Chapter 4 Chapter 4

E L E N A

I was sleeping naked under my sworn enemy. 

Well, not totally naked, but wearing only panties when his face was dangerously close to my breasts was not how I imagined any night of my life going.

We had somehow maneuvered our sleeping position, and his head was resting on my breasts. His hot breath seeped through my skin, making my nipples peak. His huge tattooed arm was slung over my stomach, his fingers inches from my core.

My body was a traitor. It didn't care that this man was the source of a decade of my misery. It only cared about the wall of muscle protecting me, the heat that was chasing away the chill and the intoxicating masculine scent of him.

I was so screwed.

Just then he shifted, a pained moan escaping his lips. His eyelids fluttered, and I knew he was waking up.

I held my breath. What would he do? Would he recoil in disgust? Would he push me away and call me a whore for taking advantage of him? Or worse, would he remember what he’d whispered to me in his fever dream?

His storm gray eyes finally opened, blinking slowly as they tried to focus in the dim light. They found mine and for a moment, there was no malice or mockery. Just confusion. Then, awareness crashed into him.

He looked down. At my bare skin. At my breasts, pressed against his cheek. At his arm, wrapped possessively around my nearly naked body.

He didn't jerk away like I expected.

Instead, he stayed perfectly still, a muscle working in his jaw as he took in the situation. The arm around my waist tightened, not painfully, but deliberately. He was claiming this space. This closeness.

"Fever's breaking," he said in a low rumble. "Guess you're good for something after all, little doctor."

My breath hitched. He was reverting to the old script, the cruel banter that we’ve been in for years now. But it was different now. His tone lacked its usual bite. It was… testing the waters.

I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me fluster. "My body heat is scientifically proven to reduce fevers. It's not personal, Jax."

My voice was steadier than I felt.

"Is that right?" His head lifted from my chest, and I instantly mourned the loss of its weight. His dark eyes roamed over my face, then down my neck to my exposed collarbone. "So if I were to do this," he murmured, leaning in slowly, "it would have no effect on your… scientific method?"

His lips brushed the corner of my jaw. A jolt shot through me. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from gasping.

"Don't." The word came out weakly. Pathetic. I wanted it to sound like a command, but it came out breathless.

"Tell me to stop, Elena," he murmured against my skin. He didn't sound like the bully from the clubhouse. He sounded like the man from the fever dream, the one whose whisper made me burn. "Tell me you hate this. Tell me you want me to get the hell away from you."

I couldn't. Because I didn't.

My silence was all the permission he needed.

His lips traveled down my neck. His thumb, which had been resting dangerously close to my panties, began to move, stroking the sensitive skin of my stomach in slow circles.

He was toying with me. Testing my limits, enjoying the power he had over my body's traitorous responses. This was still a game to him, just a new kind of battlefield.

I arched my back without meaning to, a soft sigh escaping my lips. The movement pressed my hips against his, and I felt him. Hard and ready, pressing against the thin fabric of my panties.

And just like that, the heat of his body suddenly disappeared. He smirked as he pulled away, rolling onto his back with a wince of pain as he left me cold on the mattress.

"You claim to have gotten over that silly little fantasy you had about me," he said, staring at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he chuckled. "But your body tells a different story, doesn't it?"

Humiliation washed over me. He hadn't wanted me. He'd just wanted to prove a point.

"You're an asshole, Jax," I snarled, scrambling to pull the oversized shirt back on. My hands were shaking with rage and something else I refused to name.

"And you're a terrible liar," he shot back, not even looking at me. "Now get dressed. The President is calling in an hour."

---

The call was exactly as expected. A report of casualties and list of names of men we'd lost. The Scorpions hadn't just hit the clubhouse, they'd hit the Vipers' businesses all along the coast.

"I need to be there," Jax roared into the phone, pacing the small cabin floor, his movements stiff from the wound. "You can't expect me to sit here while my men are dying!"

"You'll sit there, and you'll stay alive," the President commanded. "That's an order. I’m not about to have a dead heir. I am sending a package to you. A courier. He will arrive in two days. Until then, you stay put. Keep the girl safe. She’s more valuable than all our assets combined."

He hung up before Jax could argue.

Jax slammed the phone down again, the crack in the plastic spreading. God help us, that telephone would be broken before we could even leave this hell hole.

"They think I'm useless," he seethed, turning to face me. His chest was heaving, the muscles in his arms tense. "My own father thinks I need a babysitter."

