Waning Moon by Elisabeth Morgan Popolow Read Free Book Online Page A

cheese, and spilled coffee various times while preparing. His apron was soaked and stained, his patience was running dry, and now his frickin’ finger was bleeding.
    “Is something on your mind? ‘Cuz you never, ever burn the bagels. They’re like the Holy Grail of your work. Care to tell me what’s on your mind?” Mia split a bagel in two and shoved it into the toaster.
    He inhaled sharply and said, “It’s nothing. Just a new neighbor that moved in yesterday.”
    “Oh, so are they annoying?”
    “Kind of.”
    Mia took the dustbin and broom from him and emptied the broken mug into the trash. “Want me to go and give them a piece of my mind for bugging you?”
    “N-no, that’s okay. I’m gonna complain to the landlord. They play their music way too loud and I couldn’t sleep.”
    “Oh, okay then.” She gave Tony a pat on the shoulder before returning to her job at the counter.
    Tony sighed heavily. All he could think about was Gabriel, how he’d saved him, how he’d touched him, how amazing it felt when he…Now was not the time to be thinking about that! He slapped his face and urged himself to wake up.
    An image of the onyx-haired vampire flitted through his mind and he found himself longing for the other man’s magic touch, the touch that sent him reeling into a world of absolute pleasure. Damn, was he hard! So fucking hard as he dreamily thought about Gabriel.
    Shit! What if Mia saw him? What would she say? He was working and all he could think about was that-that goddamn vampire! It was ten minutes to twelve and almost time for his lunch break, so Tony quickly rushed through the rest of the orders before reminding Mia that he was going out for lunch and would be back soon.
    As he strolled along the sidewalk to his favorite pizza place, Tony couldn’t shake the thought of Gabriel from his mind. The man had enchanted him, enticed him, enthralled him utterly and completely. If he concentrated enough, he could still feel Gabriel’s mouth on his cock, feel the man’s gentle fingers executed feathery strokes along his body like the touch of an angel. He ground his teeth together as he sat down with his ham and bacon pizza and Pepsi and rested his chin on the back of a hand. The cut on his finger was bleeding through and he peeled the wet and sticky Band Aid off and replaced it with a fresh one that he found in his wallet.
    Tony munched slowly on his food, took a tiny sip of soda, and pressed his face into the palm of his hand. What was he doing, thinking about Gabriel now? He’d only just met the man and already he couldn’t wrench him out of his thoughts. Did he really like him that much? Had he really fallen for him? Or was this all a side effect of the vampire marks? He didn’t know. He was afraid to know.
    Because everyone that ever got involved too deep in his life disappeared.
    Tony finished up his lunch and returned to the shop where his thoughts wandered off to Gabriel again. As he was relieved of kitchen duty for a few minutes, after the flow of customers had substantially thinned, he went out and swept beneath the tables. He looked up when the bell to the door rang and in walked a man wearing a long leather trench-coat, knee-high boots with skinny jeans, and a deep purple cable-knit scarf wound about his neck.
    Oh, no. No. No. No. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t.
    Gabriel? Shouldn’t he be in bed…in his death sleep? How was he walking around during the day?
    Oh. Yeah. He was a master vampire. And some master vampires could do that.
    Damn.
    Mia nudged Tony as he darted back into the kitchen. “Hey, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost again.”
    Tony swallowed hard. Gabriel was here. Gabriel was here. Gabriel was here. “I, uh, I gotta go to the bathroom. Be right back.” He slammed the bathroom door shut and sat on the toilet while cradling his head within his hands. What was he gonna do? What would he do if Gabriel saw him?
    He’d just have to face it. There was no