by Black, Tasha
Harrison nodded and Grace felt her heart begin to beat again.
“Nothing to worry about,” she said. “Mr. Briggs here was just doing some pest control. He offered to give us a behind the scenes look around the park.”
“Hey,” Cressida said to Harrison. “I’m meeting Lincoln for dinner tonight, but I’d love to some other time.”
Briggs chuckled.
“What?” Cressida asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said shrugging. “Just them Monroe boys ain’t been too popular around the park lately. Got some big ideas about the future that not everyone’s on board with.”
That was interesting.
“Well, I better get back to it,” Briggs said, looking down at Nicodemus, who sat at his feet, staring up at the older man as if he were a king. “This one doesn’t like to set still for long.”
Grace eyed Cressida, who was already looking past them.
I know the feeling.
“Thanks for all your help, Mr. Briggs,” Grace said, trying not to be disappointed they hadn’t learned more. “We’ll be in touch soon.”
He tipped his cap, then man and dog headed deeper into the park.
Chapter 8
Cressida shimmied into her favorite pair of jeans and slid on a low-cut tank, no bra. It was a silvery material and had the advantage of hanging in such a way that it pretty much made her look like she was naked and covered in moonlight.
“Are you sure you want to wear that?” Grace asked.
“What’s wrong with this?” Cressida asked, knowing the answer but unable to resist screwing with her friend.
“It’s just a little… tight,” Grace said in a small voice.
“Thanks, grandma,” Cressida winked, brushing out her hair with her fingers.
“I just don’t want you to be sending the wrong signals,” Grace said carefully.
“And what kind of signal would you like me to send?” Cressida asked. “You know I’m a big girl, right?”
“I know,” Grace said. “I’m sorry. I’m just worried. We don’t know anything about this guy. And remember why we’re here.”
“You think Lincoln Monroe is the moroi?” Cressida smirked.
“I don’t know,” Grace shrugged. “But that’s the whole point. The moroi could be anyone, anywhere. We have to stay on our toes.”
“Mm, I had a few other positions in mind,” Cressida said, leaning toward the mirror to skim a Chapstick across her lips.
“I’m serious, Cressida,” Grace’s voice was tight with stress.
“Okay. Okay,” Cressida relented. “I promise I’ll keep my head on straight. But we still need to find the local pack. Maybe Lincoln can help with that.”
“Is he a wolf?” Grace asked with interest.
“I’m not sure,” Cressida said, feeling a little embarrassed not to know the answer. Damn his sexy cologne. “But wolves that live among people get really good at hiding it. I might have to do some serious interrogation.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Just promise to keep your phone near you,” Grace sighed.
“Deal,” Cressida said.
Lights flashed as a car pulled up out front. Grace dashed over to the window and pulled back the curtain.
Lincoln sat outside in a red Jeep Wrangler.
Cressida imagined cruising on the beach with the top off under the moon and shivered with delight.
“Are you sure you don’t want a sweater?” Grace asked.
Cressida arched a brow at her friend and shook her head pityingly. She was only busting Grace’s balls of course.
Secretly she kind of liked knowing her friend was looking out for her.
“Don’t wait up,” she winked at Grace as she slipped out the door.
An hour later, a windswept but unmolested Cressida picked at a wedge salad at the local steak place while Lincoln regaled her with tales about growing up on the boardwalk.
He told her how much he used to like scuba diving with a friend who moved away. But most of his stories involved him getting into mischief and then being bailed out by one zany park worker or another.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Cressida said at the end of a particularly ridiculous tale. “You stole the keys to the ferris wheel.”
“Yep.” He nodded with twinkling eyes.
“While that kid was stuck at the top,” she went on.
He nodded again.
“And the park manager just covered for you when your dad found out?”
“He knew that kid had been bullying me and some of my friends,” Lincoln smiled. “Besides, he would have covered for me anyway. The employees are more like family,” he told her, his sunny expression suddenly downcast.
“You okay, Lincoln?” she asked.
“Call me Linc,” he said. “Yeah, I’m okay. You know, what? No. No, I’m not okay.”
“Wow, alright,” Cressida said.
“You know I told you there would be a big announcement at my brother’s birthday party?” Linc asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
“My dad’s finally retiring. He’s going to announce that Joshua is inheriting the park.”
“You don’t seem too happy about that,” Cressida remarked, unsure of what to say. She was kind of impressed he was willing to basically tell her he was jealous.
“Well, Joshua has some different ideas for the park,” Linc said. “He’s always been really into high tech gadgets. He thinks automation and virtual reality are the future of entertainment - that if he fills the place with enough fancy bells and whistles, it will breathe new life into the park.”
“And you don’t agree?” Cressida asked. The bells and whistles sounded cool.
“I think that stuff is fun,” he replied. “And it definitely has its place…”
“But?”
“But it will cost a lot of the employees their jobs.” He leaned back and ran a hand through his hair. “Some of them have been with us for generations. We can’t just turn them away.”
