Beneath a Darkening Moon (26 page)

Cade pulled his hand away from her neck. “Why are we stopping here?”

“My dad’s diner is just ahead and I need to talk to him.”

“It’s closed.”

“Yeah. But he should be here soon, and in the meantime
we can help ourselves to coffee.” She glanced at the apartment above the diner, just to make sure no one was home. The lights definitely weren’t on, which meant her mom had also gone out. Good. The last thing she needed right now was a motherly third degree about Cade—especially when Cade was present.

“I like the sound of coffee,” he murmured, but the wicked gleam in his dark eyes suggested he had something other than breakfast in mind.

Excitement trembled through her, and for an instant she felt like a giddy teenager again, unable to wait for the touch of a newfound love. But it wasn’t practical. Not here, anyway. “There’s no fooling around in
this
diner.”

“Vannah, you’re nearly thirty. I think your dad knows you’re not—”

“My dad is Levon Grant, remember.” She climbed out of the car and headed toward the diner.

“Ah, yes.” He slammed his door closed and hobbled along behind her. “The man behind the ridiculous no-sex-before-marriage push.”

“He thinks it’ll make us all better people.”

“The only thing it’ll make us is frustrated. The moon’s effect on us werewolves will never go away, no matter how much he might want it to.”

She flashed him a grin, but her smile faded when she saw how badly he was limping. Blood was beginning to spot his jeans. “You’ve opened the wound up again.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “It’s nothing much.”

“I have a feeling that wound could be gushing blood and you’d say the same thing.” Exasperation filled her voice as she found the key and opened the
diner’s door. There was, indeed, a note on the door, explaining that the diner was closed for the morning, but would reopen for lunch. “Grab a seat while I get the medical kit. And no arguments,” she added, the minute he opened his mouth.

“And you’re bossy, too.”

“I haven’t even begun to get bossy. So change shape to stop the bleeding, then sit down.”

She waited until he obeyed, then headed across the room and through the swinging doors into the kitchen. Even with the blinds pulled down, the diner was filled with murky light, but the kitchen itself was darker than hell. Even the advantage of wolf-keen sight didn’t help a whole lot. And the medical kit was across the far side of the kitchen, through a maze of counters, stoves, and sinks. She fumbled for the light switch.

“Don’t,” Cade said from directly behind her.

She jumped and spun around. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The doors swung shut behind him, cutting off the little bit of light filtering in from the kitchen and dropping them back into almost total darkness. “Disobeying orders and following an enticing bit of tail.”

“You should be resting that leg of yours.” She placed a hand on his chest to stop him from moving closer. She might as well have tried to stop the moon from rising.

He caught her hand and pulled her against him. “It’s only blood.”

All that was visible in the blackness was the white flash of his teeth as he grinned. But she could feel him. Feel the warm hardness of his body pressed so
intimately against hers. And the racing of his heart, as wild as her own.

At Rosehall, she couldn’t have given a damn where they made love or who was watching, as long as they were together. But that was a long time ago and she wasn’t at Rosehall, but rather her father’s diner.

“Cade, we can’t. Not here. Besides, your leg—”

He brushed a kiss across her lips, stopping the rest of her protest in its tracks. “My leg is fine. If you care to look, you’ll see the bleeding stopped when I shifted shape.”

“I can hardly check that statement when it’s pitch black and you’re so close your belt buckle is digging into my belly.”

He kept pressing her backward until she hit something solid. One of the counters, she realized, as the chill of the metal pressed into her spine.

His soft laugh was decidedly wicked as he released her hand, then placed his on either side, neatly corralling her. “You sure it’s a belt buckle?”

She was sure it wasn’t. “You need that leg tended to.”

“I have lots of needs that require tending. And some more urgent than others.”

As if to emphasize his point, his mouth claimed hers. It wasn’t the urgency-filled kiss she’d expected, but rather a slow and tender exploration that left her breathless. Dizzy.

Or maybe that was a side effect caused by the spicy mix of his scent filling every ragged breath as he pulled away. She couldn’t say for sure, and she didn’t really care. Not when the air was so thick with the
heat of their desire that it seemed to burn like flames across her skin.

