“Oh, hell! Hell!” William Douglas Warner angrily stamped out his cigar and crumpled the copy of Barrons that was in his hands. He then hurled it across the room, knocking over an expensive vase in the process. The noise brought his four grandsons running into the living room of his vast Cocoa Beach estate. Although they had holdings worldwide and base offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Chicago, the base of operations and heart and soul of Warner World had always been, and still was, Warner Aeronautics, right here in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

     “What happened?” queried Daniel Fillmore, who at age 33 was the eldest of the four Fillmore boys. Alec was next in line at 29; then Billy followed at 26; and the youngest was Steven, 25. The four brothers were easily identified as siblings. They all had the same rich, gorgeous chestnut brown hair, slightly given to curl. The three older brothers had the clear gray eyes of their grandfather, while Steven had inherited his mother’s striking dark brown eyes.

     “What happened,” Will Warner said through gritted teeth, “is that that hard-headed kid, Jasper Jacks, has thrown down the gauntlet like never before. He’s issued us an insult that we cannot and will not ignore, boys!”

     “What did he do? Get DynaTech back?” Billy asked, stunned that Jax could have gotten it back so quickly.

     “It’s worse than that,” Will Warner growled. “Boys, it appears that Jacks Enterprises now owns Parisian Productions.”

     “The film company that mom owned?” Steven said, bewildered. “Why the hell would JE want some obscure little French film company? What kind of backwoods business sense is that?”

     “That’s just it. It has nothing to do with business,” Will said angrily. “It is personal, Steven. That boy has unwittingly gone after my heart and soul. He’s read magazine articles about me - he’s done his research. He knows the high sentimental value I place on this company, although he likely has no idea why and doesn’t give a hoot. He just knows that it means a lot to me, so he wanted to take it from me. He wanted to stick it to me, damn it, and by god, he has! And I intend to repay him tenfold for this,” Will swore, slamming his hand down on the back of the sofa.

     “We can get it back, Gramps,” Steven bragged.

     “Steven, for god’s sake, I’ve told you a million times not to call me that ridiculous name,” Will barked irritably.

     Steven rolled his gold-flecked, dark brown eyes. “Sorry, Grandfather,” he murmured. “But as I was saying, we can get it back. I can get it back.”

     “Can you?” Will snapped. “How the hell did Jasper Jacks get it in the first place, eh? You were careless! You think you’re so good? Well, let me tell you, that kid is better.”

     Steven took immediate offense to his grandfather’s criticisms. “How was I to know I had to watch some little known, not even profitable, production company halfway around the world as if it were actually worth something?”

     His grandfather shot him an icy glare. “That is your mother’s company you are speaking of, boy,” he said, his voice shaking with anger. “It is all I have left of my only child!”

     “No, it’s not. You have us,” Steven pointed out bitterly. For he knew that having four grandsons did nothing to fix the old man’s cracked heart. His daughter had died hating him; blaming him for her loveless, miserable marriage, her miserable life. And in the end she’d taunted him with the fact that she’d had another child; a little girl not fathered by her philandering ex-husband, Harrison Fillmore. A little girl born of love and passion, not duty. A little girl who was forever free from the Warner influence and Will’s control-freak ways, as Grace had happily divulged.

     Will Warner had spent years searching for the granddaughter that his daughter claimed she had given birth to the year she had supposedly been filming a movie in Paris. But everything he tried turned up one dead end after another, and he was beginning to believe that his daughter had had the last laugh on him by making that all up about another grandchild. But then he recalled the look in her eyes, and he knew she had been speaking the truth. And by god, he was going to find her. Whoever and wherever that girl was, she was a Warner; she was his family, his blood; she belonged to him, and he would find her and claim her as one of his own.

     All of Will’s grandsons knew that the way to their grandfather’s heart was a wicked takeover - a one-upmanship of JE - but the ultimate way to fall into the man’s good graces would be to find their missing sister. Not that any of them were interested. The old man’s obsession with finding the female Warner heir left the boys hoping the girl would never surface. It was hard enough for them to fight amongst themselves to gain their grandfather’s affections, something the unknown sister already had, sight unseen. None of them wanted the phantom little sister to be a reality. None of them wanted her to exist.

     “I will take over Johnny Jacks’ precious Jacks Enterprises if it’s the last thing I do!” Will ranted, having ignored Steven’s comment. “Jasper Jacks will see his father’s company in my hands, owned by me, run by me, taken from him by me. And only then will I go to my grave with a smile on my face. If it’s a war that boy wants - well, he’s got one now!”

     Katherine jotted down several messages and slipped them into Jax’s pile as Jerry entered the living room.

     “Jerry, where on earth is Jax?” Katherine asked. “He’s got a ton of messages here, and I literally haven’t laid eyes on him since the New Year’s Eve party. He hasn’t left town has he?”

     “Nope.”

     “Well, then where is he, Jerry?”

     “Out,” Jerry responded, glancing at the Barrons article about Jacks Enterprises’ New Year’s Eve acquisition of Parisian Productions and smiling. Jax was brilliant. Truly he was. Instead of trying to maneuver to get DynaTech back, he’d gone after a company that Will Warner, for some inexplicable reason, was extremely attached to. The old man had to be hopping mad. Not to mention Milt undoubtedly was doing some spewing of his own; probably ranting and raging about how JE did not need some French film production company and that Jax was just doing this to deliberately escalate hostilities between JE and Warner World. Well, to hell with Milt Barrymore. Jax was doing what Jax had to do. And Jerry supported him 1000 percent.

     “Out,” Katherine said. “How very informative, Jerry,” she sighed. “Is he with Ned?”

     “Nope.”

     “Devlin?”

     It was Jerry’s turn to sigh. “You know damn well who he’s with, Katherine.”

     “Ahh, yes… You must mean the lovely, little Brenda. Well, he ought to be telling her that we are not an answering service,” Katherine said, pointing to the pile of messages that she herself had scribbled out only moments ago. “Charles tells me that some record executive keeps calling here hourly, looking for Brenda. I’ve instructed Charles to inform this man that the young lady in question does not live here.”

     “Not yet, you mean,” Jerry couldn’t resist saying.

     “She will not ever live here, Jerry,” Katherine said smoothly.

     Jerry nodded. “You’re right. I’m sure Jax would never subject his wife to a daily dosage of you. And me, for that matter. They won’t live here.”

     “They won’t live anywhere. Not together!” she said, her temper pricked by Jerry’s incessant goading. He always could so easily get her so riled up, this particular brother of hers. “At any rate, this record executive is very persistent, and if you see Jax before I do, please see that he gets those messages and delivers them to their intended recipient. The least the girl could do is give the poor man a call.”

     “Why is anyone calling for Brenda over here anyway?” Jerry wanted to know, immediately suspicious.

     Katherine shrugged, trying to look convincingly unaware. “It appears that he saw her with Jax at the JE New Year’s Eve party, and so assumes he can reach her through Jax. According to the messages, he was very impressed by her little karaoke number at the party and is actually interested in speaking with her about a lucrative recording contract.”

     Jerry nodded and then asked, “And you would only know that if you were reading Jax’s messages. So why are you reading Jax’s messages?”

     “There were so many of them,” she said smoothly. “I thought perhaps some sort of emergency was going on, and with Jax being nowhere to be found…”

     “Stop acting as if he’s dropped off the face of the earth, Katherine. You know you can always reach him by cell phone. You were reading his messages to spy on him - just admit it. God, you are nothing, if not predictable,” Jerry muttered. “But you’d better remember the warning Jax gave you about disowning you.”

     She glared at him. “That was a private conversation between my brother and me,” she said.

     “Yes, well, I also had a private conversation with my brother later on and he told me what he said to you,” Jerry informed her. “And he meant it, Katherine. You test him on this and you’re going to be less one brother.”

     Jerry collected his own messages and walked out of the room. Katherine scribbled out a few more messages, then realized she might be overdoing it, so she ripped them up and just left the pile she’d already concocted.

     “Oh, I wont lose my brother, Jerry,” Katherine murmured to herself, putting the ripped messages into the shredder. “Because it won’t be me who takes Brenda away from him. It will be her brand new ‘career,’” Katherine smiled over her own brilliance.

     Brenda saw the gorgeous black Jaguar S-Type V8 pull up to the sidewalk in front of her grandmother’s home and knew immediately that it was Jax. Her father had mentioned that Jax owned a silver BMW X5 sports utility vehicle, but even though this was not that car, Brenda knew that the passenger was still Jax. Ever since she’d first met him, he’d been a Jaguar fanatic, so that gorgeous piece of European machinery had to belong to him.

