Witness Protection

by barefootblonde

He pulled the trigger, she's the only witness, but she can't testify against him if she's his wife.

9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

By the time they stepped onto the sidewalk, leaving the Antique Angel Chapel behind them, and with Harper triple-checking that she had the copy of their marriage license safely tucked away in her purse, sheets of rain poured down around them.

"Holy shit," Jax muttered under his breath.

Luckily, they were also standing underneath the awning right outside the chapel, but they couldn't stand there forever.

The hotel was two blocks to their left, but he had a feeling neither of them were quite ready to go back there yet. Maybe it was for the best that it wasn't even seven o'clock yet, and they really did have the whole night ahead of them.

Harper turned to him with a grimace on her pretty face - she still had some mascara streaked underneath her eyes, her hair was still damp from their sprint to the chapel before the ceremony, and that dress really was a little see-through. If he looked hard enough, and he kinda was, the outline of her bra, not to mention her underwear, was pretty damn hard to miss.

"Now what do we do?" Harper laughed, gesturing to the torrential rain blowing around them.

He was moving toward her before he could stop himself, bringing a hand to her neck, drifting his thumb across her lips, and he leaned down to press his lips against hers. Harper never hesitated. Her lips parted to give him better access with her arms wrapped around his neck so she could pull him closer, and in deeper, and his tongue slipped between her parted lips.

He'd known she would taste sweet. He just hadn't expected her to be this sweet, this funny, this gorgeous, this exciting, this game for just about anything, this smart, this brave. And that's what he had now. He had all of that if he wanted it, and he was starting to feel like he did. He really did.

Why wouldn't he?

Something had changed between them during the time they'd sat on the floor of his dorm to right here, with their arms wrapped around each other, kissing underneath an awning in the rain. Maybe it was only just the extreme circumstances that had led them here...but here they were.

Finally, he let his tongue sweep around hers one more time before pulling back so he could take her in, standing there looking up at him with eyes that weren't quite blue, weren't quite green, but were beautiful just the same. His thumb brushed across her cheek, settling at the corner of her lips as she smiled into his touch.

"What was that for?" she laughed, her eyes sparkling up at him.

Jax lifted a shoulder as he grinned down at her. "Just felt like kissin' you."

"Okay," she laughed again.

"So that's okay?" he cocked an eyebrow at her. "Me kissin' you when I feel like it?"

Her head tilted to the side as she playfully narrowed her eyes at him even as she leaned in deeper so her chest brushed against his leather kutte. "I didn't hate it," she mused playfully, "so I suppose that's okay."

He followed that up by leaning in and pressing his lips to hers again, just because he could. Just because he wanted to.

"But seriously though," Harper laughed against his lips. "What do we do now?"

That felt a little bit like a loaded question - one that needed answering, but maybe one that could wait, even if it was only a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days. For now, something good had settled itself on his shoulders, something he hadn't really felt in a really long time, and for now, he just wanted to hold onto that for as long as he could. Because why the hell not? Tomorrow, when they had to get back in that T-M truck and drive home to Charming, they'd also have to face everything waiting there for them too.

"Let's hold that thought for now, okay?" he told her with a soft grin, letting his thumb sweep across her lips again.

It took her a moment, but her eyes shone with that shared understanding. Over the years, he liked to believe he'd cultivated a few important skills when it came to women. While he'd never pretend to read their minds, even if that was something he'd want to do, he'd gotten pretty good at reading them, just in general. What they wanted, what they didn't want, when they wanted it, how they wanted it, but up until now, that knowledge had more to do with the ins and outs of getting them in and out of his dorm.

But with Harper, it was different.

Sure, most of the time he had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth or what she was going to do next, but he felt like, somehow, someway, he just knew her.

Somewhere in between the time he'd skidded into the office last night and saw her taped to a chair, to the time they'd spent on the floor of his dorm, to the desperate battle he'd waged to keep her out of a six-foot hole, to their drive to Reno, to the selfless out she'd given him by the courthouse, to the very real panic he'd felt when he'd woken up alone in their hotel room, to the moment he'd watched her walk down the aisle to the Monster Mash...he just knew her. And he knew her in a way that had nothing to do with the ins and outs of getting her in and out of his dorm.

This was different because it felt different. This was different because, for the first time in his life, he'd taken responsibility for someone who wasn't his blood or a member of his chosen family. He'd just stood at some altar in some ridiculous chapel in Reno, of all fucking places, and he'd married her. He'd taken vows in front of two strangers, holding her hands, and giving her a ring.

Their officiant was right - they'd said some words in front of each other, and now it really did feel like things would never be the same between them.

And he'd never planned on it, never wanted it, never even really thought it was anything he'd ever do at any point in his life.

But here he was, with his arms wrapped around the girl he'd just married.

"Okay," she murmured with a soft smile. "We can shelve that for now. So…" her face scrunched up at him a little in thought. "Should we, I don't know, find someplace to get some food? Maybe a drink or two?"

"I think that's something people do after they get married, isn't it?" he threw out lightly, but he didn't let his thumb leave her cheek.

"I think it is."

He nodded to her with another grin, but now they did have to figure out, literally, what to do next and where to go. They really couldn't stand underneath this awning forever - that and it was fucking cold and wet under here too. Harper pulled her phone out of her purse, and her fingers flew across the screen as her eyes squinted down whatever she found. Then she glanced up at him, jerking a thumb over her shoulder.

"There's a tavern right around the corner," she informed him. "It's called The Blind Dog Tavern - sounds like your kinda place."

He just huffed out a laugh. "Bullshit. How do you know what my kinda place is?"

Her eyes flicked down to his white sneakers, lifted pointedly to his leather kutte, and then she cocked an eyebrow at him knowingly. With a laugh, he hitched his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes at her.

"Are you judging me, princess?"

"Yes."

His head tipped back as he laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to pull her in tight.

"I think it's only fair," she went on with a smile. "But anyway, this place has, like, four and a half stars, so it can't be that bad."

"Well, in that case, it's probably not my kinda place. I'm more of a two-star kinda guy."

"I hadn't noticed," she tossed back dryly. "But who cares? Live a little bit, ya old man. We're going - unless you've got a better idea?"

"Alright," he grinned, leaning in one more time to brush his lips against her mouth, and liking the way her lips curled into him.

"So, we doing this or what?"

There was only one answer he could give her: "Oh, we're doin' it."

---

Jax was still shaking the rain out of his eyes when Harper hopped up onto a bar stool. She patted the stool next to her, and he slid in next to her with a smirk. He slipped an arm around her waist, just so he could lean in closer to her ear, and just so he could lean in closer in general.

"Yeah, definitely not my usual scene, princess."

Harper just batted a hand at him before smiling broadly at the suspender-wearing bartender in front of them, who handed them menus. Any bar that had drink menus or bookshelves and a ladder where there should be stacks of liquor bottles was definitely not his kinda place, not to mention the fact the low lighting wasn't from dimming overhanging bulbs like he was used to in the clubhouse, but from those stupid Edison light things.

But he was just gonna go with it. And have some fun, because why the hell not? When in Reno and all that shit.

It took the bartender a moment, maybe because Harper's white dress was completely soaked, and also just about complete see-through, but he registered the fact that she was also wearing a soaking wet veil, in addition to wearing a soaking wet, see-through dress.

The bartender pointed at Harper with a happy smile, "Did you guys just get married?"

They turned to each other, leaning their elbows on the bar, and Jax winked at her, drawing her in a little bit closer underneath his arm.

"We did," Harper informed him. "About five minutes ago, actually."

The bartender let out a whoot, reaching behind him to ring a cowbell right next to the bar, and then two seconds later, "Another One Bites the Dust" blasted from the speakers overhead.

"And another one gone!" the bartender shouted, as the patrons, clearly in on the joke and used to this kind of thing with a wedding chapel right around the corner, lifted their glasses around them to toast them.

Harper, of course, ate up the attention, flipping her sopping wet hair over her shoulder, waving around like she was a contestant in a beauty pageant, and grinning like a lunatic as the bartender set two shot glasses in front of them.

"Compliments of the house," he winked at them. "Congrats, guys."

