It was 10:30 at night when Harlan Barrett walked into the Jacks Enterprises building and was escorted upstairs to Jax’s offices. He rapped on the door and entered, finding Jax seated behind his desk; his jacket off, tie loosened, sleeves rolled up, feet crossed at the ankles, expensive black, Bruno Magli shoes propped up on the desk itself. The huge office was lit dimly, Jax having shut off most of the lights. The window blinds were up, causing the bright winter moonlight to stream in and halo Jax in a surreal silver light that served only to highlight the boy’s already startling good looks. He looked like a young god, patiently waiting to instruct one of his misguided subjects.

     Harlan walked in and shut the door behind him. “You wanted to see me?” he said.

     Jax nodded and gestured for him to have a seat; the movement of his hand causing the moonlight to glitter off the face of his watch and sending clusters of reflective gold light bouncing off the walls.

     “What is this all about, Jax? I have early rounds tomorrow.”

     “This won’t take long,” Jax said, his unreadable, blue-eyed gaze making it impossible for Harlan to guess what the young man was up to. “Where is Brenda’s car?” Jax asked casually.

     Harlan started, not having expected that question. So Jax had been by the house then? And noticed her car not in the driveway. He cleared his throat. “That’s an odd question to…”

     “Where is it?” Jax repeated.

     Harlan was put on the defensive by Jax’s tone and aggression. “Not that it’s any of your business, but it’s been having some brake problems. I had to take it to the shop.”

     Jax was not really in the mood for games. “I’ve seen Alexa driving it at least three times this week. Is she what you consider the shop?”

     Harlan was looking more uncomfortable by the minute. And more riled up at Jax, too. Damn, but the boy could be a relentless bother! It was little wonder that he was such a corporate menace. He was like a dog with a bone - refusing to let it go. “Well, she… she…” he stammered, trying to think of some viable reason why Alexa would have Brenda’s car.

     “Owns it?” Jax supplied, steepling his fingers beneath the dimple in his chin and waiting.

     Harlan scowled suspiciously. “You’ve spoken with her then? She told you that?”

     Jax shook his head. “No. I was here the day you handed the keys over to your wife. I heard her say she was going to give the car to Alexa.”

     Harlan looked very much as if he wanted to shout with frustration. His mother had told him she’d let Jax in one day last week and she’d found it odd that Jax had left without speaking to Harlan, since he’d come to see Harlan in the first place. Harlan had thought nothing of it, thinking that Jax had always been one to do as he pleased and was given to impulsiveness, so his suddenly changing his mind about wanting to talk to Harlan had not seemed all that odd. But now it was all starting to make sense.

     “What else did you hear?” Harlan demanded, his tone sharp, accusatory. He did not like feeling so agitated and disadvantaged, while the 23-year-old sat across from him looking as relaxed as you please; his every thought masked behind those magnificent eyes of his.

     “Plenty,” Jax responded.

     Harlan sighed, trying to hold onto his temper. “Damn it!” he muttered.

     Jax cocked is head to the side, regarding Dr. Barrett curiously. “Are you Brenda’s father?” Jax asked.

     “Yes, damn it, I’m her father!” Harlan snapped. “Veronica is not her mother, but I am most assuredly her father.”

     Jax merely nodded, unaffected by Brenda’s father’s shouting. “And her mother was Grace Fillmore? Will Warner’s daughter?”

     Harlan’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t recall Veronica or I ever mentioning that the day you eavesdropped.”

     Jax shrugged. “Overheard,” he corrected. “And it wasn’t exactly rocket science to figure it out. The man only had one child. Besides, I’ve seen the woman and Brenda is a dead ringer for her.”

     Harlan nodded. “Then you obviously already know she’s her mother.”

     “I’d like to hear it from you.”

     “Yes, Grace Fillmore was Brenda’s mother.”

     “Then how is it that you came to have custody of Brenda all her life?” Jax wanted to know. It was very odd for a mother to give up her only daughter.

     Harlan fought to control his growing irritation at Jax’s inquisition. “I really don’t see what business this is of yours, Jax. None of this concerns you,” Harlan barked.

     “Brenda is my business,” Jax said smoothly. “Anything that concerns her concerns me, too.”

     Harlan gave Jax a look of challenge over that absurd statement.

     Jax ignored the incredulous look and said: “Are you going to tell Brenda the truth?”

     Harlan stroked the whiskers on his chin, realizing he needed to shave. His eyes were very curious as he looked at Jax. “You’re certainly taking this rather well. Her being related to him,” Harlan pointed out.

     Jax met Brenda’s father’s skeptical gaze. “Understand this, Dr. Barrett: nothing could change the way that I feel about her. Not even that. Are you going to tell her the truth?” he repeated.

     Harlan responded that he had made the decision to tell Brenda about her mother, but not her mother’s family. He insisted it was what Grace wanted and he intended to respect that. And it was what he wanted, too. “Besides, you, of all people, know what kind of man Will Warner is, Jax. He’s an emotionally abusive son-of-a-bitch. You know how controlling he is. His god complex. His extreme egomania. Why, his four grandsons kowtow to his every beck and call, like trained dogs. They marry when he tells them to, marry who he tells them to, live where he tells them to, do any damn thing he orders them to…”

     “They’re as much at fault as he is,” Jax interrupted. “These are not helpless children; they’re grown men - adults who choose to let that worthless tyrant run their lives. They’re doing it for the money, of course - so they won’t be excluded from his will. Brenda is not like that. First of all, she couldn’t care less about his money or all his worldly possessions. That family is ruled by avarice, but Brenda is ruled by her heart. And she’s hardly the type to let anyone tell her what to do, let alone some old man she barely knows. Besides, I would protect her from anything he would ever try to pull.”

     Harlan bristled at Jax’s last sentence. “I’m her father. I’ll be the one protecting her,” Harlan stated. “She’s my little girl.”

     Jax gazed at him for a moment and then shifted his position, uncrossing his ankles and sliding his feet off the desktop. He leaned forward and folded his hands on the desk. “She’s not a little girl any longer. And you might as well know, Dr. Barrett, that I have every intention of marrying your daughter,” he disclosed.

     Harlan looked as if he were choking on something. “What?!”

     “I believe you heard what I said,” Jax said calmly. “And when I do marry her, I also believe the chain of command for protecting her shifts from you to me.”

     Harlan still appeared to be choking on air. “Marry Brenda?” He couldn’t seem to get past Jax’s statement of that fact. “You think you’re going to marry Brenda?”

     “I am going to marry Brenda,” Jax said.

     “Your arrogance may be admirable in the boardroom, son, but it’s foolish in this matter. I know she’s very taken with you, but she hardly knows you. She won’t agree to marry you,” Harlan said.

     “Yes, she will.”

     Jax’s quiet confidence in this outcome was having a rattling affect on his intended bride’s father.

     “She won’t, I tell you. Her grandmother and I are convinced she will date plenty of men besides you once she starts at UCLA,” he lied, since both he and Ruby were convinced Brenda’s heart was stubbornly stuck on Jax. “Surely even you realize that. And then there’s the little matter of love. You see, unlike my other daughter, Brenda is not willing to enter into a marriage for any other reason. And Brenda does not love you.”

     “She will.”

     Did nothing deter this boy?! “That is an arrogant assumption, young man,” Harlan said. “You cannot possibly predict her feelings.”

     “I think I can.” He paused as he studied Brenda’s father for a moment. “Do you find me so objectionable as a prospective son-in-law then?” Jax inquired, surprised by Dr. Barrett’s reaction to the news of his intentions.

     Harlan scowled. The truth was there was nothing objectionable about Jax. Truth be told, Harlan admired the boy and liked him, even though he tried not to.

     A hint of a smile touched Jax’s lips as he watched Brenda’s father scowl furiously, but not answer the question. It occurred to Jax that perhaps his objections to the idea of Brenda becoming Jax’s wife had nothing to do with the choice of groom, but everything to do with the loss of his little girl.

