Kiss of Moonlight

by Stephanie Julian

  But she couldn’t seem to settle.

  She’d worked the kitchens or waitressed in diners and bars for money under the table. But with the economy the way it was, even those jobs were hard to come by lately.

  And if she took a real job, one where she had to fill out papers, she’d have to find somewhere permanent to live. And she didn’t want anyone to be able to find her. Even though she didn’t know anyone who would be looking. Her mom was gone, her grandparents couldn’t care less about her and she had no friends.

  It also meant she’d had no one to talk to. And after her first few days here, she’d discovered she finally needed to talk to someone.

  Then the puppy had shown up, all gangly limbs and doggy smile. And she’d found herself baring her soul to the little bundle of black fur.

  It’d been easier than talking to a human. And, Tamra thought, much more cathartic. The dog didn’t ask questions.

  After her nightmare last night, she’d been waiting for the puppy, because now, for some reason, Tam needed to talk. As if talking about it would finally banish the last of the shadows.

  But any port in a storm… Or dog, as the case may be.

  “So, I had another dream last night.”

  Hoping she didn’t scare the animal away, she eased down onto the porch, leaning back against the front door. The dog cocked his head to the right and continued to stare at her, his beautiful topaz gaze never leaving hers.

  “The doctor said I’d probably have them for months. I just didn’t think they’d be so…”

  Terrifying? Horrifying? Excruciating?

  “Painful,” she finally said. “I mean, I felt every punch, every kick, every time he—”

  She shook her head, forcing the image back. She didn’t need to relive that. She’d lived through it once and her mind had mercifully blanked it out at first. Then, about three months ago, the dreams had started and she’d been forced to relive the assault all over again.

  The sleeping pills the doctor had prescribed had taken care of the nightmares. Until she got scared she’d become dependent on them and had stopped using them.

  A week, no dreams. Then last night… Still, last night’s had been different. She’d spent most of it kicking Scott’s ass, not on his assault.

  She figured that was a step forward but it’d still rattled her.

  “Anyway, I didn’t get a lot of sleep. Don’t think I’ll get much tonight either.”

  She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on them, her gaze finding the almost-full moon just above the tree line.

  The bad muscle in her left leg bitched about the position but this was one of the exercises the physical therapist had told her to do. She needed to keep the muscle loose.

  “The moon’s gorgeous out here, isn’t it? So bright. You forget how the city lights block out the stars. When I was a kid, I used to sleep with the curtains open so the streetlights could shine in. I hated the dark. My mom worked the night shift a lot and I hated being alone in our apartment. She always locked the doors but I never got much sleep when she was gone. Amazing how you can think you’re safe during the day when it’s bright. And then someone comes along and rips that all away in a split second.

  “You know, I didn’t even know his name before. He was just some guy I’d see in the apartment complex. Someone I never paid much attention to.”

  She paused, thinking back to that last day of her old life. She shouldn’t have opened the door but she’d recognized his face. He’d been at her mother’s funeral, although he hadn’t approached her afterward. Just another face in the crowd.

  “He bided his time. Waited until he knew there’d be no one in the building, no danger of being caught. He just didn’t expect me to fight back after he raped me.”

  Kyle bit back the furious growl building in his chest.

  His growl terrified hardened killers. He didn’t want to scare this girl.

  But it took all of his control to keep it contained. It took even more to maintain his pelt and sit on the ground in front of her like the stupid animal she thought he was.

  He’d promised Cat he’d check on the girl but he’d only planned to sniff around the house, take a peek in the windows, see what it was about this eteri that’d captured his daughter’s interest. See if she posed a threat to him and his.

  After dinner, he’d told Cat to stay in the house then he’d walked out into the moonlight to call forth his pelt.

  As a lucani versipellis, born from a long line of Etruscan wolf skin-shifters, the magic rose easily on the night before the full moon, although the pain remained. After nineteen years of shifting his entire being into the body of a different species, you’d think you’d get used to the pain.

  He didn’t think he ever would.

  He often wondered if the Etruscan Gods, when they’d gifted the first lucani with their power to shift, had even considered the pain. Or if they’d thought it was a worthwhile price to pay for their amazing ability.

  An ability Kyle could use to tear the man who’d harmed this girl into little tiny pieces with his sharp teeth. He knew how to make it hurt, where to bite for maximum pain without killing, to draw out the punishment.

  He wanted to make the bastard pay but even more, he wanted to call back his skin, wrap her in his arms and against his chest and let her cry out all the anguish in her voice.

  Her furious emotion made his gut boil with rage. Overriding the violence, though, was the urge to comfort. He wanted to make her forget, to wipe that horrific experience from her mind and reassure her that not all men were animals.

  He snorted and shook his head.

  Okay, make that, not all men were brutal, sadistic sons-of-bitches who deserved to be fed their own nuts.

  “Hey, you okay, boy? Sounds like you’ve got a cold.”

  No, he didn’t have a cold. Didn’t feel cold at all. In fact, he felt pretty damn warm.

  And right there was where this was all going to shit.

  Because he’d be damned if he hadn’t fallen for this little eteri. Hard and fast and at first sight.

