GraceinMoonlight (13 page)

“Kaisie, why don’t you let me do those? My arm doesn’t hurt
at all and I feel like I should do something. You cooked. Let me clean up.”

Her teeth worried her bottom lip as she followed his hands
back and forth from the sink to the dishwasher. He wasn’t positive but he
thought she had a problem with the way he was loading the dishes.

Probably not orderly enough.

“No, you just sit. Or you could take a cue from the kids and
rack out on the couch.”

“No, I’m sure they’ll be fine there for a little while.” But
she looked over her shoulder anyway, as if to assure herself that the kids were
still there. She’d probably never stop doing that. Couldn’t say he blamed her.

When she turned back to him, her expression had softened and
he swallowed down the inappropriate surge of lust.

“Thank you for doing this,” she said. “For having those
little boys here and for inviting Cat for Amy.” She sighed and he knew exactly
what she was thinking. “Though I don’t know that Amy’s going to be making too
many friends quickly.”

Amy had a long way to go to trust anyone. Kyle’s daughter,
Cat, had tried to engage the girl in conversation because Cat was just that
kind of person. But Amy hadn’t said more than a few words the entire night.
Instead, she’d studied everyone, as if they were opponents on the battlefield.
As if every one of them had been out to get her.

“Sure, it’s gonna take some time for her to get comfortable
here,” he said. “She’s gonna be looking over her shoulder for a while. And
she’s gonna question everything anyone says to her. Can’t say as I blame her.
Besides, she’s
Mal
. And that’s a whole other battle.”

One he hadn’t been thinking about too carefully because that
was one thing he couldn’t fix.

The girl had come into her power. And, if that little
example of blowing out the wall at the house had been any indication, her power
was huge and deadly.

Grace started to shake her head again, knowing she had to
get through to Kaisie. She had to make him understand. “That’s why you know we
can’t stay here. Not for long. She’s
Mal
. Eventually…”

Amy’s true colors would show.

“She seems to be pretty levelheaded. And she seems to be
genuinely attached to Alex and Mara.”

Which was an anomaly for a
Mal
. They typically didn’t
form attachments.

It made her hope for something she shouldn’t.

“I never gave it much thought growing up,” she continued.
“What it meant to be
Mal
. I only knew I wasn’t and that made me
different. Less. At least in my parents’ and grandmother’s eyes. They’d hoped
I’d be born
Mal
. When I wasn’t, they tried again for years but my mother
never got pregnant. The
Mal
have never been prolific.”

“Thank the Gods for that.”

Her mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Yes, I’m sure you would think
that way. Of course my grandmother considered my parents a failure so my father
has to work that much harder to prove himself to her in business.”

“When did you figure out you weren’t like them?”

She squashed the smile that wanted to bloom at the certainty
in his voice. “Why do you think I did?”

He rolled his eyes. “Because I know you, Grace. You love
your kids. You never met Amy but you were ready to trade your life for hers.
That makes you a better person than a
Mal
could ever be.”

He made her want to be that person. The one he thought he
saw in her. Not that he wasn’t right. She did love her children. She’d taken
one look at Amy and she’d known, no matter what happened, she would love her
daughter.

And she certainly felt something for him, more than simple
lust. Which she’d never felt before.

“Besides, you have good taste because you definitely have a
thing for me.”

His arrogant tone should have made her smile. She knew
Kaisie well enough by now to know that’s what he’d been aiming for. She
couldn’t do it, though she didn’t bother to contradict him. It’d be a lie.

“Damn. I put that look on your face again.” With a sigh, he
put the last dish in the washer and slapped the door shut. He pressed a button
and a slight hum filled the air as he held out his hand to her. “Come with me.”

“The kids—”

“Will be fine. We’re only going to the back porch. And I had
Margie and Cat put an extra couple of protection spells over the place earlier.
No one will get in without me knowing about it.”

Kaisie watched her contemplate taking his hand. As if the
act held so much more meaning than simply letting him lead her to the porch.

