by Wendy Rosnau
“Wait a minute.”
He turned but didn’t say anything.
“You’re just going to leave it like this?”
She had her hands on her narrow hips, her jeans outlining her curves. She was the most beautiful woman at the Sun Dance tonight, and he’d heard countless comments to that effect all night. He’d nodded and agreed, then had reminded one and all who she’d come with. Outside he’d told Tate to back off; that he was going to take his head off if he touched her again.
Tate had looked at him like he’d lost his mind, then said, “In the old days, Little Brother, we always shared everything.”
“Not this one, we’re not. So find a new dance partner,” he’d said.
It was getting harder and harder to ignore his feelings for her, and still he had no intentions of doing anything about it, or putting her out of his house.
Hell, if she wanted to leave, he wouldn’t let her. Where would she go?
He said, “It’s been a long day, and it’s late.”
“I want an explanation. I want to know what happened. What did you say to Tate outside? Why did you change?”
“Change?”
“You know what I mean. I’ve never seen you that way before. You acted like… I have a father.”
“If you do, where the hell is he? You’ve been here over a month, and no one’s come looking. Not one inquiry.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to step into his shoes.”
“You’re right. It won’t happen again.” He turned to continue down the hall.
“That’s it?”
“Go to bed. If something is still bothering you in the morning, we’ll discuss it then.”
“If it’s still bothering me in the morning that would mean I didn’t sleep. How fair is that?”
Jacy kept walking, ambling down the hall favoring his knee. He heard her coming after him. She bolted into his room ahead of him.
“Okay, I drank some of your beer, when you told me I couldn’t have any. But—”
“Go to bed.”
Instead of doing what he said, she crossed the room and made herself comfortable on his bed, propping his pillow, and scooting back up against the headboard. She crossed her arms.
“I like your brother. He’s nice.”
Jacy leaned against the doorjamb. “Then you should have stayed and partied with him. He agreed to bring you home.”
“You asked him?”
“I thought that’s what you wanted.”
“He’s a good dancer.”
“Tate spends a lot of time enjoying life.”
“But not you.”
“At the end of our ride with the Hell’s Angels we chose different, is all. I was sick of partying. It was time to move on.”
“I’m sorry I ruined your evening. I should have stayed home.”
Home… “It’s getting late. Goodnight.”
“Not really, but if you need your sleep, I guess I’ll leave you to it.” She scooted off the bed. “Goodnight, Moon.”
She started past him. He should have let her go, but the look she’d given him when she’d said she was sorry doubled his guilt. He reached out and took hold of her arm to stop her. She looked up, her beautiful eyes reeling him in like a sucker on a hook, and that’s all it took for him to forget the promise he’d made himself the first week she’d moved in.
“Was there something else you wanted to say?”
He pulled her close, then said, “After I kiss you, you’re going to walk out of here and go to bed. Promise me?”
“I promise.”
The kiss wasn’t what she’d expected. It far surpassed anything she had imagined in her nightly dreams. Her insides turned to mush, and her head spun. Her heart raced, and her knees went weak.
Paralyzed in the moment, Prisca didn’t move. She didn’t raise her arms to touch him, or become a clinging vine, though all she wanted was to be swept up in his arms. She just stood and allowed him to take her mouth.
His lips were firm and warm. Experienced. But then she’d known they would be. He’d told her about the gang of bikers he used to ride with, had mentioned the names of women who had ridden on the back of his bike.
Da, she had wanted this kiss for a long time, even though she knew she shouldn’t. She was only days away from leaving.
His arms went around her, and he pulled her against him. She went willingly, anxious now for the fantasy. She felt as if she was floating, lost and found at the same time.
He deepened the kiss and she parted her lips. He pressed for more intimacy, and his tongue moved past her teeth. She’d never been kissed this way before, but she wanted whatever he would give her. Wanted to be wanted in the way a man wants a woman.
His hands rubbed her back, slid to her backside. She shivered and wanted more. He was so wonderfully strong, and it felt so good to be there.
It was over with a sudden finality. He stopped kissing her at the same time he set her away from him.
“Now go to bed.”
Pris wanted to protest, but she’d made a promise. If this was all there was going to be between them, she would have to accept that. Not happily, but she wasn’t willing to play another kind of game with Moon. He was too important to her, and she’d been forced to lie to him too many times already. The kiss had been real, too wonderful to cheapen by using her body to trap him into more than he wanted to give.
She headed out the door, didn’t look back. She walked down the hall, entered her room and closed the door. She leaned against it a moment and touched her tingling lips. After a time, she stripped off her clothes and found his flannel shirt. She would sleep in it tonight and pretend he was beside her. She would dream of the kiss and the feel of him. Dream that this was the beginning of something wonderful instead of the end.
