Let It Be Me

If it was possible, Austin seemed more calm and yet more angry when she emerged from the back of the police station. Both Jax and Kip stood, but she just shook her head.

"They're full of shit," she stated.

Kip sighed and exchanged glances with Jax. "Let's get out to the car. We don't need to talk in here."

Austin shoved her hands in her pockets and followed them out to the car. Kip got in the driver's seat again and although Jax offered to let Austin sit in the front, she slid into the backseat without a word.

"You gonna tell us what they said, Aus?" Kip asked.

"No point. It's all fucking lies, anyway."

Jax sighed and looked at her through the rearview mirror. "Clay wants us back in Charming. They got word today –"

"I'm not going back to California until this is done," Austin told him, suddenly showing emotion again. "You two may have to listen to Clay, but I don't."

"Would you let me finish?" Jax replied, exasperated. "Lance is on his way to Charming. The hospital called him about Dougie."

Austin frowned. "You're kidding me?"

Kip shook his head. "I wish we were. Juice is already working on getting us back to California in the morning."

"Why aren't we going now?"

Jax turned around in his seat. "Chill out, all right? I told you, you can't get crazy with this if you're going to do it right."

"Or else what, you're out?" Austin snapped.

"See, that shit right there is why we aren't going now," Jax told her. "I'm not taking an angry, bitter, bitch-mode old lady on an airplane. We'll get kicked off and put on the no-fly list before we even get out of Carolina."

"Fuck you," Austin replied.

"If only I could get that lucky," Jax mumbled under his breath.

Kip pulled into his father's driveway, trying not to show his smirk at their bickering. "You two take the car down to the beach house. I'm going to spend some time with my parents before I leave. Lord only knows when I'll be back."

Austin climbed over the console and into the driver's seat. Kip warned her about speeding and promised to see them in the morning.

The drive down to the beach house was accompanied only by the sound of the loud music coming from the stereo. Jax had turned it on the moment they were back out on the main road, and Austin didn't bother turning it down or off. The scowl on her face didn't diminish at all one they got to the house, either.

Jax went into the bedroom and grabbed one of the pillows from the bed, then headed upstairs to the living room.

"What are you doing?" Austin asked.

"Sleeping on the couch."

She sighed, shaking her head. "Don't sleep on the couch, all right? I know I'm a pain in the ass all the time and that I've been a particular pain in the ass the last couple of days. You came out here to help me and I've bitched the whole time. I'm sorry."

Jax tossed the pillow back on the bed and pulled her to sit next to him. "I know you're hurting, Aus. You have a lot to be hurting over. But you have to hold it together. I'm not going to let anything else happen to you and I'm going to help you through this. Just don't start pushing me away again. All right?"

Austin nodded. "The Feds said that Miranda was involved in some big drug ring here. Said that she was dealing, prostituting … she was a go-to girl for whoever is at the head of it. She was ready to confess everything to them, give them all sorts of names and everything, so they needed to get her into witness protection. That included getting her away from Lance without him knowing. He was always around her, so they set it up for him to pay off Barclay and get her out of the club. They told Lance that they had to get rid of her, that she knew too much. Someone was supposed to be there to pick her up before Lance could hurt her, but he tipped Lance off to the whole thing and was mysteriously in a car accident on the way to the trailer."

"You said it was lies."

Austin nodded. "I don't want to believe that my mom was in that deep with some fucking drug lord, or that some other Fed basically sold her out to Lance and let her die. But I can almost guarantee you they sold me out to Dougie, so why wouldn't they do that to her?"

Jax shook his head. "I'm sorry, Austin. I feel like you got dragged into this because of us. Because of the Sons."

"No," Austin replied, shaking her head. "It's because they can't just let people live their lives. That's why I got dragged into this. It's my own fault. I let myself get pulled in when I went to Charming. I should have never agreed to work with them and once I decided not to, I should have come back here."

Jax smirked, pushing her hair out of her face. "If you never would have come to Charming, we never would have met. And if you would have left, I would have followed you. I've only known you for a few months, but I already know any life without you isn't a life I want."

Her anger started to ebb away and the hint of a smile played across her face. Jax smiled back, pulling her closer to him. Their kisses started slow and soft, but gradually grew in intensity. Austin crawled to her knees and straddled over his lap. She reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it off at once with his hoodie. She then reached for the bottom of her own shirt, pulling it over her head.

"Austin," Jax said hesitantly. "We have to take this slow."

She pushed him back on the bed, hovering over him. "Jax, since when do you want to take things slow?"

"Do I have to remind you about last time we tried this?"

"I'd rather just think about the part we said was important – about you having your hands on me."

Jax smirked but told himself he was going to take this step by step and pace with her. He was concerned that Miranda's death and Austin's recent decision to go after Lance for revenge were going to get her into a position with him that she would later regret.

Knowing that taking this slow was going to require that he be in control, Jax wrapped his arms around her and flipped them over in one solid move.

"Smooth," Austin giggled.

Jax smiled and kissed her again. Holy hell, he'd never get enough of kissing her. He lowered himself down over her, balancing on his elbows. He felt her tense up a little bit, so he pulled back.

"Don't stop," she begged him. "Please, Jax. I want this. I need this."

He nodded. "All right. Look at me. You know me, and you know I'm not going to hurt you. We can still stop at any time, but it's just me. Just me and you."

Austin took a deep breath and let it out, and then pulled him back down to her. Instead of kissing her mouth, Jax let his lips trail down her neck and over her collarbone. She took a sharp breath and he smiled against her skin. So far, so good.

