What Goes Bump In The Night Read online

  "I had that sort of power over your emotions?" Eli sounded amused. I glared up at him and he cleared his throat, and had the grace to look embarrassed. "I never meant to hurt your feelings. The truth was, perhaps the largest truth of it, was that I hard time reconciling what you were, and how deep my emotions ran for you. It was difficult to set aside old prejudice, even more so when every second I spent with you, my body screamed for me to take you."

  "Oh." There didn't seem to be other words I felt would really be appropriate for a response to that. "So you..."

  "I fell hopelessly in love with you from the first minute I saw you, but I did not think that it would ever come to mean anything but an instant, fleeting, infatuation-"

  "That's really Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet of you. Did you think of the circumstances of my birth and the behavior of my family when you decided to hide how you felt?" I teased him. I knew he'd read all the classics, Jane Austen included. He growled, startling me with an intense embrace, grabbing me around the waist.

  "I was more concerned with the behavior of my family. Our entire pack, pawing all over you, fucking you in the back of the damn tour van-"

  "I liked that though," I whispered, "time with Finn, with Ace? I've never felt that beautiful, ever, not in my whole life."

  His grip on me tightened for a moment, and his blue eyes were dark, pupils blown wide as he looked down at me. He lifted a large hand to cup the back of my neck.

  "I want you to feel that way every day of your life," he said, "and if we have failed you, then by all means, tell me, and I will assure you in the strongest possible language and by my actions, that you are the most beautiful, cleverest, sweetest woman I have ever been lucky to know and love."

  Well, shit.

  I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly tight.

  "Sir, Miss-" Our driver was adorably formal as he cleared his throat. "We've approached the park. Shall I take us up to the ridge?"

  "Yes, please," Eli said, never taking his eyes from me. I snuggled closer to him and sighed as the carriage began the slow climb to the top of the hill. The barren trees and thick pines surrounded the road, their limbs and needles glistening with the cold moisture filtering through the air. As the city disappeared behind us, we turned a corner and saw it again, all laid out, lights sprinkled across the landscape as it rushed up to meet the water's edge of Lake Washington. Eli's cheek was close to my temple, and I felt him smile.

  "Here's excellent, thank you," he called out as we crested the ridge. He helped me down off the carriage, taking a large, folded blanket and the picnic basket from our driver. "Return here in an hour and a half," he said before turning to me. The carriage clopped off into the darkness and silence rang around us. "Let's go sit. Are you hungry?"

  "Something like that," I said as he turned from me, and I got to fully admire how good his ass looked in his pants. He looked great in jeans when he was on stage or at signings with fans, but there was something special about him in dress pants too. I trailed after him onto the grass, sinking down onto the blanket after he spread it out. He pulled a second blanket out from the basket, swathing it around us so I wouldn't be cold. He was rarely cold, something due to that good ol' werewolf constitution, but I appreciated how much the guys took into account my very human susceptibility to temperature change.

  "Hungry?" he asked as he looked into the basket.

  "Mmm," I said, noncommittal. He glanced at me and I blushed.

  "I see," he replied, before pulling me in for a kiss. "That sort of hunger."

  "Well it's your fault, getting all handsy in the carriage," I managed after he broke our kiss. A smirk played on his lips. He tipped me backward onto the blanket and I sprawled out, shivering as I felt his fingers slip under my dress.

  "I think," I gasped, "you only took me on this trip to get your hands up my skirt." I could see the stars high above us, sprinkled on the sky, and if Eli hadn't been so determined in working his fingers along my skin, the warm stroke of his thumb on my inner thigh, I might have looked for the constellations.

  As it was I couldn't really think about anything other than his hand, his palm rough at the edge of my stockings.

  "I think you wore these to drive me crazy, and I am damned grateful I planned a private chapter to our little excursion so I could teach you a lesson about dressing to distract," there was a curl of darkness in his voice, one that made my breath hitch in my lungs and made me want to spread my legs further apart for him. I resisted. If he wanted me, he'd have to work for it. Making Eli work for it was always worth it in the end. A riled up, turned on werewolf with had a dominant streak a mile wide was a fun time in almost every situation.

  Even if that situation meant I'd end up with my ass pink and aching with a gentle soreness that would follow me for a dew days after.

  "You'd ruin my reputation if this were back in your day," I said, rubbing my thighs together around his hand. His eyes closed tight and he sighed before his other hand slipped under my skirt, prying my legs apart. I fought him for a moment, muscles trembling, but the sheer strength in him had him barely flexing and me giving up in mere seconds.

  "No such thing as a bad reputation, when it's your mates," he said and then he chuckled. "Although I can't say that you won't get a pearl necklace out of the deal."

  "Eli!" I was scandalized. He never talked dirty like that. That was Cash's and Charlie's bad habit. Eli's eyes found mine, glowing with the light of our small candle lantern. He looked the epitome of a #sorrynotsorry hashtag.

