Salvaged by Love
By Jennifer Bene
Text copyright © 2015 Jennifer Bene
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover art by Quarter Hazel Designs.
Paperback cover design by James,www.goonwrite.com
ISBN-13: 978-1523801237
ISBN-10: 1523801239
“The past beats inside me like a second heart.”
- John Banville
This story was an adventure to write, and it was an adventure I never could have gone on without all of the support of the amazing readers and other authors on Literotica. This last book is all about the decisions that shape our lives and the choices we have to make to get away from the darkness. Everyone has a history, and everyone has to choose who they want to be and fight for it. That is what I tried to explore in this last book.
As usual, major thanks to my editor who handled the timeline for the end of this book like a champ, even when I dumped forty thousand words on their desk at once. (Thank you for not killing me.) I also want to thank all the authors in The Erotic Collective for supporting me as I wrote Thalia’s story, and especially Livnah A. Eden for naming this book when I couldn’t decide on a title.
This last book is a rollercoaster with lovely highs and dark lows, but I hope you enjoy the ride.
Chapter One
Four and a Half Months After the Auction
Time is weird.
When you want to savor something, it seems to end too quickly. While horrible things seem to take an eternity to end. When you can’t wait for something to happen, time stretches and elongates, taunting you by making the seconds drag. And when you really need time to pull yourself together, to prepare for news you don’t want to hear, or face, or handle – suddenly time folds in on itself and the moment arrives with no warning. As if no time passed at all.
That was what happened when Kalen pulled up in front of the small hospital in the Scottish countryside after he had yanked Thalia out of a deep sleep with the news that James had been in a car accident. It was all too soon, too fast. A red cross blazed next to the word ‘Emergency’ and Thalia found her lungs couldn’t work, that her body was somewhere disconnected from her mind. Kalen was talking again, his voice rough as he leaned across the car.
“Thalia, I’m here with ye. Okay? But we need to go inside, I need ye to get out of the car.” He was asking too much. She didn’t need to go in there. She couldn’t go in there. He growled and got out of the driver’s side and was quickly opening her door. “Look at me. Look at me, Thalia.”
Her head swiveled at the order and his hands undid the seat belt across her. His eyes were dark, and under them were bruise-like smudges as if he hadn’t slept.
What time was it anyway?
“I’m right here. Come on. Come with me.” He took her hand and pulled her out of the car, shutting it before dragging her towards the too-bright entrance.
She wanted to run, but his grip was tight on her hand, and the rush of air from inside the hospital hit her with the scent of antiseptic. Thalia was sure she was going to throw up.
“I’m looking for Hawkins. James Thomas Hawkins. My name is Kalen Reid, someone called to tell me he’d been in an accident?” Kalen was talking to a nurse at the desk, she could hear the concern in his voice, the fear, and he hadn’t let go of her hand. She felt dazed, dream-like. Big, no-nonsense Kalen was worried. About his best friend. About James.
How could any of this be real?
It was a nightmare. The clatter of the nurse typing into the computer, the ringing of a phone at the other end of the desk, the dull hum of voices and machines working across the sterile emergency room – all of it was slowly breaking down the careful numbness that had cocooned her on the drive over.
Twenty-seven minutes.
Kalen had made the drive in twenty-seven minutes. The little clock on the radio had changed, minute by minute, number by number, as they had moved closer and closer to this small hospital. For a moment Thalia became aware that none of her usual panic was present. The shock of Kalen’s words had inoculated her against it, made it impossible to feel anything other than the pending emptiness if she was alone. If James was… No. Those words wouldn’t even form in her mind. Just like at the dormitory, she couldn’t stand the idea even existing inside her. Kalen was frustrated next to her. His grip firm on her hand, his other hand pushing into his hair as the nurse seemed to take an eternity to find the files.
Thalia’s eyes roamed the emergency area, and it was more crowded than she had imagined. There were people sitting on chairs, curtains hanging from the ceiling to section off areas. So many people for the middle of the night. People in beds, people on chairs, people just wandering around, one that looked just like –
“JAMES!” Thalia screamed and ripped her hand from Kalen as she took off towards him. Tall, blond haired, light blue button down, dark slacks, one arm in a sling. Perfect sea green eyes that locked onto hers, widening in surprise.
James.
She collided with him and he hugged her to him with his free arm. Thalia pulled back and ran her hands over him as her heart thundered back to life in her chest. He had a bandage near his right temple, the sling on his arm. But no blood. No blood. “You’re okay? You’re okay?!” She was sobbing, her heartbeat was pounding in her chest at double-time as he shushed her. He pulled her against him again, his mouth against her ear – and his warmth, the scent on his clothes, all of it was there, and real.