He moved one hand from her hip up to her bare ribs. Her skin and her curves under his hand were almost more than he could take, but he wasn't going to ruin this for her – for either of them.

Austin leaned up to kiss the muscles of his shoulder as she reached down for the button and fly of his jeans. She undid both, taking a deep breath.

"I'm okay," she told him. "Keep going."

Jax closed his eyes as he kissed her, running his hand from her ribs over her breast. She moaned into his mouth and he smiled again as her back arched underneath him. He let his hand travel back down to her hip, sliding over to undo her jeans as well. He pushed them slowly down her legs and Austin chuckled.

"What?" Jax asked.

Austin shook her head. "Just think it's a little funny that's not the first time you've done that."

"I told you I just wanted you to be comfortable," he answered in a mischievous tone as he slipped his hand between her legs.

Austin gasped and squeezed her eyes shut tight. She quit moving and her hands dropped away from his bare back. Jax removed his hand and begged her to open her eyes.

"It's me, Austin," he told her softly. He'd repeat it a million times if he had to – whether it was this time or the next. "It's just me."

Slowly, she opened her eyes and tried to breathe again. She held his gaze and nodded as he moved his hand back down; the next gasp that escaped her throat was one of pleasure.

Not long after, Austin could no longer keep her hands to herself. She pushed Jax's pants and boxers down his legs and eagerly began returning the favor. It took all the focus Jax could muster to push her panties off her legs and move himself over her again.

"You're sure?" he asked once more.

She nodded eagerly. Jax took a deep breath and kept eye contact as he pushed inside her. Austin's fingers dug into his back. Maybe it had taken her a couple of tries to get here, but damn she had needed this. She needed someone's hands to touch her when they weren't out to harm. She needed to be in arms that weren't holding her back from escaping. She needed to know that someone she cared about wasn't going to abandon her.

And Jax had needed it, too. It amazed him that there was such a significant difference between a one night stand with a crow eater and being with a girl that he not only wanted, but needed in his life. Maybe it hadn't even occurred to him fully until he started reading JT's manuscript, but in such a short time, Austin had created a safe place for him. She gave him a place to be grounded when his life overwhelmed him.

They went on for what seemed like hours. Finally, in a mess of tangled, sweaty sheets, Austin called out his name as she climaxed. Jax lasted not even a minute after that before he finished.

Chests heaving, they lay in the bed and tried to compose themselves. Austin finally smiled and looked up at him.

"I'm glad I stayed in Charming," she told him.

Jax smiled and leaned down to kiss her. "I am, too."

.:.

The next morning, Austin woke before Jax. She looked over at him still sleeping and the ghost of a smile played across her lips. For just a brief moment, she wished she could stay here forever. In Carolina, on the beach, with Jax. Away from Charming and all its bullshit. She would miss the new family she had found in Gemma and the rest of the Sons, but things here were so much simpler.

Then Austin remembered that they were only simpler there in that bed with Jax. Outside of their little beach house bubble, her mother had been sold out by the FBI and murdered by the same man who had assaulted Austin. Outside of their bubble, Lance was in Charming and every minute it took her to get back there and get rid of him was another minute that her new family was in danger.

Jax's phone rang, rousing him from sleep. Austin wrapped the sheet around her and reached over him for the phone.

"Hey," she answered. "We ready to go?"

"Yes," Kip answered. "Juice has the tickets booked, we need to be in the airport in as close to an hour as possible."

"Shit. All right, we'll meet you there." She flipped the phone shut and stood up from the bed. "Jax, come on. We've got to be at the airport in a fucking hour and it's going to take us about that long to get there."

"Fuck, and he's just now letting us know?"

"Yes, he's just now letting us know. I don't know why, so just get up and get dressed so we can get going."

"Yeah, I get it," he grumbled. "We're in a hurry."

Austin rolled her eyes. Any pretty thoughts she had about their little bubble were gone now, especially since they were apparently already on the brink of bickering – and they'd only been away for three minutes.

She dressed quickly and threw her other things into her bag. If she forgot something, so be it. Jax threw on the same clothes from the day before, grabbed his own bag and followed her out to the car.

"You're not going to lock the door?" he asked.

She got in the driver's seat and shook her head, starting the ignition. "Did you see anything in there worth taking? Everyone around here knows everybody. Tourists don't really come up this way but even if someone did try to get in the house, there's like a neighborhood watch kind of thing."

"A simple 'no' would have done the trick."

Austin groaned. "I'm not fucking doing this fighting-at-each-other's-throats shit with you this morning, all right? All this other fucking shit going on and I can't just hide in the beach house with you and be naked, I have to go fucking kill this guy. I'm worked up as it is, I'm going to say something really horrible and you're never going to forgive me. So, just … do me a favor and shut the fuck up until we're in California."

It wasn't the first time that she had gone off on Jax, but he could tell that she was so worked up, she was even having trouble giving him a good bitching out.

He tried not to laugh as he asked, "Did you basically just say that you're worked up because we can't be naked all day because you have to go back to California and kill someone?"

Austin took a deep breath and tried to be mad. When he put it that way though, it was pretty funny. As she sped up the highway, laughter overtook the scowl on her face.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'd much rather be naked with you all day, too," Jax assured her. He laced his fingers through hers and kissed the back of her hand. "It's all going to be okay, Aus. I promise."

She glanced over to give him a half-smile. Not wanting to ruin the moment, she decided it was better not to tell him that he shouldn't make promises he wasn't sure he could keep.