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Taming Ava & Fixing Jax - A Modern Fairytale

Chapter 24 The Misbehavior of Mrs. Teller—Ava Teller

"

After loudly telling the nurse and anyone in the ICU nurses area that Jax had pissed himself, Ava took off. Jax could see her leave through the open door of his room. He was hoping she was going to come back. He had some things he wanted to say to her.

Jax had never crossed paths with a woman as feisty as Ava. She was definitely going to be a challenge. Normally he would be up for that challenge, but he'd nearly died, lost a lot of blood, had emergency surgery and was battling a potentially lethal infection, so he wasn't up to keeping his beautiful bride in line not at that moment anyway.

The nurse came into his room.

"I heard you had an accident," the nurse said in that calm slightly cheerful tone of voice nurses use.

"My bride has an unusual sense of humor. I knocked the glass of water off the table and got wet."

"I'll be right back and get you all fixed up."

It took awhile to get Jax all fixed up. His bedding needed changing and he needed a clean dry hospital gown. The nurse went ahead and changed the dressings on his wounds.

"That smell can't be good," Jax said when the nurse took his dressings off.

"It's the infection. This is good. I can take a culture and we can make sure we are giving you the right antibiotic."

Leave it to a nurse to put the best possible spin on an infected wound with a foul odor, Jax thought.

"How long will that take?"

"Just a couple of hours. Your fever is a little lower, but it isn't going down as rapidly as I'd like to see."

Jax nodded. His nurse seemed to know what he was doing. He'd have to wait to see how the day progressed. He took several swabs and put them in test tubes to send them to the hospital's lab.

"You mentioned bride. Are you recently married?"

"Yeah, less than two weeks," Jax said.

"I'm sure you would like some special alone time with your bride, but you can't afford to rip yourself open. You'll end up back in surgery. You need to heal for a couple of days first."

Jax nodded. When he'd asked Ava to go into the bathroom with him, he was joking. She hadn't taken it like that. No wonder her father was willing to get him out of prison so he could straighten out his hot tempered, spoiled brat of a daughter.

Gemma returned to ICU. Jax was asleep again. The nurse explained to Gemma that it was normal for patients in his condition to sleep most of the time. The body needed sleep to repair itself.

She stood over her son while he slept. She was proud of him. He was a fine, strong, honorable man who refused to turn on his brothers to get out of prison. Still, it broke her heart when that guilty verdict came down. Now he was married to that bitch Ava in an effort to try to get out of prison. Putting up with her would be worth it if it brought her son back to her.

Gently, she smoothed his blonde hair back from his eyes before stroking his cheek. He was perfect. So handsome, the girls had been throwing themselves at him since he was a baby. She was proud that she had created him. That didn't mean he didn't need her to straighten him out. He would always need his strong mother.

She took the seat Ava vacated. It was the closer of the two chairs to Jax. The other seat was on the side with more medical equipment.

Twenty minutes later, Ava returned taking Gemma's seat and giving her a bright fake smile. She sat demurely in the chair her hands folded in her lap bored out of her mind. Outwardly, she was the picture of the devoted wife.

That afternoon, Jax woke up to find the two women in his life on opposite sides of his bed sitting in complete silence.

"Gemma, I'd like a few minutes alone with Mrs. Teller."

Gemma frowned at Ava before leaving the room.

"I'm not Mrs. Teller. I'm Ms. Becker or Ava Becker."

"You're my wife."

"That may be true, but I'm not your property. I'm never taking your name."

"We'll see about that. I'm not sure you are worthy of my last name."

Ava gave him the same fake smile she'd given Gemma.

"Tell yourself that's the reason. I'm just never changing my name. We're not going to be married for long anyway."

"Believe me I'm counting the days," Jax said. "By the way, you can thank me that you were allowed back in my room after the stunt you pulled. I told the nurse that I knocked the glass off my tray and your comment was your odd sense of humor."

Jax had expected Ava to apologize and admit she'd gone to far throwing water on him. She didn't seem at all contrite.

She laughed.

"It was pretty funny. You should have seen your face."

"Ava, you know I almost died yesterday, I'm still pretty damned sick and I can still die."

That wiped the smile off her face. Jax knew immediately it wasn't that she was worried about losing him. Once again, her concern was financial. She couldn't afford to pay another husband.

"You aren't going to die? You're just saying that to scare me."

"No, Ava, I can damned well die. When the nurse changed my dressings, he took cultures of the infection hoping they can make sure I'm on the right antibiotic. No matter how strong and healthy, if an infection can't be stopped . . ."

"You're just going to have to try harder to live and the doctors will have to do better at finding the right antibiotic to kill the infection," Ava said.

"Why don't you go share that with my nurse?" Jax suggested sarcastically. "I'm sure doing their jobs better never occurred to any of the medical professionals. You're a genius Ava."

"I know the genius part," Ava said seriously. "People always underestimate me."

Jax shook his head wondering if Ava was completely detached from reality or only semi-detached. She needed a wake up call and he was just the man for the job.

"The reason I wanted to talk to you privately—what the fuck were you thinking dumping water on me in my medical condition?" Jax demanded. Despite his weakened state there was no mistaking the fury in Jax's husky voice.

"Impulse control issues," she said with a shrug. "Mostly it was pay back for last night when you told me my father was watching and you kissed me and put your tongue in my mouth. You know I don't like that kind of thing. And you wanted me to go in the bathroom with you for sex."

The men on Hallmark movies would never do anything so germ laden. Those guys were always perfect gentlemen and respectful. That's why she liked them so much—the movies and the men. They didn't have toxic masculinity like Jax. They would never shove their disgusting tongues into a woman's mouth and they would never suggest bathroom sex.

"Come on Ava, I didn't shove my tongue down your throat. It was just a nice kiss," Jax said. "As far as bathroom sex, do you really thing that I am physically up to it? I was just joking."

"Well, I thought your penis was hot so I cooled it off. So, how's that?" she grinned. "The water was payback for the kiss and the bathroom sex suggestion."

"Ava, I am not going to put up with this kind of behavior from you."

Ava broke into laughter, doubling over in her chair.

"Ooh, I'm scared. Are you going to hurt me with harsh words? Scold me with a look?"

If Jax had been well, he would have dealt with her right then and there. For now, all he could do was wait, but there would come a day of reckoning for Ava and her misbehavior and it was going to come a hell of a lot sooner than she ever thought possible.