Kiss of Moonlight

by Stephanie Julian

  This man was more than worth her time. She knew it in her heart and in her head.

  “Uh, hey, Dad,” Cat called from the kitchen. “We’ve got more company.”

  In the blink of an eye, Kyle’s entire demeanor transformed. His eyes narrowed and his expression turned hard. Predatory. As if ready to spring into action, his body tensed.

  Now here was the true hard-ass, the man she’d sensed lurking under the easy exterior. He should terrify her.

  He didn’t. Not at all.

  She’d love to sit and watch him for hours. He fascinated her. There was something…primal about him. Something so intrinsically male that drew her.

  Kyle caught her eye. And froze.

  She watched as he blinked and all that intensity bled back behind an impassive mask. He took a deep breath and the easygoing guy he’d been all during dinner made a reappearance.

  But she wasn’t buying it. Not for a minute.

  Had he done that for her benefit? Made himself be something he wasn’t?

  He smiled, slow and easy, but she knew now he was hiding a part of himself. Why?

  “I’ll be right back,” he said. “Cat, why don’t you come out and keep—”

  “Hey, Kyle,” a female voice called from the other room. “I hope you don’t mind us dropping by. Tivr wanted to go for a run and we thought we’d see if Cat wanted to come too.”

  The voice got louder until finally the screen opened and a blonde bombshell walked out onto the back porch.

  Kyle shot out of his chair to stand. He almost looked as if he wanted to bow at the woman’s feet but caught himself as he slid a glance at Tam.

  And who wouldn’t want to bow at this woman’s feet? She was a goddess. Curly blonde hair to her waist, a body to die for and blue eyes that put Cat’s to shame. And that was a feat. Not to mention her beauty made Tam feel as if she should have a bag over her head.

  “La— Nortia. We didn’t expect to see you tonight.”

  The blonde shrugged, her smile reaching out to encompass Tam in its glory. Wow, the woman really knew how to smile. “Didn’t mean to interrupt. Hi there.” The woman held out her hand to Tam and she took it, a little dazzled by the woman’s smile. “I’m Nortia. I know, weird name but it’s mine so what are you gonna do. Anyway, sorry to interrupt but Tivr likes to run in Kyle’s forest so here we are.”

  The blonde turned back to Kyle. “You don’t mind if we steal Cat away for a little while, do you?”

  When Cat appeared in the doorway, her hand on the back of a sleek gray wolf, Tam couldn’t help her involuntary gasp.

  That was definitely a wolf. No mistaking it. He was huge but beautiful and he had a grin that reminded her of the dog she’d seen last night.

  “Oh don’t worry.” Nortia threw what looked like a mocking glance at the wolf. “He’s perfectly tame.”

  Was she mistaken or did the dog stick its tongue out at the woman?

  “Sure, Cat can go, if she wants.” Kyle slashed a look at Tam. “Will you stay? Have some coffee and dessert? Don’t want to let Cat’s pie go to waste.”

  “Oh please stay until I get back,” Cat practically begged. “We won’t be gone too long.”

  Cat looked torn between staying and going with her friends. And Tam was torn between wanting her to stay so she didn’t feel as if she had to leave, and wanting Cat to go so she could spend a little time alone Kyle.

  Which really was crazy. Besides the few smiles he’d given her, she had no idea how he felt about her. She could be reading him completely wrong. But she’d never find out if she didn’t stay.

  “Sure, I’d love pie.”

  Cat smiled, though she tried to hide it by kneeling down to pet the wolf. Nortia didn’t bother to hide her grin before she turned to give Cat a wink. “Did you make that strawberry pie I love, kiddo?”

  Cat nodded. “When we get back, I’ll make sure you get a huge piece. Can we go now?”

  “Sounds good.” Nortia glanced at Cat’s feet. “Ah, aren’t you forgetting something, kiddo?”

  “Oh. Yeah.” Cat sent her father an apologetic look. “I’ll just go get my sneakers.”

