Hunger Moon

by Merryn Dexter

  “I’ll drip all over your place,” he protested.

  “Tile floors are easy to mop.” She took his hand. “Come on. I’d feel terrible if you got pneumonia and I could have prevented it.”

  In the kitchen, she flipped the switch on the coffeemaker while he took off his shirt. Then she handed him a large towel from the stack in the laundry room.

  “You look exhausted. Bad night?” Her heart pinched at the weary sight of him.

  Jesse scrubbed a hand over his face. “Every night’s bad with the gangs. We’ve got a couple of new ones out there ramping up their so-called initiation requirements. That makes it pretty tense on the streets.”

  He was a member of the sheriff’s gang task force, a thankless and dangerous job. On the night streets, he was a shadowy figure in jeans and T-shirt, looking to stop trouble before it started. Even in a county as small as Palmetto, gangs were a big problem, many of them migrating south from Tampa.

  She’d taken to waiting up for him, knowing she’d be unable to rest until he was home safely. If only she could find a way to protect him. Well, there was one, if she transformed. But she had no idea how he’d feel about a giant wolf following him around the county.

  She ran a critical eye over him, noting his soaked jeans, and pulled out another towel. “You’d better take off the rest of those clothes and let me put everything in the dryer. Coffee should be ready in a minute.”

  “I’m all right, Alexa. Honest. The only thing I need is to get some sleep.”

  How about in my bed?

  “I told you. Go to sleep like that and you really will get sick.”

  “Alexa, I….”

  She grinned at him. “I finally have a chance to get you naked in my house. Don’t give me a hard time.”

  Something primitive flashed in his eyes at her words, and the muscles of his face tautened. He took his wallet out of his jeans and flipped it onto the counter. Still holding her gaze, he undid the snap, lowered the zipper, and slid the wet denim down his legs, along with his boxers.

  In seconds, he was unselfconsciously naked. Alexa’s face flushed. She quickly handed him the second towel and turned toward the laundry room. “I’ll go dump all this stuff in the dryer.”

  Her hands shook slightly as she dropped the clothes into the dryer and set it on the spin cycle.

  Am I out of my mind? Jesse Farrell naked in my kitchen, wrapped only in two of my towels?

  Correction. One towel—slung low on his hips and knotted at the side. When she came back into the kitchen, he was still using the other one to dry his hair.

  He winked at Alexa. “I’ve sure waited a long time for you to get me naked, darlin’.”

  “Don’t get any ideas,” she tried to joke. “I’m just doing my Good Samaritan thing. Want a shot of something in your coffee to take the chill off?”

  “No thanks. Sounds good, but straight from the pot.”

  When she turned to hand him the mug, he was so close behind her the hot liquid nearly sloshed over the rim. “S-Sorry.”

  His scent drifted past her nose, musk and citrus and the clean smell of the rain. Her wolf sense of smell went on high alert. She tried to inch away from him, but he had her trapped between his body and the counter.

  Oh my God! His body!

  Exactly as she had imagined it. Lean, hard, muscled, with thick curls of dark hair covering his chest and narrowing to a point beneath the top edge of the towel. And his face. Lines of exhaustion carved into the rugged planes accented the sensuous mouth and the slightly crooked nose. But his eyes dominated everything. God, she could get lost in those dark whiskey-colored eyes fringed by thick lashes.

  Alexa had to stop herself from licking her lips.

  He’s not for you.

  But oh, how she wanted him. In her heart as well as her bed. Most definitely in her life.

  He’s not for you.

  The words echoed again in her head.

  “You must be exhausted,” she murmured, searching for conversation. “Your clothes should be dry in a minute. Why don’t you take your coffee to the table and sit down.”

  “I like the view better from here.” His voice was like warm syrup sliding over her.

  “Jesse, I—”

  “You what?” He set his coffee mug on the counter and leaned forward, his hands on either side of her. “Do you know how many times I’ve watched you out there in what passes for a backyard here? Seen you in those shorts and T-shirts that hug this round little body? How many times I’ve stood and talked to you hoping you wouldn’t notice what a hard-on you gave me? How many nights I’ve dreamed of taking your body into my bed and doing the most exciting things to it? With it?”