     “It suddenly occurs to me why you’re so upset about this,” Jax said. “You know her feelings for me aren’t frivolous, don’t you? And since I’ve made my intentions known to you now, you’re grappling with the inevitability of her leaving the nest much sooner than you expected…”

     Yes, Harlan thought. Brenda was his sweet, little angel. The one who had kept him sane and given him purpose in life through his disappointing marriage, the tragic death of her mother, all the little disappointments life had to offer. Brenda was like a ray of sunshine. A burst of joy that invigorated him and made him remember why life was such a precious gift, such a beautiful thing. The child simply sparkled. She lit up his life, damn it, and he didn’t know what he would do without her.

     Certainly he had expected her to get married and build her own life away from him some day, but no time soon. He hadn’t been concerned about that happening until well after college, until she was mid-twenties at the least - perhaps older. But here she was just on the verge of womanhood and already there was a young man waiting in the wings to claim her as his own. If only Harlan could dismiss Jax’s bold claims that Brenda would marry him as bluster. He couldn’t do that, however. Not when he could see in Brenda’s eyes what this man meant to her.

     “Are we done here?” Harlan asked. His prior silence, giving Jax the answer he’d already figured out.

     “Yes,” Jax said.

     “You cannot tell Brenda about her grandfather,” Harlan insisted. “It was her mother’s wish, and her mother is now dead and I will not break that promise to keep Brenda out of those people’s clutches.”

     Jax nodded in agreement. Dr. Barrett’s reasons seemed sound to him; besides, he certainly had no desire for Brenda to ever know her unfortunate connection to those people. So he would respect her father’s wishes on that with pleasure.

     “I will tell her about her mother when she comes home this summer,” Harlan added.

     “How did her mother die?” Jax asked quietly. “I tried to look into it, but it all seems shrouded in mystery.”

     “No mystery,” Harlan said in a clipped voice. “Her father was the death of her. He made her miserable. He made her life… miserable.”

     She died of misery? That seemed a fanciful notion to Jax. “What I was able to find out was only speculation,” Jax began,” But it implied that she died of pneumonia two summers ago.”

     “Yes,” was all Harlan said. “I really must be going now.” He got to his feet and so did Jax. “I can see myself out.”

     “One of her brothers was here today,” Jax said, which halted Harlan in his tracks. Jax felt he owed it to the man to let him know that, despite all his efforts, the secret might come out anyway if Steven Fillmore had gotten a good look at that picture of Brenda.

     “Here?” Harlan repeated. “In Los Angeles?”

     “In this very office,” Jax said.

     “?” His voice was a whisper of fury.

     “He came here to try to get back his mother’s film company, which JE now owns. That was how I was able to see what Brenda’s mother looked like,” Jax explained, “The films belong to me now, and I had the reels sent to me. At any rate, I sent that court jester back to his demented king, but he may have gotten a look at a picture of Brenda and me that was out in the hallway by the elevator bank.”

     “New Year’s photos,” Harlan nodded. “I saw them on my way in here. I didn’t see one of Brenda…”

     “Because I took it down,” Jax said, reaching behind him and sliding the picture out of his jacket pocket. He showed it to Harlan.

     Harlan shook his head. “If he saw this, he will know. She looks just like her. The eyes alone…”

     “I don’t know that he saw it at all, or that he got anything more than a glimpse. Or that he would do anything about it anyway. We don’t even know if they know about Brenda, do we?”

     “No,” Harlan admitted. “Nor if they would want to claim her,” he added.

     “The brothers might not want to,” Jax conceded. “They’re too greedy to want another family member to split their inheritance amongst. But I think we both know that their grandfather would claim her in a heartbeat. His ego would allow for nothing else. He sees all his family members as things he owns and has every right to possess and control. Isn’t that why you want the secret kept?”

     Harlan nodded wearily. Was his mother right? Was this secret going to come out no matter what he did to prevent it? He was suddenly so tired. “You will protect her from them, won’t you?” he said, turning in the doorway of Jax’s office to glance back at the young man, who, now standing and still haloed by the moonlight, looked more invincible than ever.

     “Yes,” he said.

     Harlan nodded once more and left the office, closing the door quietly behind him while a security guard waited to escort him out of the building, as was the practice at this late hour with any visitors to the executive floor.

Cocoa Beach, Florida . . .

     The thundering anger, as his grandfather mercilessly berated him for his shameful lack of success in getting back Parisian Productions, was only minimally sinking into Steven Fillmore’s preoccupied mind.

     That picture. He could not get it out of his mind. The glimpse he had gotten had been so very brief, and yet the girl in the picture had been so stunningly beautiful that he had been floored, and then in a flash he’d gotten a strange feeling that he knew her - that she was somehow familiar to him. And on the plane ride home it had come to him - the girl bore an uncanny resemblance to his dead mother when she was that age. He tried to dismiss that because, after all, his look at the girl had been so brief - How could he have gotten such a strong feeling that she bore stunning resemblance to his mother in such a fleeting moment? Who was that girl? She was clearly connected to Jasper Jacks, as he’d been with her in the photo. Who the devil was she? Suddenly he had a burning desire to know the answer to that question. It consumed him. He could not get the fleeting glimpse of her out of his mind. Whether it was because her angelic beauty had so staggered him, or because he thought she might be a dead ringer for a younger version of his mother, he did not know…

     The loud clap of his grandfather’s palm cracking against his skull jarred Steven back to the present.

     “Well!” Will Warner hollered. “What the hell do you have to say for yourself, you idiot?”

     Steven found his grandfather glaring at him through icy gray eyes; the old man’s face mottled with disgust for his daughter’s youngest male progeny. Steven’s brothers all glanced away, suddenly finding the Oriental rug in the study supremely fascinating. Steven knew they were trying to lessen his humiliation. They may all be out for themselves when it came to competing for the lion’s share of their grandfather’s massive inheritance, but the old man’s equally disdainful treatment of them all had formed a sort of bond between them in that respect. Their grandfather was a master at belittling, humbling, and humiliating, and Steven was just his current target.

     “He’s a very difficult, very stubborn person,” Steven said in his defense. “He wouldn’t even hear me out. But I’ll get it back, Grandfather,” he insisted.

     Will Warner snorted loudly and blew a cloud of cigar smoke into Steven’s face. “The hell you will. If I want anything done right around here, I have to do it my damn self!”

     Alec almost volunteered to try his hand at dealing with Jax, but the prospect of failing and getting the ‘you-are-dirt-beneath-my-boots’ treatment Steven was getting dissuaded him from opening his mouth.

     The Fillmore brothers watched as their grandfather, grumbling obscenities, marched out of the study, a cloud of cigar smoke trailing him. Then they all looked at each other, knowing that they all hated him; wondering who would say it first; knowing, in fact, that none of them would. Not when the old man held those glorious purse strings, filled to the rafters with riches once he passed on. They could hold on to their hate until he was six feet under and they were filthy rich. He’d already promised that whoever found the most favor with him would be richer than the others, and each brother intended to be that one. Their rampant greed, a trait passed onto them by their father, was enough of an aphrodisiac to squelch their hatred of their grandfather.

     It was why they endured his abuse, his mockery, his cruelty, his tyranny. It was why they would be damned if they would share one cent of that inheritance they had suffered such abuse to hold onto with some phantom baby sister.

     “Is that damned yank ever going to get off of that bloody phone?” Tanith complained loudly, glaring at Brenda who was on the dorm payphone on their floor.

