by Paula Cox
Once they were hidden behind the walls, Lena saw the house righted. Viv sat on Artie’s lap and eased a glass of water down his throat as her fingers played about his chrome dome.
“What happened there?” Lena asked out of the corner of her mouth.
“Good things. I… Mom!”
Brutus supported Aggie on his arm, the rising sun hitting the copper tones left in her hair, and as soon as the woman saw her son, she pulled him into her arms and wept.
“My little man.”
“It’s over, Mom,” he told her. “Eric’s done his last dirty deal by this family.”
“Glad to hear that, Jackson.”
They shared a short embrace, but Aggie pushed back and looked into Lena’s eyes.
“Tell me you’re okay, too, Lena.”
She nodded as much, and Aggie gently kissed her cheek. Lena sensed that she wanted to hold her close, and she was ready to accept the woman’s arms when Milo entered the room with a cold beer sweating between his fingers.
“Everything is very okay!” he said as he beckoned Jax close to his side. Lena was reluctant to lose his hand, but she held still and listened hard as Jax laid out what had gone down in hushed tones, and at the end of Jax’s tale, Milo laughed and slapped the boy’s back.
“So let’s bury the ashes and dance on the fucker’s grave.”
A few of the other Silver Horses moved to make Milo’s words a reality as the man in charge stood toe-to-toe with Lena and pulled on his beer.
“Isn’t it a little early for that?” she asked.
“What can I say? Fresh out of champagne. Here.”
Milo handed her the bottle and folded his arms across his chest as he nodded his head.
“Not like you haven’t earned it,” he said. “You’re a lot of trouble. But it ain’t like you’re less than you’re worth.”
Lena sipped slowly, the brew beating against her brain, and she passed the bottle back for fear she’d faint right where she stood.
“Kind of even get why this one would give it all up for you.”
“Give it all…? Jax.”
“I’ll explain later, Lena.”
“No. Right now, Jax.”
All of her strength returned, and Milo’s laugher hit her back.
“She’s some girl, Jax. Keep her close.”
Turning the knob of the first door that she hoped would provide some kind of cover, Lena stepped back at the sight of Sully snoring. Had he slept through all of it? Maybe that was for the best. It was too much to explain.
“Lena, wait!”
“No, Jax.”
She pulled him to a dusty closet, a single sliver of light poking through a grate in the ceiling as she wiped her face with the back of her hand and pressed her palms to his chest.
“What did you do?” she demanded. “How were you able to---?”
“To come after you? Real short and sweet. Told Milo that if I got back---”
“If?”
“Mean when. Like I was ever going to leave you out there with him.”
She went quiet when he pushed her to the wall, his lips surrounding hers as his arms swirled around her waist.
“I was still ready to ride forever to get you back,” he said. “Don’t you believe that, Lena?”
Chewing the inside of her cheek, a thousand questions still niggling at her brain, Lena just nodded when Jax pushed into her and started to unbutton her blouse.
“Just the thought that he was touching you,” Jax moaned. “And then seeing it with my own eyes. I…”
He sniffed the musty air as he sank to his knees, his fingers just touching the hem of her skirt as he looked up into her face.
“Tell me again you’re all right. I can’t stand to think of you any other way.”
Lena’s fingers softened against his ears, and she followed him to the floor as she rested her head to her heart.
“From the moment I met you,” she said. “I’m always safe with you.”
“So no more time apart,” he said. “Lost too much time already.”
Jax brought her quivering body to the floor. His fingers searched her sides as he reached under her blouse, and the memory of Eric’s touch faded into the shadows as soon as his hand was on her breast, cupping her soft flesh and turning her skin around his hand.
“But, Jax. You can’t be giving Milo the club.”
“It’s done, Lena,” he said through his kisses. He peeled the blouse from her body and rested his head to her heaving chest as he kissed towards her mouth. “Price of getting to go out and find you.”
“No, Jax.”
She barely held his hands in hers as she shook her head and licked her lips.
“Don’t make me the reason for this,” she said. “I never would have come back if I thought it would cost you everything.”
“Everything? Shit, Lena.”
He pulled her to her feet and folded her under his arms as her he eased the door open. The Silver Horses still celebrated in the short distance, and Lena gripped his arm as he tried to bring her back into the light.
“They must think I’m trouble.”
“No. They think you’re brave. And that cuts every kind of way.”
Jax scooped her into her arms and held her close as he carried her towards another room, totally abandoned.
“This is more like it,” he said. “Queen needs the right sized bed.”
