Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge, #2)

by A.L. Jackson

“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, Raven…” I scrubbed a palm over my face to break up the disorder. To give myself some clarity. To fucking come back down to this godforsaken plane where I didn’t get to do this. Where I didn’t get to watch this goddess come undone in the middle of my bed. It snapped me back enough that I wheezed, “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. I’d never wanted to cross a room more than I did right then. Had never wanted to give in so badly. Had never wanted to steal the goodness. Feed on it until it filled my empty soul. Somehow, I found the willpower to force myself back out the door, and I slammed it shut behind me at the same second as she

cried out, an orgasm tearing so violently through her that I swore I could feel it reverberate through the door and ripple through me. I chugged for the nonexistent air as I forced my ass back to the couch, still fucking staggering and lumbering my way across the floor, wondering if I was truly hallucinating. Wouldn’t be surprising since I had just downed half a bottle of Jack.

“That’s what you like?” My throat nearly closed off around the question.

“What do you mean, is this what I like? You know I like to read, and I like to read romance. I’ve never made that a secret.”

“Is that what you like men to do to you?”

“Just want to know, Raven.” Had no right to demand it. But there it was, out there like some kind of plea. 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.”

“What are you sayin’, Raven?”

“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.” She kept right on, that chin held high. “I touch myself, wishing it was you. It’s you. It’s always you.”

I didn’t know what the fuck I thought I was doing when I shifted onto one knee on the couch and angled her direction. I planted my hands on either side of her. Shocked, Raven rocked back, her back pressed against the arm of the couch as I hovered over her. Tension bound the air. The energy so alive I could hear it sizzle and snap. Tiny lightning strikes that cracked in the room.

Our faces so close but an endless expanse raging between us as I gazed down at her. “I’m not worthy of touching you, Raven. Not even close.” “To me, you’re the only one who is.” God. How was I supposed to refute that? Deny her? But I couldn’t give in. Touching her would be a betrayal. I’d be nothing but a monster, taking advantage of this. This woman who didn’t know me the way she thought she did. “You deserve the whole fuckin’ world, Raven Tayte. To be loved and adored. Touched in every way you want to be. But I’m not that guy.”

“You don’t think I’m capable of making that choice for myself? You think I’m not wise enough to decide who that guy is?” My head barely shook. “Not when it comes to me.”

“Right, I get it, I’m still that dumb, injured little girl who can’t make decisions on her own.”

“Raven—” I attempted before she gave me a harsh shake of her head and shoved her palm out my direction to cut me off. “Don’t, Otto. Don’t make excuses that don’t mean anything. I don’t want to hear them.” She turned on her heel and flew across the living room and up the steps, though she stopped when she got to the top of the landing. “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure I’m gone tomorrow.”

I just laid there on the couch, staring at the ghosts that writhed across the ceiling, unable to fucking sleep. Wide awake and bleeding out. Hours must have passed before I heard it. Her cry from the depths of depravity. There was no mistaking what was happening this time. Her pain was so stark it was the only thing that I could feel. There was nothing I could do. No wall or mountain or fucking cavern high or deep enough to keep me from going to her. And I was there, crawling into the bed and pulling her into my arms, whispering her name over and over, “Raven, Raven, Raven.” She jolted when I first touched her, then her whole body gave when she realized it was me. She whimpered as she clung to me with trembling arms. “Otto. Please. Don’t leave me. Stay with me.” A fucking army couldn’t have ripped me away.

“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.

I should have known this girl would be my complete undoing. Should have known there would be absolutely no going back. Because she whispered, “Otto, I need you to touch me. Please. Don’t turn me away. I need to know what it’s like.”

“Fuck, Raven.” He muttered it in the lapping night. His room was nearly dark except for the vestiges of the moon that cast a murky haze through the windows behind his bed.

“Otto.” He groaned as his palm glided back up, lighting a path of flames as he went. “I don’t want to hurt you, Raven.”

“You won’t. I trust you.” “I’m the last man you should trust.”

“I don’t care. I need this. With you. You’re the only person I’ve ever wanted this way. The only one who’s ever touched me, and I wasn’t afraid.” “But this is different.” His voice was coated in gravel. Was it? Because I swore that I’d felt it all along. “Otto. I’m twenty-five. Twenty-five, and I have never let a man touch me. Really touch me.” It was the most transparent I’d ever been. Opening myself up to him this way.

“I don’t want to take advantage of that,” he argued in that low, gruff voice. My scoff was shaky. “How could it be taking advantage when I’m begging you? When it’s the one thing I’ve wanted? Don’t deny me that when you know you want to give it to me.”

I yelped when he suddenly shifted onto his back. He took me with him, bringing me up so I was straddling him. I gasped when I realized I was seated on his thick, long shaft. My core pulsed with need, and my hands shot out to the hard, rippling planes of his chest for support. “Oh God,” I whimpered as I struggled to make sense of the change in position. “Haven’t even touched you yet, darlin’, and you’re already gasping.”

“It’s not going to take much,” I told him. His brow arched in speculation. “I’ve been dreaming about this for a long, long time,” I admitted on a tremorous breath.

His tongue stroked out to wet his bottom lip. “Exactly what have you been dreamin’ of?” “You. Just you. You and…everything. You are the face of every hero in my books.”

“You been fantasizing about me, Moonflower?” he gruffed.

“You were the first fantasy I ever had, and I never stopped,” I admitted.

