Moonrise (2 page)

She let it blossom inside her, so glad it lived that she nearly cried. Once, in the beginning, she’d been proud of her body’s needs. She’d always seemed earthier, more physical, than other women, and had welcomed it. Sex was incredible. She’d loved nothing more than being touched, or touching someone else.

She smiled, remembering. She’d been a wild, wild girl. Such a free spirit.

Then Robert had changed everything. He’d twisted her into someone and something she didn’t recognize, and Selene the wild child had died.

Or so she’d thought.

But now, with just a moment’s glance and a quick conversation, the owner of The Crescent had breathed life back into the old Selene.

And it felt incredible. Her body hummed with excitement and smothered the nerves fluttering in her stomach. She was free. She was Selene.

She threw back her head and stared at the blue sky showing between the treetops. She laughed lightly and hugged herself. “I am fucking free. Fucking free!”

Take that, Robert. I said fucking. Twice.

She loved that the fear was being swiftly overtaken by, at long last, anger. Rage.

She slid her fingers over her belly and between her legs. Rubbing lightly, then with just a little more pressure as she welcomed back her body, her desire.

He hadn’t killed it; it’d just been hiding.

She leaned back against the tree and after a quick look around to convince herself she was alone, she let go.

It was like an initiation of sorts. A perfect initiation.

Trey sniffed the air, the hairs on the back of his neck lifting when he caught the woman’s scent. She was in his woods, and he could taste her lust, could smell it. It floated through the air, calling out to him, and he could do nothing but follow the intoxicating scent.

He’d felt something that refused to be ignored when he’d first caught her lonely, frightened scent and, as he did now, had followed it into Greta’s office. She’d stood there looking like a beautiful, frightened mouse, and all he’d wanted to do was protect her.

Somehow she’d found him. She was right where she needed to be. He was a big believer in fate, and fate had brought this girl to him. He could feel it. She was his, his and Michael’s. He hadn’t told Michael about her yet, but his lover was going to be very, very happy.

Now he just had to convince the lovely girl that she needed them as much as they needed her. And he had complete faith in his abilities to do so.

He padded through the woods, his nose telling him she was close, very close. He spotted her at that moment and crouched low to the ground, sliding through the deep leaves quietly so that he might watch her.

He wanted to growl, to throw his head back and howl at the scent of her need, but he forced his beast quiet. It could ruin everything to scare her now. No. Right now he would watch, and learn, and when it was time he would make his move.

Because whether she knew it or not, the lovely Selene was his. For some reason she’d stomped her true nature down almost too deep to find, but it was still there. He could feel it, could taste it.

And soon she would, too.

She leaned back against a tree, and strangely enough it was the same tree that had watched as he and Michael had fought their way through their first union. It was right that it should be this tree, and only cemented further his knowledge that she was meant for them.

Her too-white fingers unfastened her jeans and eased carefully through the opening. Her gasp was like a scream to his sensitive ears as she found her clit, and he shifted as quickly as he could back to his human form. Naked, he had no barriers in the way of his huge erection, and with a painful grimace he took his cock in his hand, watching her.

He almost hurt with need. But it was too soon. Too soon. He repeated the phrase like a mantra, forcing himself to stay put instead of running to her and ramming his cock into her wet, ready pussy.

He could smell the dampness spreading there, and swallowed it with each breath he took. Oh, how he wanted her.

She moved her fingers in the tight space her jeans allowed, but even as he wished it, she impatiently shoved her pants over her hips and let them fall to her ankles. He had to smother his groan in his fist.

She glanced around, but he could tell from her eyes that she wasn’t in the mood to stop what she was doing. There was a grim determination about her and she wasn’t going to quit now unless forced to.

Her shirt only fell to her navel and did nothing to hide the slit between her legs. He wanted to spread her lips and slide his tongue over her pussy almost as badly as he wanted to fuck her.

He’d never felt this fierce with a woman, not ever. The only other person who had grabbed him by the dick and refused to let go was Michael.

