Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge, #2)

by A.L. Jackson

Sovereign Sanctum: River, our leader. Kane, our money launderer. Theo, the protector. Cash, our hacker.

“Told you I would never let anyone hurt you again, and I meant it.”

I took to the street, and there was no missing the thrill that ran through her being. This girl who fit me like a glove who I forever had to keep at arm’s length.

“You fuckin’ count, Raven. Count more than anyone else.”

Exactly why I’m texting…because I want to know. I bit down on my bottom lip as my fingers flew across the screen. Me I sent out a booty call, and I’m currently waiting for one of those bikers to crawl through my window.

Don’t push me, Raven. You don’t want to see what it looks like when I come unhinged. Think it’s best if you keep your conquests to yourself. Don’t want to think of you with another man, and I sure as fuck don’t want to watch you with one.

“You’re my favorite fuckin’ person in the world, Raven. What makes you think I wouldn’t want you at my house?”

“Otto?” I turned to look back at her from over my shoulder. “Yeah?” “Just so you know, you’re my favorite person, too.”

For one beat I was back in the nightmare I’d suffered last night. My father in my room, a man who was supposed to protect me but instead had used me as some twisted plaything. It was never sexual. He’d just loved to hear me scream. But that didn’t mean I hadn’t spent my life terrified of someone touching me. Everyone except for Otto.

The wings inked on his throat fluttered as he swallowed hard, his eyes so clearly tracing the script. I will make it to the sunrise. Except Haddie hadn’t been able to.

“You shouldn’t be lookin’ at me like that, Raven.” “And what am I looking at you like?” “Like you want me to crawl back into that bed with you.”

“Would be the luckiest man alive, getting to touch you. But I swore to myself a long time ago that I would never hurt you, and I fuckin’ meant it.”

“But why do you have it?” she asked with a quirk of her brow. “I thought you take your coffee black?” Like a fool, I reached out and touched that little freckle near her left lip. “Keep it in case you drop by.”

“Don’t think it’s possible for someone not to love you, Raven Tayte.” I got stuck there. Gazing at him.

Because I’d sworn over Haddie’s grave none of them would get away with what they’d done. They would atone for their sins. And that atonement had come due.

“One left, Haddie. One monster left.”

“One more, Haddie. One more and you rest.” The words were garbled as I repeated them into the cab of my truck.

“Otto,” she whimpered, but she still didn’t stop, and she was tweaking at her fabric-covered nipple as she kept working herself into a writhing, messy pile. Clearly, she was racing toward an orgasm that I could see glimmering all around her.

“Fuck, didn’t mean to barge in like this. I thought…I thought you were having a dream.” “Maybe that’s what I’m doing…dreaming.” She whispered it in a seductive tone as she kept driving that toy into all her slick heat.

“How could I forget? You standing basically in that very spot with your arms hugging your chest as you gazed out on the lake. You looked at me and said, This is it.” If it was it for her, then it was it for me.

Raven suddenly whirled toward me, flailing her book around as she shouted, “Maybe I would, Otto. Maybe this is exactly what I would want a man to do to me if I ever got up the courage enough to let someone actually freaking touch me.”

“You know exactly what I’m saying, Otto. It’s just like it was then. I can’t let anyone touch me. I have a panic attack any time that I do.” Her brow pinched in misery. “Every single one of them except for you.”

“So, you want to know about this, Otto?” She tossed the book toward me. “I read these stories because I want to be swept away. Because I want to imagine this happening to me. And every time, I wish it was you.”

“I touch myself, wishing it was you. It’s you. It’s always you.”

“I’ve got you. I’ve got you. My moonflower.” I murmured it at her head as I pressed a bunch of kisses to her crown.

And for the record, what’s in those books isn’t what I want other men to do to me. It’s what I want you to do to me.”

“Like it hard, darlin’. Don’t be shy.” Her tongue swept out on a needy exhalation. “Good because I think I like it hard, too.”

And maybe I’d known it all along, but I knew right then that I’d met my match. This fucking gorgeous woman who was going to be the end of me. Because I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to let her go.

“How, when this is the way it’s supposed to be? It’s always been you, Otto. You have always been my safe place. My secret place.”

“Death by your brother is what it’s likely to be, but I’m fairly certain it would be worth it. Seeing your face when you came around my fingers. I’m never going to forget it.”

“You are worth it, Raven. You are worth everything. But I don’t want to wreck what we are.” “What are we, Otto? Because this feels like us to me.”

“Nah, Moonflower. You are the epitome of strength. I just don’t think the rest of us really know what that means.”

“Fuck, Raven. I wish you understood. Wish you understood I would give anything to be right for you.”

Because it became immediately clear that the slur written on Moonflower’s window wasn’t random, and this motherfucker hadn’t come for me. He’d come for Raven.

But something else entirely took me over when I saw what was written all over him. Fury and desire. Fear and desperation. Hunger and rage. And he was coming straight for me.

“You think I wouldn’t stand in front of every bullet for you? Take every blow for you? Suffer any consequence?”

“You’re already mine, Raven. You’re already mine.”

“Good girl,” he choked. “Such a fucking good girl with my cock stuffed down your throat. Like you were meant to do it.”

The one who’d seen me in a different light than anyone had before. The one I’d always been willing to sacrifice for. The one I’d do anything for. My spirit thrashed. He could never know. He could never know what I’d done or the lengths I’d gone.

“I might be inexperienced, Otto. I might have been wounded so deep that I’ve been terrified of letting anyone get close to me, but you are the only one who’s ever been able to do it. The only one I’ve wanted right next to me.”

“I love you so much, and I have my entire life. And it’s not infatuation or hero worship or bred of this trauma. It is what my heart knows. It’s my truth. And if it’s not yours, then I’ll accept it. I’ll walk away and I’ll never look back. But the one thing I’m asking right now is for you not to lie to me. Don’t be a coward and give me some camouflaged truth. Tell me what you feel when you look at me.”

“You want to know how I feel, Raven? You want to know if my heart fuckin’ bleeds every time I look at you? You want to know if I toss at night thinking about holding you in my arms?” My brow pinched in emphasis. “You are the first thought I have when I open my eyes in the morning and the last one before I go to sleep. You are the thunder in my veins and the chaos in my spirit. You are everything I want and the one thing I’m not supposed to have.” I took a single step toward her, voice going gruff. “What I feel for you is endless, Raven Tayte. So, you want me to tell you exactly what that means?”

“It means I’m so fuckin’ in love with you, so fuckin’ gone for you, that there’s no chance my world could spin right without you in it. So fuckin’ in love with you that I feel like I’m ripping apart every time I look at you. You are my heart, and that’s the truth.”

“You can go ahead and tick that box, Little Moonflower. Call me seduced. Never gonna break the spell you have me under.”

“I can walk, Otto.” He grunted at me as he dipped into the passenger side of my car and slipped his arms underneath me. “Not gonna happen, darlin’.” “And why is that?” “Because I need you as close to me as I can get you, and I can’t think of any better way than having you in my arms.”

“I shouldn’t be here like this,” he forced out. Rejection of the notion billowed across her face, all mixed with a muddling of hope. “I think this is exactly where you’re supposed to be. Here, like this. With me. I…”

“Best birthday ever.” “I want to spend every one of them with you,” I admitted through the calm stillness that had taken over his room.

“I love you, Raven Tayte. For every single one of my days.”

But that wasn’t the point. My brother should support me. My decisions. The same as Otto should stand for them.

Gideon. Sienna pressed her mouth to my ear, whispering, “Your friend was totally right about me. I do like them dark, but I already have myself a man. And he’s been waiting on this day for a long, long time.”