     “Mon Dieu, Tanith, she’s only been on for five minutes. Leave her alone,” Michele DuPrais said, and was shocked to hear herself defending Brenda, whom she normally had as little use for as the other girls. She supposed she was just sick and tired of Tanith’s bullying; they were not children anymore, for heaven’s sake. Brenda had been treated horribly here ever since she’d first arrived at the age of nearly twelve, looking so breathtaking that they had all just about choked on their breakfast in the dining hall when she’d been introduced. None of them had ever seen a girl as beautiful as this one. And Tanith, who was so very lovely and had been the belle of the school, had certainly lost her title that day, when the dark-haired angel, with those marvelous brown eyes, had floated into the dining hall with the headmistress. But now they were all practically women of eighteen, and Michele just found the child-like jealousy of Brenda, that had so driven them to hate her and exclude her from everything, to be ridiculous.

     Brenda sat in the hallway outside of her dorm room, the recording contract Jax had negotiated for her in her lap, while he was on the other end of the phone telling her what pages to turn to and explaining what he had done. Since Jax was the one who had called and since it was a Saturday, Brenda could stay on the phone for quite some time, which was what had Tanith steamed. Or was it the fact that no one could deny that Jax was indeed really Brenda’s boyfriend that had her steamed?

     Brenda got flowers sent to her dorm room from him every Saturday afternoon. And on Valentine’s Day her room had been filled from end to end with bouquets of roses - it had been glorious. And that charm bracelet she wore, dangling with pretty gold hearts, had shown up that day, too. Brenda had gotten all that, while most of the girls had gotten a card, candy, or nothing at all.

      A month later they had even snuck into Brenda’s dorm room one afternoon, (while she was upstairs being reprimanded by the headmistress for something or other), determined to prove she was sending these things to herself and setting this all up. They had spotted her laptop and brainy computer-geek Bethany Bryce had cracked her password so they could peek into her e-mail. The notes they had found from Jax to her left no doubt that he was wild about her and that they were indeed a pair. Tanith had been hard pressed to conceal her raving jealousy upon that discovery, so sure had she been that Brenda was lying about the whole thing and perpetrating a hoax to have them believe she could get a man like Jax.

     But it was true. She had a man like Jax. A man; not a silly boy, like those overeager, hormone-crazed fops who attended Drew Marsten Academy and were always trying to stick their tongues down your throat. Jasper Jacks was 23. Mature, worldly, sinfully sexy, gorgeous, rich, and very attentive to the object of his affections. And that object was truly Brenda Barrett! This truth astonished Tanith and made her hate Brenda more than ever. She was irritated to find, however, that as graduation approached, most of the girls were softening in their coldness to the American girl. Tanith was beginning to feel very much alone in her unwavering hostility towards Brenda.

     Seeing that no one was in the mood to join her in a Brenda bash-fest, she hissed irritably, turned on her heel and left Brenda to her phone call in peace.

     “Are you on the second page, fourth paragraph?” Jax asked Brenda.

     Brenda scanned down to the paragraph. “Got it.”

     “Okay, when I was informing them that you didn’t want that two 3-month-tour-a-year clause in your contract, they would only agree to that if you would agree to the following concessions: since Hollywood Records is a subsidiary of Disney, they want you to agree to be available to do musical vocals on two animated films per year. They also want you to agree to do two HBO pay-per-view concerts, one here and one internationally, probably somewhere in Europe or Japan. They also want you to be a part of a Christmas TV special with other Hollywood Records artists. That’s scheduled to be on ABC and air a week before Christmas, so they’re going to shoot it the first week in December - it’ll just take two days, they said. They’re shooting it at Rockefeller Center skating rink in New York.”

     Brenda was grinning with delight at all these “concessions” they were asking of her in lieu of doing those long tours that would have had her away from Jax and her family for half the year. So far all these “concessions” pleased her!

     “Could I take someone with me, do you suppose?” she asked him.

     Jax knew she meant him, which made him smile. “Yes, you can,” he said. “I’m sure this ‘someone’ will insist on going with you anyway.” He heard her laughter over the phone line and was reminded of how much he missed her - how these past three months had been fraught with a loneliness he never could have imagined - without her. He would give anything for her to be with him right now, instead of thousands of miles away. But it was April. Her birthday was early next month and he planned on surprising her with a visit then. And then she’d graduate in June and be back with him in Beverly Hills that same month. Those thoughts cheered him considerably. For as summer approached so did the ending stages of his plan. A declaration of love, a proposal, a wedding. And so far no trouble from Steven Fillmore, who, Jax guessed, must not have seen that photo of Brenda after all. Either that or he simply was not acting upon his suspicions for whatever reasons.

     He had plenty of trouble from Fillmore’s grandfather though. The man was on a tear to cause JE as many problems as possible in order to force Jax’s hand into selling back Parisian Productions. He was aggressively trying to get his hands on Dunleavy Castle, a beautiful property right on the border between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands that was an ancestral home on Jax’s mother’s side of the family. Jane had gifted it to Jax’s father on their ninth wedding anniversary, and the property had passed onto Uncle Ian, in accordance with Jane Jacks’s will after the plane crash. The income generated from the tourism of the castle allowed Ian to live comfortably for the rest of his life and not have to work, so he could enjoy traveling, as he so loved to do. After his death it would pass on to her sons, Jerry and Jax. And Jax was not about to let Will Warner get his hands on that ancestral family treasure, that also happened to allow his beloved uncle to live a financially worry-free life. Thus far, Jax and Jerry’s efforts to block Warner’s aggression were very successful, and the old man was enraged over that. Since it was more and more difficult for him to touch JE, he took out his anger on other companies more susceptible to his ruthless takeover attempts. Jax often wondered if Warner ever found out the truth about Brenda, would he go after her as ruthlessly as he did those companies?

     “And what’s this paragraph on page three about a publishing deal?” Brenda asked, taking Jax out of his wandering thoughts.

     “Oh, they also want you to agree to sign a song publishing deal with Buena Vista Publishing, as your publishing designee. They own it, of course, so they get to share in the profits of any songs you write, which is what they’re after.”

     “Should I agree to that?’ she asked.

     “Sure,” Jax said. “Any publishing company you sign with would get a share of your royalties, so you may as well sign with them. They can only hold you to it for two years, then you can switch, if you’re so inclined. And Steve Kilmer told me they wanted you to start recording your album this summer. I took the liberty of telling him no, that was not possible, because you had other plans for the summer that cannot possibly be altered for any reason whatsoever,” Jax informed her.

     Brenda laughed. “Oh, I do, do I?”

     “You will. As soon as you get back here. So don’t go making any plans. Anyway, I told them they really couldn’t realistically think about getting you into the recording studio full-time until early next year. They relented on that, so long as you spend the time in between that writing songs and doing demos so they can hear what you’re up to. Check up on their investment, so to speak. So, Miss Barrett, if this is all agreeable to you, all you have to do is sign on the dotted lines. I’ll run the contracts past Ned one more time, and we’ll get everything executed for you.”

     Brenda felt giddy with excitement. “I can’t believe it!” she said. “I’m really doing this, Jax. This is really happening to me!”

     “Yes, it is,” he said, enjoying her delight.

     “And I couldn’t have done it without you.”

     “We make a formidable team, you and I,” Jax said softly.

     “I adore you Jasper Ian, I really do.” Her joyful laughter went a long way in soothing the ache of loneliness he felt at the physical distance between them. “And I can’t wait to see you in two months at my graduation ceremony. By the way,” she bragged, “you just may be talking to the class valedictorian. It’s between me and…”

     “Don’t tell me - that Jell-O tossing girl.”

     Brenda laughed. “Tanith Webster? Please, she is not even close to me academically here. No, the other person is Bridget Sommes. But I think if I ace my French final, I have it locked up,” she said, with a snap of her fingers.

     “Well, I have every confidence in you, sweetheart.”

     The endearment, which he’d never used before, caused Brenda’s heart to leap about crazily inside of her. She was speechless for a moment.

     “Bren? Are you still there?”

