Cardinal House (The Blackwell Brothers Book 4)

28. Luna

There’s a blood-red cardinal perched on the headstone of a Mrs Victoria Henry Jonathan Morris, with the dates eighteen-eleven to eighteen-fifty-six etched into the crumbling sandstone. That’s all there is. I don’t know if she was a mother, a sister, a niece.

That’s what I am.

Confirmed with blood for DNA testing.

Vittorio Gambino’s niece.

My memories are coming back like a fast-forwarded movie reel. Some things are flooding, others trickling, but there’s nothing of him. My real uncle.

After we ruined Thorne and Haisley’s celebration last night, Wolf hasn’t slept much, taking calls on and off all day from Vito, and Thorne and Stryder. I’ve just been out here, breathing in the fresh air I’ve been deprived of for the last twenty-three years.

I remember him too.

Uncle Nolan.

And I wish I didn’t.

Goosebumps prickle my flesh as I feel Wolf approach.

My dark, violent monster creeping through the night. Absorbing all of the shadows around him, his presence growing heavier, deeper, larger.

His warm breath fans across the nape of my neck, before his arms come over my shoulders, crossing over my chest and pulling me in flush with his front. His heart drums against my spine, echoing into the cavity of my own chest, thrumming through my veins like adrenaline in my blood.

“Hello, you,” he breathes in my ear, his tongue curling over the shell, and making me shiver. “You cold out here, baby girl?” he asks, his voice rumbling heavily as his thumbs smooth up and down the bare skin of my biceps.

I’m in only a t-shirt, one of his, slipping off my shoulder, with nothing on my feet, my hair loose down my back, the ends of the strands reaching the base of my spine.

“No.”

“You want to come inside, Little Moon?” Wolf kisses the side of my throat, nuzzling his face into the crook of my neck, a long, deep inhale has his nostrils flaring against my skin. “You smell delicious,” he growls, nipping my flesh and making me press back into him further.

“What do I smell like?” I whisper, one of the first things I’ve really spoken aloud to him today, other than my usual yeses and no’s, he hasn’t gotten much from me in the way of conversation.

“Hmm,” he hums, and I can feel his lips pulling into a smile against my skin. He huffs a humorous breath into my neck, grazing his teeth gently over my pulse, “You smell like mine.”

And now it’s my turn to smile.

I gaze up at the moon, my hands coming up to curl over his forearms where he holds my chest. Laying my head back against his shoulder, his chin over mine, our cheeks pressed together. We both stare up, stars and planets and constellations twinkling and burning bright in the night.

“Wolf,” I whisper, the rough brush of his stubble comforting as he nuzzles my cheek, marking me like wolves, and perhaps monsters, do.

“Yes, Little Moon?”

“I want you to make love to me under the stars.”

Wolf’s arms uncross, his hands smoothing down my front, thick, calloused fingers curling beneath the hem of my t-shirt, and stripping me bare.

With the moon as our witness, the stars our audience, Wolf caresses my breasts in the cups of his hands, his kiss dragging along the slope of my neck, mouthing over my shoulder, down my back. He spins me around, one arm going beneath my thighs, he brushes my legs out from under me and lowers us both to the ground.

The dry grass is rough beneath my spine, the scent of the wildflowers stronger under the light of the moon, small crumbles of headstone rock digging into my spine. Wolf’s eyes connect with mine, honeyed-whiskey orbs oozing obsessive, possessive love.

Wolf spreads me out beneath him, holding my gaze as he lowers himself down my body. Laving his tongue down the centre of my chest, circling my nipples, and biting the diamond hard points. His mouth sucks down my belly, biting and sucking and marking a trail across my skin until he finds the glistening flesh of my cunt.

Lips curl around my clit, sucking tenderly. A deep, throaty, groan rumbling its way up his vocal cords and echoing in the aching hollowness of my cunt.

Head digging into the earth, the grass tickling my face, my back arching, Wolf curls his arms around my thighs, lifting my hips from the ground and bringing me up to his mouth.

“Wolf,” I say softly, drawing his attention with a quiet moan.

“Luna?” he rumbles, breath blowing over my swollen, wet flesh, sending a fresh smattering of goosebumps up in his wake.

