Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge, #2)

by A.L. Jackson

But my attention? It immediately swept to the left. To the private, secluded booth at the very back of the club that was always reserved for our family. River asked Kane to keep it roped off because he was a protective bastard like that, not that I was going to fault him for it when I was one hundred percent on board. Because there she was. Raven. Fucking. Tayte. My best friend’s little sister. Sweetest girl on the face of the planet. And to my great misfortune, the sexiest one, too.

“Let’s get you inside.” I forced all the need down and rolled my eyes the way I’d done back at Kane’s. “I’m perfectly capable of walking to the door by myself, Otto. Look at me, such a big girl with my own keys and everything.” It was pure sarcasm as I dug into my tiny bag that hung on my hip and pulled my keys out as proof, dangling them between us. A rough chuckle skated out of him. “And what happens if you slip on those ridiculous heels and break your neck?” I huffed as I started up the walkway toward the front door. “Then I guess River will find me in the morning when he wakes up.

And ridiculous? I don’t know what nonsense you speak of. I look amazing in these heels.”

“That you do, darlin’, but they look about as dangerous as the lives we lead, and since I promised your brother that I’d get you home safely, that means I’m going to get you all the way. Not going anywhere until you’re locked tight behind that door.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “The promises you make my brother. I see where your loyalties lay and how little I have to say about any of it.”

A short gasp rocked out of me when he took me by the wrist and spun me toward him. Rays of moonlight rippled in behind him, his giant frame covering me like a shield. The breath was ripped out of my lungs when he reached out and ran his fingertips down my cheek. “You fuckin’ count, Raven. Count more than anyone else.”

“Here I am. All safe and sound.” “Only way I want you.” There was a softness to his voice when he said it. “Goodnight, Otto. Thanks for giving me a ride home.” He wore that easy, casual grin, though I swore there was a storm brewing in the depths of his blue, blue eyes. “It’s my pleasure, darlin’. I’ll see you soon.” I paused, unable to let him go before I whispered, “Be safe.” My chest clutched when he reached out and hooked his pinky with mine. He swung it between us, his voice low when he murmured, “Promise.”

“Otto Hudson,

“I don’t want to be in your way, Otto.”

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

“It’s goin’ to be good, Raven. Good for the both of you.” “I hope so.” He pulled me even closer, and his lips brushed the shell of my ear. “I know so.” “You have a lot of faith in me.” “I have all the faith in you.”

“All right, then, Moonflower, you win. You talk to your brother when you’re ready, and I’ll be here to support you through it. Thick and thin.” Moonflower. My heart panged. “You’ve always been there to support me.” “You keep forgetting that you’re my favorite person in the world.”

“All right, let’s get my girl something to eat.” My girl. He really was trying to wreck me tonight.

God help me, but I was only a man, so I started kneading my fingers into the soles of her feet. The most delicious sound rolled up Raven’s throat. “Oh God, you’ve done it. Now there is no getting rid of me.” “Told you that you could stay for as long as you want.” “Forever,” she mumbled. I dug deeper into the soles of her feet. “How the hell are your feet so soft?” She giggled as I massaged her cute fucking toes. So damned ticklish. “It’s called self-care, Otto.”

She stretched those arms overhead, her back curving in the most delectable way. “I guess I’d better get to sleep, anyway. It’s been a really long day.” She glanced at the couch. “I’ll sleep here.” “You know that’s not going to happen.” “I don’t want to take your bed, Otto.” There was no stopping myself from reaching out and brushing the pad of my thumb over the tiny, dark freckle on the edge of her upper lip. That spot that I never ceased wanting to dip in and lick. She froze at the contact, shocked by my touch. I didn’t even try to go for light. “Want you in my bed, Raven.” She didn’t need to know what that really meant. She seemed to sway though, caught off guard by my words, before she slowly nodded. “I’ll find a place soon.”