Pris tossed and turned for more than an hour, but finally she fell asleep. Her dream came soon after, but it wasn’t the kiss and Moon that filled her thoughts. It was Otto. He was standing in the doorway, his eyes judging her as he held a gun out to her and demanded that she come with him. Reminded her that they had a job to do. Reminded her of the promise she had made to him and her father.
She fought the dream, rejected it and Otto’s demand. She told him no, that she would not come with him. But he wouldn’t go away. His image lingered, his hand still holding the gun out to her.
Take it…take it, Miss Pris.
She woke up with a start, sitting up quickly. Feeling as though she was being choked, she clutched her throat as fear squeezed the breath out of her. She struggled to breathe. Blinked awake, panting.
She felt a presence in the room, saw her door was open.
The hall light was on and someone was standing in the doorway. Oh, God, Otto had come for her.
“No!”
He moved toward the bed, and she suddenly knew it wasn’t Otto.
“Moon?”
“You were talking in your sleep. You all right?”
He was bare from the waist up, his jeans riding low, unzipped as if he’d pulled them on in a hurry.
“Yes…no.”
“Which is it?”
“I’ll be fine in a minute.”
“A dream?”
“More like a nightmare.”
“Remember something?”
Pris squeezed her eyes shut. “No.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. Hugged herself.
He sat down beside her on the bed. “Cold?”
“A little.”
“I’ll get you another blanket.”
“No, don’t. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
He touched her cheek, brushed her hair away from her face. “Go back to sleep.”
“I can’t. Not yet.”
“I can’t sleep either.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
She scooted closer, said softly, “I’m going to kiss you, and then I want you to leave and go back to your ro
om. Promise me?”
But before he could open his mouth to answer, Pris leaned in and pressed her lips against his. She was a quick study, and she mimicked his moves from hours earlier, sending her tongue into his mouth to play and tease and drive him crazy as he’d done to her.
When she backed off, he stood slowly, said, “Goodnight.”
“You don’t have to leave. You didn’t promise.”
He angled his head, looked down at her. “You know what you’re doing, right? Where this will lead if I stay?”
“I know.”
“Then say it. Say what you’re thinking. What you want.”
“I want you to stay with me. Sleep with me. Kiss me, and wherever that leads…I want that, too.”
“I’m not here looking to work off a hard-on. I didn’t come in here to—”
“You were worried about me. Yes, I know. Because you care about me. I care about you, too. Tonight, while I was dancing with Tate, I wanted it to be you.”
He didn’t say anything for a long several seconds. “I wish I knew your age.”
“I’m old enough to know that this feeling is real.”
He sat back down on the bed. “I don’t want you to regret this, honey.”
“How could I regret something that I’ve been dreaming about for weeks?” she whispered, then leaned forward and kissed him again.
He moaned low in his throat, then answered the kiss with one of his own. The smoldering heat ignited, sealing both of their fates.
As more kisses were exchanged, Pris was careful not to make any promises that she couldn’t keep. She still intended to leave at the end of the week.
She watched as Moon rose from the bed. For a moment she wasn’t clear whether he was going to stay or leave. Then he said again, “You’re sure this is what you want?”
“Da, it’s what I want,” she said.
Then, to assure him it was, she pulled off the shirt, making herself vulnerably naked.
Koko rose around midnight. She hadn’t been able to sleep and so she had made a cup of tea, then went to sit in the rocker.
A vision visited her soon after, a vision unlike the others. She saw no danger, no one in trouble and in need of help. No reason for her to leave the cabin in the dead of night.
This vision was sweet. The scent of cinnamon from the tea filled her senses and she felt a strong poignant peace in the air.
She closed her eyes and let the vision strengthen and take shape. It circled her in warmth, and she smiled with the knowledge that something beautiful was on the horizon—two lost souls becoming one.
The vision set her heart at ease, and settled the burden of uncertainty that had been troubling her sleep for weeks.
She was always careful with the gift she’d been given. The creator knew what was best, and she had always believed her purpose on earth was to aid his will.
Koko sipped her tea as the vision drifted on the cool evening air within the cabin. When it began to fade, she went back to bed and slept better than she had in weeks.
She was beautifully naked, and he was on fire to touch her. He needed to go slow, she was young…and so damn hot he was afraid that slow wasn’t going to be an option.
“Is something wrong?”
“What?”
She pulled the shirt back over her naked breasts. “You’ve seen me before. I thought— Never mind. Go. I’ve changed my mind.”
“No, you haven’t.” Jacy sat back down on the bed.
“Yes I have. Go away.”
“This is about thinking you’re too thin.” He reached for her and she tried to pull away. He wouldn’t let her. He jerked the shirt away from her and tossed it off the bed.
“Let me go.”
He slid his hand around her neck, and forced her face close. “I want you, you have no idea how damn much. You’re perfect, do you hear?”
Then he kissed her—kissed her as he pulled her against him. Her naked warmth touched his bare chest and he groaned. Pulled her tighter to him.
He let his hand glide over her, aching to touch every inch of her. He heard her suck in her breath, her own hands circling his back.