     “Y… yes,” she said, fighting to control her glee. “Jax, how are things going with your efforts to be appointed CEO of your dad’s company?”

     “Well, I’m glad you brought that up because I need to tell you something. Warn you about something, actually. I was out the other night with two board members, Carl Barrington and his daughter, Danielle, trying to sway the elder to my side of things. I’ve already got his daughter in my corner.”

     “What a surprise,” Brenda murmured.

     Jax wasn’t sure, but did he detect a little bit of jealousy in the dulcet tones of her beautiful voice?

     “Umm… Anyway, what happened was Mr. Barrington got called away on business, and Danielle and I were there discussing how to convince her father that my age would not detract from my being able to take over this potion, and when we were done she sort of leaned over and kissed me, and there was this…”

     “She what?”

     “Brenda, it was nothing, really. But the thing is there was this photographer there who took a photo right at that moment, so I just wanted you to know that if you saw anything in a paper or a magazine it was nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

     “She kissed you, Jax?”

     “Yeah. She just… I mean, I didn’t even know what she was doing…”

     “She kissed you?”

     “Yes, but…”

     “Why did she kiss you?”

     “I think she was getting the wrong idea about her helping me with my campaign to swing the votes of the board. I think she just read too much into it…I guess.”

     “So she doesn’t even know about me, then?” Brenda guessed, feeling a little hurt that Jax apparently wasn’t spreading the news that he had a steady girlfriend.

     Jax heard the mixture of hurt and a twinge of anger in her voice.

     “Brenda, of course, she knows about you. I tell everybody about you,” he said, which was the truth. “Apparently she just chose to ignore the fact that I have a girlfriend, who I’m absolutely crazy about. Had I known what she was going to do, believe me, I would have run from the table. Without paying the damned check and everything.”

     He heard her trying not to laugh.

     “I’m sure she just couldn’t help herself,” Brenda decided. After all, this was Jax. What woman sitting across from him wouldn’t be tempted to just plant a passionate kiss on those lips of his?

     “Well, needless to say, my days of schmoozing that woman are over. And I actually decided there’s a much easier way to get what I want than to have to wine and dine cigar-smoking old coots and being attacked by the unwelcome lips of strange women.”

     Brenda was instantly curious and also impressed. She thought Jax was amazing. Truly. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

     He didn’t think he ought to tell her. She might not understand that this business could get ruthless. What he was going to do certainly wasn’t nice. But it was necessary. “Suffice to say, the exiting CEO is going to ditch his own candidate and recommend me for the job himself,” Jax said.

     That answer certainly surprised her.

     “He is? But I thought you told me that you and he were really at war over this?”

     “We are. But trust me on this. He’s going to encourage them all to vote for me. Now, can we talk about something of far greater importance than these corporate intrigues? Like, what are you wearing?”

     Brenda’s beautiful laughter rang down the halls of Dame Agnes like a spring breeze blowing in from the fields of wildflowers.

     “What?!” Katherine shouted into the phone, as she paced to and fro in the vast expanse of the living room in the Jacks mansion. “Steve, I don’t understand. I thought touring was the most important aspect of what a recording artist had to do!” she wailed, after she’d pressed him for details about Brenda’s contract, which he’d finally begrudgingly shared with her. Discussing contracts with parties unrelated to the dealings was not something he normally ever did.

     “The concessions we got from Brenda proved to be very satisfactory to us, Katherine. And to Brenda, as well. I have to tell you, that kid brother of yours is one hell of a negotiator. Is he really only 23?”

     “My kid brother?” she repeated, not believing what she was hearing. “You mean Jax? What does Jax have to do with Brenda’s contract?”

     “He’s the one who renegotiated it for her. And like I said, he impressed the heck out of me. That one’s charisma level and grasp of the business world is lethal. I do thank you sincerely for bringing Brenda to my attention. She’s going to be a gold mine for us. Gotta run.”

     “No, wait. Steve, don’t hang up!” But he had done just that. “I don’t believe this,” Katherine muttered, simply amazed at how each and every plan she had concocted to get Brenda out of Jax’s life had failed miserably.

     “You don’t believe what?” Holly asked as she entered the living room. Holly Sutton Jacks was now four months pregnant, and she and Jerry had been living as man and wife in the mansion ever since returning from their honeymoon in mid-January. Although Katherine had been shocked at the hasty wedding and hurt that no one in her family so much as mentioned the event to her, she had quickly understood why it had been necessary to speed things along. And she had always liked Holly, had always thought Jerry a fool to have let her slip away to that pilot the first time. She considered him lucky to have gotten her back. And the two of them seemed quite content. Yes, Jerry would be happy, and would give Katherine and Jax their first niece or nephew. It really was exciting. And despite their constant loggerheads over Jax, Katherine really was glad to see Jerry settled and happy. Now, if only Jax would be accommodating and lose interest in Brenda and in his love of corporate raiding…

     “I don’t believe I’m going to be an aunt,” Katherine improvised and smiled at her sister-in-law. “It’s really true that expectant mothers look radiant. You certainly do.”

     Holly smiled. “I feel wonderful, now that the morning sickness has decided to leave me alone for the past month. Now, if only your brother would follow suit,” she joked. “I swear, Katherine, Jerry has become my shadow, and the man has made doting on me into an art form. Impending fatherhood is going to be the death of him.” Holly shook her head again. “You should see the fuss the man is putting up over my insisting on going with him and Jax to Brenda’s graduation in June. He is adamant about me not getting on a plane in ‘my condition.’ I very nearly boxed his ears, while I reminded my darling husband that by that time I’ll only be barely six months along, and there’s little to no danger of my going into labor on the jet.”

     Katherine had noticed that Holly was deeply fond of Brenda and seemed to think the world of the girl. So she was hardly surprised at Holly’s insistence on attending Brenda’s graduation ceremonies from the prestigious Dame Agnes School.

     “You’ve really taken a liking to Brenda, haven’t you?” Katherine said, sitting down in a chair by the coffee table.

     “Oh, I absolutely love her,” Holly said, cheerfully as she poured herself some carrot juice and sat across from her sister-in-law. “I tell Jax constantly that he’d better not muck this up.”

     “You don’t think he’s getting too serious about her too quickly? They’re both fairly young. Brenda, especially.”

     Holly waved a hand in the air, as she set her glass down after taking a sip and gagging and bemoaning her husband’s insistence that she drink a cup of this thick vegetable juice every morning. “Their age doesn’t negate their feelings one iota,” Holly insisted. “I’m only a year older than Jax, and I know my love for Jerry is certainly real. And for heaven’s sake, Katherine, your father and mother were married when she was eighteen and he was Jax’s age,” Holly reminded her.

     “Yes, but I actually think my father was happier with Jax and Jerry’s mother than with mine,” Katherine said. “I know he loved my mother, of course, and missed her dearly when she passed away, but that spark of life in his eyes, that boom of magic in his laughter, it wasn’t there for them the way it was for my father and Jane. And that was his second wife. So my point is that had my father not married the first girl he fancied himself in love with, which turned out to be my mother, he might have waited and waited and found Jane sooner.”

     Holly gave Katherine a puzzled glance. “And then you would not have been born, and he would have missed out on having a daughter he loved. Everything happens for a reason, Katherine. At least I believe that. Even my engagement to Desmond served its purpose because it made me realize I could never be happy with him, and it made Jerry realize what an idiot he had been to have mucked things up with me in the first place.”

     Katherine could not help but smile.

     “And this is but a guess on my part,” Holly continued,” but if you ask me, Jax is long gone on her already, and there is no pulling him back in now. I believe he’s in love, Kat. He looks at her as if she placed the moon and the stars in the sky with her own hands. I dare say there’s not a thing in this world he wouldn’t do for that darling girl.”

     Katherine did not want to hear this.

