Under an Endless Moon (Moonlit Ridge, #2)

by A.L. Jackson

will never be ashamed or regret loving you.” She said it simply. Like nothing could touch us. Nah, I had no regrets, but there was plenty of shame. “No, Moonflower, there never could be any regretting you,” I murmured, swaying her soft.

“You really are a little temptress, aren’t you?” I said, barely able to get the words out around the knot of lust that thickened my throat. “A tease. Driving me wild.” “You deserve it. Every time I ever looked at you it felt like a tease.” “You can rest assured the feeling was mutual.” I took a step toward her, peeling myself out of my underwear as I went. I pushed them down my legs and shucked them off my feet. A throaty moan rolled out of her. A thrashing as every molecule in the atmosphere intensified. A dense, sumptuous heat billowing through the space. And that moan was turning to a gasp when I slowly knelt on my knees in front of her, peering up at her as I took her by the outside of the thighs and spread her legs enough to make myself room. She jolted forward and her hands dove into my hair when I dipped in and licked through her seam. “Otto.” Pulling back, I rumbled, “Love this sweet cunt.” My fingers took the place of my tongue, and I shoved them deep into her pussy. She arched and rasped and clawed at me. Already two seconds from coming apart.

“Turn around, Moonflower.” Her rotation was slow, the woman peeking at me from over her shoulder as she went. I hissed. I hadn’t gotten a real good look at her ass until then. Pert and firm and full. I reached out and let my fingers travel the delicate slope of her spine, riding down to the small of her back before I edged forward and took her by both cheeks, spreading her and pressing my dick to the crease. Chills raced her flesh, and she shivered as she whimpered, “Yes.”

“You like it dirty, don’t you?” The question was pure greed. Raven trembled. “Yes.” I took her by the arms and turned her to the side, and I bent her over the island counter. That gorgeous ass jutted out. I let my palms smooth down her sides until they were cinching around her waist, and I was groaning as I leaned down and peppered kisses along the small of her back.

My lips traveled south, and I was kneeling again, taking her ass in both palms and spreading her. I circled my tongue around her puckered hole. Surprise rocked out of her, sending her forward before she pushed back with a strangled plea flying from her lips. “You like that?” It left me on a growl, and she frantically nodded her head, hair swishing around her where she was bent over the counter. I dipped in, lapping at her ass as I fucked my fingers into her pussy. Her walls clutched around them. Throbbing. The girl an instant toil of need. I pulled them out and rubbed my hand between her thighs from behind, hitting her clit each time as I slowly rose to standing. Rising high behind her where she writhed and whimpered with her chest pressed against the countertop. “Gonna fuck you so good, Raven. So hard and deep you will always remember me.” No matter what happened. “As if I could ever forget you. As if I’d ever want to.” I lined the head of my cock up at her swollen lips. “Hold on. This one is gonna be rough.” I surged forward, taking her in one hard thrust. She cried out, and I grunted, my hands going to her hips as I seated myself deep.

“That’s right, Moonflower. You’re never going to forget me.” I pulled out to the tip, my dick coated in her arousal, then drove back in.

“Heaven. Your pussy is heaven. Every fucking thing I could never deserve. An angel I’m going to dirty.”

“Do you like that, Little Moonflower? Does it make you want to glow?” I muttered through the fever that had taken me hostage. Raven went wild, gasping and begging. “Yes.” “Wait until it’s my cock filling this tight hole.”

I hauled her up, turning her in my arms at the same second as I was spinning around and pressing her to the door of the refrigerator.

Surprise left her on a gush, then she moaned when I shoved my dick back into the warm, wet well of her perfect body. She arched, nails scratching at my back as I took her whole. “Need to see your face when I come in this sweet pussy. Need to see that you’re mine.” I rocked into her in hard, possessive thrusts, taking her and taking her, driving myself to that plane that I’d never dared to believe could exist. A plane that was meant only for Raven and me. A place only our own. Paradise. Raven started moaning again, pleasure rebounding. “Come for me again, Little Moonflower.” I snapped my hips in erratic, powerful juts, plunging into her and driving her up the side of the refrigerator before she would drop down and I slammed back into her again. Her fingers yanked at my hair as she arched forward. “Do you feel it? What you do to me?” I demanded. “Show me what I do to you.” She split at that, shooting high as she cried my name. She took me with her. An explosion of ecstasy breaking free of its chains and lighting through the middle of me. A supernova so bright that I was blinded. Nothing else to be found but this woman who was coming apart in my hands. The pleasure that ripped and tore and screamed. I pulsed as I poured into her, my cum so deep in her cunt she was never going to be rid of me.

