Blood Moon by A.D. Ryan Read Free Book Online Page A

over. Suddenly,
his heavy arm draped over my waist and hung there for a minute
before his fingers started to dance over my exposed abdomen. “Good
morning,” he greeted gruffly, his warm breath wafting over my neck
and making me shrug against the ticklish sensation. “How did you
sleep?”
    “Um, fine?” I really have to work on
speaking with ironclad conviction, because he didn’t buy it.
    His fingers stopped moving, and he pushed
himself up. With a sigh, I rolled onto my back and looked up at
him. His hair was a disaster, making me grin like an idiot, but his
eyes instantly sobered me. “Brooke—”
    “David…don’t.”
    “No.” He shook his head. “Jesus, Brooke, you
can’t keep doing this.”
    Perplexed, I pushed myself up onto my
elbows, the collar of my T-shirt feeling tight against my neck.
“Doing what?”
    “Pretending like everything
is…‘ fine .’” Frustrated, he threw himself off the bed and
yanked his jeans on over his boxers.
    “I-I don’t know what you want me to say,” I
whispered, pushing up until I sat cross-legged on the bed,
fidgeting with a loose string on the hem of my shirt.
    “Sweetheart, it’s not about what I want you to say…” David sighed and planted himself back on
the bed in front of me, taking my hands in his and bringing them to
his lips. “You can’t keep this shit bottled up inside.”
    A sad nod from me. “I know.” My eyes met
his, and I gave him a half-smile. “It’s not that I mean to keep you
at a distance… It kills me that you even feel that’s what I’m
doing…” Then I heaved a heavy sigh. “Seeing Nick last night just
opened an old wound—more than usual.” David’s eyes grew sad, like
maybe he thought it brought back more than just the despair I felt
when Nick left after Bobby died, so I tried to explain. “I don’t
love him. N-not anymore. But”—the first of several tears fell down
my cheek—“on my birthday ? When he knows what that day means
to my family?” I hated crying; it made me feel weak, and it was
something I usually kept others from seeing, but these past
twenty-four hours had been a little more emotional than years
past.
    David reached over and took my hand in his,
bringing it to his lips and placing feather-light kisses over my
knuckles. I was grateful to him for being here for me and listening
without judgment, and it was a relief that I could explain this to
him without fear of him misreading how I felt about Nick. To show
him just how much I appreciated his support, I raised my face and
kissed him, closing my eyes and sighing as his lips molded to
mine.
    The desire to lose myself in him like I did
last night—to forget about everything—overwhelmed me, and warmth
bloomed throughout my body, starting in my belly and emanating
outward until my skin tingled. In a flash, my hands moved up to
David’s neck, my fingers twisted into his hair and tugged lightly.
He responded in kind by tangling his own hands into my long,
pillow-mussed hair, and I shifted above him, straddling his strong
thighs with the need to be closer when he pulled his lips from
mine.
    “Brooke… wait ,” he rasped. “We
can’t.”
    My breath shuddered as I drew it in, my hips
moving against him and relishing the feel of how aroused he was.
“Mmm,” I hummed teasingly, shifting my hips slightly to see if I
could persuade him. “I think your body’s suggesting otherwise.”
    David laughed, but I could see that he was
seriously reconsidering his decision. Sadly, he stuck to his guns,
but not without a little torture of his own. He leaned in close,
his lips brushing the shell of my ear, and whispered, “As much as
I’d really love to throw you down on this bed and do”—his hands
moved down under the hem of my shirt and grabbed my ass
firmly—“ ungodly things to your beautiful body…” I closed my
eyes in rapture when I felt the warm, hard truth of his words
pressing against me. Then he got serious, sighing heavily. “The
simple