She smiled. In the safety of her cabin she could show that face and he matched it easily smiling back. He tried to push away that uneasy feeling of being somewhere he didn't belong. Earlier he had no problems being inside her closed quarters. That was before he had much any concern for her at all. A woman where she shouldn’t be. But things changed. Now he wanted her on board. And more than that. He watched her drink seeing the liquid disappear from the bottle and down her throat. So she was good at that. She would read first. 

Jax spun around and looked at the books. How had she found and kept so many? Jax knew few people who owned their own books and her collections was worth the gasp he released. She had information all over the place about so many things, plants, stars, theories of natural processes, healing studies from around the world and….there Jax found the book he wanted. He looked back to her and grinned. 

“You have a prize here that I am going to swoon over while you read.” Jax pulled a book down and he held it in his hands. He looked at the cover and put his fingers over the name Jonathan Swift. Of course Jax leaned toward fiction, or poetry, or things light at heart. Oh he would read anything but those hours lost in someone elses world were the most precious times to him. 

“It fits.” He laughed and handed her the book Gulliver’s Travels. He took a bottle and slid down onto the floor looking up at her just like a hungry child waiting for her to read. He was going to tease her about his swoons, or tell her she had to do different voices, or suggest she take another gulp before she began. 

Jax didn't have to speak. No, he was ready, more than ready, to listen. His eager face, anticipated smile and eyes that glowed in excitement said more than his words could. He was just going to sit on the floor and listen to her read about adventures and things that were different than they seemed.