A.N: Hi y'all! Firstly, I want to thank everybody who's being so kind about this story. As you can tell, I'm going a bit out of my comfort zone writing about the prince and not about my dark knight (Happy, lol).

Anywhooooo, I'm sorry that the updates have been so terrible, my laptop was out of action and the fanfiction app on my phone was not being my friend, so I've just been marathoning Hamilton on a constant loop - perk: I've found out that I can rap even if I'm tone deaf.

I'm back now, so updates will be regular!

-Daisie

Chapter Seven:

Jax had decided that he didn't want to stick around the party when I'd left, so he'd had the prospect drive Gemma, he and I home at the same time.

He'd walked me to my front door and it looked, for a moment, like he was going to kiss me goodnight. But then he'd pulled me into a tight hug and nodded towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, darlin."

When I woke up the next morning I was grateful that I hadn't been drunk enough to go to bed without drinking a sports drink and popping a couple of pills to curve my hangover before it had a chance to hit, and rolled out of bed with a smile on my face as the night before played over in my mind.

Jax had stuck by me all night, hand roaming between my palm and my hip. Apart from going to the bathroom or hitting the bar, he'd been pressed to my side and it made me feel like maybe he saw me as more than the kind-of-babysitter I'd thought he looked at me as.

Despite Gemma's offer to wake up early and take me to my car, Jax used his position as President and with a click of his fingers he'd ordered the prospect - Kip, a lovely young man with a smile that looked like it was his birthday - to drop my car off after he'd taken us all home. I don't know how he did it, because I hadn't heard a thing, but my baby was parked in my driveway with the keys underneath my front doormat as promised.

I knocked on his door and waited for two minutes before he pulled it open, and the sight made my mouth go dry.

Jax Teller dressed in baggy jeans with a chain by his side, baggy shirts and Kutte hanging overtop was a sight. But Jax Teller in nothing but sweatpants hanging low on his muscular body was out of this world.

I counted his abs and prayed that I wasn't drooling at the 'V' that I'd read about in steamy romance novels when I was a teenager.

He wasn't even human.

He was the definition of temptation.

"I brought you coffee." I choked out and shoved the travel mug in his hand.

Jax ran a hand through his hair that didn't have any product in it and flipped down into his eyes, yawning before he rubbed his baby blues. "Thanks, baby. Come in, Abel's still sleeping."

"I can't." I swallowed, thankful that I had to get to work because I was sure that if I stayed I would do something I regretted. Like jumping him in his doorway. "I've got to go to work for a few hours. You're on babysittin' duty."

He looked at me in confusion and I signalled down to Larry who was sitting on the porch next to me, waiting for an instruction.

I patted behind his ear and pointed inside. "Go sleep with Abel."

Like he knew exactly what I was talking about, he bypassed Jax completely and waddled down the hallway. We both watched with amusement as he nudged the door open with his nose and went inside the room.

"I swear that dog knows what you say." He mumbled and yawned again.

"He probably does." I avoided his eyes and gestured behind me with my thumb. "I've got clients until three, then I'll swing by and grab him on my way home."

Jax followed me out to my car and opened the door for me, but bent down before he shut it. "Stay when you finish your shift."

I looked at him in confusion and he grinned the grin that I knew was trouble. "I'll get Gemma to mind Abel. I want to take you out."

"Don't do that." His cheeks flushed at the same time that he frowned and I realised that he'd taken my dismissal of the idea as me turning him down. "I didn't mean- No. I meant ... Don't get Gemma to mind him. We can just stay in and order take out. Abel needs to spend time with you, as well."

Jax's face lit up like I'd just told him that Santa Claus was real, and he bent down to kiss my cheek. "I don't know where you came from, but I sure as hell aren't giving you back."

"Georgia." I quipped when he shut my door.

By the time that I'd finished my clients and had gotten in the car to go back to the house, my nerves had gotten the best of me and I'd started to overthink things.

It started out small. Was it a date, or had he offered to take me out as a way to say thank you for taking care of Abel and sharing Larry? And, if it was a date, did I look okay in the clothes that I'd worn to work, or should I have gone home and changed before I went over?

In the end I pulled into his driveway and took a deep breath without going home to change. Whether it was supposed to be a date or not, I liked the dress that I'd put on that morning, and I wasn't out to impress him. Not that much.