     So sure was she of this that she tossed open the door to greet the gorgeous, blonde Adonis, who was indeed climbing out of the car and approaching the front door.

     She stood on the front porch and pointed to herself. “Acceptable attire for your speedboat?” she called out to him as he was approaching, still a good ten feet away from her.

     He looked her up and down. She wore an itty-bitty blue crop top that exposed an enticing glimpse of flat, golden tummy and cute, little belly button; sleek, black Capri leggings; white tieback espadrilles; and a white windbreaker. Her hair was in a ponytail, with soft tendrils framing her face.

     “Yeah,” he said, with an approving raise of his eyebrow.

     Racing down the front steps, she literally flung herself into his arms, delighting in his exaggerated grunt at the impact, followed by his soft laughter in her ear.

     “Happy to see me?” he guessed.

     “Yeah, you could say that,” she laughed. Actually ecstatic to see him would be far closer to the truth. Jax was like some mysterious and wonderful elixir that made her heart race out of control, made her whole body tingle, and made the blood crash thrillingly inside of her veins. He stole her breath, he stole her wits - she was beginning to think he’d steal her heart next, if she let him. She thought she might already have let him, to be truthful. And that scared her to death almost as much as it exhilarated her.

     “Let’s see… I got you back home at 4 a.m. Friday and it’s now 11 a.m. Saturday, so we’ve been apart 31 hours - just slightly over one day. Why is it, do you suppose, that you and I always seem to act as if we’ve been separated for weeks?” he asked.

     Brenda shrugged, carefree and too happy to wonder about that. “I don’t know,” she said.

     “Well, maybe you should think about it,” he suggested, as his muscular arms that were wrapped around her gave her a little squeeze that she loved.

     “Or maybe you should think about it,” she countered, gazing up into his eyes. The gold flecks in her eyes were especially beautiful this sunny, mild January afternoon and made it difficult for Jax to keep track of his thoughts.

     “I think about it all the time,” he responded, as he set her down gently in front of him. She wondered if she would ever get used to how candid Jax was.

     “You do?” she asked.

     He nodded. “I think about how lucky I am to know you,” Jax told her.

     “I think about that, too,” she confessed. “How lucky I am to know you - to have ever met you. How lucky I am that you seem to really like me…”

     He looked at her incredulously. “Seem to?” he said. “You must be joking.”

     She laughed then and hugged him again, then kissed him - enthusiastically on the lips - and then began dragging him inside. “Come on, I want you to meet my grandmother!”

     “I’d like to say hello to your father, too,” Jax mentioned, ever cognizant of his plan to ingratiate himself with his future father-in-law.

     “No can do. He’s at the hospital. He’s pulling a double shift today. He’s actually been doing that a lot lately,” Brenda explained, as she led Jax into the living room, where her grandmother was lunging and kicking and cussing to Brenda’s Tae-Bo tape.

     “Grandma, I told you not to try the advanced workout,” Brenda said with a shake of her head, as she saw her grandmother panting like a madwoman. “Oh, and you remember Jax, don’t you, Grandma?” she added with a smile.

     Ruby wagged a finger of admonition at her granddaughter. “How unsporting of you to bring in this handsome devil while I’m looking like something the cat dragged out of the street,” Ruby sighed and then gave Jax a smile. “It’s nice to see you again, Jax,” she said, extending her hand to him.

     “You, too, Mrs. Barrett,” Jax said.

     “Exchanging one of my granddaughters for another, are you?” she said, eyeing him speculatively. Good lord, he was a stunning young man! She hadn’t seen him in quite some time. She found herself exasperated by his undeniable appeal. She could hardly blame both of her grandchildren for falling victim to one such as this. In fact, if she herself were forty years younger…

     “Grandma!” Brenda gasped, mortified by her grandmother’s words.

     Jax, however, didn’t seem in the least bit fazed by Ruby’s accusation of him exchanging one sister for another.

     “Upgrading,” he said.

     Ruby tried and failed to suppress her grin. “I see,” she chuckled. “And just when do you think you’ll get the urge to upgrade again?” she asked pleasantly, clearly implying that she felt he was toying with Brenda’s affections and should leave her granddaughter alone.

     “I won’t,” he responded.

     Ruby snorted. “I find that hard to believe, young man. I’m quite aware of your reputation.”

     “Grandma!!” Brenda groaned.

     Jax shot Brenda’s grandmother a disarming smile. “My reputation? Oh, well, that sounds like an entertaining bit of fiction. Do tell.”

     Ruby frowned. Why, that smile of his could charm the venom right out of a cobra. He certainly did not play fair.

     Brenda wanted to get Jax out of there before her grandmother accused him of ruthlessly breaking the hearts of all of the women in the Western Hemisphere. “Wow, will you look at the time?” Brenda gasped, grabbing Jax’s hand. “We really have to go. Goodbye, Grandma!”

     “Nice seeing you again,” Jax said, flashing her a parting smile that made her swear angels were about to float down from heaven just to catch a glimpse of him leaving her living room.

     “Upgrading,” she murmured and than laughed out loud. The boy was a highly appealing combination of rapier wit and all-out smarta$$. And he had a delightful, rakish charm that was deliciously lethal. Ruby sighed, worried. “Oh, Brenda, my sweet girl, you’re in trouble. Fall in love with a man like that and there’s no falling out of it.”

     Baby let’s cruise
     Away from here
     Don’t be confused
     The way is clear
     And if you want it, you got it forever
     This is not a one-night stand
     So let the music take your mind
     Just release and you will find

     You’re gonna fly away
     Glad you’re goin’ my way
     I love it when we’re cruisin’ together
     Music is played for love
     Cruisin’ is made for love
     I love it when we’re cruisin’ together

     Jax had just helped Brenda down from the dock in back of his house and into his black speedboat, with the name Felicity (Named for his grandmother, he’d explained.) emblazoned across its side. Once they were settled on the boat, Jax reached over and felt her forehead. “Feeling all right?” he asked, but his devilish grin made her see that he wasn’t really concerned that anything was wrong with her.

     She gave him a curious smile. “Ummm, yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”

     “Well, you know, I just thought perhaps I might have overwhelmed you with passion the other night. I did get rather carried away, as I recall. You do that to me, you see. And so I lay the blame squarely at your feet. Still, it would be ungentlemanly of me not to ask you if you’ve…” he grinned, “…recovered. Or was that some other gorgeous brunette I was kissing the breath right out of on the roof of Jacks Enterprises at the stroke of midnight?”

     Her smile deepened; those dimples he so adored gracing her cheeks. “No, that was definitely me you were kissing.”

     He nodded. “So are you all right then?” he asked, pursuing his initial question; the cutest grin playing on his lips.

     Brenda laughed. “Well, I barely slept when you brought me home, if that’s what you mean.” She glanced at the ocean then. “I barely slept last night either. I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” she confessed, her heart racing with exhilaration. Sweet, intoxicating memories.

     “I know the feeling,” he told her.

     “Oh, you do?” she smiled slowly. “Well, then maybe I should be the one asking you if you’re all right?” she said, feeling his forehead. “Who knows, maybe I was the one overwhelming you with passion?” she said, her eyes sparkling with a flirtatious beauty that was fairly spellbinding to the recipient.

     Jax eased his elbows back against the rail. “Oh, I was definitely overwhelmed by you.”

     Once again his candid response thrilled her. It was really quite wonderful how being around Jax could send these bursts of pleasure surging through her heart at any given moment.

     “You were?” she asked. “You were not,” she decided.

     Jax’s soft, sexy laughter was like an audible caress over her body. “That’s a very endearing habit you have - contradicting yourself like that,” he commented, leaning forward to impulsively brush his lips against the tip of her nose.

     “Were you really, Jax?” she persisted, dying for an answer and not about to let up until he’d given her one.

     The back of his hand caressed her cheek. “You know me, Brenda. I say what I mean; I mean what I say.”

     Her smile was like a burst of sunshine lighting up his world. “Soooo, my kisses overwhelmed you, did they? Hmmm…this is very good to know.”

     His boyish grin made her heart pulse with breathless delight. “Is it?”

     “Well, I guess it would actually depend on what exactly you mean when you say overwhelm,” she qualified. “Because I guess it could be a bad thing,” she admitted. “I mean I could have overwhelmed you with the desire never to kiss me again.”

     “To never stop kissing you is more like it. Let me put it this way, Brenda: I have never loved kissing anyone as much as I love kissing you. Clear enough?” And he sealed that admission with a sensual stroking of his lips against hers.

