BooksBarbecue
Back The Night and Its Moon
Chapters (64)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  6. Pronunciation Guide
  7. Prologue
  8. Part One
  9. One
  10. Two
  11. Three
  12. Four
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Eleven
  20. Twelve
  21. Thirteen
  22. Part Two
  23. Fourteen
  24. Fifteen
  25. Sixteen
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Twenty
  30. Twenty-One
  31. Twenty-Two
  32. Twenty-Three
  33. Part Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Part Four
  47. Thirty-Six
  48. Thirty-Seven
  49. Thirty-Eight
  50. Thirty-Nine
  51. Forty
  52. Forty-One
  53. Forty-Two
  54. Forty-Three
  55. Forty-Four
  56. Forty-Five
  57. Forty-Six
  58. Forty-Seven
  59. Epilogue
  60. Excerpt from The Sun and Its Shade
  61. The Night and Its Moon Playlist
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. About the Author
  64. Back Cover

She couldn’t look at him. It took her a while to whisper, “I…I’m sorry.”

“Oh, please don’t be. I’ve wanted to see you naked for years.”

She laughed through the discomfort, feeling the rush as the tension cracked between them. She smiled into his chest, chuckling. “Fuck you.”

“You sure did try.”

“You’re the bastard.”

“Always will be.”

Instead of pushing it away, she would face it. The sorrow, the humiliation, the pressure, the fear of abandonment poured out of her in hot, salty tears. He tucked her close to him and held her while she cried. After the single tear shed on her first day at Uaimh Reev, she had never let herself show weakness around any of the men. Years of tears spilled out, shaking her shoulders. The orphanage, the Madame, Nox, all of it crashed over her like the ocean’s waves until she had no more water left in her sea. The desperation she’d felt in the moments she’d thought the reevers had left her had been paralyzing. She had gone mad with the need to be loved by the only family she’d truly known.

But they were family. Not by birth but by rite, oath, and choice. What they had was stronger and deeper and more important than heritage. It couldn’t be broken by a mistake, or a perceived treachery, or a foolhardy attempt to use sex as a bandage. Ash didn’t release her, holding her as her tears broke. She wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse. A few ragged inhalations and exhalations punctured the noise of his calming shushes. And eventually, between his soothing, her tears, and the warmth of their skin, they fell asleep.

* * *

Morning light filtered in through the window, catching the dust in the air like ten thousand specks of gold.

She was the first one awake, stirring from a much-needed, dreamless rest. As she stared at the still-naked faeling in her bed, guilt itched her behind the ear. She fully understood what had possessed her to desire intimacy the night before, but this hadn’t been a union she’d truly wanted. Even in the heat of their embrace, he’d known it. Their flirtation and friendship had been an affable source of joy, of inspiration, and of kinship. She did love him, though not in the way a woman might love a man when standing naked before him and wrapping her legs around his waist.