Moonlight

by Ines Johnson

  She pulled away. “Pierce don’t.”

  He gave her some distance, but he did not let her go.

  “You’re right,” she said. “I’ve let you close to me. But don’t you see? You could hurt me worse than anyone ever could because I trust you. You made me trust you,” she accused.

  “You made me hold still.” He brought her back tightly into his embrace. “I want to hold still with you Viviane.”

  He brought his head down to hers and captured her lips. She moaned again, but this time she let him claim her.

  Chapter Twenty

  His kiss began slow, the same way he’d moved in on her. She’d known from that cocky grin on the train that this guy was trouble. His persistent pursuit of her should’ve told her he had both patience and cunning, but Viviane hadn’t been paying attention. She’d been so wrapped up in her own problems she hadn’t sighted the danger moving in on her.

  That danger embraced her now. And like with any threat to her autonomy, Viviane did what she always did. She grabbed it by the horns.

  She grabbed Pierce’s erect cock. Each morning, she’d felt his erection pressed against her ass. Each morning, she’d kept still while her mind, body and soul had focused all her energy on his throbbing heat. No longer.

  She took him in hand. He didn’t gasp. He growled, a low purr that rumbled down his body and made his cock tremble.

  Feminine satisfaction pulsed through her. She had him.

  Viviane gave Pierce a shove down to the bed. He sat down willingly, a cocksure grin on his handsome face. The grin faded as she began to undress.

  His eyes tracked her hands and their progress. He let out a thin exhale as each article of clothing that hit the floor. He praised the Goddess as she climbed on the bed.

  A rush of possessiveness went through Viviane. She shoved him on his back. Pierce lay still, stunned by the shift of power. And then he chuckled as she straddled his naked torso.

  She knew she should set the tone. That she should take it slow and teach him to always give her long, slow, attentive foreplay. But the hell if the last week hadn’t been one agonizing bout of seduction. Viviane reached down for Pierce’s firm erection, lined it with her entrance, and then slid it into home base.

  They both grunted on impact. Pierce jackknifed off the bed. His groin angled into hers. His lips found her mouth and she set a fast pace. As she rode him, his tongue found his mark. He laved at her and her core pulsed like a puppy who knew its master had come home.

  Viviane’s hips bounced and swiveled on top of Pierce. His cock hit every good spot. She knew that if she was having a good time that had to mean he wouldn’t last much longer.

  She opened her eyes and looked down at Pierce. His eyes were on her bouncing breasts. His hips moved in tandem with hers. They met hers stroke for stroke.

  He gazed up at her. The cocksure grin had returned. He didn’t ask if she was close. He didn’t ask how it felt. He seemed content to let her take the lead.

  Viviane slowed her rocking. Pierce followed suite and waited patiently for her request. She liked the feel of Pierce beneath her. She felt completely full with him seated deeply with in her. But still he wasn’t hitting the spot she needed to climax.

  “Tell me what you need, Vivi?”

  She was stunned silent. She’d faked it before, mostly to get the guys to their climax so she could go home and take care of herself. But like always, there was no fooling Pierce.

  “I’m going to turn around,” she said.

  His grin was all wolf. “You can have me however you want me.”

  He reached for her, but Viviane darted his hands. She raised her hips. He slid out of her with a wet thwack against her belly.

  She turned her body around to face the window. She put her hands on his knees. She reached back for his cock, but he had himself in hand. He aimed himself at her core. Viviane raised her torso and sat down slowly, her back to his front. The angle of his penis immediately struck exactly where she needed it. She leaned forward. Her hips bounced up and down of their own accord. Her moans filled the room, alongside Pierce’s purrs of satisfaction.

  “By the Goddess, even your spine is beautiful.” Pierce brushed her hair off her back and over her shoulders. His hands kneaded her shoulder blades. They traced the nodes of her spine. They dug into the flare of her hips. All the while, she rocked away on top of him.

