by Leela Ash
***
“What the fuck was that?” Sam exclaimed when Jax and Tobi returned to the cozy living room.
“I can’t believe you two just let her go,” Layne agreed.
“She’s mostly harmless,” Tobi sighed.
“It’s true. We were all really good friends back when I was in Hex. I think it will be all right.”
“I think you guys made a huge mistake,” Sam said, shaking her head.
“You never liked her anyway,” Tobi teased, laughing before she winced in pain.
“Shut up and let me take a look at that,” Sam said, changing the subject.
As Sam dressed Tobi’s wounds, the small group sat in silence.
“What are we going to do now?” Tobi finally asked.
“Layne mentioned a place up north,” Sam said.
“There’s no way you can make it up there right now,” Jax said quietly. “Tobi is injured and the weather was unforgiving when I left. I can only imagine it would be worse now.”
They sat in silence and Layne finally spoke up.
“What if you stayed here with us?” she said, snuggling the little puppy close. “We could fix the shed up and make it a nice little house for you two.”
“Are you serious?” Tobi asked, wide-eyed. “Jax, you don’t have to agree to that. It’s a huge risk to take. We can figure something out. Seriously. We may not be welcome back at Hex, but we can find something.”
“Actually,” Jax said, “I think it would be great if we stuck together. There’s safety in numbers after all. And I missed you a lot. Besides, if we’re going to be having a baby, I’d love for it to have a big family.”
“What do you think about it, Sam?” Tobi asked.
“Anywhere is better than the bigots at Hex,” she said, looking down at the ground. The group sat in stunned silence as it became clear that a new arrangement had been made. Sam and Tobi were there to stay.
CHAPTER EIGHT
With Sam and Tobi cozied up in the small living room, keeping the puppy company that night, Jax examined the bruises on Layne’s face.
“I hate seeing you hurt,” Jax said, his eyes stormy. “It’s worse than you can imagine. I don’t mean to treat you like a little kid. I’ve just never loved somebody so much that their pain felt so much like my own.”
“Well you’re going to have to get used to it,” Layne said softly, pulling his strong hand toward her belly and pressing it firmly over it.
Jax gazed at his beautiful lover. She had never seemed more vibrant than she did now as her gentle eyes held his gaze.
“I guess I will,” he agreed, the reality of parenthood now seeming more real than ever. “I don’t want to mess up.”
“We can’t mess up any more than our own parents did,” she laughed. “Who knows what will happen. We just have to do our best in the here and now.”
“Speaking of the here and now,” Jax said, eyeing Layne with a gleam in his eye. “I’ve never wanted you more.”
“We’d have to be really quiet,” she laughed softly. Jax was surprised. He was used to outright rejection.
“Of course,” he said with a grin, pulling her shirt over her head and revealing her perfect body. She was glowing golden from the candles that were lighting the bedroom, and she gasped as his mouth hungrily found her neck, sending sensual shivers down her body. He cupped his hand over her breast, gently stroking her nipple before planting hot kisses down her torso.
Her body filled with longing, a friend she had been missing in the first weeks of pregnancy. She felt bad leaving Jax unsatisfied, but she finally felt ready for him. She wrapped her arms around him and laughed softly as he briefly lifted her, scooting himself between her legs. He easily pulled himself out of his loose pajama pants, and she held back a groan as the head of his penis started massaging her middle, sending shivers all throughout her body. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as he gently stripped her until she was naked, splayed before him. It had been so long since she’d been touched that she was shaking. He rubbed her arms in his strong hands.
“Are you cold?” his deep voice whispered.
“No…”
“Oh,” he said. “Good.”
He lowered his mouth over one of her breasts and tugged it softly with his teeth. She moaned softly, despite her effort to hold back her noises, and squirmed beneath him. He slipped himself up and down her hot folds until his shaft was shimmering with the liquid testament of her longing.
Every inch of her body was on fire as he pushed himself inside, and she gripped his shoulder tightly as his strong, capable thighs pressed against hers. She loved the way he felt. Even when she was mad at him, his body felt unbelievably good against hers. It was impossible to hold a grudge when he made her quake with desire and sent her to a state of bliss she had thought was purely fictional until she met him.
She exhaled softly as he began dragging his shaft slowly in and out of her. It was as if he could sense her urgency, and her desperate desire to come just made him want to tease her more. She buckled against him, silently begging him to go harder, faster, anything that would take her to her climax, but he grinned confidently down at her, his handsome face flawless in the golden glow of the candle. His broad, muscular body paused inside of her for a moment and she closed her eyes. She could feel him pulsing inside of her, and she knew he enjoyed the feeling of her walls closing in on him. It was delicious torture, until finally he rammed hard inside of her and her body was electrified by an unexpected shockwave of pleasure.
“Shhh,” Jax reminded her, a sly grin lighting his handsome face up. She stroked his hard abdomen, letting her fingers linger on his tight muscles as he paused inside of her.
