Blame It On the Moonlight

by Tracie Sommers

  Long after the engine of the car had receded, Lucas turned back to the woods.

  Jasmine pulled up outside her parents’ home, but couldn’t bring herself to go inside. Her mother finally ran out of the house and opened the car door.

  “Oh, thank God you’re okay.” Her mother pulled her into a big hug and then pushed her away by the shoulders. “Where have you been? We tried your cell and you didn’t answer.”

  Jasmine hadn’t even thought of turning her cell phone on, she was too distracted with thoughts of what she’d been through over the past couple of days.

  Her father stood a short way off, looking nervous as always when she became the centre of attention. “When you didn’t come home, we were worried….”

  Her mother cut him off. “We had the ranger go out to the cabin this afternoon—but there was no one there.”

  “I was probably already on my way home by then. I took the long way to think.” Jasmine held her at arm’s length to deliver the news she was sure would send her mother into hysterics. “Mom, the wedding’s off.”

  “Well, let’s talk about that later,” her mother said, not at all surprised.

  Jasmine froze. Brent came out of the house with a large bunch of flowers and a contrite puppy-dog expression. But she could see right through him now and wasn’t fooled one bit.

  “Brent’s been here waiting for you since this morning,” her father mumbled.

  “He says he’s sorry for your little misunderstanding,” her mother said, patting her arm.

  “Misunderstanding?” Jasmine couldn’t believe her ears. “Mom, I found him fucking another woman against Grandpa’s woodshed.”

  “Jasmine Therese! Language!” Her mother fiddled with the hair on the back of her neck. “What matters now is that Brent’s sorry and has agreed to go to counseling to help him with his little problem. I’ll call Dr. Lebowitz tomorrow and make an appointment. You can work this out together.”

  Had her mother listened at all? She turned to her father for help, but he just looked away. They’d never been that close and the reason occurred in a sudden flash of clarity.

  He knew. He’d always known.

  The truth lay hidden in his nervous brown eyes, which would never settle on her, the hint of fear he’d get when she looked at him for too long and the way he avoided physical contact with her but not her siblings.

  In that single moment, her world came crashing down around her, suffocating her. The whole city stank in a way she’d never really noticed before. The people in it tainted the air she breathed.

  Jasmine disentangled herself from her mother’s arms and kissed her perfectly made-up cheek. “Goodbye, Mother.”

  She glanced over to her father and nodded. “Dad.”

  An odd expression came over her father’s face. It could have been relief, or envy; or maybe, just maybe, it was pride. She climbed back into her car and her father genuinely smiled at her for the first time since she could remember. He leaned in and pecked her cheek before closing the car door.

  “Where are you going?” her mother asked, her near-hysterical voice gaining several octaves.

  “To find the real me,” she said, and reversed the car into the street. When Jasmine drove away from her old family home, she didn’t look back. Not once.

  Dark ominous clouds hung low over the mountains, the air thick and heavy with the promise of rain as Jasmine pulled up in front of the cold empty cabin.

  He was gone.

  What had she expected? To find him waiting with open arms? No. Not after a week. A desperately dismal week in a seedy roadside motel where she’d spent every waking moment thinking about Lucas and every sleeping moment dreaming about him.

  She climbed out of the car and looked around. There was still time to get him out of her system before the next moon. But first she had to find him again.

  What if she changed into a wolf and called him? Could she make it happen, make the change come?

  Only one way to find out.

  Jasmine closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing. She concentrated harder. Still nothing.

  Frustrated, she kicked the car tire. Pain shot through her big toe and up her leg. She hopped around on one foot, cursing, wondering if she’d broken something and feeling foolish.

  Lightning split the sky and she realized for the first time how dark it had grown. But in that flash she’d seem him. The black wolf at the tree line, watching her. He padded forward into the beam of the car’s headlights and stopped a short way off, just looking.

  And then the wolf started to change. The hair covering most of his body seemed to disappear, as if sucked back into his pores, and muscles twitched visibly under his skin as he swelled and shrank in different places until Lucas stood in human form.

  Again lightning slashed though the darkness, followed immediately by a crackling boom of thunder. Nature’s fury rose as the wind picked up and blew his hair across his face.

  She thought of them making love right here against the car, of him spreading her legs and taking her again and again.

  “You really should take off your clothes before you attempt a change,” he said, his voice rippling pleasure through her body.

  “Oh!” Jasmine couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  He stepped forward and stopped again. “You left.”

  “Yes,” she said, and dropped her head. “I wasn’t ready.”

  “Ready for what?” he asked.

  She locked her gaze with his. “My Grandmother, Melinda, came to see me that night and told me of the moon bonding. I wasn’t ready.”

  “I’m sorry. I forget you don’t know our ways.” His eyes darted away then back to her face—a bit of guilt, maybe. “We didn’t have to complete the Moon Dance if you’d told me.”

  “I’m sorry, I just freaked. I’d just escaped one disastrous relationship. I wasn’t ready to face another.”

