Sherring Cross, in the lovely countryside of Edinburgh, Scotland, was indeed breathtakingly lovely, and Jax had been right in predicting that Brenda would like it. She did, and effusively told both men so. Ian was pleased as punch that she liked his home so much, and Jax, too, was very pleased at Brenda’s excitement. For whatever reasons, it meant a lot to him to see her happy. Damned if he knew why, but it did.

     Jax put Brenda’s things in a room with a lovely view of the flowing loch, and Uncle Ian set about making hot chocolate and ushering Brenda into the living room.

     “My favorite movie is on tonight,” he told her. “ ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ Do you like that one, Brenda?” he asked, as he set the silver serving service on the end table and began to pour the rich, hot chocolate into white mugs with holiday wreaths decorating them.

     Brenda laughed and Ian thought the sound to be lyrical and awfully pretty, just like the way she spoke. “Umm…actually, I never can seem to make it through to the end,” she confessed. “I always fall asleep.”

     Ian shot her a teasing look of reprimand. “Och! What a bad girl you are, fallin’ asleep on Mr. Stewart. Well, this night, I vow you’re goin’ ta watch it from start ta finish, lass. Even if I must prop your lovely eyes open with toothpicks.”

     Brenda laughed again, as she accepted the cup of hot chocolate Uncle Ian gave to her. “Sounds painful,” she said. “The toothpicks, I mean.”

     Now it was Ian’s turn to laugh. “Careful now, darlin’, that cocoa’s quite hot. This is my dear mum’s special recipe, you know. The trick, you see, is that she dinna subscribe ta that cocoa and water nonsense they try to pass off as hot chocolate there in your good ol’ US of A. No, you must be usin’ milk. Nice, rich, hot milk, the finest Swiss cocoa, and then a touch of sweet condensed milk is what does the trick. Sometimes a bit o’ cinnamon, but I left that out this time, bein’ as Jax has quite an aversion to that spice. And, of course, then you heap in all these marshmallows,” he added, spooning in a large teaspoon of mini-marshmallows into Brenda’s cup.

     Jax walked into the living room, lured in there by his uncle’s charming Scottish burr and Brenda’s lovely laughter. He also wanted to see her again, he realized. To look long and lingeringly at their beautiful, young houseguest. To see, once again, what it was about her that captivated him so completely. It was not simply that spectacular face of hers… he was sure about that.

     He found her - shoes off, legs curled up underneath her - sitting on the couch next to his Uncle Ian, Ian’s dog, a giant, old wolfhound named Edgar, napping at Ian’s feet. Jax stifled a chuckle, as he heard Uncle Ian trying to sell Brenda on what a masterpiece ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was and that she could not possibly sleep through it this time.

     Jax stood back in the doorway, taking the opportunity to observe her with impunity. She was as different from her sister as ever. She was petite, whereas Alexa was tall. She was stunningly curvaceous, whereas Alexa was model-thin and willowy. An exquisite beauty and sweetness radiated from her, sprinkled liberally with mischief and playfulness and an appeal that defied words. Beauty also radiated from Alexa, but, in all honesty, it could not compare to the enthralling allure of her dark-haired sister, and Jax would never apply the words sweet, mischievous or playful to Alexa. No, Alexa was bright and determined and ambitious. She was poised and cool, dispassionate and never got angry about anything.

     Katherine thought she was perfect.

     Jax thought he might like it if Alexa showed a passion or a fire every now and then. She lacked the spirit that could thrill him, the vulnerability that could move him, the playfulness that could delight him, the defiance that could challenge him, and the enchantment that could hold him.

     Ned didn’t even think Alexa had a pulse sometimes.

     Brenda… Now, she had a fiery spirit, Jax knew. After all, he’d seen it in action in the eleven-year-old version of the girl. A smile touched his lips. He wondered if she still had that reckless spirit of hers, or if six years at the Dame Agnes School had tempered and tamed her? He found himself hoping not. A watered-down version of his bonny sprite was not an appealing thought; not when the devil-may-care Brenda was so utterly fascinating. She was one that should never be tamed or roped in, he realized.

