Chapter 9

Tara sits in the middle of the bench seat between Jax and Opie as they drive to the Home Depot. She has her arms crossed and is glaring straight ahead.

"We have to get a lot of shit." Opie tells her. "You should come in with us."

She sighs. "Fine." Jax gets out his side and holds the door open for her. She glares at him and scoots across to get out of the drivers side to spite him. Jax slams the door hard in response, earning a glare from Opie.

"What the hell is your problem, Knowles?" Jax demands.

"My problem?" Tara asks, mid power walk to the front door of the store. She stops and turns suddenly but is surprised to find Jax right on her heels, "YOU are my problem!"

"Me?" He demands. "What did I do now?"

"You were rude to Kyle." She huffs with one hand on her hip.

"He's a douche." Jax defends, using his favorite word to describe most people in his opinion.

"Why?" Tara asks, faking innocence. "Because you say so?"

"Ugh!" Opie groans. "Can you two just bone it out of your system already?"

"What?" Jax demands at the same time Tara shouts, "No!"

"Fine." Opie grunts. "Then fight about it later. When you aren't in the middle of a damn parking lot." He stomps on the butt of his cigarette. "Shut up and come on, we have shit to do."

Jax tries several times to get through Tara's icy demeanor as they load up on rope, tarp, paint, lighter fluid and other various things into two carts. "What are you guys doing?" She asks, looking into the carts. "Burying bodies?"

"Not sure." Jax replies as both boys laugh. "But the paint will probably be for us to do some other menial tasks."

"Poor Jax, having to work." She faux pouts.

Her condescending attitude drives him bat shit crazy. "Oh, and what exactly do you know about actual work?" Jax asks, icily.

"Enough to know that if I had the opportunity to do it, I wouldn't bitch." She grips.

He both hates and loves how quick she is with the comebacks. It infuriates him but he can't help being turned on by it. "Yeah, tell me that again once you actually get a job."

"Stop being such a baby Teller." She teases, with a genuine smile and Jax finally relaxes.

"I'm sorry." He whispers for her ears only.

"Do you even know what you're apologizing for?" She asks softly.

"Not really." He admits with his trademark smirk that she usually finds irritating but at the moment finds sexy.

"Ugh" She groans, elbowing him. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Train me." He drops a kiss to the top of her head and wraps his arm around her shoulders. She looks up at him as they both walk, not paying attention to the fact that Opie is pushing one cart with one hand and pulling the other behind him with his other hand. "Seriously, I have no idea what this is or what we're doing." He admits.

"Me either." Tara answers honestly, wrapping her arm around his waist. They both sigh softly.

"You two make up?" Opie interrupts their moment of silence.

"Yeah." Jax replies at the same time Tara answers, "Kinda." Jax raises his eyebrow at her answer and she shrugs back at him.

"Good." Opie finishes. "Then one of you can push this other cart so we can finish and get the hell out of here."
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"Donna, I really am not sure I want to go." Tara admits, laying on her bed playing with the phone cord by wrapping it around her finger.

"Why?" Donna asks. "It will be fun. Music, pool, darts, bar food….Jax Teller." She teases.

"And his flock of crow-eaters." Tara points out.

"Yeah, probably." Donna admits. "But I haven't seen him into a crow-eater in weeks."

Tara wanted to ask her to define "into" but was afraid of the answer. "This whole thing is complicated." She vents. "I don't want to ruin anyone's good time. You go, ring in the New Year with Opie, and have fun."

"How about a compromise?" Donna offers. Tara can make out the distinct sound of a woman and a man's voice shouting at each other in the background. "You come with me. If you decide to leave, Opie will drive you home, no questions asked."

Tara sighs. "I don't know." She says even as she's mentally going through her closet to decide on an outfit.

"Please?" Donna whines as her parents bickering gets louder.

Jax was sitting at the bar, waiting on Opie to arrive with Donna. He was trying to shake off his depressed mood at the fact that he invited Tara and she flat-out turned him down. No chick had ever turned down his offer to hang out before. And it bothered the hell out of him that the only one to do so was Tara. Did she have to be the whole package? Beautiful, intelligent, feisty, caring, real, and not at all phased by the Jax Teller charm? The less she seemed to care about him, the more he seemed to care about her. He thought it was the thrill of the chase but knew after their kiss the other night that that wasn't the case. She saw him. Tara Knowles really saw him, underneath all the superficial bullshit she got the real Jackson Teller. It both thrilled him and scared the shit out of him.

"You look lonely." Says Chelsea, a newer crow-eater.

"I'm not, darlin." He smirks. "Just waiting on my friends."

"Any particular….friend?" She asks, with her hand on his thigh.

He takes a breath to answer but is shocked into quiet when a voice pops up. "Yeah…me." She looks to Jax and finds his eyes raking over her, starting at the brown cowboy boots, going to the jean skirt, and raking up her red sleeveless shirt covered by a jean jacket. "Invitation still stand?" She asks, once his blue eyes meet her brown ones.

