Moonlight Mist: A Limited Edition Collection of Fantasy & Paranormal)

by Nicole Morgan

  Gentle hands shook her. Her fingers came unglued from the steering wheel, and she collapsed against a cushiony landing.

  “Can you hear me? Jewel, are you there?”

  She opened her eyes, and Alex enfolded her in a bear hug so tight her lungs constricted. “Alex!” she gasped out.

  He loosened his grip, enough to grant air passage to her lungs. “I don’t have 7-Up. What do you need?” He hauled a roll of antacids from his pocket, a staple he hadn’t needed since the kidnapping, and handed her the roll. She declined and he popped two in his mouth, chomping furiously.

  “I’m okay. It wasn’t like the kidnapping.” Exhilaration sent her heart galloping. “I linked to Michael Falbrooke! I connected to him, not the gunman. I’m sure of it now.” Bells rang in her memory. “Where’s Jake?” Alex slid her onto his lap in the driver’s seat. His anger masked a fear for her safety that was almost unbearable.

  “Who the hell is Jake?” he ground out through gritted teeth. “That asshole passed out on the ground?”

  “Oh no!” Juliana cried and struggled to rise. “Help me out.”

  “Not until you tell me what’s the deal.”

  “You better do as the lady says,” Jake’s tone was raspy and pained. He rose from the ground, rubbing his head through his thick, tangled hair.

  Had he brained himself on the tarmac when he fell into her vision?

  Alex relented, lifted her out of the confining car, and set her on her feet, his left arm bracing her against him.

  She pinned a wide-eyed look of astonishment on Jake. “You were in my mind. My telepathic walls must’ve dropped and I sucked you in.” How had he invaded her head the night of the accident?

  “What?” Alex and Jake said in tandem.

  Another lightbulb blinked on and she bounced on the balls of her feet. “It must stem from your connection to Michael and our previous meeting. Did he have an unblocked mind?”

  On shaky legs, Jake balanced his hip against the car fender, taking pressure off his injured foot. “Like a newborn baby.” He scratched his cheek, plucked on his ear. “I was in your—”

  “Yes. We were connected in the vision.” Juliana grinned. “Happened the night of the accident too.”

  Alex twisted her around to face him. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  Juliana cringed, rose on her tippy toes, and planted a kiss on Alex’s luscious lips. She possessed and calmed him. “I love you, Alex MacKenzie, and you very well know I can’t explain everything and make you understand, especially if it’s unclear to me. It just now became clear.”

  “You promised,” he murmured against her mouth, breathing her in as if to imprint her on his senses.

  “I promised never to do this alone.” He had her to rights, believing she meant she’d never try her touch telepathy during a case without him. “Please bear with me. This is all new. I get urges and if I don’t give in to them, I feel like I’ll lose out. I can’t always wait for when it’s convenient for you. Don’t be mad, love.” She kissed him again, drew away. “How’d you know we were here anyway?”

  A bag of emotions too twisted to divide crossed his face. “I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere.”

  “Big brother at its finest.” Jake chuckled. “Glad I’m not you, Westwood.” Juliana and Alex both nailed a black-dog look on him, and he sobered.

  “You don’t remember being in my head the first time?” she asked.

  “I wasn’t aware. Maybe…I had a vague weird dream that night. I was on a case…protecting a hot empath psychic. I mean—”

  Alex smirked and held up a hand. “We know what you mean.”

  The two men stared at each other’s guns, generating a long tense standoff.

  Jake broke the hush. “I saw your vision, the accident, the gunman, the nail gun,” he said. “That’s why Forensics didn’t find a bullet.”

  Alex stiffened, curiosity lining his forehead, warring with his jealousy. Curiosity won the battle. “Tell me everything.”

  And they did, word for word.

  “Did you recognize the gunman in the vision?” Juliana asked Jake.

  He fussed with the leather band tying his hair. “No, but I see why you believed it was me.”

  “The police officially ruled it an accident,” Alex explained, opening up to Jake, giving him due consideration. Relief ran through Juliana. “They didn’t consider a perp shooting nails. Forensics can run impact tests.”

