Moon, Bitten

Chapter Twenty

*Note – chapter contains explicit details.

Kate awoke the next morning innately aware of the warmth at her back and the weight of a certain forearm draped over her waist. She stiffened, her heart slamming against her breast as she realized the full length of male sleeping soundly beside her.

She dared not move, even attempted to slow the thunderous rhythm of her heart as it clamored profoundly in her chest.

Breathe, Kate, just breathe. But even that, something as simple as dragging air into your lungs, became such a tremendous challenge.

That length of arm sprawled casually across her hip exuded such an electrical charge that beads of perspiration formed in the valley of her breasts.

Oh, gosh ...She clenched her eyes shut. Did she really just sleep alongside Ronan Morrissey – who emitted every dangerous trademark, and muttered stimulating things such as 'you are mine', and 'you need protecting' as if men nowadays spoke of such things on a day-to-day basis?

She was well versed in the likes of Danny Horner. But Ronan Morrissey was a different species of male altogether. Those gray eyes glimmered with a feral, unsettling gleam that cautioned her to run for the hills but some part of her, that gullible, weak-minded self seemed incapable of heeding the certain peril encroaching.

Her sound mind insisted she slip quietly from the room, down those winding set of rustic stairs and out the door, never to be heard or seen from again. But again her nonsensical self longed for the warmth and security found in the most unlikely of places – his arms.

No! Her subconscious exclaimed. This is wrong. You don't want this.

She shut her eyes briefly, listening to the even sounds of his breathing. Even in sleep, he radiated such masculinity.

You need protecting. She recalled his remark from the night before and a part of her believed in the sincerity of those words, as if he had an obligation to her and would do just about anything to ensure it.

Don't be ridiculous. Argued that reasoning that disputed her naïve self at every turn. You trusted a man before and the result of that was a discolored face and –

Kate choked back a sob as her hand fisted in the sheets. The very thought of what could have been was crippling. How could she have been so blind? How could she have missed the signs? She'd only been a few weeks pregnant but if she had known beforehand, before – she swallowed, her throat constricting with a tight knot.

She felt tears stinging at the back of her eyes and they trickled from beneath her lashes to blot her pillow.

Because of your spinelessness your child is dead.

She must have made a sound, something to the effect of a soft cry or whimper for a sudden crease in the bed propelled her heart frenziedly against her breast.

"Kate." that grim lilted voice resounded on the quiet, having quite the unsettling tenor on her senses as her heart did another fierce jolt.

His arm curled around her, unleashing a fiery sensation as he hauled her onto her back. The break of daylight struck her face and she cringed from it.

The sheer proximity of him left her breathless and heady. Her skin tingled in awareness to every stalwart inch of him, tossing her emotions awhirl. His bare chest broadened with deep, steady breaths as it brushed intimately against her, his body a great weight of chiseled muscle and magnetic warmth.