I headed for the door, and her voice stopped me before I made it out. “Otto?” I turned to look back at her from over my shoulder. “Yeah?” “Just so you know, you’re my favorite person, too.”

I crept across the floor, knowing I wasn’t anything but a demon, too. It didn’t matter. There wasn’t one fuckin’ thing in this world that could have kept me away from her right then. Coming up to the side of the bed, I leaned over and murmured her name. “Raven.”

Carefully, I reached out and I brushed my fingertips down her cheek. “Raven, wake up, it’s me.” “Please, no, stop,” she begged from the depths of her misery. My spirit screamed and my pulse careened. My arms trembled like a bitch when I snaked them under her back and pulled her to my bare chest.

A flashfire ripped through my body at the contact. “I’ve got you, Raven. I’ve got you. You’re safe. You don’t have to be afraid.” I muttered the promises to the top of her head. “Otto.” Nails raked down my back as she clawed at me. I wasn’t sure if she issued it within her dreams, but I let my lips drift down her head to her temple where I whispered across her soft skin, “I’m right here, Raven. I’m right here.”

“Otto.” It was a quiet, haggard whimper. I brushed my fingers through her hair. “I’m right here. Right here.” A shuddering breath left her, and I could physically feel the tension drain from her as she shifted to curl herself around me. Nearly came apart when she climbed right onto my lap. Long, luscious legs wrapped around my waist. Like as if on instinct, she knew that was exactly where she belonged. I became painfully aware that my white tee she’d gone to sleep in had ridden up around her waist, and her lace-covered pussy was pressed up tight to my cock that I was trying to will into submission.

“Nightmares are still plaguing you?”

“Sometimes.” “How often?” I pressed. Couldn’t stomach the idea of her waking up like this.

“Maybe once a week.” My chest squeezed in a fist. “Fuck, Raven.” “It’s not that bad,” she whispered. My thumb brushed the apple of her cheek. “It sounded pretty bad to me.” Her gaze drifted away before she blinked back my direction. “You were the only one who could ever keep them away.”

“I hate that I haven’t been there for you.”

“Does River know?” I asked. I hated that I thought I saw a glimpse of shame play through her features when she shook her head. “No.”

“So fuckin’ sorry, Raven. Can’t stand it if you felt abandoned.”

“You couldn’t drive all the way across town and climb in through my window every time I had a nightmare, Otto.” My thumb stroked along her jaw. “Maybe I should have.” A thousand emotions arced in a wave through her gorgeous features.

“I want to be brave, Otto, but sometimes I think…”

“You are brave. So goddamn brave. Look at you, the way you smile and shine all your beauty into this world. Spreading joy like it’s gushing out of you. It’s a better fuckin’ place because of you, Raven Tayte.”

“Sometimes I wonder if it will ever go away. The pain. If I’ll ever truly heal.” I exhaled a weighty breath. “No, Raven, I doubt the things we go through ever fully go away. They scar us and mark us forever. It’s how we handle those scars that define us.”

“And you, Moonflower, through all the horrible shit you’ve had to endure. Through the abuse. Through living on the streets. Through…” I croaked off the last. I was unable to give it voice—that moment that had crushed us both. Still, I managed, “In the darkest night, you bloomed.”

“You’ve lost so much, too, Otto, and look at you.”

“You want to tell me about that dream?”

“It’s always the same, and I’m always right back in that room where my father terrorized me. Just a little girl who had no strength. No voice.”

“What I wouldn’t give to be able to go back and rewrite that history for you. Give you a different start. A better start. The one you should have had all along,” I told her.

“None of us have that power, and I hate that my brother carries the guilt that he couldn’t stop it. He was a child, too.”

“I hate that all these years later he still carries it. Hate that he still worries about me so much,”

“That why you’re afraid of telling him you’re moving out?” I asked. She wavered before she said, “I just don’t want to cause him more worry than he already has. Don’t want to put more of a burden on him. Don’t want to upset him.” “He’s gonna get that you need this, Raven. He’s going to put your needs in front of his. It’s what people who care most about each other do. They take care of each other. Support their goals and dreams. And it might take him a minute to wrap his hard head around it, but I know he always has your best interests at heart.”

