Seducing the Moon

by Sherrill Quinn

  Not something he could have done before he’d become a werewolf.

  He paused on the landing, amazed to find that he wasn’t out of breath and his heart rate remained normal. This werewolf metabolism was something he surely didn’t begrudge. He honestly didn’t understand why Ryder had had such a hard time with it.

  Declan went on to his room and packed a few things in a small duffel bag—another pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, a pair of underwear and socks, and his can of spray deodorant. Sitting on a stakeout wouldn’t give him an opportunity to bathe, but he could at least spray on more deodorant if the need arose. With duffel in hand he went downstairs once again and down the back hallway to the gun cabinet.

  He pulled out a handgun, popped out the clip to check the rounds, and then pushed it back into place. He made sure the safety was on and tossed the gun into the duffel bag. He added extra ammunition and, dropping the bag on the floor, went down on one knee and zipped it closed.

  Declan stood and pushed the bag to one side with his foot. He walked down the hallway and across the foyer, stopping at Ryder’s study door to rap on the wood with his knuckles.

  He heard Ryder’s irritated “What!” and opened the door. “Sorry, Ry,” he said, knowing he’d interrupted his writer friend’s train of thought as he was hard at work on a new novel. “Just wanted to use the phone.”

  Ryder motioned toward the satellite phone on his desk and put his attention back onto his laptop. As soon as Declan placed his call, however, Ryder stopped what he was doing. “So you’re going ahead with a call to Sully?” he asked.

  “Aye.” Declan listened to the phone ring on the other end and looked at Ryder. “I want him to come and help me keep an eye on Pel.”

  Ryder frowned. “Why? Has something else happened?”

  “You could say that.” When Sully’s voice mail came on, Declan held up one finger, signaling Ryder to wait. He left a message with explicit instructions and his cell phone number as well as Ryder’s number, then hung up. He raked his fingers through his hair. “Someone took a couple of shots at us again this mornin’.” He sighed. “Probably at me, but I can’t take the chance that someone—like your bleedin’ cousin—is after her because of me.”

  “You mean because of me.” Ryder leaned back in his chair and scrubbed one hand over his jaw.

  “No, that’s not what I mean. None of this is your fault, boyo.” Declan leaned one hip against the desk. “I’m still havin’ to tell Taite every now and again that what happened to me isn’t her fault. I don’t need to be tellin’ you the same thing.” He shrugged. “It was my idea to come here in the first place. My idea, my fault.”

  Ryder inclined his head. “I appreciate that you feel that way, but let’s face it—if you weren’t my friend, Miles wouldn’t be after you.”

  “Aye. I suppose that’s true enough. It’s also true that if I weren’t your friend you’d probably have never met Taite. So, all things considered, we’re good.” Declan lifted a brow and waited for his friend’s response.

  Ryder’s lips pursed. A small smile twitched one corner of his mouth. “Well, of course I can’t say I’m disappointed at the outcome.” He met Declan’s gaze. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  Declan grinned. “Just what I said to Pel this mornin’.” He straightened. “I’m goin’ to head back to her place and camp nearby, just to keep an eye on her until Sully can get here, which hopefully will only be a couple of days.” He turned. As he walked out of the room, he said, “If I don’t hear from him in a couple of hours, I’ll check in with you later to see if he’s called, just in case he can’t get through on my cell.”

  Ryder nodded and turned back to his laptop, his mind already delving back into the world he was creating.

  Declan grinned and left the study, closing the door quietly behind him. On his way to the kitchen he grabbed his duffel bag. He went into the kitchen in time to see Cobb wrapping up a second sandwich. Declan put the duffel bag on one of the chairs in the small breakfast nook and unzipped it. He grabbed a couple of apples off the counter and put them in the duffel. After adding four bottles of water, he accepted the sandwiches Cobb handed him.

  Declan took a handful of power bars from the pantry and, with a lift of one brow, a packet of gum. He wouldn’t have an opportunity to brush his teeth, either, so he’d make do with chewing gum. He dumped the pilfered goods into the duffel.

