Midnight Moonrising

by K. S. Haigwood

  Phoenix stilled for only a moment before pulling me back against him, crossing my arms over my chest and just holding me tight in his embrace as I let the day’s events overwhelm me.

  I felt the soft pressure of his lips on my hair and then my temple as he tried to console me.

  For a man who refused to love, he sure loved a lot. Nobody had ever been so tender and loving toward me. I would never force him to say it. Words were just words. I knew the affection he showed me had a bigger name than lust or obsession, but those three words didn’t matter anyway. Marc had said them, and they hadn’t meant a damn thing to that man. Phoenix, on the other hand, showed me how he felt, even when he couldn’t say the words, even when he didn’t know what he himself felt.

  Love? It was just a word, meaningless to me now that Phoenix was showing me so much more than I’d ever known.

  I honestly couldn’t deny that I had more than lukewarm feelings for Phoenix. I’d lost half my heart to him the moment he walked into the bathroom. I knew he’d messed up—again—but if I knew him at all, he’d had a good reason for it, and of course it would be to give me what I needed. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he wasn’t getting something out of it, too; I hadn’t missed how enraged my wolf had become when she’d figured out that I was now linked to a vampire and a handful of werewolves. I honestly saw it as more protection, but she evidently thought—

  I sat up quickly in the bathtub and turned to look at Phoenix. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed, and his eyes told me they knew I had discovered something he was afraid to talk about, something I shouldn’t have figured out so soon.

  A slow grin spread across my face and his eyes widened a fraction, like he was scared of me.

  “Mena…” he whispered, my name sliding from his lips like an expensive wine.

  “Will you tell me the truth?”

  He nodded after a moment, and I could tell that he wouldn’t lie to me, not even if the truth hurt me.

  “Did you link me to you so my wolf wouldn’t try to kill you?”

  Inhaling deeply, he averted his eyes from mine.

  “Phoenix!” I shouted, slapping the water as my temper flared, and he looked back at me, nervous. “You promised you would kill me if she ever tried to kill you. Did you link us so she wouldn’t ever try?”

  “Yes.” He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. It was stupid, but it was the only thing I could think—”

  I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled until his mouth met mine.

  He sat up quickly, immediately responding to the kiss and sloshing water over the side of the jetted tub. My earlier thought of whether he was attracted to me or not was evident now; he’d just been upholding his promise of not touching me while I was staying with him.

  Such a gentleman, he was. It just so happened I didn’t want a gentleman. I wanted Phoenix, all of him, hard and raw.

  He got to his knees and pulled me up with him, never breaking contact with my mouth as his fingers dove into my hair, gripping the matted tresses and pulling me until the pressure on my lips was almost painful.

  This man kissed me like I was air that he needed to live. I had never in my life been kissed like that. Not by Marc or any guy I’d dated in high school before him.

  He broke away from my mouth, pulling my hair, exposing my neck to him. I expected him to strike—I wanted him to, desperately—but he didn’t, and I wondered if my blood would hurt him because I was a werewolf and he was a vampire. Instead, he kissed along my jaw line, down the left side of my neck and stopped at my collarbone.

  The pause made me pull him closer, encouraging him to continue, but he resisted.

  “Mena, I—I can’t… I promised I wouldn’t—”

  I gripped his damp hair and jerked his head back, forcing eye contact. “Screw the promises. I need you tonight, Phoenix, and I’m not looking for the fucking missionary position.”

  He released a short breath as he stared into my eyes, and then something changed in those cool blue irises and I could see the decision he’d made; I was going to get my way.

  “You want me?” he rasped.

  I grinned. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  He growled as he slapped the wall with his palm, causing me to jump. “I don’t break promises, Mena, especially not to people I care about, and there aren’t many of them. Actually…” he let his gaze fall away from me, “…you are the only person I care about. I don’t want to let you down, but it seems like I always am—”

  I shook my head, disappointed. Yeah, he was letting me down, all right. I had practically thrown myself at him and he freakin’ cock-blocked me with some sappy-ass excuse about a broken promise!

