by Leela Ash
“I can’t believe you followed me here, Kels.”
“What else was I supposed to do?” she asked.
“Seriously? Stalking me is the answer? You know as well as I do that you didn’t love me anymore.”
“But you were still mine,” Kelsey glowered.
“That’s not how it works. And I already told you I left you. I wasn’t joking. You didn’t love me. You don’t love me. This is all spite. Just go home, Kelsey.”
“But…”
“If you really did love me, you’d let me be happy.”
Kelsey stood up, wiping her tear stained face.
“I just don’t know what to do without you.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Tobi sighed, walking Kelsey to the door.
“I just miss you,” Kelsey sighed.
“I think we should kill her,” Sam interjected. Kelsey shot her a bitter look, but said nothing.
“I think so, too,” Layne said, nursing the bruise on her face.
Jax and Tobi exchanged looks. Kelsey was a good person at heart. But she had been too full of grief to think clearly. Still, she was a liability.
“I’m not sure that’s necessary,” Tobi said, looking into Kelsey’s eyes. “Is it?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d almost rather die than feel this way.”
“You’re going to be fine,” Jax said. “But don’t make me regret letting you go. You could just as easily end up like those two. Tell them you guys ambushed us on the road and we got the better of you. Not a word about anything else.”
“All right, Jax,” Kelsey sighed, stepping over the bloody bodies on the floor. “I’m sorry about all of this. Oh. Sorry for shooting you, Tobi.”
Tobi laughed scornfully.
“Get out of here and keep your mouth shut or I’ll return the favor,” she said. “Oh, and I think you should probably talk to Loretta…I’m pretty sure she’s had her eye on you since you arrived.”
“Really?”
Tobi nodded and Kelsey looked thoughtfully at the ground. She smiled privately to herself, and with that, Kelsey took off running through the forest, heading toward home.
***
“What the fuck was that?” Sam exclaimed when Jax and Tobi returned to the cozy living room.
“I can’t believe you two just let her go,” Layne agreed.
“She’s mostly harmless,” Tobi sighed.
“It’s true. We were all really good friends back when I was in Hex. I think it will be all right.”
“I think you guys made a huge mistake,” Sam said, shaking her head.
“You never liked her anyway,” Tobi teased, laughing before she winced in pain.
“Shut up and let me take a look at that,” Sam said, changing the subject.
As Sam dressed Tobi’s wounds, the small group sat in silence.
“What are we going to do now?” Tobi finally asked.
“Layne mentioned a place up north,” Sam said.
“There’s no way you can make it up there right now,” Jax said quietly. “Tobi is injured and the weather was unforgiving when I left. I can only imagine it would be worse now.”
They sat in silence and Layne finally spoke up.
“What if you stayed here with us?” she said, snuggling the little puppy close. “We could fix the shed up and make it a nice little house for you two.”
“Are you serious?” Tobi asked, wide-eyed. “Jax, you don’t have to agree to that. It’s a huge risk to take. We can figure something out. Seriously. We may not be welcome back at Hex, but we can find something.”
“Actually,” Jax said, “I think it would be great if we stuck together. There’s safety in numbers after all. And I missed you a lot. Besides, if we’re going to be having a baby, I’d love for it to have a big family.”
“What do you think about it, Sam?” Tobi asked.
“Anywhere is better than the bigots at Hex,” she said, looking down at the ground. The group sat in stunned silence as it became clear that a new arrangement had been made. Sam and Tobi were there to stay.
CHAPTER EIGHT
With Sam and Tobi cozied up in the small living room, keeping the puppy company that night, Jax examined the bruises on Layne’s face.
“I hate seeing you hurt,” Jax said, his eyes stormy. “It’s worse than you can imagine. I don’t mean to treat you like a little kid. I’ve just never loved somebody so much that their pain felt so much like my own.”
“Well you’re going to have to get used to it,” Layne said softly, pulling his strong hand toward her belly and pressing it firmly over it.
Jax gazed at his beautiful lover. She had never seemed more vibrant than she did now as her gentle eyes held his gaze.
“I guess I will,” he agreed, the reality of parenthood now seeming more real than ever. “I don’t want to mess up.”
“We can’t mess up any more than our own parents did,” she laughed. “Who knows what will happen. We just have to do our best in the here and now.”
“Speaking of the here and now,” Jax said, eyeing Layne with a gleam in his eye. “I’ve never wanted you more.”
“We’d have to be really quiet,” she laughed softly. Jax was surprised. He was used to outright rejection.
“Of course,” he said with a grin, pulling her shirt over her head and revealing her perfect body. She was glowing golden from the candles that were lighting the bedroom, and she gasped as his mouth hungrily found her neck, sending sensual shivers down her body. He cupped his hand over her breast, gently stroking her nipple before planting hot kisses down her torso.