  “You’ll be gone only a short time, I take it?”

  Declan nodded. “A day or two at the most, I hope.” Especially considering the first night of the full moon was due in just a few days, it would probably be best if he was back on Phelan’s Keep at that time.

  Just in case.

  Less than forty-eight hours later, Declan sat slouched in the front seat of his new rental car—where he’d been for the last day and a half except for the few times he’d had to use the facilities—and watched a tall, broad-shouldered man enter the Nola.

  Rory Sullivan had arrived.

  Already Declan could feel his gut relaxing. Between the two of them, they should be able to keep harm from Pelicia.

  A few minutes later, his friend came out of the bed and breakfast and, after a casual glance around, walked down the street toward Declan’s car. He went around to the passenger side and got in, twisting sideways in his seat to look at Declan. “Dec.”

  “Sully. Thanks for comin’.” Declan glanced at his friend and went straight to the point. “I don’t know if someone’s after her or after me, but in either case she’s in danger.”

  Sully nodded. “Don’t worry, mate. She’ll be safe with me.” His deep voice was calm, the crisp accent a reflection of his cultured upbringing. Rory Sullivan could have sat back and lived on the considerable investment income his family had built over the years, but he’d chosen to do something with his life that would benefit others. Poor Lady Sullivan continually fretted over the safety of her son and had yet to come to terms with her son’s choice of occupation, regardless that she felt no small amount of pride over his accomplishments on the force.

  Declan let his friend’s relaxing tones soothe his anxiety. Sully was the best there was, and Declan would do well to remember that. “Don’t let her know that you know me.” He sighed. Here he was, once again dealing with Pelicia with secrecy. But he knew she’d be livid if she found out he’d planted someone close to her, and until he found out what was going on and neutralized the threat, the less she knew, the better. He shook his head and stared at the Nola. “What name did you use?”

  “Sullivan O’Rourke.” When Declan looked at him, he shrugged. “I reckoned that way if anyone who knows me sees me here and calls me Sully, it won’t cause any suspicion on her part.” When Declan gave a nod of approval, Sully sent him a slight scowl, his green eyes lit with mock irritation. “It’s not like I’m an amateur at this sort of thing, you know.”

  “Oh, I know, Detective Chief Inspector Sullivan of Scotland Yard.” Declan grinned at Sully’s grimace.

  “Yes, well.” Sully stared toward the Nola. “What’s the story with your girl?”

  Declan couldn’t tell Sully about him being a werewolf without exposing Ryder as well. So, keeping with the story he’d told Pelicia, he explained to Sully about Miles.

  Without any reference to fur.

  When he was finished, Sully sat there shaking his head. “Man, I knew Ryder’s cousin was twisted, but this…” He rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers and stared out through the windshield. “This is fucked up.”

  “Aye. It is.” Declan turned his head toward the Nola. Whatever the reason, his woman was in danger, and he would do everything in his power to protect her.

  Whether she liked it or not.

  “I need you to stay as close to her as possible without arousin’ her suspicion.” He shot a quick look at Sully. “Think you can do that?”

  Sully scowled at him. This time the irritation was real. “Probably better than you on your best day, O�
��Connell.”

  Declan grinned and looked again at the Nola. The front door opened, and Pelicia walked out onto the front portico. He and Sully both scrunched further down into their seats and watched as she shook the small rug that normally lay just inside the front door. God, she was so lovely it hurt his heart to look at her.

  She waved at a dark-haired woman in jeans who walked down the sidewalk in front of the bed and breakfast. The woman stopped and they carried on a conversation. But just as Declan cracked his window to try to hear what they were saying, the woman walked away.

  “I don’t think that’s going to help you, Dec. You’re too far away.” Sully’s voice was amused.

  Not too far away for alert werewolf hearing, but he couldn’t tell Sully that. Instead, he watched Pelicia while he said, “I appreciate you taking your holiday early to help me.”

  “I remember how you used to talk about her even when we were at university together. You were smitten then.”

  Declan turned his head to stare at his friend. “She was a teenager.”

