Chapter 19
19
RYLAN
I was dreaming. I had to be. I was back in Vegas, an alarm waking me from a dead sleep, and Joss was gone. Our date had ended the same way as our marriage—with her disappearing from my life. The alarm sounded again—the strangest alarm I’d ever heard—and I jolted awake. Sunlight shone in through the single window with purple curtains, and I blinked hard, trying to chase away the dream. But chase it where?
It took me a moment of blinking and staring at that purple curtain before reality came back to me.
Joss’s apartment. Joss’s bedroom.
Joss’s body curled around me, cradling me as I went against everything I told myself for our date and fell right back under her spell.
And she was gone. Wasn’t she?
No. No, that was the dream. I turned my head. Found a toned and tanned leg stretched out across the bed next to me.
A leg attached to the woman I promised myself I wouldn’t sleep with last night.
I simultaneously wanted to cringe away at what I’d done and jump for joy because she hadn’t left me. This wasn’t three years ago, when I woke up in Vegas alone.
Although…
This was her apartment. Kinda hard to leave me when I was sleeping in her bed.
Shifting my body, I tilted my head up and found Joss sitting against her headboard. She had her other leg pulled up, her fingertip in her mouth as she watched something on her tablet. I reached my hand out and covered her bare thigh. Joss jumped, her attention snapping to me before a wide smile stretched across her face.
“You’re awake!” Her voice was loud—louder than it needed to be with us sitting so close.
But still, I returned her smile. “Morning, gorgeous.”
Her brow furrowed for a split second before she grinned and pulled her ear buds out of her ears. She set them on her table with her tablet, then leaned over me and cupped my cheek. “How’d you sleep?”
“Mmm. Great. Best I’ve slept in a long time.”
Except for that last little bit, the nightmare I’d been having just before I woke up.
“Me too.” She pressed her lips to mine, and I smoothed my hands down her body until I had a handful of her ass. I tugged and Joss shifted, tossing her leg over mine and climbing on board.
“Rylan.” She said it in a breathy whisper, her own hands roaming as she molded herself to me. Our tongues danced together, our mouths connecting as we rocked against each other. My dick grew dangerously hard, pinned between us as she ground her wet pussy against my thigh. But her kisses, her perfect, roaming hands, were stealing too much of my brain power to do anything about it.
Joss broke free from our kiss as her fingers curled around my length. “I want this.”
I managed a nod. I wasn’t about to deny her—not with how hard I was. I couldn’t deny I’d been thinking the same thing with the one brain cell she’d left me.
That cell couldn’t keep up with her though. She untangled our legs and got on her knees, pressing hot kisses to my chest before descending. She kissed her way down my abs, her hand stroking me before her thumb swiped across the precum pilled at my tip.
“I need this.” She murmured that to my dick before her tongue swept out and she licked me. I jolted—both at the feel of her and at the sound of the alarm from my dream.
She didn’t give me a chance to think about that sound. Joss covered the head of my dick with her mouth, sucking gently and driving me insane. She took in more, her hand gripping my shaft, stroking in perfect rhythm with each bob of her head.
She felt so good, I knew I wouldn’t last long. The only thing keeping me from coming down her throat when she swallowed against me was that sound again.
That infuriating sound.
Loud and obnoxious and not quite an alarm, but I couldn’t figure out what the hell made that noise.
“What is that?” I turned my head toward the window, glanced at her bedside table and the tablet sitting there.
“It’s just Frank,” Joss said before she latched onto me again, taking me deep into her throat.
I didn’t know who Frank was, but as he made that noise again, I couldn’t focus on Joss. Especially not as something tapped at the window as if it wanted to get in.
“What the hell?” I grabbed her under the arms, pulling her off me with a loud pop. My dick bobbed between us as I dragged her up to my face. “Who the hell is Frank?”
Her swollen lips turned down. “My crow bro.”
“Your crow… What the hell is a crow bro?”
Frank—or whatever it was—tapped at the window again. Joss rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
My dick protested as she climbed off me, throbbing as she covered her beautiful naked body in a light purple silk robe. It wasn’t until she disappeared out of the room that I was able to summon enough brain power to chase after.
Fuck. Is that how she got away? She cast some spell on me that left me unable to think while she ran out on me?
Stumbling from her bed, I snagged my underwear from the floor only to drop the sodden fabric back where it was atop my still-wet pants. I grabbed the sheet I’d been wrapped up in when I awoke, tearing it away from the mattress even as I was wrapping it around my waist, chasing after Joss’s shadow.
Chest heaving, I ran to the door, only to realize the chain lock was in place.
Had we locked it last night?
