The sound of the three-inch heels of the strappy, black satin evening shoes echoed along the hallway in front of the study of the Jacks mansion. Click, click, click, click, click. Pause. Turn. Click, click, click, click, click. This went on endlessly as inside the study, as brothers Jerry, Jax and Justin were attempting to have a meeting discussing which companies to dump, which to snatch up for the family company, J&J Jacks.

     "We should definitely sell off the Harper Theater chain," Justin was saying, “Sony Imax theaters are destroying all the competition."

     "Fine," Jax said.

     "And what do we set our sights on to replace Harper?" Jerry asked.

     "Can we make a play for Sony Imax ourselves?" Jax asked.

     "Oh, sure. And why don’t we just try to colonize the moon while we’re at it?" Jerry suggested, giving Jax a “get real” look.

     "Sony? Jax, are you kidding? No," Justin said.

     "Why not?" Jax asked. "You know, sometimes the two of you are so tame that I'm embarrassed to be related to you," he muttered.

     "Tame? Well, maybe you’re just too bloody ambitious, boy wonder," Jerry said, crumpling up a piece of paper and tossing it at Jax.

     Jax grinned. "No such thing," he said, tossing the paper back at his older brother.

     "Jax just has that ‘I-am-the-irresistible-force’ complex," Justin said, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

     "Oh, come on, you guys. Are you both telling me that Sony is impenetrable? I thought they were having CEO problems. This would be the perfect time to divide and conquer."

     "I think their CEO troubles are all settled now though, Attila," Justin said. "And besides…"

     Click, click, click, click, click. Pause. Turn. Click, click, click, click, click.

     Justin put down the acquisition sheet he was trying to concentrate on. "Okay, time out," he said. "Jax, the young goddess is driving me crazy."

     Jax glanced over at his younger brother.

     "I second that," Jerry said. "We’ll never get done in here if we have to listen to that all afternoon, Jax. You know you might want to consider locking her in the closet just for a few minutes."

     Jax rolled his eyes at his older brother.

     "Or handcuff her to the bed or something," Justin suggested. "You might actually like that one," he added, winking at Jax. "Hey, you know what I wanted to ask you, Jax? Why is it that before you left for your honeymoon you called Brenda the ‘Venus,’ but now that you guys are back, she’s evolved to ‘Aphrodite’?”

     "Well, when we were in Greece we met this world renowned mythology historian at this fabulously interesting dinner party,” Jax explained, "and he basically said that Venus was nothing more than a Roman rip-off of the real thing, Aphrodite. Then he added that the Roman goddess Venus was originally the goddess of vegetables. Can you believe that? Vegetables."

     Jerry laughed. "Oh, there’s a picture."

     "Yeah, well the picture isn’t Brenda. So I realized that name was all wrong for her. If Venus is just an Aphrodite-wanna-be, and Aphrodite is the real thing…Well, my Brenda - She is the real thing."

     Jerry grinned. "We thought maybe you liked Aphrodite better because, not only is she the goddess of beauty and love, but also sexual rapture."

     Jax just raised an eyebrow. Well, in that case the name really fit Brenda.

     Justin laughed and gave Jax a wicked grin. "I can read your mind, bro."

     "You can read?" Jax quipped.

     Jerry shook his head in amusement at his younger brothers’ verbal sparring. "Why exactly is Brenda pacing out there anyway, Jax? Is this some plot between her and Julie? I mean, all morning Julie is running in and out of this room and now Brenda's pacing outside of it. Are they intentionally trying to drive us all mad?"

     "I’ll go find out," Jax said, and he got up, opening the French doors of the study just as Brenda, his wife of four months, was spinning around to start a new series of pacing along the corridor. Brenda saw him and raced over to him. It always amazed Jax the grace and agility the woman had in those heels.

     "Oh, good! Are you finished?" she asked hopefully, looking like a bundle of nerves.

