Brenda fell back against the rumpled, black satin sheets exhausted; her breath coming out in soft, shallow spurts; a fine mist of perspiration covering her naked body. Her eyes gazed at the clock and then over at her husband, whose magnificent naked form was all too quickly being covered with a gray-and-black running suit.

     He sat down in a chair by the open window to tie the laces of his sneakers and gazed up at her; blue eyes sparkling like sapphires, as an errant blonde curl fell rakishly over his forehead. He flashed her a grin.

     She smiled at him in return and tossed a pillow from the bed over at him. It hit him solidly in the chest, and he just laughed and knocked it away to the floor.

     “You going back to sleep now?” he teased her. It was 5 o’clock in the morning - an ungodly hour for Brenda Barrett-Jacks to open her eyes.

     “I would be perfectly, happily asleep right now if you hadn’t woken me up,” she said, tossing another pillow at him, this one missing him by a mile.

     Yet, he could see the laughter in her eyes, and knew she was not really upset at being roused so very early - before the sun had even peeked its head over the horizon. Especially not the way he had roused her - with soft, heated kisses that grew deep and demanding, and teasing caressing hands that grew urgent and unbearably tantalizing. The skilled combination of which had led to very passionate, early-morning lovemaking and her current state of sated exhaustion, and his current high-spirited mood.

     He shrugged, “What can I say? Ever since I married you, I love to start out the day in rapture.” He grinned again and winked at her, and a tingling warmth shot through her heart. “Although I think I’m going to have to invest in some earplugs,” he added, alluding to her sensual screams of release.

     That comment earned him yet another pillow hurled furiously at him and solidly hitting its mark, which evoked triumphant peals of laughter from the little beauty curled up in the bed.

     Jax finished tying his laces and walked over to the bed, where he promptly scooped her up into his arms; her body wrapped in nothing but the satin top sheet. He didn’t know what felt better: the satiny smoothness of the material or the soft, satiny smoothness of her skin. Her skin, he decided. For it was not only soft, satiny and smooth, but also deliciously warm. And smelled of pure, clean Ivory soap and a touch of lilacs. And drove him to mad distraction. And made his heart race with such pleasure simply to touch her.

     “I suspect you’re going to sleep for about four or five more hours, so I’m going to miss you at breakfast,” he told her, dropping a kiss on her temple. “ I have to leave in a couple of hours.”

     “Where are you going?” she asked. “After your run, I mean.”

     “Dad, Jerry and I have to go see a friend up in Kentwood. We have to pick something up from him. It’s going to take a few hours,” Jax responded.

     “Mmmm. Sounds mysterious,” she commented.

     “Not really. But I won’t see you until dinner. Do you have plans for the day?” he asked.

     “I plan to avoid that opera singer.”

     Jax chuckled and gave her a little squeeze. “I told you last night, Brenda, just politely tell Aunt Violet you’re not interested. She will understand.”

     “Oh, sure, so I can look like the bad guy/ingrate after she’s already paid the woman to give me these lessons? So she can turn around and tell you she’s making every effort and I’m not?” she said, feeling such a great sense of relief that she could speak to Jax freely about his aunt now with no more pretense.

     “Hmmm. I see your point there,” he conceded softly. “Well, who knows, you may like it.”

     She gave him an incredulous look. “Honey, I will not like it,” she said adamantly. “Ask your sister - I… I loathed the opera classes at school and did abysmally in them, by the way, and this will be no different. Trust me.”

     He shot her a gorgeous smile. “Well, God knows I should not be encouraging this, but maybe you and that infernal butler of ours can cook up something between you to tactfully send the opera signer on her way rather hastily?”

     A gleam of mischief lit up her eyes at his suggestion.

     Jax saw the gleam and brushed his thumb slowly across the warmth of her lips. “That’s my girl,” he murmured with a glimmer of a smile. “All I ask is whatever you do, Brenda, please let it be legal.”

     She laughed and her hands cradled his face. “It will be mostly legal - I promise,” she whispered, bringing his mouth down to hers for a kiss and then resting her head contentedly against his chest; the sleepiness that always claimed her after lovemaking making her stretch like a little kitten in his arms.

     “You have anything else on the calendar today?” he asked her, brushing his lips against her ear. It was one of the problems of being married to Brenda, this inability to stop touching her or kissing her whenever she was near him. “After you plot to rid yourself of Aunt Violet’s Christmas gift, that is?” he added.

     Her hand brushed lazily down his chest, playing with the zipper of his running top. “All the females of this household are going to Madame Remy’s costume shop to pick out outfits for Desdemona’s New Year’s Eve party,” Brenda responded in a soft, sleepy voice. “You and your brothers and your dad need to pick out costumes, too, you know. It’s only a couple of days away, ” she reminded him, a finger twirling flirtatiously in his hair.

