GraceinMoonlight (4 page)

For some reason, the women here had rallied to her side.
Probably only because she was Alex’s mother. But they wouldn’t miss her.

She’d also spoken to Tamra privately and coerced a promise
from her. Alex would have another woman in his life to mother him if she didn’t
come back. Yes, he would miss her but eventually…

She sighed and Kaisie whined again, drawing her gaze back
down to him.

In the darkness broken only by the soft glow from the
television, she stared into the wolf’s completely human eyes, so green they
reminded her of spring grass.

Such beautiful eyes.

She’d harbored a
hopefully
well-guarded secret since
she’d met Kaisie, one she really hoped no one ever discovered.

She thought he was wonderful. Sure, his manners could use a
little polish and his hair needed a trim. And he definitely needed to shave
that scruff off his face.

But the man was strong, fiercely loyal, smart as all hell
and steady as a rock. Everything she’d always thought she wanted in a man.

She waited anxiously for the minute he walked through her
door every day, longed to hear his deep voice, even though all they did was
argue.

Oh, she realized he felt a faint spark of attraction for
her. She wasn’t an ugly cow with warts who weighed three hundred pounds.

She knew men usually were attracted by the red hair and the
haughty looks. But the only men she’d known growing up had been introduced to
her by her
Mal
grandmother or her
Mal
-brainwashed parents. Men
who cared only for wealth and power and what she could mean to their careers.

They didn’t care that she was a damn good scientist, that
her dream date would be dinner and a show or that she loved to read to her son.

But she and Kaisie would never get beyond attraction. At
least,
he
would never. She’d already lost half her heart.

And she wished he’d shift back into his skin so she could
tell him to take her to bed. To take her mind off what was going to come
tomorrow.

She’d never had sex just for pleasure. Sex had always been a
duty, a chore. Sometimes it hadn’t been consensual, though she’d never said no.
If she’d ever said no…

She’d be like her older cousin Marie, spending her days
staring out the window of her apartment in Manhattan, her mind a vast field of
nothing, wiped clean by a spell to make her docile.

Marie was the perfect breeder. She’d already produced three
Mal
for the man her parents had sold her to.

Grace did not want to become Marie.

“Kaisie…”

She wanted him in his skin. She wanted him to take her to
bed. To treat her like a woman instead of an object. She wanted, at least for
tonight, to have sex that didn’t leave her sobbing silently in the shower
afterward.

But she couldn’t ask. If he turned her down, she might not
recover. She really didn’t know why he was here.

She sighed. “I guess I should try to get some sleep. And so
should you. I’m better now. Thank you. You don’t have to stay any longer.”

He growled, the sound low and deep but not scary. He was
arguing with her.

Familiar ground.

“Don’t dare start with me, Kaisie. I just…don’t want to
fight.”

With a huff, the wolf scrambled off the couch and stood in
front of her. She expected him to leave then. Instead, he started to change.

It only took seconds for the wolf to become a gorgeous man.
A flash of brilliant color. A smudging of reality and then there he stood.

Beautiful. He was absolutely beautiful. The man was
forty-four years old and he had the body of a man twenty years younger.

She let her gaze linger on his chest for several seconds.
Broad, well muscled and lightly covered with dark hair, the skin darker than
her own. Her lips parted to draw in breath and she tried not to sigh.

Instead she lifted her gaze to his face.

Her eyes widened.

He’d shaved. No, he’d trimmed. He’d cut off the scruff but
still had dark stubble covering his chin and upper lip. She couldn’t believe
he’d left it as an affectation. He probably just hadn’t wanted to take the time
to shave completely.

Oh my Blessed Goddess, she’d never seen anything so sexy. It
accentuated the rugged lines of his face and set off his wide green eyes.

He’d also cut his hair, not short, just long enough to show
some wave.

Her stomach clenched with a hunger so fierce, she almost
didn’t recognize it for what it was.

She’d never wanted anyone before. Oh, maybe as a silly
teenager, she’d imagined herself in lust with a boy from the exclusive prep
school her parents had sent her to.