  His voice, his hands, the thick head of his cock curving at just the right spot sent Viviane over the edge. She howled her pleasure at the Moon like the animal she was.

  Viviane’s body caved over. She braced her hands on Pierce’s knees, but the support wasn’t stable. Her entire body shook from the force of the orgasm. It had been a long time since she’d been rocked like that. Not since… ever.

  She’d always had to rush her orgasms with her partners. She didn’t often win the race and was frequently left behind as the men dove past the finish line and she was left at the last bend. She’d discovered with Daniel that this position, Reverse Cowgirl, could get her there. But Daniel told her it left him feeling emasculated.

  Thank the Goddess Pierce had no such qualms. He ran his fingers up her back. He snaked a hand around her midriff. He shifted his hips and… was he still hard inside her?

  She went airborne. He flung her over onto her belly. He never left his deep seat inside of her core. With her on her stomach, he thrust his hips forward and Viviane collapsed into the mattress.

  She thought he’d been big before, but from this angle he invaded her belly. Goddess, what if the baby saw?

  “Give me your hands, Vivi.”

  That wasn’t Pierce behind her. It was the wolf. His voice rumbled through her. She gave the wolf her hands.

  She felt the distinct mark of claws on her wrist. Her hands were held tight at the base of her spine with one paw. With his other, Pierce wound his claws through her hair and gave a tug.

  Viviane groaned. Her body shivered harder than it had with her orgasm. And he hadn’t even moved within her yet. He yanked her head until the column of her neck was exposed.

  He licked at her as he began his rhythm. It wasn’t fast, but it was deep. So deep she could no longer speak, no longer think. Her world shrunk down to her hips and her neck.

  With her hands behind her back, she was completely at his mercy. The way he pulled her forearms stretched her body as though he were wringing out a damp towel. She was the towel, and the dampness was her orgasms.

  The contractions came at her, one after the other. She’d never been multiorgasmic. But she’d never met Pierce before this week.

  Just when she thought her body couldn’t give any more, from her peripheral vision she saw his incisors glint in the soft sun light. Her body clenched before he struck. With her arms pulled taut behind her back, Pierce drove his hips home. She had nothing to hold onto. She let him have her, her body, her trust; everything.

  She saw stars with this orgasm. She had no idea how long it took before she came down. Her next memory was of Pierce wrapping her up in his warmth. He nuzzled at the marks on her collarbone with his mouth and rested his large paw on her belly. And then she was asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  For the first time in weeks, Viviane wasn’t awakened by a roiling in her stomach. Instead, she woke from a sweet ache in her core. She pressed her thighs together and reveled in the memory of Pierce’s touch. She had never been so satisfied by a man’s hand, not even by her own hand.

  She felt the rays of the midday sun on her skin. She’d never slept so late. She turned into her pillow to escape the prodding of the beams of light and her nose landed in a pile of his scent.

  Viviane buried her face into the down of the pillow. She inhaled deeply. The woodsy smell of him hit her hard in the place where her belly once rioted.

  The scent calmed her. The scent excited her. The scent made her feel safe, settled.

  She felt like weeping, and even crazier, she felt safe to do it. She’d shed tears in front of Pie
rce before. He’d held her, and then investigated the matter, and in the end he’d helped to make it better.

  Pierce held her hand when she’d stumbled. He stood beside her when she’d needed support. He stood in front of her, ready to defend her honor, her body, her mind.

  She inhaled his scent again. The smell of him rushed down her lungs and into her heart. With the next beat, the essence of Pierce spread through her veins like a shock wave. There was no turmoil, no falling, and no loss of sense. Instead of shaking, her entire being steadied and stilled.

  This was love. By the Goddess, she was in love with Pierce Alcede. The urge to tell him overwhelmed her. Viviane reached her hand out to the side and met with… emptiness.

  Her eyes slammed open. The room was empty, bare. Pierce was not there. The window was opened. Cool air sailed in. She looked in the corner where his bags had lain for the past week. Gone.

