Taming Jax (First Wave Book 5) (12 page)

She felt no desire to witness his embarrassment over the situation. Which was odd because normally, she’d grab any chance she got to enjoy watching him making a spectacle of himself. Heading up to his porch, she leaned under the swing and grabbed Reven’s spare key and opened the door.

“How did you know where that was?” Reven asked as he and Melina came on the porch.

“The animals told me weeks ago.” Jax said by way of explanation before she walked inside and stopped short.

The vet tech had left the lights on before he’d left, not wanting to scare the girls with his presence. Jax set the baby down on the floor and just stared. The place was immaculate. There wasn’t a speck of dust or a knick knack out of place.

Moving farther in, Jax saw that the kitchen counters were completely bare of anything but a coffee pot, a clean dish towel hung off the oven door handle and the placemats and napkins on the table were all perfectly placed. It was like walking into a model home; Jax thought in astonishment.

Damn, she knew he was meticulous and anal about things, but wow. She felt embarrassed over what they were soon to find at her own place. She wasn’t nearly this anal, or a clean freak. Although not dirty, her place certainly looked more ‘lived in’ than his did.

Feeling pretty comfortable that the baby couldn’t get into trouble in the living room since there was nothing for her to touch, Jax headed into the kitchen to get the ice cream while Reven showed Melina the bathroom where Wolfen was starting to cry for attention.

Opening the freezer she was a little surprised at what she found. Other than the three half gallons of ice cream, he had every possible kind of crap food you could think of. If it was greasy, nasty and microwaveable then Reven had it.

Setting the ice cream on the counter, she started opening cabinets to look for a bag to put it in and wasn’t nearly as surprised to see the shelves packed with cans of different pastas, soups and chilis along with every kind of snack cake, cookie and cracker that you could imagine.

Still not finding a bag she rummaged through the other cabinets only to find the same thing, cans of food and snack cakes. There were dishes and silverware, but not a pot or pan in the place. Or a bag, she thought with a sigh.

Obviously, the man didn’t know how to cook at all, which explained why he always tried to go to dinner with someone; Jax thought, feeling suddenly ashamed for all the times she’d told him to fuck off when he tried to demand she eat with him.

“What?” Reven asked, coming into the kitchen behind Jax while the girls played with Wolfen on the living room floor.

Jax turned to give him a small smile. “Just looking for a bag to put the ice cream in.”

“Here.” Reven said reaching into the cabinet above the stove, that she couldn’t reach, and grabbing a bag.

Reven snapped the wrinkled plastic bag open and held it for Jax. She’d expected him to just hand it to her but recovered quickly and put the ice cream in, trying not to touch him as she did.

“Ok! I think we’re ready. You and Melina can take Wolfen in your car and follow me to my place?” Jax asked, stepping back from him and the odd effect he had on her energy.

“Can I please ride with Bayla?” Melina asked shyly, her words barely audible and her head down as if expecting to be yelled at. Or beaten. It sickened Reven and Jax to see her so scared for such a simple request.

“Of course, course you can honey! Can you please watch Wolfen for me though? I’m afraid he’ll get hurt if no one holds him in the car. He’s still not used to traveling.” Reven said with a gentle smile, kneeling down in front of the frightened child as she nodded her head.

He’d noticed since they had left the MedLab, that Melina wouldn’t allow herself to be separated from Bayla. So he really hadn’t been too surprised that she wanted to ride with her. It was obvious that she was still nervous and scared and wanted to be close enough to protect her sister.

“You guys ready then?” Jax asked cheerfully, trying to break up the tense moment.

Jax picked up the squirming baby as Reven held out a hand to Melina, who grabbed it while keeping Wolfen held tightly to her chest with the other.

Reven helped Jax get the girls into the car and was more than a little surprised when she waited in his driveway as he loaded some clothes, gear and puppy supplies the tech had left into his SUV. He couldn’t stop the smile when he realized he was going to Jax’s place!

Holy shit! He thought with a nervous excitement he hadn’t felt since his youth. He’d never even gotten past the street before he was inevitably attacked by one of her ‘friends’. He had no idea what her place looked like, and he was dying to find out and learn more about his enigmatic mate.

He quashed any other thought before it could form in his mind, trying not to get his hopes up that it would be this easy to finally claim his mate. He had no doubts or delusions that she would make things easy on him, but he couldn’t suppress the niggling hope that maybe the girls would be the one thing that could bring them together.

He easily followed Jax’s more sedate driving to her place and parked his vehicle alongside hers in the driveway. He knew it was crazy, but there seemed to be something so intimate about the way that looked and the way he felt seeing them parked side by side. Like any other two-car family, he’d seen in town.

Reven shook off his thoughts and jumped out to help Jax get the girls to the front door before he ran out to grab his things. He was stunned when he realized he hadn’t been attacked! Not once! Not a bug, not a bat… nothing.

He felt like jumping with happiness that he’d finally gotten this close without injury but instead hurriedly grabbed his things before his luck turned. You never knew with Jax; he thought to himself. It wouldn’t be the first time she went from sweetheart to psycho bitch in less time.

