Promised at the Moon (6 page)

After thirty minutes, Liam slowed the bike into an outlook and stopped. The swollen moon stared at them above the waves of the ocean. Being so close to it tugged at her gut. Liam stepped off the bike and helped her down as well. He removed her helmet and then removed his own.

“Come on.” He ran his fingers through his curls.

Her head still buzzed from the ride as they made their way down to the sand just above where the waves crashed in. The night air was cooler down by the water, and she shivered. Liam shrugged off his coat and draped it over her shoulders, then sat.

The hot leather weighed her down and smelled like him. He wore a short-sleeved rock band T-shirt. It was the first time she’d seen his arms. They were covered in tattoos, and both wrists sported leather cuff bracelets and chains. Including the one she’d given him.

His gaze met hers and he patted the sand next to him.

Liam hadn’t been to this spot in over a year. He stared out at the open water, trying not to think of how good it had felt having Asha’s arms around him as they rode. The press of her body into his back had set his wolf yipping in delight. When she’d told him to go faster, his smile couldn’t have gotten broader. She was truly amazing and infuriating and…and not for him.

They sat in silence, listening to the waves crash and staring at the moon. There were so many things he wanted to know.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“Cara told me you’d gone to the beach party. I read the flyer Clint gave you before I gave it back to him.”

“Why did you come?” She gave him a sideways glance.

He picked up a handful of sand and let it slip between his fingers slowly. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“It’s your job.” She gave him a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.” She pushed her hair away from her face. “What about Deena? Why aren’t you guys out tonight?”

“Deena’s a friend, nothing more. She and her husband Michael are the ones who found me in Los Angeles and helped me out. She was just passing through and stopped to see how I was.”

“Oh. I just thought… Well, you looked really nice.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I wash up okay.”

The silence hung between them like a barrier of ice.

“Where are you from originally?” she asked.

Liam swallowed hard, remembering the faded and peeling house he’d grown up in. The uneven wooden floors that hadn’t seen a sander or coat of stain in almost a hundred years. The dead grass and shriveled rosebushes out front.

“Kansas.”

“Wow. What made you choose California?”

He’d never told anyone. “They said California was where dreams were made.”

The waves crashed, bringing with them the smell of salt water, fish and seaweed. Memories washed over him like the tide and a part of him wanted to tell her about his past. To warn her about who he was.

“My father was a brutal man,” he said. “He ruled our pack with an iron fist and used that fist on everyone who disobeyed. When I was fourteen, he used that fist on my mother one too many times. She died, because there was no one out there willing to take her in. No pack member willing to go against my father. When I turned sixteen, I got on my bike and rode.”

“You know that wasn’t your fault, right?”

“I was fourteen. I should have done something before it was too late.”

“You were a kid.”

His gut tightened at the kindness in her words. He picked up a seashell and tossed it. “Yeah, well, now all I can do is help others and try my damnedest not to turn into that monster.”

“You aren’t like him.”

He blew out a heavy sigh. He never talked about his time in Los Angeles. “You don’t know what I’m capable of. When I lived on the streets I did terrible things just to survive. Horrible things.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person, Liam. And it doesn’t make you him.”

“I worked for a drug dealer as an enforcer. I used my strength to hurt people. Lots of people. Some good, some bad, but in the end that didn’t matter. By the time Deena and Michael found me, I had become him. It no longer bothered me when I hurt people, and it was so easy too, being stronger and faster than normal humans. So, I just…did.”

He couldn’t even look at her as shame hovered over him like a thunderstorm waiting to rain down. He couldn’t bear to see the revulsion in her eyes. He waited for her to curse at him. To scream that he was awful and to take her home.

She grabbed his hand. “You did what you had to.”

He looked up at her face bathed in moonlight. She wore a soft smile, and her eyes held sorrow. His heart puffed up like an overinflated balloon. Was it possible that she could see past what he’d been?

She stared at him for a long time before she gazed out at the ocean again.