  As Cat hurried away with the wolf on her heels, Nortia turned that intense blue gaze on her.

  “So Tamra. Where are you from?”

  Beside her, Kyle stiffened.

  “Originally Florida. I was living and working in Philadelphia until recently, going to college at Drexell. I’m taking a semester off before I go back to finish my degree in the spring.”

  Now why had she said that? She still hadn’t made up her mind about going back but this woman looked like she had a plan, a job, a purpose and a life’s calling.

  And Tamra had a vague idea of what she might want to possibly do sometime in the future. She didn’t measure up in any way to this woman.

  Nortia smiled at her. “What are you studying?”

  “I’m going back for my registered nursing—”

  “I’m ready.” Cat bounded back into the room. “Can we go now?”

  Nortia transferred her smile to Cat as if she were a favorite niece. “Sure, babe. Nice to meet you, Tamra. We’ll see you in a little bit.”

  The girls and the wolf headed out the front door, Cat’s bright laughter and Nortia’s husky chuckle joined with the wolf’s short, excited barks.

  “Do you want some coffee?”

  Kyle’s raspy, sexy voice brushed against her skin, drawing her attention back to him. From across the table he watched her, his gaze steady.

  Her heart started to pound for no reason except the fact that they were alone. And that was more than enough.

  “Tamra?”

  “Yes?”

  Even though twilight had fallen, she could still see him plainly in the light of the full moon. Moonlight suited him. It softened his hard edges. She wanted to run her hands along that shadowed jaw and across that broad chest, sink her fingers into his hair.

  From the other side of the table, he walked around to her, holding out his hand.

  Without thought, she reached for him, watching his lips curl into a devastating smile as he drew her to her feet. Only inches separated them, inches she wanted to close.

  They stood like that for what had to be a full minute, staring into each other’s eyes like they were starring in a Lifetime TV movie.

  It should’ve embarrassed her. Or at the very least, made her self-conscious. At worst, she should be running in fear in the opposite direction.

  It emboldened her to know she wasn’t scared at all.

  Instead, she leaned a little closer, drawn by the warmth of his eyes, the heat of his body.

  “Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me” kept chanting through her brain.

  As if he’d heard her thoughts, his smile faded and desire turned to sharp, biting hunger in her gut.

  Then he blinked and began to pull back, shaking his head. “Tamra…”

  No, no, no.

  Fevered compulsion made her curve her hand around the back of his neck as she rose on her tiptoes. She shouldn’t have been able to reach his mouth, the top of her head barely reached his shoulder. But he met her halfway, his short groan cut off when their lips met. He pressed hard, his lips firm and hot on hers, his arms wrapping around her back and plastering her to his body.

  She moaned, wanting more, but he immediately eased his hold, ratcheted back some of his passion as he eased up and let her kiss him. Let her press against him, as if he was afraid of scaring her.

  But that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted him to kiss her. Really kiss her until she lost herself in him.

  So she forced him closer, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him harder.

  Letting her tongue lick at the seam of his lips, she teased until he opened his mouth. She would have thrust inside but he beat her to it, finally starting to loosen his hold on his leashed desire.

  His hands flattened on her back, each finger a brand through her thin t-shirt. His mouth began to demand, moving over hers
with more purpose.

  His tongue slid along hers, heat flowing like warm honey through her veins.

  She let herself fall into that heat, let herself sink into him.

  Her hands smoothed along his shoulders, so broad, so strong. Those muscles flexed and shifted as his hands slid from her back to her hips and he lifted her off her feet. He held her there, feet dangling, the strain on her neck easing. But the ache between her legs became a need. Her hips pressed forward and the hard ridge behind his zipper nestled into the notch between her thighs.

  Oh God, she wanted more. Wanted to rub herself against that stiff rod and come.

  As if he’d read her mind, he kissed her harder, his mouth moving over hers with deepening passion.

  Everything but Kyle receded. She only smelled him, saw him, felt him. All the baggage she carried, all the angst fell away and for the first time in what felt like years, maybe ever, she knew what it was like to lose herself in another person.