     She grabbed his arms and let out an exaggerated gasp. “Prepare yourself for a psychic moment here, Jax, because… I feel exactly the same way about kissing you,” she said, kissing him again, excited by their mutual feelings on this enticing subject.

     Her lips on his were so sweet and warm and intoxicating that it took him a moment to register what she had just said to him.

     Jax pulled away from her and frowned slightly. “Wait… What do you mean, you feel the same way? About what?”

     Her small, slender fingers brushed over his lips. “Hello. Earth to Jax. About kissing you. I have never loved kissing anyone as much as I love kissing you.”

     Jax’s frown did not go away. “Who else have you been kissing?” he asked her. “I thought you told me you had never been kissed before I kissed you?”

     Brenda shook her head. “Nope, I never said that.”

     “You said that it was better than chocolate,” he reminded her.

     “Well, your kisses are. But I’ve been kissed before, and those were not even close to chocolate,” she said, shaking her head and making a face. “More like Spam, maybe… or warm lemonade…”

     Jax was shaking his head. “But I asked you. I asked you if you’d ever been kissed before, and you shook your head. Remember that?”

     “No, you said to me: ‘never been kissed before?’ - and yes, I shook my head, because I had been kissed before,” she explained. “Although never like the way you kiss me,” she confessed in a soft murmur, with a raise of a slender, dark brow. Then she gazed back up at him. “Why do you sound angry?”

     “I’m not angry. Who exactly did you kiss before me then?” he demanded, thinking that if it was Ryan Thornton, he would have to kill him just on principle alone.

     Brenda was almost embarrassed to answer that question. It was certainly far from an impressive list. Did two guys even constitute a list? She bit her lip, considering how to embellish this so that she didn’t come off looking so completely inexperienced.

     “A few guys at the military school two blocks away from Dame Agnes tried to…”

     Jax was shaking his head again. “I’m not talking about those who’ve tried, Brenda, as I’m sure that would encompass just about every male who’s ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on you. I’m talking about the ones who’ve succeeded,” Jax clarified.

     She sighed. “Okay, there was Lord Frederick Weston, when I was fifteen. He’s some cousin of Prince William or something, and he was visiting the school in the Prince’s place, to donate some royal something or other to the library. Anyway, the press was there taking photos and we were all supposed to kiss him very properly on both cheeks, but I swear to you, Jax, when he got in front of me he just… well, first he kind of gasped - and then he just grabbed me and kissed me right on the mouth! And, of course, the headmistress blamed me for the whole mess, as if I was the one who’d grabbed him for no reason at all. His royal goons or bodyguards - or whomever they were - had me in this headlock, practically as if I were a dangerous criminal,” she grinned. “Actually it was pretty funny. But I lost phone privileges and off-campus privileges for a whole month over that nonsense, and I didn’t even do anything but stand there.”

     Jax was smiling. He couldn’t help it. She seemed so stunned that anyone would want to grab her and kiss her like that - as unaware as ever of how heartbreakingly beautiful she was. How, in fact, damned irresistible she was. And she was so wonderfully animated when she spoke that he could visualize the entire incident perfectly. He could also understand how England’s teenage royal relation could simply not help himself when coming face to face with the breathtaking whirlwind that was Brenda Elizabeth Barrett. And if the headmistress had any sense, she’d have realized it, too, and not placed the blame on Brenda, who could hardly be blamed for God granting her so exquisite a face, so beautiful a spirit.

     “Anyway, it wasn’t much of a kiss,” she concluded. “I think I was too shocked to really feel anything, except that I do remember his lips were cold. In his defense, it was winter, and we were in that drafty hallway at Rosemary Hall, but still…” She gazed at Jax’s beautiful mouth. “Your lips are never cold,” she said. “Not even in a raging blizzard.”

     He smiled sardonically, wondering how the heck she would know that, since he’d never kissed her in any bloody, raging blizzard?

     “And the only other person who kissed me was Hamish-Hugh Bertlesberry.”

     Jax looked at her askance. “Who?”

     Brenda poked him in the ribs. “Hamish-Hugh Bertlesberry,” she repeated.

     “You are making this up,” Jax scoffed, thinking that this name certainly made ‘Jasper’ seem almost ordinary in comparison.

     “I am not,” she said, laughing. “That’s really his name, and he just so happens to be the headmistress’s 18-year-old son who would come around to the school to see his mother every now and then. The other girls at school call him ‘carrot stick-and -bones’ because, frankly, that describes him perfectly. He has this bright orange-red hair and freckles all over, and he’s really tall, but thin as a string bean. And he’s got this weird thing about walking around wearing goggles all the time.”

     Jax was laughing now. “Oh, he sounds positively charming, Brenda. How did you ever resist such a veritable bastion of male perfection? I must seem like quite the consolation prize in comparison.”

     Brenda grinned and stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Well, then you’re the first consolation prize that I’d take over the brass ring any day,” she responded.

     “Me?” he asked innocently, grazing her lips tantalizingly with his own.

     “You,” she whispered, kissing him again.

     Their teasing kisses were delightful but also highly provocative, and Jax found he could not resist so sweet a provocation. He kissed her once more - a kiss far different from the titillating, harmless teasers they had been exchanging. He kissed her deeply, thoroughly and very passionately. Her arms immediately entwined around his shoulders, holding him as tightly as he was holding her. The taste of her was intoxicating and his head was spinning; his hunger fueled by her passionate response to him. And they became so lost in that kiss that it was several minutes before he was able to tear his mouth from hers. When he gently pulled back, she followed him. Jax was so pleased, and frankly turned on by that, that he began kissing her all over again. Hot, arousing kisses. When the ravenous heat of their kisses began to wildly stir within him urges he could just barely control, he pulled away. “Okay,” he said, catching his breath and willing his control back into place. “So tell me how this stick-and-bones guy managed to get his most undeserving lips in contact with these beautiful ones?” he inquired, running his thumb across her still passion-heated lips, tempted to go in for another taste of her, but making himself behave.

     Brenda had to take a moment to recover from Jax’s extremely passionate kiss before she could answer him. Her body felt sensually hot everywhere - as if it had been kissed all over by the sun. And inside of her, feelings of intense, concentrated pleasure ran rampant. She was never going to get used to the extraordinary way Jax made her feel, she decided. She took a few breaths while he watched her, his eyes reflecting both pleasure and amusement at her condition, which pretty much mirrored his own. “Well, he sort of blackmailed me,” she admitted, when the blood in her veins had cooled enough for her to speak like a normal human being. “It was last year, and - well, I already told you that school is not exactly a happy environment for me. I have no friends, Jax - I wasn’t lying to you about that. I have zip… zero… none. They just - they don’t like me, and the school itself is very competitive with grades and things like that, so the environment just doesn’t foster any kind of sisterhood among the students. So I have to basically entertain myself to stave off the insanity of boredom and any depression I might have felt over my lack of inclusion, you understand.”

     He stroked her hair. “Mmm hmmm… Go on.”

     “So I snuck out a lot at night and would go off to the archery field and just shoot at everything in sight for hours until I got tired. One night when I did this, I was shooting all over, and I’ve already told you that my aim is horrible, mind you. So suddenly I hear this loud ‘ouch!’, followed by a bunch of curses. And out pops Hamish-Hugh Bertlesberry from behind a tree; my archery arrow planted firmly in his…”

     Jax laughed. “Oh god, don’t tell me…”

     “Yeah. Right in the caboose,” she said, laughing with glee.

     “Brenda, you are so making this up,” Jax said, shaking his head.

     “I am not!” she swore. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw him run out into the moonlight with my arrow, with ‘property of Dame Agnes School’ written on it, sticking out of his rear end.”

     Jax lowered his head and was laughing again.

     Brenda hit his arm, giggling, “And he… Do you know he actually wanted me - me, Jax - to pull it out?” She shuddered.

     Jax gave her his best stunned look. “No. Really? How unreasonable of him to expect his assailant to come to his aid. To think that he wanted you to pull out the arrow that you shot into his a-”

     Brenda clamped her hand over his mouth. “All right, all right. Point made. I should have helped him without his demanding it of me, I know. But he’s never been very nice to me, Jax, so I was in no hurry to help him out, of course,” she said, removing her hand from his mouth and resting both hands on his chest.

     “Of course,” Jax said.

     “I mean, not that I was being a mean or horrible person - You don’t think that, do you?” she asked anxiously, gazing up at him.

     “No,” he said softly, thinking ‘mean and ‘horrible’ were the last words on earth he would ever apply to his bonny sprite.

