Lunar Mates 1: Under Cover of the Moon Read Free

I'll join you."
    They carried their small dessert plates and coffee mugs to a table by the front window. Meg bit into the éclair, closing her eyes in appreciation as the chocolate hit her system. It was rich and sweet, a sensual treat she should indulge in more often. She had a sudden image of Darius licking a line of chocolate off her stomach and opened her eyes in shock. She had to get this Darius thing out of her system.
    “Heard from Summer?” she asked, needing to change the subject in her own mind.
    “Yes. Got a postcard from Wyoming, I think.” Tara laughed. “I can't keep up with her anymore."
    Summer was Meg's other cousin, and though none of them carried their grandmother, Tinnie's, last name, the town knew them as the Deveau girls. They'd all spent half their lives in Tinnie's house on the lake; Summer and Tara after their parents died, and Meg after Tinnie died. With a six year age difference, Summer and Tara had been the much admired and imitated older sisters Meg had always longed for. As adults, Tara and Meg had stayed in town. Meg took over her father's bar when her parents retired and Tara struck out on her own with the bakery. Summer, though, became a zoologist and was often out of town for long stretches.
    “The house is selling this week,” Meg said softly.
    Her eyes sad, Tara nodded.
    “It's better this way. None of us are going to live in it. You and I have our own places, and Summer's never here.” Tara shrugged. “It's better to sell it than leave it empty."
    “I guess,” Tara answered, her eyes downcast as she studied her coffee dregs, obviously trying to squash the pang of guilt selling Tinnie's house gave her.
    They changed the subject to mutual friends and Tara brought up the latest community news. A man was discovered mauled to death in the swamps not far from Meg's house. The game warden was blaming the grisly death on a bear and had launched a hunt for it. It was a measure of how much Meg had isolated herself, that she'd missed something so major.
    A frisson of fear skittered up her spine at the thought of how close the body had been found to her home. The house was her haven. In her self-imposed isolation, she wasn't assaulted by other people's thoughts or insights into a future she didn't want to explore. There were some things you just didn't want to know about your fellow townspeople.
    But in the last few weeks the house had seemed to grow too isolated, or maybe just too lonely. Maybe she should take Tara up on her offer of her couch for a few days, because with the sudden clarity of her Gift, she knew the bear incident wasn't a bear at all.
    The back of her neck tingled and she was certain someone was watching her. Again. For days the feeling of being observed had come and gone, and it was getting damned old. She turned and looked out the window, but only saw the usual ebb and flow of pedestrian traffic on the town's sidewalks. The feeling faded after a few minutes.
    Darius. She scrunched her brow in irritation. He should just come in. Mentally she rolled her eyes. After ignoring him, refusing to take his calls, and avoiding work to keep him at bay, it was no wonder he didn't. The real question was why she suddenly wanted to see him. The story about the bear attack must have me nervous. That's all .
    Thrusting Darius from her thoughts, she rose, gathered the dishes and took them to the sink through the swinging kitchen door. She still had time to explore some of the shops and catch up on paperwork back at the bar. She planned to take advantage of it. It beat sitting and brooding about dark and mysterious strangers and the delicious things one could do to her body.
    Meg said goodbye to Tara and stepped outside. She turned in the direction of a little art shop, which was more a curiosity shop with interesting little finds. On the walk over she stopped and gossiped with friends. The bear attack was the most recurring theme, and everyone expected some insight from her. She snorted.