Once in a Blue Moon: Beaux Rêve Coven, Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

inward. The ground shifted then settled. And still, Ethan could see into the circle.
    “Looks like the spirits don’t mind us being here,” Renner said, grinning.
    “It’s bright inside the circle. The women won’t be able to see past it. Let’s get closer.” They both crouched and ran to a grassy hummock before settling on their bellies again to watch.
    This close, Ethan could clearly see the women’s expressions as they began to move, spaced apart to ring the tree. They swayed to some inborn music, supple as willows, arms raised.
    His gaze clung to Bryn. Her eyes were closed, her hands beginning to flow over her skin, touching her breasts, sweeping down her belly to cup her mound and then floating away as though bathing in the torchlight.
    And then the women moved, all in concert, outside the fiery ring. They stood beyond the shelter of the branches in the silvery moonlight. Arms raised, they turned slowly, moonlight filtering over their pale skin, seeming to sink into them, giving them a luster like the surfaces of pearls.
    Again, they moved in the large circle, spinning slowly, dancing on tiptoe as they reached toward the starry sky.
    He’d witnessed the drawing of the moon before in a far more serious ceremony where the witches of the king’s council members had sought added powers for a specific purpose. But what he witnessed now was more beautiful. A communion with the moon. Natural, unselfish and so graceful his body hardened with desire.
    A prurient response, he knew, but his nature was ruled by the basest of instincts—a need to feed, to sleep, to fight and fuck.
    The women halted and opened their eyes. They gazed upward, reaching toward the moon.
    Bryn halted nearest to where he and Renner lurked. Her eyes were dark and gleaming. Her deep breaths shivered through her frame, her full breasts stretched, nipples peaking. A sheen of moisture glistened on her thighs.
    “Mother of all life, we beseech you.
    You are the wind in the trees,
    the sparkling water, the licking flame.
    You seed our earth, cloak our skin,
    fill our bellies and our souls.
    Your blessings we rejoice.
    We serve, not from fear, but from choice.
    And now, we seek a boon,
    not for power or for gain.
    Goddess, hear our dreams.”
    Ethan held his breath, waiting to hear what Bryn most desired. But she remained silent, closing her eyes again. All the women stood still as statues, thoughts apparently turning inward.
    A breeze filtered through the trees and grew stronger, making branches sway. The torches flickered and slowly blew out, one by one.
    The women stood clothed only in moonlight, their hair whipping around their shoulders.
    And then the wind died. The women awoke from their trances and glanced around their circle, sharing happy smiles.
    All but Bryn, who stared forward, a frown marring her dark brow as she leaned toward him, staring straight at him.

Chapter Three
    Bryn pressed her knuckles into the bread dough, putting all her strength into squeezing the air from it. Much like she wished she could do to a certain nosy man.
    Ever since last night, she’d been angry. At herself for her lapse of good sense. At him for being a pervert.
    What he’d seen wasn’t something witches shared with humans. Generations of self-preservation lessons handed down from mother to daughter about witch hunts and public shunnings were reason enough to be concerned. If he’d come armed with a camera or a cell phone, the damage could be so much worse.
    And it was all her fault. She’d cast the spell to draw him to her. To fan his interest. He’d been unable to resist following her. Was probably beating himself up for acting like a Peeping Tom.
    Ethan didn’t strike her as the kind of man to spy on a woman. He appeared stalwart, trustworthy, or maybe she didn’t understand a thing about him and painted him with qualities she admired.
    The only thing she knew as truth about him was that he was the most ruggedly handsome man she’d ever seen. From his