  “Y-You have?”

  “Sitting in your house eating dinner with you and watching television has been an exercise in self-control worthy of an award. You have no idea how I’ve been fantasizing about you.”

  She placed her palms on his chest and realized instantly what a mistake that was. Electricity sizzled through her fingertips and shot its way through her body. Her nipples, already hard, were now like tiny granite pebbles. Liquid dripped from her cunt and trickled down the inside of her thighs. Embarrassed, she squeezed her legs together.

  “Don’t fantasize about me, Jesse. There are things you don’t know.”

  Don’t give me the chance to love you.

  His eyes were like twin flames, all signs of teasing gone. “Afraid of me, Alexa?”

  His words sent shivers skittering along her spine. She swallowed twice before she could answer him.

  “W-What should I be afraid of?”

  “Maybe this.”

  He bent his head and captured her mouth with his, a soft kiss that gradually turned hard and demanding. His tongue swept the warm, wet cavern of her mouth like a flame, scorching her everywhere it touched. His hands held her firmly to him, crushing her breasts against his bare chest. The length of his erection pressed into the softness of her belly.

  The kiss was endless, stealing her breath and ramping up her heart rate. When finally he lifted his mouth from hers, she felt as if a tornado had struck her and left her still swirling in its wake.

  “Is that what you’re afraid of, Alexa?” His voice didn’t sound any steadier than she felt. “Time to stop being scared. I want you, and I know you want me. What are you running away from?”

  Oh, God, Jesse, if you only knew. You’d be the one running.

  But her feet wouldn’t move and her mouth wouldn’t work. She could do nothing more than stand there, immobile, silently begging for more. And he was about to give it to her.

  “Which way?” he asked, lifting her in his arms.

  She was confused. “For what?”

  “Your bedroom, darlin’. For what I want to do, we really need a bed.”

  A tiny puff of breath escaped her lips. How had this gotten this far out of control so quickly? “Last door down the hall.”

  Reaching to pick up his wallet, he carried her to her room with long strides. She barely had time to draw a breath before he had her robe untied and on the floor. His eyes darkened almost to chocolate as he raked them over her nude body.

  “Magnificent,” he breathed. “But then I knew you would be.”

  He cupped her breasts with his large, warm hands, weighing their fullness, squeezing them gently. When the pads of his thumbs rasped over her already sensitive nipples, she couldn’t help but gasp.

  “Like that, do you? How about this?”

  He bent his head to capture a breast in his mouth. His tongue pressed the nipple against the roof of his mouth. One hand molded to her other breast, pinching that nipple in a steady rhythm.

  Alexa’s legs trembled and her knees wobbled. She was glad when Jesse carried her to the bed. His mouth still sucked her breast. Teeth gently nipped at the tip, followed by his tongue soothing the bite places. His hand continued to pull and tug on her other nipple.

  She hadn’t thought her pussy could release more liquid but she
felt slick and wet. She was hot everywhere. If he didn’t touch her there soon, she’d scream. She arched her pelvis and pressed her hips against him, urging him to do something. Anything.

  “Don’t make me rush this,” he whispered, his mouth now at her ear. His tongue traced the delicate line of the shell. “I’ve waited too long.”

  His lips drew a pattern down the side of her neck to the sensitive spot where it met her shoulder. Again, he placed tiny bites on her soft skin. With maddening slowness, he trailed his mouth over each breast, between the valley separating them, and down over her stomach. He paused in his journey to give proper attention to her navel.

  Then he was kneeling between her thighs, her legs resting on his shoulders. His thumbs parted her labia, slick with her own cream. His tongue was an instrument of torture, stroking from her throbbing vagina to the swollen knot of her clit. Her body jerked under the lash of his tongue while his thumbs opened her wider to the assault of his mouth.

  Her body felt hot, her skin stretched far too tight. This was beyond anything she could have imagined.

