Kiss of Moonlight (15 page)

“Will you take your shirt off for me?”

He didn’t hesitate, just reached over his shoulders and pulled the shirt over his head.
And took her breath away.

He truly was a work of art, honed to male perfection.

From the broad shoulders to his six-pack abs to the trim waist, all that naked skin beckoned. Lifting her hand, she traced the hard ridge of each abdominal with her fingers, working her way up to his nipples.

She loved how his chest rose and fell so rapidly, obviously aroused by her touch. The dark hair on his
pecs
tickled her palms as she tweaked his already hard nipples between her fingers.

He must’ve liked it because his hands clenched into fists at his side as he sucked in a deep breath and didn’t move.

She certainly enjoyed it, the wiry soft curls intensifying the heat bubbling in her gut.

Leaning closer, she rubbed the tip of her nose against the flat plane of his stomach just above his bellybutton, breathing in his scent. Musky male and a hint of the herbal soap he’d used earlier in the shower. Her eyes wanted to flicker closed, her mouth wanted to bite into that hard flesh then lick away the hurt.
To take his taste inside her body.

Her gaze dropped from his chest past his stomach back to the button on his jeans. Her hands followed, brushing down his torso to his jeans.

The warm material made her fingers curl into the waistband, almost but not quite touching the button.

His harsh breathing sounded like music to her ears, egging her on. She wanted him to beg her to rip open his jeans and take him in her mouth.

Her tongue peeked out to lick her lips and he groaned, low and deep.

“Tam, baby.”

He didn’t say anything else but she heard the plea in those words.

She let her fingers graze the button again before beginning to work it through the little hole. Her knuckles rubbed against the erect cock confined behind the zipper and she couldn’t resist pressing against that hard flesh.

Anticipation made her mouth dry and her pussy clench with need.

As if he couldn’t take not touching her any longer, he slid his fingers into her hair and cupped her head. She felt his desire to pull her closer in the tension in his arms.

He didn’t. His fingers started a seductive massage, making her body want to melt into him. Instead, she forced the button free and eased down the zipper.

His cock sprang out of the gap, erect and tempting. The head gleamed, the skin taut and dark. Her mouth watered as she stared at it, perfectly positioned to take in her mouth.

She drew in a deep breath, releasing it in a rush that made Kyle groan. “Damn, baby. Suck me. Please. I can’t seem to get enough of your mouth.”

The harsh sound of his voice shivered through her. Leaning closer, her hands on his hips, she parted her lips and let his cock slip inside.

Her eyes closed and she inhaled his scent as his taste coated her tongue.
Hot, a little salty and so, so smooth.

Her mouth sank farther, enclosing more of his flesh. Her tongue flattened around him as she took him deeper,
then
curled around the tip as she pulled back.

Intoxicated with him, she sucked on him like he was her favorite candy. On the next downward glide, she scraped her teeth lightly along the skin, making him groan deep in his chest. The vibration actually echoed in his cock and it pulsed against the roof of her mouth.

“Tam.”

She sucked him harder, deeper.
Didn’t want to stop.
She wanted him to lose his control. To give him pleasure.

“
Tamra
, baby, I’m
gonna
come in your mouth if you don’t stop. And I’d rather come with your pussy wrapped around me.”

The explicit words made her moan. Yes. God yes, she wanted that too.

She drew on him one last time, her cheeks hollowing before she pulled back to the tip and released him. But not before giving one last swirl of her tongue around the tip.

As soon as she’d released him, his hands slid from her hair and he pushed her back into the couch cushions, his gaze fixed on hers. Shoving his jeans down his legs with one hand, he gathered her skirt and pooled it on her belly, exposing her. His gaze dropped then to stare at her pussy. Just his stare made wetness seep from her.

Exposed and so horny she
hurt,
she stretched out to touch him but couldn’t reach.

“Kyle…”

He wrapped one hand around his cock and gave a slow pump. Her mouth dried as her sex convulsed with need. “Your mouth felt amazing, baby. But your pussy is going to make me feel like I’m in fucking heaven.”

“Then do me, Kyle. Please.”

“I will, honey, I will. But first I want to see you touch yourself. Come on, Tam. Use your fingers on your clit.”

All sense of modesty gone, she did exactly what he wanted because she was so turned-on, she had to come no matter what.

Spreading her legs wider, she slid her fingers between her legs, stroking over the hard, sensitive clit and down to the wet, hot lips of her sex. Letting her fingers play in the moisture for a few seconds, she drew back to her clit and let her fingers manipulate the tiny bundle of nerves. Zings of electricity shot through her body and her eyes drifted shut as she rubbed herself. Her sheath tightened, yearning for him to fill her.

“Kyle, I need you inside.
Now.”

“Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

She opened her eyes in time to see the raw lust in Kyle’s expression harden his features even further. As he sank to his knees, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her off the couch. He’d already sheathed himself in a condom, she realized, as he lay back on the floor and positioned her directly over his cock. Settling herself on her knees above him, dress held at her waist, she watched him take his cock in one hand and point it up, rubbing it back and forth between her pussy lips, coating the head in her moisture.

“So hot, so wet.”
His voice made her lower body seize in what felt like the beginning of an orgasm. Could she come just from the sound of his voice?

With Kyle, anything was possible.

“
Tinia’s
teat, babe.
You’re so fucking beautiful.”

Her eyes widened at the complete sincerity in his voice but she didn’t have time to take it in because he pushed his cock into her and sank deep.

She cried out in ecstasy at the friction of his penetration. Already close to orgasm, her body sucked him in as he lifted her off his cock with his strong arms then let her slide back down.

Each hard thrust made it that much harder to
breathe,
made her body tighten in expectation.

