Moonlight Temptation
Stephanie Julian
Book four in the Lucani Lovers series.
Evie Simmons has major issues. She’s got magical powers she can’t control, she’s living in a house that isn’t hers, and her best friend is a seventeen-year-old werewolf. It’d be hilarious if it weren’t just so damn depressing. Add in the sexy shifter she can’t keep out of her mind and his hot-as-hell friend and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Dr. Dane Dimitriou knows Evie has had a hard time adjusting to her new life as part of the Etruscan magical community—almost as difficult as his denial of his feelings for her have been. And he’s got the perfect cure—his best friend, Ryan Maguire. Easygoing Ryan is the complete opposite of stick-up-his-ass Dane. He can act as a buffer. Dane can get close, but not too close. Yeah, good luck with that.
Together, these sexy men may be just what the doctor ordered for Evie. And the doctor himself may discover the cure for what ails him has been right in front of him all along.
An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
www.ellorascave.com
Moonlight Temptation
ISBN 9781419932885
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Moonlight Temptation Copyright 2011 Stephanie Julian
Edited by Grace Bradley
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication January 2011
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Moonlight Temptation
Stephanie Julian
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
ABBA: Polar Music International
Aeropostale: Seropostale Procurement Company, Inc.
Captain Underpants: Pilkey, Dav
Coke: The Coca Cola Company
Chanel: Chanel, Inc.
Converse All Star Chuck Taylor: Converse, Inc.
Happy Meal: McDonald’s Corporation
Hollister: Abercrombie & Fitch, Trading Co.
Hot Topic: Hot Topic, Inc.
Jagermeister: Mast-Jägermeister AG
Jeep: DaimlerChrysler Corporation
Junior Mints: Tootsie Roll Brands LLC
Lincoln Navigator: Ford Motor Company
Mercedes: DaimlerChrysler AG Corporation
Nancy Drew: Girl Detective: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Ruger: Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.
Superman: DC Comics
The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Toyota Highlander: Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha TA Toyota Motor Corporation
Vicodin: Abbott Laboratories Corporation
Victoria’s Secret: V Secret Catalogue, Inc.
Volkswagen: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
Glossary
Arus: magical power inherent in the Fata and Enu, races of Etruscan descent
Boschetta: Etruscan coven, traditionally comprised of thirteen streghe
Candela: Etruscan sprite, tiny magical beings with wings and a certain glow about them
Decurio: legion rank of commander
Eteri (pl. eteri): Etruscan for foreigner, used to describe regular humans without magic
Enu: humans of magical Etruscan descent
Fata: elemental beings of magical Etruscan descent
Folletta (pl. folletti): Etruscan female fairy
Linchetto (pl. linchetti): Etruscan night elf
Malandante: descended from the Etruscans but born with a bent toward evil, with a taste for power and wealth
Praenuntio: Goddess Gift of foresight
Pugio: a Roman dagger
Quercioli: the offspring of a folletta and a linchetto, always female
Salbinelli: Etruscan satyr
Sicari (pl: sicarii): assassin
Silvani: one of the three original Etruscan Fata; always female, protectors of fields and forests
Speculator: spy
Strega (pl. streghe): Etruscan witch
Versipellis (pl. versipelli): literally “skin shifter”—shapeshifters including Etruscan Lucani (wolves), Norse Berkserkir (bears) and French loup garou (wolves)
Chapter One
“Cat, come on! That’s cheating.”
Evangeline Simmons stumbled through the brush, seeing no recognizable path in the forest or…well, anything that looked remotely recognizable, actually.
She’d been following a small, dark bundle of fur for what seemed like hours, trying to keep up. Trying to use her “senses” to follow along.
“Training, my ass,” Evie mumbled under her breath. “More like ‘Let’s torture the stupid eteri’. Like I don’t get enough of that at home.”
Of course, home was a relative word right now. She didn’t really have a home. She and her brother had been sharing an apartment in Reading before…
Well, just before.
Now she lived in a house that wasn’t hers, situated somewhere in the wilds of Oley Township, Pennsylvania. Not far from the city where she’d lived her entire life. Just far enough for her to feel isolated. Cut off.
Not that it wasn’t a great house. It was airy, open, bright. Even now, in late January, it was always temperate. Never hot, never cold.
Guess that’s what you got when you lived in a house built by witches.
No, not witches.
“Streghe.”
Even after several months, just saying it aloud still made her heart beat faster and her lungs tighten.
Not only had her house been built by a strega, but she was a strega as well.
An Etruscan witch who could control magic. Actual freaking magic.
