by KB Winters
Just as I was sure the nondescript torso with the ugly starburst scar right over the heart, was supposed to be me. The tattoos and gunshot wounds were missing, but the swirl of hair down the stomach was all me, as was the mole beside the left nipple. “It’s amazing.”
“It’s more than that, man. This shit is gold. Pain and beauty and scars, that shit is life.” He squinted at the mangled old hands that gripped a golf club that completed the series.
I had to agree but now, more than ever, I wished I could find Jana. Her series, this glimpse into her soul, told me that I still had a chance. Another quick scan produced Moon and I waved her over. “I’d like to buy the big one.”
Her eyes went wide, holding a million questions she had the good manners not to ask as she added a red dot beside the picture. “I knew you were a good man, Max. Whatever the problem is, I’m sure you’ll work it out.” She glanced around my shoulder at Tate and a wide smile bloomed on her face. “I’m so happy you’re free, young man.” In an unexpected move, she pulled him into a hug and held him for a long moment. “If you need help getting on your feet, your brother knows where to find me.” As quickly as she’d rushed over, Moon hurried off.
Tate grinned. “I like her. The crazy ones always love me.”
I smiled and shook my head, unwilling to move on in case Jana stopped to check out her display.
“Who in the hell is that hot ginger?”
I knew who he was talking about before I spotted them, but once I saw Jana and her friend, I smiled as relief drained the tension from my body. “That’s Teddy, Jana’s best friend.”
Tate clapped his hands loudly and, swear to god, licked his chops. “You know I have a weakness for hot girls with boys’ names. Wish me luck.”
My hand struck out and gripped his shoulder. “Me first.” I stepped in front of Tate, but I felt his presence behind me as I made my way to Jana, heart racing and thudding into my heart. “Jana. You look beautiful.” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the sexy black dress she wore, hugging her hourglass figure deliciously.
She smiled at the sight of me, but her eyes were still sad. “Max. What are…how did you know about the show?” She glanced at Teddy who held her arms up defensively.
“Don’t look at me, I don’t even know how to get in touch with him.”
“Moon told me a couple weeks ago. In class.” Being so close to her for the first time in too damn long, had me shook. Her perfume was slightly different tonight, more musky than flowery but just as tempting. She had on makeup that made her brown eyes look bottomless. “Can we talk for a minute?”
Jana looked wary, nibbling her bottom lip before she nodded and fell into step beside me. “Sure.” We walked away from the crowds towards the back of the building before she spoke again. “How have you been, Max?”
“Not all that great, Jana. I was an asshole to my girl and now she won’t talk to me.” A smile ghosted around her lush mouth and that was good enough for me. For now, anyway. “I really am sorry about the shit I said. You were right, I was stuck and unwilling to do shit about it, and I blame my shitty behavior on my lack of sleep. And jealousy.”
She blinked. “I would never.”
“I know,” I cut her off. “You’re not that kind of woman and it was my own stupid mind fucking with me.” I grabbed her hand and laid it over my heart because I needed her to know how I felt. “It was a lack of sleep combined with my growing feelings for you, and my inability to express those feelings. But none of that was on you and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
“Thank you for saying that, Max. It means a lot.” Tears shimmered in her eyes, but Jana was stronger than she knew, and she willed them back.
“You were right about a lot, actually. I talked to Dr. Singh and he recommended some different treatments we’re trying out.”
This time her smile was full watt and genuine. “That’s wonderful, Max. I am so happy for you.” I could tell she meant it and it only made me love her more.
“You made me want to get better, Jana. I want to be better for you, so I can kiss you awake every morning. Reach for you in the middle of the night because I can’t wait another minute to have you. That’s what I want. Tell me it’s not too late.”
She opened her mouth to speak but I pressed a finger to them.
“First, I want to show you something.” I pulled her along until we were damn near at the fire exit before I stopped in front of her, clasping her hand in mine. “I asked Moon if I could do something for tonight.” I stepped aside to reveal the painting I’d spent the past few nights working on. “The Doc told me to paint something meaningful, something that brought me peace. This is what came out.”
She turned and stared at it, released a little gasp. “Oh Max, it’s beautiful!” She didn’t turn to look at me because she was captivated by the painting, leaning in to take in all the details. “This is fantastic, the purples and blues…it looks almost velvet.”
The awe in her voice had a warmth spreading through me and I found myself smiling. “Thanks. When I close my eyes, this is the thought that brings me peace.”
She straightened, mouth slightly open as her big brown eyes stared up at me in awe. “Max, it’s so beautiful. And that night…it was magical.” Her voice choked up and her eyes grew damp with emotion.
“It was the best damn night of my life, Jana. You were everything I never knew I needed.”
One tear fell and her face lit up in a breathtaking smile. “Me too. When you reached out and held my hand, it was the first time a man had just held my hand.”
