CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

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By the time we pull into the lot at Teller-Morrow I'm not sure if I should be upset or happy that we've arrived. Sitting quietly on the back of the bike it takes a few seconds before the feeling returns to my legs, I know my face is flushed and I hope I can brush it off as being from the wind.

I manage to get off the bike, the heels of my shoes feeling strangely wobbly, Jax gets off and grabs the bag of my back and looks me in the eyes, "You A'ight?"

I stand there for a second, letting my heart rate get back to normal, and the disappointment with the ride being over so fast has come to the forefront of my emotions and before I can bolt it back down I snap, "I really hope you don't fuck like you ride."

"Really, how do I ride?" he asked me, smirking.

"Hard and smooth, but too fast to enjoy it." I see his jaw drop and I spin on my silver spiky heel, stalking over to the office.

Gemma sticks her head out as I get there, I hadn't realised that Happy and Tig were within ear shot when I said that and all I can hear is them laughing. My cheeks heat up again and Gemma shoots me a questioning glance.

"Don't worry; I'm sure you'll hear about it by the end of the day. Has Clay informed the babysitters of their duty yet?" I ask I'm not sure if shopping with Jax anywhere near me is a good idea now.

"Not yet, I think they're just being told now." Gemma says nodding out the door to where Clay is standing with Opie and Jax, Happy is stalking this away shaking his head and grinning.

He stops just outside the door "Just those 2 today, I've got shit to do."

I nod, but gather that he's telling Gemma not me; he turns around and heads towards his bike, leaving the lot minutes later.

Gemma gets my attention by jingling a set of keys, "Here, don't scratch it!"

I catch the keys as she throws them at me and head back out of the office, the prospects are busy attaching the trailer for the 2 hour drive to the U-Haul location where we have to drop the trailer off, the mall we'd decided to go to was only a few minutes' drive from there.

The trailer is just connected as a taxi pulls up outside and Al and Cam climb out of it.

"We were going to come get you on the way out of town." I call over to them.

They walk over, Al shrugs, "Well we're here now, saves a trip. Means more shopping!" She sounds like she's already drunk about 10 litres of coffee and I wonder how hyper she's going to be during the trip.

Cam shakes her head, "We stopped for coffee." She hands me and Donna a cup and I inhale the scent of vanilla coming through the vent at the top.

"What on earth did she get?" Donna motions her head towards Al who is over talking with Half-Sack, who I have since learned is actually named Kip, he does prefer the nicknamed he'd been given by the club but will respond to Kip I've been told, but only by Donna, Gemma and now me. I, unfortunately also heard the story behind the name. Thankfully I didn't get the visual to go with it.

Almost 15 minutes later Opie comes over; he looks at me and laughingly says, "Jax refused to come over to talk to you. Apparently your comment about his fucking hurt his feelings."

I hear Donna gasp behind me and see Al and Cam's heads both shoot towards me.

"Thanks for that Ope, I was hoping to keep that quiet, now the hyena brigade are going to want answers." I gesture towards the 3 women standing behind me.

"Oh well, we're ready to go when you are."

I turn to head towards the Escalade and find that Al, Cam and Donna are all already in waiting in their seats.

Glaring at Opie again I head over to the car, throwing open my door I snarl, "At least let us get past the Charming limits before you bombard me!"

They all giggle and nod.

Climbing up into Gemma's car I arrange the seat and mirrors before Jax and Opie pull in front of us. Jax doesn't even look at the car before pulling out of the lot, Opie shoots a look over his shoulder and I nod slightly before he leaves as well.

Pulling out onto the road I'm thankful for the few minutes peace I've secured myself before the Spanish Inquisition will begin.

The time passes with Al and Cam sorting themselves in the back-seat, apparently they've both brought a printed out list of the shops in the Westfield mall that we're going to.

Donna turns around in the seat after popping in a CD, "We need to add Victoria's Secret to the list."

We've just past the sign for Charming when Donna leans back into her seat, "Right, Jax and fucking?"

I sigh, "Nothing happened, not that I don't wish it did. My body had an interesting reaction to his bike this morning on the way to the garage."

Al catches my eyes in the rear vision mirror and I see the realisation dawn in them. "I'm sure that's happened to Donna, right?"

Donna blushes, "Once or twice yeah."

I grin over at her, "Yeah, but I bet you were able to tell Opie to go round the block a few more times, I couldn't exactly get Jax to do that now could I?"

Cam pipes up, "Why not?"

"I've told Jax that I'll be here when he's ready, I'm not going to push him into anything, and I'm certainly not going to make him get me off using his bike vibrations, even if he doesn't know that he's doing it."

Al hears the irritation in my voice and quickly changes the subject, "Donna, is Juice involved with anyone?"

That seems to be the end of them wanting details on my (non-existent) relationship with Jax. The rest of the drive is taken up with planning the shopping trip and the ins and outs of the club, the rankings the sweet butts gave themselves, with warnings of which ones to watch out for.

By the time we get to the U-Haul depot Al has been filled in on the shit storm that's going to happen with Ima and Emily if I end up in Jax's bed for any length of time.

The de hire of the trailer goes quickly and less than 30 minutes later we're pulling into a car park at the Westfield mall.

Jax and Opie don't look comfortable, but I'm still slightly pissed after this morning's almost-orgasm so I decide that I'm not going to go easy on Jax. Opie I'll apologise to later, or rather Donna will with the things she's bound to make me buy her.

We decided in the car that we'll make it easy on them till we've had lunch, after lunch we're going to do the ones that will make it uncomfortable for them. Thankfully my bank has a branch not far from the mall and I make a quick stop there first to assure them the paperwork they've received from New York isn't forged, adding my signature to a few places the account manager I've been assigned lets me know that everything will be processed and couriered to the estate agent that afternoon and the money transfer will be done Friday.

By lunch we've spent an hour in Bloomingdale's, another hour in Nordstrom's. Stopping for lunch at 1pm we've already had to go to the car twice to deposit bags into the back, but we've all been good and only brought normal clothes, jeans and such, and a few kitchen items that I decided I had to have. I'm really grateful that Gemma's Cadillac has a huge luggage compartment.

As we throw out the rubbish from lunch I grin at the women standing with me, we're all aware that Victoria's Secret is on the 3rd floor so the decision to start working our way up isn't met with anything but grins.