A/N - Jax makes an executive decision...
Chibs awoke to find Nina purring in his arms beside him. She was completely naked, her slender body cool to the touch against his as she snored ever so lightly in his ear. He smiled and kissed her forehead as he cuddled her to him. She looked adorable, he never wanted this feeling of levity in his heart to end.
"How'd you do that?" he murmured, whispering into her hair. "How'd you suddenly make everything better?"
She didn't answer, just made a content little murmuring sound as she squeezed up tighter to him. He ran his hand along her waist and up the curve of her hip, there was no way to deny how he felt about her. He was falling for her, and hard.
He must have laid there with her for another hour before she stirred. She smiled and stretched lazily beside him. "Good morning," she murmured, kissing him sweetly. Chibs grinned.
"Aye, love, good afternoon, you'll find." He sat up with her and his stomach grumbled with hunger. Nina giggled shyly.
"Clearly lunch time," she teased, patting his stomach. "Let me go get you something."
Chibs laughed as he watched her jump up, spritely as anything, and start hopping around, pulling clothes on. He watched her as she did a playful reverse strip-tease, one arm behind his head. He hadn't felt like this in years.
"I can go out," he offered. She waved her hand.
"I don't mind, I've got the car." She was scooping her hair back into a messy ponytail. "What do you want?" She didn't wait for an answer. "There must be a good burger place around here."
Chibs laughed. "You're a girl after my own heart," he grinned dopily. "There's a place, third right off Main."
"I think I've seen that one," she nodded. "What do you have?"
It was his turn to blush. "It's quite specific," he murmured. "I like a double cheeseburger, rare, like, extra rare." She was writing it on her arm with a pen, he couldn't help but smile as her tongue poked out over her lip. "Onions, lettuce, no tomatoes though, I don't like them." She drew a sad face on her skin next to a doodle of a tomato.
"I'll either think you'll be sad if you don't have them or sad if you do," she frowned, crossing it all out with a squiggly line. "Fries?"
Finalising his order with half a dozen long, lazy kisses, she swiped some cash from his wallet and winked as she headed out. Chibs grinned, Christ almighty, how had he got so lucky?
Jax Teller had a very simple routine in life. Sex with his wife warranted a beer, maybe a cigarette. Sex with a stranger was just the cigarette, but sex with a porn star was always, always a cheeseburger. He'd been doing it for so many years now, it was more instinct than anything else. Conditioning.
He sulked in a corner, feeling morose as he chewed over the remnants of his lunch. Maybe it was the fat that oozed from the damn thing and dripped onto the wrapper, somehow it eased his guilt and made him feel a different kind of dirty.
Nobody usually came to this place during the day, it was more of an evening haunt for Charming folk. It was why the Sons liked to come here, they weren't really bothered by anyone. So when the door rang to announce a customer, Jax looked up, half-expecting Tig or Happy, but he shrank down in his seat as Nina walked in. She looked around, this sure looked like the place Chibs had suggested.
"Hey." She smiled cheerfully at the kid on the counter. "Can I get a chicken burger and..." She frowned as she looked at her arm. "A double cheeseburger, extra extra rare. Onions and lettuce." She beamed as she added, "Absolutely no tomatoes."
The kid chuckled, he'd heard that order before. "Yes ma'am, probably be a ten minute wait?" He pulled her a milkshake and sat it on the counter. "While you wait."
Jax watched her over his sunglasses, growing more irate as every second passed. This girl, God. He had tried to he nice, he really had, but she was beginning to get under his skin with the way she kept throwing things out of order for his club. Part of him just wanted to drag her out back and give her a hiding so she wouldn't come near them again.
"Miss, how did you want that double?"
She looked up brightly. "Really rare, he said." She wrinkled her nose. "Each to their own, I suppose."
Jax scowled, it didn't take him more than a second to realise that was Chibs' usual. He felt the anger flush through him, his cheeks growing red. Even now, even now he was defying him. Jax couldn't have been clearer about Fiona, he didn't want Chibs anywhere Nina, or anyone to do with Nero, for that matter.
Jax flexed his fingers and left some cash on the table as Nina swung back and forth on the barstool at the counter innocently. He wasn't having this, he was going to go and knock some sense into Chibs in her absence.
He strode out purposefully but slowed as he saw a guy in his car, staring intently at Nina through the glass doors of the diner. He listened as the man spoke.
"Yeah, it's definitely her," the guy muttered. "She looks good, Danny, she's fine. In some fast food shithole." The guy glanced at Jax, noticing his interest, and muttered, "I'll bring her back, don't worry. I gotta go."
He hung up and got out of the car, making no effort to hide his piece tucked in his pants. He glared at Jax, his eyes narrowing.
"You got a problem, Blondie?"
Jax shook his head and stepped closer, flapping his cut to show the stranger he was equally well armed.
"No problem." He pointed towards Nina. "You got some interest in her?"
"I got no interest in you," the guy corrected him with a frown. "So you should keep walking."
Jax shrugged. "Hey, man, take her. You'd be doing me a goddamn favour, girl's been nothing but a pain in my ass since she got here."
The guy ran a hand over his bald head, Jax could see he was covered in tattoos but no club ink, this guy wasn't in an MC, that was for sure. "You know her?"
"She hooked up with someone I know," Jax said coolly. "Kinda... distracting, you get my drift?"
The man smirked, licking his lips as he looked at her long legs stretched out as she perched on her barstool, chatting with the server and making him laugh. "Yeah, she is." He glanced at Jax now. "I gotta take her home, her boyfriend's looking for her."
Jax took a deep breath. This could work for everybody, getting Nina out of town would teach both Nero and Chibs a little lesson, and Jax was never averse to making new friends. He extended his hand.
"Jax."
"Piggy," the guy smiled, revealing a couple of wonky gold teeth as he did. "So, your friend... She hook up with him?"
Jax was always careful to protect his club, however mad at them he was. "Let's just say I'd rather she went home," he said with a smirk. "We both want the same thing. If I get her to you, you take her and she doesn't come back, and none of this ever happened. You in?"
Piggy grinned. "Sounds good to me."
Jax gave him a clear set of instructions and watched as he pulled the car around to the back of the diner. He waited outside, watching her through the glass, and he smiled and waved at her as she started to leave. Nina smiled, recognising him, and stepped out.
"Hey there," she said, lifting the bag of food in her hand. "Are these as good as they smell?"
"Better," Jax grinned with his usual Prince Charming smile. "Come with me a sec?"
Unsuspecting, Nina followed him around the corner towards the back of the restaurant. When Jax stopped, she paused and looked at him in confusion "Everything okay?" she asked. Jax gave her a smile.
"I just wanted to say sorry," he said softly, moving closer to her. Nina laughed and shrugged, shaking her head.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Jax, what happened with Tig was a mistake and Daddy says it's been rectified."
"Oh." Jax chuckled. "I wasn't sorry about that."
"Then what are you sorry for?" she asked with a frown that made her nose wrinkle.
Without any warning, Jax slammed his fist furiously into her face, knocking her into the wall. Her skull bounced against the brick and she collapsed on the floor.
"That," Jax muttered as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her towards Piggy's car. Piggy stared, she was out cold, her body almost lifeless in Jax's arms. He watched as Jax draped her in the back seat before shaking his hand and winking, "This never happened."