  Jake held up a hand. “No. Let me and the Guild handle this. Let the world know the case is closed. It will go a long way in helping us diffuse these threats against Guild members and give me a leg up on investigating. It’s best the police don’t know what Juliana saw. You agree?”

  That’s all Jake had to say to convince Alex, and he nodded. “I’ll have Kepler put the case on ice. I’ll feed him enough to keep it open. Keep me in the loop. Liaise with me, no one else. And if either of you pull another stunt like this, I’ll expose the Guild and this whole mess.”

  “Then you’ll expose me too.” Juliana scrunched her nose.

  “Not if you never join the Guild.” Alex released her waist and gloved her hand in his.

  Juliana mock-saluted him. “Next time Jake and I want to play in each other’s heads, we’ll let you hold our hands.”

  “Hilarious. You join Comedy Central today?”

  Ignoring his irate jest, she said, “I don’t think it’ll matter.” Juliana snuggled against him, needing the contact of his body, letting the fragrance of his cologne wake her senses. “The connection to Falbrooke is fading, and I don’t think I’ll glean any new clues. Unless I have another involuntary vision, I doubt even I have the ability to commune with the dead dead.”

  “I’m not sure I want that to happen again.” Jake scrubbed his scalp. “My head’s about ready to burst and my foot’s killing me.”

  “Oh.” Juliana sifted her fingers down Jake’s arm. “Again, I’m so sorry.”

  Alex eyeballed the bloody T-shirt wrapped around Jake’s foot. “What’d you do?”

  “It was an accident. I…shot him.”

  Alex grinned, his jealousy sliding off his stiff arm against her side. “Seriously, babe? Do I want to know?”

  “No.” Jake and Juliana said in stereo.

  “Told you that gun would come in handy one day,” Alex replied, stifling his laughter.

  They marched toward the outer parking lot to Juliana’s car and Jake’s Harley.

  Jake spun on Alex. “This stays between us and those on a need to know. Juliana won’t join the Guild until it’s safe.” He bought Alex’s instant nod of agreement. “I won’t let her. I’m a First Guardian with half-assed influence, for whatever it’s worth.”

  “First Guardian?” Juliana blinked up a breeze, wishing she understood more Guild slang.

  “Just means I’ve worked my way up to top guard. Normally, I get to pick and choose my assignments. The most important cases hit my radar, whether I want them or not.” Lines crinkled the outside of his eyes. He wrenched on his helmet, straddling his bike. “I need to check in. I’ve missed too much.”

  His anguished voice pierced Juliana’s heart, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt how much he had loved Michael Falbrooke, who may truly have been a father to him. They watched him ride off, the burble of his motorcycle drowning out Juliana’s pulse in her ears, her empathy draining her.

  Grease fumes emanating from the impound lot tickled her nose, and she said, “Guess I better skedaddle to work.” Crafty eyes peeking up at Alex, she walked her fingers down the buttons of his dress shirt, hooking her index finger around his belt.

  Alex clamped her hand in his, drawing them up to his heart. “Financial work, right?”

  Pressing closer to him, she said, “You have something better in mind?”

  “Not gonna work.” Despite her diverting ruse, desire roughened his voice.

  She sighed. “Falbrooke’s not an evil man.” She dug the tiny sword out of her pocket. “Check this out. Jak
e doesn’t know I pocketed this.” She twined her hair around her fingers, missing her purse strap, wishing she hadn’t blasted her new purse into smithereens. Bracing herself against another Alex Tirade, she told him about her earlier vision on the hillside.

  “McAllister doesn’t know about the vision or the sword. It’s why I drew a gun on him. I believed he’d threatened Falbrooke and might’ve been the killer.”

  Alex white-knuckled his grip around the sword. “Damn it. This will never end.”

  “The visions?” She shrugged. “I think they’re done…Falbrooke’s gone. I didn’t connect to anyone else.”

  “You connected to McAllister,” he barked out. “Maybe he is the killer. I meant you going off and doing your own investigations.”

  She stomped her foot on the tarmac. “Go with me then. I’m not avoiding life so you can be the barbarian protector of his little woman, clubbing everyone to dust. I get that you can’t always get away. But these weird feelings I’m getting has proved to me that I can’t always wait.”

