The Twin Moon (The Moon Series) (15 page)

“Email?”
Ian was lost
.
W
hat the hell was he talking about?

“Yeah
, email.
C
an I talk to her through email?
Introduce myself, get to know her, you know.
Can you ask Edge?”
Gavin
stared at him again with
big blue eyes so much like his mothers, but at odds with his dark skin
, just like his father, Jax
.

“I can ask Edge.
That’s all I can promise, but you have to do something for me.
You have to stay in this house until Warren says you can leave and you have to work with me so I can teach you control.
We’ve got to get you out of these cuffs.”
Ian stood up and pushed the chair back into the desk.

Gavin looked down at the cuff and his shoulders slumped, his voice going low.
“
My mom has the key.”

“I’ll be back.”
Ian headed out of the room and walked down the hall intent on finding Kaylen to get the key.
S
he bumped int
o him in the hall.
In a towel.

“Oh, Ian.
I didn’t hear you.
Are you done with Gavin?”
She pushed the
white fluffy
towel down into itself next to her breast
,
her hair wrapped up in another towel.
Didn’t hear him his a
s
s
,
she was a cougar.

“Yea
h
, I’d like the key for the cuffs.”
Ian put his hand out.

“There just in my room.”
She wondered down the hall, Ian followed.
When he entered the room she was bent over at the waist digging in
the
pocket
of a pair of jeans
the back of the towel was hiked up so high it showed all her secrets.
Ian quickly turned his back.

“Here it is.”
She exclaimed from behind him.

She pushed her body up against him as she handed the key to him over his shoulder.
Ian took it from her hand.
“Thanks.”
Ian turned and she stepped into him.

“
Any
time, Ian.”
She stepped into his space and kept stepping until Ian was pressed up against the door.

“Kaylen.”
Ian put his hands on her shoulders to push her away.

“Yes?” She rubbed her body against him and nuzzled his neck with her nose.

“I’m seeing someone.”
He pushed her away gently.
Ian didn’t want to hurt her.

“You what?
That’s not possible. You’re the wildest male I know.
”
Fire lit her eyes as she stared up at him and red burned across her face.
“
Don’t tell me you forgot about three months ago?”

Shit, he hadn’t even remembered her name.

“That was a different time, before I found her.”

“No wonder you didn’t even look at me at the club the other night.”
The silly pout returned to her face. “Well, n
o matter.
You’re here and I’m here… and she isn’t.”
She purred and licked a line across his jaw.

“It may not make a difference to you, but
she matters to me.”
Ian set Kaylen aside and strode from the room.
The woman was more aggressive than she should be.
That worried him.
That must have been where Gavin got his aggressive
tendencies
from.

Back in the bedroom Ian released Gavin.
“I’ll be back tomorrow. I want you to start a journal.
Write your letters to her in there until I can talk to Edge.”

“Alright.”
Gavin nodded his head and rubbed his wrist.

“And stay put.
No leaving the house or the back yard. That’s as far as you go.
Promise?”
Ian stared the boy deep in the eyes as if pulling the promise from deep within him.

“Yeah, promise.” Gavin dropped his gaze and sank down on the bed
, shoulders turning into himself
.
Ian clapped him on the back and left the room.
What would he do if he could
n’t
have Andy?
She was human after all.
What would happen if she didn’t want him?
A new fear took shape in Ian’s gut and started at a slow simmer.

***

Andy pulled into her
driveway to a glaring red “W-H-O-R-E
” painted on her garage door about three and a half foot high, six foot wide.

Andy stopped the car in the driveway and just stared at it.
“Seriously?
Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it.
”
She hit the stirring wheel wishing it was Rich’s head.
Anger flushed her cheeks with heat.
“
I hate you, Rich,” she screamed at the top of her lungs.
This has
to stop
.
She turned the car off and
jumped out,
tugging her bag out of the seat beside her and hiking it up on her shoulder.
“Did no one really see this?”
She asked as she moved toward the crimson letters.
Jesus, give her a scarlet “A” on her chest and march her through town.
Andy dug her cell phone out of her pocket and took a picture.
Then she called the police
department.
The non-emergency
number
…
again
.

