Their New Beginning (Oh Captain, My Captain 5)

When I open the door, he’s sitting on the side of the bed. He’s shirtless and in his boxer briefs. He leans up, looking at me, and smiles. I gaze up and down his chest. If there’s one thing that I can say about Jax: the man has great abs and a hard chest.

The first time I saw him with his shirt off, I know I drooled on myself. I’ve seen hard bodies before. I mean, come on, this is Vegas. They’re like a dime a dozen, but Jax’s is different. Jax’s is more defined because of the hard work he puts in on the ice.

“I brought you a surprise,” I tell him, trying to not rip off my clothes and jump him at that very moment.

“You did?”

“Yes. Sit back against the headboard.”

He does. After I realize that after telling him to do that, this might be harder than I thought.

“What’s wrong?”

I shake my head. “Don’t read more into this than what it is,” I tell him in firmly. I push the covers down farther on the bed, and I straddle him.

“I’m liking this.”

I lightly slap his non-injured shoulder. “I’m helping you. Take off your sling.”

“I’d rather take off your clothes.”

“Stop. Now.”

He rolls his eyes at me, but does as I ask. I rub the Icy-Hot cream in my hands and begin to softly, but firmly, rub his shoulder. He winces slightly.

“Sorry.” I continue to rub. “You need to put a heating pad on it today. Just for twenty minutes. I figure you should be back on the ice in a week or so.”

“So, you’re a doctor now?”

“No, I’m not; I’m making an observation.” I continue to rub his shoulder for another minute. I don’t need to, but I’m enjoying teasing him a little bit. Mainly because he’s usually the one doing it to me. “Do you need anything else?” I ask before I leave my position on him.

“You could just stay here and keep rubbing.”

“Your shoulder, right?”

He smirks. “Of course.”

I shake my head. “Liar. However, I do want to ask you a question. Would you like to have date tonight?”

“Yeah, we should probably leave the house at some point today.”

“Well,” I sigh. “I was trying to do date number four, but you know I can’t recreate that. So, let’s settle on a movie and dinner, okay?”

“Just because we can’t do all of it doesn’t mean we can’t do it all together. We can still go see a musical.”

“Jax, you hate musicals. The only reason you went all out that time is because you were hoping to get laid.”

“I did not,” he frowns. “I did it because I knew you’d love it. That’s the only reason, Avery.”

“Don’t get upset. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you stressed out. Why don’t you rest some more and we can figure out something, okay?”

“I’m tired of restin

g,” Jax smiles.

“Fine. Do whatever you want because I’m going to get ready and we can go out to eat dinner.”

I climb off his lap and rush down to the kitchen. I put up the food I was going to use to make dinner. The thoughts of that date night keeps playing around in my head. I go to the office and find the box that I know hides every precious moment of our short-lived dating experience.