Selene rubbed her pussy as if it was the last time she’d ever get to do so, or maybe just the first time she’d done so in a very long time. Her lips were parted, her face flushed, her white-blonde hair falling in disarray around her slender shoulders.

It was the sexiest picture he’d ever seen.

Michael, you should be here.

Her quiet little moans heralded her fast approaching orgasm. He was helpless to do more than watch as he masturbated himself to climax with her, if not in her.

“Oh!” she shouted, and before he could blink she’d ripped her shirt over her head. Her bra followed it into a pile of leaves, and naked except for her jeans around her feet, she went back to touching herself, and it was finally too much for him.

He could not resist, didn’t want to resist. Thoughts of moving too soon were but annoying memories. He strode toward her, his cock jutting proud and angry, leading the way.

She opened her eyes and instead of screaming and running away, forcing him to chase her, she simply waited for him, her eyes all sorts of haunted.

Someday he’d kill the man who put that look in her eyes. Right now he could only touch her, taste her, take what fate had given him.

He was a slave to his nature.

But then she smiled and opened her arms, and even if she wasn’t aware of it, he could see the recognition in her eyes. She knew him, like he knew her.

Mates.

Mates long lost but finally, finally they’d found each other.

He grabbed her to him, for one short moment matching her smile with his own, and then because he couldn’t take time to free her ankles from the confining restraints of her jeans and boots, he turned her around and rammed his cock into her from behind.

Her cries were music creating the tempo for his thrusts, and he finally released his growls as he plunged inside her.

She would have fallen, indeed would have rammed into the tree had he not held her. He took a moment to pray she could take him without pain as he gave up all thoughts and just fucked her.

It took every bit of restraint he had not to let his beast take charge, as the animal screamed and fought ferociously to be freed. But in the end, he came, his hot seed almost hurting him as it exploded from his cock, and into her small, pale body.

She belonged to him now.

And he belonged to her.

It might take a while, but eventually she’d let him in.

Selene pulled her jeans up, the warmth of his semen quickly turning cold as she searched for her top. Her cheeks were flushed, not just from the passion she’d just experienced, but from the immediate rise of embarrassment and good sense.

What had she done?

She couldn’t look at him. She crept behind the tree and dressed, her hands shaky, tears threatening. Oh, the bastard. He’d taken advantage of her … her idiocy, and working for him would be impossible, of course.

She shoved her hair out of her eyes and stayed behind the tree, leaning her forehead against the rough bark.

“Selene,” he said, his voice soft. “Don’t fight it, sweetheart.”

Don’t fight what? Don’t fight that I’ve lost my mind? “Please go. Please just … go.”

His sigh was soft, and she felt no threat from him at all. Not toward her, anyway. He slipped quietly behind her and trailed his fingers through her hair. “It’ll be okay. What we did is right. It will not seem so for a while, but it is right.”

“Please!”

“I’ll go. But you will show up for work tomorrow as planned. I will not bother you.”

She said nothing, just waited for him to go. A few minutes later when she still didn’t hear his footsteps, she looked up, full of fury, ready to scream at him.

There was no one there.

If not for the soreness between her thighs, she might have thought she’d imagined the whole encounter. But no, it was real. It was very real.

She’d had sex with a complete stranger, but as she sat in her car staring sightlessly out the windshield, she realized something even scarier. She didn’t feel bad about it. Not really. Oh, there was the good little angel sitting on her shoulder trying to tell her what she’d done was wrong, but she swatted the angel away and replayed the encounter over and over in her mind.

And it turned her right back on. As she washed away the evidence of the encounter with a premoistened cloth, she closed her eyes at the sweet soreness.

How was she going to face him tomorrow? He’d said he’d leave her alone, but he was not going to do that. Not for long.

And that thrilled the hell out of her.

That night she left her car once again to stretch her legs. This time she did nothing but walk, and she did not meet her fierce, sexy boss.