Jax flashed her a smirk as he reached out to grab his shot glass and then handed one to her. Without another word between them, they clinked their glasses together and downed the shots. Harper scrunched up her face in mock-disgust, and she pushed her glass away like it had just committed some kind of egregious offense against her, and he figured it probably had.

"Ugh," she stuck her tongue out at him, screwing her nose up again as she reached for the drink menu.

"I take it you're not a tequila kinda girl, princess?"

Harper glanced around conspiratorially before leaning to whisper in his ear, "Not without training wheels."

He huffed out a laugh, turning his head to face her - now their faces were just a few inches apart, and even though she still had a smile playing on those pretty lips, her eyes dropped down to his mouth. But instead of leaning closer, she decided to tease him a little bit, propping her head up on her elbow slyly, letting her eyes drop back down to his lips again just to make her point.

That familiar tug pulled at his heart - but not because of anything but her. His chest was rising and falling against his damp leather kutte a little more rapidly now, and that was okay. He found himself leaning into the way she was making him feel, and liking it more than he probably had any right to, but he just couldn't help it.

Being around her...everything else just faded into the background.

So, he decided to test the waters a little more, just to see what she would do, and he reached underneath the bar stoop to rest a hand on her bare knee.

Her eyes flashed at the contact, but she recovered just as quickly, tilting her head to the side as her lips curled up into a cute half smile that kinda made him want to lean in and kiss her again. And then, she cocked an eyebrow at him as her hand drifted down to cover his.

"Oh yeah?" Harper murmured, meeting his challenge and taking it one step further. She shocked him by sliding his hand away from her knee, and up the smooth rain-slicked skin on her thigh, right up to the edge of her lacy white hem.

Oh yeah.

Then her eyebrows lifted suggestively. "I double-dog dare you, Jax."

He tipped his chin to her with a smirk. "You double-dog dare me, what?"

When she just lifted her eyebrows again suggestively at him, with her mouth curving up to the side with some heat behind it now. "You know what."

"Hmm," he hummed, letting his eyes drift around the bar, which was only about half-full, and definitely not full enough with people to give him a little cover. But, he figured, they were in Reno, and it was clear to everyone around them right now that they'd literally just come from a wedding chapel.

Now, Harper leaned in again until her lips kissed his ear, "I triple-dog dare you."

Well, in that case.

"One thing you need to know about me, princess," he murmured in her ear, letting his pinky finger slide underneath the hem of her dress. "I never back down from a -"

"So," the bartender materialized right in front of them again. "You guys decide on drinks yet?"

Jax cocked an eyebrow at the bartender, levelling him with a hard glare for such a poorly-timed interruption - right when he was about to actually get somewhere. The bartender's eyes widened a little, holding his hands in the air in defense until Harper's light, airy laugh cut through the momentary tension.

"We'll order something," she grinned, picking up the drink menu again to peruse it and tapping a finger to her chin in thought. To her credit, her eyes fixed on the menu, even though he still hadn't moved his finger from underneath her dress. "Hmmm, I will take the…" her eyes lit up when she settled on one of the options, "Robert California. That sounds fantastic."

Then the bartender hesitantly glanced at Jax. His irritation for this guy flared again, and he just lifted a shoulder at Harper. This was obviously a mixology-and-cocktail kind of place, not a Bud-and-Coors kind of place, and whatever concoction she selected for him would be just fine. Alcohol was alcohol at this point.

"And for you, honey," Harper grinned evilly at him before her eyes dropped to the drink menu one last time. Then her eyes flashed, and when she lifted those flashing hazel eyes back up to him, he knew she was up to no good. "He'll take the…" she smiled at the bartender, "Suffering Bastard."

"Excellent choice, ma'am," the bartender nodded to her, quietly slipping the drink menu off the bartop and replacing it with a pizza menu.

"A Suffering Bastard, huh?" he cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Seemed appropriate."

"Uh huh," he huffed out a laugh, but now that the bartender had stepped away, he didn't miss the opportunity that had presented itself.

He slipped the hand on her thigh all the way underneath her dress, smirking at the way her lips parted and the way she sucked in a quick, sharp breath, and his fingers slid up her soft, smooth skin right until his fingertips brushed the edge of her panties.

When he slipped his hand out from underneath her dress, letting it linger on her knee again, he leaned in to murmur in her ear, "I never back down from a dare, princess. Besides, I didn't realize just how much I wanted to do that until I did it."

"Oh really?" Harper laughed, recovering quickly. "That's interesting...I was kinda under the impression that you hated me, at least up until yesterday."

He leaned in, and almost on reflex, his eyes dropped to the simple silver wedding band on her left hand. So he folded his hands in front of him, glancing down at the matching silver wedding band on his own left hand.

"I never hated you," he murmured in her ear. "But to be fair, I, too, was under the impression that you had a strong...dislike for me, up until yesterday at least."

Harper smiled back softly. "I was under the impression you were a massive asshole."

"Well, see, that's true," he laughed, pushing up the sleeves on his wet flannel as he spoke. "I am a massive asshole."

"That's not true," Harper shook her head, that soft smile still playing on her lips. "I'm pretty sure a massive asshole wouldn't have done what you did for me today."

He sucked in a breath, letting his eyes drop back down to his folded hands in front of him. There were a few things tucked in around her words that he wasn't quite sure how to unpack. Initially, it had just been about the club. Keeping the club on the right path. Doing the right thing. Not letting another innocent woman suffer for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It had been almost 24 hours since she'd seen him shoot two men in the head, and in that time, his reasons for driving her to Reno had shifted.

It wasn't just about saving an innocent life anymore. It was about saving her life.

Her life mattered to him.

"You saved my life, Jax," she smiled softly when he turned to face her. "It's okay - I think we can say that out loud now."

And there was something about the gratitude he heard in her voice that made him feel a little uneasy. It wasn't that there was necessarily something wrong with her feeling gratitude toward him - that was fair, and it was understandable. She'd held it together so well through this whole damn thing, save for the little breakdown she'd told him about before they left for the chapel.

But the last thing he wanted was for her to feel like she owed him something. Like she was obligated to do anything at any point.

Maybe he was better off just keeping his hands to himself now.

He shot the bartender a tight smile when he set their drinks in front of them, and when he finally shifted his gaze back to Harper, he found her watching him carefully, chewing on her bottom lip in thought and then she leaned forward to take a sip of her drink.

"Mmm," she hummed. "This is pretty good."

And then, before he even had a chance to do much else, she leaned to her left with an elbow on the bar, and wrapped her lips around his straw too.

"Mmm," she hummed again, looking up at him with a smile. "Yours is pretty good too."

"Is it?" he murmured hoarsely, unable to tear his eyes away when she dipped down to wrap her lips around his straw one more time.

And suddenly, he just needed to do something to make sure the air was clear between them. Even if he ended up making a fool of himself. Even if it turned out that this was all just an act on her part. The way things were headed tonight...if he didn't try to stop it now, he might not get the nerve again. And if he let things escalate the way they were, if he kept touching her and kissing her, and if she played along with it, he might not be able to control himself by the time they ended up in their hotel room later tonight either.

Because right about now, he had a pretty good feeling what he wanted to do with her once they got back to that hotel room. But if they got that far, it needed to be on her terms - and not because she felt like he expected anything from her at any given point tonight, or any night after that, because he'd married her today to save her life.

There was still time and space to put a stop to this before they went too far.

So, before he lost the nerve, and before he changed his mind, he tipped his chin to the bartender.

"Hey, we'll be right back, a'ight?"

The bartender just shrugged, signalling he'd keep their drinks right where they were, and now all he had to do was face Harper. Her lips curled softly at him, and goddammit, she was so pretty it almost hurt...sitting there next to him with black mascara underneath her eyes, tangled wet hair, that white dress that was probably just as cold now as it was damp, that matted white veil clipped into the back of her head...maybe she did look a little bit like a drowned rat. But she was the drowned rat he'd married today.

And that meant something to him.

---

Harper followed his lead, leaning up against the outside of the tavern, careful to keep her body underneath the narrow awning above their heads. She wrapped her arms around herself for a little warmth as he dug into the inside pocket of his kutte for his cigarette pack. Jax slid two out of the pack before wordlessly handing one of them to her, and then he surprised her by leaning in with the open flame from his lighter to light hers up first.