  Like a fucking teenager with raging hormones.

  It felt like a kick in the ass. Like a punch to the gut and a shot in the heart.

  Kyle had never been sentimental. He loved his daughter with his whole heart and he cared for Margie and Dan. They were his family as much as his three beautiful, headstrong younger sisters and his slowly aging parents who’d shown him what true love should be.

  And what he never wanted to find. He’d never been able to wrap his brain around the trust needed to give over so much of himself to a woman.

  And he hadn’t. This wasn’t love. He didn’t fall in love at first sight with a girl who couldn’t be more than twenty years old. Vaffanculo, he was almost forty.

  Fate wouldn’t fuck with him that badly. Right?

  Yeah, right.

  The girl in question sat on the porch, huddled in on herself as if she were cold. But it was mid-September in southeastern Pennsylvania and the daytime temperature had been in the nineties. Tonight, it was only supposed to drop into the mid-seventies.

  She had pale blonde hair the color of wheat, stick-straight and cut in uneven lengths around her face. The longest length reached only to the tip of her pointed chin. Hell, his was longer.

  Her features were all contradictions—sharp cheekbones and a button nose, full mouth and up-tilted ice-blue eyes.

  Eyes that held dark shadows.

  Again he fought the urge to shift back into his skin and take her in his arms.

  He’d terrify the hell out of her if he did. He smelled only a hint of magic in her, so faint he couldn’t even make out what kind. Not unusual. Many people actually had a trace of old magic in them, whether it was Egyptian, Norse, Celtic or any of the other ancient magical races.

  While most had died out or diffused into the general eteri population, the Etruscans had managed to keep their magic and their society from disa
ppearing through the millennia by clinging, some might say stupidly and stubbornly, to the Old Ways.

  “So,” she said, resting that pointed chin on her knees, “what do I call you, big guy? I don’t think Lassie fits.”

  He snorted at the idea, shaking his head. Tinia’s teat, anything would be better than fucking Lassie.

  “Okay, how about Rex? You kind of look like a Rex, all regal and shiny.”

  Rex he could deal with, at least until he went home and came back tomorrow morning in his skin to meet her properly. Which was probably the stupidest thing he could do. He should be running the other way. This woman, this eteri would throw his life into turmoil.

  The pain in her eyes…

  “Hmm, what about Blackpaw? Midnight?” She smiled, a sad little quirk of her mouth that made his gut hurt. “Maybe I’ll just name you Kyle Reese. After the attack, I must have watched The Terminator a hundred times, I swear. Nice fantasy, having someone come through space and time to save you from the Big Bad Monster. Too bad it doesn’t happen in real life.”

  Stunned, Kyle could only sit there as he heard his name come out of her mouth. Her voice, a little husky, a lot sexy, made it sound like a caress and that ball of lust in the pit of his stomach exploded outward.

  Though he wore his animal body, he was still human. The man wanted her. The animal could only comfort her.

  Easing up onto his paws, he stepped onto the porch, taking it slow. He was big for a wolf, almost a hundred pounds in this form.

  She froze, drawing in a short breath, which she released slowly as he settled on the porch beside her and butted his head against her knee.

  For a few brief seconds, she didn’t do anything, just watched him. But finally, when he had his entire body pressed against her side, she unfolded. Straightening her legs, she set her hand on his back, gently. As if she didn’t want to scare him away. He was worried about exactly the same thing with her.

  She started to stroke his pelt, her slim, small fingers brushing through his fur, tentatively at first then with more confidence.

  And Kyle knew he’d just lost the skirmish, the battle and the whole frickin’ war.

  But damn, what a way to go.

  Chapter Two

  Tam woke around noon, surprised to realize she actually felt rested.

  The nightmares hadn’t been as bad last night, as if speaking her fears aloud to the dog had mellowed them out.

  Which was just stupid. Then again, talking about her problems to animals was pretty stupid so why the hell not.

  Staring up at the cracked plaster ceiling in the only bedroom in the house, she thought about staying in bed. What did she really have to get up for?

  But she knew she’d only feel more worthless than she did already. She forced herself into the tiny shower, thankful the miniscule water heater still worked. Even though the air temperature was in the seventies, she needed a hot shower to scrub away the aftereffects of the dreams.

  Afterward, she pulled on worn denim cutoffs and a tank top with no bra. What did it matter since she was going to sit in front of her laptop all day?

  And do nothing.

  “Yeah, that’ll really make you feel good. Another useless day.”

  She headed for the kitchen where she looked out the back door to see if either of the dogs was there.

  When they weren’t, she shook her head at the sense of loneliness that hit like a brick in the chest. “Damn, you really are pathetic. Maybe it’s time to head back to civilization. At least then you might actually have someone to talk to.”

  If she could work up the nerve to return to Drexell University in Philadelphia and actually finish her degree. She had to make up her mind in less than a week. Due to her “circumstances”, the university had allowed her to wipe out her last semester and was holding a spot for her in the spring semester starting in January.

  If she returned. That was the question she’d been struggling with for the past few weeks. She didn’t know if she was ready. Didn’t know if she’d ever be ready.