     “I trust you, sweetie. Just pick out something for me,” he said, brushing a warm, sensual farewell kiss against her lips and then depositing her gently back into the bed.

     “You trust me to do that?” she asked with a mischievous, sleepy little laugh.

     “I trust you to know that if you pick out some godawful get-up for me, I will feed you huge, huge slices of Aunt Violet’s fruitcake until you beg for mercy,” he said, and with a pinch to her rear end that made her jump up in the bed laughing, he blew her a kiss and was gone.

     Smiling at the doorway through which her husband had just exited, Brenda wrapped the satin sheet around her and snuggled back into the bed; then, still laughing, closed her eyes and slept.

     And as his wife snuggled off to sleep upstairs, Jax went to meet his younger brother downstairs for their daily run, but was surprised to find Jessa Williston there as well, dressed for running.

     Her eyes lit up at the sight of Jax. “Good morning, Jax,” she said.

     “Hi,” Jax said, his eyes shooting briefly to his brother, who just shrugged. “What are you doing up so early, Jessa?”

     “I hoped I maybe could go riding. I love horses - you know that. And I love to ride in the early morning,” she said. “And I love your horse Mercury.”

     Jax was about to mention that she was not dressed for riding, but changed his mind. “The sun isn’t up yet, so it’s too dark for you to go riding by yourself,” Jax told her. “And I’m afraid you could never ride Mercury, at any rate. He’s a bit wild, which is the way I like him, but he’s not exactly an ideal horse for a lady,” he explained.

     “Does Brenda ride him?” she asked sulkily.

     “No,” Jax responded immediately.

     Justin made a strange noise that sounded like laughter suspiciously covered by a very fake sounding cough.

     “Well… not anymore,” Jax amended, sending Justin a scowl of brotherly annoyance.

     Jessa smiled brightly at that. “Well, since I’m up already. Can I go running with you?” she asked.

     Justin gave Jax a grimace, as the brothers looked forward to their morning run alone together, where they often engaged in conversations not at all appropriate to female company, let alone a female with the impressionable mental maturity of a 12-year-old. But Jax did not see any way to tactfully deny the child-like woman. Besides, there was his family’s archaic guest hospitably rules to consider.

     “Ah… sure, why not?” he said, ignoring the roll of his brother’s eyes. And the three of them left the house, jogging towards the private bayou.

     Refreshed from an additional 5 hours of sleep, Brenda had showered and dressed, tidied up the bedroom and was energized for the day. Dressed in a pair of soft, green velvet jeans and a snug, short-sleeved white crochet top, Brenda brushed her luxurious dark curls into a ponytail, ran her fingers through the bangs a couple of times and headed out of her wing of the house and downstairs to find Niles.

     She paused by the living room, grinning as she saw her mother-in-law doing a dancing exercise to the Abba song “Dancing Queen.” Brenda danced into the living room, singing along to the song and shaking her hips in a way that had Jane’s eyes widening in admiration.

     “Good heavens, luv, but I wish I could shake it like that,” she laughed, clapping her hands in appreciation. “Oh, to have a young, nubile body again,” she sighed dramatically. “I did once, you know. Were you perhaps a belly dancer in a previous life?”

     Brenda tossed her head back and laughed and then said, “Watch this, Lady Jane.” And she began to execute some moves of several popular dances.

     “Oh, my, but aren’t you just the fabulous little thing!” Jane exclaimed, watching her in a bit of awe. “What is that called, what you’re doing now?” she queried, cocking her head.

     Brenda shrugged. “I have no idea. I just see music videos on TV and pick up on the moves they use,” she confessed. “Jax loves it,” she added with a dimpled smile.

     Jane smiled warmly at her. “Oh, I’ll just bet he does. I’m sure he could simply watch you all day,” Jane said with a raise of her brow. “All right, well, that settles it. You’re going to have to show me how you do that so I can leave my husband gape-mouthed on the dance floor at Desi’s party on Friday.”

     Brenda laughed. “Really? You really want me to?”

     “I most certainly do. Such fun is not relegated merely to the young, you know. It has been too long since John has seen me ‘shake my groove thing,’ as you young people say. It’s about time the man was left in speechless awe of his wife, don’t you think?”

     What Brenda thought was that Lady Jane was the most wonderful, outrageous woman and truly one of a kind and left not only her husband, but her entire family, speechless with awe plenty of times.

