Kiss of Moonlight (2 page)

For the past six months, she’d bounced from town to town in New York and New Jersey. Something she’d sworn she’d never do after the life
she
and her mom had lived.

But she couldn’t seem to settle.

She’d worked the kitchens or waitressed in diners and bars for money under the table. But with the economy the way it was, even those jobs were hard to come by lately.

And if she took a real job, one where she had to fill out papers, she’d have to find somewhere permanent to live. And she didn’t want anyone to be able to find her.
Even though she didn’t know anyone who would be looking.
Her mom was gone, her grandparents couldn’t care less about her and she had no friends.

It also meant she’d had no one to talk to. And after her first few days here, she’d discovered she finally needed to talk to someone.

Then the puppy had shown up, all gangly limbs and doggy smile. And she’d found herself baring her soul to the little bundle of black fur.

It’d been easier than talking to a human. And,
Tamra
thought, much more cathartic. The dog didn’t ask questions.

After her nightmare last night, she’d been waiting for the puppy, because now, for some reason, Tam needed to talk. As if talking about it would finally banish the last of the shadows.

But any port in a storm… Or dog, as the case may be.

“So, I had another dream last night.”

Hoping she didn’t scare the animal away, she eased down onto the porch, leaning back against the front door. The dog cocked his head to the right and continued to stare at her, his beautiful topaz gaze never leaving hers.

“The doctor said I’d probably have them for months. I just didn’t think they’d be so…”

Terrifying? Horrifying? Excruciating?

“Painful,” she finally said. “I mean, I felt every punch, every kick, every time he—”

She shook her head, forcing the image back. She didn’t need to relive that. She’d lived through it once and her mind had mercifully blanked it out at first. Then, about three months ago, the dreams had started and she’d been forced to relive the assault all over again.

The sleeping pills the doctor had prescribed had taken care of the nightmares. Until she got scared she’d become dependent on them and had stopped using them.

A week, no dreams.
Then last night…
Still, last night’s had been different. She’d spent most of it kicking Scott’s ass, not on his assault.

She figured that was a step forward but it’d still rattled her.

“Anyway, I didn’t get a lot of sleep. Don’t think I’ll get much tonight either.”

She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on them, her gaze finding the almost-full moon just above the tree line.

The bad muscle in her left leg bitched about the position but this was one of the exercises the physical therapist had told her to do. She needed to keep the muscle loose.

“The moon’s gorgeous out here, isn’t it?
So bright.
You forget how the city lights block out the stars. When I was a kid, I used to sleep with the curtains open so the streetlights could shine in. I hated the dark. My mom worked the night shift a lot and I hated being alone in our apartment. She always locked the doors but I never got much sleep when she was gone. Amazing how you can think you’re safe during the day when it’s bright. And then someone comes along and rips that all away in a split second.

“You know, I didn’t even know his name before. He was just some guy I’d see in the apartment complex. Someone I never paid much attention to.”

She paused, thinking back to that last day of her old life. She shouldn’t have opened the door but she’d recognized his face. He’d been at her mother’s funeral, although he hadn’t approached her afterward.
Just another face in the crowd.

“He bided his time. Waited until he knew there’d be no one in the building, no danger of being caught. He just didn’t expect me to fight back after he raped me.”

Kyle bit back the furious growl building in his chest.

His growl terrified hardened killers. He didn’t want to scare this girl.

But it took all of his control to keep it contained. It took even more to maintain his pelt and sit on the ground in front of her like the stupid animal she thought he was.

He’d promised Cat he’d check on the girl but he’d only planned to sniff around the house, take a peek in the windows,
see
what it was about this
eteri
that’d captured his daughter’s interest. See if she posed a threat to him and his.

After dinner, he’d told Cat to stay in the house then he’d walked out into the moonlight to call forth his pelt.

As a
lucani
versipellis
, born from a long line of Etruscan wolf skin-shifters, the magic rose easily on the night before the full moon, although the pain remained. After nineteen years of shifting his entire being into the body of a different species, you’d think you’d get used to the pain.

He didn’t think he ever would.

He often wondered if the Etruscan Gods, when they’d gifted the first
lucani
with their power to shift, had even considered the pain. Or if they’d thought it was a worthwhile price to pay for their amazing ability.

An ability Kyle could use to tear the man who’d harmed this girl into little tiny pieces with his sharp teeth. He knew how to make it hurt, where to bite for maximum pain without killing, to draw out the punishment.

