Jax held her until her breathing evened out, then he picked her up and carried her to the living room sofa. He sat, cradling her in his lap, and she pressed her face to his chest, gripped his thickly-muscled shoulders. Small tremors still shook her every few seconds, but at least she looked like herself.
“Sarah? You with me again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Only maybe?”
“I feel so stupid… I can’t believe what I said to you.” Her voice was small, embarrassed. “It was so ugly.”
“It had to be said, so that I could tell you how wrong you were. That’s out of the way now, and we can leave it in the dust. Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Look at me.”
She tipped her head back and gazed up at him. They studied each other, looking for scorch marks and other wounds inflicted by their words.
“You OK?” he said softly.
“Yes. You?”
“You know it.” He pressed a kiss to her lips, hot, soft. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
They sat quietly now, watching the mountain sunset through the huge window. Sarah felt her eyes get heavier and she let them close. Jax smiled as she drifted off against him, her face relaxed and sweet.
He waited until he was sure she was completely out, then he carried her down the hall and tucked her in to bed carefully. Our bed. He dropped a tiny kiss on her forehead, then went back in to the kitchen to clean up the broken glass.
Chapter Five
A few nights later, Jax was at Dangerous Curves, trying hard to not call Sarah every ten minutes. She was better since her outburst, but she’d doubled down on her physio and spent every spare moment reading about design software. She seemed determined to get back to work and even though he couldn’t blame her, he could still worry.
Aidan Carter set down a beer in front of his boss and studied him closely. Aidan’s sharp eyes didn’t miss much, as Jax knew all too well, and he didn’t even bother trying to conceal anything from his bartender now.
“What’s up, man?” Aidan asked, his warm Texan drawl the perfect accompaniment to his golden hair and eyes. The man was like a sunrise, all glowing and bright, even in the half-light at Curves. “Sarah OK?”
“Not so much.” Jax took a sip of beer. “She’s getting frustrated that she can’t remember things and can’t work. She wants the healing to happen faster than it is.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty normal,” Mac said. “Has she started throwing stuff yet?”
Jax sighed. “Perfectly innocent tea mugs.”
“Uh-huh. Well, my advice is to stock up on dishes and learn to duck.”
“Really?” Aidan said. “It’ll be like this for a while?”
Doctor Shane ‘Mac’ MacIntyre shrugged his enormous shoulders. “Well, how would you feel, if you had to go back to being a child in so many ways? Christ, the woman couldn’t even walk two months ago and she’s totally dependent on Jax to help her up a set of stairs half the time. She can’t work, can’t pay the bills, can’t handle things for Noah anymore… and Sarah’s the one who took care of everyone and everything until recently. You think it isn’t killing her pride and messing with her head?”
“Yeah,” Jax said. “It is. She’s struggling.”
“Hang tough, Jax.” Mac’s voice was gentle. “She’s got an amazing support system and she’s a strong woman. She’ll come out the other side. I’ve seen thousands of patients emerge from comas and suffer brain trauma, and she’s one I’d bet on to make it through.”
“Yeah?” Jax said.
“Oh, hell, yeah.”
Jax thought about that for a minute. Mac was a neurologist, one of the best in the state, if not the country, and he’d had a thriving private practice for years before he quit to consult freelance. If a guy like him said that Sarah was going to make it, then Jax was prepared to believe him. Plus, Jax really needed to believe him.
“Hey, where’s King?” Mac said now, looking around the packed bar. “Did he sneak out with some smoking woman? Or did they just head for the crash rooms?”
“Nope.” Aidan poured a few shots for some college kids, scowling at the one who looked just a bit too much like Sarah’s ex. “He’s laying low.”
“Yeah? How come?”
Aidan nodded across the room. “One guess.”
Jax and Mac glanced over at the pool tables, and they both exhaled hard when they saw Janine.
“Ah,” Jax said. “He’s staying away from her, huh?”
“Well, he’s trying, but she’s pretty bad tonight,” Aidan said. “I really wish that he’d steered clear of that woman, for both of their sakes. Mostly hers.”
“None of us knew the deal in the beginning, though,” Mac protested. “King stayed with her way longer than most guys would have once he figured the whole mess out. Tried to help her even after she dumped him.”
“Yeah, I know.” Aidan looked alert. “Heads up, y’all, she’s coming this way.”
Jax and Mac turned to greet her and Janine gave them a dazzling smile.
“Hey,” she said. “Have you guys seen my fiancé?”
“Janine,” Mac said kindly. “King is not your fiancé, hon.”
“Of course he is!” She extended her left hand. “He gave me this.”
“No, he didn’t,” Jax said. “You bought that ring yourself. You remember?”
Her dark eyes flashed now. “Did not.”
“Hey, darlin’,” Aidan said. “You here on your own?”
“Of course I’m not on my own. I’m with King… speaking of which, where is he?”
“I’m right here.” King walked up behind them and he looked troubled when Janine threw her arms around his neck. “Let’s get you home, OK?”
