Kiss of Moonlight

first in the Lucani Lovers series

Plagued by nightmares. Stalked by kidnappers. Tamra McMillan needs a safe haven. When tattooed bad-ass Kyle Rossini steps into her life, she didn't expect to find sanctuary from her demons or hot sex. But appearances can be deceiving. His tender touch and the hunger in his eyes brands her his for life. But otherworldly forces are afoot and death hovers… Etruscan werewolf Kyle Rossini is a loner. The king’s assassin with a killer’s instincts. The last thing he needs is a mate.  Until he meets the one woman who needs him more than he needs his solitude. When Tamra stumbles into his world and his bed, she captures his heart. And nothing will keep him from her.

Excerpt

By reading any further, you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age. If you are under the age of 18, stop here.

Kyle bit back the furious growl building in his chest.

His growl terrified hardened killers. He didn’t want to scare this girl.

But it took all of his control to keep it contained. It took even more to maintain his pelt and sit on the ground in front of her like the stupid animal she thought he was.

He’d promised Cat he’d check on the girl but he’d only planned to sniff around the house, take a peek in the windows, see what it was about this eteri that’d captured his daughter’s interest. See if she posed a threat to him and his.

After dinner, he’d told Cat to stay in the house then he’d walked out into the moonlight to call forth his pelt.

As a lucani versipellis, born from a long line of Etruscan wolf skin-shifters, the magic rose easily on the night before the full moon, although the pain remained. After nineteen years of shifting his entire being into the body of a different species, you’d think you’d get used to the pain.

He didn’t think he ever would.

He often wondered if the Etruscan Gods, when they’d gifted the first lucani with their power to shift, had even considered the pain. Or if they’d thought it was a worthwhile price to pay for their amazing ability.

An ability Kyle could use to tear the man who’d harmed this girl into little tiny pieces with his sharp teeth. He knew how to make it hurt, where to bite for maximum pain without killing, to draw out the punishment.

He wanted to make the bastard pay but even more, he wanted to call back his skin, wrap her in his arms and against his chest and let her cry out all the anguish in her voice.

Her furious emotion made his gut boil with rage. Overriding the violence, though, was the urge to comfort. He wanted to make her forget, to wipe that horrific experience from her mind and reassure her that not all men were animals.

He snorted and shook his head.

Okay, make that, not all men were brutal, sadistic sons-of-bitches who deserved to be fed their own nuts.

“Hey, you okay, boy? Sounds like you’ve got a cold.”

No, he didn’t have a cold. Didn’t feel cold at all. In fact, he felt pretty damn warm.

And right there was where this was all going to shit.

Because he’d be damned if he hadn’t fallen for this little eteri. Hard and fast and at first sight

Like a fucking teenager with raging hormones.

It felt like a kick in the ass. Like a punch to the gut and a shot in the heart.

Kyle had never been sentimental. He loved his daughter with his whole heart and he cared for Margie and Dan. They were his family as much as his three beautiful, headstrong younger sisters and his slowly aging parents who’d shown him what true love should be.

And what he never wanted to find. He’d never been able to wrap his brain around the trust needed to give over so much of himself to a woman.

And he hadn’t. This wasn’t love. He didn’t fall in love at first sight with a girl who couldn’t be more than twenty years old. Vaffanculo, he was almost forty.

Fate wouldn’t fuck with him that badly. Right?

Yeah, right.