CHAPTER TWELVE

 

The long day in the unknown city had been never-ending, and Jax walked along the busy street in the humid night. He tossed back a beer with Jared and Winters but didn't feel the crowd at his hotel bar.

Maybe the main strip was the problem, so Jax turned off at the corner and took a deep breath as the crowd thinned. Nightlife still existed. Restaurants and bars dotted the blocks as he powered his way through the late night, but he didn't have to deal with work friends or tourists on vacation.

A line of motorcycles parked in front of a no-name bar piqued his interest, and Jax slowed long enough to decide that heading inside was a bad mistake he wanted to make.

Life was easier when he had an enemy to focus on, and whether that was some random motorcycle gang to get in trouble with or sharing a few words with Johnny, Jax was in the mood.

He pushed through the worn wooden door into the neon-lit smoky room and saw more Mayhem than he'd expected. The men wore leather cuts in case anyone needed a primer in who they were, but it was the lone female holding court in the middle of the bar that made Jax slow his angry steps.

More shocking than the amount of Mayhem members, he simply hadn't expected Seven to be in Colombia. She was a grown woman, and if she wanted to travel with her friends and get into MC business, that wasn't his problem. But there she was, a beauty in the sea of ugly, and even if she had been one of a thousand women dressed like his fantasy, he still would have been drawn to the sweetness that danced in her eyes.

Jax walked straight to her, slowing only to give Hawke the respect of a handshake.

Seven had her back pressed against the bar, her elbows leaning on the bartop. She turned her head as he walked up, and the two Mayhem members she was talking to took a walk.

Jax planted in front of her so there was no question who she should be looking at. "Seven."

"Aren't you supposed to be with the rest of the stick-in-the-mud soldiers? Don't you guys debrief or something into the middle of the night and then get shut-eye?"

Tonight she was a tough girl. And angry at that… Titan hadn't come through. Mayhem had screwed up, and Jax couldn't tell if her smirk and tone were because she had a general distrust of the world or only of him. Did she blame him because the meeting had gone so bad so quickly? For whatever reason, she was in a sour mood, similar to him. "I'm not a soldier, sweetheart. I'm a SEAL."

Seven formed her lips into an overexaggerated O then followed it with an accompanying "Oh."

He chuckled, tossing his head back, and turned, leaning against the bar like she did.

Acting annoyed, Seven inched away. "What's so funny?"

"That's not the normal reaction," he said.

"Of course not." She tilted her head and erased the inches she'd put between them without leaving the too-cool-for-school lounge against the bar. "Pray tell, hot shot. What's the normal reaction?"

There were a million things he could tell her about what women did when he said he was a Navy SEAL. But Seven didn't do any of those things. She was impossible to predict, and even when he thought he knew something about her, he was far off base.

Her elbow touched his. The only thing Jax knew about normal reactions was his to her, and he pushed from the bar, wrapping around her chest and caging Seven to the bar with his forearms.

"Normally," Jax said quietly, tilting his lips close to her ear. "If I say that I'm a SEAL, it sets off a chain reaction that can't be seen."

He pulled back enough to hold her eyes, and Seven didn't flinch. "Tell me."

"The reactions I can't see?" Jax eased closer, dropping his voice low. "Fantasies. Wet panties. Needy clits. Tightening, begging pussies." He raked his gaze from her head to her tits as slowly as he could possibly manage, lingering over the outline of her nipples in her T-shirt. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Not a thing," she whispered.

His chin ducked to her ear, brushing against her skin as the stubble from his chin connected with her neck. "Liar."

She smelled like sweet perfume and addictive flowers, as though she had spent her time shopping in Colombia's flower markets today rather than doing anything with the drug cartel.

A hand clamped down on Jax's shoulder, and he swung around, fist balled, only stopping when Seven snapped at the other man's name. Skull.

"This guy bothering you?" Skull had crossbones stitched on his leather cut where others had a name, and he snarled as though still looking for a fight.

Seven blew him off. "You need to chill out."

Skull. The names this group had… Jax worked hard not to laugh.

Skull twisted toward Jax. "What's your problem?"

"No problem," Seven reiterated. "He's a friend."

"Doesn't seem like much of a friend," Skull said.

Jax was one drunk biker away from having enough with Mayhem. "Neither do you, jackass. But you don't see me running my mouth."

"Both of you, stop," Seven ordered, pushing her way in between them. "Don't be stupid."

Skull looked down at Seven as though she needed to reaffirm that Jax wasn't bothering her. "You sure?"

"I'm positive," Seven swore and made a cross over her heart. "Don't worry about him. He's like the annoying little brother that just needs attention. Good or bad, I handle Jax how I handle my kids when they misbehave. Similar to how I'm about to handle you. Read me?"

Did Seven just say 'my kids'? He opened his mouth but thought better of it.

Skull sneered but listened like Seven told him to. "You change your opinion on this one, you find me."

But Jax was far past the alpha standoff with the dickhead. Seven had kids? And she said he needed attention? Nope. He didn't want attention; he just wanted her.

His eyes narrowed, wondering what else he'd missed about her. Not knowing if her nips were pierces was one thing, but this was like being blindsided. How did somebody have children and a friend not know? …Because they weren't really friends.

Jax ran a hand over his face. "I gotta go. See you."

Too much spun in his mind, and Skull grumbled behind his back that he shouldn't have walked into a Mayhem bar to start.

"Right." Jax grabbed an abandoned beer bottle and tossed it over his shoulder, listening to it shatter on the ground as he kept walking. It didn't make him feel any better.

Seven's cold laugh carried through the biker crowd. "Bad attention for the win."

Yeah, said the woman who needed just as much attention as he did with her pink hair and piercings.