     Her hair was still that dark, beautiful, luxuriant mass of long curls running down her back, only now there were definitely less hints of that shimmering auburn visible in the chestnut brown. Jax attributed that to the fact that Brenda had been in England and away from the sunshine of Beverly Hills. It was the sun, he knew, that kissed her dark hair with those bewitching strands of auburn. His gaze fell to the slender column of her throat, then moved lower to the enticing ripeness of her breasts, held snug beneath the gray sweater-top she wore. Well, those certainly hadn’t been there the last time he’d seen her, he noted with a devilish smile. His leisurely, pleasurable perusal of Brenda was interrupted by his Uncle spotting him and calling his name.

     “Jax! Come on over and join us, lad. I’m of a mind ta make sure that our lovely Brenda watches ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ from start ta bloody finish, with nary a catnap in between.”

     Jax walked over to them and instead of sitting on any of the roomy chairs available, plunked himself down next to Brenda on the couch in a space just barely big enough to accommodate him, which resulted in his thigh brushing hers and his arm brushing hers as well.

     “And so you’re recruiting me to…what…hold her eyes open for you?” Jax asked, sending Brenda a smile that made her want to hiccup very badly.

     “If it comes ta that,” Ian winked. Then he rose. “I’m goin’ ta get us some cookies to have with our cocoa,” he said, excusing himself, Edgar waking and trotting along behind him.

     Alone with Brenda, Jax picked up her hand, spying the pretty bracelet dangling becomingly from her slender wrist. “Hey, I remember this,” he said, touching the emerald and gold-topaz hearts bracelet. “It was what you were looking for that night I first met you. I see it fits you now.”

     “Yep. Well, I have actually grown and gotten older since then, in case you hadn’t noticed,” she said, poking his chest.

     His eyes were avidly gazing into hers. “Believe me, I have noticed,” he told her. His eyes dropped to her lips - god, such sensuous, sweet lips - then quickly went back to her eyes. Still holding her hand on the pretense of looking at the bracelet, he said: “I think we’re going to have to take turns keeping each other awake during this movie. I tend to fall asleep halfway through it myself,” he admitted.

     Brenda giggled and turned around so that she was leaning back against him, her legs now propped up on the couch, ankles crossed. “I have these visions of Uncle Ian dressed in a red devil suit poking at us with a fire poker each time we so much as blink our eyes,” she whispered.

     Jax grinned, his fingers inadvertently entwining in hers. “Or playing revelry on his bagpipes right next to our ears. And I’m not kidding. He has bagpipes, you know.”

     Brenda tipped her head back to look at him, her eyes sparkling with a spirit and fire that made Jax’s heart race with a strange exhilaration. “Really? Bagpipes? How cool, Jax.” She smiled at the image of Uncle Ian walking around Sherring Cross with bagpipes and wearing a kilt.

     “You won’t think so after you’ve heard him play them,” Jax promised her.

     She laughed and hit his thigh. “You are so mean. I happen to love your Uncle Ian, and no matter how horrendously he played, I would still give him a standin’ ovation, laddie,” she insisted.

     Jax laughed softly and rested his hand, still entwined with hers, on her stomach. “Your Scottish burr has much improved, my bonny sprite.”

     “Oh, I talk that way in school all the time,” she confided with a conspiratorial smile that was dazzlingly sweet and made Jax’s breath catch. “It’s great for telling off the boys. There’s just something about telling people off in a Scottish accent that’s amazing,” she sighed, as the opening credits for the movie began to roll on the TV screen.

     “How are you doing in school?” Jax asked her, amazed at their comfort level with one another. She was as relaxed against him and as trusting as she had been when she was eleven years old.

     “Good,” she responded. “Better than good, actually, but that’s what happens when you have no friends and have little else to do but concentrate on your studies.”

     “If you have no friends, Brenda, it’s only because they’re envious of you, you know. And the only way they feel they can hurt you is by exclusion.”

     Brenda shrugged, but he felt her unconsciously move closer to him, as if she found comfort in his nearness. “It doesn’t even matter what the reasons are though, Jax. Because none of that takes away the loneliness or that awful feeling of not being wanted.” She sighed, determined to dismiss this topic. “Anyway, I only have a few more months to get through.”

     Jax took her hint and veered away from the subject of friends at school. “What the heck was in that heavy green bag that I had to drag up the stairs?” he asked instead.

     “Oh, that was my archery equipment,” she said proudly. “It was only heavy because I have the target circle in there.”

