Sorry this took so long, I've been fighting a cold, I might not get chapters out as quickly this week because I'll be watching my cousin after her surgery but I will try! Thank you to everyone for your kind words and who continue to support this story. I won't give up too easily ;) Anyways, here you all go. -Lanie x

Tara looked around the room and realized that now that they were together she noticed what other people were saying about them. She tried not to listen to some of what they were saying because she knew it wasn't true. Other parts of it were harder to ignore when they were about her.

"I don't understand why they're always hanging out. She's not even that pretty."

Tara gritted her teeth and stood up from the desk in the library. She's cursing whoever decided it was a good idea for her to come to school early today. She walked out but that was just as bad, as soon as she was spotted she heard a few conversations change to her.

Which she ignored every single one of them as she walked to her locker and did the combination to open it. She grabbed what she was going to need for her first couple of classes when she heard part of someone's conversation.

"I've heard that he's going to have sex with her and then move on. Like it's a bet or something."

With that she let out a frustrated sigh and turned around and ran into someone. She let out a breath when she realized it was Opie that she ran into. There was never a moment that she was happier to see him.

"It's good to see you." She told him.

"You doing okay?" He asked.

"Yeah it's just getting worse y'know?" She shrugged.

"Everyone saying Jax is going to have sex with you and move on?" Opie looked amused.

Tara shot him a look of disapproval.

"That and other things. They don't even know that we're dating. She replied dryly.

He put his hands up and smiled at her.

"You aren't as smart as we all think you are if you think he'd do any of what they say." He told her, and watched her reaction.

Tara looked down and shuffled the books that she was carrying. In the back of her mind all of the gossip about her and Jax rolled around. She tried her best not to believe any of i but she found it hard to understand why he chose her. Jax could have most of the girls in this school, hell in the town but he wanted her her. It didn't make sense.

"Earth to Tara..You believe that shit don't you?" Opie raised his eyebrow.

Just then she saw Jax walk into the school with a bruise on his face, but he didn't walk over to them. Tara's gaze followed him until he was out of sight before turning back to Opie.

"Yes, I might believe some of it…Now what the hell happened last night?" She paid closer attention to his face but he didn't have any bruises.

Before he could answer the bell rang and they both headed in seperate directions to their classes. She got to her desk and dropped her stuff and turned to look at Jax before sitting down, but he wasn't there. Tara huffed out a breath and sat down. Soon her thoughts were forgotten as she listened to her teacher begin his lecture.

15 minutes later, the door opened and out of habit she looked over to see who was there. Her face fell into a frown once she saw Jax limping into the room.

"Nice for you to join us, Mr. Teller." The teacher said rudely to him.

Jax visibly tensed at his tone and handed him a note before walking to his desk. She looked over at him as he sat down, he turned to her and gave her a half smile and leaned towards her.

"Hey babe." He whispered.

"Hi Jackson." She smiled though the concern was still very much written on her face.

Tara then turned back to the listen to the teacher; she wanted to hear more about the assignment they were getting. Jax could wait until later. Once he was finished the teacher gave them the last few minutes as free time.

"Wanna tell me what happened?" She asked as they turned to look at each other.

"I just need you to be careful. If there's anyone lurking around I need you to call me." He told her, sternly.

"What's go—"

"It's just more dangerous now that we're together. Other clubs know that I'm Clay's step-son. That makes me and the people around me a threat." Jax tried to explain to her.

Tara looked at him dumbfounded. This was the first time that they had ever talked about the dangers of SAMCRO. She was starting to believe it was all in her head. She found herself angry at him for not mentioning this before.

"A warning before all this would have been nice." She glared at him.

"Shit wasn't this bad a few weeks ago, Tara.. I j—"

Before he could finish the bell rang.

"We'll talk later, I have to go." She told him and gathered her books.

They walked out together except their teacher called for Tara as before she left the room. Jax went to grab her hand and continue but she pulled away and went back to the teacher. As she reached the desk she turned to see if he was there but he had already left.

"Miss Knowles, you are one of my brightest students as you know." He started off.

Tara nodded. "I do know that Mr. Daniels, you've told me before.." She looked around nervously before she realized that 2nd period was his prep.

He put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm worried about you. Hanging around Jax Teller is only going to get you in trouble Tara. Look at him, he came in late and bruised up. Is that the type of people you want in your life?"

She looked at her teacher confused before she felt the anger bottling inside of her.