He’d made it to the front porch when the smell hit him. He stopped in mid-step and took a deep breath. It was Jax’s own unique scent, and it wrapped around his body and mind as he memorized it.

“Hey, do you need help? We can’t keep the door open or Wolfen might escape.” Jax said as she peeked her head around the corner of the door and looked at Reven strangely.

Reven blushed a little and decided a half truth was better than nothing. “Sorry, I’ve been marveling that I haven’t been attacked and wondering if the next step would be my luck running out.” Reven said teasingly as he finished walking up the porch steps. He was surprised at the charming blush that stained her cheeks. Hmmm... Maybe they were making headway; Reven thought, daring to hope.

“Yeah, yeah, just get inside already, or you won’t get any ice cream.” Jax said with a grin as Reven moved past her and into her home.

When Reven continued to stand and stare just inside the doorway, Jax pushed him roughly in the back until he moved further in so she could shut the door and get around his bulk. She knew he was staring at her stuff and she didn’t care in the least what he thought of her place.  

“You go ahead and admire the awesomeness that is my place, and I’ll grab the ice cream. Your room should be the guest room. The one without a crib in it.” Jax teased as she headed into the kitchen while the girls played with Wolfen on the living room floor.  

Reven just stared in open mouthed wonder at what was Jax’s personal space. He wasn’t sure what surprised him more, the explosion of girly stuff, the hideous colors or the weapons interspersed among all the girly stuff and eye watering colors.

Watching Bayla crawl towards the entertainment center and what looked to be strange dolls with different brightly colored, fuzzy heads, he dropped his gear to the floor and ran to head the baby off.

He snatched the doll out of her hand just as the blade sprung from the doll's feet. Bayla looked up at him and giggled as he tried to grab the other dolls out of her reach.

He’d just gotten the other dolls in his arms when he sprinted across the floor to Melina, who was looking at an AR-15 that she’d pulled from under the couch. The ugly couch that was covered in circles of neon colors.

Reven turned back to the baby in time to slide across the wood floor, and grab the throwing knives she’d gotten from the drawer in the coffee table that rested on the purple fuzzy rug.

“Jax!” Reven yelled, trying to sound casual as he grabbed the knives and slammed the drawer shut with more force than he intended.

“What?” Jax asked from the kitchen doorway with a spoon of ice cream in her hand.

Reven gave her an incredulous look as he dropped the dolls, blades and rifle to grab the spear gun out of Melina’s hands before she pulled the trigger.

“Oh hell!” Jax said with panic. She ran into the kitchen to drop the spoon in the sink and grabbed one of her beach bags.

Reven turned to see Jax come in with a neon green bag that was twice as wide as she was. He stood in stunned amazement as she walked to the entertainment center and began throwing knives, throwing stars and blades, handguns and other weapons into the bag before going to the coffee table, under the coffee table, and the rest of the room until the bag was full and clinking as she walked down the hallway.

“Uh… Jax and I are kind of like policemen. We fight the bad guys who try to hurt innocent people. That’s why she has so many weapons… in her living room.” Reven said to the startled children.

“It’s just some stuff to make sure that everyone stays safe. I’ll teach you to use everyone one of those weapons so you can protect yourself. And Bayla.” Jax said to Melina as she tickled the baby under her chin.

Through the Shengari’ Jax told Reven, “I grabbed them out of the bathroom too so it’s safe for them to go in there. I’ll figure out where to put everything when they are asleep.”

In the bathroom? Seriously? Reven thought with confusion as he looked around at the color clashing nightmare that Jax called her furniture. It was so bright it almost hurt his eyes; he thought as he looked around the room.  

The couch was covered in neon colored circles of green, blue, yellow and orange while a purple fuzzy rug covered most of the wood floor in the living room. There were huge multicolored pillows stacked in a corner by the couch, a bright pink scarf covering the shade of the animated bear lamp on the side table and a neon blue blob that Reven wasn’t sure what to do with, or if it was safe for the children.

He looked up as Jax came in with a tray that had four bowls on it with spoons sticking out. She smiled brightly at the kids. “Ice cream! Now it’s really cold guys, because it’s frozen. That’s why it’s called ice cream. It’s made out of frozen milk.”

Jax set the tray down on the coffee table and pulled the blue blob over to the table before launching herself into it. Reven had never seen a chair like it before and was a little fascinated by it, but decided to ask about it later.

Instead, he handed a bowl and spoon to Melina while Jax pulled two bowls toward herself as she grabbed Bayla and settled her into her lap.

Reven watched Melina move the spoon around her bowl as if afraid of the cold contents and grabbed his own bowl as a way to assure her it was safe. Looking down he saw that Jax had put a little bit of all three flavors into the bowl so the girls could try each one.

He couldn’t help but look nervously around the outlandish interior of Jax’s home, wondering where else the children might find weapons. If the cache she’d collected from the living room was any indication, he would bet that there were dozens more hidden around the rest of her home.