     “Archery? Well, are you any good at it?” he teased her.

     “No, not really,” she laughed. “But that’s the beauty of it, you see. I get to miss the real target and hit all sorts of other, far more deserving targets, and I get to blame it all on my lack of archery skills,” she said, her eyes dancing with mischief. Then she gazed back towards the living room entrance in search of the still missing Uncle Ian. “He must be baking those cookies,” she whispered.

     Jax laughed and then gazed down at her as she settled comfortably against him to watch the movie. He tried to watch it, too, but found he would much rather watch her. Something like lightning speared though him and made his heart skip a beat - ah, yes, this was familiar. This he had felt before…while gazing into the eyes of an eleven-year-old girl six years ago, to be exact, he recalled. It had scared the hell out of him then. It didn’t particularly scare the hell out of him now. It thrilled him, truth be told. It made him feel alive in an electrifying way that was heady. He hadn’t recognized it for what it was when he was seventeen. Wasn’t sure he really knew what it was now either, actually. But he now did know one thing: whatever it was, he liked it. And whatever it was, she was the cause of it.

     Although they both tried to stay awake while watching the Christmas classic, Brenda was the first to doze off, but Jax followed her lead about fifteen minutes after her eyes fluttered shut. Upstairs in his bedroom, Uncle Ian was fast asleep himself, having deliberately left the two young folk alone downstairs. He trusted Jax implicitly; knew that his nephew was every bit a gentleman and would not compromise or seduce the young innocent, no matter how great was his desire. But he also knew that Jax felt something fierce for the young lass, and Jax needed to come to terms with whatever that emotion was before he went off makin’ the blasted mistake of commitin’ himself to any other.

     It was the sound of the ringing phone that woke Jax. The first thing he noticed was the delicious warmth along the length of his body, and he opened his eyes to find himself stretched out on the couch with a sleeping Brenda sprawled out on top of him, dead to the world. The TV was still on, some infomercial about a hair loss product being shown. Jax reached for the remote and clicked off the TV. And then the sound of the phone ringing drew him back to what had initially awakened him. Careful not to awaken Brenda, he reached across her to the center table and picked up the phone.

     “Hello?” he answered in a semi-sleepy voice that was really quite appealing.

     “Jax! Thank goodness. You know I really have to insist that Uncle Ian get an answering machine because I’ve been calling you all night to no avail. Were you two out?”

     Jax groaned. “Katherine, it’s 2 a.m. here.”

     “I know. I’m sorry, but I had to get to you.”

     Jax sighed. “Why?” he asked as he rubbed his chin across the top of Brenda’s head, loving the feel of her silky hair against his skin. He barely heard what his sister was going on about; something about him and Uncle Ian coming home to Beverly Hills for Christmas. A prospect that did not interest Jax at all at the moment.

     “No, it’s too late,” Jax said. “Christmas is only four days away.”

     “Yes, but you can just hop on the jet on Christmas Eve and be here on Christmas morning.”

     “Be reasonable, Kat. We’re staying here for Christmas. If you want to see Uncle Ian so badly, then you fly out here, okay? Bye.” And with that Jax hung up and replaced the phone. His movement stirred Brenda slightly, but she did not awaken, merely murmured something incoherent in her sleep and snuggled more deeply into his arms. Jax held her, staring at her breathtaking, sleeping countenance, the gentle rise and fall of her body against his as she breathed, and he felt breathless pulses of desire racing through his blood. He also felt a contentment and a rightness that was intoxicating to experience. It warmed him and bewitched him and lulled him back into a very sweet slumber.

     The next few days Jax offered to show Brenda around Scotland, which she eagerly took him up on. They were usually gone for the entire day, seeing the sights, with Brenda bugging Jax to allow her to do some Christmas shopping in between. Today was no different.

     “I don’t need to get much more,” she promised, having already gotten gifts for her father and grandmother and sent them off express delivery. “Just something for my neighbor, Mrs. K., a little something for Miss Tillery. And something for you and Uncle Ian, of course.”

     “Brenda, you don’t have to get us anything,” Jax told her.

     “Yes, I do,” she countered. “And I fully expect you to get me something in return, of course,” she added, flashing him a dimpled smile, as she marched into the store on Princes Street.