And she’d be right. He wanted her to take his hand. To reach
for him and follow him.

Trust. He wanted her trust. Would she ever be able to give
him what he wanted?

When she reached for him with her uninjured hand and let him
pull her to her feet, he controlled his victorious smile, but just barely.

Then he took her to the small screened porch at the back of
the house.

It was one of the first things he’d renovated when he’d
moved into the house when Kaine had been a toddler. He’d wanted somewhere safe
for her to play that let her be close to the outdoors.

Since no one installed fences in the den, he’d added this
porch. For years, it’d been Kaine’s playroom. Now it was his.

In the summer, the screened walls kept the bugs out but
allowed the sounds and smells of the forest in. The porch ran the entire length
of the house so there was enough room for a seating area with a couch, two
chairs and a table, and a space big enough for a pool table. He, Aule, Frank
and Dorian had spent a lot of nights out there shooting pool and shooting the
shit.

No one in the neighboring houses could see into the porch
because of the way the houses were situated and he had an uninterrupted view of
the woods.

This late, the night was mostly silent except for the
crickets, though he faintly heard a few deer and rabbit in the underbrush. He
could even hear the faint trickle of the small waterfall in the moon god Tivr’s
sanctuary not far from here.

One of these nights, he’d take her there.

Tonight, he took her to the comfortable couch along the back
wall of the house, so they could look out at the night.

The moon hadn’t yet risen but he could feel its pull in his
blood. The full moon was only a few days away and though he was long past the
time in his life where the moon ruled his wolf, he still felt its call. The
lucani
learned to control their change by the time they hit twenty and Kaisie was way
beyond twenty.

Apparently, though, he’d never learned how to control his
reaction to a woman he desired more than he wanted his next breath.

He felt as if he was eighteen again and chasing after any
woman who’d have him. Which was how he’d gotten Kaine. His kid had been one of
the best damn things that’d ever happened in his life so he certainly didn’t
regret the one night he’d spent with her mother. He just wished Tekeias had let
him protect her instead of leaving their child and running off. It’d gotten her
killed.

Kaisie learned from his mistakes.

Grace sank into the couch with a sigh, nestling her head
into the cushions and staring out at the night. Settling beside her, he sat
close enough to feel her body heat but not close enough to touch.

It’d damn near kill him to keep his distance but he needed
her to come to him. He couldn’t always be chasing after her. He did have some
male pride. Okay, he had more than some, which meant he really wanted her to
reach for him this time.

Neither of them spoke, though he knew she hadn’t fallen
asleep.

“He’s going to come after them,” she finally said. “It’s not
in his nature to let something he considers his be taken from him.”

“If he’s not dead already then I’ll kill him.”

He heard her breath hitch. “It won’t be that easy. And…I
don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Now they were making progress. “Are you finally going to
admit I’m right?”

“And what do you think you’re right about?”

“That you want me and can’t live without me.”

She didn’t contradict him right away and he figured he’d
racked up another point in his favor.

When she finally spoke, he wasn’t sure if he was going to
have to revise that opinion. “Are you planning to kiss me again or are you
going to talk me to sleep?”

“Actually,” he turned to look at her, “I was kind of waiting
for you to kiss me.”

Her teeth lodged in her bottom lip and she didn’t turn to
look at him. “Truthfully, I… I’m not sure I know how. I’ve never initiated a
kiss in my life. I mean, obviously I know the mechanics involved, but there’s
so much more involved than just mechanics, isn’t there?”

He opened his mouth to tell her to just shut up and kiss him
already but she moved to lay her head on his shoulder and he snapped his mouth
shut.

Yes, they’d had sex but he’d initiated everything up until
this point. This was the first time she’d made the move to be close to him.

Now he wanted more.

Greedy? Yeah, and he didn’t care.