     "No," Jax said. "Sweetie, we can’t really concentrate with my sister popping in every five minutes and now this little march you’re doing out here in the hallway - well, let’s just say my brothers are suggesting I lock you in a closet and handcuff you to bedroom furniture. What are you so nervous about anyway?"

     "You know what, Jax," she said, turning to pace again. Jax caught her arm.

     "You’re telling me all of this high anxiety is about a little dinner party tonight?"

     "Yes! Jax, I’m the hostess of that little dinner party. Me! And I want to make you proud of me, you know that. So I have to make a good impression for all of your high society friends, and they all hate me as it is…"

     "They do not hate you."

     "Well, the women do. You have to see the looks they all give me! I don’t understand it…"

     "Well, who cares about them?" Jax asked with a shrug. "Brenda, you’re going to be perfect. Wait… why are you all dressed up already? It’s only 2 in the afternoon. The dinner starts at seven."

     "I know, but I had to get dressed now so that I could see what I would look good in. And, Jax, I tried on thirteen dresses, thirteen - ”

     He gazed at her. “Wow, you must be tired then,” he said with a grin.

     She shoved him, which barely even moved him. “Jax, this is not funny. I really did try on thirteen dresses, and I thought this was the best one to choose, right? But now that I have it on," she gazed down at the stunning, body hugging, emerald green silk, "I hate it!" she decided. "I need something more conservative, right? Or maybe not. What do you think? Oh, Jax, I need you! I have no idea what I’m doing. Julie just went out, I can’t find your mom, and I’m just going to make a total fool out of myself, I know it!"

     Jax could imagine his brothers in the study, grinning over him having to handle his nervous, young wife as she hosted her first high society soiree. He knew their bloody ears were pressed to the door.

     "Come with me," Jax said softly, taking her hand and leading her outside to the west terrace. It was early November in New Orleans. The weather was extremely pleasant; the mighty oak trees swayed easily in the light breeze coming off Lake Pontchartrain. The sounds of the band Brenda had auditioned and hired for the evening could be heard floating from the ballroom as they practiced the repertoire Brenda told them she’d wanted them to perform.

     Heaven on earth
     That’s what you made for me
     since the day we met
     Heaven on earth
     it’s all been so thrilling
     I never can forget.
     Heaven on earth
     along with an angel
     Is living in dreams come true
     Heaven on earth
     I know that it happens
     Only when I’m with you

     Brenda gazed out at the lake as Jax leaned on the magnificent terrace railing, watching her.

     "They sound great, don’t they?" Brenda said. "At least I did that much right. When it comes to music I do know what I'm doing."

     Jax spun her around to face him, keeping his hands on her waist. "Brenda, exactly one week ago, you and I came back from a 4-month honeymoon where you were with me everywhere from the deserts of Egypt to the jungles of Brazil. You fell in quicksand, that weird looking white bat was chasing you through the rain forest and you threw a can of soda at it, you accidentally stepped on a crocodile, for godsakes, and when it tried to snap at you, you got mad and stepped on it again, do you remember all of this?"

     She laughed and nodded.

     Jax cradled her face. "You are the same girl who camped out in the deserts of the Sahara with me, went on safari with me in Africa; we were jet-skiing in Aruba, snow-boarding in Switzerland, excavating Egyptian ruins in Cairo, where that prince had the audacity to try to buy you from me; we went rafting down the Nile, skydiving in New Zealand. You even went on that flying fox hunt with me in Australia - and you caught the damned thing. And none of this phased you, Brenda. In fact, you loved it all as much as I did. You impressed the hell out of me. You were so amazing… you are so amazing," he reminded her with a grin. "And now you mean to tell me that you’re going to let a little dinner party wreck your nerves? Quicksand, bats, crocodiles, and foxes that nearly fly didn’t do it, but dinner in your own house will?"

     Brenda’s hazel eyes gazed into his aquamarine ones.

     "It’s just that I feel like this whole night is going to be one big test, Jax," she explained to him.

     "It’s not a test. My mother adores you, Brenda. She’s not testing you."