Jacy dragged in a ragged breath, moved his lips over her jaw to her smooth soft neck. “I’ve wanted to touch you for so long,” he confessed, “for you to touch me.”
He eased her down on the mattress. He knew nothing about her, not even her name, but it didn’t matter. All he wanted was to hold her and make love to her. To satisfy the beast that had been raging inside him for weeks. The beast that had made him jealous of his own brother.
He stretched out beside her and drew her close, the contact sending his erection damn near out of his pants. He groaned again with the thought of burying himself inside her.
He cupped her bare ass, rolled her to the side to bring her fully against him. Her sweet lips touched his shoulder. Her hair brushed his cheek, pulled him further down the road of no return.
“You feel so damn good, honey. Make me feel so good.”
“Are you sure you like the way I look?”
She had to be kidding. He pulled back to look at her. “Should I tell you what I first thought that day on the mountain when I saw you?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were perfect. The face of an angel with the most beautiful rosy nipples I’d ever seen. That day I had a hard time keeping my mind on your injuries.”
“A confession of the soul,” she whispered, smiling up at him. “I like that.”
“You have anything to confess?”
“I do. It wasn’t the cold that made me shiver all the way down the mountain riding on your horse. It was the feel of your arms around me. And each day since, I’ve imagined what it would be like to be kissed and touched by you.”
Jacy grinned. “And here I thought you liked me because I can cook.”
“That, too,” she teased, biting his chin gently. “Tonight you stole my breath when you kissed me. Kiss me again, Moon.”
Jacy let her go and got off the bed. He removed a condom from his back pocket and laid it on the nightstand, then shoved his jeans to the floor, knowing her eyes were watching him the entire time.
He had no idea how much experience she’d had with other men, and at the moment he didn’t care. It would be just them in this bed. Not the past—hers or his.
He dropped his good knee to the bed and leaned forward. Another kiss, then he was pulling her beneath him.
She arched her back, accepted his kisses, then his weight. He slid down her body to admire her firm sweet breasts with his mouth. Then her flat stomach. He stroked her legs, then the junction of her thighs.
She drew in a breath and closed her eyes, arched her back.
“Are you cold? You’re shaking,” he asked.
“I’m shaking because I think I’ve waited a lifetime for this moment. Don’t stop.”
With that, Moon moved back up her body, brushing his bare chest against her breasts, teasing her mouth and coaxing her into kissing him back.
“Open your legs, honey,” he urged as he rolled off her to touch her there.
She moaned, then relaxed her knees.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, reaching for the condom, before fitting himself between her legs.
“Look at me,” he said, as he slipped inside her, wanting to see the exact moment he lit her on fire.
She did as he asked, and he began to move within her as she curled her legs around his hips and clung to him.
“Moon…”
“Yes?”
“This feels perfect,” she whispered. “I’ve never felt anything so wonderful.”
She arched her hips and drove him deeper. He heard her moan, felt her body begin to spasm around him.
Reborn, was the word that came to mind, Jacy thought. To speak of love would be foolish. Reckless, and he’d stopped being a wild reckless Hell’s Angel years ago. But something beyond his control had taken over his body and his mind. It was the only explanation he had for fee
ling the earth move when he climaxed inside sisttsi nan, and two lost souls became one.
Chapter 9
When Pris woke up Moon was no longer beside her. It was early, but light was shining through the window. She climbed out of bed, picked up his flannel shirt off the floor where he’d tossed it the night before and slipped it on before she left the room.
In the hall she smelled bacon frying, and smiled on her way to the bathroom. Minutes later, feeling lighthearted, she entered the kitchen wearing only the red flannel shirt and a pair of baby-blue panties.
Moon was busy at the stove, and she sneaked up behind him, then wrapped her arms around his waist to hug him from behind.
There was no reaction of surprise. He simply covered her hands with one of his as he continued to scramble the eggs in the pan. “Careful, honey. I don’t want you getting burnt.”
“How did you know I was behind you?”
“I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.” He removed the pan from the burner, then turned, his eyes searching hers as he pulled her against him. “Good morning. How do you feel?”
“I’m feeling…happy.”
“Happy?”
“Da, happy. And how are you feeling?”
“Happy will do for me, too. A little tired. You kept me up half the night, and at six this morning Billy called.”
“Billy called?”
“His crew turned up something at the crash site on the mountain. He wants me to drive over to his office in Kalispell. Want to come?”
Pris didn’t know what to say. Moon’s news felt like a bucket of ice had been dumped over her head—her happiness suddenly turning to worry.
She felt sick to her stomach, and she wiggled out of his arms and turned her back on him. “Did he say what they found?”
“No, but he talked as if it was significant. I’m anxious to get over there. I thought you’d like to ride along. I’ll put breakfast out. How soon can you be ready?”
“I think I’ll stay here.” She turned back to face him. “I’m tired, too.”