  “Easy, darlin’,” he crooned and nipped gently at her clit.

  His tongue continued its broad strokes the length of her sex, denying her its entry into her waiting hot channel. When he finally stabbed it into the slick flesh, a tiny cry escaped her lips and she fisted the bedclothes.

  His tongue moved in and out of her greedy cunt, her hot muscles grasping at it, clenching, desperate to hold it inside her. She tried to close her thighs to squeeze him inside but his broad shoulders held her legs far apart.

  The coil of need inside her wound tighter and tighter as he relentlessly pushed her up the spiral. Higher and higher he took her, toward the ultimate explosion. His tongue fucked her in a steady rhythm while his clever fingers tormented her clit and pinched her labia.

  “Please,” she begged. “I want you inside me. Please, please, Jesse. Please.”

  One hand drifted lower and the fingers teased at the tight rim of her anus. “This is where I want my cock, Alexa, if you’re willing. This is what I’ve dreamed about.”

  He was going to fuck her in the ass. Every animal instinct inside her roared to life, and, unbelievably, her need escalated.

  “Yes,” she moaned. “Do it. I want you to.”

  Moving her so her legs were pushed back almost to her shoulders, his hands separated the globes of her ass. His tongue lapped at her anus. Then two fingers slid inside her hot, grasping vaginal sheath, scooping out her fluids and spreading them over the tiny anal rosette. One finger pushed against the tight ring of muscle, easing inside.

  When he was in to the knuckle, he forced another finger in beside it and began a scissoring motion.

  At first, she felt an almost painful fullness and a burning sensation in her tissues. But the more he stretched her, the better it felt. Every nerve in her body seemed to be firing at once.

  “Oh God,” she moaned. “Do it now.”

  With swift motions, he pulled a foil packet from his wallet, ripped it open with his teeth, and sheathed himself. Then he positioned himself over her. His breathing was unsteady.

  “Here we go, darlin’. Get ready to feel me in that tight little ass of yours.”

  The broad head of his cock pressed against her anus. His hips flexed and slowly, one tiny bit at a time, he pushed himself inside her. When the head popped in past the ring of muscle, he began to stroke her clit again, driving her higher.

  All her pulses throbbed and fluid gushed from her cunt as Jesse’s cock continued to press into her rectum.

  And then he was in, all the way. He leaned over her, balancing himself on one hand while the other continued to stroke her screaming sex. With a deep breath, he began to move his hips, stroking in and out of her. Peering up through slitted eyes, she saw the sweat coating his face and the tightness of his jaw as he fought for control.

  “Let go, Jesse,” she rasped. “Do it now. Now!”

  “Not until you’re ready,” he spat out through clenched teeth.

  “I’m ready,” she cried, her hips moving with his. “Please.”

  “All right, then.”

  He increased the pace of his rhythm. Then, with one final pinch of her clit, he thrust her into her orgasm as his own overtook him.

  On and on it went, shudders racking her body until she thought her bones would break apart. Above her, she felt Jesse shake with spasm after spasm. At last, as his tremors subsided, he collapsed on her and held her through the aftershocks.

  After a long time, he lifted his head and feathered kisses over her face. His eyes searched hers intently. “Please tell me you’re not sorry.”

  How could she be sorry about something so incredibly wonderful? The realization of her fantasies was even better than the dreams themselves. “I’m not sorry.”

  Relief smoothed out the worry lines on his face.

  “But you must be exhausted. You finished your shift and you need some sleep.” She couldn’t help the little grin that turned up her mouth. “You only came over here for your key, remember?”

  “I think I really came over here hoping to get more than that.” He traced the edges of her lips with his tongue. “Darlin’, you’ve been driving me crazy for too long. You couldn’t get me to go to sleep now unless you knocked me out.”

  He slid his penis slowly from her and lowered her legs with great care. “Give me a minute to clean up and catch my breath. We aren’t finished for the night. Not when I’ve waited this long for it.”