  Kyle’s scent, his touch, the feel of his lips moving against hers made her remember what she’d been missing by cutting herself off from the world. By denying herself the touch of another person.

  It only took one kiss from this man to bring it all back and she put all her pent-up longing, all her relief, all of her into the kiss.

  And Kyle took it. He kissed her with heat and passion, making no concessions.

  And it freed her.

  Burning hot desire, so different from anything she’d ever felt, made her clutch at him, open her mouth wider to give him more access. Made her want more.

  Kyle groaned, the sound close to a growl as his mouth slanted even further over hers.

  He was so strong, he only needed one arm to hold her against him. He used his other hand to sweep down, over her ass to her thigh, urging her to bend and lift her leg so he could curve it around his waist. Her other leg followed, the bite of still-healing muscles only a faint ache, until she clung to him, wrapped around him. Their bodies so close she felt every movement of his lungs and the play of muscles in his chest as his hands pressed her even closer.

  She tightened her legs around him, arching into him—

  And he broke the kiss, so abruptly she gasped and her eyes flew open to stare into his, the burnished gold darkened with passion. He stared at her for endless seconds, before he put one hand on her nape and guided her head onto his shoulder.

  “Whoa, sweetheart. Just…give me a minute.” He released a long breath. “Holy shit.”

  With lust still burning in her veins like lava, she had to agree. Holy shit was right.

  The hand at her nape began a slow massage, as though he was trying to gentle her. His heart raced against hers, letting her know just how much he’d been into that kiss.

  So why had he pulled away?

  Hell, you threw yourself at him. What man wouldn’t be turned-on by that?

  True.

  Had she misread him? Had he only been responding to her desire and not his own?

  Did he think she’d acted like a slut?

  Her heart began to pound, anxiety spreading like ice water through her body.

  “Tam. Are you okay?”

  Shit. No, she wasn’t okay. She was an idiot. A fucked-up mess.

  She had to get out of there.

  Unwrapping her legs from his waist, she let them hang, silently asking him to put her down.

  Obviously, the man didn’t take hints because he swung her into his arms as if she weighed nothing at all and walked into the house.

  With her face buried in his neck, she couldn’t ever remember a man carrying her like this. Was she wrong to like it so much?

  In the kitchen, he set her on the breakfast bar, planted one hand next to her hip and put the other under her chin to lift her head so he could look into her eyes.

  His gaze held no censure, only concern. “Tamra. Are you all right?”

  No, she didn’t think she was. Emotions she hadn’t had to deal with for months rioted through her body.

  She wanted him, which was both exhilarating and confusing. She wanted to lose herself in him, but now he stared at her like he was worried about her mental state. And she really didn’t want him to worry about that.

  “Are you sorry you kissed me?” she asked.

  His eyebrows downshifted hard. “Hell no. I’m just…” He straightened and scraped a hand through his hair. “Damn it, Tamra. I don’t want to scare you.”

  He said that as if he knew she had reason to be scared. But he couldn’t know. “Do I look scared?”

  He continued to stare into her eyes and she began to worry that he could see all her secrets, all the darkness, all the chaos she tried to keep locked inside. All of which receded when he kissed her.

  God, when he kissed her…

  He sighed, his mouth flattening into a tight line. “No. You don’t. Still, I’m sorry. That was—”

  “Yeah, sorry is so not what I want to hear right now.”

  Kyle’s eyes narrowed and the lust he’d tried to stuff back into its dark corner started to fight him.

  No, she didn’t look scared.

  She looked turned-on. Hot. For him.

  After he’d practically devoured her.

  He’d never done that before. He’d never grabbed a woman and kissed her just because she made him hornier than he’d ever been in his life.

  Gods damn it, she was twenty-three, fifteen fucking years younger than him. He wasn’t supposed to be the one acting like a hormone-ridden teenager.

  He sighed. “Look, I don’t want you to think I attack every woman who comes into my house.”

