Second Chance Desire (Hot Moon Rising #8)

by Dominique Eastwick

  She leaned back, spreading her legs as far as her skirt would allow. “I hoped you would notice.”

  “The kid is in the other room, Emmy. Ah hell.” His cock ached, and he could smell her arousal.

  “Oh. I guess we need to wait until closing time, then.” She moved down one step and undid one button on her shirt. She was undoing another one when the familiar sound of the truck approached.

  Knox grabbed her waist and pulled her toward him. “Stay down.”

  “Wow. What the hell?” Wide blue eyes stared up at him.

  “Stay out of sight.” He moved up the stairs as the truck passed at half the speed this time. The man in the passenger’s side gave him the finger before the driver floored it and squealed the tires.

  Knox watched the truck tear off out of sight. “Did you pass them when you came in?”

  “Who?”

  “The red truck.”

  “I didn’t pass anyone, at least not for the last twenty miles. Can I come out now?”

  “Yeah, but stay out of view of the street.” He kept his eyes on the empty road where the truck had been.

  “What is this about?”

  Convinced the danger had passed for the moment, he moved back under the car, picked up one of the tools from the catch-all tool net, and set his focus back on the car above him. “I wish I knew. I can only trust my instincts, and they say something isn’t right.”

  “And it has to do with a bunch of rednecks in a red truck?”

  “I think they are probably associates of our friends from the diner.” In his mind, there was no probably about it. They were connected, and he worried they were trying to search Emerson out. But he would keep those concerns to himself for the moment.

  “Hey, Knox,” Cedro called from the office. Ten seconds later, he crouched and looked into the pit. “Is that Ms. Kingston with you down there?”

  “Hi, Cedro.” Emerson granted him a killer smile.

  “What do you want, Cedro?” Knox asked.

  “I think that red truck is gone finally. And I have my GED pre-test tomorrow. Do you mind if I take off a little early? I have everything cleaned in the office, and, yes, I took care of the bathroom, too.”

  Knox left the pit and headed out the bay door. He looked up and down the street. “I want you to take the old Plymouth Valiant.”

  “Old lady Jennings’ car?”

  Knox didn’t have to see Cedro to know the boy cringed at the thought of being seen in the ancient clunker. “She can’t drive it, and I have had it fixed for months. At the requests of her children to keep her off the road, I keep telling her I’m waiting on a part.” He turned to Emerson. “Her cataracts are about as thick as pancakes.”

  “She creeps me out,” Cedro admitted “She’s like some voodoo witch about to curse me.”

  “I’m sure those guys are gone, but, just in case, make sure you aren’t followed and make sure no one sees you turn onto your road.” He reached a hand out to his mate. “Give me your keys.”

  She handed them over without question. Knox went out, ever aware of those around him, pulled her car into the empty bay, and closed the pull-down garage door. He handed her back her keys and pulled out the old discolored rubber key ring from the key box. “Go straight home, Cedro, and call me if there are any issues.”

  “Yes, sir.” Cedro’s usual, mouthy teenage self seemed to understand the concern and that his boss wasn’t playing games. “I’ll return the car after school tomorrow.”

  Knox locked the door behind him, turning the open sign to closed. He took the money from the register. Even Cedro didn’t know the location of his safe, but his mate was different. Emerson grabbed the brown paper bag from beside the work bench and followed him into the storage room. Knox moved the water cooler aside and deposited the cash in the safe underneath, putting everything back in place. He would count it and deal with it in the morning.

  “What’s in the bag?”

  She lifted it higher “This?”

  “Yes, that.”

  “It’s a little something I brought to help celebrate.” She backed away and dropped the missing panties on the floor in the doorway.

  Well, that answered his questions about why she’d been without them all day. “Minx.”

  “Are you coming?” she yelled from the other room.

  “Not yet,” he mumbled, adjusting his cock and retrieving the discarded lace off the floor. He soon discovered a trail of clothing leading back to his apartment. There, he found a very naked Emerson, minus her heels, pulling takeout trays from the bag. “That is a surefire way to make sure dinner gets very, very cold.”

  “Oh, but we’re celebrating.”

  “What do we have to celebrate?” He came up behind her, filling his palms with her breasts and making sure her bare ass pressed against his growing arousal.

  She hissed before easing out of his reach. “I’ll tell you after dinner.”

  “Tease.”

  “So, I’m a teasing minx now? I consider it”—she leaned over so her breasts were just out of reach—“building to a climax.”

  “My climax might come quicker than yours if you keep this up.”

  “Focus.”

  “On?” He was focused on her pert nipples, the soft curve of her hips and thighs. His cock was going to be permanently impressed with the indentation of his zipper. He wasn’t sure how many more brain cells he had left to focus on anything else.

  She removed the lid of the first bowl of pasta. “It’s not pizza, but I remembered you liked lasagna. I hope it’s still a favorite.”

  “I can’t believe you remembered. We only had Italian once when we were in Miami.” They hadn’t actually eaten out a lot when they were together. Lack of funds had only been one of the reasons. The other, that they preferred to be naked, made it difficult to leave their room.