“Jana,” I grabbed her hands and pressed them against my heart again, let her feel how it raced. For her. “You know, I came here tonight with one goal. Getting you to forgive me. That was as far as I’d gotten, well that and the painting but only once it was done did I realize what it meant.”
Hope shone in her eyes. “Oh yeah?” I was happy to see a little bit of spark and sass back in her eyes.
“Hell yeah. Looking at the sketch of you, seeing the strength you don’t even realize you possess. The light that shines inside of you, even after the shit hand you were dealt as a kid, and the way you’ve made a life for yourself. It’s all there in the picture. Or maybe I just see it because I’m in love with you.” It wasn’t the most elegant way to tell her, but I wasn’t an elegant guy.
“I’m sorry, you what?” Eyes wide, she stared up at me completely in shock.
She really didn’t know. “I love you. Or more accurately, I’m in love with you. Is that news to you?”
Her head bobbed up and down. “It is. Are you sure?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at my adorable little accountant. “I am. I was miserable without you, missing you ate me up inside and it wasn’t just the sex or your gorgeous figure. It was your laugh, the way your whole face lights up when you smile.” I reached out to her, letting my thumb slide down the silky skin of her cheek. “I love you, Jana. It’s that simple for me. I’m getting help and I want you to give me a second chance.”
She looked up at me, grinning awkwardly but not trying to hide her face from me. “I.” She opened her mouth and snapped it shut with a nervous grin. “I love you too, Max. But I’m scared.”
I placed my hands over hers, hoping her touch would calm my racing heart. “You think I’m not? I’ve never been in love before, this shit is all new to me. But I want to be with you. I want to see if we can work, the right way this time.”
“What is the right way?” Her question was genuine, and I had to smile because I had no real clue.
“I don’t know, but I think we can make our own rules. I’ll stay two nights a week to start and more as the nightmares lessen. Or fade.”
“Max.” The way she sighed my name, like I was something precious to her had me drawing closer, placing my hands on her hips. “You mean it?”
“I do. You think I don’t want to wake up with you in my arms every morning? Because I do, so damn bad.”
“I’d
like that.”
Fuck yeah! Her soft, affectionate smile hit me right where it counted. “Yeah?”
“Hell yeah.” She bridged the final step between us and wrapped her arms around my waist, pressing her face into my chest. I heard the sniffles she tried to hide and smiled to myself as she looked up at me. “I thought I’d never see you again, or hold you like this Max. I’m glad you came back.”
“I couldn’t have possibly done anything else, Jana. You’re it for me. In fact,” I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “You’re kind of stuck with me.”
“Since I love you back, I guess you’re stuck with me too.”
I wrapped my arms around her and pressed her against the wall right beside the painting that had put me on the path to healing. “Sweetheart, there’s no place I’d rather be.” And then I touched my lips to hers and kissed her like she was everything, my woman, my lover, my heart, my light. And my love. She was all those things and so much more and I would make sure she knew that.
Every. Damn. Day.
Chapter 20
Jana
“You really are disgusting, you know that don’t you?” Teddy dropped down onto a lounge in the backyard, her long shapely legs on display in a knee-length summer dress. The yellow and white polka dots were at odds with her sophisticated up do, but matched perfectly with her sun kissed skin and freckled shoulders. “I mean, I’m happy for you and all, but seriously.” She rolled her eyes and slid the sunglasses over her blue eyes, but I saw the twitch of her lips.
“I think it’ll be a nice surprise.” Six months had passed since Max and I declared our love for each other and things were damn near perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Max Ellison. He always made me feel beautiful and desirable. Wanted.
“How is that,” she pointed at the wooden slats surrounding the newly planted vegetable garden, “a nice surprise?”
“You’ll see,” I told her as I manned the grill. Max and Tate were coming home today. They’d been in Reno for a few days so Tate and his lawyers could argue that he should be compensated for his wrongful conviction. It was a travesty they didn’t automatically pay exonerees but I had hopes that Tate would win. “I made a pitcher of lemonade if you’re thirsty.”
Teddy groaned as she got up and poured a glass. “Lemonade,” she scoffed. “I don’t know if I like this new you,” she grinned into her glass and promptly groaned as the boozy cocktail hit her taste buds. “Damn, I still love you girl.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes, moving the steaks around the grill and turning over the fish. “I thought you might.”
“You thought she might what?”
I turned at the sound of Max’s voice with an excited grin for him and Tate. “Hey guys! How’d it go?” I stopped in front of Tate and waited.
“Fantastic. They’re working up a settlement agreement as we speak.”
“That’s great!” I wrapped my arms around his big body and squeezed tight. “I’m so happy for you, Tate.”
“Yeah, thanks babe. What smells good?” He sniffed the air and moved toward the grill while I drew closer to Max.