  I stepped out of the tub, with an aggravated huff, and walked around the tiled wall to the shower.

  “Mena,” Phoenix said in a pleading tone, and the sloshing of water could be heard as he stepped out to follow me. “I wasn’t finished talking. Please stop running from me,” he said, stopping directly under the shower head as my hand lifted to grab the faucet lever.

  “Get out of my way so I can wash the rest of Dana off my body and out of my hair.” I tried to shove him, but he didn’t budge. “Move, jerk!”

  “Just talk to me, damn it! I don’t want you to—”

  “Talk!” I laughed, menacingly as the hand not on the shower lever came up to gesture toward him. “You want to talk? You’re a guy, Phoenix! Since when would guys rather talk than fuck? If you didn’t notice, I don’t actually have talking on my mind right now!”

  “No, right now you are pissed at me, but I need to know—”

  I yanked the lever up and ice-cold water sprayed out of the nozzle so fast that he couldn’t get away before it soaked his entire body.

  He shrieked, frozen in the icy blast. I grabbed a towel and darted out the door, quickly wrapping it around my body as I ran for the basement stairs. It was still daylight; he couldn’t go up to the main floor.

  “Mena, wait!” Phoenix shouted as I jerked the chamber door open and ran out.

  I wasn’t waiting. This day had gone from bad to worse, and it sucked to think the worst part of my day was being rejected by my boyfriend! At least my wolf hadn’t piped in to give her two-cents worth of bullshit. I couldn’t deal with two assholes right now.

  I was two steps up the stairs to the main floor when an arm wrapped around my waist and Phoenix was hauling me back in the opposite direction, tucked under his arm like a damn ragdoll or something. God, what was his deal?

  Slapping and kicking proved to be useless; the man was like a fortress.

  “Let me go!” I screamed.

  “I thought you wanted to fuck, Mena.”

  Jaxon’s door opened up ahead and he stepped out to see what the commotion was about. His eyes widened when he saw Phoenix’s naked form stomping up the corridor with me in only a towel.

  “Jaxon!” I shouted as I reached for him. “Help me—”

  “Go back to bed, Jaxon!” Phoenix demanded, and Jaxon disappeared behind the slamming door.

  Shit! “Put me down, Phoenix! I don’t want you anymore!”

  He chuckled. “Oh, yes, you do, and you’re about to get all that you bargained for, baby.”

  Phoenix stormed through his doorway and kicked the door shut with his foot.

  “I’m not joking,” I growled out through a clenched jaw. “This isn’t funny! Call Alex. I want him to come get me now—”

  I yelped when he threw me and I landed on his bed, but I quickly got to my hands and knees and scrambled to the other side of the mattress.

  Not anticipating that he would be waiting for me there, I opened my mouth to scream when he grabbed my arms, but my bare feet were on the floor and my back was against the wall before any noise escaped my lips.

  His hard body pressed me against the cool stone wall, his long, slender fingers gripping both my wrists and pinning them above my head while his heavy, labored breathing blew against my mouth.

  As he ground his erection agai
nst my pelvis, I went from wanting to get the hell away from him to wanting to kiss him in less than a nanosecond. Somehow he always knew exactly what to do or what to say to change my mind.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Mena,” his husky voice growled, sending chills throughout my body. “Not when you have sex on your mind, Lupacchiotto.”

  What a coincidence. I didn’t actually want to go anywhere anymore, not unless it was to his bed.

  Those cool blue eyes softened a bit when they dropped to look at my parted lips. My tongue slipped out to taste his breath, and he groaned when I sucked my lower lip between my teeth and bit down.

  Swallowing hard, he cleared his throat in obvious discomfort. “I can’t control my actions around you, Mena. I turn stupid the second I catch your delectable scent. What does that mean? No one has ever had this effect on me.”