“We’re staying at my place tonight?” she said.
“No, Janine. We’re broken up, remember? I’ll just make sure you get home safe.”
“We’re not broken up,” she said angrily. “We’re engaged!”
“No. We’re not.”
“You fucking asshole,” she hissed. “You don’t want me? Well, any guy in this place would take me home and you know it. All I have to do is ask, and you’ll watch me walk out of here with some other man. How’d you like that?”
King recognized the danger signs and he stared at Mac, silently begging for help.
“Hey, hon,” Mac said, and she focused on him. “You want to go and talk?”
She gazed at him, taking in his long blond hair and blue eyes, his broad shoulders and strong arms. Then she flicked a glance at King and she smirked.
“Well, sure, Mac,” she purred. “We can go talk…for now.”
He steered her over to one of the empty booths, then sat and leaned over to listen to Janine babble maniacally. Mac nodded and surreptitiously checked her eyes. After just a few seconds’ examination, he knew for sure that she was still off her meds, not that he’d had any doubts about that. He looked over at his friends and shook his head a bit.
King sighed heavily. “I just don’t know what to do about her anymore. She’s so, so sick, but nobody can force her to do anything.”
“She have meds at her place?” Jax said. “Maybe you can get her home, convince her to take them?”
“Last I saw? Yeah, she had some. But I broke it off with her about five months ago, you know, and anything could have happened to them between now and then.”
Aidan shook his head. “She’s going to get hurt badly one night. Some asshole somewhere is going to take total advantage of her, and she’s not going to be able to defend herself, or even really understand what the fuck is going on.”
“I know.” King sighed again. “But what can we do? Mac says that he can’t commit her against her will, and he can’t force her to take any drugs that he prescribes. She really sh
ould be under a physician’s care, but that has to be her choice.”
“Damn.” Jax was watching Janine now. “I know none of this is up to any of us, but I still feel responsible for her, you know? This is my place, and if something happens to her with someone from here, it’s on me.”
“We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, OK?” Aidan said. “We’ll watch her, we’ll keep the creeps away, we’ll get her home when we can.” He looked helpless. “It’s all we can do, so we’ll do it. Yeah?”
“Yeah,” King said. “For damn sure we will. No way she’s getting hurt if I can help it.”
**
“So, we hear you’re hanging out with King, huh?”
Naomi looked up, surprised, her fork halfway to her mouth. “You heard that how?”
Reena Mackay smiled across the table at her. “Oh, word on that man travels, Naomi. Believe me – King is the subject of a great deal of attention and gossip.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s a man of mystery, to put it mildly.”
“Yeah?”
“Hell, yeah.” Mitchell Corrigan stared at Naomi with his usual stunning intensity. “You sure you know what you’re doing with him?”
“I’m not doing anything with him,” Naomi said. “He’s just interested in funding the expansion of the art program and the center, and we’ve spent some time talking about it.”
“Uh-huh.” Mitch held her gaze with those dark green eyes. “Well, that’s good. Keep it there, maybe. He’s a good guy in general, I think, but I’m not sure he’s what you need right now.”
Naomi nodded. Reena and Mitch were two of the very few people who knew about her sobriety, and they were well aware of her decision to abstain from romantic relationships for a while. From the moment she’d told them about being an alcoholic, they had been nothing but supportive and caring.
“Do you know Matt personally?” Naomi asked. “Or is it all just rumor?”
“Oh, I know him pretty well,” Mitch said. “I met him at some of my underground fights. He was there on some jobs to do with Kirk Jensen, I think.”
“So what do you guys know about him?” Naomi let her curiosity get the best of her. “I mean, he seems OK to me.”
“Does he now?” Reena’s blue eyes sparkled. “Well, I don’t know much about his businesses and I don’t want to know, to be honest. But I do know that the man is not big in to commitment.”
“No?” She forced herself to sound disinterested. “Lots of women?”
“Oh, God. Truckloads. Word is that he can be found in the crash rooms of Curves most weekends.”
“The crash rooms?”
“The fuck rooms,” Mitch said bluntly. “Ideal for quickies before heading back to the bar to drink.”
Naomi was surprised how disappointed she was to hear that about Matt, then she gave herself a quick mental shake. Come on, had she really expected a man who looked like that, and who had obvious wealth, and who boasted that level of sexual confidence and swagger, to be in to having a steady girlfriend? He was the epitome of a guy whose interest in a woman extended as far as pouring coffee down her throat the morning after – and that’s if she was damn lucky. The fuck room women wouldn’t even get that much from him.
The more Naomi thought about it, the more she’d come to see his invitation to dinner as a throwaway gesture. A little muscle flex, a ‘yeah-why-not’ question while they were stuck together in the same room, a way to kill some conversational time. He’d asked for the hell of it, just to see what she’d do and she was sure that when she’d said no, he’d simply asked someone else. Someone who almost certainly had said yes.