     Jax just smiled at her retreating form. “My bonny sprite is bossy, too,” he murmured.

     When Brenda was done with her purchases, Jax had shown her some more sights including Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle, which she really wanted to see. Then he showed her the church of St. Giles; they stopped for some food, and then finally headed home to Sherring Cross.

     “How is Uncle Ian related to your father?” Brenda asked curiously, as she watched Jax place her packages in the back of the car and then open the front passenger side for her.

     “He’s my father’s cousin. But they both had no siblings, so they grew up like brothers,” Jax explained. “They lived together at Sherring Cross when Uncle Ian’s parents passed away and my grandfather became his legal guardian.”

     Brenda slid into the seat and put her seat belt on. “I wish I could have known your father. I just think I would have really liked him.”

     Jax nodded in agreement. “You would have. And he would have been pretty crazy about you, I’m sure,” Jax predicted. “The same goes for my mother. Her middle name was Elizabeth, too, you know. Did I ever tell you that?”

     “No, you never told me that before,” Brenda said softly, gazing at him lingeringly. Then she leaned back in her seat and let out a happy sigh as she watched the flakes of snow falling from the sky. “You know what I was thinking, Jax?”

     “Whether or not my uncle is going to force us to watch ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ again tonight?” Jax guessed, his eyes glinting with playfulness. Uncle Ian had been trying to get them to watch the movie for three nights straight now. Jax, Brenda and Edgar the Wolfhound fell asleep in the midst of it without fail.

     “Oh, my god, you don’t think he’s going to do that again, do you?” she asked in mock horror, grabbing his arm. Then she laughed, her dark eyes sparkling as they always did when she laughed. And entrancing him, as they always did too. “No, what I was really thinking was how amazing it is that even though we haven’t seen each other in six years… I still feel as if I know you so well. As if we’ve never been apart,” Brenda marveled. “I know it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s how I feel when I’m around you - like you and I have known each other forever. I think it’s because of what Uncle Ian said, you know, that we’re probably going to be family soon anyway, so we already feel like we are,” she decided, leaning her head against his arm as she watched the snow flurries.

     Yes, Jax thought, glancing at her exquisite profile. We are going to be a family, Brenda. You and I.

     And just like that, as far as he was concerned, his future had just been set in stone.

     When Katherine arrived at Sherring Cross on Christmas Eve, she was not alone. Jerry was with her, of course. And so was Alexa. Katherine had also invited Alexa’s best friend, Eve Thornton, for this allowed them to invite Eve’s brother, Ryan. Katherine needed Ryan to be there to kick-start some jealousy in Jax and further the union of Jax and Alexa.

     When the new arrivals came into the house, Katherine was full of apologies to her Uncle Ian for the extra guests, but Ian was welcoming to one and all.

     “Where’s Jax?” Jerry asked, noticing his brother was not in the living room.

     “Your brother’s in the den,” Uncle Ian replied, after giving Jerry a hug, calling him a scamp and telling him he needed a haircut. “Oh, and you’ll never guess who’s been stayin’ with us this past week, fillin’ this house with a joy and mischief, the likes of which I’ve not seen since your father and I were kids livin’ here,” Ian said, with a handsome smile.

     Katherine smiled at her uncle. “Santa himself?” she guessed.

     “I dare say if St. Nick caught sight of this bonny angel, he’d claim her as his own gift and abscond with her on his poor excuse of a sleigh,” Ian said.

     “Her?” Jerry said. “Who is it?”

     “Well, perhaps I’ll just leave that a surprise for you all,” he said with a grin. “Come along now. Get your coats and boots off, and let’s go join your brother in the den.”

     Ten minutes later they all walked into the den, which was decorated wonderfully for the holidays. Jerry snatched a candy cane from the mantle as he walked inside and then stopped in his tracks, staring at the scene before him. He wasn’t the only one staring.

     Jax and Brenda had been wrapping last minute presents and had then proceeded to get into a war of sticking scotch tape on each other, which had now escalated to sticking bows and wrapping paper on each other and Jax was apparently the victor, as he had bows stuck all over Brenda and was now wrapping red and green ribbon around her as well.

     “Well you’re definitely the most unique present under this tree,” he laughed, finishing off his work by taping a gift tag onto her stomach. “Definitely the prettiest, too.”