  I wanted to tell him that he was falling in love with me, but I was afraid that would make him run for the hills, so I only smirked at him when his gaze shifted back to my eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter what it means, Phoenix. We’re just living in the moment, remember?”

  I didn’t wait for a response, before closing the gap between us and capturing his bottom lip between my teeth. Proud that I had turned the tables on him, I swallowed his choked gasp of surprise as he tightened his grip on my wrists and opened his mouth to control the kiss. Before I knew what was happening, Phoenix had hoisted my body up on the wall, still trapped under the steely ropes of his muscles.

  A preternatural groan escaped his lips as he assaulted my mouth, sending heated waves coursing through my body with each swipe of his lips. When his tongue swooped into my mouth, all I could do was react. All thought processes were gone. I acted on instinct.

  Tiny whimpers escaped as he pressed his body against mine, before he pulled back from the kiss and softly dropped heated, open-mouthed bites down my neck and across my shoulder. The heat from his mouth stoked my insides, igniting the tinder into a raging inferno. As soon as his mouth nipped at my breast, I exploded.

  Gripping his hair in my hands, I lost myself to the sensations, as he rolled the nipple between his teeth, before suckling it between his lips. Oh God, that felt so good. I clawed at his back, leaving bloody gouges, but didn’t care. He healed fast, he could take it.

  He hauled my body up farther, and my legs instinctively went around his waist. Gripping my hips, he carried me to the bed, dropping me on the edge. His massive hands spanned my thighs as he spread them apart and eyed my sex appreciatively. Before I could come up with a witty comment, he was sliding into me.

  I watched his eyes as he filled me in one swift thrust, and they changed. The intensity shining out of them morphed into something wild, something animalistic. I met him, thrust for thrust. From at the edge of the bed, he repeatedly slammed into me, while he stood just out of reach. My fingers clutched the sheets, mindless. Hisses of air escaped his lips in a rush, and as he dropped his thumb to my clit, I suddenly felt weightless.

  I floated in a sea of sensations, lost in Phoenix’s feral gaze, just feeling. Lava coursed through my veins, and I clawed at the sheets… anything for release. I could feel myself climbing the precipice of oblivion, and before I jumped, I saw his eyes change again.

  As I fell, waves of pleasure crashed over me, pimpling my skin with goosebumps. His eyes were the only thing to focus on.

  Tenderness shone in them, reaching out and caressing my skin with their gaze.

  Scooting my limp body up onto the bed, he followed, his body covering mine fully, the warmth of his skin sending me spiraling with more sensations. He caged me in with his elbows, and I was happy to finally be able to touch him again. My hands immediately fisted in his hair, as his mouth crashed against mine, teeth clashing with teeth, tongues melding.

  We breathed the same air as Phoenix poised himself at my entrance again. Apparently, he’d had a change of heart and, instead of fucking me into oblivion, he was going to be a little sweeter. I gasped at the sensations again, as my body stretched around him. Then he moved.

  Oh God, if Phoenix slamming into me was good, this was heavenly. As he stroked my insides with each thrust in and out, I again went into Mindless Mena Land, where I couldn’t think at all, only feel. With his cool skin rubbing across my heated body, lubricated by my slick sweat, I lost myself to the experience. I could smell him—his body wash, his sex. It was heady. Grunts, whimpers and groans thickened the air, and I couldn’t tell who they belonged to. His deep blue eyes reached inside me, stoking that flame, licking it to life again.

  The pressure inside was building and the only release was on top of me, his body weight pressing me into the mattress. Instead of being oppressive, it was erotic as Phoenix continued his slow stroking—in, out—in, out.

  The smooth muscles on his back contracted under my fingers as he dipped his head to my neck. Opening his mouth on the delicate skin, I felt his incisors release, right before they sank into my flesh.

  The rush was exquisite. Blinding colors detonated behind my eyelids as I squeezed them shut to focus on the impressions of Phoenix. Nothing was physical anymore, it was all impressions. I was aware of being filled, rubbed, stoked—I was aflame, burning from the inside out.