Her body filled with longing, a friend she had been missing in the first weeks of pregnancy. She felt bad leaving Jax unsatisfied, but she finally felt ready for him. She wrapped her arms around him and laughed softly as he briefly lifted her, scooting himself between her legs. He easily pulled himself out of his loose pajama pants, and she held back a groan as the head of his penis started massaging her middle, sending shivers all throughout her body. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as he gently stripped her until she was naked, splayed before him. It had been so long since she’d been touched that she was shaking. He rubbed her arms in his strong hands.
“Are you cold?” his deep voice whispered.
“No…”
“Oh,” he said. “Good.”
He lowered his mouth over one of her breasts and tugged it softly with his teeth. She moaned softly, despite her effort to hold back her noises, and squirmed beneath him. He slipped himself up and down her hot folds until his shaft was shimmering with the liquid testament of her longing.
Every inch of her body was on fire as he pushed himself inside, and she gripped his shoulder tightly as his strong, capable thighs pressed against hers. She loved the way he felt. Even when she was mad at him, his body felt unbelievably good against hers. It was impossible to hold a grudge when he made her quake with desire and sent her to a state of bliss she had thought was purely fictional until she met him.
She exhaled softly as he began dragging his shaft slowly in and out of her. It was as if he could sense her urgency, and her desperate desire to come just made him want to tease her more. She buckled against him, silently begging him to go harder, faster, anything that would take her to her climax, but he grinned confidently down at her, his handsome face flawless in the golden glow of the candle. His broad, muscular body paused inside of her for a moment and she closed her eyes. She could feel him pulsing inside of her, and she knew he enjoyed the feeling of her walls closing in on him. It was delicious torture, until finally he rammed hard inside of her and her body was electrified by an unexpected shockwave of pleasure.
“Shhh,” Jax reminded her, a sly grin lighting his handsome face up. She stroked his hard abdomen, letting her fingers linger on his tight muscles as he paused inside of her.
“You don’t mean that,” she said, moving her hips up and sliding herself along the length of his shaft. “You want me to beg and wake up th
e whole house.”
“The thought had crossed my mind,” he whispered, holding back his own moan of pleasure as she moved her body against his stiff cock.
“Not gonna happen,” she said, shaking her head.
“Not if you just take what you want like that, no,” he replied, suddenly on top of her, pinning her wrists to the bed and pulling himself out of her. She squirmed underneath him, silently pleading for him to enter her again, but refusing to speak. The power was out of her hands and now she would have to wait for it.
“Is this punishment for not putting out for so long?” Layne asked with a grin.
“Nah,” he replied. He allowed his pulsing cock to hover lightly against her, and she pressed hard against it, inviting him inside. He wanted to see how long he could hold out, see if he could make her ask him for what she wanted.
He lowered his hot lips over her nipple and sucked, sliding himself against her clit until she was moaning out loud despite her impressive self-restraint. Finally, her voice, clear and sweet, whispered into his ear.
“Please.”
That was all he needed. He plunged inside her with his full force, lifting her hips off the bed with his hands so he could hammer inside of her as hard as he could. She gripped his shoulders, biting one of them to keep from screaming as waves and waves of pleasure crashed over her body. She could feel every inch of him hard and unbridled in her body, and let him use her however he wanted to.
He rammed his powerful hips against hers until she began to shudder under the force. His strong arms held her still as he felt the hot rush of her orgasm engulf his shaft.
He was still going strong though, and flipped her over onto the bed so that he could see the curve of her back and enter her from behind. She moaned when he curled his arm around her waist and massaged her clit with his broad fingers as he began to slip gently inside of her once again. She hissed in pleasure as his cock burst into her, putting her immediately on the brink of another orgasm before she had fully finished the last one.
She closed her eyes in bliss as he released the pent up frustration he’d felt over the past few weeks, punishing her body with his until she had quaked around his shaft again. Her body squeezed his mercilessly as she came again, until he couldn’t help but hiss. He squeezed her ass as his cock trembled inside of her, and she closed her eyes, uttering a deep moan as his orgasm burst inside of her, enhancing the pleasure of hers. He stayed inside of her, thrusting hard until every last drop was inside of her, and then they collapsed in the bed together breathlessly.
“I really missed you,” Layne said.
Jax kissed her forehead.
“I missed you too,” he replied. “At least with Sam and Tobi here, it’s never going to be so lonely again.”
She smiled at the thought. She really seemed to be hitting it off with Sam, and it was nice to see Jax loosen up around his old friend. Things had definitely just gotten a lot more interesting.
THE END
The Story continues in Books 4 and 5…available on Amazon…
The Runes of Argyll Trilogy
The Highland’s Call
Jessica Savage
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work
Chapter 1
Andrea clutched the small stone in the palm of her hand. It felt cool and smooth and somehow strangely comforting. Her Grandmother Betty had insisted that her only granddaughter be given this small artifact on her death. That had happened over a week ago, as Andrea was driving through New York. It was almost as if she knew. An image of her beloved Gran had flitted through her mind at the exact moment she took her last breath.
