Free Spark (Black Legion MC Book 1) by Kathryn Thomas Page A

wanted to tell you? To tell someone? But I couldn’t!” Jax worked to gather her in his arms when she slapped him away and burst into tears. “I had to live through it once,” she confessed. “And that was more than enough.” Her shoulders heaved, and she started to lose herself in the vile memory as Jax gently pressed his fingers under her chin and eased her eyes to his.
     
    “I get it,” he said. “Is it enough to just say that I’m sorry? For all of it?”
     
    Lena caught her breath and gazed into his green eyes. After it happened, and in every moment since, she had wanted only one thing. And now he was here, touching her and smiling sweetly. “You don’t have to,” she whispered. “I know you would have stopped it if you could of. But I just…”
     
    Jax tentatively took her into his arms and kept his eyes on hers. In that instant, he was back to being the boy she’d known for so long, loved for even longer, and the lure of his hard shoulder was so inviting she couldn’t resist the urge to fall into him as he wrapped his arm around her back.
     
    “I just wish you had been straight with me, Lena.”
     
    She smiled at the sound of his name passing though her lips, and she cuddled close to his chest. The smell of his sweat mingling with the leather on his back brought her back to a simpler place and time. Maybe it hadn’t happened at all. Maybe the last year was something out of a nightmare, and this was the sweet awakening so long denied.
     
    “Come here,” he whispered. “Just let me hold you.”
     
    Lena bunched his tee between her fingers, her ear at his heart as it beat beneath her. His hands were slight and slow as he winded his fingers through her hair and moved down her back. Holding him this close, Lena was suddenly struck by the time that had passed between them, so many moments wasted, so many things unsaid. Even if she couldn’t bring herself to talk about the darkest days gone by, she was beyond curious as she met his eyes and dared to touch his cheek. “What happened to you?” she pleaded. “You were so rough with my uncle.”
     
    “I know,” he said. “And I’m sorry about that. But Eric turned me all around.”
     
    “Sort of his specialty, right?” she asked sadly.
     
    They nodded into each other’s eyes, and Jax grazed his fingers against her skin as he smiled softly. “Let’s not bring him here,” Jax said. “He’s taken too much from us already. And this is our place.”
     
    “Still?” she asked. “I mean did you come here without me?”
     
    “You were nowhere to be found,” he admitted. “So yeah. Came and hoped that you might show. Maybe I even dipped my toes in the water or whatever.”
     
    Sitting up as she kept her hand in his, Lena’s eyes traveled down the length of his leg, and her fingers started towards his boot as she sighed.
     
    “Want to do that now?” she asked. “Bet it would feel good after the way that you roared over here.”
     
    Jax nodded, and Lena didn’t need another cue as she worked her fingers around the laces. Pulling the leather from his feet, she stripped away his socks and massaged the calloused surface. But even in his hardness, there was suddenly no fear that he would use his strength to cause her further harm. So despite Eric’s best efforts, he was still every inch her hero, and Lena eased his feet into the water and quickly pushed her toes under the ripples to get closer to his side. Her hand was light in his as their toes swam in the space of the creek, and she kept her eyes on their mingling flesh as she spoke softly.
     
    “Feel good?” she asked.
     
    “Hell of a lot better now that you’re back.” Jax tensed, and Lena met his eyes as he cupped her chin in his hands and brought his lips to her ear. “Are you back?” he asked.
     
    “Made good on the debt, didn’t I? Sort of put my studies on hold.”
     
    “That’s not what I mean, Lena.” Jax found her eyes and started to kiss her when nothing