They smoked their cigarettes in silence for a few moments, with Jax leaning up against the building about a foot away from her. Even though that distance between them was technically a short one, it felt longer and wider all of a sudden, like the air had shifted between them, but for reasons she didn't quite understand.

And here she thought they'd been having some real fun together.

Jax kicked a foot out in front of him, almost like he could read her thoughts, and shifted his eyes to the pavement.

"Hey, uh," he started a little shakily as he raked a hand through his wet hair. "I'm sorry about before. I shouldn't have done that...my hand on your leg like that."

Really? That's what he'd dragged her out here in the rain to say?

"I'm not sorry about it," she frowned, resting a hand underneath her elbow as she brought her left hand, and her cigarette, back up to her lips. She caught a glimpse of the wedding ring on her finger, and her heart squeezed a little at the sight.

Jax just huffed out a laugh with a light smile. "Okay. Maybe I'm not completely sorry about it either, but that doesn't mean I should've done it."

"You know," she told him wryly. "If you're trying to convince me you're actually a massive asshole, you're not doing a very good job."

His lips quirked up as he tipped his chin to her, flicking some ash from his cigarette before shoving his free hand deep inside his front pocket.

"So why are we really out here right now, Jax?"

Because up until now, she'd been having the time of her life with him, and that was really saying something, considering she'd spent the better part of the year hopping between LA, Belize, and St. Tropez on Eddie's boss's private jet.

His chest heaved against his leather kutte, but he kept his eyes glued to the pavement. "So, before...you asked what we do now, and I'd said we should hold that thought. I think we should probably have that conversation now before I do something stupid again."

"Alright," she allowed evenly.

Finally, his eyes lifted from the pavement and landed right on her. Whatever easy, light-headed air had been between them before evaporated almost instantly. His navy blue eyes were serious. Heavy, too. Weighed down by whatever he was about to say, and her heart started its slow plummet right into the pit of her stomach.

"Look," he sighed, tucking some tangled blonde hair behind his ear as he spoke. "When we get back to Charming tomorrow, there's some serious shit waiting for us. I wouldn't be all that surprised if the ATF's already sittin' outside the clubhouse, just waitin' for us to come home. I know we need to get our stories straight and everything, and we can do that later, but for now, I think we need to straighten out what's happening right here, don't you think?"

She nodded tightly and started to chew on her bottom lip. Some nerves fluttered around in her stomach. This was new. And weird...like she was right on the edge of being broken up with. Like he was just trying to ease her into it so she didn't take off running. Usually, she was on the other end of this conversation, when she wasn't walking in on them in bed with another woman at least.

"All I can do is be honest with you, Harper," he pushed on. "So, that's what I'm gonna do...just be honest about all this, alright? I think I've already been pretty fucking honest with you so far - I've told you some shit about the club that I probably shouldn't have, and some of those things I've never really told anyone before. I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that I'm not gonna stand here and lie to you or blow a bunch of smoke up your ass, and if we don't agree on what's really happening here and why it's happening, that's okay. Nothing we say from here on out changes anything about that legal paperwork in your purse. I'm not gonna leave you hangin' if we disagree, and I'm not gonna throw you to the wolves either - all I ask is that you do the same for me. I need you to understand that it's really okay for us to disagree...okay?"

And although she was still on the fence about how she should really take all this, she nodded. "Okay, Jax. I understand."

"So that means you gotta be honest with me too," his jaw worked around a sexy smirk that really had no right to be so sexy in this moment. "No lies. No bullshit. You gotta tell me the truth for once, princess."

Harper just huffed out a laugh and shook her head at him. "I've always told you the truth."

That smirk on his lips only widened as he jabbed a finger at her. "Bullshit."

Her eyes lifted to the dripping awning above their heads. "What about that concept is so difficult for you to understand?"

"What?" he cocked an eyebrow at her. "You really expect me to believe you were shackin' up with some Saudi prince in some apartment in some palace? Or that you got chased down in heels by the fucking Yakuza on Christmas Eve? Or that you hooked up Dave Franco before you dropped him for some fucking musician? Or that you raided a Kushner Hanukkah party just because it sounded like fun at the time? Should I keep going or did I make my point?"

She tilted her head to the side, regarding him carefully as she flicked some ash from her cigarette and folded her free arm across her stomach.

"Mmkay, you made your point. But I'm not gonna tell you what you wanna hear, Jax, just because that's what you wanna hear. So, if I told you right now that I made up all those things - for some stupid reason - I'd just be telling you what you wanna hear and that would be a lie. I've never lied to you. About anything."

Jax cocked an eyebrow at her, but he kept his gaze squarely on her.

"If I'm supposed to trust that you're not gonna blow smoke up my ass, you have to trust me too."

He blew out a heavy breath, shifting his eyes out onto the street and squinting up at the sheets of rain pouring down around them. "You're right. So...we agree to trust that the other is telling the truth? Right now?"

"Yes," she allowed with a small smile. "Right now."

Jax nodded, probably more to himself than anything, and drew his eyes back down to his feet, glancing up at her one more time before she heard his voice again.

"This feels real," he told her quietly. "All this today...it feels like we really ran off and got married. Does it feel like that to you?"

She sucked in a shaky breath. That was not where she'd been expecting him to take this. Here, she'd been fully prepared for some gently-worded speech about how he was sorry things had gone too far, that he'd gotten carried away, and that they should head back to Charming right now. To be fair, he probably could still say those things to her, but she'd promised to tell the truth. So that's what she was going to do.

"Yeah," she whispered. "It feels real to me too."

Standing up there at that altar with him, with their hands wrapped around each other, with the way he was looking at her, it had felt like they were actually marrying each other in all the ways people actually marry each other. It had felt like they were actually making those promises to each other because they'd actually meant them.

Jax swallowed hard, his eyes softening a little as his lips curled up into a small smile. "Good."

And then he just kept right on going.

"I had this crazy feeling when I was standing there today, waiting for you to walk toward me at the chapel. That fucking insane song started playing, and I saw you standing there, laughing, and looking so damn pretty in your white dress, and I thought, yeah, I think I wanna marry this girl today."

Her heart twisted in her chest, and it took her a moment to really register what he'd just said. He really was being completely honest with her, right now, in this moment, and the things he was saying...she hadn't realized how badly she'd wanted him to say them until he did.

He huffed out a laugh, shaking his head at himself. "I know how stupid that sounds, okay? We haven't known each other very long, and I know this crazy situation pushed us together in a way we wouldn't have been otherwise and since I gotta be honest, I gotta say that the first time I met you, I thought you were some psycho compulsive liar wrapped up in this really pretty package...and since I gotta be honest, I still think that's not too far off from the truth," he laughed again, glancing up at her with soft eyes, "but I think that's also why I kinda liked talking to you. And why I felt myself kinda drawn in by you. And why I kinda liked you. I still do."

"So," she tilted her head to the side with a smile. "Are you saying you kinda like me, Jax?"

Jax bit down on his bottom lip, dipping his eyes down to his feet, but he couldn't hide the smile that slipped across his face. By the time he glanced back up, squinting at her a little playfully with one eye open, she had a pretty good feeling she already knew what his answer was going to be.

"Yeah," he smirked. "That's what I'm saying. And since I gotta be honest, I should probably let you know that what I've been feeling for you...it's more than that. I started out this day just wanting to save your life and to keep you safe, and at some point, that shifted for me. I mean," he laughed lightly, rubbing the back of his neck a little anxiously, "I'm not tryin' to say I don't wanna save your life and keep you safe anymore."

"I know," she smiled softly.

"But it's about more than that for me now, Harper. Your life...your safety, it feels fuckin' precious to me," he paused there, pushing out a heavy sigh as he took another long pull from his cigarette.

"Just thinkin' about what could've happened to you today, and all the different ways you could've fucking died - God, I can't even think about it, let alone say that shit out without feeling like I'm gonna throw up. And I feel like...I'd just be lying to both of us if I stood here and tried to say that I don't have real feelings for you. And I think I felt them the first time we met - I just had no idea what to do with them when I felt them. And since I gotta be honest, I'm really not sure there's anyone in this world I'd rather be in this crazy, fucked-up situation with than you - or anyone in this world I like more than I like you."

