Moon Dance (29 page)

“
Because I want to try to
call Booth—the guy I called before, when we tied you up and sent
that picture. Maybe he knows where Enoch is.”

“
You said that your bridges
to Enoch were all burned,” she said.

“
Probably they are,” he
said. “But it’s one thing to try contacting him for the SF. It’s a
completely different thing when I’m trying to find your daughter.”
He turned the phone over in his hands. “Our daughter?” He looked up
at her. “That just sounds weird.”

She’d actually liked hearing
it come out of his mouth. It had made her feel… good somehow.
Connected to him. She cleared her throat. “You think it would work?
That we could find Enoch that way?”

“
We have to try,” he
said.

She nodded. “So, we need
another phone.”

“
Yeah.” He took a thoughtful
breath. “Actually, did you grab any of those android
phones?”

“
Maybe.” She rummaged
through the bag. “There was only one that was prepaid. I think I…
Yeah, there it is.” She got it out and handed it to him. “Why does
it matter?”

“
Well, this will connect to
a wireless network if I can find one. And then I can activate this
phone online.”

Of course, there weren’t any
wireless networks where they were parked. So they drove around
until they found a fast food restaurant, and they pulled into the
parking lot. Wireless network? Check.

She perched in the passenger seat while
Cole activated the phone.

Then she waited while he dialed a
number.

Cole tapped his fingertips
on the top of the dashboard. The lights from the fast food joint
filtered into the car—orangey and bright.

Dana realized she was nervous. She
twisted her fingers together in her lap.

“
Booth,” said Cole into the
phone. He bowed his head, so that he wasn’t looking at her. “Yes,
it’s Randall…. I know, I know. You don’t want to have anything to
do with me…. Look, it’s important I find Enoch…. If you just… But
if I could…” He let out a frustrated sigh and dropped the phone.
“He hung up on me.”

“
So, what does that
mean?”

“
It means he’s not going to
help.” Cole began dismantling the phone.

“
Why are you doing
that?”

“
Enoch knows people who can
trace phones. Booth will give him this number. So, that’s the end
of that phone.” Cole tossed the pieces out the window. “Let’s
activate something else while we got Wi-Fi, huh?”

Dana handed him another one
from her backpack. “Maybe I should have gotten more than
ten.”

* * *

Cole said that it
didn
’t make much sense for them to travel
too far if they didn’t know what direction they should go in. Dana
understood that.

By that time, it was nearly
dawn. Cole found a rest area, and they parked the car there. They
shifted into wolves and went off into the nearby trees to curl up
and sleep away the daylight. It was more comfortable than sleeping
in the car.

When they woke in the
afternoon, however, Dana felt dirty and gross. It had been quite a
while since she’d showered. She didn’t so much care when she was
the wolf, but in human form, she felt disgusting. She laughed about
this to Cole, and he decided they should get a hotel room. The way
he figured it, they didn’t have anywhere particularly to go, and
they were going to have to stay put until they found a lead of some
kind. He thought they’d be more comfortable in a hotel.

Dana felt a little bit
apprehensive about the idea, mostly because hotels had beds and a
sort of implicit expectation of sex.

The thought filled her with a delicious
sense of expectation and lust.

But Avery was barely gone,
and jumping right into bed with Cole seemed wrong. Sure, she’d
already had sex with him, but that didn’t mean she had to keep
doing it over and over again.

Doing it over and over again actually
sounded nice.

So did a shower.

They got a hotel room.

It wasn’t anything
special—they needed a place that would take cash in lieu of credit
cards—so the room was nothing to write home about. But there was a
shower, and Dana claimed it immediately after they checked
in.

She peeled off her clothes,
including one of the bras she’d stolen. Her nipples were still
tender from her little romp with Cole in the rain. They stiffened
at the slightest stimulation, even just removing her bra. She
examined them and found that there were small purplish bruises on
her aureoles.

Her chest tightened. She
felt vaguely frightened by the bruises, but even more excited by
it. She wasn’t sure why, but she liked the idea of having been
marked by Cole’s teeth. It felt tight between her legs
too.

She touched the scar on her
belly—Cole’s other mark.

And she felt a familiar tug
of guilt. She shouldn’t find things like that exciting. She should
be disgusted by them.

There’s something wrong
with me
, she thought.

And then she got in the
shower.

The warm water felt
heavenly. While it washed over her, she thought of nothing but how
good it felt to get clean.

After, she wrapped herself in towels
and went back into the room.

Cole was sitting at the table on the
other side, scribbling something on hotel stationery. He looked up
at her, and he froze.

“
Um, I’ll just get my
clothes and change in the bathroom,” said Dana, even though she
didn’t really want to do that. Water had condensed on every surface
in there, and there was no way her clothes wouldn’t end up wet. She
really didn’t want to put on wet clothes.

He stood up. “No, it’s fine.
I was going to get in the shower anyway.”

“
Okay,” she said.

He came over to her, stopping when he
was only inches from her body.

She thought about backing
up, but she didn’t. The towel was rubbing against her sore nipples,
and it was bothersome and pleasant all at the same time.

“
You’re, um…” He ran his
finger over her shoulder.

“
I’m clean,” she told him,
but she noticed her voice had somehow gotten throatier. “You’re
not. You shouldn’t touch me. You’ll get me dirty again.”