     She smiled with relief. “It was just that, at the time, I just basically wanted to get out of there. Panic, I guess.”

     “Understood.”

     “But then he was his usual nasty self, insulting everything he possibly could about me, cursing me in two languages, and then capping it off by threatening to tell his mother that I had snuck out and was shooting arrows all over the place unless I helped him get it out. So I closed my eyes and yanked it out,” she said with a sigh. “And he actually screamed, you know. As if I didn’t feel badly enough about the whole thing as it was.”

     “Oh, my poor baby,” Jax crooned with a smile.

     “It was awful,” she said dramatically. “Jax, there was blood everywhere!”

     Jax cocked a skeptical blonde eyebrow. “You’re kidding.”

     She giggled. “Okay, yes, I am. Well, I’m sure there was at least a little bit of blood, right? But I didn’t see it, thank god. It was dark, after all.”

     “So you got the arrow out…”

     “Yes, and then he stood there, glaring at me and looking his nose down at me for ten minutes while I apologized. Because even though I don’t like him, I really was sorry.”

     Jax grinned at her. “I know you were.”

     “Then I turned to leave and he grabbed my arm and told me if I didn’t want his mother to know about my nocturnal exploits which would have gotten me expelled, I had to let him kiss me. I was so mad that my first instinct was just to punch him. But he was so much taller than me that I could only have hit his chest, and he’s so skinny I was scared I’d probably break his rib or something. So, there he stood, rubbing his wounded butt and smugly waiting for the affirmative answer he knew I had to give him, and I told him to just get it over with then before I gave into my growing desire to throw up.”

     “How romantic,” Jax quipped.

     “And that’s when he kissed me. It was really fast - his lips barely touched mine, when he recoiled as if he’d kissed a snake or something. And he kind of made a face afterwards and murmured something about how disgusting it was to kiss a girl, no matter how she looked, and he couldn’t imagine why any man would get enjoyment out of such a revolting thing.”

     “Ohhhh… really…” Jax said.

     “Yep. Hamish-Hugh apparently was not attracted to the opposite sex and only forced me to let him kiss me out of nothing but curiosity. But, of course, I had his number now, and knowing how ultra-conservative his mother is and how she would probably disown and disinherit him if she found out… Well, let’s just say the blackmail was on the other foot now, and he has never, ever bothered me since. So there you have it. My two kisses. One from a cold-lipped member of the British royalty and the other from a goggle-wearing, red-headed string bean, who doesn’t even like girls.”

     “That’s it; just those two?”

     Brenda nodded.

     Jax grinned. “Why, those hardly even count,” he dismissed.

     Brenda shrugged. “I never said they did.”

     “You didn’t even want to kiss them,” Jax continued. “They kissed you, but you didn’t kiss them back. So then, technically, the first person you ever actually wanted to kiss was m-”

     “Yes, you,” she finished his sentence.

      “The first person whose kiss you ever willingly returned was…”

     “You.”

     “The first real kiss you ever felt was…”

     “Definitely yours,” she said.

     “I’m sensing a pattern here,” he said, with a nod of approval. “Me, me and mine. Yes, I’m liking this pattern.”

     She folded her arms. “So I see. It makes you happy - this pattern?” she asked, smiling at how pleased he seemed to be by all of this.

      “Very,” he said, gazing into her eyes.

     “You’ve probably kissed hundreds of women before me, naturally,” she said, trying not to let it bother her, since she was sure he’d done a lot more than kiss them.

     “Naturally,” he agreed.

     She shot him a hurt little glare before she could stop herself and then quickly tried to cover it, but Jax saw her. His response was to laugh, draw her into his arms and plant a kiss firmly on her mouth.

     “It must be how you got so incredibly good at it,” she breathed.

     Jax gazed down at her. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s just one of those hidden talents of mine I told you about?”

     She laughed. “Oh, yeah. Those…”

     “Hey,” he said softly, “I do not - Hell, I cannot claim such inexperience as you when it comes to intimate acts, such as kissing other people. But no other’s kiss has ever done to me what yours do to me. As I said before, I have never loved a kiss so much as yours upon my lips, my bonny sprite. And that’s really the truth. And that’s all that matters. Not whatever came before, but what’s happening now.”

     What *is* happening now, Jax? she longed to ask him. She thought she knew, but he was older than she was so he would know better than she, wouldn’t he? He was more experienced with this sort of thing. More worldly. More…

     “Ready to set sail?” Jax asked her.

     Brenda nodded, as she followed Jax to the steering wheel. “Where are we going?” she asked excitedly, dismissing the pleasant confusion of her emotions.

     “Umm… out to sea?” he said, gesturing at the ocean surrounding them.

     Brenda laughed and bumped her hip against his leg. “I know that. I meant maybe you could give me a more specific destination, please?”

     “Oh, you mean like my kingdom under the sea?”

     Brenda smiled at his silliness. “You have one of those, do you?” she played along.

     “Well, not exactly. But I have a sort of a kingdom by the sea, how’s that?”

     Brenda folded her arms; her eyes sparkling with curiosity. “Okay, I am beyond intrigued here. What are you talking about?”

     He grinned. “Ah… so you don’t know? Good. Well then, my lips are sealed.”

     “Jax!” she laughed. “Come on; tell me!”

     “Nope.”

     “Fine, be that way. But then at least let me try to steer this thing. It looks like fun.”

     “You want to try? Sure. Come here,” he said, pulling her in front of him so that she was sandwiched between his body and the steering wheel of the speedboat. He placed her hand on the wheel and his hands over hers and instructed her what to do.

     “Oh, this is easy!” she bragged, loving the scent of the ocean, the breeze hitting her face and tossing her hair.

     “It won’t be so easy when I let your hands go,” he warned her.

     “Oh. Okay, then don’t do that,” she laughed.

     “Not a problem,” he murmured, quite content to have her exactly where she was.

     “Now, tell me where we’re going,” she said.

     Jax laughed. “You never give up. The mark of a true Jacks already.”

     “What?” she said, baffled by his last remark.

     “Castaways,” Jax said.

     Brenda laughed. “Okay, I repeat… What?”

     “Have you ever heard of the restaurant called Castaways?” he elaborated.

     “Oh, sure,” she replied. “It’s in Malibu. It’s famous for the brunch.”

     “Correct. Well, that is where I’m taking you, Miss Barrett. That is my kingdom by the sea that I was referring to. Because: 1, the interior and exterior motif is that of a castle; 2, it’s at the end of the inlet, surrounded by the ocean; and 3, it’s mine.”

     She turned around so that she was no longer steering the boat with Jax, but facing him. “Wow!” Her smile did the most wonderful things to his heart. “I am so impressed by you, Jasper Jacks. Seriously, I am.”

     He thought of telling her that he was a little bit in awe of her himself. Instead he said: “I don’t want you to be impressed with me, Brenda. Not with the things my money can buy, anyway. I just want you to…” Love me… “…like me. Just me - and just because I am me. As much as I like you,” he explained. “Just because you’re you.”

     “You have no idea how much I like you,” she murmured.

     But he heard her.

     “How much?” he asked.

     Brenda grimaced that he’d heard her.

     “Too much,” she decided.

     “There is no such thing,” Jax disputed.

     “I mean it’s too soon. It’s too fast,” she tried to explain.

     “What is?”

     “Ummm… I’m not going to answer that, okay?”

     He gazed at her and nodded. “Okay.”

     She felt like an idiot. He must think she was an idiot, she decided. “I don’t mean to sound confusing or anything,” she blurted out. “It’s just that I think it’s entirely possible that there may be a huge imbalance in this relationship. I can call it a relationship, can’t I?”

     Jax nodded. “You can, and it is. What do you mean by a huge imbalance?”

     “Well, I know you like me a lot, Jax. I really do know that. But I think I may like you a lot more than you like me,” she confessed, deciding to try Jax’s way of just saying what was on her mind.

     Jax seemed to give what she’d just told him some thought. “Okay, well I don’t see how that’s possible,” he finally told her. “On a scale of 1-to-10, my ‘like’ for you is a 15. In other words, I happen to like you more than anything. Now if you’re saying that you like me more than that, then I’d say we’re dangerously close to talking about another emotion all together.” He paused a moment. “Are we?”

     Brenda looked like she might jump overboard. “No,” she blurted out quickly, feeling suddenly in way over her head. In way over her heart. She turned back around, facing the steering wheel, feeling her heart pounding nervously.