But at twenty, she’d learned just how cold sex could be. And
she’d learned to submerge any hint of desire.

All those long-repressed longings roared up now with the
fury of a hurricane.

Which didn’t make any sense. She’d known this man less than
a month.

And it didn’t matter.

He didn’t say anything as he reached for her, just wrapped
both hands around her head and pulled her forward to meet his kiss.

She froze as his lips met hers, her eyes wide as his mouth
moved over hers. Soft. Gentle. Enticing.

She hadn’t known what to expect but it certainly hadn’t been
this melting warmth. His lips caressed hers, not forcing her mouth open but not
static either. He kissed her, his lips in constant motion, roaming over hers,
tasting her.

And she tasted him. Male heat and the faint bitterness of
alcohol.

Maybe it was the alcohol making him want her.

Did it matter?

No. She needed him now.

Her lips began to soften and she tilted her head so she
participated rather than just let it happen.

Her arms lifted and curved around his shoulders. The warmth
of his body hit her like a blast furnace, seeping into her skin. Forcing
unfamiliar emotion to simmer in her blood like lava.

With a tug on her hair, Kaisie tilted her head back even
farther, his mouth leaving hers to bite and suck at her neck. Her skin stung
wherever his lips landed and she knew she’d have bruises come daylight. She
didn’t care. They could be healed easily enough because they weren’t deep. And
maybe she’d let them stay because he’d given them to her in passion.

With her fingers clenched in his hair and her body pressed
against his, she shut off her brain and gave herself over to the demands of
mind-numbing sex.

And the feel of his swelling cock trapped between them.

Her arms tightened around him, as if afraid he’d try to get
away. Which didn’t seem very likely. His hands had slipped under her sweatshirt
to spread across the bare skin of her back. She felt each of his fingers press
against her and she wanted him to hold her harder. To lift the worn cotton over
her head so he could put his mouth on her breasts.

She didn’t know why she wanted that, had never wanted
another man to do so. But her breasts ached and her nipples hardened into tight
nubs that demanded his attention.

As if he’d read her mind, or maybe it was the way she rubbed
against him, he cupped her breasts in his hands, kneading the mounds and taking
her breath away.

She gasped, stilling as she tried to absorb the sensations
he created.

“Do you like that?” He spoke against the hollow of her
throat, his breath heating her skin. She shivered in reaction. “Yeah, I think
you do. Hang tight, babe. It’ll get better.”

With a few deft movements, he stripped her top over her
head, leaving her bare from the waist up.

Grace had a moment to panic as his gaze dropped. She’d had
two children. Her breasts weren’t as firm as they’d been years ago. And while
she didn’t consider herself fat, she did carry a few more pounds than she
wanted.

Her skin was pale but littered with freckles, a defect her
mother had agonized over when she was a child. She was marred. Imperfect.

Is that what Kaisie would see too?

Her breath caught in her throat as he continued to stare at
her without speaking. His expression had gone taut and she couldn’t tell if he
found her lacking or—

“Tinia’s teat, you’re fucking beautiful.” His hands molded
to her breasts again, his thumb and forefinger pinching the nipples until she
thought she might implode.

Or come. Something else she’d never experienced from a hand
other than her own.

Her knees threatened to buckle but she locked them, her
hands settling back on his shoulders to help her balance.

She wanted to speak, to tell him she felt the same way about
him. That he made her weak-kneed and hot and wet between her thighs. But she
could only stand there and watch him lower his head to wrap his lips around one
nipple and suck it into his mouth.

Oh gods. Her knees did buckle then but Kaisie wrapped an arm
around her waist and held her upright while he sucked and nipped at her breast.

Heat washed over her, electrifying her skin and making her
sex throb. Her head fell back as he switched sides, thoroughly pleasuring that
nipple as well.

She’d never imagined how good sex could be and this was only
foreplay. If he stopped now, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to pick up the
pieces.

Clinging to him, she concentrated on the feel of his lips,
the press of his muscled thighs against hers and the thick hardness of his cock
brushing against her stomach.