“I was eight when Daniel’s pack moved into our area from Tennessee. My father had been pack Alpha for close to a decade at that point. At first, we all thought the packs could coexist in the same city. Time proved that theory false. When Daniel arrived, he was so scrawny, my packmates picked on him. I felt bad, so I stood up for him—even broke a male’s arm once for bugging Daniel. By the time we were ten, we were inseparable. The friendship grew into something else and by fifteen I thought I loved him. He bloomed late, but when he did, he bloomed. It was like overnight he went from skinny kid to Alpha-in-waiting.”

She dropped her gaze and sucked in a ragged breath.

“He asked me to be his mate when I was fifteen. I was stupid and young and I agreed. My father also agreed because we needed to merge the packs. Merging would end the squabbling. Or so he thought.” She stared out at the ominous ocean. “Then Daniel changed. He began picking on those who’d picked on him. All of his past anger had built up, and he wouldn’t let it go. He became mean, savage even. When I went away to college, I thought he’d move on. He didn’t. I came home for break this summer and broke things off with him. But he approached my father and told him that he intended to hold me to my word. He stopped me in the grocery store six weeks ago and said I had until my twentieth birthday to come to him and if I didn’t, he’d come for me.”

Liam’s anger surged and his wolf gnashed his teeth, pacing at the thought of a male trying to force himself on a female. A ripple of anger skittered over his skin, stretching and swelling until he had to shake his head to clear his thoughts.

A tear rolled down Asha’s cheek, and her eyes met his.

“He came for me on the day before my birthday. My mother woke me up and grabbed my emergency bag. Daniel and a bunch of his packmates were yelling at my father in the family room as my mother rushed me down the backstairs to the basement. She shoved a set of keys at me and got me out a window. Tate told me to run for the access road… Then I heard gunshots.” Tears streamed from her eyes.

Liam leaned in, scooped her into his arms and held her against him. Her arms wrapped around him in a fierce grip. Sobs racked her body as he stroked her hair and
shoosh
ed her. The horror of what had been done to her was almost enough to send him charging to Virginia to find this Daniel for himself and beat him to a bloody mess. But the soft press of her body against his soothed him against the building rage.

When her cries lessened, he pushed her from his chest and lifted her head. He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb.

“Natasha. I won’t let him hurt you ever again.”

She sniffled and swiped at her face. Even with her puffy eyes and red nose, she was beautiful. He cupped her face tenderly. Her gaze drifted to his mouth and she licked her bottom lip. He shouldn’t do this. She deserved more, better. He had nothing to give her. Nothing but himself.

Liam leaned in and captured her warm, sweet breath in his mouth. His lips brushed hers and a moan escaped her.

All thoughts fled his mind, and his resolve snapped easier than a toothpick. He pressed his lips to hers hard, and she wrapped her fingers in his hair and guided him to her. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, hot with need. Goose bumps blanketed his skin as his wolf howled in triumph. There was no way to deny it anymore. He wanted her.

Laying her on the sand, he covered her body with his and ran his hand over his leather jacket and down the length of her body. Her flesh molded into his palm. Her hands outlined his arms, sending chills up his spine. The need to have her overwhelmed every sense of reason as he dipped down and ran his tongue over the beautiful U of her collarbone and then kissed his way across the dip of her neck.

Her body quaked at his touch on her silky calves. He pushed her dress above her knee, letting his palm rest on her slender thigh.

He pushed his leather coat off her and kissed down to her exposed shoulder. He licked at her scars, making her shiver. The way she called his name as her breath caught sent his need skyrocketing.

“You are so beautiful.” He ran his tongue over her collarbone again and swirled it down between her breasts. She bucked her hips and ground against him. Desire to feel her skin, to taste her, to make her his overwhelmed every sense of reason. Her hands tangled in his hair and she pulled on it hard, making his pants suddenly too tight to contain him.

He tugged her skirt higher. His hand moved slowly up the inside of her leg.

“Liam,” she gasped.