     “Okay, just do what I do,” Brenda said, walking over to the stereo to turn up the volume, as she proceeded to instruct her mother-in-law on the hippest new dance moves.

     So infectious was the thumping Abba song and the peals of laughter coming from the living room, that in no time Lady Jane and Brenda were joined by Juliet, Joanna, Justin and a very much recovered from the flu, Niles. Jessa walked into the living room, too, watching the light-hearted, wacky fun so common amongst the Jacks family with a sense of detachment. Niles had everyone in hysterics as he busted out his best John Travolta Saturday Night Fever moves. Lady Jane, Juliet and Joanna appeared to be doing some sort of Texas square dance, and Brenda and Justin were sticking to the modern, hip dances and executing them together in such a manner that would make any MTV or Soul Train dancer envious. And might make Jax envious, too, Jessa thought, as she watched Brenda and Justin. But no. Brenda was for Chad. And Jax is for me, Jessa thought with a smile. Although, as her eyes rested on Justin, she began to marvel at the similarities between the two brothers.

     The cheerful revelry in the living room was interrupted by Aunt Violet’s appearance as she walked into the room, looking astonished as she saw what was going on. Her face flushed beet red as she made her stuttering apologies to the woman at her side.

     “What on earth is going on in here?” Aunt Violet bellowed, rapping her fan against a white marble coffee table. But even her bellow could not be heard over the thumping music and the laughter and Brenda and Juliet’s singing along to the song. “People!” she yelled again. “I say, what is going on here?” Then her eyes popped open as she watched Brenda and Justin executing a perfectly scandalous snake-like move and then Brenda laughing and giving Justin a high-five, as she breathlessly teased that it had taken Jax a lot longer than Justin to master that move when she had tried to teach him. And Justin responded that Jax was probably always trying to kiss her in between, which would account for his being a slower learner.

     Brenda’s tinkling peals of laughter attested to Justin’s accuracy in his guess.

     The song ended and everyone was startled by the shout of Aunt Violet’s voice. Juliet quickly went to turn down the stereo before the next song came on.

     “Well, good morning, Violet,” Jane said, still breathless and laughing. “I apologize if you had to shout, my dear. We all got a bit carried away in the fun. You’ll have to pardon me, I was just getting down with my bad self.”

     Aunt Violet was staring at Jane as if she expected Jane’s head to start spinning in wild 360 degree revolutions and pea soup to start flying from her lips. Truly, dear Jane had been turned into a mental case ever since she’d married that John Jacks.

     “And who do have here with you?” Jane queried of the gaping Violet.

     Violet shook herself out of her stunned stupor. “May I present Madame Hilgenborn,” Aunt Violet said. “She has come here all the way from London to personally give Brenda two weeks’ worth of opera instruction. All arranged by me, of course,” she said proudly. “Madame has only two weeks to spare, and then she will be in Italy for several months.”

     “Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Madame Hilgenborn,” Jane said graciously. “Welcome to our home.”

     Madame Hilgengorn nodded regally at the group of breathless people assembled in the living room. “Good day to you all,” she said in a condescending, blue-blooded English tone of voice that even put Niles’s to shame. “An amusing, little ritual,” she added, gesturing to them and the dancing she had walked in upon. “And which one of you is to be my student?” she asked, gazing at the three younger women in the room; her hopeful gaze resting on Juliet, looking sweetly serene this day, dressed in a lovely blue dress, her golden hair in a long French braid.

     “That would be me,” Brenda said, stepping forward.

     She was sure she did not imagine the look of utter dismay that crossed the large woman’s features as her eyes locked on Brenda in her snug green velvet jeans and sexy little crochet top, her fiery personality clear as day. The opera singer’s large brow creased further the more she looked at Brenda. Everything about Madame Hilgenborn was large, Brenda thought. Her body was a large frame; her bosoms were just huge; her face was broad; and her backside… well, that was downright enormous. Even her dark hair, graying at the temples and thrust up into a fat bun, was large. Large hair? Brenda could not suppress a grin, which made Madame’s frown increase all the more, until she began to bear a remarkable resemblance to a huge Shar-Pei dog.

     “Yes, this is my godson’s wife, Madame,” Aunt Violet said. “Brenda Barrett-Jacks. And as I told you, she does have a lovely voice, but she’s young and it lacks any classical training. I’m sure you can work wonders on the girl.”

     That made Brenda feel like some sort of science project, and a tiny scowl of defiance skittered across her smooth brow.

     “I thought the lesson didn’t begin until 3 o’clock?” Brenda interjected, shooting a quick glance to Niles to make sure he was still in the room.