“Well, no surprise there,” Naomi said now. “He didn’t really strike me as the long-term commitment type, though he is a decent guy.” She took a sip of tea. “He’s great with Callie and Noah, two of the artists. He’s patient and so amazingly gentle…they can tense up around men, especially big men, but with him, they’re totally fine. That’s rare, believe me.”
“Yeah?” Reena contemplated that. “Well, some men are decent guys and crap boyfriends.”
“True enough.” Naomi grinned at Mitch. “You want to weigh in on this one?”
“Nope.” Mitch shook his dark head. “I know my limits on certain topics, ladies. But if you want some free and unsolicited advice about King, here it is, Naomi: let him help you out with the program if he wants to, ‘cause God knows, you need funding for what you’ve got planned. But really, be careful with that heart of yours around him, OK? He’s not a serious guy and you’re a serious woman.”
“What do you mean, I’m serious?” Naomi said.
“I mean, when you’re ready for it, you’re going to go looking for the real deal, yeah? Commitment and romance and love… you’re a one-man kind of woman, and that’s exactly the one kind of woman that King isn’t in to.” Mitch’s face was grave. “The ladies love him – but he never loves ‘em back. You follow?”
Naomi nodded slowly. “Yeah. I hear you, loud and clear.”
“A shame, really,” Reena piped up. “Because he is sex on legs.”
“I know, right?”
“Hey!” Mitch said mock-indignantly. “I’m sitting right here, sugar!”
Reena winked at him. “Deal with it, sugar. Matt Kingston is smoking hot, and being a serial womanizer and commitment-phobe does not change that fact.”
“Yeah,” Naomi said ruefully. “Unfortunately, that is completely true.”
Chapter Six
Three weeks later
King kissed Callie goodbye on the cheek and watched her head off through the Heart Center. He turned to Noah.
“OK, man. Have a good day. Remember that Sarah and Jax can’t pick you guys up today, so Garrett will be here at three o’clock, yeah?”
“Yeah. King?”
“What’s up?”
“You understand women?”
King paused. “Well, Noah, I’ve been on this planet for almost thirty-five years, and just about the last thing I’d say that I understand is women.”
“Oh.” Noah turned to go.
“Wait, hold up. I was trying to be funny.”
“Yes?”
“Yeah.”
“You weren’t.”
“Sorry.”
“So you understand women?”
“A bit. What do you want to know?”
Noah looked at Callie’s retreating back. “How can I be a boyfriend?”
King cocked his head, intrigued at the turn this conversation had just taken. “You like a woman, Noah?”
“Yes. But I won’t tell you who.”
“OK. Keep that to yourself for now.”
“OK.”
“And you want her for a girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
King stared at Noah for a few seconds, trying to think how to handle this situation. “Sit down, man.”
They sat, Noah gazing at King steadily.
“OK.” King cleared his throat. “You sure you like her?”
“Yes.”
“And what do you…ummm…” King hesitated. “What would you like to do with her?”
Noah blinked. “Be her boyfriend.”
“Oh, right. Uh. So you want to – to kiss her?” It was surreal talking about his niece like this, but dammit, King was going to take one for the team. “Touch her?”
“No.”
“…No?”
“No.” Noah was very adamant on this point, King saw.
“So what do you want to do with her, then?”
“Be her boyfriend.”
“I think you need to tell me what that means to you, Noah.”
“Stand next to her. Talk to her.” Noah thought for a few seconds. “Tell her she’s pretty.”
King had the sudden and overwhelming ur
ge to hug Noah. “Is that what having a girlfriend is all about?”
“Yes. Sarah and Jax do all that.”
“Yeah, they do, don’t they?”
“They’re happy. They laugh.”
“You want a woman to make you happy?”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. I want to make her happy.”
King felt a lump in his throat as he stared at Noah’s earnest face. God, his words were echoing King’s most secret thoughts about Naomi, and he was stunned at the simplicity and the beauty of what Noah wanted to give Callie. He wanted to stand close to her, and talk to her, and say nice things, and give her happiness. Just happiness. Such small things; such huge fucking things.
I think Noah’s got this all figured out. Hell, I may even learn a thing or two here.
“OK, well.” King thought for a few seconds. “Do you talk to her?”
“No.”
Yeah, that’s true. They sneak little glimpses at each other in the back seat and never say a damn word. Not one word in almost a month.
“How come?”
Noah shrugged.
“You’re scared to talk to her?”
“A bit.”
“Completely normal.”
“Normal?”
“I promise you it is. When you really like a woman, it makes you nervous to be around her.”
“Not helpful. Makes it harder to be a boyfriend.”
“I totally agree,” King said. “That’s why you have to be brave, and you have to be honest with her about how you feel.”
“Tell her?”
“Yes. You tell her that you like her.”
“Then?”
“Then I don’t know.” This was the part that also had King stumped about Naomi. “Sometimes she likes you back and you can be happy together. But sometimes, she likes someone else. Or she doesn’t want a boyfriend. Then, it can be hard.”
“Because you can’t be happy with her?”
Damn, Noah really gets this, huh?
Hard Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 2) Page 6