Her heart clenched up, squeezing tightly around that last little bit of control she had. That last little bit of self-preservation that she'd been clinging to since the moment he'd burst out of their hotel room in a panic because he thought she'd left him was quickly evaporating. And now, she knew it was her turn to respond, and to respond honestly, but he cut her off before she could get a word in.

"This is probably gonna come as a huge shock to you," Jax smiled softly. "But I've never really...I've never had an old lady before. Never really had a serious relationship that meant anything because I never wanted it. Never went lookin' for it. I think I've purposefully avoided anything serious because life was always just easier that way and because I'd gotten myself convinced that it wasn't worth the drama or the effort or...just about anything else."

"I can see that," she nodded, flicking some ash from her cigarette. "And this is probably gonna come as a huge shock to you, but I've always cut and run before I can catch feelings too. It's just easier that way, and I guess if I live by any real rules at all, that's the biggest one for me. Keeps me sane. Keeps me from doing something stupid too."

"Like what?" Jax threw out lightly. "Marrying some guy, who up until yesterday, you thought was a massive asshole?"

"Something like that, yeah," Harper laughed. "Look at me, breaking all the rules."

Jax swallowed hard, glancing down at his feet again as he nodded to himself. "I think I know what you mean. It kinda feels like I got dropped right in the middle of something today, you know? Like I picked up an old lady somewhere between Charming and Reno, and I thought whenever I got to that point in my life, if I ever did - I thought I'd fight it more or I don't know, that it wouldn't feel like a big deal or somethin'. But I wasn't expecting to feel like this about it."

"And how do you feel about it?"

His lips lifted softly at the corners, and she shivered a little from the impact.

"There's not much in my life that makes a lot of sense, Harper. At least not to someone who's…" he trailed off, like he was grappling for the right words.

"Normal?" she offered lightly.

"Yeah," Jax grinned. "That works. But the life I lead, the shit the club gets into, the risks we take every single day...I know, just instinctively, that that shit's just not normal, even if it's normal for me, and that a lot of the risks we take just don't make a lot of sense most of the time. But that's the outlaw life - that's what I chose. That's what I want. That's what I'm used to. So, I think because of that, it's really not that hard for me to accept this either. It's crazy. It really fucking is, and I know it wouldn't make a lot of sense to anyone on the outside looking in. But it makes sense to me because I learned a long time ago to trust my instincts about things that seem crazy and about things that just don't make sense."

"So what are your instincts telling you right now?"

His eyes flicked up to her with some resolve, and even a little bit of heat in them too. "That this is real, and the things I'm feeling for you...they scare the shit out of me because I've honestly never let myself feel them before, but I don't wanna run from that either. This is gonna sound stupid and cliche and probably a little lame, but I'm gonna say it anyway because it's true...I think the reason I've never had an old lady before is because I never met a girl I wanted to be my old lady. And then I met you."

Harper scrunched her nose at him playfully. "That's a little lame. Just a little. But I'll accept it for the compliment that it is."

"I guess what I'm trying to say," Jax laughed, shaking his head at her a little with a smile, "is that I feel like I got myself an old lady today, and I'm not even a little bit mad about it or trying to fight it. You ended up bein' the surprise of my life, Harper, and my instincts are tellin' me to hang on and enjoy the ride because the alternative just doesn't seem like an option for me anymore."

There was so much in everything he'd just said that she couldn't really wrap her head around. It made sense to her too - it really did. But right now, there was just one thing standing out to her that she didn't understand.

"You wanna know what's funny?" she smiled.

"What's that, princess?"

"When we first met, I thought we couldn't have been more different. Like, just complete polar opposites in just about every way."

He flashed her a sexy smirk. "I thought you were a creature from another planet. Still kinda do though, not gonna lie."

"Sure," she huffed out a laugh. "But all that aside, I think we're a lot more alike than we probably even know. We're both pretty cynical. Pragmatic, too, I think. And, like you, I learned a long time ago that all I can really count on are my instincts. I guess it's a good thing our instincts are telling us the same thing, huh?"

"Right," he laughed, flashing another smile at her that made her squeeze the insides of her thighs together.

"So what does that mean?" Harper tilted her head to the side in thought. "That thing you said about feeling like you got an old lady today?"

Jax's mouth curled knowingly, and he nodded to her with another smirk as he flicked some ash from his cigarette before bringing it back to his lips. "That's the term we use in the club - it's not quite the same as having a girlfriend, and actually it's a lot like having a wife, even if you don't actually get married, like we did. Having an old lady means you're serious about the girl. That you're committed to her. That there are real, honest feelings involved that you don't feel about anyone else. It also means you don't want anyone else to have her either. And the club respects that, honors that...we're supposed to protect it. It's kinda like staking your claim on a girl, you know?"

"So…"

"So," he smiled. "I think that us doing what we did today - gettin' married, knowin' it felt real...that makes you my old lady. It kinda automatically makes you my old lady, since we're married now, ya know. And I'm good with that. Are you?"

"Yeah," she grinned back. "I think I am."

"Good," he nodded. "But all that being said, Harper, and honestly - because of all that, I need you to know that I don't expect anything from you. Anything. I don't want you to feel like you owe me. Or that you need to pay me back. Or that you need to do just about anything. I don't...I don't want you to feel any kind of obligation here, okay?"

He waited long enough to see her nod before charging ahead.

"I guess I was just startin' to get the feeling that things are headed a certain kinda way between us."

"And what kinda way is that?" she threw out lightly.

He huffed out a laugh, but when he looked back up at her again with some heat in his navy blue eyes, and that sexy smirk curling his lips, it almost knocked her sideways.

"The kind that ends with us naked in that hotel room tonight."

"Ah," she grinned. "I see. I think I know what you mean - about things heading a certain kinda way between us."

Jax tipped his chin to her, that sexy smirk still working its way around his lips, and she used the little bit of willpower she had left to stop herself from leaning in right there.

"So about that hotel room," he grinned at her and flicked some ash from his cigarette. "I just wanna let you know right now that whatever happens in that room, and whatever happens leading up to us getting there - that's your call. I meant what I said about not expecting anything from you, and the last thing I want is for you to feel any kind of pressure here. We can enjoy our night, order some pizza, have some drinks, maybe hit up that casino down the street, and we can come back to the hotel and just sleep. I can sleep on the floor. Hell, I'll sleep in the truck if you want me to, and maybe I should anyway, just to be on the safe side."

At this point, if he really was trying to convince her he was a massive asshole, he'd completely failed that mission.

"But what about the other option," she cocked her head to the side with a small smile. "You know, the one that ends with us naked in that hotel room tonight? What if that's the one I pick?"

He sucked in a sharp breath, but he recovered pretty quickly. "If that's the one you pick, I won't say no. I'm not gonna say no to whatever you choose tonight. Like I said, it's your call."

"Hmm," she mused. "I think I see what's really happening here. What you're doing right now," she poked him lightly in his flannel-covered bicep, "isn't that much different than what I tried to do at the courthouse a couple hours ago."

"What do you mean?" he frowned.

"You're trying to give me an out," Harper smiled back at him. "I tried to do that too. See, if you had told me to get out of that truck at the courthouse and make a run for it, I would've done it. Just like now - if I tell you to sleep in the truck tonight, you'll do it. But you don't really want to, just like I didn't really want to get out of that truck."

She paused there, waiting just long enough for his eyes to flash with the reality of what she'd just said.

"Why skirt around it, Jax?" she called out to him, noting that his chest was rising and falling a little bit more rapidly than before. "Just admit what you really want, since we have to be honest and everything."

His eyes lifted back up to her. "I don't wanna sleep in the truck tonight. And I don't wanna sleep on the floor either."

"That's what I thought. And since I have to be honest," she told him softly. "I should probably tell you that the reason I didn't want to get out of that truck - the real, honest reason - was that I didn't want to leave you. I would've left, if that's what you wanted, because I knew that would've made it easier for you. And I knew, instinctively, that if I left, that wouldn't have ended well for me...but I would've done it if you'd told me to. But, I think, more than anything, I just wanted to stay with you. I still do. You telling me to leave would've been the ultimate rejection, wouldn't it have?"