He arched an eyebrow.
“Right. I should leave you pure as the driven snow.”

She reached out to touch his
beard. “Are you going to shave?”

He stepped closer. “Unless
you don’t want me to.”

“
It doesn’t matter,” she
murmured.

He moved his finger up her shoulder and
over her neck.

Shivers went through her, and her
nipples tightened. She shut her eyes.

He stroked her neck. His
voice was low. “I really don’t intend to do things you don’t like,
Dana. If you don’t actually want me to touch you, to be with you,
you should tell me.”

“
I do tell you.” She kept
her eyes closed.

“
Well, tell me now, then,”
he said, and he moved his fingers, so that he wasn’t touching her.
“Tell me now, and I’ll keep my hands to myself from now
on.”

She took several deep
breaths, still not opening her eyes.

“
Dana?”

She untucked the top of her towel and
let it fall away from her body. She opened her eyes.

He sucked in air, his gaze
running over her naked skin. He looked her up and down, and then he
settled on her breasts. His eyebrows drew together, and he lifted
his finger to brush one of the bruises.

Her skin puckered, and her
nipple stood straight up, even though he wasn’t actually touching
it. She let out a tiny gasp. On impulse, she grabbed his other hand
and put it on the scar on her belly. She kissed him.

He kissed back, but she could feel the
confusion, the hesitation, as his lips moved on hers.

“
I… I like it,” she breathed
against his mouth. “I’m yours.”

He made a little growling
sound in the back of his throat, and then he threw her onto the
bed. He was on her right away, mouth on hers, fingers still
brushing her scar.

She moaned, and she felt claimed and
secure. A sense of belonging to him shot through her, and it turned
her on. She writhed, clutching at his shirt, putting her hands on
the skin of his chest.

His mouth moved down her
body, between her breasts, down her torso.

And then his lips were on her scar. He
kissed it, ran his tongue over the raised skin.

Shudders went through her.

His hands caressed her hips,
and his tongue gently traced the mark he’d left on her.

She gasped. Something about
his mouth there… It worked her up, her body growing wet and loose,
surrendering to him. His touch always made her surrender, but this
time she didn’t even bother to try to fight it. She let him have
her—all of her. Her legs fell apart. She was his.

His lips moved lower,
traveling over her flesh down to her wet slickness.

And then his tongue was there, between
her legs, sweeping her away to vast, untold pleasure.

Her whole body trembled. She
groaned.

“
Say it again,” Cole
whispered against her slippery heat, his breath tickling her most
sensitive place. “Tell me you’re mine.”

“
I’m yours,” she
moaned.

He licked her again.

“
I’m yours, I’m yours, I’m
yours,” she panted.

And the pleasure began to
crescendo.

* * *

Dana ended up back in the
shower with Cole to clean up afterward. But it turned out to be too
difficult to keep off each other there either. He pushed her face
first into the wall and took her again with the shower head
blasting over both of their bodies. After that, she got out to let
him finish showering alone.

She went out in the room and sat down
on the bed in her towel. They were running out of
towels.

Her whole body was tender
now. The inside of her thighs a little raw from Cole’s beard. Her
breasts even more sore. He’d started gentle, but she’d urged him to
further intensity. When the pleasure was riding her, she couldn’t
stop.

She lay back on the bed. The covers
were mussed, and it smelled like sex.

She thought of Avery.

She felt guilty.

It didn’t even seem real
that Avery was dead. She hadn’t seen his body, hadn’t had any
chance to say goodbye. But he was dead.

He was dead, and she was
giving herself to Cole Randall. She knew it was obscene. She should
be grieving for her husband. She shouldn’t even be able to want
another man. She should be hurt and destroyed by Avery’s
death.

In some ways, she was. She
loved Avery—loved him with a deepness that she’d never felt for
Cole.

Cole had always been sex and
danger to her. He’d never been a person. She’d seen him as a dark
shadow that stole into her brain and pushed her to the edge of her
passion. He never could have been a husband and father like
Avery.

No, Avery was her rock. He
kept her steady, and he provided safety and solace. He was good for
her. He made her happy. She and Avery had a home together. They
were a family.

So, losing him… losing him
was like losing her foundation.

Now, she was teetering out into space
without a tether.

But it was all so unreal.
She couldn’t help but feel as if she’d go back to her apartment in
the SF and find Avery waiting for her there.

Not that he’d forgive her
after what she’d done, of course.

That was the worst of it,
knowing that Avery had died angry with her, and that she’d never
been able to tell him how much he meant to her.

She felt the sadness coming for her. It
was gathering up like storm clouds, and it was moving across the
horizon of her soul, ready to crash into her and drown
her.

She turned on the TV
instead.

It blared out some old
sitcom, something from her childhood that was playing in
syndication. She flipped the channel.

News.

…
dangerous escaped
werewolves. Cole Randall and Dana Gray are at large, having escaped
the southwest branch of the SF. Both of these wolves have murdered
humans on purpose, and they have the capability to shift into wolf
form without the aid of the full moon. They are highly dangerous.
If you see them, do not approach, but immediately call the
SF.

Dana got up off the bed.
Shit. “Cole?” she called.

“
What?” he said.

“
Come see this.”

Cole wandered out of the bathroom, his
face half-slathered in shaving cream, a towel wrapped around his
waist.

She pointed at the TV, where there were
pictures of the two of them posted on the screen.