     Brenda was laughing too hard to retaliate or even concede defeat. But when she finally was able to stop her breathless laughter, she asked him: “Did you just…did you just put a gift tag on me?” And then proceeded to laugh all over again.

     Jax grinned and sat down, observing his handiwork. “I did,” he confirmed, eyeing her critically and then exchanging a red bow for gold and placing that atop her head. “Perfect,” he murmured.

     “Jax, you’d better be able to get me out of this,” she warned him, her voice enticingly breathless and still filled with laughter, as she saw that he even had her wrists bound loosely with sparkling silver ribbons and twine and he’d even stuck some jingle bells on there, so every time she moved, she jingled. It was just too funny, and she was laughing once again.

     “I can get you out,” he promised. “Although… will I? Now that’s the question you should be asking yourself, sprite,” he said, reaching over and pulling off a piece of mistletoe from near the fireplace and grinning wickedly as he dangled it over her head.

     Brenda hiccuped, her eyes unable to leave his as his intent became quite clear, and she was quite suddenly in a state of all-out panic.

     “Ummm…” she said nervously, licking her lips. “Wait… You’re not finished though. If you put a nametag on me, then I’m somebody’s present, right? So who are you going to give me to, Edgar the wolfhound?” she asked, smiling mischievously at him.

     Jax held her gaze for a long moment and then he reached for the red Sharpie marker and wrote something on the nametag.

     Brenda tried to gaze down to see what he’d written, but couldn’t read it.

     “So, whose present am I?” she asked, again trying to see what he’d written, assuming it was something hysterically funny.

     Jax peeled the gift tag from her and placed it in her bound hands. She saw the word ‘For:’ with the word ‘Jax’ scribbled in red ink, at the same time that he whispered: “Mine.”

     He wasn’t even bothering to use the excuse of the mistletoe this time, as he bent forward to kiss her. But he never got to taste those lips that beckoned him, as at that moment Katherine choose to call out: “Jax! We’re here!”

     And Alexa, having witnessed Jax about to plant one on her sister, shouted accusingly, “Brenda! What are you doing here?”

     Brenda was at first mortified to discover that she and Jax had an audience to their wrapping war, not to mention to the almost-kiss - and she was positive he had intended to kiss her. She was both greatly relieved it didn’t happen and sorely disappointed it didn’t happen at the same time. Greatly relived because she didn’t know the first thing about kissing and was sure Jax would have been less than impressed with anything she had to offer. Sorely disappointed because, truth be told, she had always wanted to kiss him. Just once. But now Alexa was here, Jax’s wife, practically, and a fabulous kisser, no doubt. And she had probably witnessed Brenda gazing at Jax like a lovestruck teenager, breathless with fearful anticipation of his kiss - and, yes, Brenda was totally embarrassed. But then she decided there was nothing she could do about it, so she wasn’t about to let it bother her, and her embarrassment disappeared just like that.

     “Hi, everybody,” she said with a dazzling smile that seemed to intoxicate Jax, who was still staring at her, not at the new arrivals. Then she placed her bound wrists in Jax’s hands. “I concede defeat, oh, great grinch,” she said, bowing her head and catching his grin. “Now, get these things off of me!” she laughed.

     Jax sighed at the interruption of so lovely a moment, but he obliged and began to untie the Christmas ribbons from her wrists, albeit very slowly, and all the while sending her a slow-growing smile that made it difficult for her to breathe and she started a bit of hiccuping, which only made his smile turn more arrogantly sensual. He’d been living in the same house with her for a week now and he’d figured out what her endearing little habit of hiccuping at the most odd moments was all about.

     “This is the surprise I told you all about,” Ian said cheerily, his spirits even more merry after seeing what he’d just seen. “Jax and I had the lovely coincidence of dining at the home of my friend, Mavis Tillery, who just happened ta be housin’ some of the young ladies of Dame Agnes School for the holidays. We saw Brenda there, and we insisted she spend the holidays here at Sherring Cross with us,” he finished.

     “My god,” Jerry said, staring at Brenda. Ryan Thornton was gaping at her, as well.

     Katherine had the same reaction as her brother Jerry, as she gazed upon the now seventeen - six months away from being eighteen - year-old Brenda. Of all the dratted luck! That Uncle Ian should know this Tillery woman, that Jax should be with him when he went to the woman’s house, and that Brenda Elizabeth Barrett, of all people, should be one of the Dame Agnes students there. After all, Katherine had concocted six years ago to get Brenda out of Jax’s reach; fate had still managed to allow him to find her.