“Yes, baby, yes, I’m fine. Just a bump on the head and an injured shoulder. Doctor is already done.” Oh god, his voice, it sent her crying harder. She had thought he was gone.
She thought she had lost him, lost everything.
Thalia suddenly leaned back and shoved him, and he looked surprised and confused. “What the fuck? I can’t believe you’re okay! Kalen said you were in a car accident!” She pushed her hands into her hair as she tried to breathe through the hiccups her crying had brought on.
“Yes, I was, but it wasn’t serious, baby. I fell asleep at the wheel, ended up in a ditch, but it’s okay.” He tilted his head a bit, smiling down at her, “I had changed my flight to the red-eye so I could get back -”
“Idiot!” Thalia shoved his chest again, “You asshole! You colossal, complete -” she screamed in frustration when she couldn’t find a word that encompassed just how pissed she was with him as her relief at seeing him alive segued into anger. “You fell asleep at the wheel?! You CRASHED your car? How could you do that? How could you risk yourself like that? Are you fucking kidding me?!”
“Baby...” He looked so shocked, his mouth forming apologies she couldn’t even listen to right now. She cut him off again.
“Did you even sleep?! Tell me! Did you actually get up at five AM, go to the office all day, and then fly to Scotland and try to fucking drive to Kalen’s?!” She was shouting and a nurse to the right was watching them with a smirk.
“Come here.” James touched her shoulder and tried to get her to move, but she shook him off.
“No! You tell me!” She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt as another wave of tears took her over, “You tell me if
you were that stupid, to risk everything, to risk leaving me without you -”
He grabbed her and pulled her into his chest, hugging her tightly with one arm as he kissed the top of her head. “Yes. Yes, I was that stupid, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I put you through that, baby. I’m very sorry, I don’t know why the nurse didn’t tell you both I was fine, but I am, I’m okay, I am, and I swear I’ll never do it again.”
“Ever.” She added, burying her face against his chest, and he kissed her temple, her cheek, and tilted her face up.
“Ever, I swear it.” James kissed her, and she melted. There was nothing in the world that she wanted more than this. To have his hands on her, his body against hers, and for him to even be there for her to be angry at.
But the anger was fading, and the relief had returned. He was okay.
James chuckled and she leaned back to look at him. She didn’t see anything funny about this. “So, baby, what did you call me a moment ago?”
She blushed, and swallowed. Oh. “Um, an idiot? An asshole?” Her mind immediately leapt to the punishment he might have in store for that language, and she pressed her thighs together at the thought.
His grin increased, but he shook his head. “Well, yes, you called me those names too. Before that though, what did you call me?”
Her mind raced until she realized what she’d shouted across the emergency room – she’d shouted his name. His first name. The one she’d only ever said in her head. She covered her mouth, her blush burning her cheeks, but he tugged her hand away from her face.
“Say it again.” His eyes were dark, bottle glass green as he stared down at her. Easing his body close to hers.
“James.” She whispered and she could feel the groan in his chest. She bit her lip and he used his thumb to pull it from between her teeth.
“Again.” The way he looked at her could have easily combusted her clothing.
“James.” She said it a bit louder, and suddenly he was kissing her again, his hand sliding to the back of her neck to hold her there, her mouth opening to his as his tongue swept into her mouth. She moaned into the kiss, and the force of it rocked her back slightly. When he stopped, her head was swimming.
“I like the way that sounds coming out of your beautiful mouth.” He whispered against her lips, and her breath caught in her chest.
“I’ve never, um, you’re not... upset?” Thalia’s voice shook, and James grinned.
“Not at all. I love -” He grinned again and took a breath, “I love that you said it. Say it any time you like, baby.” He pressed a kiss to her lips, and she suddenly knew what it felt like to swoon under someone’s touch. She’d call him anything if it meant he’d look at her like that, and kiss her like this. Kalen cleared his throat from a few steps away and it jarred them both out of their private moment.
“So glad yer alive, James, but maybe ye two could continue this in my car?” Kalen was grinning as they separated, and Thalia blushed furiously as she saw the audience their encounter had gathered.
Okay, so, not so private a moment.
James released Thalia and stepped over to clap Kalen on the back with his good arm, and Kalen slapped him on the back as well. The second time Kalen cleared his throat, his eyes didn’t quite make it back to look at either of them. “I’m glad I’m okay too, Kalen.” James’ voice was rough, and he didn’t look at Kalen either.
Men. Ignoring emotions for centuries.
“Right. Let’s get back. Ye have everything ye need?” Kalen asked as he ran a hand across his beard.