“And here I’d thought you were going to take River’s side and try to convince me to stay with him?”

“The only thing I want is for you to be happy, Raven.”

“I feel happy…right now,” she whispered. “After that dream?” Didn’t seem possible. “With you…right here. I missed this.”

“It’s where I want to be, Raven. Right here with you whenever you need me.” “Then stay. You make it better, Otto.” I swallowed down the lust that bolted through me, my voice haggard when I muttered, “Sleep.” Because there was no chance in hell I was going anywhere.

“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.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what I want you to do.” Otto growled this low sound that trembled through the room. My world canted to the side as he came forward to lean over me. Dizziness rushed me with this dream. Because, oh my God, was Otto Hudson actually going to touch me? He did, but not in the way I was dying for him to. He set one of those giant hands on my cheek, so big it covered the whole right side of my face. His voice scraped the dense air. “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.” The butterflies flapping in my belly tumbled and sagged, and my heart hurt at his confession. At the shame that littered his face. “You’d never hurt me.”

He grazed his thumb over my lips, and that intense blue gaze dipped to the action before he forced his eyes back to mine. “That’s right. You’re too fuckin’ good for what I have to offer, Raven.” Then he straightened to his full, imposing height. Severity lashed between us, and his jaw clenched in sharp restraint. “I’m going to go take a shower, then we’re going to go about our day like this never happened.”

I flopped onto my back and stared at the ceiling. “Otto, what are you doing to me?” I mumbled, quiet enough that he could never hear. Because I wanted it. I wanted to experience the things I’d never been brave enough to experience before. I wanted to fly. I wanted to rise. And I knew, all the way down to the deepest parts of me, that I wanted to rise with him.

But the real light was in my kitchen. The woman was still wearing my tee like a dress. That black mass of hair piled up high on her head. Legs and feet bare. Fuck me. She was nothing but a fantasy. A wicked, tormenting fantasy because I couldn’t allow myself to go having thoughts like this. It was hard enough on the daily. But with her staying under my roof? It was already proving to be torture. The best kind of torture because she didn’t act shy or weird after what’d happened. She just tossed me one of those mischievous grins as she poured a mug of coffee. “Thank God you have fresh beans from Morning

Dew Brewhouse.” She groaned. “This girlie cannot be expected to start her day without it. How did you know it’s my favorite?” I took the three steps down to the main floor, my feet bare on the cool tile. “Know most of your favorites, Raven. It’s my job.”

Plus, the mirror that I always kept at my bedside was carefully wrapped in a hand towel to keep it safe. Best bestie ever. Sucking the emotion down, I focused on squealing over the two pairs of shoes she had packed. I grabbed my favorite red Valentino flats and hugged them to my chest. “She really loves me, doesn’t she?” I sang. Otto leaned casually against the doorframe of his bedroom, staring over at me. So massive it felt like he was filling up the entire room.

“Don’t think it’s possible for someone not to love you, Raven Tayte.” I got stuck there. Gazing at him. Why did he have to say those things to me? But I swore there was something different about him as he watched me, except I had a bad habit of believing my wildest fantasies would come true. Imagining things were there that were not.

Raven laid out in the middle of my bed with her legs spread as she drove a toy into her pussy. She moaned again, lifting her hips from the bed as she fucked herself with the vibrator. I was slammed by a rogue wave of lust. An avalanche that knocked me upside down. “Fuck,” I hissed as I pressed myself harder against the wall like I might be able to hook myself to it. A gasp raked out of Raven and her head popped up. Inky eyes went wide when she saw me standing there gaping at her like a deranged, sick fuck. But I couldn’t move. Couldn’t move when her tongue swept over her lips. She paused for only a moment before she started thrusting that toy deep into that sweet cunt again.