     “And speaking of that darling girl,” Holly continued. “I’m off to pick out a birthday gift for Jax to take down with him when he goes to see her next month. Care to join me? I’m going to haunt Rodeo Drive.”

     “Jax is going to London next month? And then going back in June again?” Katherine asked.

     Holly nodded. “Brenda’s expecting him in June, of course, but the trip scheduled for May 5th is a surprise for her birthday.” She smiled. “Your youngest brother is very much the romantic, you know. Jerry tells me he gets that from your father.”

     Katherine nodded. Jax got a lot of his characteristics from their father. He was in fact, a marvelous combination of his parents.

     “So… coming with me?” Holly asked again, as she rose to her feet and finished swallowing the offensive carrot juice with a grimace.

     “No, I think I’ll just stay here. You have fun,” Katherine said, as she watched her sister-in-law depart. The moment Holly was gone, Katherine picked up the phone and called Milt Barrymore. If she could not do anything about Jax and Brenda for the moment, the least she could do was work on the other half of her plan, which was to keep Jax out of that CEO position at JE. “Hello, Uncle Milt? How are you? It’s Katherine… Listen, I have a tip that my brother, Jax, is going to be out of town on Sunday, May 5th. I know he’s been making some excellent headway with certain board members, and I think you should use his absence to try to reel them back onto your side. Have Ken Seckler host a Sunday afternoon tea - invite the entire board, of course. You and Ken take the men golfing and do your spin there on the green, and leave the convincing of the women to me…”

     Veronica drove into her driveway to find Alexa’s car parked in the drive with a big dent in the front passenger side. Hurrying inside, Veronica called out her daughter’s name.

     “Alexa Barrett, what in god’s name did you to do that car?” Veronica demanded. “You see, I knew I should have kept it for myself and not given it to you!”

     Alexa had her head on the kitchen table, and when Veronica got close to her she smelled the liquor on her breath.

     “For godsake - you’re drunk!” Veronica said, appalled.

     Alexa shrugged and the action made her wince from the pain in her throbbing head. “I was just mourning an old friend,” she said, twirling her finger in the air.

     “Yes, I can see that,” Veronica snapped. “The car!”

     “Nooo,” Alexa said. “The old friend I’m mourning would be the idiotic future I had planned out for my life ever since I was sixteen years old and set eyes on one Jasper Jacks.” She hiccupped and belched in so unladylike a manner that Veronica made a face of horror.

     “I thought you were over that,” Veronica said in exasperation.

     “So did I, Mommy dearest,” she said, her voice sounding like a croak. “So did I. But then I ran into my good pal, Eve Thornton, today. She’s thick as thieves with Ned Ashton now, you know. She, unlike me, actually got her man!” Alexa laughed, although it sounded more like a series of snorts.

     Veronica rolled her eyes. “Oh, so now it’s Ned Ashton you want?”

     “No!” Alexa snapped. “It’s always been Jax I wanted - always. And I told you mother - I told you that if he saw Brenda, if he saw her, it would ruin everything for me. The way she always ruins everything for me. And you were supposed to make sure that didn’t happen! But you didn’t!”

     “Stop yelling,” Veronica said coolly.

     “Why did you and Dad adopt her anyway?” Alexa demanded. “You should have left her at that orphanage in France, or wherever it was you picked her up from.”

     “You’ll get no argument from me there,” Veronica muttered. “But you’re drunk, Alexa. Go sleep it off.”

     “Do you know what Eve told me?” Alexa asked. “She said that Ned told her that Jax is in love. For the first time ever, he’s in love. And who’s he in love with? That damned brat! I bust my ass to try to make him love me, and I get zip. She does nothing but send him a smile or two, and he surrenders his heart to her, just like that. It makes me sick!”

     “He’s in love with her face, Alexa. Her face, her body. Your sister is exceptionally beautiful and that’s the only reason men fall all over themselves for her. It’s not real; it’s all shallow. It’s superficial. It has nothing to do with real feelings,” Veronica said, hoping to calm her drunken daughter down and shut her up. The girl was hollering loud enough to wake the neighbors.

     “Tell me something, Mother. Will you still be touting that tired old line if he marries her? Huh? Will ya? Will ya?” Alexa asked in a slurred voice. “Eve told me that Ned thinks Jax is going to marry her.”

     “What nonsense. Brenda isn’t even eighteen yet,” Veronica reminded her.

     “She will be in less than a month now. Jax’s wait could be almost over.”

     “Your father would talk her out of anything so foolish.”

     “Would he?” Alexa laughed. “You don’t think he’d jump for joy to have his lil’ baby girl married off to a Jacks? A billionaire heir, who’s actually even got royal freakin’ bloodlines in his mother’s ancestry, who’s the heart’s desire of women all over the damned world? Who’s got buildings named after his father all over the world? You don’t think he’d jump for joy just to be able to stick it to you by stealing away the man you wanted for me?” Alexa laughed hysterically.

     Veronica slowly fumed over that idea. To think that Harlan’s bastard child could be the one who married the man Veronica had long ago picked out for her own daughter… To think of Harlan laughing with glee as he walked Brenda down the aisle to be become part of that much-coveted family - to be joined with the most coveted member of that most coveted family… And with Jerry now married, Jax’s desirability, already astronomically high, had skyrocketed up into the stratosphere as the last remaining single Jacks male heir. Well, Veronica was not about to let that happen. She’d have a little chat with her soon-to-be ex-husband and get his butt in gear to halt any love connection between Brenda and Jax that could lead to something as serious as marriage. Otherwise, she would threaten to go to Jax herself with the news of both Brenda’s illegitimacy, as well as her connection to his most hated enemy, Will Warner. That ought to light a fire under Harlan, Veronica thought with a slow, catty smile.

     Brenda’s birthday fell on a rainy, mild Sunday in London. But the rain could not dampen her spirits as she finally ascended to legal adulthood, and her birthday got off to a splendid start with the arrival of a stunning bouquet of heavenly pink tulips from Jax with a note that a surprise for her would arrive later. That was immediately followed by a package from her father and grandmother and the shock of several of the girls - who had never so much as acknowledged her before - wishing her happy birthday as they passed her in the halls. Even the headmistress wished her a happy birthday and gave her a rather huge vanilla frosted cupcake topped with fresh strawberries, made for her by the school cook, who had been on one of the very few who had always been extremely fond of Brenda from the day she’d arrived. This tasty treat was followed by yet another delivery, this a package from Scotland and dear Uncle Ian.

     An hour after that there was another knock on her door. Brenda, who was sitting Indian style on the floor of her room, sifting through the CD’s her father had gotten her, jumped up to her feet. Another delivery? she wondered with a smile. Maybe it was the surprise Jax had told her to expect. She opened the door and found Jax in the flesh on the other side, somewhat soaked from the rain, his hair darkly gold and curly with moisture, a bag of gifts in his hand. Her squeal of joy echoed along the hallway and resulted in her curious classmates opening their doors to take a peek at what was going on. They beheld the soaking wet, grinning Adonis in front of Brenda’s door as Brenda launched herself into his arms, becoming nearly as soaked as he was in the process and not caring one tiny bit.

     Love thundered in their hearts as they sank into a heavenly embrace. He was so happy to see her that he was momentarily irritated by an uncharacteristic loss of words. He knew he loved her, but he supposed on some level it scared him to realize each time he saw her that his feelings for her ran deeper than he could have ever imagined. That mere love was just the tip of the iceberg. This was no ordinary love. This was the love of his life he was holding here. It filled him with a jittery sense of awe.

     He managed to softly get her name out through his paralyzed vocal chords. Her name softly whispered from his lips made her sigh and wrap her arms around him tighter. Oh, what was this feeling…? she wondered dreamily. This feeling that was like no other feeling in the world? This feeling Jax stirred in her so deeply, so strongly? She had debated if it was love before and had dismissed that as impossible because of the speed with which it had come upon her. But if not love, what else could it be? What other emotion could possibly feel as glorious as this?