Andy
unlocked the door
while she calle
d the police,
late after
noon
had passed into early evening and t
he whole neighborhood would be arriving soon to see the word spray painted across her
garage
door.
Parents would be explaining to their children what the word meant or covering their eyes so they couldn’t read it.
Tears welled up in Andy’s eyes as pain sliced through her.
She was defenseless against this kind of violence.
What could she do if she wasn’t home?
She was so sick of his little surprises every time she turned around.

Wiping a hand across her eyes she answered the knock at the door that was the police officer.
As it turned out it was Officer Ochoa and his partner again.

“Afternoon.
That’s some sign you’ve got.”
The Officer motioned to the garage as he pulled his notepad out of his pocket.

“I know.
What a pleasant surprise to find when you come home
, huh?
”
Andy unlocked the door and opened it.

The Officer asked her some questions and jotted down what she
said.
Then they left her
,
alone with the sign.
Andy text
ed
the
picture of the
sign to Rosie who immediately called.

“What the hell is that?”
Rosie did not sound happy.

“That is on my garage.
Would you like to come over and help me paint?”
Andy locked up the house and went to change into her only pair of grubby shorts and one of the left over shirts from the burglary.
Then headed out to the garage to find the primer and paint.
Luckily
,
Rosie’s brothers had painted the house last year and
she
had stuff left over.
Andy sorted through the cans and found what she needed.
She closed up the garage and checked the painted letters.
They were dry all right.
Lovely, lovely spray paint.

Andy had
just
pou
red the paint into the pans when
Rosie arrived.

“
Hola, amiga
.
That is
the biggest eyesore I have ever seen.
The disrespectful
pendejo
.”
Rosie stood with hands on her hips staring at the word.

“I know.
I swear I can’t take it, Rosie.
Rich is going to make me crazy
or I’m going to murder him so I can have some peace
.”
She handed Rosie a pai
nt roller and loaded her own t
hen started on the garage.

“
I vote you kill him.
It would be so much more fun to see the fucker bleed out, then watching my best friend drift slowly into madness.”
Rosie
used a deranged vampire voice as she
started on the opposite side of the garage.
Andy laughed.
It was good to laugh in the midst of the insanity.
“Did you call Ian last night?”

“Oh yeah.
God.
I am in so much trouble with him.
We almost had phone sex last night.”
Andy reached up higher to get the top of the W.

“Really
?
D
o tell.”
Rosie laughed.

“I can’t help it
.
I hear his voice and I turn to jell-o.
My insides just go liquid around him and all I can think about is sex.
What am I going to do?”
Andy whined as she rolled the primer over the red then turned to load her brush.

“Do you like him that much?”
Andy glanced at Rosie and she had an eyebrow raised staring at her.

“I really do.
Do you know he works at a community center helping teenagers?
He cares about his sister and is worried about my problem with Rich.
He just met me.”
Andy flung her arm out and paint went sailing through the air landing on Rosie’s shirt.
“He seems so perfect,” she sighed.

“
I wonder what’s wrong with him?
And watch where you’re swinging that thing.”
Rosie studied her painting job the paint roller tapped on her chin. “Oo, Oo, maybe he’s bi
and wants you for his gay three-
way
with
his boyfriend.”

Andy, used to Rosie’s strangeness just kept painting as she replied.
“You are so weird.
You know that right?”

“You’re
just jealous because I could be right.
Anyway, j
ust because he just met you
,
doesn’t mean he can’t care about you.
Don’t you believe in love at first sight?
”
Rosie reloaded her roller and turned back to the door.

“I do, it’s just, after Rich,
I’m scared.
I don’t want to believe I can fall in love
again
with someone
who might turn out to actually be
good and decent.
I’m afraid he’ll turn out to be another
mistake.”
Andy grimaced at her
words.
They were harsh and ugly.
She hated that she thought that way now, but she did.
Once could be called an accident, twice there was just no cause for it.
In her opinion that was just stupidity.