  Defeat drooped his shoulders, but he stared her down until she cupped his jaw in her hands. “I love you more than air, and I want forever with you. I love you for wanting to keep all the boogeyman away from me. But this is what I do. I need to help in the ways I know best. You can’t always accompany me even though I want you to.”

  Pain slashed across his face, and he leaned his forehead against hers. “I know. But—”

  “Please, Alex. I want your support. I want your voice the first thing I hear coming out of a vision. I want your hands touching me, your scent in my nose, your lips on mine. You protecting me so I can live and breathe in my psychic world.” Juliana feathered a kiss across his lips. “But others can help when you aren’t available.”

  “Will you wait for me when you can? And not proceed if you have a bad gut feeling?”

  “Absolutely.”

  His lips nudged hers apart, and he twined his tongue around hers.

  Chapter Eleven

  Alex agreed to meet Juliana at her house for sorely needed alone time after work, avoiding the MacKenzie party house for the night. He’d had surveillance cameras installed on the exterior of her house, and nothing suspicious had popped up since the break-in. The police still had no evidence leading to the intruder’s identity, let alone motive.

  Once he’d remembered she possessed the Guild medallion, Alex suggested she give it the touch test later to see if any evidence came to mind…literally. She hadn’t touched it since she’d stuck the silver pendant inside a sandwich bag. The trail was growing stale, and she didn’t think she’d have any luck.

  Stomach growling, she inhaled the aroma of spicy Mexican takeout pervading the interior of her car. She sat in the driveway until Alex parked his SUV next to her car, having agreed to wait for him before she entered the house. They’d made a pact and she didn’t want to lose his trust. It was a major breakthrough, and Juliana wanted to reward him…and not necessarily with food alone.

  Buzzing with excitement and desire, she entered the house behind Alex. The comfort of home cloaked her. No residual effects of the break-in plagued her. She exhaled a breath she wasn’t aware of holding and set the bag of Mexican food on the kitchen counter.

  While Alex checked out the house and changed his clothes, she strolled out to the backyard. The potent fragrance of late blooming roses infused the air. Moonlight lit up the rose garden and the purple-blue of twilight descended, sending the sun to other lands for the night. Landscape lights flickered on, startling her. She stumbled, catching her balance against the trunk of the full-grown maple tree.

  Twilight brought the mystery and the secrets Jake McAllister held to the forefront of her thoughts. She had no worries that Jake wouldn’t solve the clues to avenge Falbrooke’s death and protect Lily Falbrooke from falling to the same fate. It seemed his current mission in life.

  Alex came up behind her, molding his hardness to her rear through the black skirt she’d changed into at the office. A haze of desire obscured her thoughts. She pooled against him, a molten storm of lust, hoping she never tired of this man she’d waited twelve years to have. She couldn’t wait to have and to hold him that night…and all the nights of their forever.

  He brushed the hair off her neck, and his breath warmed her skin. “I want dessert first.” His thumbs found her nipples through her silky blouse and bra and they hardened beneath his expertise.

  “Planning on giving me that injection you promised?” She wiggled her rear against his rock-hard erection. All she felt was his heat, his strength, the love in his touch. It rocked her off balance and he caught her against him.

  “Several injections and a spanking. You’ve been a bad, bad girl.” He sucked her earlobe into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue, eliciting her breathless moan. His lips traveled across her neck and he did the same to her other ear, then shifted her around to face him.

  They swayed and danced under the tree, the waning full moon splattering dappled light on the tail end of dusk through the branches. Juliana tipped her head back, giving Alex’s roaming mouth free rein on her neck.

  Desire bloomed in her boneless limbs and she half-turned, her fingers on the tree as his arm snaked around her, supporting her from oozing into a puddle. The moon haloed his head as she raised her mouth to him. His pale gray dress shirt was buttoned up too far, and she wanted her hands on his bare chest, everywhere they could lay claim.

  “Your hair shimmers like diamonds under the moonlight,” he said, repeating a phrase he’d used on their first high school date. “I missed this. I missed us like this.”