     And if Jax had been enchanted by the eleven-year-old, clearly he was enraptured by the seventeen-year-old, Katherine realized unhappily, a frown working her lips. She glanced at Alexa, who looked torn between wanting to bawl in frustration and wanting to rip her sister’s head off.

     When Jax had Brenda unbound, unwrapped and de-bowed, she greeted everyone again, determined not to seem embarrassed by whatever they had all witnessed. And then she offered to help Uncle Ian with the eggnog - anything to get out of that room for a while.

     Jax and Jerry greeted one another fondly, and Jerry made a remark about having been sorry they interrupted, which earned him a death-glare from Katherine. Katherine quickly whispered for Alexa to put the plan in motion and flirt with Ryan and that Katherine would take care of the rest.

     Alexa walked over to the fireplace, where Ryan and Eve were glancing up at the tapestries and paintings and commenting about the house, and she began to flirt with Ryan as instructed. But all the while her eyes strayed to Jax, who had greeted her the same way he had everyone else. Nothing special. Nothing intimate. How could Jax act so contrary to the way Katherine assured her he felt? And he had been about to kiss her sister, dammit! She had seen that with her own eyes!

     If Katherine Jacks were making a fool out of her, Alexa would vow revenge upon the woman until the day she died. To think she might have wasted all these many years on Jax, giving up her virginity, squelching her temper and her domineering personality, all in the hopes of snagging that man… for nothing! Katherine had better hold up her end of this, Alexa thought angrily, feeling humiliation creeping up on her.

     “Jax,” Katherine said in her most reasonable, persuasive, sisterly voice. “I’m wondering if we can have a chat.”

     “Run, Jax, run!” Jerry deadpanned.

     “Oh, go away, Jer!” Katherine said.

     Jerry laughed. “House of cards crumbling, is it?” he whispered to her. Then he turned to Jax “Have you tried to set up another meeting with the board, Jax?”

     Jerry literally heard Katherine grinding her teeth.

     “Not since they canceled on me the last time,” Jax admitted. “But I intend to request another meeting when I get back home. I already called Uncle Milt about it.”

     “Stellar!” Jerry smiled, and then he turned to Katherine. “Your turn,” he offered gallantly, and then he walked away, leaving them alone by the Christmas tree.

     “Oh, he does love to prick my temper,” Katherine muttered, thinking she would love a Jerry voodoo doll for Christmas. Then she gave her full attention back to Jax. “Let’s sit,” she said. She sat on the couch while Jax sat on the armrest. “Jax, you’re twenty-three-years-old now,” his sister began, “and it’s really time for you to start thinking seriously about your future, don’t you think? You’ve really got to buckle down and start deciding what it is that you want and then plan accordingly.”

     Jax nodded in full agreement. “Yes, you’re right,” he said.

     Katherine was startled by his easy agreement.” I am?… I mean, yes, of course, I am.”

     “And I do know what I want,” Jax assured her.

     Katherine smiled, so pleased that apparently her plans to push Jax into a decision by using Ryan Thornton’s attraction to Alexa had worked so well and so quickly! She’d noticed Jax gazing at Ryan and looking none too pleased! That was until she noticed that Jax’s gaze was not on Ryan and Alexa, but on Ryan and Brenda! That idiot Ryan was hovering around Brenda like a pesky gnat. Brenda and Uncle Ian had come back into the den and were setting out the refreshments, and Ryan was pestering her every two seconds, offering to help her move this, and pour that, and slice the other thing.

     “You - cannot - possibly - be serious!” Katherine said, appalled.

     “I am,” Jax countered.

     “Jax, this is not a funny jest! Did Jerry put you up to this?” Katherine scowled.

     “It’s not a jest, Katherine. I’m perfectly serious.”

     Katherine could not conceal her gasp. “Jax, might I point out to you that she is just a child? She is only seventeen-years-old!”

     Jax nodded. “Yes I know. I’ll wait,” he said.

     “You’ll what?!” Katherine felt as if she had dropped into a nightmare and her brother had lost every bit of his senses. Her own predictions of what Jax would be willing to do if Brenda captured his fancy were apparently coming to fruition.

