Second Chance Desire (Hot Moon Rising #8) Read online

  “You should be with your mate.” He didn’t want Kirk here. All he wanted was to be alone to his thoughts. The lights flickered on within the garage. “As you can see, I am not alone.”

  “Is your mate here? No way I’m leaving now.”

  “Fuckin’ A. I don’t need a babysitter.” Knox stormed around the building to the back door.

  Backlit in the doorway, Emerson rocked from foot to foot while wringing her hands. “Go back to bed, Emmy.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said on a rush.

  “I’m sure you are.” He pushed past her, doing his damned best not to make contact. Why in the hell did he feel the need to comfort her now?

  “Do you want me to leave?”

  “Where would you go?” It was on the tip of his tongue to remind her that, according to her, he had burned her childhood home. No matter that it had been hell on her and she hated the place. “If you were going to impose on Jesse, you should have done it hours ago. Now they are long asleep.”

  “I needed to see you first. I don’t think you did it.”

  “You have a funny way of showing it.” Kirk came into the garage, biting into a sandwich. He handed over a red, soft-sided cooler. “Shelley thought you might be hungry whenever you got sprung.”

  “You didn’t spring me.” The aromas of fresh-baked bread and smoked turkey assailed his nostrils. and his stomach made it clear he had gone long enough without eating. Digging into the bag, he groaned as he found a full key lime pie at the bottom. “I worship that woman.”

  “She didn’t?” Kirk peeked deeper into the insulated bag at Shelley’s world-famous pie. “Hell yes, she did. Makes going to jail almost worth it.”

  Emerson interrupted their foodgasm. “Who are you?”

  Kirk wiped his hand on his pants before extending it in greeting “Kirk” His attention once again returned to the spread like a man starved.

  Knox placed the pie on the workbench. He tried hard to block out the images of Emerson naked, spread wide for him the night they had come back together like two feral cats. Had only a single week passed?

  “Earth to Knox. I need that pie.” Kirk tapped his foot.

  Knox pulled his pocketknife from his back pocket and flicked it open.

  Emerson yelled. “Stop! You aren’t seriously going to cut that with your knife.”

  Kirk looked at her as if she had two heads. “He was, and is there a problem?”

  “When was the last time you washed it?”

  The two men huffed. “Obviously, she’s never had Shelley’s famous key lime pie.”

  “Obviously.” Kirk agreed because no one who had it would possible care how it was served but only how long it took.

  “Besides, I speared my knife through the hot ashes out back a couple of nights ago.”

  “See? Perfectly clean. Get on with the cutting.”

  “Wait,” Emerson demanded.

  “What?” They both groaned.

  “Oh for the love of God.” She jogged into the other room, returning a second later with a knife and some paper plates. “Humor me, please.”

  Knox shrugged. He didn’t particularly care either way as long as the key lime pie made it from the tin to his belly. He moved in to cut. “May I?”

  She nodded, and Knox thanked a higher being.

  Two scenarios had run through Emerson’s head over the last few hours while waiting for Knox to get out of jail. Number one, Knox would walk in, see her standing there, and chuck her bodily from his property. The second involved her begging for his forgiveness and her proving her remorse on her knees with his cock in her mouth. Never once had it crossed her mind he would be so preoccupied with food he would seem to have forgotten what happened earlier in the day.

  She wasn’t stupid enough to remind him either.

  If he garnered some peace in the cooking from the diner across the street, then she wasn’t about to take that from him. She’d spent the hours following the catastrophe at her house pleading with the police to let Knox go. Even if he had been the one to start the fire, which she doubted now, but had he been, she wouldn’t press charges.

  “It’s out of my hands.” Jesse gave her a rueful grimace. “Other people heard your comments, but you have to understand they would have looked at him anyway. This will rule him out early in the process.”

  In the end, the only thing she could do was come back here and wait. She had asked them to call her when and if he needed a ride. He hadn’t. When she arrived at his shop, someone had already returned his wrecker. She’d thought about heading to the diner for a coffee, but those were his people. Instead, she had gone inside and started cleaning. She did his laundry, the shop towels, scrubbed the bathrooms—both his personal and the one in the waiting area. Before she knew it, she was cleaning the windows followed by the outside back area.

  Her hands were raw from the chemicals, but at least she had kept busy. If it had taken much longer, she would have gone to the convenience store and started tidying up there.

  The men took their food outside. She watched as an outsider as Knox lit the fire pit and sat back. Neither man said a word as they devoured the food. She picked up the trash they left, and did a double take. A lone slice of pie lay waiting with a fork beside it.

  She took her plate to the bed, sure he wouldn’t join her, and ate before allowing exhaustion to overtake her. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t dream at all. His smell permeated his pillow. Pulling it over her head, she let out a silent sob. When would she stop pushing away the best thing that had ever happened to her?

  Her mother’s husky smoker's voice ran through her. “Men are scum. They only want one thing. Once they get it, they will either do anything to keep getting laid or move on. The first kind, use until the well runs dry. The second, be glad they are gone.”