     Love did not happen like this. Not like this: like this bolt of lightning, just hitting you out of the clear blue sky and sending you into a hopeless tailspin of such strong feelings; rendering you helpless to this emotion after knowing the guy for just two weeks! Sure, technically she had known Jax a lot longer than that - since she was eleven-and-a-half, to be exact. But they’d only known each other for a week back then, and then she’d gone to school in England and hadn’t seen him for six years. So this was impossible…to want this already… to feel this already.

     Jax knew she was rattled and going into retreat mode. And he was furious with himself for steering the conversation to this subject, which he damn well knew she was nowhere near ready for. Just because he had been stunned to realize in the space of the last 30 seconds that he was absolutely, hopelessly, positively 100 percent madly in love with her, he knew that she was nowhere near to matching his feelings on any level at this time. Damn it! When had he ever become so impatient? Impatience was going to cost him everything. Impatience was Brenda’s cute little quirk, not his. It had never been his. Never.

     Until her.

     Until she came into his life and turned his world on its head. God, it was really true. He was in love. It had happened so fast and with such intensity and startling force. But he knew it was real. Yeah, there was no going back now.

     He quickly sought to rectify any damage he might have done, any progress he might have set back. He hugged her and gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek. “Hey, I was only teasing you, you know,” he said. His disarming grin melted her heart. He literally heard her expel a breath of relief, having no idea that her relief was not over the fact that he’d claimed to have been joking abut the serious path their conversation had taken, but rather relief that she had not done or said anything that had caused her to lose him… yet anyway.

     She returned his smile and relaxed against him, closing her eyes. Without even realizing what she was doing, she took Jax’s hand and raised it to her face, rubbing her cheek back and forth against it absently as she relished being with him.

     “Ready to try a 180-degree turn?” he asked her; his whispered voice against her ear making her shiver with delight.

     “Oh, yeah!” she said, placing her hands back on the wheel. “Okay, captain, which way - this way? Or would you like me to try to ram into that really ostentatious-looking, blue yacht over there? You know the one where those rude women are actually staring at you this very moment through a pair of binoculars?” she asked sweetly, and at his expression, let out the prettiest laugh he’d ever heard.

     “No yacht ramming today, love,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow.”

     She laughed again and listened as Jax instructed her how to make the turn safely. And as he guided her hands over the wheel and felt her leaning cozily back against him while chatting away, he knew that everything was going to be okay and that he had not seriously jeopardized the future he so wanted either. The future he bloody well intended to have with her. He might have scared her a tiny bit with that conversation skating around the issue of love, but that was all. Still, he would have to do better. He would have to somehow rein in his impatient heart that wanted her so badly that it was precariously close to tossing caution to the wind.

     After a long brunch at Castaways, Jax and Brenda were back on the speedboat, cruising the Pacific. It was a beautiful day and they had a wonderful time sailing together and learning more about one another. As seemed to happen a lot around Jax, Brenda found herself confiding in him things she had never told anyone else. She even told him how she’d been afraid of the dark for years due to a Halloween prank her sister and her sister’s friends had played on her when she was six. Brenda could laugh over it now, although she confessed how she’d had horrible nightmares for several months afterwards and would wake up screaming in the middle of the night every single night without fail. Her father finally had to take her to see his friend, Dr. Gail Baldwin, a child psychiatrist, to help get her over it all. To this day she swore she could not watch the movie The Exorcist, and still had some trepidation about places that were completely dark.

     Jax could not find a trace of humor in an innocent, trusting six-year-old being forced by a bunch of mean-spirited 12-year-olds to watch so terrifying and graphic a movie. And then for a prank, being locked in a pitch-black basement all alone for half-an-hour right afterwards, while they laughed over her terror. He was careful not to let Brenda see how much this infuriated him though. He just wanted to hold her. And to tell her that he would protect her from anything and anyone, even levitating, head-spinning demon-possessed girls. He also realized that the Alexa he knew and had once so lusted after was merely a façade and the real woman was someone he’d hardly be inclined to speak to, let alone to be intimate with. He found that he was glad that Brenda no longer lived in that house with Alexa. He’d be gladder still when Brenda lived with him, in their own house. Where he could protect her all the time.

     It was nearly 6 in the evening when Jax steered the speedboat to the docks of his house. They got off the boat but didn’t go inside. Instead, they sat there along the pier, gazing out at the fading sunset; Jax sitting down behind her and sliding both arms around her waist to anchor her to him. Jax gazed down at her hair lying against his chest and was reminded of another time when they sat like this on a boat a long time ago. Except now everything was different. Now he couldn’t breathe when she was so near him; now his blood raced with heat because she was touching him. Now the entire universe seemed centered around her in his eyes.

     “Sometimes,” he said quietly, “- not very often, but once in a rare while - the sunsets out here actually remind me of the sunsets in Fiji.”

     “How are those?” Brenda inquired, having never been to Fiji.

     “Extraordinary,” he said, rubbing his chin back and forth over the silky softness of her hair.

     “Describe it to me,” she said.

     “Wouldn’t you rather see it for yourself?”

     “Oh, yeah, like that’s ever going to happen. I seriously don’t see a trip to that far-away paradise in my future,” she laughed. “So describe it to me,” she said. “Please?”

     “It’s the gold sunsets I remember the most. They were spectacular. It was like the entire island was bathed in this surreal, deep golden light - every possible shade of gold you can imagine, Brenda. And it reaches out and touches everything: the ocean as far as the eye can see; the sky above you; the sand below you. Everything is just washed in this magnificent hue; impossible to capture by even the most skilled artist. You just couldn’t look away. It was like everything was being reborn before your eyes - like you were literally witnessing the creation of the earth. You look at a sunset like that in Fiji and it’s actually a life-altering experience sometimes.”

     “Wow, that sounds incredible,” she breathed, wishing she could experience such a wonder.

     “It is.”

     They lapsed into a warm, comfortable silence as they gazed out at the ocean.

     “Jax?” she said, breaking the pleasant silence.

     “Yes?”

     “Can I ask you something?”

     “You can ask me anything.”

     “Why do you think I have no friends? Seriously… I mean, it’s not anything new, you know. I’ve never had any friends. Not even when I was younger.”

     “You have me,” he pointed out.

     She didn’t say anything for a moment, then she said, “But I thought we were more than just…”

     “We are,” he said, very pleased at her quickness in pointing that out. He kissed the top of her head. “We definitely are. But I’m your friend, too. I can be your friend and be crazy about you at the same time, you know. I was your friend from the moment I met you.”

     She nodded. “Yes, you were,” she realized. “Thank you.”

     “You’re welcome,” he whispered into her ear.

     “So then I should rephrase my question,” she decided, tossing her legs over his thigh and crossing them at the ankles. “Why do you think I have no friends except you?”

     Jax could tell by the tone of her voice that this was something that was really bothering her.

     “Do you want an honest answer, Brenda?” he asked her.

     “From you… always,” she said without hesitation.

     “It’s because they envy you,” Jax said. She began to shake her head but he stopped her. “Listen to me; it’s true, Brenda. In fact, I think I told you that once before and I meant it. They envy you, and so they want to hurt you by exclusion. Hurting you makes them feel better. I know it sounds twisted, but that’s the way of the world. They want to mess with your self-worth.” He stroked her face. “I sincerely hope they are not succeeding.”

     She shook her head. “No. My self-esteem is in tact. I have people who love me. My dad, my grandma…”

     Me, Jax thought.

     “I don’t know why anyone would envy me though,” Brenda insisted. “Believe me, my life was hardly ideal. Well, you know that. I’ve told you. So why anyone would envy me is beyond me.

     “I’ll tell you why,” Jax offered. “It’s because you’re intelligent, you’re talented, you’re ridiculously beautiful, you’re a lot of fun to be with, you have a truly irresistible personality, you’re ridiculously beautiful, you’re funny, you’re so sweet, you’re a little bit crazy… and did I mention ridiculously beautiful?” He tilted her head back and brushed his lips seductively over hers several times.

     She smiled, deeply flattered by his opinion of her and deeply affected by his kisses. “Hey, the only ridiculously beautiful person on this boat is you, mister,” she insisted, stroking her fingers beneath his chin. “I saw how all those women were openly gawking at you and drooling over you when we were having brunch.”

     “I must have missed that spectacle,” Jax commented.

     “You’re oblivious to it, remember? You told me a long time ago that you’ve gotten used to beautiful women staring at you all the time, so you can just block it out.”

     “I never said that,” he grinned.

     “Well, okay, maybe I inserted the beautiful women part, but that is the majority of who’s staring at you, Jax. And maybe you’re oblivious to it, but I’m not.” She brushed her fingers lightly over the dimple in his chin and then kissed it. “Can I ask you something else?”

