Page 10 of Payne's Envy

Hades!

When I found the demon who did that to me, I was going to give him a piece of my mind!

Sure, it’d been over a century since I slept with someone, but it wasn’t like the sex was good or beautiful. It was out of anger and hurt by Payne’s sudden change of attitude. The regret was instant. Giving my body away to a vampire when I was eighteen because Payne rejected me. The tears wanted to spill even after all that time. The regret still lingered. It wasn’t Payne’s fault that he didn’t love me that way, but it had felt like it.

Back then, Payne was always by my side. There was nowhere Payne didn’t go that I didn’t follow. Ever patient and watchful, Payne would offer his hand or aid me if the situation required, much to my brothers’ displeasure. Payne used to smile so much, especially at me. My memory couldn’t lie to me so wickedly. The crinkles around his smiling eyes, his outstretched hand, and the patience he had with me. Where did it go?

If I had known he’d never smile at me again, I would have cherished the moments more. Especially that last time.

I hadn’t noticed his rigid posture and his inability to meet my eyes that night I tried to confess my love to him. I had it planned the second I graduated from high school, but he never let me get the words out. Despite my age, I always knew Payne was the man for me. He wouldn’t see it that way. Those days were when he started to ignore me.

I remembered one evening perfectly when I was sixteen because it had killed my soul to wait on Payne to finally notice I was no longer a child.

I was knee deep in a watery pond with Payne. The ground underneath was a vibrant pink, casting a unique glow on his skin. Heavens, he had been so handsome then, too. The muscles in his stomach and arms had rippled as he pulled an enormous fish out, urging me to do the same with his loud cackling. No matter how much he baited me into doing things I didn’t like, I still did them anyway, caught in a spell from his mischievous smile. When I went to grab a fish, I lost my footing on a slippery rock. I was only under the water for a second before Payne yanked me out by my wrist.

“What am I going to do with you? All that power and you can’t stop yourself from falling.” Payne laughed.

Standing there, chilled to the bone in a white T-shirt that clung to me, was the moment I silently begged for him to look. His smile faded as his gaze drifted down, down. For the first time, I believed he noticed I wasn’t a child following him around anymore, but a woman. I visibly saw him swallow before he turned away immediately.

“You should change,” his voice came out raspy.

I didn’t listen. Instead, I moved and nearly slipped again. “Ow.” A slight pinch stung the bottom of my foot. My flip-flips tore. The cut would heal in seconds. We knew that, but he still scooped me out of the water, propped me against a tree, and checked my foot.

His smoky scent of him made me blush and avert my gaze. My heart was in a frenzy. He surprised me when he didn’t tell me to use my power. To change into dry clothes. Or to fade home. Instead, he turned and offered me his back, even though my foot had already healed. He must have felt my heart against his back the two-hour walk it took him to take me home. But he did it, his grip never slipping.

“Joy,” Payne’s deep, angry voice pulled me from the memory. “Answer me.”

By how clenched Payne’s jaws were, I believed he tried for my attention several times before I noticed. “What is it?” I whispered, unused to having his focus anymore.

“Your dad has this warlock watchingyou?”

“Yes,” Derrick intervened. “I believe I’m capable of answering.”

Payne’s neck crackedas his head whipped toward the warlock.

I couldn’t help but flinch.

Payne’s body shook with a rage I’d never witnessed from him before. “I can’t get a read on you,Derrick!”

“Chill, will ya?’ Derrick muttered. “Reapers can’t read everyone’s past. Grim brought me here. That speaks for itself.” The warlock glanced at me. “Shall we head out, Joy?”

“She’s not going anywhere with you.”

The floor creaked by the doorway. Maureen stepped into the room. Brows furrowed and arms crossed below her breasts, she looked at Payne. “Shouldn’t you be with Prudence, Payne?”

A vein in Payne’s forehead pulsed angrily. “Shouldn’t you and Jackal be taking care of the plaques and other sicknesses?”

Jackal was the only one able to heal the sickness wreaking havoc on the humans because of the end, so Maureen and he spent a lot of time in the human world.

“If Payne and Derrick want to switch, I’m okay with that,” I interjected. “I’m more than fine with Payne following me around.” I let my stare rove over Payne, from the bottom to the very top of his massive form, making sure he caught me doing it. Putting myself out there to Payne over and over was as simple as breathing. His aloofness broke me.

My body locked up, waiting for him to do as he always did when I wanted him around.Walk away.

Payne’s eyes moved over me, slowly, deliberately, in the same way I did to him. The air got trapped in my lungs as that heat came hurdling back. Then something changed in his eyes. A flicker so quick that a normal person might have missed it. His pupils changed… To what, I couldn’t be sure. A saw hint of yellow. Or was it orangish? Definitely brighter than a normal color.

Payne didn’t get a chance to reject me because Maureen stepped in front of him. “Be a good Reaper and go protect my other sister.” When Payne glared, she continued, “If Dad wanted you to watch Joy, that’s who you would be with.”

With a curse, Payne walked toward me. My body went lax, and all I wanted to do was curl up against him like a cat. I didn’t care that Payne was angry. He never approached me unless necessary, and there he was, pinning me with another stare, coming to me. Not me to him.

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