  “She was fifteen—blossoming into womanhood. You were nineteen. Not that big of a gap.” Sully met Declan’s gaze. “And two years ago, when the two of you finally hooked up, the few times you and I talked on the phone you seemed happy.”

  “I was. We were.” Declan rubbed one hand along the outer seam of his jeans. “Until she found out I had used our friendship to get close enough to her and her grandfather to gather evidence against him.” He sighed. “I tried to tell the powers that be that she wasn’t involved, that even though she had been transporting forged documents from St. Mary’s to London, she had to be unaware of it.”

  “They didn’t listen, obviously.”

  “No, not at first, and later neither would she.” Declan shook his head and looked back at the Nola. Pelicia stood in the sun, eyes closed, face tipped up to soak in the warm spring rays. She always had been something of a sun worshiper.

  An unwilling grin crossed his face. Better to be a werewolf than a vampire—he wasn’t so sure she’d make the sacrifice of giving up her time in the sun to be with him. He frowned. That was if vampires existed, which he rather hoped they didn’t. Dealing with being a creature of legend come to life was enough for him, but he’d have to ask Ryder about vampires just the same.

  Declan watched Pelicia’s chest lift with her deep breath. Then she turned and went back inside, closing the door behind her. He looked at Sully again. “In the end, what matters is she was arrested because of me. She lost her job because of me. Her reputation was shattered because of me.” He heaved a sigh. “And now her life is in danger. Because of me.”

  “She lost her job and her reputation because of her grandfather, Dec. Not because of you.” Sully’s dark brows dipped. “And I don’t think you’re right about now, either. It’s because of Miles that she’s in danger, not you.”

  Declan shrugged. At this point, trying to fix blame was moot. She was in danger, and he had to take care of it. Period.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll protect her like she was my own.” Sully put one hand on Declan’s shoulder and gave a squeeze, then opened his door and got out of the car. He pushed the door shut and sauntered up the street, crossing the road in a casual, leisurely manner.

  Declan stayed where he was until Sully went inside. Then he started the car and drove off. He’d park the vehicle out of sight of the Nola and do some more sniffing around.

  Literally.

  He was constantly astounded at how acute his sense of smell and hearing were now. His distance vision had improved as well. All pluses, as far as he was concerned. So far, he’d not really experienced any of the negatives that Ryder kept talking about. Perhaps because of his military training he’d been able to deal with the transition easier than Ryder.

  But with Pelicia in danger, being a werewolf seemed like a good thing. He was faster and stronger than before. Anyone who messed with him—or those close to him—might just find themselves with their faces ripped off.

  As Sully walked down the hallway toward the kitchen of the bed and breakfast, he glanced toward the drawing room. The small room was bright from sunlight streaming in through the two large front windows. A burgundy and gold area rug covered most of the hardwood floor, and plump armchairs in matching hues complemented the color scheme. The room was empty, but a gray backpack leaned against the leg of a small end table. It hadn’t been there when he’d gone outside to talk to Declan.

  He paused, listening. He didn’t hear any voices or movement in the house. With a sense of alarm tightening his gut, he made his way to the kitchen and stopped. The room was empty, though the kettle boiled away on the hot plate. Wherever she was, Pelicia hadn’t been gone long.

  He clenched his jaw. Had something happened to her in the ten minutes or so he’d been talking with Declan? If it had, some hotshot protector he’d turned out to be.

  The back door opened. He whirled around, one hand reaching beneath his jacket to clasp the butt of the gun holstered at the small of his back.

  “Oh, God, Sully. You scared me!” Pelicia closed the door behind her and walked over to the counter. She held an armful of flowers, freshly picked, which she laid on the counter.

  The only blooms he recognized were the ones from the camellia bush at the corner of the house. Everything else was completely foreign to him, though he thought a few of the flowers looked like tulips. Or were they daffodils?

  She glanced at him as she bent, reaching into the cupboard beneath the sink. “Are you all right?”