     “Sure.”

     “Is it strange at all for you that we’re so attracted to each other?”

     Jax laughed. “No. It would be strange to me if we weren’t, actually.”

     She smiled at him. “No, that’s not what I meant. I meant because you used to be with my sister…”

     “I used to date your sister, yes. ‘Be with her’ - that implies a lot more than it was, if you ask me.”

     “So it’s not strange for you?”

     “No. If I had had some kind of serious feelings for her or a serious relationship with her, then it would probably be strange, yeah. But that wasn’t the case. Is it strange for you?” he asked her.

     “Nope,” she said with a flash of dimples, and she kissed him to punctuate her point. “Though it probably should be. To half of Beverly Hills you are the man my sister was going to marry, you know.”

     “If by half of Beverly Hills you mean your sister, my sister and your mother, then you’re right. No one else actually believed that, Brenda. Not even my Uncle Ian. He just used to say it to get on my nerves,” Jax grinned.

     She smiled. “Oh, good. Because I can admit this to you now: I don’t think I could have let you marry her, Jax. Not after you kissed me anyway.”

     He smiled because she looked so serious when she said that. His smile made her want to shower him in kisses right now. “How would you have stopped me?” he asked with a very appealing lift of his eyebrows.

     Brenda folded her arms and looked thoughtful. “Tripped Alexa as she went down the aisle maybe? Sent her flying into a pew head first?”

     Jax was smiling at her, slowly shaking his head.

     “No? Too mean? Okay, well - oh, I know - I could have gotten the minister drunk on the communion wine so he couldn’t perform the ceremony.”

     Another shake of his head, accompanied by a little laugh.

     “No to that, too? Probably sacrilegious, huh? Well, hey, then I could have just tackled you at the altar and put my hand over your mouth anytime you tried to say ‘I do.’”

     Jax nodded. “Now see, I could definitely see you doing that…”

     They both laughed and when they stopped, Brenda shifted herself so that her head was cradled in the crook of one of his arms and she could look right at him.

     “I go back to school next week, you know,” she said quietly. “I leave Thursday,” she added. Jax was about to comment on that when she spoke first: “Jax, are you going to… Are things going to be different when I leave?”

     “Different how?”

     “Well, are you going to still want me? Are we going to drift apart? Are you going to forget about me?”

     “Forget about you?” he echoed in disbelief. “I will never forget about you,” he said, holding her captive with a gaze of intense beauty. “Never. And I would ask the same of you, Brenda. I would have your promise, actually, if you don’t mind.” He suddenly felt a little crazed at the thought of physical distance between them.

     Brenda looked genuinely astonished. “You actually think I would forget you, Jax?” She wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of that, but he might misunderstand her laughter and she would rather die than ever hurt his feelings. Because Jax mattered to her so much. He mattered to her more than anyone ever had.

     He shrugged. “Well, you’ll be back in the company of the sublime Hamish-Hugh Bertlesberry, so…”

     She laughed and tossed her arms around him, hugging him close. “I, Brenda Elizabeth Barrett, promise you, Jasper Ian Jacks, that I won’t forget you. You’re actually crazy to ever think I would.”

     “Can I ask you who put the idea in your head that I would forget about you?” he questioned her.

     “My grandmother,” she confessed. “She said that what’s going on between us is just an incredibly intense infatuation. She assures me you’ll forget about me once I go back to school and am out of your ‘orbit,’ as she put it.”

     “Let me tell you something: even if you were on another planet, you wouldn’t be out of my orbit, Brenda Elizabeth. And no offense to your grandmother, but she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The only ones who know what’s going on between us, is us. I don’t intend to forget you. Not for a second. I couldn’t even if I wanted to - which I don’t.”

     “I could never forget you for even half a second,” she topped him. “Even though my grandma and my dad insist that I will.”

     “Well, forget what your grandmother feels or what your father feels. What do you feel? Because, I’ll be honest with you, that’s all that matters to me,” Jax told her.

     “What do I feel?” she tapped her fingers thoughtfully against her chin. “I feel very drawn to you, Jax,” she responded. “I feel very close to you. A little bit like we were meant to be together or something. I know that sounds really stupid, but… it’s a little hard to explain it.”

     He liked hearing that a lot. So delighted was he with her answer that he could not resist rewarding so perfect an answer with an equally perfect kiss.

     Brenda felt slightly panicky that he wasn’t saying anything, like ‘so do I’ or ‘hey, I feel that way too.’ It was not exactly encouraging that he was not reciprocating anything she was saying. She wondered if perhaps she still wasn’t expressing herself correctly. “What I mean is that I feel really, really connected to you… Do you know what I mean? I feel like we…”

     She quit trying to explain when his mouth settled on hers. He stole her concentration completely. His mouth was so wonderfully warm; the movement of his lips so remarkably sensual. He threaded his fingers through her hair to hold her captive to his kiss, as his tongue swept inside her mouth to taste, to stroke, to drive her wild. To leave her breathless. And wanting…

     He pulled back from her just a little, allowing them both a chance to catch their breath. He touched his forehead to hers, gazing down at the lush, dark lashes of her closed eyes, hearing her soft, rapid breathing.

     “I’m never going to get used to the way you make me feel,” she told him breathlessly, verbalizing the thought she’d had earlier.

     “You will,” he promised her. “I intend to give you a lot of practice. And hey, I do know what you mean about feeling connected in a way that’s not easily explained,” Jax told her. “I feel that connection to you. I felt it almost from the moment I saw you climbing down that rope.” Not exactly true, he realized. He’d actually felt the damn connection thing long before that. When he’d first met her actually - but it had been mild then; very noticeable - yes - but not as overwhelming as it was now. But he thought hearing that might freak her out, so he kept that truth to himself.

     She surprised him by admitting it about him though.

     “I think I felt it from the night I met you back by my father’s goldfish pond,” she marveled. “What does it mean though? This connection, I mean. What’s it all about?” Brenda wondered out loud. “Because I don’t think I’ve ever felt this connected to anyone else before.”

     Jax would have loved to tell her what he thought it meant. What he hoped it meant. But he played it cool and shrugged as if he were just as confused as she was. “Do we really have to figure that out right now though?” he asked. “Let’s just not worry about why or how. Let’s just enjoy this - Whatever ‘it’ is will reveal itself to us eventually.”

     Brenda absorbed his words and nodded slowly in agreement. “Probably soon, do you think?” she gazed up at him questioningly. She needed it to be soon. She just didn’t have 100% complete confidence that she could hold onto him. She had maybe 90% confidence, but that wasn’t enough. Not when he was such a prize that women would practically kill for. Not when there were surely scores of women more sophisticated than she, more experienced than she, more beautiful than she, that he would ultimately be drawn to.

     He smiled at her; ever the impatient one that she was. “Yes, soon,” he promised her, caressing her face. “Very soon, I would imagine.”

     She was silent for a moment and then said: “And you promise you won’t forget me?”

     “I promise I won’t.” He cupped her face. “How could I ever?”

     “Easily, Jax. Women literally follow you around; I’ve seen it with my own eyes. And you can have anyone you want,” she pointed out to him, imagining, with growing irritation, the hordes of gorgeous women who would gleefully be throwing themselves at him once she was a country away and he was no longer distracted by spending all his free time with her. “It’s true, Jax,” she reiterated moodily. “You can have anybody you want. You know you can.”

     “Well, I’m glad you feel that way,” he said kissing her cheek. “Because you’re the one,” he finished, pulling her to her feet.

     “The one?” she asked, absently tugging on the bottom of his shirt.

     “That I want,” he clarified. And then he glanced at his watch. “I have to meet my friend Ned in half an hour, so let me get you home now.”

     She held onto his hand and followed him, in a bit of a fog. She was the one? The one he wanted? Did he mean that? And in what way exactly did he mean that, if he meant that? She had never had such a magnificent stroke of good luck as she had been having ever since Jax had spotted her climbing out of Miss Tillery’s window in England. That day had literally changed her life, she realized. It had thrown her back into Jax’s life and that had, in turn, awakened within her emotions that were a little crazy to deal with, but were startlingly wonderful. She was a little scared to admit this, for fear of jinxing herself, but she had never been this happy before. At least she couldn’t exactly remember ever being this happy before. And Jax’s presence in her life was the reason for that. She knew that without a doubt. She wasn’t about to let him go. Or allow him to lose interest in her like her grandma claimed he was bound to. He was attracted to her. He was connected to her. He’d said those things himself. All she had to do was make sure he stayed that way.

