Who wouldn’t want to be a shifter?
I mean, seriously, the ability to
change your body into a completely animal? Coolest ability ever, right?
Wolves are the most common shifters
in paranormal romance and there’s a good reason for that. They’re sleek, stealthy
and smart. The perfect predators. And they make the perfect alpha heroes (and
heroines).
In the Lucani Lovers
series, my wolves were given the ability to shift centuries ago by the Etruscan
Moon Goddess. In ancient Rome, they were the special ops forces of the Roman
Legion.
In today’s world, they’ve adapted.
They’ve gotten good at hiding in plain sight.
But what happens when the outside world
begins to encroach and trouble arrives at their door?
Then these wolves get deadly.
The Lucani Lovers
series is part of my Etruscan Magic world, which also includes the Darkly
Enchanted, Magical Seduction and Forgotten Goddesses series. They’re all based
on the premise that there’s still magic in our world. Fairies, elves, satyrs,
shifters and witches.
Each of the books have a unique
twist on what you think you know about these myths and tales. And all have a steamy
romance at their core.
There are six stories in the Lucani Lovers
series: Kiss of Moonlight, Moonlight Ménage, Edge of Moonlight, Moonlight
Temptation, Grace in Moonlight and Shades of Moonlight.
Each has a stand-alone love story
with one or two hot heroes.
These stories were previously released
but I’ve re-edited and revised and, in the case of Kiss of Moonlight and
Moonlight Ménage, have rewritten the endings and expanded the story.
I can’t wait for readers to
discover (or rediscover) my wolves. I’ve loved revisiting and reacquainting
myself with them.
And I’m anxious to get back to my
Etruscan Magic world with new stories. But more on that later…
Kiss of Moonlight, Second Chapter
Excerpt
Even though twilight had fallen,
she could still see him plainly in the light of the full moon. Moonlight suited
him. It softened his hard edges. She wanted to run her hands along that
shadowed jaw and across that broad chest, sink her fingers into his hair.
Still standing by his chair on
the other side of the table, he walked around to her, holding out his hand.
Without thought, she reached for
him, watching his lips curl into a devastating smile as he drew her to her
feet. Only inches separated them, inches she wanted to close.
They stood like that for what had
to be a full minute, staring into each other’s eyes like they were starring in
a Lifetime TV movie.
It should’ve embarrassed her. Or
at the very least, made her self-conscious. At worst, she should be running in
fear in the opposite direction.
It emboldened her to know she
wasn’t scared at all.
Instead, she leaned a little
closer, drawn by the warmth of his eyes, the heat of his body.
Kiss
me, kiss me, kiss me
kept chanting through her brain.
As if he’d heard her thoughts,
his smile faded and desire turned to sharp, biting hunger in her gut.
Then he blinked and began to pull
back, shaking his head. “Tam…”
No, no, no.
Fevered compulsion made her curve
her hand around the back of his neck as she rose on her tiptoes. She shouldn’t
have been able to reach his mouth, the top of her head barely reached his
shoulder. But he met her halfway, his short groan cut off when their lips met.
He pressed hard, his lips firm and hot on hers, his arms wrapping around her
back and plastering her to his body.
She moaned, wanting more, but he
immediately eased his hold, ratcheted back some of the passion she sensed in
his kiss and let her take the lead. Let her press against him. As if he was
afraid of scaring her.
But that wasn’t what she wanted.
She wanted him to kiss her. Really kiss her until she lost herself in
him. Buried old, horrible memories under an avalanche of lust.
So she forced him closer, wrapped
her arms around his shoulders and kissed him harder.
Letting her tongue lick at the
seam of his lips, she teased until he opened his mouth. She would’ve thrust
inside but he beat her to it, finally starting to loosen his hold on his
leashed desire.
His hands flattened on her back,
each finger a hot brand through her thin t-shirt. The tips pressed into her
back for several seconds before easing up to rest there lightly.
Don’t
stop. More.
Her hands gripped him tighter and
he must have taken the hint because his mouth began to demand, moving over hers
with more purpose. When his tongue slid between her lips and tangled with hers,
heat flowed like warm honey through her veins.
She let herself fall into that
heat, let herself sink into him.
