Artie rode off, and Lena surveyed her new surroundings. The safe house, such as it was, contained little in the way of furnishings: a small table before a stove with three hard backed chairs resting around the rim and a tiny couch and a narrow coffee table. With another few steps, Lena glanced into a bathroom and flipped the switch on the wall. Harsh light filled the room, and she blinked at the sight of a small tub concealed by a tan curtain. Running her finger against the sink, she took note of the fact that the place was clean despite the sparseness, and she left one room for the next. Seeing a soft mattress sitting below a patchwork quilt, Lena thought of sleeping again, wanting nothing more than to give over to a dream and the possibility that there was no danger when Jax returned, his arms light and soft around her waist as he kissed her hair.
“We are safe here, Lena,” he assured her. “And we can trust Artie.”
“Can we?” she asked as she faced him and ran her fingers up and down his cheeks.
“I do,” he said. “Do you trust me?”
Maybe it was his skill on the bike or the adrenaline still bubbling in her veins. But Lena nodded and threw her arms around his neck. “Yes, Jax,” she murmured. “I’ve always trusted you.”
He kissed her again, and she started to pull his body to the bed when he settled her gently on the edge of the mattress and knelt at her side.
“How about some grub?” Jax asked with a small smile. “Have you eaten at all today?”
“No,” she said. “You welched on breakfast.”
He laughed at her pale joke, and she kept his hand in hers as he started to leave her side, her fingers swirling around his wrist as she sighed.
“Then give me a chance to make it up to you,” Jax said.
“How?” she asked.
“By getting you dinner.”
“Best I can remember you only did drive thru whenever we got hungry.”
“And they always comped me,” he said as he waggled his eyebrows and stroked her cheek. “Do you remember that, too?”
“Sure do.”
Those where the days when he was all powerful, when he could fell any bully that dared to look at her the wrong way. But this was different; now the risk was more than Sawyer and Ric, and she started to speak when he pushed close to her face and kissed her eyes.
“Time to show you something new,” he said. “You have to keep your strength up.”
“For what?” she asked as her mind turned toward the promise that Artie might not be able to keep, but Jax just winked.
“For everything I’m going to do you,” he said, his voice ragged as he twirled a single lock of her hair between his fingers. “Lena?”
She moved from the bed and took hold of his face. As Jax waited for her answer, she kissed him quickly and smirked. “We still have so much time to make up for.” Lena was ready to toss him back the bed and mount him right then and there when he pushed her back with a tender smile.
“How about you let me wine and dine you a little first,” he said. “Show you how special you are.”
He started to drag her away from the bed when her feet felt fixed to the ground. Not too long ago, these were the words she wanted to hear from him most. And the idea that he could slip inside her again and send her senses reeling was beyond tempting. But now they were far from Deerfield, and she remembered what it was to feel Eric’s body on top of her, his flesh grinding against hers.
“I’m not special,” she muttered. “Not anymore.”
Lena bit down on her lip, her eyes starting to fill with ears when Jax pulled her into his arms and kissed her softly. “More than ever,” he whispered. “Don’t ever think anything else, Lena.”
His strong arms surrounded her quivering frame. The feel of his breath pouring down her throat worked its way across her heart, and she relaxed in his hold, even as her pulled away and smiled into her eyes.
“So dinner?” he asked as he kissed her cheeks and ran his hands down her arms, stopping only to take her hands in his. Lena nodded slowly, and she followed him out of the room. As soon as they hit the kitchen, he settled her in one of the three abandoned chairs and kissed her again before turning his attention towards the cabinets.
“Now let’s see what we have to work with.” Jax brought a large pot to the sink and stated to fill it with water. A box of spaghetti soon followed, and as he tossed a jar of unopened sauce into the air and caught it just as quickly, he shot her a wink. “Hope you’re up for something Italian.”
Lena pressed her fingers to her chin and peered up at him. “Kind of want to see how you’ll make this work.”
“Prepare to be amazed, Lena.”
Once the water came to a rolling boil, he cracked the noodles and let the pasta fall into the pot. Stirring it a few times, he opened the jar of sauce and dropped the contents into a smaller pot. It simmered and filled the room with a comforting scent, and Lena’s stomach growled as he located a box of sugar. She watched with wide eyes as he tossed a dash into the sauce and mixed the white grains into the red paste.
“Sugar?” she asked. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Just you wait,” he promised. “I think you’re going to love it.”
