Only Love Can Hurt Like This (Jax Teller)

Chapter Nine

"Am I your dirty little secret?"

You know that moment when you wake up in the middle of the night and the air is a bit cold, your mind groggy from the sleepy haze, squinting your eyes to look to the blinking numbers of the clock on top of the bedside table, small victory of elation coursing through your veins when you see you still have a few hours of sleep left, burrowing yourself further into the warmth of the covers?

That moment is even better when a pair of strong arms wrap around your waist, pulling you into their solid body, the warmth intensifying ten fold.

In the past year, Willow had forgotten what it felt like to sleep next to someone. To wake up and snuggle closer to them for warmth. To have the comfort of another presence with you when you wake up in the pitch black darkness of a cold room.

But since the night they came home from the hospital a week ago, Willow and Jax haven't slept apart. They didn't talk about the new, advancement, in their relationship dynamic either. They just were. They just let everything be.

They'd wake up, small lingering kisses in the dewy mornings as they both sluggishly move around the bathroom and kitchen, go about their days, sometimes have lunch together like usual, and then come back to the apartment, spending their nights together, sometimes just cuddling under the sheets and talking about everything and nothing, other times letting their bodies mingle together in ecstasy.

But they never brought up their new dynamic. They went about this change as if it was normal. And maybe, for them, it was.

Willow thought the first time she would be with someone after Nathan's death, if that time ever actually came, would be this big thing full of sorrowful emotions afterwards. Except it wasn't. With Jax, everything just felt normal, like this was just the next step for them and it didn't warrant any sort of breakdown or rush of new feelings she had to learn how to control.

Jax felt the same way. Being around Willow always brings him peace and comfort. Being with her now brings him the same comfort. Like the comfort of coming home after a long day.

Running his calloused hand up and down Willows bare back as he stares up at the white speckled ceiling, the light of the sunrise gently poking through the curtains. His hand trails up to her head that's laying on his chest, fingers curling in her hair, scratching her scalp softly.

"Mmm." Willow groans, letting her weakness be known, burrowing her face closer to his chest.

Jax smiles softly, "Gotta get up soon. It's your day to open at the library."

"No." Willow grumbles, "Don'wanna."

Jax chuckles, rolling the both of them over so Willow is now on her back, he starts placing soft kisses on her cheeks, jaw, and neck, ending on her lips. When he pulls back, Willows eyes blink open, her pink lips sleepily forming a smile as she looks up at him.