I lick my lips, looking down my bared body at him, his lips shiny with my slick, his eyes reflecting the moon, “I want…” I trail off, nerves shooting distress signals to my brain.

“What do you want, Little Moon?” he whispers, “you know I will do anything for you,” his voice a caress of sinful delight.

“I want you to fuck me from behind,” I tremble as I say it, staring down at him with wide, shiny eyes. “Not- not that,” I breathe as he slowly lowers my hips back down to the grass, crawling his way up and over my body, shielding me from the blanket of stars so he’s my only view. “But I want- I trust you, to be behind me.”

“Luna,” he licks his lips, me on his mouth, and flicks those pretty eyes between mine. He doesn’t ask me if I’m sure, he doesn’t frown, he doesn’t tell me no, he simply says, “You tell me if you wanna stop, baby girl, and we’ll stop.” Then he’s lifting up onto his knees, staring down at me as he wears the moon like a halo, his black hair loose and fluttering, falling from its place tucked behind his ears and making him look like a fallen angel. Mine. “Stand up for me.”

He hefts me up halfway, helping me to my feet as he rises with me. Dipping his chin as his bare chest presses to mine, he leans down, holding my gaze, our souls clashing and tangling through the windows of our eyes, and then he kisses me, and it’s like the world stops.

My head spins and the planet goes dark, and his hands are firm, warm comfort as he runs them over my skin. Goosebumps erupt and shivers roll through me, and I can feel him in my chest, his fingers plucking at the valves of my heart and threading that dark, monstrous stitching through the organ, tethering me to him.

Healing and saving and loving me.

His tongue laps over mine with long, languid passes, and soft little sucks before he nips at the tip, nibbling on my lip and he tastes me like I’m something new but old, strange yet familiar.

Love untwists and expands between us, growing and swelling until my nails are biting into his arms, his hands cupping my cheeks tighten and burn.

And then he fucks his tongue into my mouth, biting hard at my lips, our teeth knocking together as he draws back from my swollen pout, using his thumb to force open my jaw, his eyes flicker between mine, and then he spits into my mouth, licking over his saliva on my tongue, groaning deep, and I’m swallowing him down.

“Turn around for me, baby,” he whispers over my bitten lips, licking over them one at a time, the top then the bottom. “Put your hands here,” he instructs, his own coming over mine as I turn around, his chest to my spine, and he wraps our fingers over the top of a headstone. “You say stop, I stop,” he breathes, but he doesn’t hesitate then, he doesn’t wait for me to answer, to nod, to reply, he just thrusts his cock into me from behind and clamps a hand around my neck as a scream drops from my throat. “That’s it, Luna. You feel so good, such a good girl for me, fuck, fuck, that’s it, like that.” He praises and murmurs and groans, biting into my neck as he wraps his giant body over mine.

“Wolf,” I groan, a thick crack to my voice as my head drops forward, his splayed fingers holding me up with the hold he has on my throat. His dick pistons into me, our hips clapping together, fingers of the other hand laced over stone, “Don’t stop.”

“I’ll never stop, I’ll give you everything you need, everything you want. I’ll bring you every head of every man you demand, my deviant little ghoul.” His teeth sink into my throat, and I pant for breath as he bites, fucking into me harder and harder, and without any warning I explode.

My pussy milks him as I forget that’s he’s behind me, existing only in the pull and push of pleasure. His teeth scrape down the back of my neck, my hair hanging forward of my shoulders, curtaining my face. Dull teeth score my skin and then in no time at all, my cunt squeezing him hard, he thrusts in deep, holding himself still, and groans into my shoulder as he sinks his teeth in further.

My release ebbs and flows as his cock twitches inside me, setting off another climax. This one a soft, warm wave of pleasure that falls over me, and has my mouth dropping open in surprise.

“That’s it, Luna, come on my cock, you’re squeezing me so good, Little Moon, so fucking good, baby girl.”

Wolf nuzzles my neck, kissing my spine and then he’s pulling me down, into the crispy grass, still inside of me, his front to my back, but he’s cradling me in his lap, kissing my hair and petting my skin.

Reverence.

That’s how he holds me.

“I love you, Luna,” he breathes in my ear, his heart pounding in time with my own through my back.

“I love you, Wolf.”