She passed an uneventful, though restless, night in her car, and the next morning drove to a gas station bathroom in which to take care of her morning toilette. She washed as well as she could. Soon she’d have the money to at least rent a small room, and she could hardly wait.

A place of her own … it would be heaven.

She arrived early at her new job, nervous, excited, eager. She felt full of life and worth, and nothing was going to get her down. She’d survived hell and had escaped it.

That chapter was closed, and she was about to begin a new one. Thank God.

She was given an outfit of black shorts and a black T-shirt, and Lora eyed her critically in her new uniform. “You really need to put some meat on those bones, baby. Have you had lunch?”

“Yes,” Selene said, not bothering to tell Lora that lunch had been a candy bar and a diet soda. She’d been too nervous to eat anyway.

The scents from the kitchen were making her belly wake up and grumble, though. Rich, smoky meats, colorful desserts, thick stews … it was enough to tempt anyone.

The cook was a grim but good-looking man named Michael, and Lora whispered to her that he’d “been through a lot.”

She felt an immediate kinship with him, but her gut told her to give the hot man a wide berth. Not because he scared her, but because she respected that some people just wanted to be left the hell alone.

It wasn’t until eleven o’clock that night that she finally caught a glimpse of the man she’d been waiting all day to see.

Trey.

He walked into the dining room and chatted with a few customers, his gaze always roaming. When he caught sight of her, he crossed his arms and stared, and she shivered so violently she nearly dropped the tray she was carrying.

“Easy there, honey,” her customer said, grinning. “You almost doused me with my dinner.”

She blushed and dragged her gaze away from the man who only yesterday she’d been intimate with. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re a pretty one. Where’d Colucci find you?”

She looked at him, blank, her mind still on Trey. “Who?”

“Your boss, sugar!”

“Oh.” Of course. Trey Colucci. A gorgeous name. She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “I found him.”

The man winked. “He always was a lucky bastard.”

She winked back, surprising herself, and sauntered off to deal with the next customer. She was having fun. There was no doubt in her mind that this was where she belonged.

She felt Trey’s stare scorching her backside as she worked, adding a little extra energy to her step. When her shift ended, she was not ready.

The noise, the smoke, the food, Trey … it was all perfect. She didn’t want to go back to her lonely little car in the woods.

She changed out of her uniform, tired in a good way, and said good-bye to the couple of lingering waitresses. She ignored Michael, because that’s what he seemed to want, but when she passed him on her way out he looked up and sent her a smile as heart-stopping as it was sweet.

She stumbled and before she could right herself her arm was taken in a firm grip. Her first uncontrollable thought—oh God, he’s found me I’m dead—caused her to scream so loudly that Mrs. G came running from her back office.

Selene had jerked from the grip and slid down the wall to huddle shaking on the floor before she realized it was not Robert. It was Trey.

He stood glowering down at her with a look in his eyes that screamed murder, and for the first time since she’d met him was she truly afraid of him.

He bent over and encircled her upper arms with his big hands, and jerked her to her feet.

“No, no, don’t…” was all she could choke out.

But he only pulled her against his chest and with his palm against her head, kept her there.

“What on earth?” Mrs. G asked.

Selene didn’t wrap her arms around his waist, as much as she wanted to. She hung limply in his grip, humiliated and furious with herself for having such a knee-jerk reaction. Furious with Robert for terrorizing her even though he was so far away.

“I’m going to take her home,” Trey said. “Come with me, Michael.”

She frowned against the softness of his shirt. Michael? And then … home? By the time it occurred to her that he meant her home, he had picked her up and was carrying her to her car. “Got her keys? Open her doors.” Then he looked down at her. “Michael will follow and pick me up after I’ve dropped you off. I don’t want you driving.” He sat her gently in the passenger side of her car, then hurried around to slide under the steering wheel.

Her heart was slowing its erratic beat and all that remained was the slow burn of humiliation. “I’m fine, Mr. Colucci.”