     “I’m perfectly aware of how old she is: seventeen years, six months and 24 days. And I’m willing to wait for her,” he explained.

     Katherine felt desperation clawing at her for the first time in her life. “Jax, this is sheer madness!” she said, appealing to her brother, the logical thinker. “You know it is.”

     “I only know that I want her, Kat,” he said as his only explanation.

     Katherine let out a sigh of relief. Now this she could deal with. “Fine,” she said. “That’s perfectly fine. It’s also understandable. She’s uncommonly beautiful, highly desirable, I grant you. So you wait until she’s of age and then you take her to your bed as often as you like until you…Work this thing out of your system. But, Jax, there’s no reason to jeopardize your future with Alexa over a case of massive lust for her kid sister, is there? We agree on this, don’t we?”

     To her dismay, Jax was shaking his head. “Katherine, I don’t have a future with Alexa. I’ve just told you that the one I want is Brenda.” When his sister only continued to stare at him, he added, “You may as well know that I’ve made up my mind about this. I want her and that’s all there is to it. I don’t need your permission or your blessing, you realize. I’m only telling you as a courtesy and because you are my sister.”

     Katherine fanned herself. “For godsake, Jax…”

     “And let me clarify my position for you so there’s no room for misinterpretation: not only do I want her, I don’t want anyone else to have her. I want her exclusively. I want her willingly. I want her… permanently.” When Katherine only gasped, Jax added, “I trust that gasp means that you now understand what I’m telling you?”

     Katherine was stupefied by this turn of events and his absurd implications that he was actually going to marry that girl in order to keep her from other men! Lord, but this was ridiculous! “What I understand, my poor little bother, is that you are rapidly losing your mind! Jax, I am... I am begging you to let common sense in here. My god, that girl is just… a girl! And for pity’s sake, she certainly does not love you!”

     Jax shrugged. “She likes me quite a lot. That’s a start.”

     “Jax, I am being serious! She does not love you. She does not want a future with you. How can you settle for that? Alexa, on the other hand, loves, adores and wants you. She has your best interests at heart. She…”

     Jax gave Katherine a slight, very attractive smile. “You don’t think I could get Brenda to love me?” His blue eyes were challenging.

     Katherine knew that Jax could get the very devil himself to love him, but she wanted only to dissuade Jax from this ridiculous folly, so she didn’t tell him what she truly thought. Instead, she sought to make him unsure of his abilities. “No, I don’t,” Katherine said. “I don’t think you can get her to love you, Jax. I don’t think you can even get her to marry you, if that was your absurd intent.”

     “It is my intent,” Jax confirmed, getting slightly irritated by her resistance.

     “Then you are only asking for disappointment and failure, something I never thought would befall you, Jax. She won’t have you,” Katherine predicted with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Do you really think a seventeen-year-old is thinking of marriage to anyone?” she ridiculed, hoping to make Jax feel foolish. “Do you think in one year’s time, when she’s eighteen and legal for you to seduce, will make any difference? I’ll tell you what she’s thinking about, little brother. She’s thinking about boyfriends, acne, breast size, sex, the latest MTV music video, getting her driver’s license. She’s thinking about going to parties, rock concerts, dying her hair green perhaps, and what colleges she’d like to apply to. She is not thinking about a possible future marriage to the man who has been romancing her sister for the past six years.”

     Katherine thought her arguments were very sound, but Jax did not look the least bit deterred or uncertain. In fact he looked faintly amused by her uncharacteristic lack of faith in him.

     “Come on. You don’t know a thing about her,” Jax dismissed.

     “Well, neither do you! Which is my point exactly,” Katherine pointed out.

     “I know that I want her. That’s enough.”

     Katherine looked ready to jump up from the couch and strangle him. “For the love of god, Jax, will you stop saying that?!”

     “I also know that she’s extraordinary,” he said softly. “I know that she does not conform to any of the stereotypical images you rattled off a moment ago. I know that she does something to me. She makes me feel things… I’ve never felt before and want things I’ve never wanted before.”

     “Yes, that is commonly referred to as out-and-out lust, brother dearest. And might I take this moment to reiterate to you that you will never be able to bring this girl around to your way of seeing things?”