     “That is correct,” Aunt Violet verified. “But I invited Madame to brunch since that young man, Vincent’s, cooking is so extraordinary. You don’t mind do you, Jane?”

     “Of course not,” Lady Jane said. “I think that bit of dancing has made us all rather famished. I’ll just go and tell Vince to set an extra place.” Jane excused herself, and everyone else dispersed as well.

     “Well, I can’t stay for brunch,” Justin was saying to his mother, as he walked with her towards the kitchens. “I have to hold down the fort at the office. Besides, Jax and I had breakfast earlier.”

     “All right, luv,” his mother said.

     Brenda tagged along behind Justin and tugged on his shirt. “Hey, do you know what it was that Jax had to pick up in Kentwood today?” she queried.

     “Yes,” Justin said. And with no further elaboration and a quick smile, he poked her tummy and playfully told her to enjoy straining her voice to the rafters, then left.

     Brenda turned around and crashed into Niles. “Oh, just the person I need!” she said, grabbing his hand and leading him down the hall and into one of the studies.

     “I am at your service as always, Ms. Brenda,” Niles said, once she had closed the door.

     “Niles, you have to help me figure out a way to get Madame Hilgenborn on a plane back to London,” Brenda said. “Today.”

     “Is that all?” he said with a pout. He sighed, “I must say, I had been hoping for something a bit more challenging.”

     Brenda broke out into a beautiful smile. “Does that mean you know how to get rid of her?”

     “Oh, yes, indeed I do. And I believe we can see to it over brunch, as a matter of fact. You see, Ms. Brenda - my cousin, Jeeves, was in the employ of Madame Hilgenborn five years ago. And he informed me that she is as vain as they come and has a dreadful allergic reaction to strawberries. She breaks out in hideous blotches,” Niles said, rubbing his hands together.

     Brenda groaned. “Yes, but if she sees something with strawberries in it, she just won’t eat it,” she said. “Besides, the blotches would go away after a day or so, right? So that won’t really get rid of her; it will just delay my agony. No, we have to think of something else, Niles.”

     “Trust me, my dear girl, there is no need for another plan. This one shall work,” Niles insisted.

     “How?”

     “I shall have Vincent put a bit of strawberry into everything in the meal.”

     Brenda’s dark brows rose in admiration at this ingenious idea.

     “He is quite the chef, you know,” Niles continued, “and can do it so that no one will even know. Therefore, Madame H. shall be partaking of strawberry with each bite of everything she chooses. She will then begin to resemble a strawberry.”

     Brenda smothered a giggled at that image. A very large strawberry. Then she frowned suddenly. “Wait, this won’t really hurt her or anything, will it? Some people have allergic reactions that land them in the hospital or worse.”

     Niles smiled at her in a fatherly manner. “Beneath your marvelous mischievous cunning you have a gentle heart, Ms. Brenda. But I assure you, my cousin swore that the reaction she has to this particular fruit is purely cosmetic, which was why he found it so amusing. She will, of course, bellow and screech about who dared put strawberries in her food,” Niles was saying, “and we shall all look wide-eyed in angelic innocence as we can neither see nor taste any strawberries in our portions, and Vincent will, of course, indignantly insist there are no strawberries in anything. She will then become truly alarmed, thinking her allergic reaction may be to something besides strawberries, and she will immediately insist upon returning home to England to confer with her personal physician. She has only a two-week window to instruct you - and it will take at least that long for her to be run through a gamut of allergen tests. Then she will be off to Italy, never to darken your doorstep again,” Niles finished.

     “You really are good,” Brenda said, with an arch of an eyebrow.

     “This, I know, Ms. Brenda.”

     She smiled. “I like it, Niles!” Brenda enthused. “And it’s legal.”

     “I beg your pardon?” Niles queried in confusion at her last comment.

     She grinned. “Jax told me not to do anything illegal.”

     Niles sharply raised a brow, “You mean to tell me that Master Jax is aware that you intend a little scheme to be rid of that woman?” he asked incredulously, knowing how averse Jax was to Brenda’s little penchant for impulsive schemes.

     “He suggested it,” Brenda informed him.

     Niles shook his head in amazement. “Good god, but you have truly got that man wrapped about your little finger, Ms. Brenda.”

     Brenda shrugged. “Well, that would only be fair, since he’s totally got me wrapped around his, too. Come on, we’d better go let Vince in on everything - brunch is about to be served, as it is!” she said urgently, hauling Niles out of the study and racing with him like a madwoman down to the kitchens.

     When Jax, Jerry and John returned an hour before supper, Jax was not in the least bit surprised to discover Madame Hilgenborn had come and gone. Nor was he surprised to hear everyone’s vivid descriptions of what had happened to the woman during brunch.