     "I know - not her. But tonight I’m going to have to impress a whole bunch of people who are already expecting the worst of me, I’m sure."

     "I happen to know that you don’t care what those people think of you," Jax told her. "Julie told me how you sent a pork chop flying at the head of your dean at school at a very formal dinner occasion with plenty of influential people in attendance."

     She giggled at that memory of her mischievousness. "Oh, yeah, those were the days. Me and Julie taking on old blue-haired Dean Carmichael," she said, her hazel eyes sparkling like gorgeous gems.

     Jax tried to pay attention to her words, but he found himself enchanted by her sheer loveliness - something that happened every damned day - and drowning in the varying shades of golds, greens and browns that comprised her beautiful hazel eyes. Who would ever believe such a divine creature as this could exist here on this earthly sphere? But not only did she exist, she was his, he thought with a very satisfied smile.

     "But you know, I’m a Jacks now," Brenda continued. “I have to behave myself."

     "Why?" Jax asked simply. "What Jacks do you know who behaves himself?" he asked her. "According to my dear, sweet mother, my family is descended from a merry band of wicked, dashing pirates, remember? We do not behave ourselves," he assured her with a wink. "It is genetically impossible."

     She laughed. "You know what I mean, Jax. I have to do this right," she insisted, running her hand down his burgundy tie. "Your mom asked me to host this dinner, Jax, and for me that means she’s placed all this faith in me, and I just don’t want to screw anything up or let her down. So humor me, and let me just be a basket case just this one time, okay? Now tell me, should I wear my hair up or down like this? Do you hate this dress as much as I suddenly do? What topics of conversation should be off-limits at the dinner table? Should I tell Vince to forget about making that chicken in peanut sauce appetizer? Because, you know, even though it looks great and tastes to die for, you know some people are allergic to peanuts, and I wouldn’t want anyone to be breaking out into hives, or puffing up like a human pastry, or, god forbid, keeling over and…”

     Jax pulled her to him and kissed her before she could ask any more questions or continue her maddening run-on sentences. His kiss was one of deliberate, lazy sensuality that had Brenda responding from the moment their lips had touched. Jax deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his own, his tongue probing. Brenda curled her hands around his neck, holding him close and welcoming the deliberately provocative rhythm of his tongue. By the time Jax finally raised his head, they were both breathing fast and hard, and arousal tingled from every nerve ending.

     "You never could resist me," Jax bragged, running his thumb along those soft, warm lips of hers that had just filled him with such passionate delectation.

     Brenda nodded. "You know, you’d make me forget my own name," she confessed.

     "And have," he reminded her.

     She nodded again, sharing a smile with him that spoke of all of the passionate secrets they had between them. Several times Jax had made her forget her own name, once for an entire day - sunup to sundown - while they were in Tahiti.

     "But I know that kiss was your way of trying to distract me," she pointed out to him.

     "No, I was actually trying to save your life. Those run-on sentences of yours can be lethal, sweetheart. You have to take a breath every now and then."

     She laughed and hit Jax’s shoulder. "Well, thank you for saving my life. But will you stop trying to distract me now because I really need you to help me do everything perfectly for tonight. I need your advice and your expertise and your opinion and… " She could not take her eyes away from his lips. "…another kiss," she decided with a dreamy look, as she was inexorably drawn to him and she pressed her lips to his once more and they got lost in a kiss even more wildly intimate than its predecessor.

     The dinner party was 45 minutes away from starting. Brenda had changed dresses yet again and now looked as alluring as she had in all of her previous choices, wearing a shimmering silver crocheted dress that looked as if it had been sewn onto her by brilliant little fairies, who’d magically left behind glimmering firelight in each stitch. She sat in front of the vanity in their bedroom, staring at her reflection critically and playing with her hair as Jax walked up behind her. She caught his reflection in the mirror and her heart began to race.

