Night Resurrected (53 page)
to the Jarrid stone . . . without thinking
and without wrapping it in asbestos. I
can only guess, but I think they must have
reacted with each other and . . . wow.”
“Wow is right.”
He slid his arms around her and
pulled her close, then, looking down at
her, eased away. “Aw, Remy, I’m so
sorry,” he said, his brows furrowing
with chagrin.
“It’s all right,” she said. “You’ve had
a lot to work through. I knew—”
“No, no . . . no that.” He was grinning
again. It was as if once released, his
smile could no longer be contained. “I’m
sorry about that,” he said, and gestured
to the front of her darling new sundress
. . . which was now black with soot
where he’d grabbed her.
He brandished the hand that had been
holding the crystal, and she saw that the
blackened flesh was already peeling
away, and that the skin on his wrist and
arm was puckered.
Remy couldn’t quite hide her cry of
dismay. After all, it was her new dress.
She’d worn it once. She shook her head.
Life with him would never be easy.
But . . . oh, life with him would be
wonderful.
O
nce he’d made his point, Wyatt
collected the crystal, fisting it in his
phoenixlike hand as the spectators
gawked.
He walked over to Liam Hegelson,
who prudently backed away from the
proximity of the stone, and said, “Here’s
how it’s going to be. You remember
M.A.D.—from your history lessons,
wayyy back before you destroyed the
fucking world? The Cold War?”
Hegelson, whose face had gone rigid
and a little frightened, replied, “Yes, of
course. Mutually Assured Destruction.
The U.S. had the bomb, and so did the
Soviet Union. So neither of them were
going to use it, knowing that the other
would do the same and both would be
destroyed.”
“Exactly. So this little gem,” Wyatt
said with a steely grin, “is going to be
kept in a very special place inside Envy.
If there is any breath of a threat from you
or your . . . minions—living, immortal,
or undead—the crystal gets annihilated.
Instantly. And you know what happens
then. Understand?”
Hegelson glared at him. “How do I
know you won’t just go ahead and
destroy it anyway?”
“I already had the chance. Unlike you
and yours, I’m not into genocide. Even to
protect the ones I love. And as you can
see . . . there’s no one else who can get
close enough to the stone but me. You’ll
just have to trust me.” Wyatt bared his
teeth in a very unfriendly smile.
“Very well,” Hegelson said. And
with that he turned and stalked away,
calling his men to follow him.
“And that,” murmured Wyatt, “is the
end of that. At least for a while.”
Amid the sound of Humvee engines
starting up and the rumble as they drove
away, Wyatt walked over to Ian. “I’m
not certain whether I should thank you or
beat the hell out of you. So maybe it’s
best if you be on your way. You’ll never
get the crystal, and you sure as hell
won’t get her.”
Ian gave him a cool smile. “If I’d
wanted her, I could have had her. But as
it is, I wish you the best. Both of you.”
He turned and walked away.
“I
t took me a long time to fall in love
with you,” Remy said, teasing her finger
through the patch of hair on Wyatt’s
chest. “You were such a jerk.”
“I believe the word you preferred
was dickhead.”
“Right. You wouldn’t even tell me
your name when you were trying to keep
me from leaving Envy.” She yanked
gently at a few hairs for emphasis.
“I was pissed at you. The last time
I’d seen you, you put a damned bullet in
the wall above my shoulder.”
“I told you not to move, and you did.
I wanted you to know I wasn’t playing
around.”
“I
breathed
.”
“So you say. I think you were about
to lunge at me and try to disarm me. You
had that look in your eye.”
His lips twitched. “I would have
succeeded if you didn’t have such a
happy trigger finger.”
“So I was
right
! You were testing
me.”
“Damn straight. I don’t like anyone
pointing a gun at me. Even you.” He
combed his fingers through her loose
hair, then gave his own little yank.
“Ow.” She smiled and kissed his
jaw. Bliss. Absolute bliss. For the first
time she could remember, Remy felt
safe. Relaxed. And
home
.
“But it wasn’t until you threw that
damned snake at me that I realized what
a piece of work you were,” he said, still
playing with her hair.
“Is that when you fell for me?”
He shook his head, seemingly
distracted by the way her dark hair
looked against the pale skin of her
breast. He stroked his hand gently over
skin and hair, making the two textures
slide against each other. She gave a
luscious shiver as he said, “Hell, no.
You just made me more annoyed. I
almost fell on my ass down those stairs.
Could have broken my neck.”
“So you’ve claimed. But it wasn’t a
very big snake, there were only a few
stairs . . . and you’re much more
coordinated than that,” she said, arching
toward him a little. She smiled in
gratification when his gaze shifted down
to her breast and he leaned in toward
her.
There was silence for a while,
broken only by the soft sounds of gentle
suction, the quiet, delicate smacks of
mouth to mouth. A soft sigh, a low groan.
When he pulled back, using his
tongue to take a quick swipe at the
corner of her mouth, Wyatt said, “When I
found you . . . under the truck, I was still
pretty pissed off at you. Especially when
you took one look at me—through your
puffy, black eyes in a battered face—and
said ‘You’ through your cut and swollen
mouth. Like you’d’ve been happier to
see anyone else but me—when you
couldn’t even stand up.”
“You just kept showing up—how
could that be? The fact that you were the
one to find me . . .”
“That was all Dantès.”
“Well, he wouldn’t have been there
to find me if you hadn’t had him with
you. And besides, you didn’t seem
pissed. You were . . .”
“The word is horrified.” All of the
gentle teasing left his voice and he
tightened his arms around her. “It’s a
wonder—a miracle—that you survived
. . . both physically and emotionally.
That you had room for . . . this. With
me.”
She buried her face in that warm
section of his neck and throat, drawing
in the familiar, comforting smell of him.
“I love you,” she said. “So much. But
you were a dickhead for a long time.”
The side of his face moved against
her temple as he smiled. “And you were
a pain in the ass.”
“And then we fell in love.”
JOSS WARE has an English degree and
an MBA from the University of
Michigan. After more than fifteen years
in sales and marketing, she owned her
own business and worked in a variety of
roles for two startup companies. She’s
traveled to London, Paris, and Tahiti,
and currently resides with her family
near Ann Arbor, where she writes full-
time.
Joss loves to hear from her readers,
and encourages them to visit her website
for updates and sneak peeks of future
Envy books.
www.joss-ware.com
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Night Resurrected
Night Forbidden
Night Betrayed
Abandon the Night
Embrace the Night Eternal
Beyond the Night
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
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NIGHT RESURRECTED. Copyright © 2013 by Joss
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