Big, delicious, manly Max. “Teddy will show you where everything is, won’t you?”
With an exaggerated eyeroll, she stood and waved for Tate to follow her. “You have three minutes,” she whispered as she breezed on by.
Max frowned. “Three minutes? That’s just enough time to get you all wet and bothered.” I felt my skin blush at his words and I cringed. Six months later and the man could still make me feel like a virginal schoolgirl.
“I have a surprise for you, but if you want to go with your thing, I’m game.” Cupping his face gently, I pressed a hard kiss to his mouth. “I missed you.”
“Not as much as I missed you.”
I loved to hear him say things like that, but I really loved it when he got that intense expression on his face that told me just how much he meant that. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise like those magic brownies to help me sleep or like that blue lingerie?”
Another blush stained my cheeks and I buried my face in his chest at the memory of that lingerie. I’d never been so bold in my life, but he’d stayed overnight for five straight days and on the sixth I’d worn the most outrageous lingerie I’ve ever owned. It was a fun night. “Neither, actually.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the small garden area. “It’s a salsa garden.”
He frowned in confusion and dropped my hand, but I didn’t panic. I knew, with absolute certainty, that Max would love this. Especially when he finally saw the sign that read, ‘Garcia’s Bomb Ass Salsa Garden’. “You did this for me?”
I nodded. “The experts say that remembering the good things is the key to overcoming a trauma and though it’s never worked for me, I think it could work for you. This way every time we eat salsa, it’ll be Garcia’s.”
He stood and wrapped me in his arms. “Is that why you planted the brown eyed Susan’s? Because I told you about Reilly’s favorite spot on the family ranch?”
“Yep.”
“I love the hell out of you Jana. You are the best damn thing that ever happened to me.”
“And you are more than I imagined I could ever have out of this life, Max.”
He kissed me long and tender, sweet. When he pulled back he wore a nervous smile. “I was going to wait and make it really special, but this seems like the perfect time.”
“For what?”
He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small velvet box and my breath caught. He flashed a knowing smile that made my heart race. “This. Jana Carson, hottest, sweetest, most amazing woman on the planet, will do you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
In a million years, I hadn’t expected Max to take this step, to want to take this step. Marriage, for me, had always been a pipe dream so now, in this important moment in my life, I could only stare at the gorgeous emerald cut diamond that did its best to outshine the Nevada sun.
“Don’t leave me hanging sweetheart.”
I blinked and looked up at those amazing gray eyes with a shaky smile. “Oh Max, I can’t wait to be your wife. Yes, I’ll marry you!” I jumped in his arms as tears slipped down my cheeks, feeling happier than I could ever remember feeling in my whole life. This man, so strong and sensitive, was all mine.
Forever.
“Oh boy, they’re at it again,” Teddy said, breaking the spell we’d woven around ourselves.
“We were celebrating,” I told her, pulling Max beside me as we stopped in front of Teddy and Tate. “We are officially engaged.”
Teddy squealed as I knew she would, wrapping both of us in her lean arms. “Congratulations guys!”
I basked in her praise and her affection along with Tate’s and the feel of Max’s steady hand at my back, had me full to bursting with love.
It took a long time—a lot of therapy and acceptance—to get here but these three people, were now my family.
In every sense of the word.
* * * *
~ T H E ~ E N D ~
Wow! I hope you loved this story as much as I loved writing it! Turn the page for more yummy goodness! I’ve included a sneak peek from Sinfully Scarred, the second book of the Reckless Bastards Series!
Sinfully Scarred
Reckless Bastards MC
By Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author
KB Winters
Copyright © 2018 KB Winters and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Copyright and Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 KB Winters and BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Chapter 1
Tate
“Whoo boy, you sure you can handle all this power?” Cross, the President of the Reckless Bastards MC shouted at me over the quick-fire shots of a semi-automatic.
I grinned at his wide smile. Cross was a big ass kid at heart, but he took his club responsibilities seriously, which was why he’d come over when I said I’d be at the clubhouse today. “I can more than handle it,” I told him and flexed my biceps.
“Good to hear, because those young honeys over there are checkin’ out the goods.” He wiggled his eyebrows as three half-dressed women made their way over to us.
I turned just in time to clock them. Two brunettes and a blonde, all hot and leggy with fake tits as big as hot air balloons. The blonde was the apparent leader of the threesome, pushing her tits out as she approached. “Hey boys, we were wondering if you did private lessons?”
Cross smiled and clapped me on the back. “No, but I’m sure we could make an exception for a group of pretty ladies. Isn’t that right, Golden Boy?”
I flashed what I hoped was a polite smile but the truth was these women did nothing to make my cock stir, which was damned annoying. Before being locked up, I would’ve taken all three to a dark corner and made sure they all left with smiles on their faces. Now, I felt jack shit. “Cross here is the boss and the best person to teach you to shoot.”