After Glow by Jayne Castle Read Free Book Online Page B

did that go on?”
    Water ran in the bathroom for a moment.
    “The dinners with Mom stopped when she married a member of the Resonance Guild Council a few years later,” Emmett said after a while. “She was the one who ended the relationship. I got the impression there was a major battle of wills when she told him. Wyatt was not happy about it but in the end, he had no choice. When my mother makes a decision, she makes it stick.”
    “What about your own relationship with Wyatt? Did he continue to visit you?”
    “We stayed in touch. When I started to move up in the hierarchy of the Resonance Guild he gave me some pointers, taught me the ropes of Guild politics. But we had a major parting of the ways when he realized that I had my own ideas about the future of the Resonance Guild.”
    “What happened?”
    “Wyatt was furious when he found out what I planned to do with the organization. He was still locked into Guild traditions in those days. He figured that if I managed to restructure the Resonance Guild as a modern business enterprise, the rest of the Guilds would eventually follow. We had several extremely colorful discus-sions on the subject. He finally gave up trying to change my mind.”
    “Then you proposed to Tamara and dear old dad showed up at your engagement ball and stole your fiancée?”
    “To be fair, Wyatt’s wife had died the year before. As for Tamara, she had already decided to end our engagement because I had told her that I planned to step down from my position with the Guild. She just didn’t tell me until the morning after the reception.”
    “Heck of a morning-after surprise.”
    “My own fault. I should have seen it coming.”
    The shower went on in the bathroom, effectively cutting off all communication to and from the bedroom.
    Annoyed, Lydia scrambled out of bed, pulled on a robe, and stalked into the steamy bath. She pushed the curtain aside. .
    Emmett was sluicing himself off beneath a blast of hot water. She tried to ignore the fact that he looked awfully good naked and wet. Water gleamed on his broad shoulders.
    “It strikes me that Tamara’s position is in jeopardy again,” she said, raising her voice to be heard above the rushing water. “Her husband is in intensive care. If Wyatt doesn’t make it, she will no longer be Mrs. Guild Boss. On top of that, you are the new Guild chief. She is not going to be a happy woman. Makes it look like she chose the wrong man, after all.”
    “Tamara will have to worry about her own problems.” He reached for the razor. “I’m going to be a little busy for a while.”
    “You never got around to telling me why you don’t think that you’re in the same danger as Mercer Wyatt.”
    “He was fading fast because of the stuff they were pumping into him to control the shock and prep him for surgery. But the last thing he said to me before they wheeled him away was, Don’t let the Guild tear itself apart because of this. It wasn’t politics, it was personal .”
    “You mean he knows who shot him?”
    “I think so, but he didn’t tell me. He said he’d take care of it when he got out of the hospital.”
    A shiver went through her. “Great. Just great. We’re in the middle of a Guild family soap opera.”
    Emmett turned off the shower and grabbed the towel she held out to him.
    “When it comes to dysfunctional families,” he said, “I’ll put mine up against anyone’s, anytime.”
    ----
     

Chapter 5
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    She dreamed one of the Lost Weekend dreams.
    She fled down an endless corridor that glowed green on every side. There was no sound behind her, but she knew that her pursuers were back there in the miles of catacombs searching for her.
    She clutched something in one hand but she did not know what it was. She only knew that she dared not drop it.
    Then, without warning, she was no longer in a corridor but a vast chamber with a ceiling far higher than any she had ever seen underground.
    She was breathless. Her