Beneath a Darkening Moon (14 page)

S
OMEHOW
, S
AVANNAH MADE
it through the long afternoon and into the early evening. But, by God, it was hard.

She rubbed a hand across her eyes and leaned against the side of her car. She was so tired her eyes felt ready to close, and so damn hungry she was ready to shift shape and hunt rabbits. And that was something she hadn’t done since she was barely a teenager.

But both of those problems were nothing compared to the fever. It felt like her skin was on fire. She couldn’t go back to the office when she was radiating desire like this; it wasn’t fair to anyone on her team. And especially Ronan.

Of course, there was one very simple cure: make like a bunny with Cade. She’d stop emoting the minute her lust was sated.

She blew out a breath and glanced up the road. Anton had driven up earlier, and he and Cade had made a plaster mold of the smudged tracks they’d found and checked out the area where the truck had sideswiped the tree. Then the two men had proceeded to search the nearby forest to see if they could find exactly where the watcher had been lurking. She’d been sent down to this end of the road like some underling to stop anyone from coming up—an order she couldn’t exactly rail against, because she knew the reason behind it. The fever—and the fact that Anton would undoubtedly become aware of it if he spent more than a few minutes in her company.

And even though her past relationship with Cade was something they would have to reveal to everyone
on this case, the fact that the two of them were once again involved
wasn’t
.

Which meant she had one choice, and only one choice, about what to do next, and the wild part of her was more than a little excited about it. Truth be told, the saner part was, too.

She crossed her arms and glanced up the mountain again. Dusk was settling in, and the evening chill was already frosting the night air. Surely the men would be down soon. They wouldn’t be able to see much in this gloom.

Even as the thought crossed her mind, the sound of an engine cut across the hush, then headlights hit her, pinning her in brightness. She raised her hand to protect her eyes, squinting as she watched the four-wheel drive approach. Even though it hadn’t rained recently, the truck was still sliding a fair bit on the steep road.

It would have been much worse with the snow falling the night before, which meant that the driver of the vehicle last night was either highly skilled or damn lucky.

Another point in Nelle’s favor. She couldn’t drive—or at least she couldn’t ten years ago.

Anton slid the truck to a stop, and Cade stepped out. The quickly fading light caught the flickers of mahogany and silver in his dark hair.

He didn’t approach her, didn’t even look at her, until Anton had disappeared down the road that led back to town. “The day has gone,” he said, his voice a low vibration that had her hormones skipping excitedly. “I can now officially touch you.”

Please
, the wild part of her practically begged. “I
will not make out in the forest like some oversexed teenager.”

His eyes gleamed with amusement, reminding her of the times they
had
made out like oversexed teenagers. “Then where?”

“My lodge.” Where else could they go? It was the only place that was in any way secure. Although, if the murderer had done his homework, it wasn’t exactly safe, either.

“Now?”

“Now,” she confirmed, and unlocked the car.

“Good.”

His voice was little more than a growl, and a tremor of anticipation ran through her. It was going to be good. Fast, but good.

The drive back to town was quiet, but it was filled with a simmering tension that had sweat breaking out across her skin. Yet, despite the urgency that beat in time with every thump of her heart, she wasn’t about to make the mistake of driving straight to her lodge. Town gossip was not something she needed to deal with on top of everything else.

She stopped at his hotel and glanced at him. “If I don’t see you in ten minutes, I’ll start without you.”

“Don’t even think about it,” he all but snarled.

Oh yeah, she thought with a smile. He was feeling the moon every bit as badly as she. She took off, the wheels skidding on the stones, and made it to the lodge without seeing anyone she knew. Still, she did take a quick look around to ensure the place was safe. Then she headed down to the small room they had used last night.

She felt Cade’s arrival long before she saw him.
His presence was like a fierce wind before a summer storm, and it battered her senses just as badly.

The rich aroma of sage and tangerine swirled around her, and footsteps echoed on the wooden floors—firm, deliberate steps, drawing ever closer. She stripped off her clothes, laying them across the arm of the sofa, then turned to face him as he entered.