  "I watch you when they whisper in your ear," he said, his thumbs sweeping over my skin, teasing along the garter straps of my stockings. My heart drummed hard in my ears. He hadn't realized yet-

  His eyes widened minutely, at the same second his fingers brushed over the joint of my thigh and torso. His lips quirked.

  "Miss Llewellyn," my name was a low, rough purr at the back of his throat. "You seem to be missing a crucial part of your attire."

  "Not that crucial," I tried for a cocky smile, but it faded when his fingers slid over the soft skin of my pussy.

  Eli's amused expression only grew as he stroked there again, more insistent this time.

  "You are a temptation, Miss Llewellyn, a distraction, and a tease all at once." His words swirled a heat in me that spread to all of my limbs and I lay back on the blanket, drunk with the power I had over him. He looked enthralled, his fingers slowly exploring me until I squirmed.

  "That tickles," I lied, breathless already. He rolled his eyes and slipped my skirt up my body, letting it crumple on my belly. The cold night air made me shiver.

  "It does not," he said, and then swatted the inside of my thigh with the flat of his hand. His focus had narrowed to my face. The intense scrutiny I was under only made me feel hotter, and with each slow drag of his fingers up and down my slit, I lifted my hips to meet his touch. "You really need to learn to stop telling those little lies, Darcy." He said, his eyes dark with purpose. "Another lesson? Is that what you want?"

  "Yes," I whispered, so breathless because every time Eli got likethis I couldn't help but be desperate for him. It wasn't that I liked to be controlled, far from that, but the way that Eli would tell me what to do? The way he made me do what he wanted me to do?

  "Up across my lap," he said, and a feeling of mixed dread and lust speared right through me. I flipped onto my belly, draping myself across his legs. He sighed and lifted my skirt again, fingers plucking at the straps of my garter belt, snapping one of the elastics against the curve of my ass. I yelped, just in time as a firework soared through the air, bursting into sparks and flares high above the park.

  Big mood, firework, big mood . I let my eyes close. The fireworks
were starting, in the sky, and down here on the grass.

  "What did I tell you about dishonesty?" Eli's voice was calm and steady, a total contrast to the heap of nerves that were rolling around in my belly. It was a good thing he'd chosen this spot in the grass, surrounded by brush on almost all sides, and a steep incline on the far side. There was no one near us. It was a deliberate choice on his part, because Eli did nothing if not deliberately.

  "Lies weaken the pack," I whispered. His fingers gave me a light tap on the ass.

  "And?"

  "And a weak pack is a target for stronger packs, or hunters," I said the words, memorized from how many times I'd heard him say the same thing to Ace and Charlie, the youngest pack members, and Frank, who as barely an adolescent werewolf wasn't a really part of our immediate mated pack, but still was a part of the larger Phoenix pack of wolves.

  Crack!

  His hand came down on my ass, striking me so hard that I gasped and my hips jerked down, away from the hit. Pain blossomed on my skin and I inhaled hard, the night air rushing down into my lungs.

  "It's amusing you seem to remember these things so much better when my hands are on you." His fingers spread over where he'd struck me, soothing my skin.

  "Maybe you should just spend all your time with your hands on me then," I shot back. He chuckled.

  "If only." His hand vanished and then came swatting down again, on my thigh this time, making me jump and shudder. Again his hand hit my skin, until the strokes blended into one another, my ass warming up. The pain was edged with something more, something intense and heated that demanded all my attention. "You bend so beautifully for me." His words made me moan, especially a second later when he sank two fingers between my thighs and stroked over my entrance with them.

  "Please," I couldn't help but ask for it, arching my hips. In the distance, another firework exploded in the night sky, counting down the minutes until the show began. My breathing was heavy, and I had to rest my cheek on the blanket.

  "Anything you ask for, always, Darcy." His fingers that had been threatening me with awesome good-times-feelings finally slipped inside and I shivered through the first stretch. My hands were braced on the soft blanket, and I used them for leverage to push back against his perfect intrusion. "Do you know how good it feels to watch you come apart for me?" he asked, conversationally as he dragged his fingers back out of me only to slip them in again, like he wasn't totally ruining me. Jerk.

  "Since you seem to do it every time you catch me alone," I gasped each word out and then moaned when his thumb teased over my clit, sending sparks of pleasure into my clenching muscles. It was so good that it almost hurt, especially after the solid swatting he'd given my backside.

  "I have been rather selfish. Maybe I should be doing this to you in front of the pack. Let them see how a wolf should properly discipline and manage his mate."

  My cheeks were hot with that mental image, at the idea of him taking me like this in front of the guys.

  "I don't think they'd be able to resist you," he continued, "I'd have to fight them off, or not, depending on how rebellious you'd been. You do like to have things your way, don't you Darcy?" He was twisting his wrist, making my thighs shake with each move of his fingers inside of me. It was too much, so much-

  I cried out, back arching and he held me down, his arm braced across my spine as he slid a third finger inside of me without warning. That last bit of stimulation shoved me over the edge and I closed my eyes tight, trying to cling to the thin, fragile threads of my orgasm as it spiraled out of control.

