Her knees were weak. By all that was holy, her knees were weak. And from what? A few words and some flowers? It shouldn’t have been enough to do that. It shouldn’t have been enough to suck the wind right out of her sails leaving her without ire or direction. But they were, oh how they were. 

She took the flowers reflexively when they were offered, her slender fingers curving in a bowl around their opened glory, her trembling fingers making the petals and stamen shake in sympathy. She blinked her painted lashes and willed away the tears that threatened to come at his words. 

Damn him. Why couldn’t he be cruel with his words all the time or none of the time? She could figure him out then but now, she was lost and adrift. She lifted the flowers up and with care slipped them into her hair, the two large blooms found a place in her silken tresses with ease, almost as if the coiffeur had been designed for such adornments. They were as different from the other flowers decorating guests as Nicki was from all the walking flowers swirling about in their gowns of silk and satin. They were large, bold, unexpected and lovely, they suited her for all that they had been gathered from such a humble location, or perhaps because of that. 

She slipped her arm through his, lacking a reason not too and simply too off balance by his words and her reaction to say a thing. She had no control here. All her efforts to be in control had been undone all with a few words and a warmly approving look accompanied by a laugh that resonated through her, buzzing in her bones and at the very core of her. 

As they walked and he spoke of his ridiculous code she listened as best she could and let her eyes wander over the landscape. She liked what she saw, it made her fingers twitch, aching to sketch, not to unbutton. He wore blue well, it made his eyes bright and lively, or perhaps it was his eyes that made the shirt seem so blue, she was uncertain. But she was certain for one thing, the captain, for all that this was his shirt, had never looked so fine in it. The captain was taller, but Jax, Jax was broader, his musculature more dense and that broadness pulled at the seams of the shirt and Jacket in a manner most distracting. 

Her eyes dipped down and she took in the way the pants curved over a meaty thigh, tight and clinging. As he moved she could not help where her eyes were drawn nor the impression that she got from the way the fabric moved over his anatomy. In a flash of insight that made her bite her lip and look away she understood that Jax was not properly attired, not entirely and she couldn’t find it in herself to protest in the slightest. 

He was speaking about her touching her nose or picking her nose and she turned to look at him, a flush across her ruined cheeks as she fought to not look down where she ought not look and focus on the moment at hand. It wasn’t enough that he’d ruined her self-control earlier with his broad chest, he now had to hint at another, even greater distraction. He was softening her up, making her confused and open to hurt and then she was looking at him and his smile, his devastating, unsettling smile was aimed at her and before she knew it had pulled an answering one back from her. She was too unsettled, too tangled up for it to be anything like the sunrise one she’d given him that morning before he’d opened his mouth and stabbed her with his words. But it was sweet and enough to trick a dimple out of her whole cheek. 

“If I am going to start hitting anyone, I can assure you Monsieur Jax, that I will not have time to signal you, I will simply start slugging. The bodies flying will have to be your clue.”

Her fingers on his arm tightened a little as she looked away to sweep over the room. A move which made the tendrils of hair caress the tender line of her collarbone, highlighting it’s softness, the shadows there which seemed to be aching to be kissed, tasted, touched with light fingers. 

“Thank you.” She said softly, little more than a breath as the scent of Night Blooms filled the air between them as they moved into the party.