  “I tried to get Cuban, but there wasn’t anywhere on the way home.” She did remember the little things. “Go on and eat before it gets too cold.”

  She sat in the chair across from him in at the small kitchenette. Eat? He could barely swallow at the moment. “You’re naked.”

  “I noticed. I also noticed you’re still dressed.”

  “If you want to eat your food, it’s best I stay clothed.” He let his wolf through enough to allow her to comprehend how close he was to losing control.

  She dropped her fork, startled. “Can you control it?”

  “It?” He knew what she was referring to, but if she wanted to chat about his other side, she needed to call his wolf by name.

  “You know what I mean.”

  He went to the fridge. “Do you want something to drink? I picked up some sodas today.”

  “You picked up?”

  “Okay, Cedro picked them up for me.”

  “No. I brought some champagne to celebrate.” She pulled out from the bag a single serving bottle. “I didn’t want to tempt you.”

  “You tempt me in many ways.” He grabbed the milk and filled a glass. “Your alcoholic drink isn’t one of them.”

  Returning to the table, he took his seat across from her. “You wanted to know something about me. Ask a specific question, and I’ll answer anything you want.”

  She took a steadying breath. “Tell me about your wolf side.”

  “My wolf is a part of me, a very important part.” He took a bite. He wanted to look at her when he told her about himself, but, at the moment, her bare breasts were too much for him. “I would say we control each other.”

  “If you were to change into this wolf, can you talk?”

  “No, but I can understand you. I can communicate with my pack, but that is because I understand what they are saying. We speak in howls and barks, but also through body language. Eventually, you’ll pick up on small signs, too. A flick of the ear, tilt of the head, or even wag of the tail.”

  “Are there a lot of you?”

  “Enough, but not as many as there used to be.” He would like to tell her more, but she
wasn’t bound to him in any way. And the more he said, the more it could hurt his pack. He had hurt them enough with his mistakes in the past. They ate in silence, Knox trying to keep his mind off the woman before him.

  Finally, she pushed her food away from her, lifted the tiny bottle, and popped its cork. “Something extremely exciting happened today.”

  “So I gathered.” The scraping of his chair’s metal feet as he pushed it back echoed in the room.

  Emerson lifted the bottle to her lips, took a gulp, and walked around the table. She straddled him, resting her bare ass on his jean-covered crotch. “I got a job offer today, and I took it.”

  Knox could not breathe. She had been applying to so many places, a few not in Florida. And, as much as he wanted to be happy for her, he feared she would leave again. “Congrats, baby.”

  “Not going to ask me where?”

  With the heat of her pressing against him through his jeans, she was lucky he had any blood running to his brain. “Figured you would tell me when you were ready.”

  The tips of her hair bushed his neck as she leaned in to whisper against his ear, “I got the job with the local rescue squad. I start next week.”

  “You’re staying.” His voice, even to his own ears, sounded rough and husky.

  “I’m so staying.”

  Relief washed over him like a tsunami. He gripped her bare ass with one hand, pressing her tighter to him while wrapping his other fingers through her hair, pulling her close. His lips brushed hers. As much as he wanted to celebrate, he wasn’t ready to let those emotions out yet. He held back. The last time they discussed staying together, he had claimed her as his mate. As she hadn’t known his true self, he hadn’t completed the bonding and bitten her. The next morning, she’d left.

  The touch of her fingers over the stubble on his jaw brought him out of his musings.

  “You seem far away. I thought you would…. Okay, I wasn’t sure what you would do, but a simple chaste kiss wasn’t it.”

  He held onto tight control with all he had. For too many years, he hadn’t allowed himself to hope for the day she said she was staying, and, even now, she wasn’t promising forever. “How long?”

  She blinked at him. “Well, ninety days at least. That’s the standard trial period.”

  He focused on his breathing and his fast-beating heart. “So ninety days.”

  “At least, but I don’t see any reason it won’t work out.”

  “Do you want to stay in the area?”

  “Are you asking if I want to stay here or if I want to stay with you?” She grabbed his cheeks, forcing him to see her. “I realize I hurt you when I left all those years ago. I own the fact that you don’t show any emotion now. You aren’t the same man I left. I don’t know how much of that is me, how much is maturity, and how much is from life lessons. But I started the chain of events that led us here, and if I need to take 100 percent of the responsibility for it, I will.”

  They looked at each other, neither speaking. Knox didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t bring himself to ask her if she wanted to stay with him again. Not this time. Because if she walked away in ninety days, he wasn’t sure how he would survive. Oh, he would continue, but would he be living? He doubted it.

  “Say something please.” Blue eyes searched his, pleading.

  “What do you want me to say, Emmy?”

  “I want you to say you’re happy.”

  “I am happy for you.” And he was. He wanted her to get the jobs she wanted. Wanted her to be happy, and that had never changed. Even throughout the long years, he never wished her anything but joy.

  She threw back her head and groaned in frustration. If she hadn’t been naked, the gesture would have been stronger. “I don’t want you happy for me. I want you happy for us.”

  He lifted her off his lap because there was no way he was having this conversation with the moisture of her desire dampening his jeans. “What is us? What are we, Emmy? Eight years ago, I thought I knew. I told you I loved you. I told you I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you when you got back from Basic Training. I knew what that meant. I knew you could be deployed or stationed anywhere. I didn’t care. I was willing to relocate.”