  The problem was she had been trying to paint Knox with one of those two brushes, but neither fit the man. They never had. Until she could reconcile the man she knew with the men of her mother’s acquaintance, she could never move forward. Knox deserved more than she had been able to offer. Would he be willing to give them yet another chance? She wasn’t even sure anymore if she deserved him. Not knowing enough about this mate thing, she didn’t know if he could move on. And how would she feel, knowing the only reason he was with her was because there could be no one else?

  Emerson awoke to the late morning sun coming through window. Dazed and in need of some serious coffee, she rubbed the ache in her neck. When the bathroom door opened, she hadn’t expected to see Kirk exit with a towel wrapped around his waist.

  “Sorry. Thought you were still asleep.” He rubbed his hair with a second towel. “There’s coffee in the office.”

  Thankful she’d worn something to bed, she climbed out and scurried from the room. She hadn’t quite made it across the garage when the sight of Knox sitting outside in an Adirondack chair brought her up short. He was lounging head back, staring at the sky. Resting on his knee was a bottle of whiskey.

  “He hasn’t drunk a damned sip. The seal is still intact,” Kirk said, coming to her side—dressed thankfully.

  “Where did he get it?” How she hoped the events hadn’t driven him to drink again.

  “Oh, he’s always had the bottle. He bought it upon his release from prison to prove he was fucking stronger than his urges. He told me once that if he could hold onto the bottle of Jack when life was at its lowest and never open it, he could make it through anything.”

  “I see,” she said for lack of anything better.

  A gray streak at the tree line caught her attention. A few minutes later, a beautiful tall woman with hair so blonde it appeared white came walking out. She patted Knox’s shoulder before taking a seat across from him. Though neither said a word, a streak of jealously ran through her at the other woman’s presence.

  “Appears my replacement, Eden is here.” Kirk tapped the window and jerked his chin in greeting when the female glanced their way.

  “Is this going to be
all the time now?” Emerson asked.

  He nodded. “Until the threat of going to prison passes. Strong alibi in case your fire isn’t an isolated incident. We have to make sure he’s in the clear.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  “No offense but your comments are what caused this bullshit to begin with. Besides, you have a new job and can’t be with him all the time.”

  No way she could hide her shock this man knew anything about her. “How do you know about my new job?”

  “Word spreads quickly through the pack whether you want it to or not. Usually, it’s the latter. It’s none of my business, but I feel I have to say it since Knox never will. No matter what you do to push him away, his feelings for you will never diminish.” He threw his bag over his shoulder. “When a wolf finds his or her mate, it’s for life.”

  He cast her one last glance before exiting the building then talked with the new arrival before moving out of sight.

  She stood still, unable to move, watching her man. And it hit her, he was her man. And all he wanted to do was prove it. Perhaps she’d been sent a man who could shift into a wolf because, as Kirk pointed out, wolves didn’t cheat, they weren’t promiscuous once they found someone to love, and they stuck with them. Could it really be that simple? Opening the old metal screen door, she walked outside. The other woman nodded at her and went inside, mumbling something about checking the shop’s answering machine for messages.

  Unsure what to say, she allowed her touch to try and convey what she wanted him to understand. Her hands shook as she placed one on his shoulder. For the longest moment, he didn’t move or show any sign she ever was present. Then, with slow and deliberate movements, he wrapped strong fingers around hers. For a second, she was convinced he meant to remove them from his person, but then he brought them to his lips and laid the gentlest of kisses upon them.

  “I am sorry.” She closed her eyes, trying to hold tears of relief back.

  “You said that last night.”

  “Yes, well, we were interrupted.” She moved in front of the chair so she could see his face. His arm snaked around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. With a squeak, she landed, enclosed in his embrace. “In my heart, I know you didn’t start that fire. I don’t know why I reacted the way I did.”

  “Shock, I suspect, and I’m told sometimes people lash out at those you feel the safest with.” Though he didn’t phrase it as a question, his eyes locked with hers, and she knew he needed a response. Perhaps he was holding out hope it was the case.

  “I do feel safer with you than I have in my entire life.” She cupped his face. She needed to say this, needed him to understand “Safer, yet overwhelmed. I sometimes can’t breathe when you’re around…no, please let me finish. I have never really experienced a positive long-lasting relationship with a man. I even pushed my friends away when they got too close. But I feel better when I’m with you. When I’m away, I feel like the very essence of who I am is gone.”

  “I understand.”

  “I know you do.” She brushed his lower lip with the pad of her thumb, wanting desperately to replace her thumb with her lips and suck it. “I was hysterical yesterday, and, for a moment, I wondered if you had done it. It never occurred to me I was out of control….” She couldn’t help but giggle at his raised eyebrow. She slapped his shoulder playfully, some of the tension easing as he kissed her hand the way he used to.

  “You’ll hurt your hand if you hit me.”

  She sobered, needing to say everything, get it out so they could move on. “I hated that house.”

  “I know.”

  “No, I really hated that house, and perhaps part of my anger was I didn’t do it myself.” She bit her lip; this was not easy to say aloud. “I should have burned the house myself. Growing up, I dreamed about driving a bulldozer through that place.”