“Doctor gave me some pills for the headache and the shoulder, my mobile is toast though. It’s why the nurse called you.” James went to shrug and winced when he moved his injured shoulder. Thalia wanted to smack him for hurting himself.
“We can get ye another phone later, ye need to rest. Let’s go on, I’ll have to call Maggie on the way back so she stops worrying over ye.” Kalen mumbled and started to march back towards the exit. James went to follow but turned and held his hand out to Thalia, which she gladly took.
His warm skin against hers was everything.
As they walked toward the exit a voice called out to them, “Oy! A lass that mad at ye for makin’ her worry, and will still kiss ye like that? That is one ta keep! Trust me on that, lad.” An older man sitting on one of the waiting chairs had spoken up, the whole time laughing to himself.
James looked back at her, the edge of his mouth tilting up in a smile. “Yes, I know. Thank you.” He squeezed her hand and moved forward toward the exit.
Thalia smiled at the old man and her heart was still fluttering from finding James safe, but it had done triple-time when he had looked her in the eye and said to the man, with complete sincerity, that he knew he should keep her.
The few tears that slipped out as they were getting in the car weren’t from panic, or frustration, or fear, or sadness, or pain, or anything else that had pushed her to cry over the last few months – it was joy, plain and simple, and it filled her up like a balloon. Crushing out all the little doubts and fears that had inched their way into her head, and it sealed her decision completely as his fingers twined with hers in the backseat.
Nothing would keep her from telling him at the six month mark that he was all she wanted. For as long as he’d have her. Nothing.
Once they were back at Purgatory Thalia had hovered over James in worry until he’d snapped at her to get into bed and lay down. He kept insisting he was fine, and he was sorry he’d made her worry, but that she didn’t need to stare at him like he was a ticking bomb. However her brain wouldn’t let go of the memory of her panicked wake up just a couple of hours before. After another grouchy complaint from James she finally lay next to him on his uninjured side and curled her body against his. He instantly relaxed, pressing a kiss into her hair. The lack of sleep and the pain meds made quick work of him after that and she took the opportunity to run her fingers over his bare chest. His firm pecks, the way his skin stretched over his ribs with each breath, the way when he shifted the muscles of his stomach tightened all the way to the deep V between his hips – it all mesmerized her.
To think for a moment she might have lost him. She had no idea what she would have done, it would have been like ripping her heart out. No one would even need to shout Kali ma Indiana Jones style to make it happen. No, Thalia was pretty sure if James had died her pulse wouldn’t have returned like thunder in the ER, it would have stayed silent forever.
Thalia trailed her gaze up until she was looking at his face. His strong jaw had a haze of scruff across it and she wanted to trace her tongue across the roughness there. Wanted to bury her face against his neck and straddle his hips and - and James needed his rest. She brushed a strand of hair away from his eyes and focused on his mouth. His lips were parted, slow, patient breaths easing in and out.
He had been so stupid to rush back like that, to not take the flight he’d booked for this morning. But the reason he had done it made her smile. He’d said he wanted to be back with her, and it filled her with a warmth, and a light, that eased the tension of the night away.
She loved him.
Holy shit. Her breath caught.
She loved James...
She had actually said that, in her head, and meant it.
Thalia bit down on her lip as the magnitude of that revelation settled inside her. James wouldn’t even accept her confession of wanting to stay with him until the six months were up, he definitely wouldn’t be willing to hear this.
Not yet.
Her eyes traced his features again, all soft in sleep. She wouldn’t push. She didn’t need to push. They had all the time in the world, and she could hold those three words inside, keep them somewhere safe, until she could say them out loud.
And that’s what she would do.
She tucked her newfound realization down deep, and focused on just how grateful she was to feel the rise and fall of his chest under her cheek, to hear the soft thud of his heart against his ribs.
Then she fell asleep.
James woke up sometime later in a haze. His head ached, and his shoulder throbbed, but his cock was - fuck, yes - his cock was wrapped in warm heat. Thalia’s nails trailed down his thighs lightly and his hips lifted as her tongue traced the underside of him. He was hard, and the gentle suction as she drew back and then bobbed her head forward had him hissing through his teeth. She moaned against him, and swallowed him deeper.
“Baby, that is -” He groaned as she pulled him into her throat and held there as her muscles swallowed against him and sent his hips straining. Her mouth was glorious. He tried to move the wrong arm first and was rewarded with a sharp ache when his shoulder fought him, he bit down on the pain and corrected. Burying his other hand in her hair he let her pull back, and he felt her draw a breath before she pulled him into her mouth again. “Fuck.”
Salvaged by Love (Thalia Book 3) (The Thalia Series) Page 1