  His eyes glowed in the headlights like any other nocturnal animal. “Are you ready now?”

  “I don’t know.” She couldn’t lie to him. “But I’m ready to find out.”

  “And what if you decide you aren’t and leave again before the next full moon? What happens to me?”

  “I can’t promise I won’t,” she said. “It’s a risk we have to take.”

  “I’ll just have to make sure you never want to leave.” Lucas stepped closer and cupped both sides of her face, bringing their lips together in a bruising kiss. She almost melted under his touch, even through her clothing.

  After a few minutes, she came up for air. “Keep kissing me like that and you’ll never get rid of me,” she said through panting breaths.

  He pulled her closer and kissed her hard. At that moment the sky opened, dumping fat raindrops on them, drenching her clothes and plastering her hair to her scalp. But they didn’t move. More lightning rent the sky, followed by a booming thunderous roll. Instead of scaring her, it excited her more. Mother Nature hit them with all her fury, but it couldn’t compare with the fury of their passion.

  Beads of rain hung from her eyelashes as the icy rain continued to fall. It pelted their skin as he pushed her back against the side of the car. With each flash of lightning, the desire in his eyes grew. He bent to kiss her throat, she threw back her head, the rain fell onto her face like an icy shower, yet it didn’t dim her arousal at all. She shivered, more with delight than cold, although a chill had started to seep into her bones. Lucas scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the cabin.

  He set her on her feet and fetched a pile of towels from the bathroom closet. After wrapping a large one around her, he bent to light kindling in the fireplace. She watched the muscles play along his back as he moved to add logs to the fire, shivering uncontrollably in her wet things. She should really take them off, but she didn’t want to move, only watch the man in front of her. She could watch him like this forever.

  Strong, warm flames licked the wood like a lover’s touch as he approached her. He peeled off her wet jack
et and began to remove the rest of the soaking clothes.

  When she stood naked before him, he wrapped her in another towel and pulled her down to sit between his knees on the thick shag pile rug in front of the fireplace. Then he picked up yet another towel and set about drying her hair.

  His hands worked magic, rubbing and kneading away any second thoughts she may have had about coming back here. Right now she would happily spend the rest of her life just like this. No man had ever treated her with such care, such reverence.

  Soon his hands started kneading other areas; her neck, her shoulders, the top of her chest just above her breasts and then as they slid downward, he stopped.

  She turned in his arms to face him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Shh.” She placed her fingertip against his lips and then silenced them with her lips. “I’m very sure.”

  He pulled away, uncertainty in his eyes. He looked like a lost little boy in that moment and her heart melted. Then the man was back and the hunger in his eyes reflected her own. Jasmine pushed him back onto the rug and straddled his waist then wiggled lower until his cock nudged her buttocks.

  He blinked slowly and raised his head as she lifted and guided his rock-hard erection to her opening. As she sank onto his shaft, taking every inch into herself, his eyes rolled back and his head dropped to the floor.

  She started to rock slowly at first, getting a feel for him beneath her and a feel for her rhythm.

  Lucas couldn’t believe what this beautiful female, so timid and shy at times, was doing to him now. He’d fallen hard for her that first night under the old oak tree and couldn’t keep her out of his mind.

  His love welled up in his chest, stopping his heart, but his lust went straight to his cock. Then his heart kicked into gear, double-time and he exhaled slowly, concentrating hard not to blow his load right there and then as she rode him slowly. The fire flickered patterns across her skin, making her even more stunning.

  She kept her eyes locked on his as she moved with deliberate slowness, rocking back and forth, driving him to the edge of distraction. She felt so good. Lucas reached up to cup her breast but she grabbed his hands, twining her fingers in his and leaned forward to stare deep into his very soul.

  He lifted his head enough to claim her lips—her soft, sweet lips for this moment in time they were his and his alone. He’d never known he’d been searching for her until that night he saw her sitting so sad and alone on the rock. The thought of her leaving again was more than he could bear. But now was not the time to dwell on her going—it was the time to live in this moment with her and the fantastic things she was doing to him.

  The movement of her body against his brought a groan to his lips. Jasmine, his Jasmine, snagged it with her mouth and answered with her own.

  She released his hands and he ran them down her smooth back to the soft swell of her buttocks. His pelvis rose to meet her thrust for thrust. His fingers dug into her flesh, pushing her farther and harder onto his cock.

  Jasmine sat back again, her breasts bouncing counter time with rocking hips. She was a vision in the firelight and his heart swelled. His vision.

  The seed boiled in his balls, clambering for release, but he would not go before her and stilled before he exploded. Her pace quickened as she ground against him, the muscles in her pussy tightening around his shaft.

  Oh, God.

  He didn’t know how much longer he could hold out and he gripped her hips to help steady her thrusts. Jasmine threw back her head and screamed as her core clenched and pulsed around his cock, sending him over the edge, his seed pumping into her in an endless stream. Five seconds, five minutes, five hours, time was irrelevant because it felt like forever.

