Blood Moon (Silver Moon, #3) - By Rebecca A. Rogers Page 0,2

personal heaven? It’s pretty close to what I’ve always imagined.

But then reality sets in when I realize we have some serious work to do, and playtime shouldn’t be at this exact moment.

“Ben,” I murmur, barely a whisper off my tongue. “Ben, we can’t do this right now. We have to find food and fresh water and figure out—”

“Mmm . . .” he hums against my neck, sending an involuntary shiver up my entire body, from toes to scalp. Goosebumps raise my skin, as if they’re saying, We weren’t expecting that.

“You’re distracting me,” I say, making a half-assed attempt at sliding out from underneath his body, but his weight is too heavy, and he purposely presses me harder against the dirt.

“That’s kind of the point,” he replies. Tongue tracing my mouth, he uses it then to part my lips and explore the inside languorously. Each new probe and touch ignites a slow burn in my stomach. My heart’s steady beat has now been replaced with rapid throbbing, and it’s all I can do not to tear his shirt off completely. But when he begins steadily rocking back and forth, I almost explode.

“Okay, stop!”

He jerks his head back in response. “What’s wrong?”

“We have to keep our heads on straight, Ben. We can’t do this, not until we have a plan and are comfortably situated.”

Ben rises to his knees. “You’re killing me, Candra. You really are. We finally have some alone time and all you can think about is our next plan of action. We’ll have plenty of instances to work on it. Trust me.” He pushes himself off the ground and stands. Offering me his hand, he tugs me up alongside him.

I brush myself off and reply, “I know, but this is serious business. We have to find Alaric, Ulric, and Daciana. Who knows if anyone else is involved? I mean, we have to think about the bigger picture here.”

Ben, obviously annoyed by my awesome sexual-avoidance skills, waves my statement off like it’s no big deal. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.”

“Fine.” I stomp off in the direction we were originally headed, toward the forest. Ben or no Ben, I’m going to locate some food. My stomach hurts just thinking about Beth’s cooking, and how I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance to eat it again.

“So, you’re just going to leave me here?” Ben calls from behind me.

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever,” I mimic. He snarls and catches up to me before I’ve taken five more steps.

“You are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met, you know that?”

“And you are the most . . . the most . . . ugh! I don’t know. Something.”

He chuckles.

“I’m glad you think this is funny. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I want a shower. But guess what? I can’t have any of the above because we’re stuck in a time warp.”

“Candra,” he says, “relax. You worry too much. We’ll figure this out.”

The road curves in front of a small cottage on the edge of the farmland, but Ben and I press onward toward the trees—and there are so many of them. More, I’ll say, than what we have back in Hartford. It’ll be a lovely place to run freely, if we can ever find extra sets of clothing. Maybe we should just go naked instead.

Proud of my newly-formed idea, I smile. “I have a surprise for you later tonight.”

Ben’s eyebrows rise sky-high. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Will I like this surprise?” He cautiously observes me.

“Very much.”

“But you have to promise me one thing,” I say, holding up one finger.

He snorts. “I don’t like where this is going.”

“It’s not bad.”

“Okay, then. What is it?”

“Find a safe place to keep our clothes.”

He reaches over and snags me around the waist, pulling me against his chest. Our noses almost touch. “What is brewing in that pretty little head of yours?”

“I told you,” I say, “it’s a surprise. You’ll just have to patiently wait and see.”

Once I’m freed from his clutch, we venture farther and farther into the woods. At this point, I have no clue if we’ll ever find our way out again. It doesn’t matter, though, as long as we rely on our heightened senses.

Not long after our search begins, Ben finds a bush with non-poisonous berries. Honestly, I’m surprised there are any left in this cold weather. But it’ll be enough to sustain us through the night. We eat until our stomachs are satisfied, and bundle the remainder in the scooped-up bottom of our T-shirts.

Halfway back to the open fields, the sun sets