Jax nodded, some tenderness filling his eyes now. "I knew it too - what would've happened to you if I'd told you to leave at the courthouse. But I didn't wanna let you go either."

"You mean you wanted Selena Beverheusen to stay?"

He barked out a laugh, rubbing a hand over his mouth. "I don't believe I've been formally introduced to her yet."

"We'll have to remedy that," she mused with a smile. "But seriously, Jax, when I went to get coffee before we left for the chapel, and when you thought I'd left...the thought never even crossed my mind."

He nodded slowly, pushing a deep sigh. "When I woke up and you were gone, I was so fucking scared I couldn't see straight. I can't remember the last time I was that scared, that goddamn panicked...and that's really saying something, considering, you know -"

"Your outlaw, one-percenter lifestyle?" Harper offered lightly.

"Exactly," he laughed. "Hey, speaking of that - how in the fuck do you know about that?"

Harper just lifted a shoulder. "I was in Lodi a few years ago on the hunt for this super-cute, super-off market Dolce & Gabbana crocodile handbag, and I saw some Mexican bikers riding around town the same way you and all your Samcro buddies do."

Even his eyes narrowed a little at that, his lips still quirked up into a smirk as he folded his arms across his chest. "Alright. Those were the Mayans, by the way."

"Hmm," she tilted her head to the side again in thought. "Are they good bikers or bad bikers?"

Jax just huffed out a laugh. "This isn't the Wizard of Oz, princess."

She rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head. "I know that. Let me rephrase: are you friends with them or do you fight with them?"

"Depends on your definition of fight," he just lifted a shoulder, but when he saw her huff of exasperation, he held up his hands with a laugh. "Alright, alright. We get along with them, most of the time. So you saw some Mayans ridin' around. Then what?"

"And then," she just shrugged. "I saw that one-percenter patch on the back of their kuttes, so I googled it."

"You googled it," he repeated slowly, almost as if he wasn't quite sure he'd heard her right.

"Yeah. Google has all the answers, you know."

"Huh. And what did Google say?"

"Google said that, basically, 99 percent of bikers are law-abiding civilians, and the other one-percent are outlaws, and decidedly not law-abiding civilians. Which, I have to say, it's interesting that you'd advertise it like that. Kinda like putting a target on your back, isn't it?"

His lips quirked again. "So when you figured out what that one-percenter patch meant, from Google, you weren't…"

"I wasn't, what?" Harper tossed out lightly. "Scared?"

Jax shoved his free hand in his pocket now, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly. "Sure. That works."

"Honestly, it sparked a lot of questions about Tommy, but we don't have to talk about that right now, especially since a lot of those questions got answered for me last night. But was I scared? Not particularly. I'd tell you about the time I escaped from a Guadalajaran drug lord's trunk by bribing him with sex, but I have a feeling you won't believe me, even though we've both agreed to trust each other to tell the truth right now. But whatever."

Now, he lifted his hand out of his pocket so he could scrub his fingers across his lips, his eyes fixed on a crack in the pavement at his feet while he mulled all that over. Then his eyes flicked back up to her with some amusement flashing in them.

"So you bribed a Guadalajaran drug lord with sex? Did you actually have sex with the guy?"

"So you actually believe me?"

Jax huffed out a laugh. "I didn't say that. I just wanted to see how far you're willin' to take this, princess."

"I will have you know," Harper sniffed, "that Joaquin was a consummate gentleman. Until he ran out of money. Then he changed his tune pretty quickly."

His jaw worked around an amused grin, but after a few moments, as that lightness faded away, he swallowed hard, his eyes turning serious again. "What I was really tryin' to tell you, Harper, is that waking up in our hotel room before, when I realized you were gone, I think I panicked for a lot of reasons - but the main ones weren't obvious to me until it was all said and done. My first knee-jerk reaction was that I knew what was going to happen to you if you left, and if you left like that, and I knew I wouldn't be able to talk the club out of it and that scared the shit outta me. And then I think I just panicked because you'd left...just that you'd left and I wanted you to stay and that scared the shit outta me too."

"I was always coming back, Jax."

He considered that for a moment, flicking his spent cigarette into the rain. When she did the same, he immediately reached into his kutte again for his cigarette pack, repeating their little ritual now as he handed her another one and lit it for her before lighting one up for himself.

"So," Jax finally called out to her. "Are you sayin' you kinda wanna stay with me, princess?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "That's what I'm saying. And since I gotta be honest, I should probably let you know that I wanna do more than just stay with you. This feels real, and I think it feels real to us because it is."

His eyes flicked up from the pavement to meet her right in the eye. "I think so too."

"Hmm mm," she hummed, taking a brave step closer to him. She didn't miss the way he shifted his weight so his right hip almost brushed against her, like he just wanted to be closer to her. "And I'm sure the next thing you're gonna ask me is if I really wanna complicate a situation that's already pretty complicated. Right? That was your next question?"

She waited long enough to see him nod tightly before charging ahead, spurred on by the knowledge that what she felt, he was feeling too. That what she wanted, he wanted too. He clearly wasn't going to put any pressure on her, and because of that, and everything he'd already done today, how could she not want him? How could she not want this with a man who was already her husband, and who'd already staked his claim on her as his old lady?

"You remember how I said I tend to stick around long enough to see what I'm working with and when I've seen enough, I move on?"

Jax swallowed hard, narrowing his eyes just a little more intently than they were before. "Yeah. I remember."

"Well," she smiled softly, flicking some ash nonchalantly from her cigarette. "I've seen enough from you to know what I'm working with, and I don't wanna move on. It might seem like not enough time has passed, at least to you, but I've seen plenty in the last 24 hours to know that I trust you with my life. And believe me, Jax, that trust is hard to come by. I don't give that to just anyone because I don't have to - I can pick up and leave whenever I want, because that's just what I do. And see, the crazy thing is that...for the first time in my life, I sort of can't just pick up and leave whenever I want, but I don't want to either."

His forehead crinkled a little in thought, but his eyes stayed right on the pavement, like he just wasn't quite ready to face her yet.

"What you did for me today, Jax...you saved my life. You did. I'm not going to discount that, and you shouldn't either. And I think what you're worried about right now is that my feelings for you are tied up in that, right? That me being grateful to you for saving my life is muddying up what I'm really feeling and anything I do and say right now is just because I'm caught up in that?"

Jax shifted his weight, and nodded tightly, his eyes still fixed ahead of him. But he'd told her to be honest with him, so she decided to give him that.

"I think some of that is true."

He winced a little as her words hit home, but all that did was reinforce what she already knew.

"But when you step back and really look at it, Jax...how could I not? How could I not want you after all this? I really did think you were a massive asshole up until last night, but you've been showing me every second since then that that's just not true. You're a good man, Jax. With a really good heart. Who's willing to sacrifice for other people. To protect them at any cost. To do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I've never...I've never really had anyone in my life who was willing to sacrifice like that for me, to protect me like that, and without you even really caring what the repercussions might be for you. You just did it. Look at everything you just said to me - my heart just about exploded when you told me my life and my safety were precious to you. I'd have to be a robot not to fall for you after all this. Because I am, Jax. I really am."

And saying that out loud...she didn't realize how true those words were until she said them. Maybe her feelings, at least some of them, really were tied up in everything he'd done for her today, but she was okay with that. There was some real, honest romance in the way he'd selflessly taken responsibility for her, driven her to Reno, and married her to save her life. And she'd just be lying if she tried to convince either of them that she hadn't gotten swept away in it because she had. And that was okay too.

This sexy, blonde biker man married her to save her life, so she was going to take that God-given gift for what it was and not ask stupid questions or play stupid games. She was just going to accept that man as her husband.

It actually seemed pretty simple to her now.

"So am I grateful to you for saving my life, Jax? Of course I am. I'll never stop being grateful to you for that. But are the reasons why I don't want you to sleep on the floor tonight tied to my gratefulness? No. Absolutely not."

She paused there, giving him a moment to really let that sink in.

"I don't want you to sleep on the floor tonight because I want to be with you, Jax. Because my feelings for you are very real, and those feelings also mean I'm wildly attracted to you in more ways than I probably know right now, and since I have to be honest, that also means I want to sleep with you too - and I don't just mean sleeping on the floor with you. And trust me, that has nothing to do with being grateful."