He added some salt to the water and kept stirring as the pasta cooked. As soon as it was soft, he dumped the noodles into a colander and proceeded to pour most of his sauce into a large bowl. The spaghetti followed, and as the sauce coated his efforts, Jax poured the rest of his mixture over the pasta. With a quick swish of spoon and fork, he was able to dish out two hearty helpings of the most delicious looking plates, and he presented his handiwork as he ran a single hand down her back.
“Eat up, Lena. I promise you’ll like it.”
“Just like?” she asked as she started to take the fork into her hand.
“You’ll love it,” Jax purred.
He assumed the seat before her and started to eat quickly, his hunger rivaling hers. Despite some doubts, Lena could no longer resist the urge to taste. As soon as she slurped a single noodle, the specially-seasoned taste exploded across her tongue, and she kept eating as he held up and just watched her.
“Good?” Jax asked.
“Better than good,” she answered as she wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve and swallowed with a smile. “Man of many talents,” she said. Jax appeared to blush, and Lena reached across the table for his hand. “Best meal I’ve had in a long time.”
She drank from the glass at her side and smiled up at him as he pushed his chair close to hers. “So they don’t feed you so good at school?” he asked.
“You don’t even know,” she started. “Toast so hard you could use it to plaster a wall. And mashed potatoes for the glue.”
“That sounds awful,” Jax said as he kissed the sauce from her lips and rested his brow to hers.
“The boys from Sigma Nu had a lot of fun with it.”
Lena smiled at the memory of Danny and Jones concealing their hardened bread and turning it in with their term papers, their protests writ large in what was supposed to be jam as they slapped one another on the back. Harmless to be sure; childish at best. But they were sweet enough when she was granted an invite to one of their many parties. Danny flirted, and she danced with him a few times. Nothing beyond that.
“Boys?” he breathed heavily. “So…so there were others?”
“Others?” she asked as she dropped her fork and took another drink.
“Thought you said you waited?”
Lena started to explain when she suddenly pulled away from him again, and her body lifted to her feet. “I did,” she said. “Maybe I went to a few parties, but that doesn’t mean that I---”
“But you still found some fun.” Jax’s eyes flashed, and he tossed his dish into the sink as he glared at her hard. “Guess I can’t blame you,” he said. “You had to want to forget, right?”
Lena started to answer when she fully understood the weight of his implication. “Is… do you think that I would just spread my legs for anyone?” she spat. “Like I had to keep getting more and more to get away from his touch?” Jax started to reach for her again, but Lena shied away from his fingers and waved her hands in the air. “You know what he did to me,” she said. “So sorry that I tried to have a few nights where I didn’t have to cry myself to sleep.”
She started for the front door when he grabbed her arm. “How did you manage that?” he asked. “You said that you---”
She slapped his face hard and watched him fall away as she clenched her fists to her sides. “I told you that I only wanted you. And didn’t I run with you today?” When he had no answer, she stomped her foot to the floor and glowered into his eyes. “Just picked up and left,” she continued. “And there was only you… before… before…” Her body writhed at the memory of Eric’s hands, and when he tried to hold her again she pushed him back and shook her head. “But I see you now,” she said. “You can’t stand the idea that I so much as smiled when I wasn’t with you.”
Lena stared to run, not knowing where she was or how she would ever find her way out when Jax seized her legs and eased her body to the floor. She squirmed and struggled under his touch, but he held her fast against the floor and pressed his lips to her brow.
“That’s not it, Lena,” he said. “Not that at all.”
Kissing her hard, he pulled her up into his arms, but Lena stayed tense and kept struggling as he eased her body against the wall and curled his hand under her chin.
“Then what?” she asked.
Jax moaned into her breasts, and when his lips neared hers, he paused before he rested his head to her belly. “It’s not that I don’t want you happy.”
Lena started to run her fingers through his hair, and when their eyes met again, and she touched his cheek and held her tongue as he struggled to finish his thought.
Jax sprang to his feet and gathered her in his arms. “I just want to be the only man who makes you smile.”
He said nothing else, his hands suddenly light as he carried her back to the bed. Lena didn’t squirm or struggle as he laid her body on the bed and removed her shoes. Unveiling her feet, Jax suckled her toes, his tongue savoring the taste of her flesh as he started to kiss her heel, and Lena gripped his shoulders as she eased his eyes back to hers.
“I only want to smile with you, Jax,” she said. “But not when your voice sounds so hard.”
Jax shifted off the floor and laid at her side, his fingers stroking her cheek as he whispered into her ear. “Then please give me another chance, Lena. Let me speak more softly.”