Chapter 16
Bentley
The next two weeks are a whirlwind. A sex-filled, chaotic, but oh-so-good whirlwind. Jax and I are going at it like rabbits. We can hardly keep our hands off each other. We’ve had sex everywhere, it seems. His car, my car, the bonnet of my car. The sauna at the gym, the locker room—both men’s and women’s. My kitchen, the living room, my hallway. The one time that does spring to mind was when he took me on top of my washing machine. While it was going. I think I can still feel the tingling in my toes. We’re together more often than not, and everything is great. Being with Jax is, well, it’s just easy. He’s such a carefree, easy-going person. It may sound sappy, but he’s my best friend.
We also spend a lot of time with Mav and Aubrey, and Josh, who are great people as well. Mav’s taken to calling me sis, which was all kinds of emotional the first time he did it. Jax calls Aubrey that as well, but I don’t want to read anything into that. Besides, marriage is just not in my cards. Not that I can’t picture spending the rest of my life with Jax, it’s just the idea of marriage. It’s so antiquated. Plus, the whole belonging to someone thing totally rubs me the wrong way. I’m getting ahead of myself though. I’m sure it’s not even on our radar.
At the moment, Jax is so busy training and working on his comeback that he’s not thinking about too much. He’s moved on from his Extreme Games run and is working on something even more daring, apparently. I’d worry, but he’s a pro and this is what he does, who he is. Accidents are a part of any extreme sport, but hey, I am a nurse and I’m pretty sure Jax would get a kick out of me in a cute outfit. Actually, I know he’d get a kick out of it.
But all of that is taking a back seat, because tonight, Jax and I are going out on a date. Over the past two weeks we’ve been on a heap, so I don’t even think about them anymore. Jax however, likes to make a big deal out of every single one. It’s cute, and I can’t deny that it gives me the warm and fuzzies. We’re going to a grill place in Broadbeach. As we walk from the car park to the restaurant, Jax has his arm around me, his hand in my back pocket. It’s always the same. It’s slightly possessive, but also has Jax’s cheekiness as well.
I’m just digging into my burger with a side of the world’s best mac and cheese, when a guy comes over to us. He’s about five five, has the freakiest yellow eyes, a pot belly, and a limp.
“Jax,” he says, “good to see you again.”
Jax shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “Er, you too.”
“How the comeback going?”
“Fine.”
“Good to hear, good to hear,” the stranger says. He looks over and spots me. “What have we here?” he says to me.
“Oh, ah, this is my girlfriend, Bentley La Roche. Bentley, this is um, Dean….” Jax trails off.
Dean offers me his hand. “Dean Toms.”
I shake his hand. “Nice to meet you,” I say, and try to let his hand go, but he doesn’t return the favour.
“La Roche, huh?” He arches an eyebrow.
“Yep,” I say. Of course a slimebag like this would know of my family and what we do. La Roche isn’t that common a last name, so it is easily traceable, but I was hoping I could continue to get away with it for a little bit longer.
He looks at Jax, then back to me before finally dropping my hand. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Bentley La Roche. Sorry to interrupt your meal, I just wanted to come over and say hello.”
“Er, thanks,” Jax says, shooting me a quick look. “I appreciate it.”
“The offer still stands,” Dean tells him, before limping away.
“What offer?” I ask, once he’s out of earshot.
“It was nothing,” Jax says.
“Everything is something,” I counter.
He shrugs. “He reckons he can take me to the ‘big time.’” He makes air quotes. “He said that what my family is doing is small-time and I’m better than that.”
“What do you reckon?”
“I reckon he’s trying to start shit between me and my family. He’s a douche. Just forget about him.”
I nod and go back to my burger. Ignoring Dean Toms is something I am more than happy to do.
“So I know we agreed to ignore Dean,” Jax says as we’re getting ready for bed later that night, “but something’s been bothering me.”
Immediately my defences are up. “Just one thing?” I ask as I hop into bed and rub his rapidly hardening dick.
“Oh fuck, yes,” he says, his head falling back on the pillows. I smile in triumph. It doesn’t last long. “But yeah,” he says, stilling my hand. “Dean went all weird when I said your last name. Why was that?”
Fuck. “I thought we were ignoring Dean and all his douchebaggery.”
“We are, but this has been bugging me. I didn’t want to get into it at dinner, but we’re home now….”
While it warms me that he considers my place home, I’m also scared shitless about where this conversation is heading. I throw my head back. “Do we really have to talk about this?” I ask.
“Er, yeah, we do, Bentley. I thought we were over this shit,” Jax says, pulling at his hair.
“It’s just something I don’t talk about a lot.”
“But they’re your family.”
“Not everyone’s family is straight out of The Brady Bunch,” I tell him.
“You think I don’t know that?” he asks angrily. “Mine isn’t either. Jesus, we’re a bunch of seven men, there’s plenty of shit we never got right. Plenty of stuff we missed out on, too.”
I shake my head. “You just wouldn’t get it.”
“So tell me!” he yells. “I’m your fucking boyfriend, for fuck’s sake. If you can’t tell me this, then what else aren’t you telling me?” The look on his face is one of anger, but underneath that is hurt.
I sigh. “Fine, you want to know about my family?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking. Why does everyone always question me when I ask to know shit?”
“My parents are Brian and Maisy La Roche.” There’s no recognition on his face, so I keep going. “They’re, we’re well known in certain circles of Perth society as well as the Australian mining industry.”
“Okay…,” he says, unsure what I’m getting at.
“We own a small diamond mine. For some reason, where it is produces a large amount of pink diamonds, which are pretty rare. We’ve even had a red one, which is rarer still. Usually when someone hears the name La Roche they automatically think of diamonds, like Argyle or Harry Winston.”
“Huh,” Jax says. “So you guys are pretty loaded then.” I shrug, but nod anyway. “I don’t get why that’s so bad,” he says.
I sigh, and run a hand through the ends of my hair. At the moment it’s pink and purple. “After my attack and everything that went along with that, my parents and I… we grew apart.”
“That’s understandable,” Jax says. “I mean, you’re over here, they’re over there, it’s a lot of distance. Even Mav and I haven’t been talking to our pop that much since we’ve been up here. I think that’s a normal part of growing up though.”
“Maybe,” I say, but I don’t believe it for a second.
“Nah, you don’t believe that,” he says, and I give him a small smile and cuddle up to his side.
“How did you know that?” I lean up and kiss the underside of his jaw.
“Because I know you, darlin’.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “So you want to tell me what you think happened between you and your olds?”
I curl into his side more. “I don’t know, I just felt like afterwards they had a different opinion of me. It’s almost like they were ashamed of me or something.”
Beneath me, Jax tenses. “Why would they think that?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know that they do, it’s just a vibe I got.”
“How long’s it been since you’ve seen them?”
“They stayed with me for a bit after I got out of hospital, but since then we haven’t seen each other.”
“Hmm,” he says, and hugs me tighter. As I fall asleep, wrapped up in him, I can’t help but think that Jax Ryan is more than enough family for me.