     “I can do that,” she said.

     “Do what?” he asked, glancing at her curiously, as her comment had seem to come out of left field.

     Brenda hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud. She shook her head. “Oh, nothing,” she said. She linked her fingers through his as they headed towards the garage and his car. Her heart felt as light as the breeze “I think this is going to be a very good year for you, Jax,” she told him, gracing him with an enigmatic smile.

     He glanced over at her and smiled back. “What makes you say that?”

     “Because you have me,” she boasted, her eyes positively bewitching as she looked at him.

     He didn’t say anything for a moment; just gazed into her eyes, falling under her spell and unknowingly throwing her as completely off-balance as she was throwing him.

     “Do I?” he finally said, in a voice nearly too low to hear; a voice so seductive she wanted to just wrap her arms around him and melt into him. He was just the most incredibly mesmerizing person! And it wasn’t just his looks either. It was everything about him.

     “Mmm hmmm,” she said, nodding and unable to stop herself from standing on her tiptoes and stealing a soft kiss, which he returned. It was the enigmatic way he was looking at her, she decided. As if he knew things she didn’t. As if he had these delectable secrets that he wasn’t telling just yet. It gave off such a sensual aura of mystery. How could she not kiss him? “What are you doing tomorrow?” she asked him suddenly, as she felt playful and jumped up on his back, wrapping her legs and arms around him. “Because I thought if you weren’t too busy, we could go to one of my favorite stomping grounds.”

     “Which would be?”

     “Six Flags Magic Mountain, which just happens to have my very favorite thrill ride, The Riddler’s Revenge.”

     He turned his head halfway and she leaned over on his back to look at him, to see if he was receptive to her idea. He shot her a gorgeous smile. “Brave girl. A very high, very fast, stand-up roller coaster, huh? Okay, you’re on, baby. But then you have to let me take you somewhere on Monday night.”

     “Okay,” she agreed immediately. “Where?”

     “The Los Angeles Music Theatre. To see “Tosca.” A friend of the family is conducting Monday night.”

     “Wait a minute… Opera? You?” She slid down from his back and walked around to stand in front of him. “My gorgeous corporate-raider, triathlete, protein-shake-drinking, magic-trick-loving Jasper Jacks is an opera aficionado? I can’t see it,” she laughed.

     “Yeah, I like weird things like that,” he confessed. “I told you, didn’t I, that my mother was a concert pianist for the Philharmonic? She was so extraordinary, Brenda,” he said in a soft, reflective tone of voice. “She would sit down and play the piano, and I swear she could move anyone to tears. Me included. It was like… It was magic.”

     Brenda reached up and pushed back an unruly golden lock that had fallen into Jax’s eyes. The trace of sadness in his eyes made her heart contract. “She sounds wonderful. I wish I could have known her,” she said sincerely.

     He nodded. “Me, too. You know it’s been thirteen years since she and my father were killed. I keep thinking one day this whole business of missing them has got to get easier, right? Well, I’ve been thinking that for thirteen years, Brenda, and it never gets easier.”

     Brenda didn’t know what to say. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him, laying her head on his chest. He felt wonderful. He smelled wonderful.

     She felt his hands stroke her hair. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring you down with me,” he apologized.

     “You didn’t,” she assured him. “I love when you talk about your family.”

     “Anyway, my whole point of bringing it up was that I think my tastes for the arts were all derived from her,” he explained with a little smile.

     Brenda glanced up at him into gorgeous blue eyes. “And your financial brilliance comes from your dad?”

     “Yes.”

     “I think everything about me comes from my dad,” she said, as she slid her hand into Jax’s and they continued on their way to the garage. “Because I’m nothing like my mother. I don’t like the things she likes; I don’t have any of her characteristics. I don’t even look like her.”

     “Yeah, but you don’t look like your father either,” Jax pointed out. “His hair is jet black, peppered with gray and yours is the color of chestnuts by the fire. His eyes are the typical brown and yours are… beautiful.” he said, as he lost track of his words when he stopped to gaze into her eyes.

     “Hey. Are you trying to imply that I am adopted?” she joked

     “I think it’s more likely that you just fell out of heaven by accident, and Harlan Barrett happened to be walking by and caught you,” he said.

     She laughed and rolled her eyes.

     “Brenda, I know that you don’t really get how beautiful you are,” Jax said, “but believe me, I have never seen anyone more beautiful than you are. If your father pulled me aside one day and told me that he stole you from heaven, I’d believe him.”

     Brenda laughed out loud this time. “Okay, Jax, stop it. You’re totally making me blush now,” she murmured.

     “All right, I’ll stop. I can see you cannot handle my adoration,” he said with a wicked smile. He brushed her cheek with his hand. “As long as you know that I’m not allowing you go back up there.”

     She laughed once more and hit his chest. “Stop!” she said, blushing some more.

     “What did you do with your wings and your halo when you came down here?” he persisted, lifting up her hair and peering down her back.

     “I am going to kill you,” she said.

     As they walked slowly towards Jax’s car, looking very much like a couple, Katherine spied them through the curtains of the den. She did not like this at all. Their closeness - the sheer naturalness of it; how right they looked together - was very disturbing. Good heaven’s, Jax couldn’t really actually be in love with that girl, could he?

     That possibility depressed Katherine, for she knew that if Jax really was in love - if this was more than the lustful infatuation Katherine was so sure it had to be - then she could never go through with her plans to separate them. Which in turn would crush her plans for Jax’s political future.

     She could never take from Jax someone he loved. He’d lost enough in his young life; losing their father and his mother in one fell swoop when he was ten, then losing his grandmother four years later. Then his grandfather only last year. Katherine would not be responsible for him losing someone else he loved. All she could hope for now was that he wasn’t in love or on the verge of falling. And hope that she could get Brenda’s music career kicked off pronto and get the enchanting girl away from Jax before it was too late. From the looks of things it was already too late.

     “No, that’s ridiculous,” Katherine said, closing the curtains and hurrying to get Jax’s messages. She then raced outside to catch up to him, but saw the ruby red taillights of his Jag as it pulled out of the long driveway. “Damn!” she said, panting from her exertion.

     She turned around to march back inside and encountered Jerry leaning in the doorway.

     “Just had a little chat with Charles,” he said, gazing at her. “It seems he can’t recall taking any messages from any record executive for Brenda.”

     Damn that Charles! Hadn’t she promised him a nice fat bonus if he would fib a bit?! Jerry must have promised him more, she decided with a disgruntled hiss. That damned Charles, always caving in to the highest bidder.

     She just glared at her brother, not saying a word.

     “So you lied,” Jerry pointed out the obvious.

     “I did not lie. That gentleman really is interested in Brenda. He happens to think she’s very gifted. He approached me at the party and asked all sorts of questions about her.”

     “Yeah, possibly. But you wrote those messages yourself, didn’t you?”

     “I did not,” she lied.

     Jerry sighed. “You did. What I can’t for the life of me figure out is why - I mean it all seems so juvenile. What the hell are you up to now, Kat?”

Thursday morning . . .

     “I was wrong,” Ruby Barrett admitted to her son, as they were driving home from having dropped Brenda off at the airport to go back to school.

     “Wrong about what, Mom?” Harlan asked absently, his thoughts preoccupied.

     “About Brenda. About her feelings for Jax,” Ruby said. “I really thought it was a mere infatuation, Harlan. I thought it would blow over. After observing her with him this past week, I’m afraid I have to seriously reevaluate my position on that.”

     “I told you so,” Harlan murmured.

     “Do you realize she spent every day with him before she went back to school?” Ruby commented.

     “Yes.”

     “And that whole thing about that Mr. Kilmer from Hollywood Records and the offer he’s making her. She barely discussed that with us and instead discussed it in depth with Jax,” Ruby said.

     “I know. Not to worry, Mom, she hasn’t made any decisions or made any commitments. She told me what Jax said to her, and he’s actually given her very sound advice.”

     “That’s not the point, Harlan. The point is she went to him, not to us. She trusts him. Don’t you see? He’s becoming too important to her, and we are allowing it to transpire before our very eyes. You should have told her ‘no,’ Harlan.”

     “No to what? Going out with him? Asking his advice? Spending every day with him? Being happy? Having a life? I should have forbid her to do those things? Come on, Mom, she’s happier than I can ever remember. Like it or not, that young man lights up her life. And I know how it feels to have someone come into your life and do that to you, Mom,” he said, thinking of Brenda’s mother, Grace Fillmore. “I can’t deny Brenda that feeling. Besides, Brenda’s going to be eighteen in a few months. I can’t exactly tell her whom to date, where to go, what to do, whom to confide in…”

     “There is something you can tell her,” Ruby pointed out.