  She watched the flex of muscles in his exquisite ass as he walked toward her bathroom. Her body still limp from her incredible climax, she realized what big trouble she was in.

  She still harbored a natural desire to protect him from the dangers he faced each day, but now something had been added. In giving him her body, she’d cracked open the wall she’d built around her heart. But Jesse Farrell would never, ever knowingly want to mate with a shifter. And she couldn’t bear the thought of the revulsion she’d see in his face if she revealed herself.

  What should she do now?

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  Silver Moon by Merryn Dexter

  Chapter One

  Silver Ellis studied the lowered heads of her class bent over the math test she had set for them. The empty space in the second row gnawed at her. Where is Tina? Today marked the fourth day she’d missed class in the past fortnight. A disturbing new trend from one of her brightest and most promising students. Tina loved school. Soaked up every bit of new knowledge like an eager sponge. She was a bright spot in Silver’s otherwise disappointing experience at Johnson Middle School. Moving had proved a mistake—an instinctive response to the blinding grief of losing her father.

  Six months. I said I would give it six months. The lie sat heavy in her gut. She’d been there for three months and knew, once the semester finished, she would move on. Her quiet existence hadn’t prepared Silver for the shocking poverty and gang violence overshadowing the area.

  Her dreams of making a difference to the local children dissolved in the face of harsh reality. She was a stranger, a naïve fool raised in relative comfort, and the quiet security of a small town. She knew nothing about the struggles these children faced even to make it to class. Absent parents, tight budgets, and poor welfare support. Younger siblings that needed minding while their mothers staggered between a series of underpaid manual jobs, trying to scrape together enough money to keep corrupt landlords at bay.

  The children in her class ranged from hollow-eyed disinterest to belligerent defiance. Tina’s natural enthusiasm rubbed off on a couple of them, but most barely tolerated Miss Ellis with her old-fashioned skirts, pussy-cat bow blouses, and sensible shoes.

  “One more minute, finish up what you’re writing,” she called out to a chorus of sighs and muttered curses. The level of profanity peppering everyday exchanges with her group of ten year olds still stunned her. Sh
e’d taken to writing down some of the more outlandish insults in her notebook. An online urban dictionary had proved most enlightening—and disturbing. “And that’s time. Don’t forget to write your names on the top of your test papers and place them on the corner of my desk on your way out.”

  The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Chairs scraped back and the students formed a mini stampede toward freedom, tossing their papers haphazardly on her desk as they passed. Bending to gather a few stray pages from the floor, Silver raised her eyes when a pair of battered tennis shoes stopped in front of her. Suppressing a qualm of fear, she met the fierce glare of her most recalcitrant student. Nina would be the star of every subject if she ever bothered to apply her considerable intelligence. Silver didn’t know what had happened to the girl to make her so bitter—didn’t want to know if she was completely honest with herself. Coward.

  “What is it, Nina?” Silver smiled in encouragement. A tiny frisson of hope skittered through her nervousness. Maybe the girl actually had a question about the test.

  “Why the fuck do you keep bothering with this crap? Math isn’t gonna help any of these stupid-ass fools.” Rage glittered in the girl’s dark eyes. Silver pushed quickly to her feet, not wishing to present such a vulnerable target.

  “Math is vital to every aspect of life, Nina. A good education can open a world of opportunity to you. You have so much ability, there is no reason you couldn’t go to college when the time comes; you just need to apply yourself a little.” Silver couldn’t help the pleading tone in her voice. She wanted so much to help.

  “Education didn’t do you no good. How else did you end up in this shithole place? School is a waste of time. I know what my options are for making money, and a fancy college diploma won’t help me.” The girl leaned forward, making Silver shrink back from the fury shaking her too-thin frame. “Don’t need a diploma to turn tricks,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Don’t need a diploma to get in good with a banger.”

  Tears thickened in Silver’s throat. Ten years old and this child was already so certain her worth would only ever be counted in sexual terms. “Nina, oh honey….” The sympathetic hand she extended was slapped away, the sting nothing in comparison to the pain in her heart.