Wow. He wasn’t jealous. He was actually a nice guy.
“You would do things differently?” Cressida asked, twirling her fork around her plate to avoid looking into his eyes and having him see she was impressed.
“Not me, no,” he smiled. “I’m not really interested in running the park. When Joshua gets control, I’ll get a small share. I’ll most likely use it to go to Europe. I’ve never really been anywhere. My Uncle, Bill, though, he’d do a good job. He already pretty much runs the place. The park employees love him.”
A waitress arrived before they could say anything more. She placed a steaming plate covered with a gigantic ribeye and a couple of fries in front of Cressida.
The aroma coming off it was heaven. Cressida slid it close.
“Careful, the plate’s hot,” the waitress said.
“Thanks,” Cress replied, digging in immediately.
The meat was rare, like really rare, not the way the chain restaurants did it, like they were afraid you would sue or something if you saw red.
For a glorious moment, Cressida forgot everything else and just reveled in the satisfaction of the tender meat releasing its juices in her mouth. The moon was almost full. She needed to run. She needed to hunt. She needed to…
The thought of what else she needed made her look up at Linc.
He was staring at her openly.
“It’s really good,” she said through the bite that was in her mouth. “Don’t you like yours?”
She eyed his plate. On it was a filet - cooked so well it was practically blackened. Ouch.
At least it solved one riddle. No self-respecting wolf would ever do that to a perfectly good steak.
“No,” Linc replied. “I’m just a little relieved. After the way you were picking at that salad, I thought you might be one of those women who doesn’t eat in front of people.”
Cressida laughed.
“I guess I’m just more of a meat and potatoes girl.”
Linc laughed too and d
ug into his leathery meal.
The rest of dinner went well. Linc was a funny guy, Cressida liked to hear him talk about silly stuff, and he wanted to know what TV shows and music she liked. He laughed his head off at some of the trouble she’d gotten into as a kid. Told her they would have been thick as thieves if they’d known each other back then.
At last her plate was clean and her glass was empty. Cressida honestly felt like she could have eaten another steak. The meat had only stoked her appetite. All of her appetites.
But she kept her trap shut as Linc paid the bill and they walked slowly out to the car.
The wind brought the scent of the ocean up to her. Cressida was getting used to the salty flavor of the air here. It tasted like living and dead sea creatures, wet sand, and pine trees. A nice spread of natural smells like that could grow on a wolf if she wasn’t careful.
The moon was high in the sky. Filmy clouds drifted in front of it, but she could see that it was almost full. She could feel it tickling her skin, tugging at her.
Thoughts of Javier popped into her head. She pushed them away in frustration.
He didn’t own her. She was her own wolf. She could satisfy her moon madness in any way she saw fit.
And right now, Lincoln Monroe was here, fragrant and fit and ready to go. She could devour him in ten minutes, just like that steak.
Play it cool, Cress, she told herself. Stay in control, like you promised Grace.
“So,” Linc said when they got to the car, “are you ready to go home?”
He smiled over at her, the streetlights playing in his hair. The scent of his mysterious cologne invaded her senses.
Try though she might, Cressida couldn’t manage to say yes.
“Depends on what you had in mind.”
“Want to see something cool?” he asked, blue eyes flashing.
“The last guy who asked me that is still walking with a limp,” she said with deadpan delivery.
To his credit, Linc laughed immediately.
“No funny business. I promise.”
“Okay, then,” she relented.
He drove on and she sat beside him in silence. They were heading for the park. She shouldn’t have been surprised - he obviously loved the place.
When they arrived, he jumped out and opened her door. Cute. She smiled and let him take her hand.
“It’s beautiful at night, isn’t it?” he asked as they entered the gates.
Cressida personally thought it was kind of spooky. The darkened rides were like the skeleton of some huge, prehistoric beast silhouetted against the starry sky.
“Can you climb in those boots?” he asked as they reached the Ferris wheel.
She looked down at her beloved cowgirl boots.
“Better than you,” she said with a smirk.
“We’ll see,” he teased, and began to scale the beams of the old ride.
Cressida followed him.
The wind whipped her hair against her cheeks, and she heard the waves crashing against the shore on the other side of the park.
Though she was pretty sure even a wolf should be feeling cold at this point, Cressida felt nothing but the frenzied pull of the moon. She felt as if she were getting closer to it, like she might keep climbing until she started to float to it.
Above her, there was a loud creak as Linc swung himself into one of the cars near the top.
Cressida pulled herself in to join him. The thing swung crazily at first, but he pulled her close and she wasn’t afraid, not even a little.
“I used to come up here when I was a kid,” he told her, his voice a reverent whisper. “Whenever I needed some space.”
Cressida looked out at the moonlight reflecting off the ocean, then the other way, to the lights of the miniature town spread out below.
“It’s amazing,” she whispered back.
“It really is,” his voice was deeper than before.
He wasn’t looking at the view.
He was looking at her.
Chapter 9
Cressida flowed into his arms.