  Shivering in the cold, my skin chilly where it was exposed, I lay there across his lap without any desire to move as I came down. His fingers slid from me, and I whined when he rolled me onto my back. I shut up when I saw his face. His eyes were wild, and I was just fast enough to pull my skirt up and spread my thighs before he came down on me, his hand pulling his cock out of his pants.

  "God yes." My hips rose to meet him as his thighs brushed the inside of mine, his cock slipping between my folds and then inside of me. It was almost too much, I was still coming down from an amazing orgasm.

  Eli growled, low in his throat, his fingers wrapping around my shoulders as he held me down, thrusting fast and hard inside me. Fireworks, three of them, lit up the sky, flashing across his face, and I cried out. I wasn't ready to come again so soon, but the feel of him inside me, and the expression on his face was enough to start waking my nerves up again.

  "You will come for me," he demanded, one hand moving from my shoulders to down between where we were joined. He hitched my leg against his hip and I cried out, the new angle doing it for me with each thrust.

  "Already... did..."

  His eyes flashed at my response, and he kissed me, his lips rough, bruising, on mine. Two of his fingers bracketed my clit and I squirmed, way too sensitive for it but desperate for it at the same time. Each lift of his hips into mine had me crying out into his mouth, until everything felt so good, the swells of pleasure inside me melting into one another. He pulled away just an inch, enough to smirk at me, because he knew I was right on the edge without me even having to tell him.

  His eyes ran down my body to where he kept up a punishing pace between my thighs, and he growled, bending, his lips dragging along my neck.

  I felt his teeth, and I was gone, the feeling of needing it so much expanding to fill every inch of my skin. I shivered, a low moan rolling up my throat. His hips moved a few more times, drawing out how good it felt past the point of amazing and into much too sensitive. I whimpered and his hips stuttered, the wet pulse of him coming inside me making me squirm. His breathing was hard on my neck as he licked at the soft bite mark he'd left on me, an echo of when he'd bonded me to him.

  A crackle split the night air, and fireworks lit up the sky as the show started. I gasped out a breathless laugh as Eli pulled away from me, straightening my skirt like he hadn't just debauched me on a picnic blanket.

  "Are you hungry?" he asked as I shifted and sat up, still feeling my thundering pulse in every inch of my body.

  "A little bit," I said, because most of what I'd wanted that night, well, he's already satisfied that hunger. Eli tugged me into his side, his arms coming around me.

  "I love you, Darcy Llewellyn," he said, and I let myself melt against him as the fireworks lit up the night sky, just like he lit up my heart.

  Want to read the story of Darcy and her rockstar-werewolves that make up the band Phoenixcry right from the beginning? Catch up on Books 1-4 out on Amazon, and read for free in KU now: http://amazon.com/author/ktstrange

  Stay in touch with KT on her Facebook group, KT's Beauties: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KTsBeauties

  The Hunter's Moon

  Elle Cross

  Copyright © 2018 by Elle Cross

  Cover by: Eerily Fair Design

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A Hunter's Moon

  Corbin Troy is the newly-appointed lieutenant in New York’s Major Case Squad—an elite unit specializing in incidents involving the Remnant Gods—and she just caught her bloodiest case yet.

  New York City—home to the mysterious, formid
able Remnant Gods—welcomes strange and magical beings that don’t always play well with humans…or their laws. The promise of power can be a corrupting force, blurring the lines between good and evil. But for police Lieutenant Corbin Troy, the lines are clear and orderly, with one that stands out in stark relief: The good guys always win.

  With a confidence borne from years of experience and near-prophetic hunches, Corbin dives straight into her latest case: a grisly double murder that leaves her with more questions than clues. Even when all her senses tell her that she’s walking into certain danger, she refuses to back down. After all, the bad guys always lose.

  Except this time, the bad guy she’s chasing is targeting her and he has the advantage: he knows who she is and has marked her for death. At least, that’s what everyone else seems to think. Corbin, though, isn’t so sure.

  As the Hunter’s Moon rises, and the veils between worlds thin, Corbin follows her gut headlong toward a showdown that will shake the foundations of her beliefs.

  Chapter 1

  The scent of blood was thick in the air as soon as the elevator doors opened. The metallic tang hit my nose just right and made my eyes blur. I hated that.

  Hated being called out to a murder more.

  I blinked the water from my eyes and strode in. Wouldn't do to show how affected I was by the smell.

  I slid my gaze over the frightened hotel staff. The night-duty manager soothed the room service attendants as I stepped up to the responding officer and took him in with a blink. He was tired, not used to working the night beat with his daytime eyes. Probably wasn't expecting to see anything this side of town, I could tell. I wouldn't have expected it either.