Once she caught her breath, she grinned. There was no containing the euphoria that split on her face. “So that’s what it’s like to be fucked.” My chuckle was gruff, and I let my hands wander her thighs that still shook where they were wrapped around my waist. “Is that what you wanted? To be fucked?” Her fingers were gentle when they reached out and danced along the edge of my jaw. “I told you I wanted every experience with you.” My cock jumped where I was still seated inside her. “Going to show you every pleasure you ever imagined.” She wiggled, bouncing on my half flaccid dick. “I can’t wait.” I growled at her, the sound mixed with a low laugh as I pulled her from the fridge, never releasing her as I started to carry her back toward my room. “You are askin’ for trouble, aren’t you?” Her arms curled tighter around my neck, and her lips moved to my ear. “I want all the trouble with you, Otto Hudson. In every way you’ll give it to me.” “In every way, huh?” “That’s right, and I don’t ever want you to stop.” We didn’t make it to the stairs before I had her on the floor and was fucking into her tight heat all over again, just as I was murmuring, “You have everything, Raven. You own every part of me.”

“How could you think I would ever want to distance myself from you? From my brother? From the rest?” She made it sound like it’d be a betrayal. My thumb stroked her cheek. “Because then you’d be safe.” “I don’t want to be safe if it means being separated from the ones I love. From my family.”

“You’ve always said you’d be willing to fight for me. Die for me. For all of us.” Raven’s words filled with urgency. “Of course.” That went without question.

“Do you know so little about me that you would think I wouldn’t sacrifice the same?” A swell of protectiveness tumbled through my guts, and my hand twitched where I set it on her face. “I’m not worth that kind of sacrifice.”

“I’ve always been willing to fight for you.” “But that’s supposed to be my job.” “No, that is supposed to go both ways. Caring and loving and protecting. It can’t be one-sided, or it will never work,” she argued.

“Do you want that, Otto? A family?” she finally asked through the thick air.

“Tried to be that for Haddie and it didn’t turn out so great.”

Raven barely shook her head on my chest, her words so quiet I could hardly hear them. “She was amazing, Otto. The kindest, most

genuine best friend I could have asked for. And so much of that was because of you.” Grief cut through me. A dull, bitter blade. “She’s gone because of me.” “She got caught up. Made mistakes like we all do. That doesn’t make someone a bad person. The only bad people are the ones who stole her from us.” A tremor rolled through her, dark and ugly, palpable in our connection.

“Did it so wrong.” It scraped out of me. Her fingers drifted over my pecs. “They’re the ones who incited it all. They’re the monsters.”

“You were fighting for us all along,” she added.

“Is that what you did tonight? Fought for me? Drawing that line in the sand?”

She settled her head back on my chest, the words wisps. “I was fighting for us. Fighting for what I deserved. For what you deserved.” “Can’t say I’m mad that you did.” “Oh, you’d better not be mad. If you were, you’re not going to get any more of this.” She squirmed against me, her skin slick with water. I choked over a groan that became a laugh, and I hugged her against me. “That so? Now which of us would be paying the price?” Could feel the heat race across her flesh. “Okay, fine, you’re going to get all of this. All the time. Whenever you want it. I’ll just have to find a different way to punish you.” “Oh yeah?” “Definitely.” A tease scampered all over her stunning face. “Does it make me a masochist that I really want to find out what that means?” I needled, wanting to know how far she might take it. “Time out? A spankin’?”

