Savage Need (Temple of Luna, #2) by Moira Rogers Read Free Book Online Page A

eyes.
    Jarek kept one arm tight around her body, but he let out a tiny, resigned little sigh and whispered an apology against her hair before lifting his head and smiling. "Zahra, I'd like you to meet my mother, Chandis. Mother, this is--"
    "I have eyes." Jarek's mother rushed forward and reached for Zahra's hands. "Oh, it's such an honor to have you here. But Jarek didn't tell me--" A slashing look at Jarek, who sighed again. "--and nothing's prepared."
    Zahra's hands began to tremble again. "I was insufferably rude," she confessed. "I didn't tell Jarek I was coming. I wanted it to be a surprise."
    "A wonderful surprise." Chandis squeezed her hands in a hearty grip, and it looked like only sheer force of will kept her from dragging Zahra into a hug. "You just keep her out here for a few minutes, Jarek, so I can tidy up the kitchen and heat up the kettle. And make sure you bring in enough wood to build up a good fire. Can't have the King's cousin catching cold just because your father can't stir himself to pay for modern conveniences."
    Jarek's arm tightened around her shoulder. "Yes, mother."
    Zahra kept her nervous smile in place until Chandis disappeared into the house again. Then she reached for her hair, smoothing it anxiously. "I've been traveling for hours. I didn't even think--"
    "Shh." He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "You're in for it now."
    She hadn't given a thought to meeting Jarek's parents, hadn't even brought a gift. She knelt and retrieved the fallen tin. "I hope they like cookies. And me."
    "They'll love you," he assured her quietly before taking the tin from her hands. "But not a one of them has been more than fifty miles from this farm in their lives, and they certainly haven't been meeting members of the royal family. You're not going to get a second's peace as long as you're here."
    "I'm used to it." Though, admittedly, she'd never had future members of her family fussing over her.
    Jarek's chuckle was low and naughty. "Well, I'm not. I wanted to do a lot more than kiss you."
    She blushed, mostly because she'd thought of little else over the last months. "We can't hide in the barn like a couple of teenagers."
    "How would you like to go for a run tonight?"
    The image rose of them entangled in an embrace, out in a clearing with the moon and stars bathing their skin in silver light. Zahra cleared her throat as her arousal spiked again. "I would like that."
    A truck engine rumbled in the distance, and Jarek tilted his head and then groaned. "Rein it in," he muttered, though it sounded as if he was talking to himself. He straightened and turned them both around to face the long road that led to the farm. At the far end, an ancient truck rattled toward them, the kind that was so out of date not even humans bought them anymore, and no one without mechanical expertise could keep them running.
    "That," Jarek murmured, "is our inevitable doom. My sister, my brother-in-law, a surly fourteen year old nephew who will probably fall in love with you, and twin girls who will be trying to play dress up with you within the hour. Are you sure you wouldn't like to go find a nice, safe orphan to love?"
    She could make it through an evening with his family, even if everything he said was true. It would be worth it. "Too late. I already love you."

    In the end it was his brother-in-law who saved them.
    After two hours with Jarek's nieces climbing all over her and his mother hovering, Zahra was starting to look a little frayed around the edges. She held her composure with respectable determination, but Jarek had to wonder if she was reconsidering her declaration of love after all.
    His sister had taken a strong, steady man as a mate, one who understood the earth and the seasons in a way some of their people had forgotten as they rushed to embrace human technology. When one of the twins suggested Zahra could have a royal slumber party in their room, Rothan gathered up his wife, children and mother-in-law and herded