Later, she might say it was moon madness, or the desire to shake off the stress of the road, the uncertainty of the chase.
Whatever the reason, his arms felt good, but not good enough. His mouth claimed her hard, but she ached for more.
She ripped at his clothes and he chuckled and released his hold on her, allowing her to peel off his shirt and run her nails down his pecs and over the chiseled abs to his jeans.
“I guess you like your men like you like your steaks,” he observed.
“Rare?” she asked as she attacked his fly.
“No,” he replied, “fast.”
“Funny,” she quipped without smiling.
Then she lifted the hem of her tank and pulled it over her head.
“Jesus,” he murmured, gazing raptly at her.
Cressida had small tits but they were perky and complimented her lean figure. And she had perfect skin, which she had been told looked gorgeous in moonlight.
Normally, she would make a man work for it at least a little, but she wanted him to pay for the ‘fast’ comment. And besides, she was feeling incredibly impatient.
“Let me help you with those,” he said in a husky voice, reaching for her jeans.
She stood over him, allowing him to nuzzle her belly as he worked the jeans down off her hips and pulled off the boots with them.
When he was finished, he reached for her breasts, but she leaned backward.
“Oh, no,” she said. “We’ll go at your speed now.”
“I guess I deserve that.”
“I’ll be the judge of what you deserve.” She smiled, rolling her own palms over her stiff nipples, the moonlight washing over her bare skin, sending her into an incredible state of lust.
Linc’s eyes followed the movement of her hands and she noticed him lick his lips unconsciously.
She let her hips move a little, dancing over him as he squirmed in the basket beneath her.
The carriage began to swing lightly, but Cressida had great balance, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
Linc growled and reached for her again. This time she let him wrap his arms around her waist, but she pulled back again when he went for her tits.
“Easy,” she whispered.
He got smart and slid his hands up and down her sides, up to her ribcage, down to her hips, pulling her close to his face, but not touching her.
Cressida felt herself beginning to melt.
He rubbed his rough jaw against her belly and she started to lose track of who was teasing whom.
When he reached for her breasts again she let him touch her.
“Oh,” he sighed.
Cressida was ready to howl at the feel of his warm hands, his rough thumbs tracing circles over her delicate nipples.
She hopped onto the lap bar, sitting on it with her legs spread wide over him.
He bent his head to lick a nipple into his mouth and Cressida felt it in her groin.
She arched her back and the carriage swung again.
Linc moaned and moved lower, licking his way down her belly.
Cressida waited in a storm of need. She looked up at the moon. It seemed to gaze back at her through a veil of clouds.
Then she felt his mouth on her.
Oh.
Oh, he was good at this.
She let her head fall back and lost herself to the sensations.
She could hear the ocean, the creak of the Ferris wheel, smell the salty wind and his dizzying cologne. And his mouth was so warm. Oh god, his tongue was clever - teasing, coaxing.
Every time she tilted her hips to him he would ease off slightly, building her up and up, with an almost clinical precision.
Cressida let go of the top of the car with one hand to tangle her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer, desperate for the spark she needed to relieve this unbearable tension.
But his cruel tongue softened and she was still left wanting.
“Are you ready to go at your own pace again, my beautiful wild creature?” He whispered into her thigh, and she could feel his smile there. Bastard.
“Take off your clothes,” she said in the coldest voice she could muster.
“Awesome,” he smiled and let her go long enough to remove his jeans and boxers.
Linc had a great body. Not as good as a wolf’s, but pretty close. Wide shoulders, thick biceps, and a sweet six pack. He obviously worked out a lot.
But Cressida only really had eyes for his cock, which was stiff and straining toward her. For all that he had been patient, it was obvious he was as desperate as she was.
She met his eyes again.
He was smiling up at her as if to say you’re welcome for his sweet bod.
Damn it. She wanted to tease him more for his cockiness, but there was no way she could wait a moment longer.
Instead she straddled him, holding onto the top of the car, and eased herself onto his massive erection.
“Oh, fuck,” he murmured, his hands gripping the seat on either side of his thighs.
She waited for her body to accommodate him, enjoying the stretch, and the feel of him trembling beneath her with the effort not to grab her and have his way.
He buried his face in her chest, licking at her nipples.
She smiled and eased off, then back on again, and again.
Only when they were both quivering with pent up need did she finally begin to move quickly, lifting herself up and slamming down on him.
“Oh, god,” he groaned warningly. “Slow down.”
“No,” she shook her head and redoubled her efforts.
“Jesus,” he cried.
His hand found her clit and suddenly she was flying, screaming out her release as she felt herself clamp down on him.
The moment she was finished she slid off him and took him in her hand.
They both watched as he erupted all over his own chest, webs of cloudy liquid jetting all over his abs as he moaned helplessly.
“Mm,” she said. “Nice.”
“Good god, woman,” he sighed as he leaned back against the seat, looking up at her in admiration.
Cressida smiled down at him triumphantly.
But in the back of her mind, she had a funny feeling. Like she was relieved and a little let down all at once.