His mouth lifted at the corners, but he kept his eyes at his feet.

"I know I can count on you," she went on softly. "More than I've ever been able to count on anyone - and that just makes me want to be with you even more. I know it's crazy and that it doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone on the outside looking in, but maybe that's why I trust it, you know?"

Jax sucked in a shaky breath, and when he brought his cigarette back up to his lips, she noticed that his fingers were trembling.

"Neither of us planned on this," she went on. "And I certainly didn't plan on feeling the way I did when we stood at that altar and said vows and made promises to each other. Because we did, didn't we?"

His lips quirked up at the corners, and finally, his eyes drifted over to her, softening on impact. "Yeah. I think we did."

"I was thinking about what she said - our officiant - about the promises we've already made to each other...and we did that without even realizing what we were doing. You promised not to let anything happen to me, and I promised not to make a run for it."

When that smile on his face only deepened, she reached out with her free hand and slipped it inside his much larger, calloused one. He squeezed his fingers around hers, and winked at her.

"So," she grinned, biting down on her bottom lip to give herself a moment to really enjoy this. "I think the way we make a complicated situation more complicated is by pretending like all this didn't happen today and that we're really not feeling what we're feeling. I mean, we're already married, right? And if you slept on the floor tonight, we'd also be denying ourselves a wedding night, and I don't know about you, but I think I kinda want a wedding night."

And as his lips curved up into that sexy smirk, that was quickly becoming one of her favorite things in the world, she knew the way was clear now. She knew when to cut and run - it was a well-honed skill that she'd cultivated through years of crazy adventures, island-hopping, a trail of men who, when they'd served their purpose, she bailed on, and narrowly escaping by the skin of her teeth when she had to.

This was not the time to cut and run. She just knew it in her bones. That instinct had never failed her before, and she didn't believe it would fail her now.

Jax swallowed hard, and squeezed her fingers. "Are you sure? Us agreeing that we feel somethin' real for each other, you bein' my old lady now, us bein' married now...that doesn't have to mean anything for later tonight. We can just sleep, Harper, and then we can go back to Charming tomorrow and see where that takes us. I'm really okay with that."

Her feelings on that were simple and absolute.

"I don't want to pretend with you, Jax, and I don't want to play games either," she whispered to him with a soft smile. "And if you sleep on the floor tonight, we'd just be pretending, and we'd just be playing games neither of us really want to play."

"I think you might be right about that."

"And since I gotta be honest," she smiled. "I should probably tell you that I think we got married for real today. We took vows and made each other promises that meant something, even if we didn't know it until we said it. I meant the things I said at that altar today. Did you?"

He squeezed her hand again, nodding to himself before his navy blue eyes flicked back up to her. "Yeah. I did."

Harper bit down on her bottom lip to try to hide her smile, but he'd already sent his cigarette flying through the air and was closing a hand around her face to pull her in closer.

"So, lemme make sure I have this right," he murmured, and her heart pounded in her chest. "We're married."

"Yeah," she whispered back with a smile.

"To each other."

"Yeah."

Jax's lips slipped into that smirk again. "For real."

"Uh huh. And I -"

His lips caught whatever she'd been about to say next.

---

"Bullshit, princess."

"Oh, come on. I'm not lying."

"Yes, you are," Jax jabbed a finger at her, even as he dove for another piece of pizza with his other hand. "There's no way - no way you were picked up by the Thai police on New Year's last year. No fucking way. You're just blatantly lying to my face right now. You know that, right?"

"I'm not! I had to sweet-talk the embassy's lawyer to get me a new passport before midnight or else I was gonna be in some serious effing trouble."

He dropped the piece of pizza in his hand and cocked an eyebrow at her. "Prove it."

"How am I supposed to prove something like that?" Harper shrugged helplessly. "And why is it so hard for you to just believe me?"

Jax eyed her with some amusement before sweeping his pizza back up in his hand and taking a big bite. "I'm not gonna touch that one right now."

"Mmkay. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Really appreciate it, honey."

"Oh, you know it, babe," he winked.

She just rolled her eyes at him, but when he pushed up the sleeves on his flannel shirt, some dark ink on his right forearm got her attention. So he did have tattoos...very interesting. She tapped a finger to her lips in thought, and then tapped her left hand to his forearm to get a better look at his ink.

That got his attention, and he glanced down at his forearm before lifting an eyebrow at her. "See somethin' you like, princess?"

"Yes."

"Uh huh," he grinned, and he obliged her, rolling up his sleeve so she could see the full length of the tattoo on his forearm, but his eyes never left hers. That spark between them, which was now becoming more and more familiar every time he set his eyes on her...it momentarily distracted her from this very important task.

She tapped a finger to her lips again, smiling when he just laughed, and then she dropped that finger to the dark ink on his skin, gently tracing the intricate gravestone with the name John Teller, the spiky branches, the crescent moon, the crows, the skull, and finally tracing over the words In Memory Of right below his elbow. It was as impressive as it was beautiful, and just one more reminder that his great big heart was just as breathtaking as the rest of him.

"How long has he been gone - your dad?" she murmured, her eyes and her finger still tracing the ink on his skin.

"About 17 years."

"Hmm," she hummed softly. "And you miss him."

Jax's mouth curved up into a wistful grin. "Every single day."

Now, her fingers drifted up the length of his arm, and she smiled a little at the feel of those sinewy muscles underneath her fingertips, but kept them moving over his shoulder before resting them against his cheek. His lips curled up at her soft touch, and he leaned his face into it, letting her give him this care and this comfort, even if it was just for a moment.

And just as her fingertips were about to slip away, Jax caught them with his hand, bringing them to his mouth so he could brush his lips against her knuckles.

"He was always the smartest guy in the room," Jax went on softly. "The funniest, too. Everyone just always seemed to gravitate to him...wanted to be around him, wanted to follow him. I think he would've really loved you - you two probably would've been thick as thieves, gettin' into trouble together, laughin' together...everyone would've really had to watch their backs and their valuables then."

Her lips curled up at the corners, and her heart squeezed tight. "I'm sorry I never got to meet him, but I have a feeling he was a lot like you."

"He always used to tell me, the true outlaw finds the balance between the passion in his heart and the reason in his mind. His solution is always an equal mix of might and right…I think about that all the time. Hear his voice in my head all the time. I guess I'm always carrying him with me that way, you know?"

Her mouth curved as she tilted her head pensively to the side. "He sounds like he was a good man. Just like you."

Jax huffed out a laugh, dropping his hand to her thigh. "You keep sayin' that, princess, but I'm starting to get the feeling we've got different definitions of what that means."

"I don't know about that."

"Sure," he shrugged. "But it's just interesting to me that you think I'm good - even after what you saw last night in the parking lot. And," he tapped the Men of Mayhem patch sewn into his kutte right underneath his vice president patch, "you don't even know what this means."

She leaned an elbow on the bartop so she could rest her chin in her palm. "And what does that mean?"

Suddenly, Jax's lips were against her ear, and she shivered a little at the contact. "It means that what you saw in the parking lot last night? I've done that before when the club needed me to," then he pulled back so he could look her in the eye, "Multiple times. And without a second thought."

"Oh, I see what you're doing," she grinned, poking him in the chest. "You're trying to scare me away now. First, you tried to give me an out by saying you'd sleep in the truck tonight, and now you're trying to scare me into thinking you're this big, bad biker guy who does really big, bad, terrible things. Right?"

"I'm not tryin' to scare you, Harper. But being with me...there's some real danger attached to that. I just wanna make sure you know what you're really gettin' into with me."

Harper scrunched up her nose playfully. "Little late for that, don't ya think?"

"Maybe," he huffed out a laugh and shook his head, then he took a drink from his cocktail glass, holding the straw down over the lip like all tough guys do. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it."

"Uh huh," she nodded into her palm with a knowing grin. "That's true. But I have a pretty good idea of what I got myself into. I saw what you did in the parking lot and wanted to be with you anyway, didn't I? And let's be honest, if you hadn't done that last night, we wouldn't be sitting here, would we?"