"He thinks you're human, Jax. And that you were shot less than twenty four hours ago," I countered, my arms crossed over my chest.

He stalked towards me, backing me against the rough log wall. "You don't know a damn thing about it. You just patch the holes. You don't see the whole picture."

"Then show me," I challenged, my chin jutting out in defiance. "Explain to me why the Scorpions would put a bounty on my head. Tell me what I'm a part of, beyond just being your personal stitch witch." 

For a moment, I thought he was going to hit me. His jaw was clenched so tightly I could see the twitch in the muscle. 

"That’s right." I said, getting bolder. "You can’t, can you? Because you have spent the last ten years keeping me in the dark, treating me like a fucking child. You wanted me weak and scared and dependent on your protection. But now you’re stuck with me. You either treat me like an equal, or I’m walking out of here and taking my chances with the Scorpions."

I didn't mean it. Not really. But I had to push him, to break through the wall of arrogance he hid behind.

His eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint in them. He leaned in, his face inches from mine. "You wouldn't last a day out there, little doctor. They would break you in an hour. And they would enjoy it."

"And why would you care? You’d finally be rid of me."

His gaze dropped to my lips, and for a split second, I saw a flicker of something other than anger in his stormy eyes.

"Because," he whispered, his breath hot on my face. "You're mine to break."

After my little heated banter with Jax, I went into the kitchen to make dinner of whatever little we had, which was a few cans of beans, potatoes and some stale bread. I had to make a fire in the old stone fireplace to heat it up, my hands covered in charcoal. Yes, there was no gas to even cook.

Hopefully, whoever was bringing groceries for us would bring all our essentials.

Jax watched me from the mattress, his arms crossed behind his head. He hadn't said a word since our confrontation, but I could feel his eyes on me.

I spooned the lukewarm beans onto two plates, along with a few roasted potatoes. I carried one over to him, my movements stiff.

He pushed himself up with a grimace, taking the plate from me. Our fingers brushed, and a spark shot up my arm.

"Thanks," he muttered, the word sounding foreign coming from him.

I just nodded and went back to sit on the floor by the fireplace, eating my dinner in silence. 

Once we were done eating, I took my medical bag and walked towards him. Without looking at his eyes, I sat on the bed, bringing out my antiseptic and fresh bandages.

"You need a change," I said. I gestured for him to lift up his shirt.

He stared at me for a long moment, then slowly lifted the hem of his shirt, exposing the wound.

I worked in silence, my fingers gently cleaning the stitched skin. The swelling had gone down, and the redness was subsiding. It was healing well. But the scar would be ugly, another addition to the list of scars on his body.

I couldn't help but trace the lines of a tattoo that snaked from his hip to his ribcage. A coiled viper, its fangs bared.

He let out a hiss as I gently probed the skin around the wound. "You’re going to kill me, woman."

"It's a fresh wound, you big baby. Try having one of your ribs poking through your skin like I've had to stitch up on your men," I said, taunting him. "Now hold still."

I finished wrapping the fresh bandage around his torso, my knuckles brushing against the hard planes of his stomach. I felt him tense under my touch.

"All done," I said, pulling back.

"Come here," he said, his voice low.

"What?" I asked, my heart starting to race.

"Come. Here." He grabbed my wrist before I could move away, pulling me down onto the bed beside him.

He rolled over, wincing as he did until he was hovering over me, his good arm braced on the other side of my head. I was trapped.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, my voice shaky.

"Showing you what happens when you challenge me, little bird." he murmured, his gray eyes burning into mine.

His head lowered, and I thought he was going to kiss me. My body froze in panic. 

But instead, his lips went to my ear.

"Your body heat saved my life," he whispered, his breath sending a shiver down my spine. "And I hate that it was you. I hate that I owe you. But I do. And I always pay my debts. So here’s an answer to your question."

He pulled back, his gaze intense. "You think you're not a part of this life? You're at the very center of it. Every stitch, every patch up, every life you've saved, it's all been for the Vipers. You think they don't see that? You think the Scorpions don't see that?"

He shifted, his body pressing into mine. "They see a weapon, Elena. A walking talking medical kit that can keep their men in the fight when they should be dead. They're not just going to kill you. They're going to break you, mind and body and turn you into their property."

My blood ran cold. It was one thing to suspect it, another to hear it from him, to see the certainty in his eyes.

"But they'll have to get through me first," he growled. "And I'm not that easy to break."