  “And now you can’t.”

  “Now I can’t.” He understood, and that helped. “I know you didn’t do it.”

  “You’ve said that.”

  “I need you to know I feel awful about this shit with the investigation.” She wrung her hands in nervousness. “As soon as they took you, it all sank in, and I tried to get them to release you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Jesse said they would have questioned me eventually. I’m the boyfriend and an ex-con to boot. I won’t lie. I was pissed and hurt.” He placed the bottle of whiskey on the ground beside them then rested his hand on her hip. “The thought of going back to jail is horrifying, but it’s a long second to losing you again.”

  “Neither will happen. I can’t actually believe you aren’t throwing me out on my ass.”

  “I thought about it. But, to be honest, it wouldn’t have been as satisfying as fucking you into submission.” He brushed the hair off her neck.

  “I like the idea of that torture.”

  “You won’t be able to walk for a week.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “Sounds like a challenge. Are you sure?”

  “Want me to prove it?”

  He picked her up and moved them inside. As he kicked the door to his apartment closed, with his work boot, he placed her onto the center of the bed, and she belatedly remembered their guest in the office. “What about—?”

  “Eden? We are wolves. This is what we do. She would be more concerned if I didn’t take you to bed. Besides, her level of kink far exceeds most of the pack’s.” He undid the button of her jeans and had started to ease them down her hips when the door flew open.

  “There’s a fire behind the convenience store,” Eden announced, leaving as quickly as she’d entered, as if it were no big deal to walk into someone’s bedroom.

  Knox jumped up and pointed at her “Do. Not. Move. A. Muscle.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  “Good. You should.”

  Knox took one last look at her before running full speed out the door. She lay listening for the sounds of firetrucks in the distance, fighting the need to go see if she could help. If her services were needed, someone would get her. In the end, she decided to stay put. If Knox wanted her to be here waiting, she would give him that.

  The sounds of footsteps coming her way brought her up short. Lifting up on her elbows she yelled, “Back so soon?”

  But as the door eased open, a sense of doom washed over her. Coming through the opening were the young men from the diner a week ago.

  “Isn’t that a pretty picture?” one said.

  The three pounced on her. Before she could scream, a dirty bandana was shoved in her mouth, causing her to gag, then pain shot through her face as she was backhanded by another man. The last thing she remembered before letting glorious unconsciousness envelope her was him saying, “I warned that boyfriend of yours he couldn’t watch you all….”

  ***

  The fire burned hot and fast in the dumpster behind the convenience store. Short of watering down the area around the fire to prevent it from jumping, there was very little they could do until the fire department got to the scene. The small water hose seemed to be having little effect on the blazing inferno, and the fire extinguishers were all bone dry. Keeping the fire from jumping to the gas pumps had become their main objective.

  They were all quite happy to back off when the firemen arrived, and, before the captain could say a word, Eden was right there to jump to Knox’s defense. “He has an airtight alibi, so perhaps you should be searching for the real arsonist.”

  “Down, girl,” Knox said, trying to keep it light, but it was nice to have the alibi and was the very reason he hadn’t argued about it when she appeared this morning. Eden was a new and welcome addition to the pack. Her arrival a few months earlier was proof their pack could rise again.

  “It’s okay, though we are still waiting for the workup on the gas, which I’m sure won’t match. His fingerprints didn’t match those on the gas can we found either.”

  “Did they match someone else’s?” Kn
ox asked.

  “As a matter of fact, they did. And this MO matches a few other fires in the surrounding counties. Unfortunately, none of those had usable prints.”

  Relief washed over him as he realized the possible nightmare had been diverted. “And you’re positive.”

  “Sure am. Probably shouldn’t say this, but you are always so good to the department when their cars break down and, quite frankly, after the shit they put you through last night…I kind of feel you deserve to know. His name is Barry Randall, the leader of a white supremacist group from a couple of towns over.”

  “Did you say white supremacist?” His senses went on full alert.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Fuck, fuck, Fuck.” Knox didn’t think, he ran. He ran as fast as his human feet would carry him. He could hear Eden on his heels. Throwing back the door, he yelled, “Emmy!”

  The room was a shambles. Fuck. Why hadn’t he realized he had walked right into a trap? Emerson had been a target while he went to battle a damned trash can fire. He looked past Eden to ensure no one had followed then pulled his shirt off. Followed by his pants.

  “I’ll follow you in your car,” Eden said, picking up his discarded clothing.

  He shifted. Sniffed the air and ran. The idiots must be driving with their windows down because he could smell their stench, but he could still catch Emerson’s softer one. No matter, he would find them and rip them limb from limb. He didn’t wait for Eden. She would follow his scent as he followed theirs. He paused only long enough to ensure he wasn’t seen at a crossing before running full out again.

  Fire seethed within. Emotions he’d held at bay for too many years erupted. As her scent grew stronger, his feet moved with a desire of their own. Spurred by fear for his mate, fury that anyone had dared to take her from him, and the need to wrap his arms around her to ensure she was safe, he should have called for help, knew his pack would have been on his tail, but he wanted this kill for himself.