Jax bit down on his bottom lip, his eyes narrowing down at the pizza in front of him in thought. Finally, his navy blue eyes flicked back up to her. "I guess you're right. Maybe everything happens for a reason, huh?"

"I'll say," she grinned, and then tipped her chin to him. "But that being said, I want to make you aware that I'm aware that you have a reputation."

"A reputation?"

"Uh huh. With women."

He tipped his head back with a laugh and wagged a finger at her. "You know somethin', princess? I'm kinda surprised it took you so long to bring this up."

"Well, regardless, I'm bringing it up."

"Sure," he grinned, clearly finding all this a lot more amusing than she did. "And I want to make you aware that I'm aware that cheating is a deal-breaker for you. I'm well aware why you broke things off with the guy before me - because you told me, and if it wasn't crystal clear where you stand, it was pretty damn clear when you told Tommy there was no way Willa would ever believe things were real between us if I hooked up with some girl in the clubhouse and you didn't kick me to the curb. So I understand your feelings on that particular subject."

"Okay," she narrowed her eyes at him a little.

"And if I remember right, I stood up at that altar today and promised you I'd be faithful, didn't I?"

"You did," Harper allowed slowly.

Jax just flashed her a wide grin. "And we've already established that those vows we took, those promises we made...that meant something to us, and we meant those things when we said them."

"Right."

"And when I promised you I'd be faithful to you, I meant it. Still do, princess."

"Hmm," she mused, tilted her head to the side as she turned all that over, to process it, and to find the truth in his words. "So you're telling me that you're really okay with becoming a one-woman man...just like that?"

"Well," he lifted a shoulder, but followed that up by dropping his hand to her thigh. "The way I see it, I can't pick and choose which of those promises I wanna honor, and which ones I don't. And since we're married, for real, I have to honor all the promises I made, or else this doesn't work. And I want it to work. And the last thing I'd ever wanna do is hurt you. I'm a man of my word, Harper. You should know that about me if you don't already."

"Alright," she smiled softly. "Just so you know, I have to honor all the promises I made to you too."

"That's right," Jax flashed her another grin before leaning in to murmur in her ear, "and just so you know, I gotta feeling that when we get back to that hotel room tonight, and I finally get inside you...I gotta feeling I'm never gonna want anyone but you ever again, so all this is irrelevant anyway, babe."

For a moment, anything she might've said died on her lips as his hand slipped up her knee to skim underneath the hem of her dress, just to reiterate his point.

"You got any more questions for me right now," Jax whispered against her lips. "Or can we move on with our night?"

"Actually, I do."

He cocked an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to unleash on him with something else that was serious and heavy...but that was the big one for her, and he'd answered correctly.

"You got any more tattoos, honey?"

His lips twisted into that sexy smirk, and he nodded to her, shifting his weight in his barstool so he could pull up the flannel sleeve on his left arm, flashing her yet another intricate tattoo on his forearm. This time, the name Opie ran along the length of his forearm in a pretty, old-fashioned script that surprised her.

He rested his forearm on the bartop so she could get a better look at it, and she resumed her previous ministrations, tracing the letters with her fingertips in thought. When she glanced up at him, she found his eyes staring down at the tattoo, with some new sadness, some new devastation, and she knew, instinctively, that now wasn't the right time to talk about it.

"Do you have any other tattoos I should know about?"

His lips lifted at the corners, grateful for the change of subject, and he tipped his chin to her. "That I do. I've got the Reaper on my back."

"What do you mean?" she frowned. "Like the grim reaper?"

"No," he laughed, gesturing to the back of his kutte. "The Sons' Reaper."

She tapped a hand to his shoulder, glancing around him to get another look at the Sons of Anarchy emblem stitched onto the back of his leather kutte. "So…"

"All the club members get it when they're patched in," he explained. "It took a good 10 hours or so and a half a bottle of whiskey, but I got it."

"Wait a minute," she frowned again. "You mean...you have this whole thing - all of it - tattooed on your back?"

He just smirked at her. "Yep."

"Nuh uh. You're lying."

Jax playfully wagged a finger in her face. "Now why would I lie about a thing like that? That'd be a pretty stupid thing to lie about."

She eyed him warily, still unconvinced, until he tipped his chin to her with that lop-sided smirk curving up the side of his handsome face.

"Go on," he grinned, gesturing behind him with his head. "See for yourself if you don't believe me," and then he leaned in to murmur in her ear, "I triple-dog dare you."

She narrowed her eyes at him, but since she was never one to back down from a dare either, her hands travelled down to his waist, gently tugging up his flannel shirt and moving aside that leather kutte until she caught a glimpse of smooth, tanned skin and dark ink that looked exactly like the bottom half of the emblem on his kutte. And because she just couldn't help herself, she let her fingertips linger on the exposed skin she found there, tracing the space between where the ink ended and the waistband on his white boxers began.

Jax glanced at her from over his shoulder, his eyes darkening with some new heat that hadn't been there before, and she took that as a sign to keep going, to test the waters and to explore a little bit more of this man she'd married today. Her fingertips slid around the curve of his hip, tiptoeing across his skin, and she bit down on her bottom lip when that skin jumped a little underneath her touch. She let her fingertips drift along his taut stomach, drawing a gentle line along the edge of the front of his boxers, before withdrawing her hand and making a little show of rearranging his flannel shirt so he was all covered up again.

He sat there for a few moments, with his elbows resting on the bartop, his shoulders hunched a little, and his chest rising and falling against his leather kutte, until he finally turned his head to face her with molten blue eyes.

"So about that hotel room," he smirked. "You got any thoughts on when we'll be headed over there tonight?"

"Hmm," she pulled her lips to the side of her mouth in thought, and then leaned closer so she could brush her lips against his mouth. "You know what I was thinking?"

"What's that, princess?"

"I was thinking," Harper grinned at him. "This is technically our wedding day, isn't it?"

Jax's mouth curled up in a lop-sided smile. "Yeah. It is."

"And we only get one of those."

"That's right."

"And," she leaned in again to press her lips against his. "I was thinking we should enjoy it. Take our time with it, and not rush through it."

"That sounds like a pretty good idea," he smiled. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, we're already having our reception dinner," she gestured to the pizza and drinks in front of them. "But I think it's okay to plan on not having a plan tonight and to just...see where the night takes us. I mean, we know how it's going to end, but we can have some fun with how we get there, can't we?"

He tipped his chin to her, shifting in his barstool so he could lift up his hand and brush his knuckles against her cheek. "We can."

"I just have one request though."

"What's that?" he grinned.

"One dance. Somehow, someway," Harper bit down on her bottom lip to hide her smile. "Just one. It can be a slow one - actually, I think it should be a slow one. But I just want one dance with you before the night is over."

Jax leaned forward, holding a hand out for her to shake. "Deal."

"Deal," she grinned as she slid her hand inside his.

"So, now," he told her, entwining their fingers together on top of the bar. "I have a very important question for you - do you have any thoughts on gettin' some ink any time soon?"

"Oh, I have some already," she told him easily, laughing at the way that cocky smirk on his face slipped a little.

"No shit, huh?" he rubbed his mouth in thought, a sly grin crossing his face. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that ink is somewhere you typically hide under your clothes?"

She narrowed her eyes at him a little, and decided to beat him at his own game. "Not always. You probably just haven't noticed yet because I usually wear my hair down."

When he just frowned at her, clearly not catching her drift, she gestured with her head over her shoulder, mimicking his gestures from before.

"Go on," Harper told him with a sly grin. "See for yourself if you don't believe me. I triple-dog dare you."

His lips lifted at that, but he didn't hesitate, untangling their fingers so he could lift his hand up to her shoulders, sweeping her wet hair and her wet veil away from her neck. She obliged him, turning around so he could get a better look at the base of her neck. Then he took it one step further as he gently tugged her zipper down just an inch or two to expose the black ink there.

"That better not be what I think it is, princess," he tsked at her.

"It is."

"No."

"What's so terrible about it?"

His shoulders started to shake with laughter even as he gently moved her zipper, her hair, and her veil back in its spot, and then he ran a hand over his face before daring a glance at her with an amused grin. "Come on. Really? A Chinese symbol tattoo? What does that shit even mean?"

"Well, first of all," she stuck her tongue out at him. "It's not Chinese, it's Mandarin, thank you very much."