He kissed her chin, her neck, and the caress of his breath against her skin seemed almost cool compared to the heat melting her insides.

“I want you,” he said softly, his gaze somehow capturing hers in the darkness. Or maybe it was just the gleam of need—a need that was as fierce as the flames burning inside her. “Here. Now.”

It wasn’t safe, she wanted to say. Her dad could walk in at any moment, and that would be a nightmare. But the denial wouldn’t form on her lips. How could it, when every nerve ending was trembling for his touch, and the recklessness she’d buried so long had risen with a vengeance? She wanted him, regardless of the situation or the consequences.

And it wasn’t the moon or the fever. It was simply the man, and what he did to her. What he’d always done to her.

“Yes,” she said, her voice little more than a pant of air.

“Thank God.”

“
He
had nothing to do with the decision.”

He laughed softly and skimmed his hands down her sides. “Then thank you, Ms. Grant. I shall endeavor to make the experience worthwhile.”

She ran her hands up his body, then cupped his face so she could drop gentle kisses on his nose, his lips. He tugged her shirt free of her pants, but as he moved to undo her buttons, she stopped him. “It occurs to me that since you’re injured, I should be doing all the work.”

He shook her off and continued undoing her shirt. “I don’t believe in letting a woman do all the work.”

She smiled and ran her hand down the muscular planes of his chest and stomach, enjoying the contrast of the silky material under her fingertips and the hardness just behind it, not to mention the contrasting coldness of his belt buckle as she leisurely undid it. “What if I promise to make it worthwhile?”

His fingers slipped under her bra and he cupped her breasts. A tremor ran through her and, for a moment, she arched against him, pressing into his touch, savoring it.

“I just might be tempted.”

She placed a hand against his cheek, ran a thumb across his warm lips. “So why don’t you step back and take off those jeans?”

Though she couldn’t see his smile, she felt it, deep inside. “You have something in mind?”

She kissed him, softly, sweetly, then said, “I certainly have. Take off those jeans and I’ll go lock the door and find us a chair.”

“Now, that sounds like something I might enjoy.” His fingers touched her cheek, ran fleetingly over her lips. “Don’t be long.”

She wasn’t. Once she’d found him in the gloom again, she put the chair behind him and lightly pressed a hand against his chest.

“Now park that sexy butt.” When he had, she straddled him, her thighs pressing against the outsides of his. “And undo my pants.”

“I’m tempted to say ‘yes ma’am,’ ” he said, his voice a heated mix of amusement and desire.

“I don’t care what you say as long as you do as you’re told.”

“A woman after my own heart.” He kissed her belly, sending a ripple of longing lapping across her skin, then undid her zipper. “Just remember, I control events next time.”

“Maybe.”

“Definitely.”

Smiling at the hunger so evident in his husky tone, she stepped back, kicked off her pants, but not her panties, and straddled him again, this time sitting. As the hard length of him rested against her, she sighed. Lord, he felt so good, even like this. She rocked her hips back and forth, gently rubbing the silk of her panties across the hard length of him, teasing them both. He jerked, then groaned.

“Oh
God
, that feels good.” His hands were on her hips, pressing her down, but not restricting her movements. “But it would feel a whole lot better if you were completely naked.”

She leaned forward, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck and taking a nip of his earlobe. “So you’re not enjoying the sensation of silk against skin?”

“Oh, I’m enjoying it.” His breath was hot and quick against her neck, his fingers warm as he slid one hand from her hip to her stomach. “But skin on skin is so much better.”

“But leaving the panties on means I can get dressed much faster if the need arises.”

“Sensible, one supposes.”

“I’m nothing if not sensible these—”

The rest of her words were lost to a gasp as his fingers slid past the elastic and into warm wetness.

She shuddered, arching her back, momentarily losing herself to the pleasure of that firm stroke. Combined with the heat of him throbbing beneath her—a heat she so desperately needed to feel deep inside—and she was just about in heaven.