     She felt the way she always felt when simply looking at him; that he was more fantasy than reality. That in reality there was no one who looked like Jax, no one who kissed like Jax, no one who made love like Jax. No one who was as kind and sweet and cocky and funny as Jax. He was a fantasy - every woman’s fantasy, to be exact. But then he would touch her, as he was doing now, his fingers trailing along her bare shoulders, and she would realize that the fantasy was real. He was real and he was hers.

     Jax knelt down next to her so that their reflections were now together in the mirror. "Brenda, you look absolutely beautiful. Promise me you’ll stop changing outfits now, or else I’m going to padlock your closet," he warned her.

     She laughed and kissed his cheek. “Okay, I promise." Then she traced her fingers along his jaw. "You know, that tux should thank you for making it look so good." Then Brenda furrowed her brows momentarily and looked at Jax. "There aren’t going to be any ‘Amber Stantons’ at this dinner party are there?" she asked, as the image of Jax’s clingy, sultry, southern-belle ex, popped into her mind.

     "Well, she won’t be there," Jax said, his hands roaming into the luxuriant softness of Brenda’s dark hair. "You know that she and Chad are persona non grata in this house. That hasn’t changed."

     "But will there be any other ex-girlfriends of yours in here tonight?" she asked him.

     Jax did this cute little puckering thing with his lips and then nodded. "Two," he said softly.

     Brenda’s eyes widened. "Two? Two, Jax? Who!"

     "Rachel Bradbury and Brette Montague," Jax told her.

     "Jax, have you dated every debutante in this town or something?!" Brenda demanded, now realizing why it was that all the women in New Orleans looked at her as if she were public enemy number one. She had come along and married the man of their collective dreams, the ex-boyfriend they had all hoped to have happily forever after with. And Brenda had come along out of nowhere and gotten their happily ever after.

     He gave her the boyish grin she adored and shrugged. "Does it matter if I did? You’re the one that I married, Brenda. You’re the one that I love," he said, pressing his lips softly to her throat, "my love."

     "Jax, those women are going to come here tonight wanting to destroy me. I know that because if I was an ex-girlfriend of yours I would hate the woman you married, too."

     "They may try to make you feel uncomfortable or out of your element," he conceded, "but I know you, baby. You’ll eat them for breakfast," he said with certainty, stroking her beneath her chin, touching hips lips to hers, and then rising to his feet.

     Brenda felt a secret pleasure at Jax’s unwavering confidence in her. He would never know how much that meant to her. She decided that he was right. She could handle his exes. However many of them there were, she thought with a sigh. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror again. "Jax, how should I wear my hair? Up or down? Which would be appropriate for a dinner party like this one?"

     "Up would be appropriate," he told her. Then he paused on his way out of the bedroom and bent down to whisper in her ear, "But I like it down." And she felt her body tingle as his lips brushed sensually against her ear, and then he left the bedroom to find the butler, Niles.

     Brenda had her hair up in a beautiful chignon. She tilted her head to the side, gazing at her reflection. Yes, this looked very nice and appropriate. No one could find fault with this hairstyle. Then all at once a mischievous look lit up her hazel eyes. She pulled the fancy diamond hairpins from her hair and watched it tumble down like a rich, dark, silky waterfall about her face and shoulders.

     Jax liked it down, she thought with a smile and a sensual arch of her eyebrow. As far as she was concerned, Jax liking it down beat out the "appropriateness" of wearing it up, any day of the week.

     Brenda slid on the gorgeous diamond choker Jax had given to her when they were in Egypt, and for the last time looked at her reflection. What she saw before her was a woman that Jasper Jacks would not be able to take his eyes off of tonight. And a woman that Rachel Bradbury and Brette Montague would easily and spitefully find a ton of faults with. They were coming here with the intention of annihilating her, Brenda knew that now.

     "Oh, God, please, just stop me from doing any truly Brenda-like things tonight," she murmured as she got up to go downstairs, trying to rid herself of the hysterical vision she had of herself putting Ex-Lax in their dessert.

Song Credit: “Heaven On Earth” written by Buck Ram and performed by The Platters