Who would’ve known that one little Italian grandmother a few times removed could wreak such havoc a hundred years down the line?
Shaking that thought out of her head, she took a deep breath.
“Fine,” she muttered, knowing Cat was close enough to hear every word she said, even though Evie wouldn’t see her unless Cat wanted to be seen. “Be that way about it.”
And now she sounded like a two year old throwing a tantrum. Ugh.
With a sigh, she thought about just giving up. She had no idea what she was doing, how to control that wild energy she felt in her blood, even though Cat had been trying to help Evie with her training for the past few months.
Seventeen, brilliant and beautiful, Catene Rossini Ferrante had become one of Evie’s closest friends. Only five years separated them by age, though Evie sometimes thought Cat was way more adult than Evie would ever be.
In her human body, Cat stood nearly a head taller than Evie
’s five-one and had at least a cup size on her. The girl was built like nobody’s business.
Bright blue eyes framed by thick, light brown lashes and hair the color of a copper penny that fell down her back in waves so gorgeous, Evie would’ve bet she had to curl it.
Of course she didn’t. Cat didn’t own a curling iron, had never worn makeup and used no skin care product that wasn’t made right here by the streghe.
If Evie had been just a little more bitchy, she would’ve hated the girl.
As it was, Cat was too nice to hate. And she appeared to worship Evie, for some unknown reason.
Since Evie had moved into Su Belludi’s vacant home, Cat had practically moved in with her. She spent the night with Evie more often than she stayed with her mom and dad, who lived just a few houses away, or with her other dad, Kyle, who lived in the next township, several miles away.
At first, Evie had wondered if Cat was there to spy on her.
Evie had been an unknown quantity. The women who lived in this little village had been taught from birth that outsiders meant trouble. At first, most of the older women had flat-out refused to even consider Evie coming to live among them.
Only Cat, Margie, Nica and Tira had fought for Evie to stay.
Those same women now tortured her on a daily basis. Only they didn’t call it torture. They called it Strega Training 201. The crash course.
At the end of most days, Evie felt as if she’d gone a few rounds with a Navy drill instructor.
Some days, though, Evie slipped outside with Cat for “practical application”.
Which usually involved Evie fumbling around in the forest trying to find Cat. Like today.
Fine. Cat wanted her to train. She’d train.
Blowing out a deep, cleansing breath, Evie put her back against the nearest tree and closed her eyes.
The rough tree bark bit into her skin through the fabric of her thick wool sweater and dull green cotton cargo pants. She no longer wore anything that wasn’t made of natural fibers. Polyester, rayon, spandex…they irritated her skin.
She’d given up processed foods, though her brother John kept her supplied with contraband boxes of Junior Mints.
Of course, drugs and alcohol were out of the question. With her history and these new powers… Well, who knew what Evie might do?
“Shit.”
Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she focused on what she needed to do.
She placed her hands flat on the sides of the tree and attempted to push out all thoughts of everything but Cat.
Her best friend. The one person who didn’t treat her like a ten year old with a dreaded disease.
Cat wasn’t a worried brother hovering over her or a well-meaning new sister named Kaine, the love of her brother’s life, an intense young woman who made her normally taciturn brother laugh. Evie had found it hard at first to get to know Kaine. The girl still harbored some major guilt where Evie was concerned.
And thinking about that was sure to scatter her brain.
Concentrate. Breathe.
Evie’s body relaxed more fully against the tree as the birdsong grew louder. She heard squirrels chattering, their claws scraping as they climbed trees or chased after one another here and there.
A breeze ruffled the tree branches. The low rumble of a tractor in a neighboring farmer’s field distracted her for a second before she focused her attention lower, on the frozen ground beneath her feet.
She barely felt the presence of other tiny animals around her because most had hidden themselves as soon as they sensed the predator lurking among them.
They didn’t know Cat would no sooner hurt them than stab her own mother with a blade.
Cat. Where was Cat?
A rustle of brush to her left drew her attention and she opened her eyes.
Which was not what she was supposed to be doing. She was supposed to track Cat with her powers, not her sight.
Her strega powers.
Which she wasn’t sure she wanted to know how to use in the first place.
But the danger in not knowing how to control them… Well, that could be more dangerous than actually using them.
“All right, all right,” she spoke aloud, knowing Cat could hear her. “Here I go.”
With a huff, she snapped her eyes shut again and let her body relax.
At least, she tried to get her body to relax. After the kidnapping, she’d had a really hard time with the dark. Even though she felt the sun shining through the leaves above, her lack of sight threatened to throw her into a panic.
She fought the tightness in her chest, the tensing of her muscles.
