Moonshine (2 page)

He slid one of the
small glasses toward her. "Just how different do you want your
night to be, doll?"

She didn't choke this
time; just made a face and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before
turning that haunted blue gaze back on him. "Really, really
different."

He reached into his
pocket, dragged out a small flask, and flipped its top open. The
unmistakable scent of moonshine flooded the air between them. It was
nearly scentless to a human, but a tantalizing aphrodisiac to any
shapeshifter. "This different?"

She glanced at the
flask and then back up at him, looking torn between nervousness and
excitement. "I don't know how much to drink."

Lars pulled some money
out of his pocket and threw it on the counter. "Come on outside.
I'll show you."

She followed him, and
he smelled the excitement on her, along with something more primal.
Desire—or at least, lust. She wanted him.

The night was dark, but
a harsh light buzzed in the alley behind the bar. Lars took another
deep pull on his cigarette and eyed Claire. "Ready to try it?"

"Yeah." Her
eyes on his hands, she fidgeted. "How fast does it work?"

"It'll hit you
pretty much right away."

She nodded. "How
much...?"

"Here." He
twisted off the cover and filled the cap with the clear liquid. "You
should watch it down here, you know. Guy dumps a splash of this into
your drink, and you'll be fucking him in the alley before you know
what happened."

Claire took the cap
from him and studied it for a moment before looking up at him, her
blue eyes flashing with a primal need he recognized all too easily.
"Maybe I'd fuck him in the alley anyway," she replied in a
soft voice, before tipping her head and draining the cap. "I'm
not going to shift, am I?"

"No." Lars
took the cap back from her. "Something in the moonshine
suppresses it." He drank directly from the flask, taking more
than she had. "Feel it yet?"

"I—Jesus
Christ
."
She slapped her palms against the wall and moaned low in her throat.
"God, that's good."

He closed his eyes as
the rush hit him, making every molecule in his body sing. He sucked
in a deep breath and sagged against the wall. Even the slight
pressure of the bricks through the weight of his clothes was like a
caress.

Claire's hand knocked
into him. Her fingers curled around the sleeve of his jacket in a
desperate grip, and she whimpered.

"Just stay up,"
he whispered, his words not making sense even to him. He was alive,
exhilarated. He wanted to hunt, to yip and howl at the moon, but his
body wouldn't obey. Wouldn't change, wouldn't pierce through that
wall of magic. "Just stay...up."

Claire tried. She could
feel
everything
.
The world was alive with sensation, with
passion
,
caught in the exhilarated place she always went as she shifted.
Instincts she'd repressed and ignored for years awoke, shuffling her
timid humanity aside as she was reminded that this was what she was
at heart: powerful, magical...
amazing
.

Lars' voice tickled her
senses, but she couldn't understand his words anymore. Words were a
human thing, anyway, and she wasn't interested in humanity right now.
His presence scraped her raw nerves, and she recognized him as both a
challenge and a danger. A temptation. Someone against whom to test
her strength. It would be nice to win, but so
good
to lose...

Her knees went weak and
she slid down the wall, her hand still wrapped around the sleeve of
his jacket. He hoisted her up, pressed her to the wall and growled
softly. His face went to her neck, and his breath skated across her
skin like fire, making her shudder.

She curled her fingers
into his hair and dragged his head back, baring her teeth in a
warning that was completely undermined by the way her body rubbed
his. Her nipples were so tight it was painful, and a growing ache
built between her thighs—an arousal so strong the only word for
it was need. She wanted him with a desperation that defied
description. She
craved
.
Yet she would never simply submit. With her teeth still bared, she
snarled at him.

He barked out a laugh
at her challenge and pulled her hair, hard. He growled and scraped
her jaw with his teeth. Then he bit her neck, deep enough to bruise.
Pleasure and pain mingled together with primal satisfaction as she
yielded and melted against his body for several heartbeats. Then she
growled again and bit his ear, reminding him that she wasn't weak or
submissive. If he wanted her, he had to
work
for it.

The initial rush was
starting to fade, only to be replaced by a persistent tingling. The
world moved more slowly, except for Lars. He raised his mouth to her
ear and growled, "The moonshine makes you do shit you didn't
even know you wanted to do."

It was true. The
nagging desire that had been impossible for her to explain to her ex
was clear now. Her instinct wasn't to submit—it was to find
someone strong enough to
make
her submit. It was a dark, shameful realization, but there was no
room inside her for shame. Not when it felt so
right
.
Anyone who couldn't claim her didn't deserve her.

"What do you think
I want to do?" she asked in a low voice, wondering if he sensed
her desire as easily as she recognized his.

"You want to
fight," he rasped, using one of his thighs to move her legs
apart so he could grind his hips against hers. "And you want to
lose."