  He’d left. She’d opened herself to him fully. Her body, her mind, now her heart. The moment she’d let him in…

  Stupid, stupid. She’d done it again. Let a man get too close to her and he’d stomped on her.

  She wanted to howl. She wanted to cry. Then she heard a sound that silenced everything inside her.

  It was the sound of masculine laughter.

  Pierce?

  Everything sped up inside her. Her blood pumped. Her ears rang. Her eyes watered.

  Viviane got up. She rushed through the buttons of her blouse. She threw open the door and heard his voice. From the top of the stairs she spied his form moving down below, leisurely, in no hurry.

  She came down the steps slowly, carefully, afraid she’d fall and disturb the dream she was walking into. Pierce stood in the kitchen, leaning against the fridge. Her Tia Stella chatted away as she flipped a pan of bacon strips. He chuckled as she waved a spatula at him. Viviane couldn’t make out anything they said. Her ears still rang from the blood rushing through.

  Diego and DJ came into the back door. DJ gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek while stealing a piece of bacon out of the pan. He wasn’t quick enough to escape a swat with the spatula. His father chuckled as he came up behind his wife and kissed her.

  “So primo,” DJ said around a mouthful of bacon, “you’ll be joining us to drive the sheep into Texas next month?”

  “You’re going to herd the sheep into Texas?” Pierce’s eyes lit up.

  “Tia Gloria sections off a part of the herd to go to market. It’s cheaper to herd them down than it is to drive them. So me, my padre, and a few other primos take a few weeks and herd them over. We go through a trail out in the middle of nowhere and camp under the stars.”

  Viviane watched Pierce’s ears straighten. She saw the wolf in him pant with excitement. She held her breath as he opened his mouth to respond.

  “That sounds like a great time,” he said. “But I’ll have to check with Vivi.”

  DJ wrinkled his nose and shook his head. His father nodded and winked at Pierce, his chin resting atop his wife’s head.

  “Man,” DJ groaned. “Another male bites the dust.”

  Pierce chuckled good-naturedly. “Aside from the fact that Viviane is pregnant with our first child, that’s a big decision to make without speaking with her first.”

  The stairs creaked under her feet. Pierce looked up and spied her. His smile brightened like the Full Moon. He made his way over to her. Viviane watched the movement of his hips, remembering their power from just hours ago.

  When he reached her, he snaked his arm around her waist, pulled her into his chest, and planted a kiss against her forehead. He lifted her off the last stair rung and put her feet down on to the ground.

  “Good afternoon.” Pierce pulled away and gazed down at her. “What’s the matter?” he said quietly. “Is it…?” He placed his hand over her belly.

  Viviane shook her head at his unasked question.

  “Then what?”

  “I just…” She had trouble meeting his gaze. “When I woke up, and you weren’t there…”

  His eyes crinkled in confusion. Then softened in understanding. Then hardened in shame.

  Viviane reached up to brush the last look away. She was sorry she’d said it; sorry she’d doubted him when he so clearly had every faith in her. By the time, her thumb crossed to the other side of his face, the look of shame was gone and mischief regained its normal post between his brows.

  “Sorry, but there are no take backs,” he said. “You’re stuck with me.”

  She claimed his lips in a hungry kiss. In the background, she heard a chorus of voices clearing their throats and telling them to get a room. She ignored them all.

  “Why don’t you go back to bed?” Pierce said when he pulled away. “I’m going to take over your chores today.”

  Viviane was breathless, but her brain was still in working order. “I can do my own chores.”

  “I don’t doubt that, Vivi. I’ve seen it for myself. This has nothing to do with your gender and everything to do with the extra work you’re carrying around twenty-four-seven. I get to take a break in the night. You don’t. The load is unfair. You have to admit that. I could do my work and yours, but I don’t. We’re partners, but we can’t exactly be fifty-fifty right now. Let me balance this out. Let me have the privilege of caring for my cub and my mate.”

  Viviane refused to tear up. She refused to cry. Pierce kissed away the moisture at her eyes before anyone could see it fall.