Then she sighed and he knew he’d lost her focus. “You have
to realize I have to take the children and go. He was able to get in here
before. Last time, he didn’t kill anyone. Next time, he won’t be so kind.
Ettore is a good
Mal
. He’s heartless and ruthless and he’ll mow down
anyone in his path. I know him, Kaisie. If he’s not dead, he’s already plotting
how to retrieve the children. He found a way in before. He’ll find another way
in, no matter how you plug the hole.”

“I’d rather you go back to talking about kissing.”

She sighed, exasperation in the sound. “I don’t… You’re not…
Why me?”

The genuine confusion in her voice hit him below the belt
this time. The damn woman had absolutely no idea how desirable he found her.
Obviously, he was doing something wrong.

And he didn’t know if he could explain it well enough to
satisfy her. He’d never been good with words. He was much better at
communicating without them.

He wanted to turn to her and take her face in his hands so
she could see his eyes when he spoke. He didn’t, because he didn’t want her to
turn away from him. Not now. “You’re not afraid to fight with me. You’ve got a
huge fucking heart and you don’t take shit from anybody, including me.”

After a few seconds, her head lifted and now he turned to
see her staring at him, her eyes wide. She didn’t say anything though, so he
kept going.

“You’re smart as hell and you carried my injured daughter to
the plane when your arm had to hurt like a sonuvabitch and you were practically
bleeding out. You’re willing to leave the safety of the den even though you
know—”

She cupped his face in her hands and brought her mouth to
his, kissing him with a passion that nearly singed his eyebrows.

He didn’t see it coming, hadn’t thought she’d ever take that
first step without a lot more coaxing.

But here she was, kissing him. Her lips molded to his as if
learning his taste. And maybe she was. He’d been the aggressor before. He’d
consumed her, taken her under and taken her over.

He grabbed the couch cushions and locked himself down, let
her explore when he all he wanted to do was strip her naked, lift her over his
lap and thrust into her willing body.

A groan rumbled low in his throat as she gained confidence
and got bolder with every second. Her mouth moved with more surety, her lips
parted and her tongue dipped out to play along the seam of his mouth.

He opened for her immediately but she withdrew and began to
press kisses along his jaw. As her hands slid into his hair, twining in the
short strands and tightening almost to the point pain, he let his head fall
back against the cushion.

She only hesitated a second before straddling his thighs and
coming after him.

Her mouth dropped over his again and now he didn’t sense any
hesitation. She settled her lips against his then slid her tongue into his
mouth. Slowly. Feeling her way along. Learning his responses.

He gave them to her freely, let his tongue wind around hers
and his cock harden and throb, aching for the feel of her mound rubbing against
it. He had his hands cupped around her ass in the next second but resisted the
urge to force her down on him.

Instead, he focused on the way she dipped her tongue into
his mouth, with delicate, almost tentative strokes that were more arousing than
any practiced seduction ever could be. She flicked at his tongue, playing with
him, and heat coiled in his gut.

Her fingers tugged on his hair and he answered her silent
request by letting his head fall back farther. Her mouth began to press kisses
along his jaw and back to his ear, where she nipped the lobe between her teeth.

He shuddered and he felt a smile curve her lips before she
nipped his neck just below his ear.

“You make me want to bite you.” Her fingers flexed and her
breath brushed against his skin, raising his body temperature another ten
degrees. “I don’t understand what you’re doing to me.”

“There’s nothing to understand. Just don’t stop.”

Her hips lowered another inch until he thought he could feel
the heat radiating from her core.

“The kids—”

“Are out cold and I’ll hear them if they wake.” He’d make
sure he did. “I want you, Grace. And I know you want me. Take me.”

She froze for a few dizzying seconds before she sighed. “I
don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, you do. We did just fine the other night.”

“But…what if I want you to take me?”

He cut off his groan at the images her husky question forced
into his brain, one of them involving her bent over the side of this couch
while he took her from behind.

“Is that really what you want, Grace? Because I’m more than
willing to give you exactly what you want.”