Her hips shifted restlessly, trying to ease the ache between
her thighs. She wanted him to lift her and impale her, take her hard and fast
and leave her sated and breathless.

But Kaisie obviously had other ideas.

With a final lick, he pulled back and caught her gaze, those
green eyes even brighter. “Tell me you want me. I need to hear you say it.”

She swallowed at the harsh sound of his voice but her body
responded with a shiver of pure lust. “I want you. On the floor, the couch,
against the wall. I don’t care. Just take me. Before I collapse.”

He barely gave her time to breathe before he sealed his
mouth over hers and kissed her until she started to float.

Which turned out to be Kaisie lifting her off her feet and
swinging her into his arms. He had no trouble taking her weight, making her
feel sexy and desirable with every kiss, every touch.

With their lips fused, he started to walk. She thought he’d
go for the couch but he headed for the small bedroom at the back, where the
queen-size mattress should be more than big enough to accommodate two people.
At least, it’d seemed huge and empty to her this past week.

Now with Kaisie coming down on top of her, she barely even
noticed the bed because all she could concentrate on was him.

He’d released her mouth again to let his lips travel. From
her jaw to her neck and below. He stopped to tease her breasts again while his
hands worked at her flannel pants. The pants had seen better days and she
didn’t care if he ripped them off, even if they were favorites. But he treated
them as if they were expensive lingerie, easing them down her hips and pushing
them to her feet where she finally kicked them off.

She hadn’t been wearing underwear and the cooler air hit her
overheated skin, causing goose bumps to rise.

Without saying a word, Kaisie rose to his knees, lifted her
off the bed and pulled down the comforter and sheet to place her under them.

Sliding in after her, he surprised her with a smile, visible
in the dim light from the bedside lamp she’d turned on earlier. Alex had
trouble sleeping in the dark and she always left a nightlight on for him.

It was a habit she’d taken up herself. Did he have a
nightlight now? Was—

“Hey, come back to me, Grace. You can’t do anything right
now except be here with me.”

She refocused on his smile, forcing herself to return it.
She knew hers probably looked unnatural and she couldn’t hold it anyway. Not
when he ran a hand down her body, stroking her like she’d stroked his pelt
earlier.

And scattering her thoughts when he let his fingers brush
over her clit.

Her eyes began to close as her hips arched into his hand,
trying to get him to stroke her harder, to get her off and ease this ache.

“I need you to make me come.”

“I will, sweetheart. Just not yet. Open your eyes and watch
me.”

His voice held a note of command she didn’t care to disobey.
She looked up then, followed his gaze to where his hand hovered over her mound.
She kept her pubic hair trimmed close and her pussy lips bare. The skin there
felt sensitive and swollen, throbbing in anticipation.

She drew in a deep breath then held it as his hand closed
the short distance between them. His fingers slipped between her thighs and she
let them fall open another few inches. She thought he’d hurry now but his
fingers only grazed along her folds, setting off sizzling jolts of sensation
that made her sex clench.

She moaned, the sound loud and slightly embarrassing in the
quiet of the little house. But Kaisie’s mouth curved in a masculine smile and
he bent to nip at her breast then lower, on her hipbone as he let his fingers
play along her slit.

Her hands twisted in the sheets, frustration and lust a
heady combination. Her body felt lightning-struck, her nerve endings sizzling
and popping under the skin. She almost forgot that she could touch him. She’d
never been allowed to do what she wanted in bed before.

As if he’d read her mind, he whispered in her ear. “Touch
me, Grace. I won’t break.”

She froze, unsure what he’d like. Should she reach for his
cock, wrap her hand around it and stroke him? Or could she pet his body like
she’d done with his wolf earlier?

“Grace, don’t think. Just do it.”

His voice had hardened, whether with lust or impatience, she
didn’t know. So she lifted one hand and put it on his chest. She stroked her
fingers through the crisp hair as she would his pelt. And felt his chest expand
as he drew in a deep breath.