“Fuck me, darlin’. Not sure what you think it is you’re doing to me.” “I’ll do anything to you that you want.” A groan infiltrated the air at the same time as a smirk hitched at the edge of his mouth. “You really shouldn’t say things like that to a man like me.” “Maybe it’s time I do, Otto. Maybe it’s time I say exactly what I want. What I need. 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.” His hips jutted upward. I gasped at the sensation. Tingles raced across the surface of my flesh, this feeling swelling from within unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Severity seared through his expression. “You’re sure that this is what you want? You want me to show you?” he rumbled. “Yes. I want it. I want you.” “You know that’s all it can ever be. I can’t keep you, Raven. I’m a fucking bastard for even suggesting it. For even having you like this. Took an oath.” Regret filled the last, and I could sense that he was having second thoughts and getting ready to withdraw.

“Don’t tell me you don’t want it, too.”

“I told you it was time that I spread my wings. I want to spread them with you.” “Just this once, Raven, and no one can fuckin’ know.” Shame splintered across his face.

“I don’t want them to. This is just for me. For us. If you want it.” “If I want it?” His hands slid lower until his fingers were splayed over my butt. I arched into it, needing to feel every touch. “Don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything so badly in my life.” He ground out the confession. “The way you’ve been driving me out of my mind, here under my roof. In my house and under my skin.”

“I just need to know that you won’t regret this, Raven.” Otto reached up and brushed his fingers through my hair, eyes brimming with sincerity. “I need to know that things won’t change between us. Need to know I’ll always be your favorite person the way you’ll

always be mine. Can’t stand the idea of anything coming between us.”

“I would never regret a second spent with you, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to like you even better after you touch me. You’re about to take favorite to new levels.”

But this…this was so much more than I’d dared to imagine. The enormous press of him where he slowly rubbed himself against my center. “Definitely, definitely my favorite person,” I wheezed as I dug my nails into his shoulders. He grinned. Grinned this salacious smile that tumbled through me like a dream.

“We’re gonna see if we can discover a few more favorites for you, darlin’.” Then he softened. “But if you get scared or nervous or uncomfortable, I need you to say it. Will never forgive myself if I take it too far, so I’m going to do my best to take it slow.” “I’m not sure I can handle slow.” I wiggled on his lap. He grunted a gluttonous sound. “Don’t worry. I’m going to make my moonflower come. Right now. Going to watch her blossom in the night. Can’t wait to watch you glow.”

“You good with that?” he asked in that rumbly voice. I ground harder against him. “I need more.” A chuckle rolled through him as he yanked me closer against him. “Eager girl. Don’t rush it. We’ve got all night. I’m going to take care of you.”

“Get up onto your knees.”

“Never have seen anything more gorgeous than this, Raven. Looking up at you. Lit up by the moon. Stealin’ my breath. Fuckin’ with my head.”

“It’s my breath that’s gone. Seeing you like this. Touching this face that has followed me into every dream. Being with the only person who could ever save me from the nightmares. The only one that ever made me feel safe. The one who made me sure I wanted to discover what it is like to be taken. Completely and fully.”

He just barely rubbed me over my cotton shorts, never taking his eyes from mine as he did. I jolted forward on a rasp. “You good?” he asked. “I’m not afraid.”

He shifted and dragged my shorts and panties aside. Cool air rushed across my lips, then heat seared through me when he dragged the tips of his fingers through my folds. “Otto.” “Yeah?” “Yes. Every yes.” He smirked, though it was almost pained as he nudged my legs wider, and his tongue stroked out across his lips as he dragged his fingers through me, back and forth, a fraction deeper with each pass. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Fuckin’ drenched.”

“So fuckin’ tight. Wet and tight and needy. Do you shove that toy deep into this needy pussy when you fuck yourself thinkin’ about me?”

He brushed the pad of his thumb over my clit. The most embarrassing sound crawled up my throat as I clawed at his shoulders. “Oh God, Otto.”

“Listen to you, my name on your tongue. Wait until I have you shouting it.” “I need…” “Know what you need. I’m going to give it to you. That’s what this is all about.” He started sweeping the pad of his thumb over my clit. Back and forth. Back and forth. “Showing you the way you deserve to be touched. The way you deserve to be adored. The treasure you are.” Pure electricity. “I think it’s working,” I told him. A dark chuckle rumbled in him as he dragged his fingers out. I nearly cried until he pressed them back in, harder that time, and he swirled his thumb as he did. “The things I want to do to you, Raven Tayte.” “I want you to. I want you to have me in every way.”

“No, baby. We’re not gonna go there. I’m going to show you that you can be touched. Show you that you don’t have to be afraid. Then you can make ...

I started grinding against his hand. Pleasure building to a breaking point, battering at my insides to get out. Every cell inside me quickened, and I begged, “Harder.” I refused to be shy or subdue what I needed. Not with him. Not when I had this chance. A squeal ripped out of me when I found I was suddenly on my back, laid out on his bed, my legs spread wide as the man hovered over me, eyes wild in the night. “Fuck me, Raven, what are you trying to do to me?” he grunted. Everything. I wanted to do everything he’d done to me to him.

“So fuckin’ beautiful, Raven. So fuckin’ beautiful in every way.” Bucking up, she arched her back. “Please.” I planted one hand on the mattress up high near her head, and I slipped my other back through the crotch of her shorts. Finding her slick, throbbing pussy still dripping for me. I nearly came at the feel of it, my cock so heavy and hard I was afraid I was going to blow. I drove my fingers back in, and Raven nearly levitated from the bed. “Yes, don’t stop. I need…I need…” I could feel every cell in the woman quicken as I began to pump her, driving her higher.

“Look at you. Coming alive. Glowing like I knew you would.”

“You feel that, Raven? Embrace it, don’t fight it.” She whimpered and those nails were clawing up my chest then sinking into my shoulders. “I want you.” “You have me. I’m right here.”