But she didn’t want to get there quite so fast. She wanted to play a bit longer.

She shifted, pulling away from his touch. “Did I give you permission to do that?”

“No. And I don’t care.”

She smiled. “Do I have to tie you up?”

“It’s an option that has interesting possibilities.”

“Then maybe it’s something we should explore when we have more time.”

“Only if you remember that what you do to me I will do to you.”

“Another idea that has interesting possibilities.”

She settled on top of him again and began rocking, this time a little harder. He quivered beneath her, the heat of him seeming to sear her flesh.

“I am not going to last long if you keep doing that,” he groaned.

“You’ll last as long as I want you to.”

“A nice idea in theory … but in practice?”

Grinning, she stopped rocking and dropped a kiss on his neck, then worked her way down his chest. She circled his nipples several times with her tongue, then captured one with her teeth, biting lightly.

He shuddered, and she felt perspiration break out across his skin. She tasted the tiny droplets, savoring them as she ran her tongue over his flesh. He tasted of
salt, of desire, and of everything she’d ever longed for in her life, everything she’d thought she’d lost.

“Vannah,” he warned softly.

She trailed kisses up his neck then captured his mouth, kissing him with growing urgency. Both of them were trembling by the time she pulled away, their bodies hot and slick where flesh met flesh, and even wetter where flesh met silk.

But she didn’t give him what he wanted—what she wanted. She just continued to rock.

He groaned again, and this time it was a sound of deep frustration.

“I want to be inside you,” he ground out. “I want to feel your hot, wet heat wrapped around me.”

“Not yet,” she murmured. “But soon.”

She ached for him—ached so fiercely it hurt. He pulsed against her, a promise of satisfaction that was so close and yet so far away. Still, his hard flesh touched all the right places as she rocked back and forth.

Then the deep-down quivering began, spreading like wildfire across her skin. She rocked harder, and he gasped—a short sharp sound of desperation. Desire. The trembling in his body grew stronger and she knew he was battling for control.

But the ache in hers was growing, flooding across her senses, until it became a kaleidoscope of sensations that washed through every fiber of her being. Then the shuddering took hold and she gasped, grabbing his shoulders, trying to hold on until he was inside. She reached between them and thrust her panties to one side. Then she captured him, driving him deep, until it felt as if her very soul was being
invaded by the thick heat of him. His groan was a sound of ecstatic relief. It was a sound she echoed as she held still, despite the urgent demands of her body, wanting to prolong the urgency and enjoy their intimate connection. Then he moved, and she could do nothing more than move with him, gently at first and then with growing urgency, until she was consumed by the sensations and need flowing through her. She came even as his body went rigid against hers and the hot rush of his seed spilled into her.

Almost immediately she collapsed against him, resting her cheek against his sweaty chest as she battled to catch her breath. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he pressed his cheek against the top of her head.

“That beats coffee any day.”

She chuckled softly but didn’t move, enjoying the moment of closeness while she could. “You wouldn’t be thinking that if my dad chose this moment to walk in.”

“Your dad doesn’t scare me.”

“You haven’t met him yet.”

He tucked a finger under her chin and raised it. He kissed her, and it was a kiss unlike any she’d ever felt from him. Sweet but possessive, heated and yet oddly filled with intent.

“You’re mine, Savannah, and I won’t share you with anyone. Not even your father.”

Annoyance flickered through her. So they were back to
that
. “Don’t be ridiculous. Besides, the moon magic doesn’t make me yours. It just holds me to a promise.”

She rose from him and shuffled around in the darkness
until she found their clothes. She tossed him his, then got dressed herself.

“I meant what I said.” His voice was little more than a rumble of annoyance coming out of the darkness to her left.

“So did I.” She zipped her pants and buttoned her shirt. “And you had better be aware that my sister is very much a part of my life, and that will never change. Not for anyone.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“I don’t care what you meant. The truth is I won’t ever be yours until I make that choice freely.” And the fact that she
had
made that choice wasn’t something he needed to know right now. Not when he was still choosing to hide behind the safety of the moon magic and his work.