Her hands smoothed along his
shoulders, so broad, so strong. Those muscles flexed and shifted as his hands
slid from her back to her hips and he lifted her off her feet. He held her
there, feet dangling, the strain on her neck easing. But the ache between her legs
became a grinding need. Her hips pressed forward and the hard ridge behind his
zipper nestled into the notch between her thighs.
Oh God, she wanted more. Wanted
to rub herself against that stiff erection and come.
As if he’d read her mind, he
kissed her harder, his mouth moving over hers with deepening passion.
Everything but Kyle receded. She
only smelled him, saw him, felt him. All the baggage she carried, all the angst
fell away and for the first time in what felt like years, maybe ever, she knew what
it was like to lose herself in another person.
Kyle’s scent, his touch, the feel
of his lips moving against hers made her remember what she’d been missing by
cutting herself off from the world. By denying herself the touch of another
person.
It only took one kiss from this
man to bring it all back and she put all her pent-up longing, all her relief,
all of her into the kiss.
And Kyle took it. He kissed her
with heat and passion, making no concessions. And it freed her.
Burning hot desire, so different from
anything she’d ever felt, made her clutch at him, open her mouth wider to give
him more access. Made her want more.
Kyle groaned, the sound close to
a growl as his mouth slanted even further over hers.
He was so strong, he only needed
one arm to hold her against him. He used his other hand to sweep down, over her
ass to her thigh, urging her to bend and lift her leg so he could curve it
around his waist. Her other leg followed until she clung to him, wrapped around
him, their bodies so close, she felt every movement of his lungs and the play
of muscles in his chest as his hands pressed her even closer.
She tightened her legs around
him, arching into him—
And he broke the kiss, so
abruptly she gasped and her eyes flew open to stare into his, the burnished
gold darkened with passion. He stared at her for endless seconds, before he put
one hand on her nape and guided her head onto his shoulder.
“Whoa, sweetheart. Just…give me a
minute.” He released a long breath. “Holy shit.”
With lust still burning in her veins
like lava, she had to agree.
Holy
shit.
The hand at her nape began a
slow, gentle massage, easing her down while his heart continued to race against
hers. She could tell just how much he’d been into that kiss.
So why had he pulled away?
You threw yourself at him. What
man wouldn’t be turned on by that?
True.
But he’d seemed to want her. Had
she misread him? Had he only been responding to her desire and not his own? Did
he think she’d acted like a slut?
Her heart began to pound, anxiety
spreading like ice water through her body.
“Tam. Are you okay?”
Shit. No, she wasn’t okay. She was an
idiot. A fucked-up mess.
She had to get out of here.
Unwrapping her legs from his
waist, she let them hang, silently asking him to put her down.
Obviously, the man didn’t take
hints because he swung her into his arms like she weighed nothing at all and
walked into the house.
With her face buried in his neck,
she couldn’t ever remember a man carrying her like this.
She liked it. More than she
should.
In the kitchen, he set her on the
breakfast bar, planted one hand next to her hip and put the other under her
chin to lift her head so he could look into her eyes.
His gaze held no censure, only
concern. “Are you all right?”
No, she didn’t think she was.
Emotions she hadn’t had to deal with for months rioted through her body.
She wanted him, which was both
exhilarating and confusing. She wanted to lose herself in him, but now he
stared at her like he was worried about her mental state. And she really didn’t
want him to worry about that.
“Are you sorry you kissed me?”
she asked.
His eyebrows downshifted hard.
“Hell, no. I’m just…” He straightened and scraped a hand through his hair.
“Damn it, I don’t want to scare you.”
He said that as if he knew she
had reason to be scared. But he couldn’t know. “Do I look scared?”
He continued to stare into her
eyes and she began to worry that he could see all her secrets, all the
darkness, all the chaos she tried to keep locked inside. All of which receded
when he kissed her.
God, when he kissed her…
He sighed, his mouth flattening
into a tight line. “No. You don’t. Still, I’m sorry. That was—”
“Yeah, sorry is so not
what I want to hear right now.”
Kiss of Moonlight
Moonlight Ménage
Edge of Moonlight
Moonlight Temptation
Grace in Moonlight
Shades of Moonlight
Stephanie Julian is the New York Times and USA
Today best-selling author of sophisticated, sultry romance. She writes many
different series, including Salon Games, Indecent and Lucani Lovers.
She loves hard rock and Broadway, runs very slowly, married
a Springsteen fanatic and is the mother of two hairy beasts she calls sons.
No comments:
Post a Comment