  “Besides,” he whispered in her ear, “you’ll need your strength for the job I have planned for you later in the evening.”

  The carnal promise skated over Viviane’s skin and heated her through. Pierce left with the rest of the men before she could regain her wits and continue the argument.

  “Hang on a second, Vivi.” Her aunt came out from behind the counter. “This arrived for you earlier.”

  Stella handed her a letter. It was from the University. It was probably her final grades, or maybe her degree since she hadn’t stuck around to get the real copy after her humiliation.

  Viviane waited for the familiar rock to settle in her stomach at the thought of Daniel’s rejection. She waited for the tingling of embarrassment to cross her neck. Or for the tightening of wounded pride to squeeze her chest. Nothing came. Her body was too preoccupied with Pierce’s last kiss, and the promise of more to come.

  She tore at the envelope and pulled out the single sheet that was within. The thin sheet of paper was folded, so it couldn’t be her degree. It also couldn’t be a grade report. Those were usually two pages long: one page of grades and another with comments.

  “Where’s Pierce?”

  Viviane looked up from the folded sheet of paper and turned to her mother. “I think that’s the first time you’ve called him by his name.”

  Her mother shrugged, looking beyond Viviane.

  “I think you like him?”

  “He’s tolerable,” said Gloria. “The sheep like him. Sheep are good judges of character. Speaking of sheep, it looks like the sheep in sickbay are all recovered. Apparently it was something they ate; something you gave them.”

  “Yes?”

  Her mother didn’t look angry. But neither did she look pleased. This could go either way. Viviane tried not to hold her breath.

  “Maybe we give a little of your bag feed to the others… from time to time.”

  Viviane’s chest protested the lack of air.

  “Just during this cursed drought,” Gloria clarified. “Just until the land is growing back.”

  Viviane let out a gust of air and then sucked more down. It was a major victory. She decided to press her luck.

  “You know, mama, there is land nearby that has some excess growth.”

  “You mean the Guerrero vineyards? You’re suggesting having the sheep eat the weeds and underbrush?”

  “Yes, I… How did you guess that?”

  “Jesus mentioned your idea. It could work. It would save him money on the labor and it would exercise and feed the sheep
. But it’ll be tricky herding them through the rows. I need to think on it more."

  When had her mother spoken to Jesus? Pierce had brought up the idea last night. It was late afternoon now. The shearing was all done. Jesus had no reason to be around the farm. Before Viviane could gather her thoughts to ask for clarification, her mother was gone.

  It seemed she was misjudging every one in her life this day. She looked back down at the folded sheet of paper and unfolded it. It wasn’t her grades. It was a job offer. She was being offered an adjunct faculty position at the college in the Animal Husbandry division. It was on the tenure track. It was… was this Daniel’s old job?

  She read further and learned that his position had been vacated. It appeared he’d been caught having an affair with one of the freshmen students, a girl who was a few weeks shy of eighteen. The girl she’d caught Daniel with was not a freshman. She had been someone from Viviane’s own year.

  The paper trembled in her hand as her stomach heaved. She placed her hands at her belly. In her mind, she heard her unborn baby wail that this was the man who’d sired it.

  She rubbed her belly. That may have been her child’s sperm donor. But her baby would have the best male role model Viviane had ever met. Her child would be raised by a man who was loyal, and kind, and funny. A man who would listen to them and catch them when they fell.

  Viviane’s stomach eased with that knowledge. She put the letter back in its envelope and climbed the stairs. She decided she’d heed her mate’s advice. A little nap wouldn’t hurt her. Once in her room, she rested her head on his pillow and fell asleep safe and secure in the scent of him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Pierce trotted alongside the grazing sheep. It was a small herd made up of the sheep that would be driven down to Texas in a few weeks. He was looking forward to the trip. The freedom to run out in open, uncivilized land. Sleeping under the stars, hanging with other male wolves. He was excited, but the need to take off didn’t feel urgent.