4
Chapter 118 Fallout
Ava and Jax returned to their bedroom. They looked at each other for a few moments before Jax burst into laughter.
"This isn't funny," Ava said slapping at his shoulders without any force.
"Sure it is. You're getting a wicked stepmother."
"Bastard," Ava said.
"Come one, show me how you really feel with those little doll hands of yours," Jax said, a teasing light in his eyes.
Ava put her fists against Jax's chest.
Jax wrapped his arms around her and began to kiss her hard, showing her just how much he wanted her. His feelings for her went beyond simple lust. She was intoxicating and sex with her was the very best. He hadn't lied about that and he always wanted her.
"Oh, no, you don't," she said slapping at his hands as they tried to inch their way under her shirt. "We need to talk."
"How about we talk from the comfort of bed," he suggested in a low husky tone.
"You'll fall asleep," Ava said as she firmly removed Jax's hands from under her shirt.
"Fair enough," he said with a sigh, "we'll talk now."
"You have to stop her. Talk to her. Do something."
"Ava, I talked to her after she started work for your father. You saw how well that worked out. I told you that she blew me off. There's nothing I can do short of beating or killing her."
"She won't listen to reason?"
"For her, it makes perfect sense to marry your father. That's the reason."
"We have to stop it," Ava insisted. "I can't stand the idea of having that horrible woman as my . . . as the woman who is married to my father."
"I don't much like the fact that she's my mother," Jax said. "It's up to you to talk to your father and get him to understand that Gemma is bad for him and you don't want him to marry her."
"My father and I don't have that kind of relationship. I can't just go to him and tell him that."
Jax gently took Ava by the shoulders.
"If you don't want Gemma for a stepmother, you are going to have to stop it. Talk to your father. Tell him how you feel."
Ava shook her head doubtfully. She and her father had never had a conversation about much of anything. Over dinner, he mostly talked about law and sometimes she would ask questions. That was pretty much the extent of her talks with her father.
"Jax, you don't understand. My father and I don't really talk about things like that. He mostly talks about work and I listen or pretend to."
"You're not a child anymore. You need to find your voice and tell him how you feel."
"Jax, my father doesn't care about how I feel. I don't think he's ever asked me how I feel about anything ever. The most personal conversation we ever had was when he told me my mother went to heaven and I would be living with him from now on."
Jax put his arms around Ava and held her close. He remembered how he felt when JT was killed and, to Gemma's credit, she had been supportive and compassionate. Of course, she helped kill his father so that sort of nullified all that. Still he imagined poor little Ava not feeling a lot of love from her father during the most devastating time of her life.
"I'm sorry he wasn't more loving to you," Jax said softly stroking her hair. He felt an odd emotion. He wanted to take Ava's heartache over her father's cold unfeeling behavior away and make her feel better. It was a new emotion for him.
Ava couldn't remember anyone ever comforting her before. Jax's kindness always surprised her.
"Maybe if you talked to my father, warn him off," she suggested softly.
"I'll talk to your father about the way he's treated you. He's very kind and generous with his time, but he doesn't treat you the same way. I'll talk to him about that."
"Why? He won't change."
"He needs to see that he hasn't been much of a father to you and he needs to change that."
"You would do that for me?"
"Of course I would. If Gemma isn't here tomorrow, I'll do it after dinner."
"I don't want to be there."
"Probably better that way," Jax said.
He kissed her with great gentleness wanting nothing more than to make her feel better. He did it the way he knew best with sex, but this was about comforting her. It was sweet, tender and nothing like he'd ever experienced.
As Jax began to fall asleep, he vowed to make sure TB knew just how much he'd hurt six year-old Ava when he'd dumped her off on an assistant after her mother died. It may have been almost twenty years ago, but he knew Ava still hurt over her father's actions.
TB needed to understand what he did was wrong and he needed to tell Ava that he should have handled her mother's death with more compassion. Maybe that would help her stand up for herself and tell her father she didn't want him to marry his mother.
When he was talking to TB, he would warn him that if he married his mother, he better not make her the beneficiary of any life insurance policy and to have a prenup or he might not have long to live.