     She inhaled the wonderful scent of him. The faint hint of his intoxicating aftershave mixed with the scent of the fresh, spring rain. Her heart was just tripping over itself now.

     He pulled back from the intimate embrace to look at her. She was so beautiful it felt like an honor just to look upon her. And she was so happy, he noticed. It was the way he always wanted her to be. And he was gratified to know that it was his presence that had brought about this happiness in her. He cupped her face; his thumbs stroked her cheeks. Her softness fascinated him. His heart was so full of feelings for her that he was somewhat overwhelmed. He glanced away from her momentarily and then back into her bewitching brown eyes. The need to tell her he loved her and to insist that she love him back was all but strangling him. Then the need to kiss her overtook everything else. He really didn’t care who was watching them. Scowling nuns, the agitated headmistress, the Pope himself could have been there, for all Jax cared.

     “Happy birthday, Brenda,” he said and bent his head to kiss her. Brenda expected a titillating, brief brush of his lips, since they had an audience of her peers and surely one of the nuns would soon wander by to keep an eye on things, since Jax was on the premises. She did not get a titillating, brief brush of his lips against her. What she got was the breath kissed right out of her. The heat the passionate kiss sparked made her cheeks turn a becoming shade of rose and made her body feel like hot lightning was streaking through it. She prayed to god that Jax could stop this because she certainly had not the slightest inclination to do so. His passion spurred her own, and they were locked in a burning, consuming kiss right there in her doorway. Jax broke the kiss only three scant seconds before the headmistress made her way down the hall and towards Brenda’s dorm room.

     She looked at the two of them askance but didn’t say anything about their breathless condition, nor their just-been-passionately-kissed looking lips, nor the glitter of passion shimmering in both a set of blue eyes and a set of brown ones.

     “Your friend, Jasper, informs me he is here to take you out to the theatre and then for a birthday dinner afterwards,” Olive Bertlesberry said. “Since you know that men are not allowed inside your room, I would suggest you go and change, Brenda, so that the two of you can be on your way.” Brenda turned to do just that, flashing Jax a most beautiful smile as she disappeared into her room and shut the door. The headmistress turned to Jax. “It’s Sunday, Mr. Jacks, and she has early classes tomorrow, so there will be no trekking to Scotland today.”

     Jax nodded.

     “And I’ll need you to have her back here tonight by no later than 10:30 p.m.,” she added, having added an extra hour-and-a-half to the original curfew she had in mind. It was clear to her, after all, that the two young people were madly in love with each other. And, jaded as she was about love due to her own less than stellar experiences with it, she was not against seeing the intoxicating emotion spark to life in others.

     Having obtained Jax’s promise to abide by her dictates, the headmistress gave him a curt nod, shook her head at what a handsome devil this young man was, and then turned to leave the dorm area. As she headed towards the stairs, she had to struggle not to smile at the way the girls occupying the other rooms on the floor could not tear their eyes away from the man casually leaning against Brenda’s door, waiting for her. It seemed that young man created quite a stir each time he set foot at this school. Very much like the young lady who had so captured his affections. In all her time as headmistress at Dame Agnes, Olive Bertlesberry had never had a student who could stir up as much commotion and mischief as one Brenda Elizabeth Barrett. It was certainly going to be dull around here when she graduated next month.

     Jax taking Brenda out to the theatre ended up not involving taking her to a play or musical, but having rented out the Drury Lane Theatre for them to have a private candlelight supper in a setting that was romantic and yet fun… and decidedly tropical, with potted palm trees, exotic flower arrangements, guava-scented candles, and a delicious dinner, catered from a Hawaiian Restaurant a few blocks away. It was so tropical and festive that it made it very easy to forget that it was, in fact, a rainy, gray-sky London day outside. Brenda loved the combination of romance and fun and found the tropical drinks almost as delicious tasting as Jax’s kisses.

     She was laughing as Jax slid into her mouth the last of a huge slice of pineapple-upside-down-cake drizzled with white icing and honey. There had been 18 birthday candles on the cake and they had been trick candles supplied by Jax, so that each time Brenda had thought she’d successfully blown them all out, they’d spring right back to life again. Jax had finally helped her really blow them all out and then had cut her a huge slice that was literally a third of the cake.

     “I can’t believe you made me eat that whole thing,” she said.

     “Hey, I helped you,” he reminded her. He had, in fact, had more than half of the huge slice. “Besides, that’s nothing. Do you know that when I was eleven, I actually got Jerry to eat a slug once?” he bragged.

     Brenda’s eyes crossed, and Jax grinned boyishly at her squeamishness. “Do not share this story with me, Jax,” she warned him. Then she let out a laugh and impulsively got up and sat in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

     “It is my sincere hope,” he said, “that you are having a happy birthday, Miss Barrett.”

     “I am,” she said, brushing her fingers across his lips. “Having you here is the best thing ever, Jax. And I love the whole tropical theme,” she added with a smile.

     “There was a reason for that,” he told her. “It was to prepare you for your birthday present.”

     She shook her head. “You are my present,” she said. “The best one I could ever have gotten.”

     “Is that so? So then I don’t suppose you want this then?” he said, pulling a slim white envelope from his pocket and waving it in front of her face.

     She giggled. “Give me that,” she said, snatching it out of his hand. She eagerly opened the envelope, as he watched her, awaiting her reaction. Brenda gasped as she pulled out two tickets to Fiji. “Jax!” she said.

     “Happy birthday,” he responded.

     She was so excited, she just kept staring at the tickets. “Oh, Jax, thank you! I… I can’t believe you did this!” she said.

     “I did tell you not to make any plans for the summer, didn’t I?” he reminded her.

     She fingered the two tickets and then looked up at him. “You are going with me, right?”

     Jax shrugged. “I thought you might like to take your grandmother.”

     The disgruntled look on her face nearly made him laugh out loud. “Oh,” she said.

     Jax did laugh then. He kissed the bridge of her nose. “But, of course, I wouldn’t let you. I’m a very possessive type, I’m afraid,” he sighed. “And I have an almost constant desire to be alone with you. So I’m taking you to Fiji, Brenda. Just you and me. Unless you have a problem with that?”

     Her response was to hit him for teasing her, and then she placed the tickets down on the table and twined her arms around his neck. “This is the happiest birthday I have ever had,” she told him, her voice soft and so very appealing to him. She was stroking the side of his face and gazing adoringly into his eyes. She surely had no idea how sensual her touch was to him. His heart was taking flight within him. He was becoming extremely aroused by her, too. He had to kiss her now, he knew. Either that or go crazy thinking about it. Brenda’s thoughts were apparently mirroring his own, because in the next instant, she leaned back a little bit in his lap, turned his face so that it followed her movement, slid her hand into the back of his hair, and then slowly pulled his head down until her lips settled on his. It was the most innocently seductive thing Jax had ever seen, and when their lips met, the kiss was slow and erotic. Pulsing with desire, tingling with an unspoken love. It soon turned ravenous, deep, sizzling… as Jax made love to her mouth, since her body was off limits to him until a later date - which he sincerely prayed would not be that much later at all. He felt her shivering with desire in his arms… or was that him? Hard to tell.

     He continued to make love to her mouth with his tongue; slowly penetrating and then receding, evoking a thrilling response from her with his deliberately sensual teasing strokes.

     “Jax,” she breathed, her body bathed in a sensuous heat. She had every intention of telling him not to dare stop.

     “Shhh, baby, it’s okay,” he said, covering her lips with his once again in a deep, devouring kiss, and cutting off anything else she might have said. His hands moved up along her spine and then moved around to stroke the sheer middle of her dress, feeling the heat of her body radiating through the thin material. When his hands inexorably moved slowly up to her breasts, and his thumbs brushed across her sensitive nipples beneath the red silk dress she wore, she let out a low, soft moan of pleasure. She couldn’t stop herself from arching up against his hands.