  I became invincible—treasured like this. Phoenix had said it before, and now I understood, because I felt the same about him as he did about me. He was everything I never knew I wanted. And now that he was mine, now that he had filled that empty void in my heart where he belonged, I doubted I could cope if he was ever taken from me.

  I leapt into the chasm of oblivion again, sure I could fly. He leapt with me.

  We lay there panting for what could have been either minutes or weeks. I didn’t know, nor did I care. For the first time in my life, I felt satiated.

  “I just needed to know that you wouldn’t regret it and hate me after we did that, Mena,” he said, his voice deep and husky with the after effects of our little sexcapade. “I’ve fucked up so much already when it comes to you, and it kills me to know that Rhodes’ hands are on your body when you aren’t with me. I don’t want to give you another reason to enjoy being with him.”

  I grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing you are fantastic in bed then.”

  He chuckled as he rolled off me, but it sounded forced, and I realized then that he wasn’t looking at me. I reached for him when he started to pull away. He stilled, but it was a good ten seconds before he turned those amazing eyes on me. “You matter to me, Mena,” he finally said as he studied me, but I couldn’t do anything except stare back. I couldn’t form words and speak aloud what I felt for him. I guess I was afraid my words would mean a lot more than ‘you matter to me’. I was scared to death if I opened my mouth ‘I love you’ would tumble out. “I don’t know what this is between us, but I can’t let you go.”

  “I don’t want you to,” I managed to say.

  “How can you trust me after everything you’ve been through? I broke my promise—”

  “I didn’t ask you to promise me anything, Phoenix. You came up with that all on your own as a bribe to get me here, and then you and my wolf conspired against me and forced me to come anyway. That’s the only mistake you’ve made. You took the option away from me. I would have come on my own. In case it’s not bluntly obvious, I’m ready for us to move forward.”

  “You’re sure?” he said, a mixture of doubt and hope fighting each other for residence in his expression.

  I smiled. “Oh, yeah… I’m more than sure about that.”

  He leaned in and gave me a soft kiss, letting his lips linger on mine a sweet moment longer before moving away. “Come,” he said, holding his hand out for me once his legs were free of the tangled sheets. “We need to shower and get ready. My clan wants to meet you before we go visit the witches tonight.”

  I beamed at him as he led me to the bathroom. “You’re letting me go with you this time?”

  He grinned slyly. “You say that like I actually have a choice in the ma
tter. I’m almost positive if I refused to let you go that you wouldn’t let what we just did happen again until I conceded.”

  I shrugged. “I’m sure we would argue about it and, of course, I would win, but then we’d get to find out how good make-up sex between us is.”

  “With your stubbornness and my temper, I doubt it will be very long before we find that out anyway.”

  I giggled, and then immediately gasped when Phoenix pulled me under the shower head and flipped the lever up.

  So cold!

  Chapter 34

  Mena

  Phoenix led me farther into the depths of the underground compound and into a large room full of people. A raised area near the back of the room had a podium sitting atop it. I was only guessing that was where he stood when meetings were convened, because he hadn’t said a word or even looked at me since he left me to dress for this meeting and the outing later to talk to his magical connections.

  I watched the back of his head as we walked down the aisle, and then he stopped beside the stairs and held out his hand so I could go up before him. He still wasn’t looking at me, and that worried me. Was he having mixed feelings about us now that we’d had sex? Was he nervous about seeing the witches again or was he keeping something from me—again? Maybe he didn’t know what his clan would think about their High Vampire being with a Werewolf Pack Leader. That had to be it. Maybe I could help him with his nerves a little, I thought as a smile spread across my face.

  I took two steps up the short staircase and stopped directly in front of him. His eyes briefly registered surprise before I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my mouth to his.

  His lips hummed against mine, and then his hands ran swiftly down my torso until he was cupping my butt in his palms. Swiftly picking me up, he pulled my legs up by the back of my knees so I could wrap them around his waist, never breaking the kiss as he continued up the remaining steps.