Betty was her father's mother. Her dad Joe had died a few years ago and her mother Pat had remarried. She had never approved of her stepdad, Pete; he could never replace her beloved father.
Perhaps she was being unfair, but she had always sided with her dad against her mum, and now the two women seemed poles apart, no longer able to communicate with each other. Pat didn’t even attend the funeral. Not that Betty would have minded. She had never approved of the union in the first place.
Andrea had inherited her Grandma's creative talents and she had been close to Betty when she was a child, closer than to her own mother, but after college she had been offered a three-year contract with a major advertising company in New York, and it had been too good an opportunity to turn down. Betty had understood that she needed to fly the nest. She had been a young woman once, although that seemed such a long time ago.
Andrea had only seen her Gran when she flew home for Christmas and important family occasions. Then she had met Steve and her life in the US seemed to take on a more permanent footing, until the death of her Grandma had made her suddenly homesick for the English countryside. She loved the buzz and fast-paced life of New York but now longed for some peace and time to reflect and find herself again, and she certainly couldn't do that on Fifth Avenue.
Steve had stayed behind. He was in the middle of an important project but was willing to travel with her on a trip home for the funeral. For once Andrea didn't feel the need to be accompanied; this time she wanted to be alone with her thoughts and memories. Her insistence on being alone had caused a strain between them, the first serious rift since they got together almost two years ago, and it would be the first time they had spent any real time apart.
The pressure of the stone against her palm brought her back to the present. It had been almost five days since she left JFK airport, and Steve hadn't phoned her since. Not even yesterday after the funeral to see how she was coping. It saddened her to think the man she had grown to love could be so stubborn and heartless, and she began to question her commitment to the relationship. Did she really know him? He had seemed to be perfect for her, and she had enjoyed his company; yet when she looked back at the continual rounds of friends and parties, drinks and dinners, it seemed somewhat shallow. Lately she had started to feel broody; her body clock reminding her that time was ticking away. She had mentioned it to Steve once in a light-hearted way, and he had held up his hands in mock horror. That would never be the deal with him; his career was way too important, and her needs would always come second.
Did she and Steve really have anything in common?
The day was grey and coarse; the wind whipped up sharply from behind the trees and caused her to shiver. She had forgotten the English weather and hadn't prepared nor packed for it.
Opening her palm, Andrea looked down at the stone in her hand. She remembered seeing it as a child, taking prize position behind the glass in the old china cabinet in her Gran’s front room. Occasionally she had been allowed to take it out and hold it in her small palm. It was pale in color, not quite white and not quite beige. Several markings had been etched deeply into the surface, and she’d been told it once belonged to a white witch with magical powers. As a child, she had held the small token and made a secret wish that she would never grow up, that she would always remain a child. Of course, that hadn't happened. Not physically, anyway—but perhaps in her heart?
Grandma Betty had always been so full of life, her small blue eyes twinkling on the wrinkled and careworn face. There had been some sadness in her youth, but no one had talked of it and Andrea had never asked, but sometimes she saw a wistful shadow slightly dimming those sparkling eyes.
And now the stone was hers—that and an old battered leather diary from 1956. Before her death, Grandma Betty had written her a letter, the hand-writing barely legible on the expensive vellum cream paper. It had taken her a while to read the spidery hand.
Andrea,
My darling Granddaughter, I fear that I may not see you again. I do hope that is not the case, but I have to be
practical. There is so much I should have told you and so much left to say, but my time is running out. Remember the wishing stone you used to ask me about as a child? I leave that to you. It's my most valued possession. You must promise that you will do something for me? The stone needs to be returned to its rightful home on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull. You must take it into the Abbey and enter the little graveyard of St. Oran's chapel. Take the stone and place it on the third grave on the left-hand side. I can't explain everything to you in this letter. Most of it I don't understand myself. But you must promise me this, this small pilgrimage of mine. The diary may help? Call it an old woman's ramblings, but as you loved me please do this one last thing for me. The thought of you, my only remaining flesh and blood carrying out this last request, brings peace to my mind as I near my end.
I will never stop loving you even when I am far away.
Grandma Betty x
Tears trickled down her face as she imagined the dear old lady sitting up in bed, scribbling her last instructions to the world. It must have taken a lot of effort to write the letter. She had been in a very weak state in the end and therefore must have considered it extremely important to write.
Andrea had promised Steve she would be back in a few days, but what would a few more matter? It wasn't as if he was speaking to her anyhow. She would visit Iona. It was the last thing she could do for her grandmother, and although it would mean a further 1000 mile round trip, it would give her some peace of mind to follow her last wishes.