Since he was going way too slowly, she started to move on her own, planting her hands on his stomach and riding him, each time the base of his cock hitting her clit at just the right angle to send her closer to her climax.

As she set a faster pace, Kyle’s expression hardened and his breaths became pants. She heard her own tortured breathing but pushed her body onto his faster and faster.

She wanted to come,
needed
to come, but her orgasm flitted just beyond her reach.

Until Kyle pressed one finger to her clit.
As if he’d flicked a switch, she
spasmed
around him, crying out as she sank onto him one last time, feeling his cock twitch inside her
, prolonging
her climax.

Leaning forward, Kyle’s hands on her shoulders guiding her, she cuddled onto his chest as his arms wrapped around her.

Several minutes later, when she could breathe again, she opened her eyes and propped her head on her hand to stare up at Kyle. He still had his eyes closed, the look on his face blissful.

She never wanted to leave him.

But she couldn’t bear it if he was hurt because of her.

His eyes shot open, as if he could hear what she was thinking. But instead of scowling at her, his lips curved in a smile that stole her breath. Then he leaned forward and kissed her, feather-light but lingering.

Rolling her to the side and pulling free, he hiked his jeans up but didn’t zip them as he stood.

“Hang tight, babe. I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared into the attached bathroom and reemerged with a wet towel.

After he cleaned her up, she headed for the bathroom to use the facilities.

She came out to find him sitting on the couch. He held out his hand and she took it, letting him pull her down onto his lap. With his arms around her and his chin on her head, she felt safe.
Protected.

“So now what?”
She asked the question that wouldn’t stop echoing in her mind and leaned back in his arms so she could see his face.

His expression went deadly serious. “Now we try to figure out who’s after you and stop her before she gets close.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Working on it, babe.
Working on it.”

Chapter Six

When they left the
boschetta
, they headed northwest into Rockland Township.

Kyle still wasn’t sure this was the right move but he couldn’t think of anywhere safer.

Lost in the hills northeast of the city, the
lucani
den had started life as an exclusive health resort back in the mid-1800s when the Philadelphia and New York blue bloods had traveled to the wilds of Berks County to enjoy the cooler temperatures and clean waters.

Today, close to five hundred acres of heavily forested hills belonged to the
lucani
legion.

Kyle considered it paradise. While the main resort building operated like an apartment complex for singles or newly mated couples, families and officers lived in the cottages scattered throughout the dense forest. Only one road led in and out and that was carefully camouflaged, nearly invisible if you didn’t know what you were looking for.

The road was private so police didn’t patrol here and the township never plowed in the winter.

“I want you to stick close to me while we’re here, Tam,” he said as they got closer to the den. “We don’t bring in many outsiders.”

More like none, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. Hell, Cole could sentence him to death for driving her over the boundary, and he was pretty sure there’d be a welcoming committee waiting for them when they drove up.

But he was counting on a pardon after he explained.

“Are you going to get in trouble?” Tam asked.

Shit, what the hell did he say? He didn’t want to lie but he didn’t want her to worry either. “Maybe, but after I explain the circumstances, everything will be okay.”

She fell silent and he glanced over to see her chewing her lip.
Thinking.
“So this is the
lucani
headquarters?”

Kyle nodded. “It’s the army base, yes. My people were in danger of extinction in the early 1800s so to keep from splintering into even smaller groups that wouldn’t have
survived,
we pulled together and structured our society on the old Roman legions. In ancient times, the
lucani
had made up a secret legion of the Roman army, their existence known only to the reigning
praefect
. We did the dirty work, the wet work.”

“Like special forces?”

He laughed, more like a short exhalation of air. “Yeah, pretty much. Today, we maintain our army but the focus is on protecting the Etruscans from threats like discovery by the
eteri
or capture by the
Mal
.
Or from the
Zuhno
, a group of humans who’ve made it their life’s work to hunt
versipelli
.
They’re basically the KKK but they hunt werewolves.”

“Your life sounds dangerous.”

It was. More than he ever wanted her to know. But lying would come back to bite him in more ways than one.

And she needed to know what she was up against if he had any hope of tying her to him forever.

“It can be, yes.
And I…
Tam, look.
I have to tell you, I’m not just another soldier. I have a specialized position in the legion. One not a lot of people know about.”

She turned, her gaze glued to him.
Waiting.

“My official rank is
sicarius
. That means—”

“Assassin.”

A chill ran through him at the hollow tone of her voice but he couldn’t stop now. He’d picked a stupid-ass time to
lay
this on her but now that he’d started he couldn’t stop.

His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Yes. I’m the king’s assassin. I do the work no one wants to know about, the jobs no one else
should
know about. Only Dan and Margie know what I am. I operate outside the ranks of the legion. My commanding officer doesn’t even know what I do.”

“But…you kill people.”

“No.” He shook his head. “The men I kill aren’t people. They’re monsters.
Men who murder innocents for their own pleasure or because they want to see how many bones they can break and
reheal
before their magic is drained.
Men who steal our children and force them to become sexual slaves to depraved psychopaths who force them to change into wolves during sex.
These men deserve to die for their crimes.”

“That’s awful.”

The tears in her voice tugged at gut. “Yes, it is. But I make sure those men can’t hurt anyone else when I find them.”

For years, his life had been about serving justice on those who preyed on innocents. It defined him. He got a sense of purpose from it.

And now he’d give it up for her. Should he just throw that out there? At this point, would she even care?

He
glanced
her way again and sucked in a deep breath at the look on her face. She didn’t look terrified of him, as he feared she might. She looked sad.

“I understand the need for your job, Kyle. I do.”

He heard a huge “but” coming and started talking to make sure she couldn’t.