He wanted to make the bastard pay but even more, he wanted to call back his skin, wrap her in his arms and against his chest and let her cry out all the anguish in her voice.

Her furious emotion made his gut boil with rage. Overriding the violence, though, was the urge to comfort. He wanted to make her forget, to wipe that horrific experience from her mind and reassure her that not all men were animals.

He snorted and shook his head.

Okay, make that, not all men were brutal, sadistic sons-of-bitches who deserved to be fed their own nuts.

“Hey, you okay, boy? Sounds like you’ve got a cold.”

No, he didn’t have a cold.
Didn’t feel cold at all.
In fact, he felt pretty damn warm.

And right there was where this was all going to shit.

Because he’d be damned if he hadn’t fallen for this little
eteri
.
Hard and fast and at first sight.

Like a fucking teenager with raging hormones.

It felt like a kick in the ass. Like a punch to the gut and a shot in the heart.

Kyle had never been sentimental. He loved his daughter with his whole heart and he cared for Margie and Dan. They were his family as much as his three beautiful, headstrong younger sisters and his slowly aging parents who’d shown him what true love should be.

And what he never wanted to find. He’d never been able to wrap his brain around the trust needed to give over so much of
himself
to a woman.

And he hadn’t. This wasn’t love. He didn’t fall in love at first sight with a girl who couldn’t be more than twenty years old.
Vaffanculo
, he was almost forty.

Fate wouldn’t fuck with him that badly.
Right?

Yeah, right.

The girl in question sat on the porch, huddled in on
herself
as if she were cold. But it was mid-September in southeastern Pennsylvania and the daytime temperature had been in the nineties. Tonight, it was only supposed to drop into the mid-seventies.

She had pale blonde hair the color of wheat, stick-straight and cut in uneven lengths around her face. The longest length reached only to the tip of her pointed chin. Hell, his was longer.

Her features were all contradictions—sharp cheekbones and a button nose, full mouth and up-tilted ice-blue eyes.

Eyes that held dark shadows.

Again he fought the urge to shift back into his skin and take her in his arms.

He’d terrify the hell out of her if he did. He smelled only a hint of magic in her, so faint he couldn’t even make out what kind. Not unusual. Many people actually had a trace of old magic in them, whether it was Egyptian, Norse, Celtic or any of the other ancient magical races.

While most had died out or diffused into the general
eteri
population, the Etruscans had managed to keep their magic and their society from disappearing through the millennia by clinging, some might say stupidly and stubbornly, to the Old Ways.

“So,” she said, resting that pointed chin on her knees, “what do I call you, big guy? I don’t think Lassie fits.”

He snorted at the idea, shaking his head.
Tinia’s
teat, anything would be better than fucking Lassie.

“Okay, how about Rex? You kind of look like a Rex, all regal and shiny.”

Rex he could deal with, at least until he went home and came back tomorrow morning in his skin to meet her properly.
Which was probably the stupidest thing he could do.
He should be running the other way. This woman, this
eteri
would throw his life into turmoil.

The pain in her eyes…

“Hmm, what about
Blackpaw
?
Midnight?”
She smiled, a sad little quirk of her mouth that made his gut hurt. “Maybe I’ll just name you Kyle Reese. After the attack, I must have watched
The Terminator
a hundred times, I swear. Nice fantasy, having someone come through space and time to save you from the Big Bad Monster. Too bad it doesn’t happen in real life.”

Stunned, Kyle could only sit there as he heard his name come out of her mouth. Her voice, a little husky, a lot sexy, made it sound like a caress and that ball of lust in the pit of his stomach exploded outward.

Though he wore his animal body, he was still human. The man wanted her. The animal could only comfort her.

Easing up onto his paws, he stepped onto the porch, taking it slow. He was big for a wolf, almost a hundred pounds in this form.

She froze, drawing in a short breath, which she released slowly as he settled on the porch beside her and butted his head against her knee.

For a few brief seconds, she didn’t do anything, just watched him. But finally, when he had his entire body pressed against her side, she unfolded. Straightening her legs, she set her hand on his back, gently. As if she didn’t want to scare him away. He was worried about exactly the same thing with her.

She started to stroke his pelt, her slim, small fingers brushing through his fur, tentatively at first then with more confidence.

And Kyle knew he’d just lost the skirmish, the battle and the whole
frickin
’ war.

But damn, what a way to go.