Page 199 of Under an Endless Moon

FIFTY-THREE

OTTO

“Not sure this is a good idea.”

I wasn’t sure if I was talking about actually going forward with my birthday party tonight or the skirt that Raven was currently wearing.

God knew I was going to lose control in front of everyone there with her dressed like that.

Woman looking like the only place she belonged was on the back of my bike.

Wearing this black leather miniskirt that came up high on her waist and a lacy black tank with her bra showing underneath. She had on those same five-inch heels she’d had on the first night I’d had her. When we’d crossed that line there’d been no coming back from. The ones I’d promised that I was going to fuck her in one day.

The long black locks of her hair were done in cascading waves, and they draped down her bare shoulders, caressing all that soft flesh.

She peered back at me through the mirror where she was applying mascara, the makeup she’d already applied covering the bit of her bruising on her left forehead.

But it was her ass perched in the air where she was bent over the counter that sent a cyclone of greed spiraling through me.

The woman was pure mind-bending temptation.

Body a lure and that heart a magnet.

But it was those inky eyes that nailed me to the spot.

So dark and mesmerizing they held me like a trap.

A thunderbolt of lust gripped me by the guts, same way as it always had, though now, everything was different.

“I already told you that I’m going to spend the entire day celebrating you, and I’m not about to stop. Besides, all the Lawsons came from Redemption Hills. We wouldn’t want to disappoint them, would we?”

She pouted a little as she painted her lips with red stain.

“You could have called it off.”

“Not a chance.” She turned and sauntered my way, and she tipped her face up my direction. “It’s your first birthday I’ve gotten to spend with you this way, and we are going to make it memorable.”

“You think it hasn’t already been memorable? You think it’s not already carved on me forever? Spending the whole damned day wrapped around you, taking this tight body again and again?”

Heat flushed her flesh. “I think it started out pretty good, and now we’re going to end it with a bang.” Then she softened. “Everyone wants to celebrate you. Not just me. This family loves you.”

Looping an arm around her waist, I tugged her close, gazing down at my girl who swayed in my arms. “You stick to my side the whole fuckin’ night. Don’t want you out of my sight.”

“You act like I’m going to have a problem with that.” She fiddled with the collar of my shirt, pointed black nails scraping at the bottom of my throat.

A groan rolled in my chest. “Don’t know how I’m supposed to keep my hands to myself tonight…not when I want them all over you.”

I needed to tell River, and I needed to tell him soon. All of it. Both about Raven and the way I’d been hunting the monsters in the night. The lies I’d been telling. The betrayals I’d cast.

He might hate me, but I couldn’t go on keeping it from him. I loved and respected him too much for that.

Guilt tried to wind up into my conscience, but Raven just pressed her chest against mine and sent me a sly grin. “By knowing that thesecond you get me home, you’re going to be having me in any way you want me. By knowing I’m yours, even when the rest of them have no clue. By knowing that’s the way it’s always going to be, no matter what anyone else has to say about it.”

My smile went gentle, and I brushed back a lock of her hair as I gazed down at her. “Endless.”

Her gaze softened and she whispered, “Yeah, Otto. Endless.”

Night covered us in a blanket as we took the winding curves down the mountain. The roar of my motorcycle filled the air, the metal vibrating beneath us and the wind whipping through our hair. Raven’s arms were locked around me, and her heart beat a steady, beautiful rhythm against my back.

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