Beyond Moonlight Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t see him? Shane was almost always the tallest person in the room.
    He shook his head. Well, it didn’t matter. If Shane was occupied elsewhere, that meant Nick was free to slip through the nearest set of French doors onto the veranda without worrying about his brother coming after him.  
    A few seconds later, Nick was outside. The crisp, cold air sobered him a tiny bit. He leaned back against the wall and took in the snow-covered landscape while he dug into his jacket pocket for his snuff bullet. It was technically designed for snorting tobacco but it worked just as well for coke, and it was a hell of a lot more convenient than dragging around a baggy with a razorblade, a straw, and a mirror.    
    He’d just twisted a dose into the chamber and lifted the bullet to his right nostril when there was a sudden noise around the corner from where he stood. Fuck! Nick jerked back, further into the shadows and away from the yellow light spilling from the set of doors he’d come through a few minutes before. He hastily shoved the bullet into his pants’ pocket and hoped that whoever had come onto the veranda stayed on the other side. He wasn’t in the mood to explain why he was standing out there alone in the dark.
    “Why’d you drag me out here, baby?” a voice asked suddenly. “It’s freezing.”
    Nick cringed. Double fuck. That was his brother’s voice. Dammit. Shane was the last person he wanted to see right then.  
    “I just wanted a couple minutes alone with you,” he heard Jesse reply. “It feels like we’ve barely talked all day.”  
    Shane laughed. “I know what you mean, but someone’s gonna come looking for us any second.”
    “Well, kiss me before someone shows up then.”
    Nick rolled his eyes. Goddamn they were cheesy. The only thing cheesier would’ve been if they’d actually had a Christmas wedding like they’d first considered, but Nick had been spared that by a week. He planned to be drunk off his ass on Christmas and as far away from Jesse and Shane as possible. Maybe a month in Hawaii would help him get rid of the ever-present queasy feeling that had settled into his stomach and set up shop after he’d learned of Kayden Berlin’s true identity last summer.
    A few beats of silence passed and then Jesse spoke again. “Do you miss them, Shane? Your family? When we were standing up there earlier, I wondered for a second if you were sad that they weren’t here.”
    “My family is here, babe. You, Nicky, Em, the boys. You are my family.”
      Nick drew in a slow breath. He hadn’t thought about that at all—whether Shane might miss their mom and dad and the other people who would’ve been in attendance if their family hadn’t been so entirely fucked. He was glad that Shane seemed to look at it the same way he did. Those people had stopped being their family a long time ago.
    “I know.” Jesse’s voice sounded thick. “But I just…I wish things had been different for you. I wish that—”  
    “Don’t,” Shane said softly.  
    Nick couldn’t say what compelled him to do it, but before he even realized what was happening, he was moving past the French doors and peering slowly around the corner of the house. Shane and Jesse stood a few feet away, in a pool of light from inside the ballroom. Shane had Jesse’s face cupped in his hands and his thumbs were brushing across Jesse’s cheeks. Nick could only see Shane’s profile, so he couldn’t read his brother’s expression, but when Shane spoke again, his voice was filled with a tenderness so unlike anything Nick had ever heard from Shane before that it sent a jagged bolt of pain through his chest.  
    “I love you, Jess. I love you so fucking much.”
    Shane leaned down to kiss Jesse and Nick forced himself to look away. He backed up a few steps, unable to stand the sight of them, refusing to acknowledge the inexplicable tightness in his throat or the hot sting in his eyes. As quietly as he could, he twisted open the