“I’m not a---”
“It’s all you are to me, Lena.”
Laying her against the soft mattress, Lena kept her quaking hands at her sides as she watched him strip. His cock was ready, and Lena leaned forward to touch him. But just as quickly she held back and started to button up her blouse.
“So if I’m a queen, what does that make you?”
“Hoping I get to be your king,” he teased as he fell to the bed and went back to unveiling her breasts.
“A king without a throne,” she said. “Jax, this…”
Her hands were tentative against her face, and she sighed into his shoulder as she kissed his skin.
“This is the last thing that I wanted for you.”
“That a fact, Lena?”
She nodded as he pressed her wrists into the bed and pushed on top of her.
“Because all I ever wanted was this,” he said. “You with me.”
He crushed his lips to her mouth, and Lena strained up to meet his kiss, daring to cradle the back of his head as he limbs locked around his thighs, his jeans falling to the floor as he kicked off his boots and pushed her back to the bed.
“Nothing else matters, Lena,” he said as he traced the line of her lips and kissed her hair. “I’d give it all up a million times over if it meant more of this.”
Kissing down her sides, Lena moaned at the feel of his mouth leaving her breasts, his tongue grazing her thighs when she suddenly pulled his head to her eyes.
“Are you sure, Jax? Eric’s gone. And I’ll leave now if it fixes things for you.”
Pushing up on his elbow, he kissed her nose as he fondled her hair.
“You’re my fix, Lena. You gonna give me feel whole or what?”
Another roar of laughter emanated from the other room, and Lena closed her eyes as she pictured Milo taking the reins, Jax having to hang off to the side because of her. Had to be the last thing his father would have ever wanted for him, and after all that time scraping at Eric’s side…
“Lena?”
Her lids opened at the sight of his parted lips on the verge of her mouth, and Lena started to speak when he kissed her tenderly, his cock moving under her skirt and between her legs as pressed his palm into her back.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “Let Milo have it.”
“But, Jax, I---”
“I just need you.”
His kiss was as soft as his cock was hard, and Lena stretched up to take all of him in as she pulled the leather away and dug her nails into his broad back.
“You always said you never wanted anyone else to touch me.
”
“Damn straight, Lena.”
Jax’s kiss grew stronger as he pushed her to his cock. Lena’s heart bloomed her in her chest as their flesh mingled, and she raked her fingers down his cheeks and steadied his stare to hers.
“Is it… does it make me bad that I wanted this to stop touching you?”
Lena’s eyes drifted towards his fallen jacket, and he shook his head with a light laugh and pushed her back to the bed.
“Maybe no new emblem,” he promised. “Let’s be normal, total run of the mill.”
Jax throbbed inside her, and Lena arched her back as his cock started to flood her, his hot stream cooling and calming her fears when he twisted inside her and sent her senses reeling.
“That’s not run of the mill, Jax.”
“So points for surprising you,” he purred. “I can keep it up all night.”
Lena summoned all of her strength and pushed him to his back. His pulse grew inside her, and Lena lifted her head to the ceiling as she reached between his legs, her hand desperate to push him deeper as his touch surrounded her breasts.
“Keep it up forever,” she moaned. “I…”
“Lena?”
His throbs came to a halt as he reached for her hair and fondled her neck.
“I gave it up, and I’ll keep giving it up if it gets me more of this.”
His pulse resumed, and Lena’s tongue grew parched in the confines of her mouth as she nodded her head and fell into his chest.
“And you’ll never regret it?” she asked.
“Come on.”
Jax pushed her back to the bed, his hips thumping against hers as he let loose his lust, his head falling into her breast as he wrapped her in his arms and kissed the fallen hair sticking to her soaked neck. Lena sighed as he kept swirling inside her, and even as she sighed when he slackened his pace and went soft, his flesh still lived inside her, and Lena ran her fingers down her arms and took his hands.
“So this is what happens now?” she asked, a hint of hope in her voice. “You and me. We just settle down?”
“You call this settling down?”
He reached a place of encore, his cock throbbing into her cunt. Lena felt on the verge of applause when she started to grow drowsy from his treatment, and she would have hit the bed, losing all sense of time and space, when flipped her to her belly and looked up into her eyes.
“Let me do this for you, Lena. Don’t you want a family?”
She could hear Sully snoring through the wall, but Jax pushed his fingers under her chin and gave her no choice but to meet his gaze.
“With me?”
Lena started to nod when he pulled out and patted her cheek. He fell to his knees and softly took her hands.