  “I loved you, too.”

  “Bullshit. You don’t walk out and leave a person you love, making them think you’re dead. I called every emergency room. I finally called the police, and you know what they asked first? Were your clothes gone?” His calm, detached shell was close to cracking. “Guess what? They were. It had never even occurred to me you had left with no word, no note. Let me amend that. I got a postcard. A fucking post card from Miami Beach saying sorry. Nothing else. So forgive me if I have little belief in your ability to understand what those words mean.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” She grabbed her shirt, pulling it over her head. “I have never been around love. I was overwhelmed. I felt like the walls were closing in. I knew if I stayed, you wouldn’t ever let me go.”

  “I already told you I knew you had to leave.”

  “No. I knew you would expect us to get married, and I would be yours forever.”

  “Is it so hard to believe when two people say they love each other, they would want to get married and spend the rest of their life together?”

  “For me, yes.”

  “What about now, Emmy? Is it too much to believe or want or understand?”

  “I don’t know. When I’m away from you, I just want to be with you. But I don’t know you. You don’t overwhelm me anymore, but that’s because, unless we are having sex, you don’t seem to show any emotion at all.”

  “Once bitten, baby.” He started out the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I need to run.”

  “Now?”

  “You couldn’t handle the amount of bottled-up emotion I have coming to the surface. You don’t want it, either.”

  “Knox, that’s not fair.”

  “As you already stated, life has never been fair, has it?” He stripped naked, but, this time, he wasn’t aroused, he was angry and frustrated and on the verge of losing his shit. “Stay or go, either way. I don’t think it matters much until you figure out what exactly you want from this relationship. Because if it’s just to fuck, I can tell you that’ll never be enough for me, and I’m not sure you’ll ever be comfortable with the power of my emotions for you.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “If you think you’re going to leave in a month, better leave now.” He stormed to the edge of the wooded area, looked around, and let his wolf out. He knew what she would see—the copper wolf, larger than a normal wolf, and far more powerful. He howled, letting out his frustration. Any wolf in the area would understand. They would also, hopefully, stay out of his way. He was all too eager to fight with someone, and he didn’t care who.

  He ran full out through the trees, bushes brushing his fur. He let old hurts and emotions affect him. Years of repressing feeling hadn’t helped him tonight when what he wanted might have been within reach, and he might have blown it. Howling in frustration, he took his time returning to his garage. No doubt she’d left not long after he had.

  Emerson stood in the doorway long after her lover ran off in furry form. Somehow, seeing him shift into a wolf this time hadn’t been as shocking. She had been hoping to see some emotion, real depth, since she returned. He had displayed his raw sexual desire, but emotions had been played close to the cuff.

  Be careful what you wish for.

  How had a night she thought they would be celebrating turn into him running out full speed and telling her he didn’t care if she was there or not? When the combination of the mosquitos biting and the heat became too much, she went back inside. Delaying her exit, she cleaned up the food and straightened his already clean apartment. As she opened the bottom drawer of his dresser to place his folded laundry in it, she came across several pictures of them together. So much younger. She traced the line of his smile. So happy
and emotionally open. Every photo showed what was missing this time around. The sparkle in his eyes when he looked at her. A smile that reached his eyes before his lips. Lying on the floor, she clutched the photos to her chest.

  Like a flash of light, she knew what she wanted. She wanted him to cherish her the way he used to, as if she were his moon. She wanted to hear his laughter, not because something was amusing but because he was so filled with joy it had to escape. She wanted him to love her again.

  Two hours later, she lay on his bed playing Candy Drops on her phone when he returned, sweaty and out of breath.

  “You’re still here.” His voice gave away nothing, but his shoulders relaxed.

  Sitting up, she crossed her legs then pulled a pillow into her lap. “I can’t keep running from you and what is between us.”

  “I shouldn’t have left.”

  “You only went to work out your aggressions. There is nothing wrong with that.”

  “No, there was.” He leaned over the bed and kissed her hard. “I need a shower. Give me a few minutes.”

  She would give him more than that if he asked her to. She didn’t know where they were heading, but if she didn’t try, she would never win anything. Five minutes later, hair wet, a towel wrapped around his hips, he returned and paused until she patted the space on the bed next to her. Sighing with relief, he climbed onto the mattress and lay on his side behind her. “Can we start this over again?”

  “Which part?”

  “Your telling me about your job.”

  She felt silly but did as he requested. “I got a job today.”

  “That is wonderful. I’m very proud of you.” He leaned forward and kissed her shoulder through her shirt.

  She turned her face to him. “Want to know the best part?”

  He traced the patterns of the fabric on her back. “I do.”

  “The job is right here in the county.”

  “So you’re staying.”

  “I wanted a job near you.”

  He spoke in a quiet voice. “I need you.”

  She pushed him back onto the bed before straddling him. She knew how much it cost him to admit that to her. The last time he laid his heart out to her, she had stolen away with it. She hadn’t cherished it as the gift it had been. She’d run scared. “You have to be patient.”