6

Chapter 68 Not Like a Dog

"

Ava and Jax had just finished eating fish kabobs when she heard from the concierge who had arranged for the motorcycle for tomorrow.

"That was the concierge," Ava said. "The motorcycle will be out front at 10. You will need to sign some paperwork and show that you have a valid motorcycle license."

"Just like that?" Jax asked.

"Yeah. She was really efficient about getting it all done."

"Thank you for handling that," Jax said.

He was still shocked that Ava agreed to the bike trip. He didn't expect that she would actually follow through and actually make the arrangements.

"It sounded like fun. I've never been outside the resort when I've come to Hawaii."

"Never?" Jax asked incredulously.

"No. They have everything here a beach and lots of places to eat. They even have a luau."

"I saw on our schedule that we're going to one on our last night at this hotel."

"It will be lots of fun. We're going to one in Maui too," Ava said.

"Have you ever been to Maui?"

"No. I never wanted to make the extra flight."

"Now, you've got me to keep you calm," Jax said reaching down, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

Ava almost said that she had Xanax and Valium that would keep her nice and calm, but she didn't say anything. It was kind of sweet that he wanted her to lean on him.

Since he'd agreed not to unlock the bathroom door again and apologized, Ava was willing to forgive him this time. If he ever did anything like that again, he was going to really be in for it and gum stuck to his ball sack was going to be the least of the things she was going to do to him.

Ava took a couple of pictures of them enjoying the day and sent them to her father. She believed with her whole heart that her father had sent her on this honeymoon to torture her by making her spend 24/7 with Jax. She wanted to show him how much fun they were having together so he would know his plan had failed.

Now that he looked more like a Hallmark movie hunk, she noticed the admiring female attention that followed him everywhere he went. His attracting female attention had always happened, Ava just hadn't noticed because he wasn't her ideal of the perfect guy.

They were still stopped by people wanting a picture with him. He always introduced her as his wife, Ava Teller. She didn't like that part. It was some old time ritual of claiming a woman, but she didn't feel like fighting about it because she liked that he was letting everyone know that they were married and she wasn't just some random girl in his life.

"Do you want to be in the pictures?" Jax asked when they were alone.

"No," she said, "they would just photo shop me out anyway."

Jax laughed. He liked this more relaxed fun side to Ava. If she could just stay like this, they had a chance of turning this three year marriage into something that wouldn't be all hell. It might actually have some good moments.

They returned to their room when a late afternoon rainstorm hit. Ava took a nap. Jax would have preferred to cuddle up with Ava for some afternoon sex. Instead, he used his phone to learn about romancing a woman.

Jax learned a few shocking truths mainly that romance and sex weren't the same thing for women. He needed to think of things from Ava's point of view using empathy.

It was a completely new concept for him, but he wanted sex badly enough that he was going to be a fast learner. Ava never really wanted a husband and that's why she married him. He needed to show her that having him around was something that could bring her enjoyment outside of sex. Once she was comfortable around him and liked him, sex would follow.

The problem was he was used to just flashing a grin at a woman, putting his arm around her and leading her out to his bike to take her home or leading her into one of the vacant rooms in the clubhouse. This approach wasn't going to work with Ava. He was going to have to seduce her.

He wondered if Ava was just different or if there were other girls out there that you actually had to put some effort into getting them into bed. This was something that he was only going to have to wonder about since he couldn't cheat on Ava. If he just flirted with girls and tried to seduce them without any intention of following through, that wasn't cheating in his opinion. Cheating only occurred when there was actual sex.

Using his new empathy skills and his research, he thought Ava would consider flirting and trying to seduce a woman cheating. Since he wanted to have sex with her, he would just have to adopt her definition of cheating. No flirting or seducing of women even if he just wanted to try things out to see if they would work on Ava.

He needed to give her some time to warm up to him. All the romance shit he read talked about a "slow burn". He didn't know what the hell it meant, but he suspected it meant there wasn't going to be any sex for awhile. That made sense since women didn't think of romance and sex as the same thing even though they were.

Ava woke up in time for them to go for a walk on the beach as the sun went down. They got some more food at the food stands sprinkled through the resort including pina colada flavored shaved ice.

"This shaved ice is good. Better than a snow cone," Jax said.

"The problem is you can't buy it back home. Better eat up here," Ava said.

Jax decided he would find a shaved ice machine on the internet and have it and some of the flavored syrups sent to them in Charming. That should please Ava.

They returned to their room and changed into fresh clothes for dinner. Jax was wearing a simple pair of beige khaki slacks with a short sleeved white button front shirt. His new appearance still made him do a double take every time he caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. He didn't look much like a biker now.

Ava was wearing a bright orange, yellow and green flowered sundress that was a little above her knees. It was the shortest dress she'd worn during the trip. She'd washed her hair and was about to straighten it.

"I like your hair wavy and curly. Makes you look sexy as hell," Jax said with a smile.

Ava looked at Jax in the mirror, the straightening iron in her hand. She shrugged.

"I like it better straight, but the iron burns my hands. I'll let it dry naturally for you."

"Look at us getting along," Jax said with a wide grin.

He would have slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her if she had been any other girl, but he was taking it slow. Doing the slow burn thing. Not going to try to get Ava to have sex with him for a couple of nights at the earliest.

They ate dinner and then went to a club for some drinking and dancing. Jax was going to make damned sure that he didn't get drunk tonight.

Ava was surprised that Jax was actually a good dancer. There was just something graceful and almost sexy about the way he moved. When they slow danced together with his arms around her, she wasn't sure how it made her feel but she didn't feel disgusted and she didn't want to knee him in the crotch. She couldn't blame it on the alcohol. She'd only had two drinks.

Over Ava's third drink and Jax's second beer, they talked about packing for their trip tomorrow. There were no plans beyond that. They would just ride off and look around and stop when they saw something interesting.

They spent a couple of hours dancing and drinking together. They had reached a point where they were enjoying each other's company. Jax decided they needed to call it a night. Ava didn't even complain about his making that decision, but she'd had a lot to drink.

After one last slow dance, they took a golf cart back to their hotel. Ava wasn't staggering drunk, but she was swaying a little when she walked. She looked damned sexy as she moved, but he was finding everything Ava did sexy because sex was all he thought about and specifically sex with Ava.

They got back to their room and Jax was looking at Ava. Any other girl and he would have kissed her.

"How about I show you how I can really kiss?" Jax asked his voice husky.

Ava was drunk but not so drunk she didn't know what she was doing. She was drunk enough to be relaxed and Jax was looking good to her. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if she let him kiss her.

"Not like a dog," she said.

"Not like a dog," he agreed.

Just as Jax closed the gap between them, he saw a familiar look in her eyes. Before he could grab the trash can, Ava threw up on them both.