Free Hard to Hold on To by Laura Kaye Page B

wouldn’t leave. At least, not enough to actually leave her alone. “All right, Jenna. I’m getting dressed right outside the door. Don’t come out now. Wouldn’t want to tarnish my reputation.”
    A soft chuckle floated out to him. “Riiight. Okay.” But he heard the relief in her voice, too, and that was all he needed to know he’d made the right call. He dropped the towel and nearly jumped into his clothes, one eye on the bedroom doorway, one eye on the apartment doorway. He’d never live this down if Marz or Beckett walked through the door right now. Not likely, since Marz was neck deep in research, and Beckett had run out to buy more burn phones, but when was the last time things had gone his way?
    When you met Jenna?
    Easy froze just as his fingers grasped his zipper, then he slowly pulled it up. Hell, yes, when he’d met Jenna.
    “Okay, I’m decent,” he said, returning to the room. He hung the wet towel on the inside doorknob. “Want this open or closed?”
    “Closed.” Her gaze was full of blatant interest as it ran over him again, and it felt like a physical caress despite the jeans and white undershirt.
    “You got it.” The door clicked shut.
    Jenna scrubbed her hands over her thighs. Another nervous gesture.
    You didn’t spend eight years in the Special Forces without also learning how to read people. Which was part of the reason Easy was so pissed at himself over Marcus’s death. Because the morning their convoy had been ambushed at a roadblock that had no business being where it was, Colonel Merritt had been jingling something in his pocket. Later, Easy had asked him a question, and the Colonel had been staring off into space and hadn’t heard him. Neither the nervous tick nor the distractedness was typical of Frank Merritt, yet Easy had explained them away. And three hours later, six of their friends were dead, as well as Merritt himself.
    Hindsight was a fucking bitch.
    But none of that mattered right now, did it?
    Easy knelt in front of Jenna, determined to get to the bottom of her nervousness. “Okay, what will most put you at ease? Because you are wound as tight as a top.”
    “I know. My thoughts are just all a whirl, and I—”
    Easy caught her gesturing hands in his. “Not a criticism. Just an observation. And I want to help.”
    A series of emotions flashed over her face. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
    “Truth?” Easy asked, wondering just how much of it she needed from him to be more at ease.
    “Please,” she said in a small voice, her gaze dropping to a point somewhere between them.
    “Look at me, Jenna,” he whispered, loving her eyes on him, loving her seeing him when he’d felt like such a ghost for so long. When she lifted her face, Easy let the truth fly. “Because I like you. And you deserve to be treated with kindness. And it feels good to be needed.”
    It was the first real smile he’d seen her give since they’d rescued her. And for the first time, he felt something that might actually be hope.

Chapter 5
    “ C AN YOU LIE down with me? Maybe just until I fall asleep?” Jenna asked. “I know it’s stupid—”
    Easy put his fingers on her lips, and damn were they soft. “Shh. I don’t want to hear you apply that word to yourself one more time. Got me?”
    “I just feel like I should be stronger than this,” she said as she grasped and squeezed his hand, then continued to hold it.
    Hell if Easy didn’t know exactly how that felt. How many times had he berated himself for not being stronger? How many times had he been so weak he contemplated just giving up altogether? On himself. On the world around him. On life itself.
    Didn’t get any weaker than that.
    And, Jesus, if he’d given in to those dark thoughts and even darker imaginings, he wouldn’t be here right now. He wouldn’t have been here to rescue Jenna from a fate maybe even worse than death. He wouldn’t have been here when she needed him.
    And that was the moment when Easy