  Her denims pulled taut across her ass. Sully felt a tightening of his jeans as his body reacted to her. Down boy, he cautioned his unruly prick. She can’t be yours. He wouldn’t come between his best friend and the woman he loved.

  Sully eased his hand away from his weapon and let it fall to his side. Willing himself to settle down, he gave a nonchalant shrug. “You startled me.”

  “Well, I guess we scared each other.” She smiled and lifted out a large glass vase. Once she’d filled it with water, she put the flowers in it, taking a few moments to haphazardly arrange them. She placed the vase on the kitchen table. The result was a riotous collection of colorful blooms that lent cheer to the room.

  “You said earlier you have other guests.” Sully leaned one hip against the table. “Are they around?”

  She shook her head. Taking the kettle off the hot plate, she flipped the power switch off. “Neal’s working. He’s a photojournalist, off somewhere taking pictures. Andrew’s here on holiday. I was expecting a married couple to check in this morning, but they phoned late last night to say they had to cancel their trip.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “So I’m glad you decided to spend your holiday here in the Fortunate Isles.”

  They shared a grin.

  “Would you like a cup of tea?”

  “Love one.” He walked over and stood beside Pelicia. “May I help?”

  She smiled again and shook her head. “You and Neal, both of you here as guests but wanting to help the hostess. Just sit down.” She put together the tea tray and brought it over to the table. As she poured him a cup, she asked, “Black or white?”

  “Black.” He accepted the cup she held out to him and took a sip. “Perfect. Thank you.”

  She nodded. “My pleasure. It’s nice to have an almost full house.”

  He shifted on the chair, stretching his legs out beneath the table. “Do you normally live alone?” At her nod he said, “It must get lonely during the off-season, being here by yourself.”

  A ready smile curved her lips but he saw a shadow in her eyes. “Oh, I’m good company. And there’s plenty to do that can’t be done when guests are here, so I don’t get bored.”

  Sully studied her a moment then looked down into his cup. “Even with tourists, though, it must be pretty quiet around here.” He glanced up at her.

  She shrugged. “We don’t have the kind of night life that London has, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Nor th
e crime,” he said quietly, wondering if she’d say anything about being shot at not once, but twice.

  “That’s a definite plus.” Her voice was equally soft. She took a sip from her cup and stood. “Feel free to help yourself to anything in the kitchen,” she said with another smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I need to get started on laundry.” She seemed to push her sadness away and smiled again, and this time it sparkled in her gaze. “It’s good to have you here, Sully. I hope you enjoy your stay.”

  So she wasn’t going to be forthcoming about her own difficulties. He gave a nod and watched her leave the room, her shapely bottom swaying as she walked away.

  No wonder Declan was so smitten. Not only did she have a lovely body, she had an equally lovely personality to go with it.

  Declan had been an idiot two years ago. Sully thought perhaps he’d deserved to lose Pelicia. He frowned at his uncharitable thought, but there it was.

  Shaking his head, he stood and carried his cup to the sink. He dumped the remaining tea and rinsed out the cup, placing it on the counter. Then he went out into the drawing room, where he could sit and pretend to read but in reality watch over Pelicia.

  Chapter 6

  Three hours later, Pelicia had finished the laundry, made the beds with fresh linen and was in the drawing room with Sully, laughing over a rather risqué joke he’d just told. She didn’t know what she’d done right, but it was a nice change to have three handsome men as guests, even though Andrew was gone most mornings by the time she got up and didn’t come back until very late. But his bed was slept in every night, so she knew he was around.

  She gave a mental shrug. Andrew was apparently doing what he wanted to do on his holiday, whatever that was. Pushing away worries about her absent guest, she looked at Sully. He was as humorous as Andrew and every bit as charming as Neal, but with his dark hair and lean build he reminded her more of Declan.

  She refused to follow that line of thought. Declan O’Connell was the last man she wanted to be thinking of right now. For the first time in two years she was with a man who flirted with her, just being friendly with no ulterior motives—at least none that she could sense. Sully had a way about him that put her at ease. She didn’t want to start thinking about Declan and get all hot and bothered again.