“You don’t mean that,” she said, moving her hips up and sliding herself along the length of his shaft. “You want me to beg and wake up the whole house.”
“The thought had crossed my mind,” he whispered, holding back his own moan of pleasure as she moved her body against his stiff cock.
“Not gonna happen,” she said, shaking her head.
“Not if you just take what you want like that, no,” he replied, suddenly on top of her, pinning her wrists to the bed and pulling himself out of her. She squirmed underneath him, silently pleading for him to enter her again, but refusing to speak. The power was out of her hands and now she would have to wait for it.
“Is this punishment for not putting out for so long?” Layne asked with a grin.
“Nah,” he replied. He allowed his pulsing cock to hover lightly against her, and she pressed hard against it, inviting him inside. He wanted to see how long he could hold out, see if he could make her ask him for what she wanted.
He lowered his hot lips over her nipple and sucked, sliding himself against her clit until she was moaning out loud despite her impressive self-restraint. Finally, her voice, clear and sweet, whispered into his ear.
“Please.”
That was all he needed. He plunged inside her with his full force, lifting her hips off the bed with his hands so he could hammer inside of her as hard as he could. She gripped his shoulders, biting one of them to keep from screaming as waves and waves of pleasure crashed over her body. She could feel every inch of him hard and unbridled in her body, and let him use her however he wanted to.
He rammed his powerful hips against hers until she began to shudder under the force. His strong arms held her still as he felt the hot rush of her orgasm engulf his shaft.
He was still going strong though, and flipped her over onto the bed so that he could see the curve of her back and enter her from behind. She moaned when he curled his arm around her waist and massaged her clit with his broad fingers as he began to slip gently inside of her once again. She hissed in pleasure as his cock burst into her, putting her immediately on the brink of another orgasm before she had fully finished the last one.
She closed her eyes in bliss as he released the pent up frustration he’d felt over the past few weeks, punishing her body with his until
she had quaked around his shaft again. Her body squeezed his mercilessly as she came again, until he couldn’t help but hiss. He squeezed her ass as his cock trembled inside of her, and she closed her eyes, uttering a deep moan as his orgasm burst inside of her, enhancing the pleasure of hers. He stayed inside of her, thrusting hard until every last drop was inside of her, and then they collapsed in the bed together breathlessly.
“I really missed you,” Layne said.
Jax kissed her forehead.
“I missed you too,” he replied. “At least with Sam and Tobi here, it’s never going to be so lonely again.”
She smiled at the thought. She really seemed to be hitting it off with Sam, and it was nice to see Jax loosen up around his old friend. Things had definitely just gotten a lot more interesting.
THE END
The Story continues in Books 4 and 5…available on Amazon…
Highlander Time Travel Romance
Into the Highlander’s Arms
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
1.
Zoe rolled over and turned off her alarm. It was 7:00 am and it had been blaring at her for half an hour. Even though she’d been determined to get up early, she found herself repeatedly hitting the snooze button and dozing under her quilt.
The cold nipped her skin each time she moved the blanket and she knew the second she actually got out of bed she was going to be miserable.
It was mid fall and the days had gone from sunny and mild, to murky and cold within the space of a week. She was resisting giving in and turning on her heating for fear of her bills rising too high too early in the year… She liked to save those kind of luxuries for the dead of winter.
Zoe rubbed her eyes and looked across the room to the door of her bathroom. She could drag the quilt with her and turn on the shower, letting it all get steamy and warm before getting undressed, but she was already running late and she couldn’t make a bad impression on her first day. She sighed and quickly threw the cover off herself, jumped to her feet and ran into the bathroom. With as much speed as she could muster for someone still half asleep, she flicked on the shower and whipped off her clothes before climbing over the side of the tub and dancing about in the warming water.
It wasn’t quite how she had envisioned her first day of her new job, but at least she was up and running.
After Zoe showered, she dried her hair and tied it into a tight ponytail. She moisturized her skin and made her lips dewy with gloss before she slipped into a pencil skirt and a tight cardigan and tied a red scarf around her neck. In her mind’s eye, she would look intellectual, perfect for her first day at work in one of the city’s oldest libraries, but in reality, as she looked at herself in the mirror, she looked more like a flight attendant. She scrunched up her face with disappointment and flashed a glance up at the clock. She didn’t have time to change, so it would have to do. She grabbed her coat and her keys and trotted out of the door of her apartment and into the cold autumn day.
The job at the library had been one of Zoe’s steps to begin again after her latest failed relationship. When she met Ross, she thought they were meant to be, but after just a short time, she learned that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. He’d broken her heart, even though she would never admit it to him, and after stewing for a few weeks, she decided that she needed a clean break and to mix things up. Her life had been stagnant for too long, and she wanted new and exciting experiences. She had quit her job as a receptionist at a law firm and landed the job at the library as an assistant librarian. It was something completely different to anything she had done before and she was sure it would open her mind to a whole other world of possibilities. She day-dreamed about meeting a scholar from Harvard or a professor who would be there researching and poring over ancient tomes. Maybe she would even be inspired to go back to college and take up a new subject. That was the magical pull of an old library—there was so much information under one roof, she was never going to be bored.