His gaze skidded down her body, then rose to meet hers. “You smell ready, Vannah.”

She walked toward him, watching the heat and desire flare brighter in his eyes. “You have no idea.”

She tangled her hands in his silky, almost too short hair and drew him down so she could kiss him. But there was nothing gentle about their kiss. It was hard, urgent, and fierce. And utterly glorious.

He wrapped a hand around her rear, lifting her up then moving her backward. She grunted as her back hit the wall, then wrapped her legs around him, pushing against the heated stiffness of his erection. He thrust against her, sending shivers of delight racing across her skin. She groaned, reveling in the glory of it and yet needing to feel so much more.

She unwrapped her legs, letting them slide down his body until her feet touched the floor. Then with shaking, urgent fingers, she undid his shirt, his pants. He kicked off his boxers and lifted her again. She’d barely wrapped her legs around his waist before he was in her, filling her.

Then he began to move, and thought became impossible. All she could do was move with him, savoring the sensations flowing through her. As his strokes became fierce, so did hers, riding him hard, until the power of their mating shook her entire body. The
rich ache spread like wildfire through her, becoming a kaleidoscope of sensations that washed through every corner of her mind. Then the shuddering took hold and she gasped, grabbing his shoulders and thrusting him deeper. His movements became more urgent, his body driving deep inside hers, touching that
one
special spot, over and over and over.

She came as he did, his roar echoing through her ears as she twitched and moaned.

When they were both able to breathe again, he leaned his sweaty forehead against hers and sighed. His breath was warm, almost sweet, as it caressed her, stirring her barely sated hormones to sluggish life.

“Dear God,” he said softly, “I don’t think I could have held off a moment longer.”

A smile touched her lips. “Lost some of your laudable control over the years, have you?”

He pulled back a little. The odd seriousness in his dark eyes made her pulse skip, then race. “There was never anything controlled about us. Not once we actually met, anyway.”

Part of her desperately wanted to believe that statement, to believe that he’d been as much a prisoner of passion as she. But the truth was, his actions denied his words—then and now.

“Everything about us was controlled—from the minute you walked into the commune to the moment you raided my mind. All of it was planned to achieve one goal.”

“To catch a killer,” he agreed.

“So how can you say it wasn’t controlled?”

“I didn’t say the situation wasn’t controlled. I said
we
weren’t.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And there’s a difference?”

He slid his hands under her rump, supporting her as he moved away from the wall and walked toward the sofa. “A big difference.”

“I wouldn’t have thought so.”

He kicked the lever that folded down the back of the sofa and placed her on the worn cushions. He stretched out beside her, throwing one leg over hers and drawing her so close that skin pressed against skin, letting her feel every beat of his heart, every intake of breath. It felt good. Almost too good. But the sofa wasn’t all that big, and there was no point in trying to retreat because there just wasn’t room.

And if she told herself that often enough, she might even believe it.

“Different or not, it doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?” he said.

“No.” But it did, if only because one tiny part of her was still so desperate to hold on to the dream, even if that dream wasn’t one he’d ever share. “But that doesn’t mean there’s no need to talk about what went on between us.”

He leaned back a little and idly flicked a nipple with a gentle finger, an almost insolent smile touching his luscious lips. In the sharpening cold of the night, it was an almost painful sensation. And yet, at the same time, very arousing.

“Leave it in the past, Vannah. Opening old wounds won’t achieve anything.”

His head dipped and his teeth grazed her aching
nipples. She shivered, barely resisting the urge to arch her back and raise her breasts for his pleasure.

His teeth skimmed her areola, then caught a nipple and lightly pulled. She gasped, caught between pleasure and pain, and loving every unexpected minute of it.

“I need to move on with my life,” she somehow managed to say. “And I can’t with this lying unfinished between us.”

He didn’t answer, but simply shifted his position and grazed his way up to her neck, her ears, her lips. Then his gaze caught hers, and again, there was an energy, an anger, gleaming in those navy depths that stirred something deep inside her.