You’re safe here. Nothing will happen to you.
And if she believed that, she might as well buy the Brooklyn Bridge off the internet.
A rustle of brush behind her made her draw in a sharp breath and she fought to keep her eyes closed, to feel whatever the hell it was she was supposed to feel.
Damn it, when had she become so damn skeptical?
Before, she’d been the one to believe in ghosts and physic energy, to trust in fate and let karma be her guide.
“Fat lot of good that did me.”
With a sigh, she opened her eyes. She felt nothing except the dappled winter sun on her skin and the weight of defeat on her shoulders.
“Cat, I’m—”
A gasp escaped her as she heard footsteps in the brush. She turned to look over her shoulder, her hands clenched into fists and lifted into a ready position as she saw a man leaning against the tree behind her.
For the past few weeks John had been working on her self-defense training. She refused to be as vulnerable as she’d been when she’d been kidnapped last year. And even though that threat had been “neutralized” according to John, she didn’t want to ever feel that helpless again.
“Who the hell are you?”
The guy didn’t answer right away, just stood there staring at her as if she were some fascinating bug he’d never seen before.
She couldn’t help staring back. Even though fear made her jaw clench and her muscles ache with tension, she registered the guy’s beauty.
Shaggy hair fell below his ears in all different shades of gold, white and wheat with hints of red and light brown and… Damn, the guy had gorgeous hair. He looked as if he spent his days lounging on a beach somewhere fighting off women.
His features reminded her of a lion’s—straight nose, uptilted eyes that glinted green in the sun, a pointed chin and broad, flat cheekbones. And full lips with just a hint of a smile.
His body held the lazy grace of that same big cat. A denim jacket covered a white t-shirt stretched over broad shoulders and chest. Faded jeans clung to his muscled thighs and running shoes added to the laidback image.
He was a freaking masculine work of art. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.
The lucani were amazingly beautiful people. Even in their wolf forms, they were gorgeous.
They were also powerful and deadly.
Still, this guy didn’t fit the Etruscan mold. And she’d never seen him before.
“I don’t know who you are,” she said, “but you need to leave right now. You’re on private property.”
The guy’s gaze narrowed as his head shifted to the side. “I’ll be damned. Dane was right for a change.”
Evie blinked. Did he mean Dr. Dane Dimitriou? “You know Dane?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Then the guy smiled and Evie felt her heart do a funny little flip. “Hi, I’m Ryan Maguire.”
She tried to ignore the rough silk of his voice but it rubbed against her skin, raising goose bumps that had nothing to do with the low forty-degree temperature.
The reaction startled her. The past few months of her life had been a jumbled mess. Fears she’d thought she’d conquered years ago had returned to plague her in the dark. She’d taken to sleeping with a light on.
And now her sex drive wanted to kick in too?
Christ, what the hell else
could life possibly throw at her?
No, she’d better take that back. She didn’t want to tempt fate. She’d actually met her. The Etruscan Goddess of Fate was one scary female.
Tightening her fists, she took a deep breath, hoping to douse the unwanted attraction. “Is your name supposed to mean something to me?”
She tried to force some strength into her voice but it still came out shaky.
His half-assed grin let her know she wasn’t fooling him. “Not unless Dane told you to expect me. And knowing Dane, I’m sure he didn’t. He’s the master of the sneak attack, isn’t he?”
Okay, this guy did know Dane because, yeah, that was Dane to a T.
She lowered her hands a fraction. “So you are…”
“Very pleased to meet you.”
Her lips tried to curve into a smile, something she hadn’t done a lot of lately. “That doesn’t tell me why you’re here.”
The guy’s grin widened. “To tell you the truth, I’m not quite sure either. But when Dane asks me to come meet a beautiful woman, I don’t typically turn him down.”
She blushed. “He told you I was beautiful?”
“As a matter of fa—”
A low growl rumbled behind Ryan, freezing her in place one second. In the next, she silently cursed her reaction.
She’d lived with the Etruscans long enough to know that the growl of a wolf should not make her want to run screaming.
Her gaze automatically sought the animal that’d produced the sound and found him sliding out from behind the trunk of a massive pine a few yards behind Ryan.
The large gray wolf moved so silently, she knew she never would’ve heard him if he hadn’t growled. Lean and muscled, the animal had to weigh at least a hundred pounds.
She lowered her hands all the way as the wolf stopped at Ryan’s side, his dark eyes glued to hers. Those eyes were human, eyes she knew, and that same shiver of sensation raced through her again.
She shook her head, trying to ignore it as she stared at the wolf she’d come to recognize on sight.
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