“Don’t got a ring,” he confessed. “Didn’t really know that this was where we’d end up.”
He kissed her fingers tenderly, the curl of his kiss topping any band that he might ever produce, but he still held her hand close and lowered his lips to her wrist.
“Lena, don’t look so scared.”
Jax sat up and brought her body to his lap. She almost felt like Viv, tending to Artie’s wounds without knowing why he was at her side or where it would lead. But Lena knew. She knew she loved him.
“You’ll really be happy with just me?” she asked.
“Just you? Lena? Just you is all there is for me.”
She nodded into his neck and kissed him again. Her stomach grumbled her under his hands, and she pulled away from him with a tiny laugh.
“Is that a yes, Lena?”
“I’ll tell you after breakfast,” she promised. “If we’re really hooked now, I think I need to eat.”
“I’ll take care of you, Lena.”
He stood with a contented sigh and extended his hand.
“You liked the pasta? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Deerfield took on a kinder air. Any bus making its way off the highway now had to see nothing but a sleepy hamlet dotted in trees just coming into view. Winter came and went, and with spring there were Silver Horses riding fast from corner to corner. The cops still kept their distance. But where an average civilian might have zigged when Eric Stiles zagged, Milo had another way of showing his hand. Violations were met with warnings when warranted, and the beatings only came when people dared to laugh at his show of benevolence. In time, those with brains knew better than to ever poke fun at Milo unless he was in on the joke, and a strange calm settled over the town.
And Lena felt grateful to be on the right side of it.
“Hold still.”
Aggie had a mouth full of pins as she pushed a veil of lace into position, and when she seemed pleased with her efforts, she patted Lena’s cheek and smiled.
“Think you’re good enough for him now,” she teased.
“Hey! She always was.”
Sully cleaned up nicely and smoothed the bowtie under his neck as he grabbed Lena’s hands and pulled back to stare at her.
“How do I clean up, Uncle Tom?”
“Like a dream,” he said. “Your mom would be proud.”
“I would hope so,” she said. “And happy?”
Sully nodded as he took her into his arms.
“Watch the lace,” Aggie warned.
He obliged and offered his arm with a wink.
“Guess this means you’re not going back to school.”
Her fingers met Sully’s sigh, and Lena shook her head.
“There are schools closer to home,” she reminded him. “I’ll enroll once we set up house.”
“How long will that take?”
“Well that depends on---”
“You ready, Lena?”
Viv bounded forward with two bouquets of white roses resting in her hands. Lena took her flowers quickly and sighed against Sully.
“Let’s say you just walk me to him right now.”
He obliged with a kiss, and Viv led the way. Tuning the corner, Lena saw Black Legion’s former clubhouse swathed in white. From the tablecloths to the streamers pouring from the rafters, everything seemed new, especially Jax waiting at the end of a makeshift aisle with his mother at his side.
“And this is really what you want?” Sully asked. Lena nodded and saw Viv shoot a quick glance in Artie’s direction. Had he known that one show of loyalty would bring him the promise of this? Lena’s delight nearly dragged her to the prospect of another wedding, but she dialed that joy back when Jax took her hand and smiled into her eyes.
“You look good, Lena,” he said.
“Keep saying that. I might marry you one of these days.”
“Today, Lena. Has to be now.”
She offered no objection as the officiant in a blue suit started listing off all the reasons why this might not be the best idea. But just as quickly, the man turned his talk to why they should link their lives here and now, and when Lena was asked the questions, she offered yes after yes until the moment came for the ring.
“Artie?”
The bald man reached into his pocket and produced two bands gold. Lena smiled, and she stretched to the tips of her toes and kissed his brow.
“It’ll be for keeps,” she whispered. “Sure that’s what you want?”
Jax nodded as he extended his hand.
“I want you, Lena,” he swore. “Today.”
She stared to offer her assent when the ring found its way around her finger. Lena looked down at the band and felt sure of herself as she took his hand and made the same move.
“And always, Jax.”
There were no objections as they were pronounced. As soon as the word was given, Jax pulled her into his arms, his kiss crushing against her mouth as the clubhouse burst into applause. Lena left his lips to smile at the others, and when she saw Artie offer Viv his arm for the march out, she got all kinds of ideas.
“Now hold up a second.”
The clapping stopped as Milo took control of the room and pulled Aggie away from Brutus’
side. Not wanting any darkness on this day above all others, Lena was ready to challenge him when Milo pressed a single finger to her lips.
“I want to give his one everything she has coming her way.”