloves?” They had these for biking and I’d borrowed a pair from the greenhouse.
“All in my hip pocket, darling,” Andrew said coolly. “Got your passport on you? Know the number to the American Embassy in Munich?”
“Stop it. Why are you acting like that?”
“Just your inner voice. Seems like it’s gone dead on you so I’m chipping in.”
“Thank you, Jiminy Cricket. Let’s get this over with.”
The drive was indeed fast. I hardly had time to enjoy the rush of it, then worry about being arrested before even reaching the cemetery, and we were there.
In another breath, we’d glided through town and driven around a stone wall, coming out at a neighborhood dead end.
They hadn’t told me we had to trespass on private residential property to get there as well. But, yes, next thing I knew, the bikes were parked on the street and we were walking to the end and up a tiny driveway.
I don’t know why, but that was when things started getting real.
My heart beat in my throat as the four of us skirted a flower bed and climbed, not the cemetery wall, but a wooden fence into a back garden.
Andrew grabbed the top and pulled himself over with the ease of a monkey.
He scouted the yard and returned. “Good spot. Backs up to the wall.”
“Dogs?” Isaac whispered through the fence.
“At the neighbor’s. I don’t smell any in here.”
Isaac handed in the bag, Kage climbed over, then Isaac gave me his hand for my foot and I climbed, with less grace, to the top. It was an unnerving experience. The fence was slippery and splintery at the same time, but the real challenge was trying to be silent about the whole thing and thinking of someone looking out a window at 1:00 a.m.
Kage reached up to offer his hands on the other side and I caught them. He helped me down as easily as I would help a kitten, keeping silent, and I was glad, after all, he was along.
Once Isaac climbed over, we crept to the back wall. Luckily, this was a tidy yard without much in it besides a brick path, flower beds, and a bird bath.
“Check for wire,” Isaac murmured and Andrew nodded.
They’d told me there were areas of the wall with rusty old barbed wire strands still running around the top from many decades ago.
The wall was about eight feet high with the wire, seven of stone. Kage rested on his knees in the dirt against the wall and let Andrew stand on his shoulders to work with the wire cutters. If you’re going to break in or out of somewhere, it clearly helps to be in peak physical condition.
Andrew had a job of it, leaning into moss, ferns, and vines all over the wall, struggling with these and tree branches entangled with the wire overhead. He swore under his breath at the branches, beating them away, making more noise than he should while I held my breath below and watched with Isaac.
Then he clipped through one of the two strands.
The interesting thing about cutting through thick wire with heavy cutters is that it makes a distinctive sound. I’d never thought about that wire-cutting sound. I’d never bothered. Until Andrew produced that crunching noise and a dog started barking behind us.
I’d also never thought about being scared of the bark of a dog. I was not afraid of dogs. I’d grown up with my father’s sporting dogs, which it had been his hobby to train and hunt with in the autumn. And this didn’t even sound like a large dog. A high, sharp noise like a poodle or Shetland sheepdog.
Yet it was just about the most terrifying thing I’d ever heard in my life.
“Bloody hell,” Andrew whispered, struggling to get the cutters into the second wire.
Isaac pressed in with me against Kage, all of us breathless, looking back for a light to come on, for something to happen as the dog barked and yapped.
Tell it to shut up, just yell at it to be quiet and go back to sleep. That’s what people usually do. Just tell it to shut up.
Andrew snapped the next and threw the clippers over. Another mistake. They thunked across the other side as if he’d dropped a bowling ball on the ground. He was scrambling to bend back the wire in his gloved hands, pointing them into the cemetery.
Barking and barking. Then someone did shout from inside, a woman’s voice in German.
The dog barked on.
Andrew pulled himself up. Kage scrambled after. Andrew jumped down the other side. Loudly.
Shouting as the dog sounded more frantic. Now I heard claws scrabbling at a door. In a minute, the next-door neighbor was going to turn her back light on if she had any ideas of letting that dog out. And she’d look over here. And next-door was plenty close enough to see.
&
nbsp; “Dammit, Andrew,” I hissed. “Stop jumping and throwing things.”
Isaac passed the bag up to Kage on top of the wall. Kage lowered it down the other side to Andrew and it settled without a sound.
Barking, barking, barking, claws on a wood door.
Another voice, a man. An inside light came on next-door.
Kage lowered himself down and Isaac gave me a boost. A fast boost from my foot and straight up. I grabbed the wall, pulled myself through vines and into that tree branch, and yes, I did think of spiders, but, no, they were not at the top of my fear list right then.
Behind me, an outside light flicked on.
“Kage? Can you catch me?” I scrambled over. An edge of wire snagged my knee but I twisted away and dropped, clearing myself off the limited space as fast as I could for Isaac to follow me.
As I fell, I heard a deadbolt slam and back door open. The dog burst out into the night, barking wildly. A man’s voice was saying something in German.
Kage caught me, his hands hitting my waist and back. As my feet touched the ground, Isaac was already pulling himself over the top, lowering down this side.
The barking was shrill and hysterical. The man’s voice, speaking unknown words, was not.
“Was ist los? Hm?”
Questions. He hadn’t seen anything.
I stood with my back against Kage’s chest, his hands on my hips, Isaac and Andrew beside us in the near pitch dark, all watching the wall, the light, listening.
Bark and bark, the dog charging around the yard. After a minute, the man called it back in. The dog settled down. The door shut and locked. The glow at the top of the wall vanished.
I let out one breath and found myself suddenly gasping, chest heaving, feeling weak as I leaned against Kage.
“No dog,” Kage said scathingly.
“I said there was one at the neighbor’s, didn’t I? I’m not the one with the dead nose.” Andrew also sounded irritated.
“You two were supposed to pick out a good spot for us,” Kage said. “Might’ve tried a bit harder yesterday.”
“You go along next time and find a better one, silver,” Andrew snapped.
Isaac had already walked away. I wanted to follow, but I couldn’t see a thing besides a few black outlines on more black.
Moonlight Hunters: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 2) Page 26