  She nipped his bottom lip, trailed her tongue across his flesh soothingly, her hand pressing on his erection through his slacks. “You’ll never have to miss us again.”

  “I don’t plan to. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy.” He kissed her, his breath warm on her skin. “Even if I have to follow your visions around.”

  The pleasure of his words swelled her heart. “I want you inside me,” she whispered into his mouth.

  “I have no objections—” Alex’s lips latched onto hers, and he crushed her to him, her breasts smashed against his chest, his arms folding her against him, lifting her off her feet. His mouth demanded and seized, his hunger and possession always wild and tempestuous, making up for the void of lonely years.

  A groan climbed up his throat, and he eased away, the loss of his lips on hers a cool lapse. He buried his face in her hair, breathing her in deeply. The scent of his musk cologne drowned her senses, drawing on the innate connection they shared. It always amazed her that two people could consume each other the way they did. Yet she never tired of the feeling and hoped it lasted a lifetime.

  “My last offer,” she squeaked out on a whimper. “Dinner or dessert first?”

  He lifted her in his arms and rushed toward the open door. He set her on her feet in the family room, bracing his arm around her. “You. Here. Now.” A soft glow of light leaked in from the kitchen, enough for them to see what they needed and hungered for.

  She gasped. “Alex! The blinds are open.”

  Ignoring her, he unfastened the buttons on her blouse and tossed it onto the floor, revealing her lacy bra, her hard nipples jutting toward him.

  “My turn,” she murmured, giving in to the open door, losing herself in her destiny. Slow and tortuously, she unbuttoned his shirt, planting kisses on his bare skin in the wake of her fingers, one hand resting on his belt buckle. He sucked in air and groaned, reaching to unbuckle his belt. “No, my sexy detective.” She swatted his hand away, and he buried it in her loose hair, twining her blonde locks around his fingers the way he used to do when they were teenagers. The motion incited a tempest of sensation that wiped her mind clean. She entered the territory of full-blown need, the kind that drove them both crazy for hours.

  Groaning into her mouth, a dark plea of desperation darkened his eyes, matching the fiery desire storming her body. While she unbuckled his belt, he took the lib
erty of trailing kisses to the tops of her breasts. Before she recovered, he unhooked her bra and slid it off. Her breasts sprang free, her nipples aching in need. As his lips clamped upon her right nipple, holding her captive, a hoarse cry tore from her.

  “You’re mine, MacKenzie. Always. Forever. Never doubt how much I love you. Only you.”

  Angling his head up, he cupped the nape of her neck and their gazes locked. The love she witnessed on his face nearly unraveled her. “To the ends of the earth and back?” He twisted the emerald ring on her right hand.

  “No…to the far reaches of the galaxy and back.” She shuddered against him, lust skittering across her bare skin.

  Moonlight now seeped inside the dark room, illuminating them in a soft glow, lighting their path onward, clouded by lust and an age-old love.

  His hand smoothed down her side to her skirt’s zipper as hers grasped the zipper on his pants. The twin ripping sounds smothered their labored breathing. She yanked his pants down his legs, carefully dragging down his black briefs, freeing his rigid erection. Her skirt shimmied to her feet and she kicked it aside. Alex shook his pants off his ankles and kicked them in a puddle atop her skirt.

  Naked now, her loose hair teased her skin in a way that made her feel sexy, desirable, and alive again. Alex crushed her mouth in another long, slow, possessive kiss until Juliana whimpered in her desperate need to feel all of him. He let her up for air and lifted her into his arms. She clasped his waist between her legs, and he entered her, seating himself deep. Without breaking their bond, he stumbled onto the couch, and she lost herself in him completely, showing him how well they fit together once again, erasing the last few days from both their minds.

  Chapter Twelve

  The funeral was a somber affair under a cloudy sky threatening an early fall shower. Juliana hiked across the lawn to the graveside service. The cemetery reminded her of her father’s passing earlier in the year, and her inability to attend his funeral. More like her refusal to attend. Attending Michael Falbrooke’s funeral didn’t make up for her regretful behavior, and her guilt became an anchor weighing her down.