     “What’s that?”

     “You can tell her the truth, Harlan. Tell her that disgraceful woman, who has treated her so poorly all of her life, is not her mother. You can warn her who her grandfather is and alert her that the young man she’s falling so hard for loathes him and would probably cheerfully use her, if it meant being able to one-up the Warners.”

     “I’m actually seriously considering telling her about her mother,” Harlan confessed. “As to telling her the rest, I don’t think it’s necessary.”

     “You don’t think it’s necessary for your child to know that the young man she’s building all her dreams around could turn on her once he learns who her family is?” Ruby demanded.

     “How do we know Jax would do that?” Harlan argued, as he turned off the highway. “Seriously, Mom, I’ve been thinking about this. He’s a very decent young man - he always has been. A bit of a smarta$$ at times, but very decent. And he seems to genuinely care about Brenda. Significantly. I have no assurances, of course, but I’m getting a gut feeling that he would never hurt her. That he would in fact protect her from Will Warner, not shun her because she’s related to the man. He can’t blame her for something she never even knew about.”

     “That may all be good and true, Harlan, but are you forgetting what a cunning fellow that boy is? He may not shun Brenda or reject her due to her being a part of that family - I believe he wants her too much to give her up, even for that reason. But he may very well use her to destroy them, and his using her like that would in turn destroy her, Harlan. Because, like it or not, that old man and those four boys are her family, just as much as you and I are. And you know Brenda; she has such a good heart. If they’re kind to her and welcome her with open arms, she’s not going to want to do anything to hurt them. And between them and Jax and the hatred that exists between them, they’re going to split her right down the middle and rip her in two and destroy her. Is that what you want?”

     Harlan scowled. “How can you even ask me that? Of course, it’s not what I want. And it’s not going to happen. Grace didn’t want Brenda raised by them. Didn’t even want them to know about her. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason for Brenda to even know they exist or that she’s a part of them.”

     “Secrets never stay secrets forever, son,” his mother warned. “One day she will find out - And she may very well demand her chance to know them and you won’t be able to stop her, because it’s her right. And god forbid something should happen to you and me, Harlan. Brenda’s only remaining family, as far as she would know, would be Veronica and Alexa. Can you imagine how they would treat her were you and I not around? It’s obscene even to think about it. You may hold a low opinion of Brenda’s grandfather, but I’m willing to bet my last dollar that he would treat her better than Veronica ever has or ever would.”

     “He’s the opposite of Veronica,” Harlan muttered. “She would ignore Brenda and cast her aside; he would smother her and try to control every aspect of her life: who her friends are; where she goes to school; whom she marries. She’d be as miserable with him as she would be with Veronica.”

     “You don’t know that,” Ruby said. “And what about her half-brothers…?”

     “Yes, I do know that,” Harlan snapped, cutting her off. “I know what that old tyrant did to Grace, Mom. I know his four grandsons are like puppets, who dance to whatever tune the old man sings. Do you think I want him pulling Brenda’s strings like that and making her life a living hell? Do you think I want her to just be another marionette paraded across the stage of his egomania? Crushing her wonderful sprit and molding her into whatever the hell he thinks an almighty Warner should be? Over my dead body! And we can’t forget about Jax in all of this. You yourself now admit that Brenda’s feelings for him appear to be the real thing. No, Brenda can’t know about Will Warner, and that’s final.”

     Ruby sighed, seeing he was not in the frame of mind to be reasonable about this right now. “Well, I see you neglected to answer my question about Jax. Do you really think he’s above ruthlessly using her to bring that family to its knees? You know how much he detests them; you know it’s very personal for him and runs very deep. His sister explained that all to us that day we had dinner at their house a few years ago and Jax had such a negative reaction to some news story about Warner World. Now, given what we know, do you really think he could resist using such a weapon as Brenda would present against his greatest enemy?”

     No, Harlan didn’t think Jax could resist such a weapon falling so perfectly and effortlessly into his hands. Which was exactly why he had no intention of ever allowing Jasper Jacks to find out Brenda’s familial ties to the Warner clan. As long as Jax was unaware and Brenda was unaware, everything would be fine. And that was the way Harlan planned to keep it.

     “No, Veronica!” Harlan snapped. “That is an outrageous request. Hell, it’s a malicious, petty request! And that’s even low for you.”

     Veronica shrugged. “You brought this on yourself, Harlan. How dare you think you could sneak and buy that expensive car for Brenda, while Alexa is still driving around in her four-year-old Acura! She was highly upset to see Brenda tooling about town in that brand new BMW.”

     “Oh, cut the crap, Veronica. She’s upset because Brenda has got Jax’s rapt attention these days - not because she got a new car,” Harlan pointed out.

     Veronica waved a dismissive hand in his face. “Jax will tire of her soon enough. Just as soon as he gets over that perfect little face of hers. Now, hand over the keys and registration to the car, Harlan. Alexa should have been the one who got it, and I’m going to see that she does.”

     “You’re insane,” Harlan said in disgust. “I’m not giving Alexa Brenda’s car.”

     Veronica laughed. “Yes, you are, Harlan. Unless you want me to tell Brenda that I’m not her mother.”

     Harlan’s lip curled into a sneer. “Go ahead. She would be relieved!” he said.

     Veronica’s eyes turned cold. “I’ll have her picture plastered over every trashy tabloid in this country, Harlan,” she threatened. “Brenda will be humiliated by the publicity. And, lest you forget, people in Florida read the tabloids, too, you know. If you get my drift…”

     Harlan knew that Brenda would be anything but humiliated. She’d be shocked, yes, but then she’d be relieved to know she shared no blood ties with Veronica, and then she would probably find it all hysterically funny. But he could not risk Veronica going to the press and having Brenda’s picture all over. If Will Warner got one glance at the photo, he would know who Brenda was. And although Harlan had no qualms about Brenda finding out the truth about Veronica, he did have grave concerns about Will Warner ever catching a clue that he had a granddaughter. The man was a control freak. The moment he knew he could claim Brenda as one of his own; he’d stop at nothing to infiltrate her life and force her into his. And then there was Jax. He would find out the truth. And Harlan was not prepared to send his daughter’s newfound growing happiness crashing into oblivion if he could prevent it. One way to prevent it was to get her to forget about Jax and fall for someone else. But since that clearly was not going to happen, the only other option was to keep Jax in the dark about Brenda’s Warner blood.

     He was galled, sickened to his very stomach, that he had to give into Veronica’s blackmail. How in the hell was he going to explain to Brenda why her sister was suddenly driving around in her car? At least he had time - Brenda would be at school in England for the next five months. Perhaps he could think of a suitable excuse by the time she returned in the summer? Oh, who the hell was he kidding? There was no suitable excuse, and his heart wrenched with agony at the thought of the look on Brenda’s face when she saw her sister was now the owner of the silver-blue BMW. Damn, but he wanted to crack Veronica’s skull wide open!

     Jax had come over to talk to Harlan and had been let in by Ruby, who was on her way out grocery shopping. He stood at the entry to the living room, having heard everything and was both furious and baffled that Brenda’s father was allowing Veronica, whom Jax now realized was obviously not Brenda’s biological mother, to take Brenda’s car to give to Alexa. Had he been right about Brenda being adopted, after all?

     Jax watched in disgust and bewilderment as Harlan Barrett actually handed over the keys to Brenda’s car to his soon-to-be ex, as if he were a spineless coward; although the man did at least have the decency to look as if strangulation of his estranged wife was a very pleasing idea.

     “Very wise move, dear,” Veronica said, clutching the keys. “After all, you wouldn’t want Brenda’s grandfather showing up on your doorstep, demanding you hand her over now, would you?” she purred.

     “You got what you came for. Get the hell out!” Harlan said icily.

     “Oh come on, darling. Chin up. As long as you play by my rules, your little secret is safe with me. I swear it. After all, if I let the cat out of the bag, what would I have to hold over your head?” She smiled. “So keep your pants on, Harlan. No one will ever have to find out that that sinfully rich, uncouth, loudmouth egomaniac, Will Warner, is Brenda’s very own grandfather.”

     The silence ringing in Jax’s head was deafening. Cavernous. As if he were encased in a glass tomb and could not breathe. The shock jolted the breath back into him. The disbelief came next. Then a sickening wave of nausea.

     Brenda. His Brenda. She was one of them.