     Jax lifted his head to look at her and could not stop the attractive smile that graced his lips upon seeing how delectably dazed Brenda looked by what was happening to her. How utterly beautiful she looked with the passion lighting the gold chips in her eyes, the soft urgency of her breathing, the sweet willingness to give herself to him…

     The desire to lower her onto the stage floor and make slow, passionate love to her until the sun came up was truly overwhelming. He held her against his racing heart, his hands threading through the silky dark curls of her beautiful hair as he tried to get a hold of himself. Her hand was absently stroking his chest. He wished she would stop that, yet at the same time he never wanted her to stop that.

     “Jax?” she said.

     “Yes?”

     “Do you ever want to…”

     “All the time,” he said, reading her thoughts.

     “Then why don’t you? Why haven’t we…”

     “Because you’re… This is different for me, Brenda. You’re different for me. There’s something I need to tell you first, and there’s something I need to hear from you first. I want you to… this has to be…” Brenda was surprised by the difficulty Jax was having saying whatever it was he was trying to say. Jax was the most candid person she’d ever met. He was amazing at expressing himself… usually. “I want you to know how important you are to me first,” he finally said. “And I want you to know what my expectations would be afterwards. Do you understand?”

     She wasn’t at all sure she understood anything, but she leaned her head against his chest, listening to the wild pounding of his heart, and nodded. And then she concentrated on trying to get her wits back after what his kisses had done to her. She would have to talk to Holly. Holly would be able to tell her why Jax was holding back.

     The June sun was shining brightly in London on the day of Brenda’s graduation from the Dame Agnes School. The graduation ceremony went smoothly and Brenda’s valedictorian speech was met with loud applause and cheers from classmates, who had previously made a career out of either ignoring her or insulting her. Even Tanith Webster had managed to put her hands together in a light applause.

     Brenda was so relieved to finally be putting six years of enduring this school behind her, that she was positively radiant the entire day. Jax, who sat next to her father in the audience, could not take his eyes off of her. Jerry, who was on the other side of Jax, split his attention between the graduation ceremony and keeping an eye on his wife, as if he expected her to go into labor at any minute. Holly was doing her best to ignore her husband, as she took pictures and chatted with Uncle Ian. Brenda’s grandmother, who was on the other side of Brenda’s father, kept dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, while Harlan got the entire graduation day documented on his video camera.

     Since Brenda had no friends to share tearful good-byes with, she left the ceremony the moment it was over and joined her family and Jax’s. The entire group had a laughter-filled celebratory lunch at an expensive Italian restaurant, and Brenda’s wonderful mood was highly contagious all around the table. Brenda glanced around the table, feeling warm and happy inside. All the people she cared about were right here. Her father and Uncle Ian were deep into conversation about something or other; Holly was chatting with Brenda’s grandmother about knitting baby clothes; Jerry was going on and on to Jax about Holly’s condition; and Jax was rolling his eyes and looked as if he were counting sheep in his head to block out Jerry’s father-to-be neurosis.

     Brenda giggled at the expression on Jax’s face and then poked him in the ribs, just as he took a sip of his glass of wine. “Hey,” she said. “You forgot to congratulate me.”

     Jax turned to her. “For what? Having such great taste in boyfriends?” he asked her with a rakish smile.

     “That, too,” she said. “But I meant congratulate me because I was valedictorian of my graduating class.”

     Jax bent down and kissed her right on the lips, right in front of her family and his. For some reason that made her heart take off like a rocket. “I never doubted you,” he told her. “Not ever.”

     He was then distracted by Brenda’s father asking him a question. Ruby took the opportunity to lean over and whisper to her granddaughter: “Your father and I are so proud of you, darling.”

     Brenda smiled and kissed her grandma’s cheek. “Thanks, Grandma.”

     “Oh, and I meant to tell you, dear. I’ve made us some wonderful plans for this summer,” Ruby continued. “I ran into a nice young man at the grocery store - he helped me carry my bags to the car. He says he knows you. His name is Ryan Thornton…”

     Jax’s radar picked up the quiet mention of Ryan’s name. Now that Brenda was eighteen, out of the all-girls’ school and would be back home in California, he was expecting the males to descend upon her in droves. He was expecting that particular male to do it most of all. Apparently he had not been mistaken in that, if Ryan Thornton was already trying to make inroads with Brenda’s grandmother.

     “Oh, yeah, I know him,” Brenda said matter-of-factly. “But, Grandma, about this summer…”

     “He’s such a nice boy,” Ruby said. “Handsome, too. Not as handsome as some, but you know we all can’t look like golden, god-like creatures.”

     Jax rolled his eyes. Jerry snickered and got an elbow in the ribs for it.

     “His parents own the Thornton Cruise line. Surely you’ve heard of that?”

     “Yes,” Brenda said in a bored voice that made Jax smile.

     “Well, the dear boy has invited us to go on a cruise, free of charge, this summer. And I was sure you’d love that…”

     “No, not really,” Brenda said, reaching next to her to take a bite of Jax’s Turkey Tetrazzini.

     Jax’s smile turned into an all-out grin.

     “Well, for heaven’s sake, why not?” Ruby wanted to know. “It sounds wonderful to me. Your father’s not interested in going, but I thought you and I could go. Ryan would act as our host. And it isn’t like we’ll have much of anything else to do this summer, darling. Your mother and sister have already made plans to go to the time-share in the Bahamas, and it would not be pleasant to be there with them, now would it?”

     “I have plans for the summer, Grandma. With Jax, remember?” Brenda informed her grandmother. “We’re going to Fiji for two weeks. I thought I told you that already?”

     “You most certainly did not tell me,” Ruby said, shooting a little glare at Jax.

     “Then it must have been Dad I told,” Brenda shrugged.

     “Yes,” Harlan said, smiling over his mother’s sour expression. Although he had accepted the inevitability of Brenda and Jax’s feelings for one another, his mother was still against it, still not trusting that Jax would not somehow hurt her granddaughter due to her connection to the Warner family.

     “Well, when are you leaving?” Ruby demanded.

     “Next Friday,” Jax cheerfully informed her.

     “Well, you’ll be back two weeks after that, and then we can go on our cruise,” Ruby insisted, giving Jax a ‘so there’ raise of her eyebrows.

     Brenda was shaking her head. “No, thanks, Grandma. I’m really not interested. Not in a cruise and definitely not in Ryan Thornton.”

     “Amen, lass,” Uncle Ian said, sending Brenda a fond smile. “Amen!”

     Jax’s slow smile was devastatingly attractive and Ruby scowled, even as her lips twitched with laughter at how politely her granddaughter had basically just told her to butt out of her love life.

     “Well, that’s that, I guess,” Jerry said, winking at Brenda as he polished off his glass of wine and then immediately began doting on Holly once more. Jerry’s antics were amusing to everyone at the table, except the exasperated Holly and Jax, who thought his brother was out of his mind.

     When lunch was over, Brenda went home on the Jacks jet with Jax, Jerry and Holly. She was utterly impressed by the sleek silver jet and was once again reminded of the incredible wealth and power of the Jacks family.

     “I have to talk to you about something important when we get home,” Brenda whispered to Holly. “Can I come over and see you tomorrow?”

     “Of course, you can,” Holly said. “Nothing’s the matter, is it?” she asked, concerned.

     Brenda smiled. “No. I just need your advice. Thanks, Holly.”

     Brenda was then whisked away by Jax, who got her settled in a window seat and then climbed into the seat next to her.

     “Not flying today?” she asked, smiling at him. Jax often told her about his love of flying, the competitiveness between him and Jerry to log in the most flight hours.

     “No, not today,” he said. “I’d rather be back here with you than up in the cockpit, looking at the great blue yonder.”