  Shit. He hadn’t meant to say that, to use that word. Attack. Hadn’t meant to remind her…

  She stilled but then a sweet smile curved her lips and made his already hard dick throb.

  “You didn’t attack me,” she said so softly he barely heard her. “But I’m glad to hear this isn’t your normal greeting,” she said. “I have to admit this is a first for me too. I’m not normally…so forward.”

  No, she’d been emotionally stunted by a violent attack that he supposedly knew nothing about. He sighed and tried to smile back but it was tough. “Okay, let’s agree this is something new and different for both of us. I just…don’t want you to be worried about me coming on too strong.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted to the side, watching him with an intensity that made him burn. “But you want me, don’t you? I didn’t imagine that.”

  Vaffanculo, she was going to kill him.

  What the hell had happened to the lonely, scared girl he’d met last night? What the hell had changed between then and now? Was it just the fact of their mutual attraction? He’d never had that effect on anyone before. Why now?

  He ran a hand through his hair, ready to rip it out at the roots. “Yeah, I want you.”

  Her smile nearly singed him even though she quickly banked it. “Good. That’s good.” She lifted one hand to trail her fingers over the stubble on his jaw. “Because I want you too.”

  Kyle’s dick throbbed, pressing against the zipper of his shorts until he figured it’d leave an imprint.

  Vaffanculo, he couldn’t decide whether he hoped Tivr and Nortia didn’t keep Cat out too long or if they kept her out all night.

  “So,” she looked into his eyes, “are you going to kiss me again? Or are we going to have pie?”

  His smile caught him off guard. She sounded sexy, her tone light. Nothing like last night. She made him want to tease. And that was so out of character, he had to wonder if he’d temporarily lost his mind.

  Leaning closer, until mere centimeters separated their mouths, he held there, breathing in the scent of her arousal. It tasted like spun sugar on his tongue, meltingly sweet.

  Her breath caught and he wondered when, exactly, he’d be able to get her in his bed.

  He leaned back without touching her, watching her eyes widen and the heat build. Damn, he loved anticipation.

  “Pie first. Cat’ll won
der what we were up to if we don’t have any.”

  Tam’s eyes followed him as he dished up dessert and poured coffee. He swore he felt her gaze all over his body. And he really didn’t want pie.

  But who knew when Cat would return? With the Goddess of Fate and the God of the Moon.

  What would she think if he told her she was in presence of Etruscan deities, one of them in the body of a wolf?

  “So, is Nortia a friend of yours from work?”

  Now sitting at the breakfast bar, Kyle managed to swallow the last piece of pie in his mouth and squashed the desire to bang his head against the marble countertop in frustration.

  How the hell did he answer that one? And if he told her the truth, how fast would she run back to her little house and lock the doors against him?

  He’d never see her again.

  His gut gave a painful twist and his jaw ached from clenching it.

  “Yeah. We work in different divisions though. She’s in management.” Nortia would get a hell of a kick out of that. “I’m more of a grunt.”

  “What do you do?”

  “Private security.”

  She paused, working that one over. “Like a bodyguard?”

  Only if the body needed to be dead. “More like special projects.”

  Her head tilted to the side. “Are you in the army?”

  Yes, just not any branch of the U.S. military. He shook his head. “I work for a private contractor.”

  He watched her pick through his answers. He knew she could tell he was stonewalling her. And he fucking hated that he had to lie even though he’d spent most of his adult life telling them. When you killed people as a sanctioned assassin in the service of the lucani king, you didn’t go around announcing it.

  With a slightly defeated sigh, she changed the subject. “So is Tivr a wolf? He certainly looks like one.”

  Kyle nodded. “Yeah, actually, he is. He’s pretty tame though.” That would frost the Lord of the Silver Light to no end.

  “I’ve thought about getting a dog lately.” Tam pushed around the last bit of pie on her plate. “Living alone, it seems like a good idea. Hey, have you seen the two black dogs roaming around? I’ve been feeding them the past few nights. I thought…maybe I’d adopt them. They seem friendly.”