Sunshine's Kiss by Stormy Glenn Read Free Book Online Page B

you.”
    Wow.
    Um.
    Yeah.
    Damn.
    “I wanted to bask in the joy that seemed to naturally surround you. I wanted to be the reason that you laughed, the reason that the sun shone for you.” Jesse chuckled softly. His face lit up as he talked as if whatever memories he was thinking about were good ones, happy ones. “I was jealous of my own damn brother because he had made you laugh.”
    “I’m sorry?” It came out more of a question than a statement because Sam wasn’t sure what he was sorry for. He just felt like he should be.
    “I decided to make it my mission to get you to laugh like that for me. I thought it was working, too, when I finally got to kiss you. I was elated. And then”—Jesse swallowed hard—“and then—”
    “And then I was gone.”
    Jesse nodded as he stared down at his hands again. “Yes,” he whispered, no longer looking as happy as he had a moment ago. “You were just gone, no note, no good-bye, just gone. You wouldn’t tell anyone why you had left, so until a little while ago, I had no idea that my father had threatened you.”
    “He threatened you, too.”
    “I would have stopped him, Sam.” Jesse’s gaze was intense when he looked up. Sam swallowed hard at the underlying hunger he could see in them. “I hope you know that.”
    Sam nodded. He was pretty sure that Jesse would have done exactly what he said. He just wished he had known about it before he had left all those years ago. Maybe it would have changed things. And maybe not.
    “Tell me about being Lycan,” Sam said after a moment of silence. “What’s it like?”
    “It has its good points and its bad points.”
    “Like?” Sam asked as he started to relax back against the pillows stacked against the headboard. He loved listening to Jesse talk, and right now, he seemed to be the center of the man’s attention, something he had wished for more years than he could count.
    “The running is the best, I think. The feeling of the wind blowing through your fur, the moon up above you, and the scents that linger in the air, there’s nothing like it.”
    “Do you have to shift every full moon like in the movies?”
    “Yes. We can’t not transform during the full moon. The moon forces it on us whether we like it or not. But luckily, it’s just from dusk till dawn. Except for that one day, we have complete control of when we shift.”
    “Does it hurt?”
    “Shifting?”
    Sam nodded.
    “It’s not exactly comfortable, but it doesn’t hurt.”
    “Are all of the things they say in the movies about werewolves right?”
    “Lycan, Sam, not werewolf.”
    “I know but—”
    “A lot of them are true, though. Silver can kill me just like a bullet or having my head chopped off can. However, I am not a mindless beast when I shift. I am fully aware of myself and others.”
    “Really?” Sam leaned forward, his interest growing. The idea that werewolves…er…Lycan lived in the world was as fascinating as it was scary. “You even know who I am?”
    “I most definitely know who you are.” Jesse grinned. “It doesn’t matter what form I am in.”
    “I guess I’m just confused by all of this. It’s like you all had a secret that only you knew about and I’m just now finding out.”
    “I never meant it to be that way, but I suppose what you are saying is true. I truly thought you knew, Sam. How you could live here all of those years and not know is what confuses me.”
    “Mom said she pretty much did everything she could to hide it from me, right down to sending me to my friends’ houses during the full moon.” Sam shrugged. “I guess she planned to tell me one day, but it just never happened.”
    “I wish I had known that before you came home.” Jesse leaned forward just a little, resting his elbows on his knees. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
    Sam swallowed hard, suddenly feeling scared again. He just wasn’t sure why. Jesse didn’t feel so scary anymore but… “Would that have changed things?