As Zoe walked down the street, she looked up at the trees that had been glowing with red and orange leaves seemingly a few days before. Now they were becoming bare and their branches poked out at different angles like bony fingers. This was her favorite time of year, and it felt perfect to her that she should be starting her new job as the world was preparing to start again, too.
She rounded a corner and stopped as she looked down the street. The library was standing tall and proud at the end and had an air of so much rich history about it that it made her smile from ear to ear.
“Here goes,” she said to herself as she stepped forward and walked towards it.
The Gold Rose Library was a very old building in the center of the city and looked gothic with its gargoyles and high spires. As Zoe approached the main door, her nerves were almost on top of her, but she breathed out deeply and heaved open the huge, heavy handle.
As she stepped inside, she was greeted almost immediately by a short, plump lady with large glasses and an even bigger smile.
“Good morning, Zoe!” she beamed. “Welcome to The Gold Rose!”
2.
As first mornings went, her time in the library was relatively easy and enjoyable. Zoe had been expecting to be shouldered with a lot of work that no one else really wanted to do, but instead the lady who had greeted her, Mrs. West, let her get accustomed to her surroundings in the main hall.
The Gold Rose wasn’t due to open until 10:30am, and Zoe had been shown to her desk in the center of the main hall, where she sat at a high oak information point in the middle of a stack of dusty hardcovers. Everything in there seemed ancient, and the whole place oozed with history and secrets. Zoe had never felt more intrigued at what could be hidden there within the walls.
She flipped through her employee manual, which looked as if it hadn’t been updated in about forty years and snuck a look at her cell phone. She had a text from her mother wishing her good luck on her first day and another from her best friend asking her to go for drinks on Friday night. She smiled. It was nice to have people who cared for her, but it didn’t matter how many friends or caring family members checked in, no one could fill the gap that Ross had left. Even after their short time together, Zoe had grown so used to having a partner that she was struggling without him.
She sighed and pushed him to the back of her mind. She had taken the new job to forget Ross and move on with her life. She was determined she wouldn’t be defined by a failed relationship and that she would thrive by finding new interests and a new career. She looked up and around her. The main hall really was an amazing sight. Its ceilings seemed as tall as the sky and the dark wood was so brooding and atmospheric it made her shiver. She had never really thought before about why the library had been given its name, but now she could see as she sat there that it had been decorated many years ago all around the edges of the ceiling in gold leaf in the shape of roses. She smiled as she thought about the artist deciding to do this and how he or she would have made it up so high to complete the intricate paintings.
“Must have taken them a long time,” said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see a girl about her age standing there with a large stack of books in her arms.
“That’s exactly what I was just thinking,” Zoe smiled.
The girl climbed up into the desk area and thumped the books down next to her.
“I’m Rebecca,” she smiled as she held out her hand.
“Zoe.”
“It’s nice to have someone else working here who isn’t as ancient as the library,” she laughed.
Zoe giggled too and nodded. “I can imagine it gets a little boring in here at times with n
o one to talk to.”
“Yep,” Rebecca sat down next to her and pulled the manual across the desk. “And I wouldn’t even bother reading this. They make everyone do it on their first day, but it has literally no relevance.”
“Thank God, I was starting to fall asleep,” Zoe fake yawned.
“So, Westy sent me down here to show you the ropes,” Rebecca smiled as she swiveled around on her chair. “What made you want to come and work in this place, anyway?”
“I just thought it would be an interesting change,” Zoe shrugged.
“We get a load of geeks wanting to work here,” she laughed. “I’m glad they seemed to hire someone normal.”
“Thanks,” she blushed, unsure of whether it was a compliment or not.
“Okay,” Rebecca grinned. “So, I guess we should start with the basics, but it’s all pretty straightforward…” She got to her feet and acted as if she was on stage in front of a large audience, and as she spoke her voice echoed around the empty room. “We are the faces of the lovely Gold Rose,” she took a bow and continued. “We are here to serve and educate the masses with the wealth of knowledge we have at our fingertips.”
Zoe started laughing. Rebecca was certainly funny.
“Okay, too over the top,” she laughed and sat down. “Basically, we’re information assistants. If anyone can’t find a book, we show them where it is, look it up on our database if necessary, check no one has already borrowed it and it’s still in the building so-to-speak, and then reshelf any books that have been returned…which sounds pretty easy, but it’s actually a lot of work…or hopefully not now you’re here, because I was doing it myself!” She stopped and sucked in a big chest full of air. “You literally have no idea how happy I am to have you here!”
Rebecca’s enthusiasm and sense of humor was infectious, and Zoe knew she was going to have a lot of fun working with her.