A noise behind me had me spinning in my place. My mouth dried up at the sight of Joss’s ass peeking out from under that purple silk. My dick pulsed as I caught sight of her bare pussy as she climbed out the?—
Holy shit! My heart kicked in my chest, kicked my ass into gear, because Joss was climbing out the goddamn window. I couldn’t let her leave, couldn’t let her fall. I raced to her, yelling her name as I grabbed her hips and held on tight, squeezing even harder as a flurry of black soared up into the sky and that sound—that annoying goddamn sound—sparked terror through my heart.
“Dang it!” Joss turned, pressing her hand against my chest, leaning into me as I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around her. But the smile on her face had my racing heart stuttering and confusion pummeling my head.
“The hell was that?” I asked, glancing over her shoulder to the empty sky beyond the window.
No. Not empty. I saw now what I hadn’t before. Outside the window was a fire escape. But the sight didn’t calm me.
“That was Frank!” Joss twisted, turning toward the window as much as she could while locked in my arms. “And he brought a friend.”
“Who the hell is Frank?”
Joss pointed up at the sky, at the giant black bird flapping in the air.
Crow bro.
As in, an actual crow .
That explained the noise.
She twisted away and bent at the waist, her ass coming uncomfortably close to my still-hard dick—considering what we’d been doing before the interruption, or what I’d seen under her robe as she climbed out the window—and when she stood again, she had a basket in her hands.
“Frank’s my crow bro.” Her smile lit her whole face. “He brings me trinkets in exchange for nuts.”
The trinkets, as I looked through the basket, appeared to be garbage. Shiny garbage. Anything from pop tabs to bottle caps, strips of metal and the occasional piece of wire. I picked up a flattened beer can that looked like it’d been hit by a BB gun.
“Nuts?”
Joss reached beside her and grabbed a can of peanuts from the table next to the window. “Unsalted peanuts.” She rattled the can. Outside, Frank and his buddies cawed.
Joss shook some peanuts free and held her hand out the window. After a minute, a huge crow came to the railing of her fire escape landing, tilting its head like he was asking her what the hell she was doing.
“Come on, Frank,” she said, a happy little coo in her voice, the kind you’d use on a baby or a dog. “It’s okay, he won’t hurt you.”
“Who won’t hurt him?”
“You, silly.” She didn’t turn to me when she said it, but she did bend out the window, shoving her ass back into my dick.
“Joss.” I gripped her hips and groaned at the reminder of what we’d been doing before Frank so rudely interrupted us. But that thought flew away as Frank opened his big-ass wings and hopped down from the railing, coming straight up to Joss’s hand. “Holy shit.”
“There you go, buddy,” she cooed again as the bird plucked a peanut out of her open palm.
“How’d you do that?” I asked, my voice just a whisper in her ear.
She nudged me with her cheek, her smile growing as Frank snagged another nut. “Lots and lots of patience.” She let out a sigh that felt weighted even though her smile held. I edged back, looking closer at her face.
“What’s that for?”
“Hmm?” Frank snagged the last nut and hopped back onto the rail. Joss turned to me, her smile faltering when she saw the serious look on my face. She brought her hand to my chest, dropping her attention to where her fingers splayed over my breastbone.
Then she swallowed hard.
“What’s the sigh for, baby?”
She licked her lips before she snagged the bottom one between her teeth. “Patience.” She lifted her gaze. “I’ve had it in abundance.”
“What do you mean?”
“It hasn’t been easy, Rylan. When I left home…” Her voice cracked and she dipped her chin. I took her free hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. “I had to leave everything behind. I had to change my name and leave my family and the few friends Peter allowed me to have. I’ve had no one here in Chicago. Not until I started working for Lee and Van took it upon himself to make me his friend.”
It was habit, the way my hand balled into a fist at the mention of Van. I liked him, I really did. Liked him before I knew of his budding friendship with my wife . But with Joss…
I couldn’t help the protective streak in me anymore than I could help the jealousy that raged inside of me at the thought of him touching her.
“Will you tell me what happened?”
Her face crumpled and her grip on my hand tightened like she was afraid to let go. For a moment, I was worried she wouldn’t go on. Worried she’d bolt on me and my heart that had been slowly binding itself together would be fractured into a million pieces again.
Joss sucked in a stuttering breath. “I left him. I left Peter.” Her voice was just a whisper as she turned her attention back to me. I could see glimmers of moisture in her eyes. “I was packing my things at his house, and he snuck in and hit my hand with a baseball bat.”
Everything in me wanted to pull her to me, to hold her and promise her it would be okay. But I couldn’t. I needed to know the real story. I needed her to tell me.
