6

Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run

Chapter 196 Karma

Jax wasn't angry with Scarlett for lying. She lived a dangerous life and they hadn't known each other long. He hoped that one day they could both trust each other.

He estimated that he was older than Scarlett by a couple of years. Clay and Gemma had a happy marriage, but there had been a couple of rough patches. If his memory were correct, there was a rough patch about the time Scarlett might have been conceived.

He wondered which came first, the affair or the rough patch. It didn't really matter. Clay cheated on Gemma and there was no excuse for that, but it was many years ago. If Gemma didn't know about the affair, he wasn't going to say anything. It was over, done and in the past.

If Scarlett wanted to cause trouble, she would have told Clay he might be her father and asked him to take a paternity test in front of Gemma. She hadn't done that. He believed her when she said she wasn't out to disrupt anyone's life; she just wanted to know her father's identity. The issue was closed for now.

"You were right about Tara," Jax said.

"That's not surprising," Scarlett said, smiling. "It happens all the time. How was I right about Tara?"

"You said you thought she'd come back to Charming for me."

"OK. Now, I remember. It didn't take a lot of thought. It was pretty obvious."

"She came to my house a couple of nights ago. She wanted to give our relationship another try."

"I knew she must still have feelings for you even after ten years. If you still have feelings for her, maybe you should give it a try."

There wasn't a trace of jealousy in Scarlett's voice. Tara had been insanely jealous. If he even glanced at another girl, there would be a fight either with him or the girl.

His experience with Tara caused him to believe that a girl had to be jealous to prove her love. He had been so sure that Scarlett was falling for him. Now he was beginning to question his conclusion.

"Ten years," Jax said with a shake of his head. "You don't know someone after ten years of no contact."

"I think she loves the past you and assumes that her changes and your changes over the years have kept pace so you both are in the same place."

"That makes sense in a "that's how women think" kind of way. I think Tara isn't happy with her life and she thinks I'm the key to solving that."

"That's one of the great romantic fantasies. A man comes, sweeps you off your feet and fixes everything wrong with your life."

"Is that one of your fantasies?"

"Not anymore," she said drily. "I thought I was living my fantasy with my psycho ex. Should have known better."

"Don't be so hard on yourself."

"My father is always telling me that and I always ignore him."

"That's right. You don't like being told what to do."

"He's doing this thing now that is driving me crazy. He always asks if I've been behaving myself with the biker."

Jax laughed.

"Maybe it's reverse psychology and he wants you to misbehave with me."

"There may be something to that," Scarlett admitted. "He also tells me that I shouldn't cut your hair. It's never even crossed my mind to cut your hair . . ."

"Until he put the idea in your head," Jax finished her sentence.

"I think that the repercussions of that wouldn't be good."

Jax laughed.

"That's an understatement. Don't let it cross your mind again."

"See, that's playing into my whole "I don't like to be told what to do" thing."

"Be a good girl," he said, grinning.

"I get it," she said, narrowing her green eyes. "Now, you're trying reverse psychology. It won't work. I'm too much of a good girl to ever be a bad girl."

"I can corrupt you and bring out your inner bad girl."

Scarlett laughed.

"I'll tell you a secret. I don't have an inner bad girl."

"You just haven't been with the right guy. That's why you think you don't have an inner bad girl."

It was time to take things to a more romantic level with Scarlett. He'd been taking it slow and easy with her because she had an injured back, but he was going to kick up the heat and make her burn for him. Scarlett would find she had an inner bad girl that was just for him.

They stopped at the fast food place just outside of Charming that they had stopped at when they were returning from the lake house. They got foot long hot dogs and shared onion rings and French fries followed by ice cream cones they decided to eat in the car. The things Scarlett was doing with her ice cream and her tongue . . . The worst part was she seemed completely oblivious to its effect on him.

"I haven't seen you in a couple of days. What have you been doing?"

This was a test for Scarlett to see if she would mention that she'd been out with Hale. It also might distract him from watching her tongue licking her ice cream. He would definitely let her dry him off with her tongue. She seemed to really know what she was doing.

"I went out with Hale. He told me something about his name that was interesting. He said in high school, he wanted everyone to call him Hale. He decided he didn't like his first name. When he went to college, he had second thoughts and decided he liked his first name. Now, he goes by both names."

"You think that was interesting?"

"It was sweet," she said. "We got Chinese and went to his house and watched L.A. Confidential. We spent so much time talking that we only got about a third of the way through the movie. It was nice to let my inner film geek out."

There was nothing in Scarlett's tone of voice to suggest that she was telling him about Hale to make him jealous. She was just telling him about what she'd been doing.

Tara also told him about other guys to make him jealous. He always knew that was her purpose and he'd never fallen for it.

Scarlett was different. He didn't want Hale anywhere near her because Hale was the kind of guy she might find attractive. He might even be able to help her with her psycho ex problem.

"Hale can bring out your inner film geek, but he will never be able to bring out your inner bad girl."

"Jax, I really don't have an inner bad girl. That's the sad truth."

"You have an inner bad girl. You're just afraid to find her."

Scarlett laughed.

"You're so cute thinking I have an inner bad girl."

They arrived at the lake house. He helped her out of the car, noticing that she was stiffer and seemed to be in pain.

"I think I'm going to take a bath. Maybe a long soak in the tub will help."

Jax brought their bags in and put them in her bedroom assuming that they were sharing her bed tonight.

She opened her overnight bag and shook out two muscle relaxers from the amber plastic prescription bottle and swallowed them with some water.

"I think I'll use the shower in the other bedroom and then watch some stuff on your computer."

"There are a bunch of DVDs in the bookcase in the living room. Whatever you want to watch is OK with me."

She grabbed her clothes from the bag and went into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

Jax showered and changed into lightweight navy sweats that he wore when he shared a bed with Scarlett. He decided to check out her DVD collection in the living room.

He decided on Father Ted. It might be interesting to watch a comedy with Irish priests. It could be useful since the Irish were the main suppliers of the guns SAMCRO sold.

He finished watching the first episode and decided to rewatch it. He liked to watch programs for the first time with Scarlett.

She wasn't out of the bathroom yet. She may have wanted to have along soak, but she must have been gone an hour. He decided to give her another fifteen minutes and then he would check on her.

Fifteen minutes later and still no Scarlett. He was worried. She could have fallen and hit her head. He should have checked on her sooner.

He knocked on the bathroom door. No answer. He knocked louder. Still no answer. He knocked louder.

"Scarlett, are you OK?"

"I'm mostly OK," she said in a sad little voice. "I can't get out of the bathtub."

"You're stuck in the bathtub?"

"I am not stuck in the bathtub," she said indignantly. "I just can't get out. I can't get a good enough hold to pull myself out of the bathtub. I'm slick and the bathtub's slick. It's terrible."

There was nothing terrible about this to Jax. Scarlett was naked in a bathtub and couldn't get out. He was just going to have to rescue her.

He laughed. This was going to be a lot of fun. Maybe Scarlett's inner bad girl would make an appearance before the night was over.

He grinned that Jax Teller grin that women found so irresistible.