"Hey, come in." He opened the door after I'd knocked and smiled. "You look beautiful. I should have told you that this morning, but I was a little too hungover to see."

I chuckled and stepped past him to enter his home, but my face went cherry red when he pressed a kiss to my cheek, and I know he noticed because he got a large grin on his face.

Abel ran up to me as soon as he'd realised I'd joined them and gave me a long hug. "Ellie! Thank you for letting me play with Larry, we had so much fun!"

"That's fine, honey." I bent over at the waist and kissed the top of his messy head. "Thank you for takin' care of my boy for me. I think you're his best friend."

"He's my best friend." Abel let me go in order to go and find Larry, and I couldn't help but smile as he almost tackled the dog to the ground.

I went in the direction that Jax had disappeared and found him standing at the stove, stirring something in a saucepan. "You're cookin'?"

"Attempting." His smile was uncertain and there was an embarrassed undertone to his laugh. "I wanted to do something nice for you, but I think I'm ruining it."

I pressed myself to his side in order to see what was cooking in the pan, then stole the wooden spoon from his hand and tasted the pasta he'd made. "Oh! Honey, that's great!"

"Yeah?" His embarrassment gave way to excitement, like a kid who'd just gotten their first gold star.

I patted him on his chest that was bare of his Kutte, just covered by a Nirvana shirt that I'd washed for him when I'd done the laundry that was on the floor in his room. "Yeah, definitely, it's really good. And I'm from Georgia, so you know I'm tellin' the truth, we take our food very seriously."

For the first time since I'd met him, Jax didn't look like he held the weight of the world on his shoulders. He finally looked his age, relaxed in his home while we had quiet banter and laughed back and forth at each other's wit and jokes.

After we'd finished the pasta that Jax had made for us and got Abel settled into bed next to Larry, we stepped outside into the warm night air so that Jax could have a smoke.

He sat down on the steps of the back porch and I sat next to him, trying to settle the rapid beat of my heart when his arm wrapped around my shoulders and tugged so that our sides were snugly against each other's.

"Thank you for dinner, Jackson." I said quietly as he lit his cigarette. "It was wonderful."

"Thank you." He replied, equally as quiet. "For being you."

The weight of his words settled on my chest and I sighed into his side. "Nothin' special to me, honey, no need to thank me for anythin'."

Jax chuckled, but it sounded wrong and slightly bitter, and I knew that the conversation had turned serious without knowing it was going to.

I stole the cigarette from his hand and took a long draw then blew it out and watched it evaporate in the air around us.

"I didn't know you smoke." He commented to break the heavy silence.

I kept staring at the stars. "Only when I'm anxious. And I have a feelin' you're about to tell me somethin' I don't want to hear."

Jax sighed long and hard, let me have another puff of his smoke and then took it back. "I don't want to scare you off, but I've got to be blunt."

"Gemma Teller's son, I wouldn't expect anythin' less than brutally honest." I grumbled.

Jax put out the burnt down cigarette but looked straight ahead. "The club isn't just a group of Harley enthusiasts like we say."

I snorted. "Shock horror there."

"We do some pretty messed up shit, and you could be targeted because of your connection to me, one day. I'm telling you because you need to decide whether or not you want this to go any further. I know I should just leave you alone." He shook his head and ran the hand that wasn't holding me through his hair.

Half of me was glad that he had basically admitted that he shared my feelings, the other half of me was trying to come to terms with the fact that he'd also mentioned that, thanks to those feelings, I could be drawn into a war zone that I didn't know if I was ready for after what could be considered a single date.

"But there's something about you." He carried on when I'd stayed silent. "I just can't seem to keep away from you and, if I'm being honest, I don't want to."

"I'm a big girl, Jax." I said quietly. "I'll admit that I don't know anythin' and I'm probably gettin' in over my head. But I also know that I could get hit by a truck when I'm crossin' the road, or a junkie could come in and rob me at the store and things could go south."

"So?"

"So, I'm sayin' that fearin' what could happen down the line is pointless." A shooting star flew overhead and I almost laughed at the ironic timing of the cosmic forces. "And I've never felt how I feel about you before."

We looked at each other at the same time, and his eyes asked me a silent question.

I nodded softly before he lowered his face, lips inches from mine when he reached up and cupped his palm to my cheek.

And then he kissed me.