     Both Jax and Brenda were suddenly distracted by Jerry buckling up Holly’s seat belt and badgering her with questions. Was it too tight? Was it too loose? Was she sure flying was okay for the baby? Did she want a back rub? Could he get her a glass of carrot juice?

     Brenda was laughing; Jax was shaking his head.

     “You know we had to go through this on the flight down here, too,” Jax commented. “My brother has turned into a madman, I tell you. Why do you suppose he’s so out of his mind about this? I mean, Holly’s not even near labor yet. I shudder to think what he’s going to be like when that happens.”

     “Aww, you’re being too hard on him, Jax. He’s in love and it’s the first time he’s ever been a father, so he’s just nervous and going a little overboard.”

     Jax dismissed that excuse. “Well, I love you, but I’m never going to act like some deranged chicken without a head when you have a baby. Do you know that he almost insisted on having a doctor fly down with us? I don’t understand why he can’t see that he’s driving Holly to the brink of insanity. If he doesn’t give her some breathing room, she’s going to run off and have that baby in a convent in Switzerland.” Jax turned his attention away from his brother and grinned at Brenda. She looked very strange, almost in a state of shock. “Brenda? Are you okay?”

     She nodded slowly, but she wasn’t okay. Oh, god, had he really just said what she thought he’d said? She was terrified to ask him to repeat himself. After all, maybe she’d just misheard him. And she didn’t want to make things awkward between them. Not when things were soooo good between them. If he meant what he said - if he’d really even said it at all - he would say it again - surely.

     Jax decided he wanted to tell her about her sister having her car and his having bought her the Aston Martin as a replacement before they landed back on California soil. He told her the whole story and ended by saying, “So consider it a graduation gift from the man who adores you, and please don’t ask me to take it back or anything.” He looked at her and she nodded and whispered ‘okay’ but still seemed a million miles away. “Bren, you did hear everything I just told you, right?”

     She nodded. “Alexa has my car, my mom blackmailed it from my dad somehow, you bought me that amazing Aston Martin we saw in Scotland, I should consider it a graduation gift, and please not ask you to take it back,” she repeated.

     He shrugged. Maybe it was just his imagination that she seemed incredibly distracted. He decided to forget about it for now. She looked damned cute, looking all distracted like that though. He turned her face towards his and kissed her lips soundly, then settled back in his seat.

     “Hey, look at this,” Jax said, whipping out a thick brochure and handing it to her. “This is everything you would possibly need to know about Fiji. I downloaded this off the net for you because I know how you like to be prepared,” he said with a smile that made her heart dance on wings.

     While he went over the brochure, pointing out things to her and explaining places they would be, things they would see, Brenda kept her eyes on him, unable to take her eyes off him, unable to forget what she thought he had said. Caught between heart-stopping astonishment and pure skepticism that she had possibly heard him correctly.

     I don’t know what it is that you’ve done to me
     But it’s caused me to act in such a crazy way
     Whatever it is that you do when you do what you’re doing
     I know it’s a feeling I want to stay
     Because my heart starts beating triple time
     With thoughts of loving you on my mind
     I can’t figure out just what to do
     When the cause and cure is you

     I get so weak in the knees I can hardly speak
     I lose all control
     And something takes over me
     In a daze I feel so amazing
     It’s not a phase
     I want you to stay with me
     By my side, till the end of time
     Your love is so sweet it knocks me right off of my feet
     Can’t explain why your love it makes me weak

     The day before her trip to Fiji, Brenda finally managed to make it over to the Jacks mansion to see Holly. She’d been planning to go see Holly all week, but making sure everything was in order, with the transfer of her transcripts from NYU to UCLA, plus shopping like crazy for clothes for her trip with Jax, had consumed so much of her time that it wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that she got to see Holly.

     Holly invited Brenda in and gave her a big hug, commented that after only a week back in the California sun those lovely auburn highlights in Brenda’s chestnut hair were already visible.

     “Jax is always going on about your hair,” Holly said, as they both took a seat in the enormous kitchen, where Holly was blending an all-natural fruit concoction. “And your eyes. He’s utterly besotted with your eyes.”

     Brenda smiled over that news. “Jax is actually the reason I’m here. He’s who I want to talk to you about,” Brenda said, accepting the cold glass of pink lemonade Holly handed to her. Then Holly poured herself some of the fruit concoction and sat down in a chair adjacent to Brenda’s at the table.

     “Talk away, my friend,” Holly encouraged.

     “Okay. Well, Jax and I… we’re getting really close. I mean really close.”

     “So I’ve noticed,” Holly said with a smile.

     “And well… Jax is a man.”

     “I noticed that, too.”

     Brenda laughed. “I mean, he’s a man, not a boy. And while I may not have any actual experience…”

     “Experience?”

     “Umm… okay, I’m talking about sexual experience…”

     “Oh, I see,” Holly said, casually, wanting Brenda to feel comfortable enough to speak with her about this.

     “Well, while I don’t have any of that, I do know that men have… they have these needs.”

     Holly nodded. “Oh yes, they certainly do have those. Quite often.”

     “Well, Jax isn’t getting those needs filled by me. I mean, we’ve been alone and very… you know… passionate. Very passionate. I guess what I mean is that we’ve certainly had opportunities - especially when we were in Scotland together. But Jax always stops things before they get out of control for us.”

     “Does he? So then I suspect he’s been jumping in his Uncle Ian’s loch quite often then,” Holly chuckled. “In other words, it must be killing him to execute that kind of self-control around you,” Holly elaborated.

     “Then why does he?” Brenda asked. “I can’t possibly be giving off vibes that I want him to stop because I never want him to stop.”

     Holly smiled at Brenda’s candor and the look in her eyes that let Holly know the girl was even now reliving some magical, sensual interlude with Jax.

     “I think it’s because you are so very special to him, Brenda. Jax has undoubtedly made love to other women before, but none of them have meant to him what you do. He’s taking his time because I suspect he wants things to be perfect for you when the time comes.”

     “Do you think Jax could love me?” Brenda asked in a rush of words, as if she thought she might be jinxing herself by letting the words out.

     “I think there’s every chance that he already does,” Holly said.

     Brenda’s eyes lit up and Holly saw the gold chips glittering, just the way Jax always said they did when she was happy. “Really?” Brenda said. “Why do you think that? Oh, my god, did he tell you? Or did he tell Jerry and then Jerry told you?” Her words were coming out a mile a minute and Holly was laughing in delight, because Brenda was such a delight. Everything about her was a joy to the senses.

     Holly placed her hand over Brenda’s. “No, no one said anything to me. Jax and Jerry are masters of keeping one another’s secrets.”

     “Then why do you think Jax might already love me?” Brenda asked.

     “It’s the way he looks at you. And that adorable scowl he gets when any other man looks at you. It’s the fact that he’s willing to wait to make love to you, even though he must be close to losing his mind over that. It’s the fact that, from what I can tell, he would do anything in this world just to make you happy.”

     “I’m in love with him,” Brenda blurted out. “ I mean, I think I am. No, I know I am. I think I know I am.”

     Holly nodded, beaming. “Then tell him.”

     “I want to. And I want Jax. I mean I want Jax. You know…”

     Holly laughed softly, “I know. I think this upcoming trip the two of you are taking could be a wonderful time for both things to happen.”

     Brenda bit her lip, nodding. “Holly?”

     “Yes, Brenda.”

     “I want to seduce Jax when we get to Fiji!” she decided with a bewitching, dimpled smile. Then she edged closer to Holly, her eyes dancing with excitement. “Tell me what to do.”

     Holly’s smile was just as mischievous as Brenda’s, as the two friends clinked beverage glasses while Holly began to regale Brenda with her delicious advice about the keys to successfully seducing the man you loved.

Song credit: “Weak,” written by Brian Alexander Morgan, performed by SWV