  And if she wasn’t, what the hell was she going to do with the rest of her life?

  After a glass of orange juice and a bowl of cereal, Tamra stood at the sink washing her few dishes when a strange sound caught her ear.

  By the time she figured out what it was, the souped-up engine was growling down her lane.

  Since she’d arrived, no one had driven past her house. The overgrown lane actually dead-ended into the corn field to the south of this house.

  So who the hell was using her lane?

  Hurrying to the double window in the living room, she peeked out and saw a bright yellow muscle car rumbling down the road.

  Fear slid through her in a wash of frigid cold but when her brain finally processed what she was seeing, her mouth curved in a smile.

  The car’s convertible top was down, revealing a young girl at the wheel and an older man in the passenger seat. Tam could see the girl’s smile from here, bright and sunny as she brought the car to a jerking stop.

  She heard the girl laugh then the low rumble of the man’s voice. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, and she couldn’t see the man’s face. But the girl’s expression was cheerful, easy. No shadows.

  Her bright red hair shone in the sun, the strands confined to a braid that hung over her shoulder. The man tugged on the braid before turning to stare at her house.

  Whoa. Tam bit back an involuntary gasp. Sweet heaven, the guy was…hot. Not pretty-boy cute. Not run-of-the-mill handsome. His features were a little too hard, a little too sharp for that.

  No, this was a woman’s wet dream. Masculine and confident. Experienced.

  Shaggy black hair fell almost to his broad shoulders, the bangs brushing his perfectly straight nose and gorgeous, high cheekbones before he shoved them back. His square jaw had a covering of black stubble and his eyes were narrowed against the sun. She couldn’t see what color they were.

  She wanted to get close enough to see. After the hell she’d gone through eight months ago, it shocked her to realize her libido still worked. She’d thought…

  What? That she’d never want to have sex again?

  No. She wouldn’t let the bastard take that from her. She’d enjoyed sex, what little of it she’d had. She knew she would again. What that monster had done to her had been an aberration. Not sex.

  Sex with this man would be amazing.

  Not that she was going to have sex with him. She didn’t know who he was or why they were here. But she was about to find out.

  He and the girl got out of the car and started walking to her door.

  She pulled away from the window as they got close, not wanting them to catch her watching, like some creepy old lady afraid of her own shadow.

  They weren’t talking now, almost as if they didn’t want to spook her. The knock, when it came, sounded almost muted.

  As if they knew…

  Idiot, of course they didn’t know. She’d never seen them before in her life.

  The knock came a second time and she automatically moved to answer it.

  Her heart began to pound but not in fear. She almost didn’t recognize the difference because she’d lived with the fear for so long.

  No, this was anticipation.

  Because of him.

  She ran her fingers through her longer-than-normal hair, thankful for once that the straight blonde strands never tangled. She eased open the door, trying not to give any hint of the emotions roiling in her gut.

  “Can I help you?”

  The girl stood in front of the man, smiling at her with a wide grin. The man’s bulk nearly overwhelmed her slight figure.

  “Hi. I’m Cat and this is my dad, Kyle. We live down the road and since we only just noticed that you moved in, we came to say hi. And invite you for dinner. We’re having a cookout tonight. Dad’s pretty good with the grill and—”

  The girl cut off as the man put his hands on her shoulders. “And my daughter tends to run at the mo
uth. Sorry about that.” He stuck one of those hands around the girl toward her. “Kyle Rossini.”

  She took his hand without thought and immediately lost herself in his warmth. When was the last time she’d let anyone touch her? A month? Two?

  God, the man had huge hands, tanned dark by the sun. As was the rest of his arm and probably his chest as well. She didn’t see any tan lines, including one on his ring finger. Minus a ring.

  “Tamra. Tamra…Johnson.” They didn’t need to know her real name. It wasn’t like they were going to become best buddies. She wasn’t going to be here long. This was only a brief stop before she moved on. Again.

  He nodded as they shook then released her before she could pull away.

  “So were you related to Old Man Johnson?” he asked.

  “Ah yes, distantly. I inherited the property. Did you know him?”

  She’d never met her great-grandfather. Her mom had told her the old man had died almost twenty years ago, leaving his property to his granddaughter, Tam’s mother. Tam hadn’t even known about the property until she’d gone through her mother’s legal papers last month and found the deed.

  And she’d decided it would be the perfect place to pull herself together before she continued her life. If she could.

  The man nodded. “Yeah, I met him a few times.”

  She couldn’t tell from Kyle’s expression what he thought of her great-grandfather. According to her mom, the man hadn’t been worth their time.

  “Do you remember him?” he continued.

  “No, I was only three when he died.”

  Kyle’s gaze dropped for a second and she swore she saw him wince.

  “Soooo,” the girl, Cat, spoke up as if she couldn’t keep her mouth shut any longer. “Can you come to dinner? We’d really love to have the company.”

  Tam hesitated. She hadn’t expected to interact with other people while she was here. Didn’t know if she had any small talk in her. But the fact that she’d been talking to the dogs every night probably meant she missed human contact.