Her scent swirled around him, making his head fuzzy. Jasmine and musk. He grabbed her hip and pressed his fingertips into the protruding bone. Rubbing his body against hers made her scent grow stronger still and made his arousal spike so hard he thought he’d lose all control.

It wasn’t rational to feel so connected to another person after only a month, but he did. He’d shared things with her that he’d never shared with another. And he wanted to share more with her. He wanted to share everything.

He plunged his tongue deep into her mouth and ran his hand up over the outside of her dress, over her breasts and up to cup her face. Her legs intertwined with his, and she tugged at his belt buckle.

Natasha’s only thoughts were of Liam. His rough, calloused hands made her body quiver like Jell-O. His scent filled her head, making it hard to concentrate. It’d been months since she’d even held a guy’s hand. She needed the connection. And for the first time, it felt right.
He
felt right.

She fumbled with his buckle, unable to make her fingers work right with him kissing her skin. His scent grew stronger, and her core thrummed with need. They’d both been hurt before. But for the first time in months, she felt like she could possibly make a life for herself outside of her parents. Outside of her pack. On her own.

“Liam,” she whispered, “make love to me.”

He pulled away slightly. In the moonlight, his Alpha eyes stared at her. She reached up and stroked his cheek, then ran her fingers through his dark hair. He kissed her softly on her swollen and sensitive lips and when he turned his head to kiss her neck she spotted his hooped earring. She nipped at it and sucked it into her mouth.

He growled deep in his chest and gripped her hand tight. “Natasha, I want you.” The growl in his voice was barely restrained. “Do you have protection?”

Her brow furrowed, and she blinked several times, trying to make sense of his words.
Protection? Why would I carry protection?
She shook her head. “No I— I’ve never…”

His head whipped up and his eyes narrowed. He propped himself up on his arms, leaving a wash of cool ocean breeze to brush over her exposed legs.

His mouth opened and closed. He cleared his throat. “You’ve never— You’re a—”

“A virgin.” She swallowed. What was going on?

He rolled off her, sat up and hung his head between his knees. Her mind and body collided in a battle of adrenaline and need. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes.

“This was wrong. I never should have brought you here.” He stood and brushed the sand from his jeans.

She didn’t understand. He didn’t want her? Being a virgin was a bad thing out here? Back home a female wolf who wasn’t a virgin was looked down upon. The risk of accidentally bonding to another wolf had been drilled in her head so many times that she’d never risked it. Before now.

Liam lifted his head, his eyes full of sorrow. “You need to get home.”

She sat up, adjusted her dress and grabbed her purse. Her tongue clung to the roof of her mouth like a wad of cotton. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming at him. He was hot and then cold. The change in his emotions gave her whiplash.

Liam offered his hand, but she threw his jacket at him instead. She’d put herself out there, allowed herself to become more vulnerable than she ever had been, and he’d shut her down. Brushing the sand from her dress and shaking out her hair, she grabbed her purse and headed for the bike.

She refused to shed tears as fury crawled through her, digging in its claws and sending her blood pounding into her ears. Curses and venomous words streamed through her mind, poisoning her thoughts. She wasn’t totally sure what had her so livid but between the impending full moon, the need mounting inside her and the emotions of the evening, she was furious.

Back in the parking lot, she got on the bike and stared straight ahead, refusing to meet his gaze.

Liam sat in front of her and tipped the bike off its kickstand. It roared to life, and she grabbed the bar at the back of her seat. He looked at her as if waiting for something. She caught his eye and then looked pointedly away. He faced forward and rolled the bike out.

Several times, on the ride home, she pitched sideways and almost grabbed on to him, but she’d rather be roadkill than to give him the satisfaction. The whipping wind no longer exhilarated her. It slapped her in the face and stung her cheeks. Her body still pulsed, and her mind reeled from the encounter. What had started out as an evening to have fun had turned into a night from hell.
Again
. The way he toyed with her was worse than what Daniel had done.

Liam was like a mean toddler the way he wound her up only to let her go and see her dance. It had been better when she’d thought he was only being nice to her because he’d been paid. At least then she had a better idea of where she stood.