"Of course." He smiles. Never taking his eyes off Tara he tells the crow-eater, "See darlin', told you I wasn't lonely."

"That's a shame." Chelsea pouts at Jax, raking her nails down his denim covered thigh. He never spares her a look. As she nudges past Tara she glares. And Tara follows her gaze as long as it takes her to leave her sight.

"That was interesting." Jax smirks. He loves seeing that jealousy, if he's right, displayed in Tara.

She turns to him and glares before breaking out into a grin. "Shut up, Jackson."

Neither notice Gemma Teller, watching them closely from across the bar.

It is several hours later when Tara comes up next to Jax at the bar. "This place is packed. There's not even an empty seat."

Jax motions to his lap, "This one is available babe."

"Babe?" She huffs but accepts the seat. "You're calling me babe now?" She reaches for his beer, which he gives up easily.

"You prefer darlin'?" He teases.

"NO!" She answers, turning toward him quickly. She nearly falls from his lap and he uses his hand to steady her. She notes that he never removes his hand from her thigh. She also notes their close proximity. She has her right arm around his neck and her left hand sitting on her lap with his beer in it. He notices it too and as their eyes meet, she's sure he's going to make a move.

"You guys want to get out of here?" Donna asks, seemingly coming out of nowhere. "It's too packed, we'll never get near a pool table or dart board again for the rest of the night."

Looking Tara in the eye, Jax answers for both of them, "Yeah, we can get out of here." He places Tara down from his lap gently and drops a kiss to her head. He reaches behind the bar and grabs a bottle of Jack. Soon the foursome are headed out the door. Jax has Tara wrapped safely in his arms and again neither notices the glares from Gemma Teller or from a ton of other females.
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"Seriously?" Tara laughs. "I suck at this game." She looks at her hand again.

"How can you suck at it?" Opie asks. "It's just like freakin' yahtzee."

"No it's not." Tara whines. "Because I can kick ass in yahtzee." She gloats.

"Babe, come here." Jax scoots over and wraps himself behind Tara on the floor.

"No." She hides her cards. "You'll cheat."

"No, I won't." He promises. "I'll sit this hand out and help you."

"What's in it for you?" She asks, faking innocence, making the question suggestive in his mind.

"Seeing you win babe." He grins, daring a glance down her top.

She notices his glance, and elbows him, "Yeah, right." She rolls her eyes.

He grabs her hand and looks at her cards. "Not a bad hand." He notes. "What would you go for?" He asks.

She looks at her cards and rearranges them. He can see her lining up at straight flush. She looks up for his opinion. "Me too." He confirms. He puts the other two cards face down and motions for Donna to give Tara two cards out of the pile. She sighs when she realizes her new cards give her a straight but not the straight flush. "It's fine." He assures her.

He nods to Opie. "Three of a kind." Opie proudly lays his cards out.

Jax takes Tara's hand and lays her cards down, he can't contain his grin, "Straight."

"Did we win?" Tara asks, reaching for the bottle of Jack that is almost empty.

"Only 'cause you had Romeo helping you." Opie notes, standing up and reaching for Donna's hand. "We are celebrating the New Year upstairs…alone."

"You don't have to be a sore loser." Tara teases but Opie is already headed to the stairs and not listening to her. She takes a shot of the Jack and hands the bottle to Jax. She notes that he is still as close to her as he can be.

He takes a swig for himself and sit the bottle back down in front of her. "So?" He says, putting his hands around her middle and tugging her back even closer to his front. "What do you want to do?"

"We could talk about whatever this is?" She clears her throat. "Or what it is that we are doing?"

"We're sitting together on the floor." He grins as he looks down into her eyes.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Jackson." She replies seriously.

"I know." He sighs softly. He runs a hand under her throat and cups her chin. He gently tilts her head back and leans in. His lips are as close to hers as they can be. "I thought you said we were friends."

"We are." She assures him. "But friends don't get jealous when their friends are hanging out with other members of the opposite sex." She reminds him. He notes that she swallows forcefully. She is just as affected by him as he is her.

"I think it's almost midnight." He nods to the TV where Dick Clark is counting down the ball in Time Square. "And I think you think too much." At last his lips meet hers and they part willingly for him.

He doesn't have time to think too much before she turns fully in his arms and comes up on her knees to match him stroke for stroke. Her hands grip his hair tightly and his cock instantly hardens. Does she have any idea how easily she turns him on. "Tara…" He manages to get out on a whisper.

"Now who's thinking too much?" She teases, climbing fully into his lap but never releasing his mouth.

"I'm not thinking." He assures her breathlessly as he lips and tongue devour her neck and his hands creep up both of her thighs. She throws her head back, giving him even better access to her neck. "God you're good at that." She moans. Tara Knowles actually moans for him. She notes the ball has officially dropped now. "Happy New Year, Jackson." She brings her head back up and takes her hands through his hair again bringing his lips back to hers.

He gives her the control he knows she wants. "Happy New Year Tara." He whispers against her mouth.