She flexed her hand in mine, but when I loosened my grip, she tightened hers once again. “I ran. He was going to kill me. He almost killed my friend when he tried to protect me. But I got out of the house and was driving away, and Peter chased me. Rammed into my bumper and pushed me off the road. My car rolled and landed upside down in a ravine. I fractured my wrist, and I thought I was going to die, Rylan. I thought…”
She swallowed a cry, tearing her eyes away as she tried to hide her face from my view.
I couldn’t let her. I cupped her chin, angling her back so I could see her. So she could see me. “What’d you think?”
Her bottom lip trembled and when she spoke, it was a broken whisper. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
Without warning, Joss jerked forward, tossing her arms around my neck.
“Leaving you was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. The only thing worse was staying with Peter.” She sucked in a breath, and it stuttered as she let it out. “I was scared. So scared.”
Not wrapping my arms around her wasn’t an option. I held her to me, but I couldn’t speak. I needed her to tell me what happened. And what the fuck I did wrong.
“I was scared of how you made me feel. Of what it would take to get away from Peter. I grabbed my things and left you, even though everything inside of me told me it was wrong. But I needed to get away from him, Rylan. I couldn’t stay with him anymore, and I couldn’t be with you until his hold over me was gone.”
His hold over her.
After Van showed me the articles telling what happened to her that night, I hadn’t stopped digging. I may have gone home, but only to get on my own computer to find out more about Peter Wright and Joslyn Ward.
He was nothing more than white trash, polished to uphold the name of his crooked as hell, piece of shit father. A man who, for all his good deeds, had a thousand skeletons knocking at his closet door.
Battery and attempted murder were just two of the misdeeds Peter and his father had in common. The corruption of the Wright family was so blatant and widespread, it was a wonder more people in their town didn’t point it out.
“Peter was arrested,” Joss continued, but only after her quiet cries had calmed, “but he was out of jail before Dakota even got out of the hospital. I had to hide. My best friend, Chey, had offered to let me stay with her, but Peter figured out where she lived and started harassing us both. He threatened to kill me. He said he’d finish what he started when he broke my hand, and I didn’t even make it to my final appointment to get my cast off before I had to run away.”
“The police wouldn’t do anything?”
She shook her head before burying her face against my chest. “They wouldn’t listen. Every time I called the cops, they showed up at Chey’s apartment with threats to arrest me for making false accusations against him. His dad had the police in his back pocket and there was no getting away. It was either stay there and die or cut ties with everyone I loved and run.”
“Jesus, Joss.”
“I didn’t know how to find you. But I remembered telling you I always wanted to come to Chicago. So I moved here and changed my name to the one I gave you, and I begged the universe to bring you to me.”
The universe.
She begged the universe.
Things started falling into place, things I hadn’t spent the time to figure out but that pecked at my unconscious like that damn bird pecked at the window.
On every table of Joss’s apartment, on nearly every shelf, sat stones of different sizes and shapes. Near the door, a hunk of jagged black stone sat beside a green one that looked like the jade at the cash register at my favorite Chinese restaurant. On the coffee table in the living room, a giant purple stone sat on a round, white disk. Over in the kitchen, a handful of orange and yellow crystals were clustered on the counter. And in her bedroom, there were stones in purple, brown, and pink.
The oddest of them all was sitting next to the fish tank—another disk with lines etched upon it, different colored stones sitting at points around the circle.
“Are you a witch?” It would certainly explain how she’d stolen my sanity from the moment I first laid eyes on her.
Joss laughed, and the sound had the corners of my mouth tilting up. “I’m not a witch.” She smoothed her hands up my chest, bringing her palms up to cup my cheeks. “But even if I was, I would have asked for you.”
I lifted one eyebrow, peering down at her bewitching face. “And the stones?”
That laughter again. She stole my fucking mind. “Crystals. I use them for meditation.” Her smile dropped. “It’s the only thing that helps my anxiety after the accident. Well, that and my fish tank and Frank.”
“Speaking of Frank.” I peered out the window. The bird was still sitting on the railing, its beady black eyes staring back at me.
“He’s harmless.” She lifted onto her toes, pressing a kiss to my lips.
“No, I meant…” I kissed her back, because why the hell wouldn’t I? “Can you show me more?”
“Right now?”
“Well, I mean?—”
“Because I can think of something else we could do…” She snaked her hand between us, her palm cupping my balls.
A moan ripped up my throat, and I grabbed hold of Joss’s hips, tugging her closer. “Yeah. Yeah, that works too. But…”
“But what?” she asked as she kissed along my jaw.
“But after? Can you show me more?”
Joss let out a giggle that had my cock hardening to the point of pain. “You got it, babe.”