"Excuse me? Who I am around is none of your god damn business. You don't know anything about him or what he goes through so don't pretend you do just because you listen to rumors about the club. I have to get to class." She shrugged his hand off of her.

She turned to leave when he grabbed her arm roughly.

"I should write you up for talking to me like that." Mr. Daniels threatened.

"I should turn you in for harassment. Let me go." She yelled out.

Another teacher walked into the room and looked at them.

"Mr. Daniels, let go of Miss Knowles. Expect a compliant." She said before grabbing Tara's arm and leading her out of the room. The teacher pulled her into an empty room. "Are you okay Tara?"

Tara looked around the room and nodded. She didn't know how to react to what happened.

"I need to go to my next class. Can you write me a note?" She asked.

"Are you sure you want to go to class? We could excuse you for the day."

"No, I'd rather just get to class." She smiled a little at the teacher and rubbed her arm.

As the day went on she knew that more people were hearing about how one of their teachers supposedly harassed one of their classmates. Tara went through the motions of a normal day and hoped that no one would come to realize that it had been her.

At lunch she avoiding the guys and hung out with Anna who was the only person that actually knew what happened. She didn't want to lie to her best friend. Plus she had seen the bruise that was forming on her arm.

By the end of the day, she began to block out what everyone was saying about Mr. didn't want to hear anymore of their theories when she knew first hand what had happened. By the end of the day, she looked over to see Opie and Jax walked over to her. Jax looked livid when he got to her.

"Hey baby. What's wrong?" She asked him with a soft smile.

"Push your sleeve up." He asked sternly.

"Jackson..What are doi-"

"Now, Tara." He demanded.

Tara let out a sigh and bit her lip before looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. She pushed up the sleeve long enough for him to see the finger marks and then dragged it back down to her wrist.

"I'm going to kill Anna, she shouldn't have told you." She looked down and played with her hands.

"Like hell she shouldn't have. Tara you should have told me about it as soon as it happened." Jax told her and sat down next her and moved her head up to look at him.

"Why? So you could punch him? I can take care of myself." She moved her head away from him.

"No one touches what's mine." He growled.

"Yeah for how long? Til I let you fuck me?"

He looked at her with narrow eyes. "What the hell does that mean."

"Exactly what I just said." She stood up and went to walk away.

He put his hands around her waist and pulled her down onto his lap despite her struggles to get up.

"Tara, stop it. Just listen to me for a minute."

She looked at him, impassively.

"I know a lot of people are talking shit about you but you need to stop listening to it." He paused.

She was looking at him and wrapped her arms around his neck once she relaxed. They both knew it was a matter of time before they had this conversation.

"When we decide to have sex, I'll be there when you wake up the next day, and I'll still be with you days after that. I'm not going to up and leave." Jax told her as she rested her forehead against his.

"You really aren't some scary biker." She whispered.

"Not yet anyways." He teased and leaned in to kiss her.

Tara pulled back and looked at him with wide eyes.

"I want everyone to know you're mine. Maybe they'll back off once they see how much you mean to me." He explained.

She smiled wide and leaned in the rest of the way and placed her lips against his. Jax kissed her deeply before she pulled away and shook her head.

"Not here." She whispered.

He let go of her to let her stand up before standing himself. She held his hand and walked to the bike with him. As he got on she put the helmet on and wrapped her arms tightly around him.

"Where too?" He asked.

"Anywhere."

"Got it babe." Jax replied with a smirk before taking off.

After driving for awhile he pulled the bike into a open field. She got off and tilted her head at him. Jax wrapped his arms around her waist and fell back onto the grass. Tara giggled as she fell on top of him."What do you expect us to do out here?" She asked as she smiled at him,

"Hmm I wonder." He teased before he brought his mouth up to hers.

Tara giggled against his lips as she tangled her hands in his hair. She pulled away just slightly and whispered.

"This is all you like me for."

"Maybe it is." He kissed the side of her mouth and ran his hands up her sides. "Is that a problem?"

She nodded. "Very much so."

He kissed the other side of her mouth and tightened his grip on her.

"It's your lucky day because I also like you because you're beautiful." Jax smiled at her. "And so smart." He kissed along her jaw. "You hit so fucking hard." Jax untangled her hand from his hair and kissed where the bruise is. "And you don't take shit from anyone."

Tara blushed and bit her lip the entire time she listened to him talking, when he said things like this to her; it's what gave her faith in them.

"You just earned yourself lots of kisses, Teller." She told him sweetly before she cupped his cheek and kissed him deeply.