“You have to take chances in love.
You never know what’s going to happen if you don’t give it a shot.
You don’t want to be some lonely old woman with a dried up…”

“Rosie!
I swear you have such a dirty mouth.”
Andy shoo
k her head as she finished the H
.

“
I was gonna’ say hoo hoo.
I’m just saying give him a chance even if that means having phone sex
with him.”
Rosie finished the R
.

“Fine.
I’ll try.
I just hope Rich stays away.
I hate having him in my
life
all the time.”
Andy worked on the
O
.
W
hat
would giving Ian a chance mean?
Opening her heart and allowing a man she hardly knew inside.
Taking that risk with herself all over again, mentally and physically.
Trusting again.
It h
ad been a long time since she’
d left Rich, but her arm tingled faintly about the final straw.
She just hoped he didn’t escalate into violence again.

It took Andy and Rosie an hour to finish the primer.
They put on two coats because the red bleed through the first one.
Then
agreed it would be best if to
let it dry before putting the paint on over it.

By the time
the
painting was
finished
and
she ate
dinner
it was nine o’clock.
Andy thanked Rosie for coming over and secured the gate and door after she left, then set the burglar alarm
that had been installed that morning
.
There.
T
he house was secure and Rosie had feed Dallas while she was over.
Andy showered and pulled on her tank top
and sleep shorts all while pictures of Ian danced in her head
.
She wanted to call him.

By the time she crawled in bed it was almost ten.
She picked up the phone and stared at it for a minute.
She wanted to talk to him.
His voice always had that sexy dreamy quality to it that wrapped around her body an
d made her heart beat faster.
She glanced at the sheet leaning against her lamp, but in reality she had memorized his number already.
Her heart beat faster as she dialed the phone, excitement dancing over her nerves, her body shaking just a little.
Would he be awake?

“Hello?”
His voice was just as deep and sexy as she remembered.

“Hi Ian, it’s…”

“Andy.”
He
said at the same time.
“I wasn’t sure you were going to call.
You hung up so fast last night I thought you had changed your mind about talking to me.”
He said it in a way that teased
,
but sounded hesitant to.

“No.
I still want to talk to you.
I just scared myself last night.
I’m not usually so in
tuned with someone so quickly.”
Andy ran her fingers through her damp hair.

“It’s…”
Ian cut himself off and Andy wondered what he was about to say.
“Maybe we just have compatible personalities.”
Ian groaned as he shifted.

“Hey, how are you feeling today? Any better?” Andy scooted down in her covers snuggling into the fluff
y
pink comforter.

“Yeah better, just a little sore still.
I’m a fast healer.
What about you?
How was your day today?”

“Oh
,
you know, work was busy.
Rosie came over and had dinner with me.”
Andy didn’t want to tell him about the sign
age on her garage door.
It embarrassed her
enough that the word had been there to begin with.

“What are you doing Friday after work?”

“Nothing.
Why?”
Andy’s ears perked up a
s her heart tripped over itself.
Is
he about to ask
ing
me
out?

“I thought maybe we could go to dinner and I could take you dancing.”

“
I’d love that.
I love to dance, but Rosie’s a bad partner, she always steps on my feet.”
Andy grinned happily.
She couldn’t
wait to go dancing with Ian.
Going out
would be so much fun.
“I took ballet and tap for years when I was a kid.
My mom loved to go to recitals.
She always had her video camera.”

“I bet you were adorable.
I can’t wait until I have kids and can do that kind of stuff.
They teach class
es
at the Haven, the community center I work at.
The kids are so cute.”
Ian sounded happy as he talked about the kids at the center.
“They like to practice in front of someone so sometimes they ask the staff to be the audience.
Speaking of kids my sister is having a baby.
Well, babies actually.
”

Andy loved the way Ian talked about the kids.
He sounded eager to have his own and that just score
d
him more points in Andy’s book.
“Your sister’s pregnant?
How far along is she?”

“She’s due any time now.
T
wins.
Just like
she and I
.
I can’t wait to spoil them rotten.”
He was definitely smiling now.

“You sound so happy.”
Andy could tell he loved his sister a lot.