She giggled, and God, I loved the sound of it. Fingertips swept along my jaw as those dark eyes danced. “I think you might like that too much, Otto Hudson.” “You can rest assured I like it any time that you’re touchin’ me.” “Like this?” she asked. She slid her hand down my stomach until she was gripping my cock. A thunderbolt of pleasure struck me. “Fuck, Raven,” I groaned, caught off gu...

“That’s a really good start,” I told her, words going jagged as she began to stroke me.

Raven shifted, and she tossed a leg over me to straddle me at the waist.

My hands flew to her waist. “What do you think you’re doing, darlin’?” There was no timidity in her when she raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “Taking this fantasy. Seducing you.” My chuckle was a scrape of greed, and I sat up and took a fistful of her hair, words shifting to a deep, guttural awe. “You can go ahead and tick that box, Little Moonflower. Call me seduced. Never gonna break the spell you have me under.” Then I stood with her in my arms, stepping out of the bathtub, both of us dripping wet, and I carried her to my bed.

“Way the sight of you knocks me sideways. Way I can’t think about anything else when you’re standing there like that. Wearing one of these sexy as fuck dresses that you know damned well drive me out of my mind. Can’t fuckin’ get enough.” Otto dragged his lips down the side of my neck, peppering kisses along the sensitive flesh as he went.

“You need to stop right there before you get carried away or else you’re going to make me late.” “Thought you said I could have this delicious body any time I wanted it?” His words were nothing but bait. Those butterflies spun. “Well, it’s also said good things come to those who wait.” He grunted, and I could feel the force of his grin against the side of my neck. “So, you’re saying you want me to spend the day conjuring up all the dirty things I’m going to do to you once I get you home?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying to you.” I shifted so it was me who was whispering in his ear. “I want you to dream about me all day while you watch me work. I want you to be thinking the whole time about the way I’m going to be wet for you, needy for you to get back inside me.”

His chuckle rumbled with a delicious threat. “You are in so much trouble, Little Moonflower.” “That’s what I like to hear, Burly Bear.” Otto let go of a low, ardent laugh, and he edged back, thumb tracing the contour of my cheek. “What am I going to do with you?” “The question should be, ‘What aren’t you going to do to me?’” He shook his head as he stepped back. The most arrogant smirk had taken to his expression. “Come on, let’s get you downtown before I tie you to my bed so we can start answering that question.”

“Well, now you’re really not helping things.” I shooed him farther away because I needed the man out of my vicinity before I begged him to make good on the idea. “But I can’t be late…Jimmy is going to be at the store in fifteen minutes. He’s delivering a bunch of irises for a wedding that’s at the lake tomorrow. I have a ton to do to get ready for it. It’s going to be gorgeous.”

I had slung the strap of my purse over my shoulder and had started for the door when a hot hand landed on my wrist and spun me around. Otto stood there, all the teasing gone, an intensity so profound in his features it rocked the ground beneath my feet. A clash of conflict and hope and despair. “That what you want, Raven? You want one of those weddings?” I looked up at him. Unafraid. “I won’t lie and say that hasn’t been one of my fantasies.” Then I unwound myself from his hold and sauntered across the room toward the door that led downstairs, and I glanced at him from over my shoulder as I pulled it open. “Besides, can you imagine what I’d look like in that dress?”

“What do you think you’re doin’?” My own grin took to my mouth, and I tried to play coy. “What does it look like I’m doing? Wishing you happy birthday, obviously.” His hands smoothed back down my bottom as I slowly rocked over him. “Best fuckin’ birthday I’ve ever had. Waking up with you like this. A goddess hovering over me with the sun shining all over her stunning face.”

“And you’re supposed to be resting.” My head barely shook. “I’m fine. I don’t even have a headache.” “Raven,” he started to argue, and I closed the distance between our mouths, breathing the words through the brush of my lips. “I intend on celebrating you all day, Otto Hudson. Again and again. In every way that brings you pleasure.” “Raven.” That time my name was a needy moan, and a ripple of satisfaction went blazing when I realized he was giving in.

“Are you sure you’re not hurting?” “Oh, I’m hurting, Otto. Aching because I’m empty, and only you can fill me up.” I went for flirty. A tease. Hoping he would take the bait because I truly was hurting.