His hands immediately shot up in the air, his shoulders shaking with laughter again. "My bad. And what does it mean?"

"I thought it meant freedom."

Jax rubbed a hand over his mouth again to hide his shit-eating grin. "So what does it really mean?"

She exhaled exasperatedly before lifting her eyes to the ceiling. "I was fifteen, okay? I clearly didn't know any better and clearly should've triple-checked the translation, although in hindsight there's not much I could've done because that tattoo artist was always gonna do what he was gonna do."

"You were fifteen when you got that tat?" he raised his eyebrows now, but he looked just as impressed as he was amused by all this right now.

"I had a fake ID," she just lifted a shoulder. "So what? You can't tell me you're really all that surprised anyway."

"Not about the fake ID," he laughed. "That makes perfect sense, actually."

Harper narrowed her eyes at him playfully, poking him in the shoulder again. "So lemme get this straight. You'll believe that I got a tattoo when I was fifteen with a fake ID, but you won't believe I escaped a Guatalajaran drug lord's trunk by bribing him with sex?"

Jax barked out a laugh, and he just shook his head at her. "I think the answer's in the question. Of course I believe you got a tattoo when you were fifteen with a fake because it's crazy, sure, but it also sounds like something a fifteen-year-old with a fake might actually do, especially if that fifteen-year-old is you. And of course I'm not gonna believe you escaped a Guatalajaran drug lord's trunk by bribing him with sex because that's just fucking insane, and no sane person would actually believe that. Besides," he grinned as he dropped a hand to her thigh and slipped it right underneath the hem of her white dress, "maybe I just don't like the idea of you bribing some guy with sex."

"Oh, I see," she informed him snidely. "You put a ring on it and suddenly you think you can go all macho-possessive on me?"

"Something like that, yeah," Jax smirked, sliding his fingertips just a little bit further underneath her dress now, cocking an eyebrow suggestively at her when she sucked in a shaky breath. "I think puttin' a ring on it gives me that right."

She just rolled her eyes at him, despite the fact that the warmth on her thigh was warming her in a lot of other places too. "Whatever."

"So," he tipped his chin to her again with another smirk. "The tat, princess. What does it really mean? Come on, you can tell me. I won't make fun of you."

"You absolutely will make fun of me, but I don't care," Harper lifted her chin defiantly. "It really means illiterate tourist."

Jax's eyes widened, and his entire body seemed to still, like he hadn't quite heard her right. "No."

"Yes," she sniffed.

"No."

She didn't even have a chance to respond because his entire body seemed to convulse in a fit of laughter, and he dove forward on the bar, burying his face in his hands as his shoulders shook against the bar. He was still laughing at her when the bartender brought them another round of drinks, and still laughing at her when she decided she'd had just about enough of him and grabbed a piece of pizza in an effort to ignore him.

"Aw, shit," Jax pushed out in between yet another fit of laughter and he wiped a tear from his eye. "I can't believe this. I can't fucking believe this."

"Yeah, yeah," she threw out sarcastically. "Laugh it up, honey."

"I'm sorry," he held his hands up, even though he was still laughing at her. "I'm sorry. I just can't fucking believe I married someone who has illiterate tourist tattooed in Mandarin on the back of her neck. That's just...that's probably exactly what I deserve. But hey, ya know what? I can have Hap fix it for you when we get back to town if you want - he does all our ink in the club, and he can do yours too."

"Why would I wanna fix it? I think it's pretty perfect the way it is."

His laughter finally faded away as he leaned up against the bartop on his elbows, regarding her with some tenderness in his eyes that surprised her. "Yeah. I think so too."

"Besides, if I wanted to fix it, don't you think I would've done that years ago?"

Jax's head bobbed from side to side as he mulled that one over. "This is true."

"And I'm sure you can imagine how absolutely thrilled my parents were by my little stunt, especially after I figured out it didn't exactly mean what I thought it meant."

"Yeah, I bet."

"You know, I think part of me was a little bit happy I got the translation all screwed up - my dad just about went through the roof, and that just made it even worse. Of course, it didn't help that Willa had literally just made the honor roll, like, two days before that for, like, the tenth year in a row. And then I came home from a vacation with my friend's family in Singapore with a neck tattoo that said illiterate tourist in Mandarin. He was not impressed, to say the least, and I didn't really care that much either. "

He nodded knowingly, leaning in again to press his hand into her thigh. "Ah. So it was more about little fifteen-year-old Harper acting out than anything, huh?"

"Pretty much," she shrugged. "After a certain point, when everyone expects you to act a certain way and be a certain way, it's easier to just be the thing everyone thinks you are, you know?"

Jax considered that for a moment, his eyes softening. "So you leaned into the bad sister versus the good sister thing."

"I don't know," she shrugged again, smiling a little when his hand drifted away from her thigh, travelling up her side, then her shoulder, before finally resting on her neck so he could brush his thumb on her cheek. "I guess I just always felt like an outlier in my own family...like I was this big, glaringly obvious mistake of their genes, and then they just had to live with the mistake. I figured, if I didn't fit, if I wasn't like them, then that was okay. So, I decided to just own the fact that I was different from what they wanted, and just did whatever I wanted, however I wanted."

His thumb touched her bottom lip, and then he leaned closer so he could press his lips there instead.

"You're kind of a force of nature," he murmured against her lips. "Everything about you is a little outrageous, and a little unbelievable, and more than a little bit fucking insane - I mean, who walks down the aisle to the Monster Mash?"

"I did," she smiled into his kiss.

"That's right," he whispered. "You did. And you wanna know somethin', princess? I wouldn't change a thing about you. Not one thing. Tall tales and all."

"They're not tall tales."

"Whatever you say," Jax smiled. "But I do know I'll never be bored with you around, that's for damn sure. And I don't think I'd want it any other way."

"Well, that's good because I've got some legal paperwork in my purse that says you kinda have to keep me around."

"That's right," he laughed, reaching out to tangle their fingers together again so he could bring her knuckles up to his lips. "I do. And that goes the other way, you know. You kinda have to keep me around too."

"That's right," she smiled. "I do."

"So, it's our wedding day. We've had a few drinks, we've had our dinner. What do we do now?"

Harper tilted her head to the side in thought, her eyes flashing at him when a brilliant idea came to her. "How would you feel about me spending some of your money at the craps table?"

Jax was still laughing even as he tipped his chin to the bartender for their bill.

"Alright, babe. The casino it is."

---

A/N - Happy Sunday! Well, that took a turn, didn't it? When I was writing this, I hadn't planned on any of this happening so quickly, but it just felt right, given their circumstances - these are two people who know what they want and they're not going to play games to get it. Because of that, this is also why I've got just one chapter left to wrap this up. After chapter ten, most of their issues, in terms of their relationship, will be resolved already, and while there's still plenty of story to tell, I'm going to leave it at chapter ten for now (that also gives me plenty to come back to later).

In case you missed it, I've been working on a new story, which is also part of the reason why I decided to wrap this one up at chapter ten. The new story will take Witness Protection's spot in my Sunday posting schedule, so you can look for the first chapter of Lost and Found the week after this story's last update.

For this new story, I did something I've never done in a story before - started right at the beginning when Jax and the OC meet when they're ten years old, and then worked my through their friendship (and eventual romance) all through high school. The first eight chapters are flashbacks to show their history, and then in chapter nine - the chapter I'm in the middle of writing right now - it jumps ahead to "present time" again when the characters are reunited. Those are my favorite kinds of romances - the ones where the main characters were best friends as children, fell in love as teenagers, were separated for some reason, and are then reunited after many years and have to deal whatever it was that separated them as adults. So, I'm doing that!

If you're interested, here's the summary:

Dylan Shaw hasn't stepped foot in Charming in 13 years, but when Samcro's VP is arrested on murder charges, she's drawn back into the fold, and on assignment to write a profile on the accused murderer. She lost her heart the last time she was in town, and now, she'll find that the ghosts lurking around aren't so dead and buried, and that accused murderer might not be as guilty as he looks.

Anyway, you can look for the first update of this new story the week after Witness Protection ends. So, that leaves us with one more chapter of this story - thoughts on the way their relationship has shifted? As always, thank you for reading!