“
I am.
Ivy and I are the babies.
This is a huge deal for our family, I mean for her to be having twins.
I just worry about her, she’s so small, only five foot three.
I don’t know where she’s keeping two babies.”

“The body is amazing.
Y
ou’d be surprised how it’ll accommodate a baby, or two.
What did you mean just like you and her?”
Andy liked that Ian was so concerned over his sister.
It made Andy happy that he was a caring person.

“One’s a boy and one’s a girl.
They know from the ultrasound.
They have pictures and showed me.
They look so weird in them, then Ivy got these three-D images done and you can actually see them, what they look like.
It’s unreal.
There like real people, just miniature.”
The sound of amazement in his voice made Andy giggle.
“What?
What’s so funny?”

“You.
You’re so cute.
Miniature people.”
Andy giggled again tickled by his comparison of the babies.

“Well, they are.”
He laughed then as well.
“My point was they’re these perfect little people, all formed and ready for the world, just in there baking, waiting for their time.”

“Has she picked out names yet?”

“Not that I know of.
They were arguing over the girl’s name.
Edge wanted something simple like
Amy
and Ivy was determined to have Aribella.
The fight’s been on ever since.
I think if I had kids I’d let my mate name them.”

“Mate?”
Andy was confused by that.
She’d never heard that term before.

“I meant wife.
Mate is a term my family uses a lot, as in life mate, soul mate.”

“T
hat makes sense.
I’ve just never heard it before.
That would be nice, but why would you let your wife name your baby?”
Andy understood now what he meant.

“I just mean the woman carries the baby for nine months, she should have more of a say so in what the name is.
That’s what I think anyway.
Edge will cave
eventually;
he’s a sucker for Ivy.”
Ian chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”
Andy listened to Ian’s deep voice as he laughed.
The sound was a deep rumble as it rolled over her body, making her nipples tighten.

“Edge, my brother in law.
You’ll have to meet Ivy and Edge sometime.
Edge is big and muscled up.
He’s built like a house.
And he’s all gruff and grumbling all the time.
Then he meets Ivy and now he’s all happy and hugs people all the time.”

“Is that a bad thing, him being happy?”
Andy listened intently, eagerly hanging on his every word and enjoying every minute of this conversation.

“No, of course not.
It was just strange to see him go from so gruff to so… I don’t know.
Soft.
You’ll have to meet Edge to understand what I mean.”
Ian shifted over the phone and this time there was no groan.

Andy smiled happy at the sign he was better.

“So.”
Andy was quiet suddenly as the silence stretched between them.

“Where are you?”
Ian’s voice dropped a little.

“In my bed, under the covers.”
Andy smiled a little knowing
where this was about to l
ead.

“What are you wearing?”

“A gray tank top and some black sleep shorts.
Not very sexy I’m afraid.
I just got out of the shower.”
Andy glanced down at the covers that were pulled up to her chin covering her body as if she hid from prying eyes.

“
No,
tank tops are sexy.
They stretch tight over breast that are free from bras.
Look and see I bet I’m right?”

Andy picked up the covers and peeked underneath.
Damn,
he’s
right.

“Yup.
Stretched tight, with my nipples like little pebbles underneath.”
Andy’s face and chest heated as she said it.

“Oh, really?
And why would they be hard?”

Andy kept quiet.
What should she say?
She could just tell him he turned her on.
Or she could play hard to get and act like nothing was wrong at all, but what fun would that be?

“Probably because I’m turned on.”
Andy held her breath as she waited to hear what Ian had to say.

“Turned on?”
His voice deepened again into a rough caress.
“Why are
you
turned on?”

“Your sexy voice turns me on.
I love to listen to you talk.”
Andy slid her hand over her breast and her nipple hardened even further.

“Just to hear me talk?
Or is it the things I say to you?
Do you like it when I talk dirty to you?”

“Yes.
I love the pictures you paint with
y
our words.
They make me feel like you’re here with me, touching me.
Will you touch me, Ian?”
Andy rubbed her breast in her hand squeezing gently imagining it was Ian.