     “If you really believe that, then you obviously underestimate me,” he told her.

     She shook her head. “I never underestimate you, Jax. I’m your biggest champion; you know that. But I think you overestimate yourself this time. And you also devalue yourself by going after that girl, when you can have any woman you want.” Katherine stressed.

     “I only want one. This one,” he reminded her. “And you know it’s really not like you to begrudge me going after my heart’s desire,” he chided her, a hint of a smile dancing across his lips.

     Katherine looked ready to expire on the spot. In truth her complexion was rather purple, Jax thought. Jerry, who was watching their exchange from across the room, was laughing himself into stitches of pain. He only wished he could hear what they were saying!

     “Your heart’s what?! Did you say your heart’s…!” she stopped to take a deep, calming breath. “That ludicrous, lust-driven statement is not even worthy of repeating, Jasper. I can assure you that your ‘heart’ is not the part of your anatomy that desire’s that girl!” she snorted. “Now, Alexa, on the other hand…”

     “I don’t love her, if that’s where you’re headed,” Jax stated with a sigh. “Let’s be truthful here, shall we? You’re the one who loves her, Katherine, not me.”

     “No, that’s not true. Now, Jax, I know that you have tender feelings for Alexa. You have to. You’ve been with her for six years, and that means something,” Katherine pointed out.

     Jax rose a disbelieving blonde brow. “You actually count my four years at Yale, when I barely saw her, except during holidays and intermittently over the summer vacations? I won’t even point out the fact that I barely see her now.”

     “You were never far from her thoughts while she was at Berkley and you were at Yale,” Katherine maintained. “And I naturally assumed the same was true for you.”

     “You assumed wrong,” Jax told her. “You do that a lot, you know.”

     She glared at him. “You’re sounding more and more like that odious brother of ours every minute, Jax. Do you swear to me he did not put you up to this simply to upset me and to - to ruin my Christmas?!”

     “Jerry has nothing to do with this, Kat, and let’s not change the subject. We were talking about Alexa and her expectations - or your expectations. I frankly find it impossible to separate the two. I have never once led Alexa to believe that she has a future with me or that a year of dating in high school and intermittent dates thereafter constitutes a committed relationship. It’s never been that, except perhaps in the recesses of your mind somewhere, Katherine. You, however, have planted seeds of life-long commitment to me in Alexa’s mind, and you pepper her imagination with hopes that have absolutely no basis in reality. If she has expectations for us that I never intended to fulfill, the fault is yours, Kat. I can’t put it any more bluntly than that.”

     Katherine felt as if she was slamming into a brick wall, and that brick wall’s name was Jax. And his intense infatuation with Alexa’s sister was taking a wrecking ball to all the grand plans Katherine had painstakingly made for his future for years! She was getting a migraine.

     “Jax, please listen to me,” she said firmly. “Now, I know that the very backbone of the Jacks family is that we never give up until we get what we want. And the foregone conclusion is always that we will eventually get it. But this time, Jax, you will not,” she said, hoping to see at least a flash of doubt cloud his gorgeous baby blues.

     It was not to be. There was no flash of doubt. Not even a glimmer. “Oh, but I will,” he contradicted her.

     And then she knew. He had a plan already. By god, he had a plan, blast him! Katherine realized. And then she spoke the words aloud. “You… have a plan?”

     “I have a plan.”

     “You mean to tell me you’ve been entertaining this insane notion long enough to have devised a plan of action to see it through?!” she nearly shouted.

     Good lord! For all she knew he’d had this plan ever since setting eyes on the girl when she was eleven years old!

     On the other side of the room, Jerry was howling with laughter at his sister’s agitation at whatever Jax was telling her.

     Jax grinned at his sister’s outrage, too. He loved her, but she really should have figured out long before now that all her attempted manipulations were a complete waste of energy. Ah, yes, he knew he was smashing all of her hopes and dreams for her concept of his future. She would not give up either, if he knew her. And he did. But he wasn’t going to give up either. She wanted one thing for him: a perfect, doting, Stepford wife, who never rose her voice, and a seat behind the desk in the Oval Office; while he wanted quite another: challenges and happiness and laughter and wild attractions, and passionate fights… and a passionate love.

     He wanted Brenda.

     And now that he’d made up his mind about that, he bloody well intended to get her.