  She sighed and collapsed on top of him, panting. He stroked her silky, honey hair and basked in the glow of what they’d just shared. Jasmine came up onto her elbow and looked down at him. Her hair spilled over his chest.

  She snatched a kiss and grinned. His cock, still buried deep in her, twitched and swelled with renewed life.

  He flipped her onto her back, already rock hard again, and began to thrust, slowly at first but steadily building his tempo.

  Oh my God!

  Jasmine couldn’t believe how good he felt inside her, and each time he pulled back was like a little death until he thrust forward and filled her again. It only took a few seconds for the pressure in her clit to build. His cock pushed deep inside, she wrapped her leg around his hips to pull him in deeper still. The tip pushed against her cervix with delicious sensations, ones she’d never felt before.

  “Oh, Lucas, fuck me hard.” Did she say that out load? From the shocked and delighted look on his face she had.

  He rose up onto his hand and drove into her. Within seconds she peaked and began a long, shuddering orgasm that shattered through her entire body. He joined her, pumping the last of his seed into her womb and collapsing beside her, panting.

  “You’re shameless,” he said after a time, emotion and exertion clouding his voice.

  “Blame it on the moonlight,” she said with a misty smile and kissed him again.

  “Speaking of the moonlight, I think it’s time you learned to change.” He stood and pulled her up, then led her outside. The rain had stopped, everything smelled new and washed.

  “Don’t try to force it. You’ll only make it harder,” he whispered from behind. “Think of the forest and of freedom.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath and thought of the woods where they’d made love the first time. It led to other memories buried deep; memories of running through the trees, splashing through creeks and jumping fallen logs. Her skin began to tingle and prickle. When she opened her eyes again, everything looked different, clearer, more in focus, more alive.

  Her sense of hearing and smell sharpened, she could hear a small animal scampering through the undergrowth to her left and smell the earthy decay of fall leaves. She fell forward onto her hands and knees, her muscle cramping and straining. Suddenly she was afraid and fought it. The pain increased, ripping an alien-sounding scream from her throat.

  “Don’t fight it,” Lucas crooned. “Let it come, baby.”

  She did as he said and the pain receded. Within a few minutes the twitching muscles stopped and now she looked at things from the height of two and a half feet instead of her usual five foot eight.

  She threw back her head and let the wolf song burst from her throat. She didn’t have to wait long for Lucas to answer. He had joined her in wolf form and with a yip he loped toward the woods and she didn’t hesitate to follow. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad spending the rest of her life here. With Lucas.

  A distant howl carried on the wind to Jasmine sitting on the veranda, bringing a smile to her face. She rose carefully from the rocking chair to watch the sun sink slowly over the mountains. The baby kicked vigorously and she rubbed her hand across her swollen belly.

  “Grandma’s coming,” she said.

  “Yay, did you hear that, Jeddy?” Luke yelled with excitement and looked up at the two-year-old riding on his father’s shoulders.

  “Put me down, Daddy. Put me down.” Their youngest son squealed and wiggled.

  Lucas reached up and lifted the boy down and set him on the ground while Luke raced inside to grab the robe his grandmother wore when she came to visit. Then the eight-year-old took his little brother by the hand and they raced to the edge of the forest to wait.

  Jasmine smiled at her husband as he joined her. His eyes were filled with love as he watched their sons before dropping to plant a kiss on her pregnant belly. Then he straightened and leaned in to nibble the side of her throat, sending a lick of heat straight to her groin. Even after all these years together, one look, one touch, was all it took to get her going.

  “Stop that,” she whispered, trying not to smile. “We have company coming.”

  “Well, then I’ll have to wait ’til later tonight.” He winke
d.

  The gray wolf stepped through the trees and greeted the children with excited licks. Melinda then rose to her feet, changing into her human form before slipping into the robe Luke held out. With one boy on each hand, she crossed the cabin.

  “Hello, Melinda,” Jasmine said, and planted a kiss on her grandmother’s cheek. “I’m glad you’ve come. The boys have been bugging me for some more of your sugar cookies.”

  Melinda dropped her hands on either side of Jasmine’s baby bump, her face lighting up. “It’s a girl this time,” she said with certainty. “A strong healthy girl, like her mother.”

  Inside Jasmine’s heart swelled. A little girl. Melinda had been right both times before with the boys, and she’d hoped this one would be a daughter.

  “Well, let’s go inside and cook up a batch of those cookies for these starving young pups,” Melinda said.

  The boys jumped up and down, cheering, and followed the older woman inside. She felt so filled with a sense of belonging and contentment she thought she’d burst with joy. Never once had she regretted staying.

  Lucas wrapped his arm around Jasmine’s shoulder, then dropped his hand to squeeze her ass with a promise of passion to come.

  She glanced sideways at her husband’s lust-filled expression. “You’re shameless.”

  He looked at the full moon rising over the lake and leaned in close.

  “Well.” His hot breath brushed her ear, his voice husky with desire. “Blame it on the moonlight.”

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