For one brief moment,
she hated him for saying it aloud, for making it real. Then the
feeling was gone, lost in the tingle of the moonshine and the rising
desperation of her arousal. She swung at him out of instinct,
catching the side of his head with her hand and raking her nails down
his neck.

When he moved, it was
with such speed it was painfully obvious he'd
let
her scratch him. He caught her wrist and dragged it to his lips. He
sniffed a little, then bit her hand. "You smell like
disinfectant. Death."

Lost in the rush of
drugs, the truth spilled out before she could stop it. "I was at
the hospital with my ex. I hurt him."

Lars just stared at
her, his face inches from hers, his blue eyes burning like fire. "Did
you, now?"

"He’s just a
human," she whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from his.
"It was the first time I was in control of the sex. I broke his
collarbone."

He made a chiding
noise. "You've got to know how to handle them during sex.
Humans." He dragged his tongue across her cheek. "If you do
it right, it's hard to hurt them. Trust me, I've tried."

"Why did you
try
to hurt them?"

His head fell back a
little, and a growl rumbled up from his chest. "Because they
asked nicely."

She did it before she
could stop herself, before she even realized she was moving. She
found the exposed skin of his neck with her teeth and closed on it.
His growl morphed into a low yelp, and he yanked her head back. "Play
nice," he warned her hoarsely.

Claire stared up into
his eyes and panted. She didn't bother to hide the challenge in her
gaze as she whispered, "Make me."

He snarled and pulled
her hair harder, then lowered his head and snapped his teeth on her
skin, biting her just as hard as she'd bitten him. The pain
disappeared in a wave of instinctive satisfaction. She groaned and
clutched at his arms, her fingernails digging helplessly into his
jacket. With magic singing through her veins and his body pressed
against hers, she knew exactly what she wanted, what she
needed.

So did he.

"Come home with
me." He whispered the words, hot and demanding, against her ear.

Claire didn't even
think about it. She just agreed with a jerky nod and a whispered,
"Okay."

He'd thought she might
balk at riding on the back of his bike, especially with both of them
high as kites, but she just accepted the helmet he offered and
climbed on. They sped out of the city and into the countryside, her
arms wrapped firmly around his waist. He could feel her heart
pounding even through his jacket, but she didn't make a sound.

He clung to her hand as
he nudged open the door of his tiny trailer and pulled her inside.
"Come on in. Want another beer?"

"Sure." She
wandered toward the table, running her fingers absently over its edge
before touching one of the pieces of the radio he had spread out over
it. "You fix stuff?"

"Simple
electronics. " He shoved a laundry basket out of the way before
opening the fridge and pulling out two bottles. "I’m not
so good with computerized stuff."

“
I want more of
the moonshine.” She accepted the beer from him, her eyes
unreadable as she drank half of it in one long pull.

He eyed her for a long
moment, then nodded. She might not be used to it, but it wasn't going
to kill her. "You can have another cap."

Claire poured it
herself this time, accepting the flask from him with a dangerous
smile and unscrewing the lid. The scent of moonshine hit him, sending
hot excitement racing through his body as she measured out the liquid
and tossed it back. She handed him the flask and relaxed against the
couch, one hand falling to rest above her head.

"Fuck..." Her
eyes closed, and her other hand slid to her stomach.

He smelled her arousal,
heard the way her heart beat just a little too quickly. He took
another hit of the moonshine himself before screwing on the cap,
swearing when heat flooded his body.

Claire moaned, and her
head lolled back on the couch. "That’s the best feeling
I’ve ever had."

He grinned, then
groaned as the rush overwhelmed him. "You ain't seen nothing
yet, doll." He knelt in front of the couch and tugged at her
legs, moving her closer to its edge. He knew just how intense the
slightest touch would be right now, so he wasn't surprised when she
moaned again the second he touched her.

Claire lifted her other
hand over her head, wrapping both of them around the back of the
couch, as if she needed to cling to something. "How is it going
to possibly get any better?"

Her nipples were hard,
pressing against her T-shirt. He reached up and pinched one. "Haven't
decided yet."

"Fuck!" She
slid into his lap, straddling his legs with her upper body still
arched over the seat of the couch. Her hands curled into the hem of
her T-shirt, and she tore it in her haste to drag it over her head.

"That's how it
gets better," he said, tearing one of the straps of her plain
bra. The fabric peeled down easily, freeing one breast. She ground
her hips against his with another moan and snapped the other strap,
leaving her bra wrapped uselessly around her torso.

When she moved it was
fast, her hands coming up to his shoulders. She shoved off the couch
and pushed him back on the floor. His head knocked against the TV
stand, but he barely felt it. All of his attention was focused on
Claire and the heat coming off of her.