Jessica Andersen - Storm Kissed

I dont know about you guys, but I love a bad boy, especially one who lives by his own code of honor. Dez is one of those guysexcept he went off the rails a while back and broke the heart of the woman who was, and will always be, his soul mate. Whats more, Reese Montanaa former bounty hunter who is a badass in her own rightisnt the kind to forgive and forget. So when theyre reunited, major sparks fly.

Please join me now as these two butt heads, lock lips, and try to figure each other out while racing to discover the secret of the serpent bloodline, and kicking some serious ass in the process.

For new readers and fans alike, theres a glossary and list of characters at the back of the book. I hope youll check it out.

To explore the Nightkeepers online world and sign up for Nightkeeper News, please visit www.JessicaAndersen.com. Also, you can friend me on Facebook to get a look at my oh so Freudian typos and other authorial misadventures!

My heartfelt thanks to Deidre Knight, Claire Zion, Kara Welsh, Kerry Donovan, and others too numerous to name for helping me bring these books to life; to J. R. Ward for being my sounding board; to Suz Brockmann for being a mentor and an inspiration; to Sally Hinkle Russell for reminding me to keep my eyes up and my heels down; and to my family, friends, and many e-friends for always being there for a laugh or (cyber) hug.

And thank you, dear reader, for picking up Reese and Dezs story. I hope you love it as much as I doIm not much of a weeper, but the ending of this one gets me every time.

Jessica (aka Doc Jess)

Bound by blood and magic, the Nightkeepers must defend mankind from the rise of terrible demons. In order to reach their full powers, they must find and bond with their gods-destined mates . . . who arent always who or what they seem.

With their ancient enemy reincarnated in the form of a brutal mage named Iago, their gods trapped in the sky by the destruction of a critical Mayan ruin, and people disappearing mysteriously, the magi need all hands on deck. So when one of their owna powerful and dangerous mage named Mendezvanishes without a trace, the Nightkeepers king does the only thing he can think of . . .

Ten years ago

Denver

Reese Montana had survived her parents divorce, a grabby-fingered stepfather, and hitting the gang-infested streets at fifteen. She had survivedbarelybeing targeted by the leader of one of those gangs, and had turned police informant to help bring him down. But now, at nineteen, she was sick of surviving. She wanted to live. And, damn it, she wanted to do it with the man who was squared off opposite her in the main room of their shared two-bedroom, looking like shed just gut-shot him.

Reese, he grated. Dont do this.

Mendez meant it as an order, but it came out more like a plea. His pale hazel eyes slid from hers, but he didnt move, just stood theresix seven worth of wide-shouldered, rawboned energy wearing jeans and a leather jacket he shouldnt have been able to afford, with an angular face that hadnt been carded in years, though hed only just turned twenty-one.

His big body vibrated with the same tension that ran through hersthe need to fight, to kick ass, to burn off the heat that had been growing between them for months now. But although he would fight for her, fight with her, he wouldnt fight her. His control, like his protection, had been his promise. And she was sick of both.

Sorry. Ive had it with your timetable. She kept her voice dead level, knowing that if she got shrill and snippyor worse, let him sense her nerveshe would find a way to put her back in the little sister box inside his rock-hard head. But she wasnt his sister, hadnt ever been.

Closing the distance between them, she splayed her hand on his chest as she had often done in their early days together, when they had huddled in abandoned squats, sharing body heat and vigilance. His heartbeat was fast against her palm, his chest a solid wall of muscle.

Heat pooled alongside her nerves, and her stomach gave a little flutter. She knew his body completely, yet she didnt. The shared-warmth cuddles had ended a year ago when theyd finally started making enough to get into an official flop with actual utilities, a signed lease, and the locks hed installed on the insides of both their bedroom doors. And she was sick of that, too. More, she was afraid that if she didnt do something, he was going to decompress. Hed been driving himself too hard lately, straying way too close to the line between right and wrong. The thought of him going all the way over that line scared her worse than the idea of being rejected.

Almost.

Dont push me, Reese. His words vibrated against her palm, setting up resonant quivers inside her. Not He bit it off, but she heard it anyway: Not now.

Why not now? She wasnt quite brave enough to wrap her arms around his neck, though she badly wanted to, had envisioned herself doing just that when shed played it out over and over again in her head. Instead, she shifted to grip the edges of his leather, leaving a scant inch of space between their bodies. Weve got jobs and a place of our own.

Outside it was night-black and pissing rain, cold and hard-edged with the chill of early fall. The sharp drops hammered against the rooms single window, but inside the apartment they were warm and dry.

He shook his head. Its not enough.

This is what weve got. This is our life. She tightened her fingers on his jacket, willing him to listen to her, to really hear her this time. Maybe in a perfect world things wouldve been different. You wouldnt have been raised by your crazy-assed godfather. My dad wouldnt have left, or my mom wouldve believed me rather than Number Two. But thats not the way it happened. We got through it. We made this. Her gesture encompassed the two of them and the space around them. The three-room apartment, with its crappy flooring, Salvation Army decor, and Febreze-defying funky smell, still felt like heaven to her.

His look labeled it a dump. You deserve better. But then his eyes softened and his voice dropped an octave. Damn it, Reese, you deserve the dream. We both do.

But the fantasy of escaping to a place with wide-open skies had been just talk, a story she would tell when he fell silent. She hadnt grown up like him, didnt know the things he did, so shed taken a picture that was burned into her brain and turned it into an imaginary world. For her, it had been a way to avoid the reality of growling stomachs, frozen toes, and constant vigilance. For him, it had become a goal. Someday Ill give you a palace, he would say. But she wasnt a princess and she didnt want him to surround her with stone walls and armed guards. Which was exactly what he would do if he got the chance.

Hed been just three when his parents and baby sister died in a horrible fire, and he still had nightmares about being dragged away by his godfather, Keban, who had spent the next dozen years alternating between teaching him the history of warfare and subjecting him to bizarre, often bloody rituals. So she got why he didnt want to let his guard downeven with heruntil they were far away from the gang that had made their lives, and the neighborhood, a living hell. He wanted to feel safe. More important, he wanted to know that she was safe, that he wouldnt lose her the way he lost his family. And having seen too many other street kids start with big dreams only to wind up with a kid or two of their own, stalled in a crappy apartment only a couple of streets away from where they started, he didnt want things to go any further between them until they were someplace better.