“Yeah, you have that seduction part down pat, don’t you, Little Moonflower? You know I can’t deny you.” “Why would you want to?”

“I can’t, Raven. Can’t resist you any longer.”

“That’s because this is exactly where you’re supposed to be. Here, like this. With me. No longer denying what we were meant to be.” “Is this what you were meant to be, Little Moonflower? Mine?” “Yes. Just like you were meant to be mine.” “Then it sounds like this is definitely going to be the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

“I think I know how to make it even better,” I murmured as I edged back so I could pull him from his briefs. Otto groaned as I fisted him, stroking him slow and hard as I watched the pleasure rattle through his features. “Oh, yeah. This birthday is definitely gettin’ better and better. Only one thing might make it extraordinary,” he rumbled. “What’s that?” “Unwrapping you.”

“You sure are wasting no time. And here I was worried you might be one of those guys who carefully unwraps a present so the paper can be reused.” Okay, I totally knew he wasn’t. I’d watched this man tear into every gift I’d ever given him, far too eager to find what was hidden inside. “Nah, darlin’. The real treasure is what’s underneath.”

“And look at that. Best gift I’ve ever been given. One I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life,” he said, gaze devouring me as he hovered high on his knees I spread mine in invitation. “All yours, birthday boy.” Otto chuckled a dark sound. “That’s right, baby. All mine.” He was out of his underwear and picking me up and spinning me around in the flash of a second. He pressed my front to the headboard at the same second as he thrust into me from behind. Bliss raked up my throat on a surprised shout, then I whimpered his name when he withdrew and then drove right back in. “Otto.” “Fuck, you feel so good,” he growled as he wound a fist up in my hair. He pulled my head to the side and laved kisses along the sensitive flesh of my neck. “So goddamn good. Nothing in my life, Raven Tayte. Nothing in my life has ever felt as good as this. Nothin’ in this world as good as you. Not one thing.” I held onto the headboard as he filled me to the brim. He kept himself plastered against my back, his arms wrapped so tight around me I knew there was no chance he’d ever let me go. His movements were deep and hard as he began to move.

He took my hands and pressed them to the window, his fingers threaded through mine as he kissed along my jaw as he rolled into me. “Nothing, Raven. Nothing as good as this. You are the piece I’ve been missing.”

“Otto…please. Yes…I’m…” “I can feel it, Raven. Your sweet cunt gripping me tight. Can sense it. The way every inch of you glows. My moonflower. Most gorgeous fuckin’ bloom…shining in the darkness and leading me to the light.” I came apart at that. The bliss breaking me in two. A torrential downpour that gushed through me in a flashflood of rapture.

“Happy birthday,” I finally whispered, no tease to my voice. Otto reached out and ran his knuckle down the side of my face. “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. A soft puff of air escaped his nose, and he kept tracing his fingers over the contours of my face. “Have spent the last seven years wanting that, Raven. Wanting to belong to you. Wanting to be the lucky bastard who got to sleep next to you and wake up with you in his arms. The lucky bastard who got to love you and cherish you and give you everything in this world that you’ve ever wanted.” “And the one thing I wanted was you.”

“Guess we spent a whole lot of time wishing for the same thing. And now, I’m gonna watch my moonflower glow beneath every moon and shine beneath every sun. Can’t wait to spend my life getting to watch you stretch those wings and soar.”

“Just don’t ever want to be the one to hold you back.” I raked my nails through the shadow that covered his jaw. “And what ever made you think you would do that?”

“Because of Sovereign Sanctum?”

“Yeah. Because I always envisioned a better life for you. One above what we do.” He hesitated, then muttered, “Because of your brother, of course. But none of those things really had true bearing on my fear of giving into my love for you.” “And what kept it from me?” I kept scratching my fingers over his jaw, letting them glide over his lips, my heart pinned to his as I waited for him to completely open up. Shame wrenched through his expression. “This hatred inside me, Raven.”

“You’ve always blamed yourself,” I murmured. Otto flinched. “Of course, I’ve always blamed myself. It was my fault.”