Cade had hurt her once, and if she wasn’t very careful, he could do so again. And the anger that burned deep in his gaze suggested that, while the moon was driving them together, it was a more basic need that was fueling him now: the need to fully reclaim what was once his.

His next words confirmed her thoughts. “There will be no moving on until the moon and I are done with you.”

“The moon only gives you four more nights,” she said bluntly. “And if we survive this,
I
want to move on. From the past and from you.”

Something dark and dangerous flashed in his eyes. He didn’t answer, just claimed her mouth with a kiss that was fiercely possessive and so damn hot it felt like she would explode into flames.

From then on, there was no talking, just touching and caressing and tasting. She explored his body, reveling in his scent—and his salty, seductive, and oh so
masculine taste—until all she could feel, all she could smell, all she wanted, was him.

He returned the favor, leaving no part of her body untouched or unexplored. He nipped her, caressed her, licked her, discovering erogenous zones long ignored and bringing her to the edge of orgasm time and again. But he never let the wave crest. He backed away each time, waiting until the tremors eased before starting all over again. He did this until her skin was slick with sweat and desire, and all she could think about was the rigid length of him sliding deep and hard into her.

But if he sensed her need, he was ignoring it.

When his tongue flicked over her clitoris, she jumped, and a whimper that was part frustration and part a plea escaped her lips. He chuckled softly, his breath hot against her skin. Then he suckled on her, and she came with such a thunderous roar that her neighbors would have surely heard her had they been home.

The tremors hadn’t even begun to ease when he shifted. His flesh was as slick as hers, and his body trembled with his effort at control. She wrapped her legs around his hips, trying to force him closer, desperate to feel him inside. And when he pressed himself against her, she whimpered, wanting the whole damn length of him and not just the tip.

“Vannah,” he said, and in his voice there was an edge of command she could not ignore.

She opened her eyes and met his gaze. The depths of his eyes were filled with that dark danger she’d glimpsed earlier, and in that moment she knew what he was about to do.

“Don’t,” she said quickly.

He either didn’t hear her, or he didn’t
want
to hear her, because energy touched the air, fluttering across her skin like a thousand tiny sparks. The power of the moon, coming to life once again.

All he said was “You are mine, and only mine, until I say otherwise.”

Oh God, oh God … What the hell was she going to do? He was using the moon to bind her past the time of their first pledge, and thanks to the promise she’d so innocently made, there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

Damn the moon, she thought viciously. And damn
him
for taking the moon-given power and twisting the spirit of it to his own ends.

“I am only yours until the power of the moon ends. No longer.”

“No.” His voice was full of unforgiving determination. The dance of energy became more emphatic, enforcing his words. “Say it.”

Goddamn it, he was getting what he wanted—and what the moon demanded—so why ask for more?

“Bastard.”

“
Say
it. You will be mine until I say otherwise.”

“No, damn you.
No
.” She arched her hips and captured him, driving him deep. He shuddered, and for a moment he moved with her. Then his breath hissed between his teeth and he withdrew.

He didn’t say anything, just stared at her with hungry, demanding eyes as the energy burned brighter, wrapping her in heat and the need to obey.

“Damn it, why?” she all but yelled.

“Because I have no intention of sitting on the sidelines
and watching you dance with your lover if this case should last more than four days.” He raised a hand and caught her chin, his fingers close to bruising. “Say it.”

“I
hate
you.” But she didn’t, not badly enough. Not then, and not now.

“But you want me, don’t you?”

“Yes.” And that was the whole problem. When it came to Cade, control was something she’d never seemed to have enough of.

“Then that’s the only thing that matters. Say the words, Savannah.”

She knew that fighting the compulsion was useless, yet there was no way in hell she would give in without a fight. So she fought, and the dance of energy became thick and fierce, until it felt as if her entire body was on fire with the compulsion to obey. Eventually, she had no choice but to say the words. “I’m yours, and only yours, until you say otherwise.”