     “I’ve never seen a person puff up like that and turn such a bright shade of red. Why, it was like she was trying to become one with the strawberries that she insisted must be in the food,” Jane said, with a shake of her head. “It was a bit like a bad horror movie, she carried on so.”

     “Sorry I missed that,” Jerry said, with a sigh of genuine disappointment.

     “Bloody hell, so am I! Never a dull moment in this household,” John chuckled.

     “Never,” Jax agreed, gazing at his wife who, remarkably, was the picture of sweetest innocence. Sweetest, most beautiful, most sexy innocence. How did she do that? He shook his head, smiling slightly at her.

     “It is such a shame,” Aunt Violet was grumbling. “The vain woman up and insisted on returning straight away to London - wouldn’t even let us drop her at a local hospital to get it looked at, and, well, there’s no hope now that Brenda will be getting any lessons from her. She seemed to blame her unfortunate condition on my making her come here to New Orleans, the ridiculous woman!”

     “I hope you got a refund,” Jax said, leaning against the side of the couch and pulling his wife against him, wrapping one arm about her waist.

     “I most certainly did, my dear. Although, she actually tried to refuse me, saying she should keep the money for her mental anguish! Of all the utter nonsense,” Aunt Violet huffed. “Ah well… on to step two. Brenda, I would like to take you shopping next week, my dear,” she said pointedly, gazing Brenda up and down and taking in her outfit with obvious disapproval. “We shall go the day after New Year’s Day. And I will not take no for an answer. I dare say our shopping spree will go much better than today’s disaster.”

     Brenda opened her mouth to protest any shopping spree with Aunt Violet, but Jax’s warm hand was suddenly covering her mouth and his head was lowered to whisper to her. “She’s just going to keep offering to do things for you until you let her,” Jax told her. “Let her do this, Brenda. Come on, how bad can it be?” His lips brushed her ear persuasively.

     She turned in his arms to face him as he removed his hand from her mouth. “How bad can it be?” she repeated, placing her hands on her hips. “Why does that sound like famous last words, Jax?”

     “You love clothes,” he pointed out.

     “You’re assuming I’ll be the one picking out the clothes. Somehow I think your godmother intends to be the one doing that, god help me! I’m going to come back looking like one of those girls from Little House on the Prairie!” she whispered.

     Overhearing her, Juliet burst out in a short laugh, and Brenda gave her a jab in the ribs before turning back to Jax.

     “But okay, you’re right. If I don’t let her do something for me, she’s just going to keep on trying. Who knows, maybe we’ll really bond on this shopping spree or something,” Brenda said so unconvincingly that Jax laughed and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a thorough kiss in front of everyone.

     “I think ‘or something’ is more likely, don’t you?” he whispered to her, kissing her again and laughing.

     “All right, enough of that mush, you two,” Jerry was saying. “Aren’t any of you people the least bit interested in seeing what Dad, Jax and I brought home from Kentwood?”

     “Lets wait until after dinner to show them,” Jax suggested.

     That suggestion did not sit well with the ever-impatient Brenda. “Do we have to? I’m dying to see what it is you guys got,” Brenda said. “Why are you guys keeping it such a secret anyway?” she added, poking Jax’s arm. “You didn’t bring home another harem, did you?”

     “As if you would let any woman who dares to lust after me leave here alive,” Jax said.

     With a little ”Hmpf!” Brenda shoved him away from her. Laughing, Jax pulled her right back to him.

     “I vote we don’t wait for dinner either,” Juliet said. “I want to see what you brought home, too.”

     “I second Julie’s vote,” Joanna chimed in.

     “Third,” Jane said, raising her hand.

     “Oh, we ladies so rule,” Juliet said with a triumphant sigh, earning her ‘Shut up, pest!’ looks from all three of her brothers.

     “I confess I’m a bit curious now myself,” Aunt Violet murmured.

     John turned towards Jax with a sigh. “Son, sometimes you just need to know when you’re outnumbered by these pretty pecking hens,” he said, clapping him on the back. “Come on, everyone, let’s go have a look,” John said, then peeked over at Jessa, who was in a corner, looking rather sullen since Jax had been stuck like glue to Brenda ever since he’d returned. And then that kiss he had just given her in front of everybody! “You, too, dear; come on,” John said, waving her forward.

     Everyone walked out into the cool December evening, and Brenda noticed they were heading towards the stables. Brenda and Jax were lagging behind the others, as they were fooling around, with her eluding him and him trying to grab her. Finally she laughingly flew into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and Jax held her that way as they reached the others in the stables.

     Before they entered, Brenda heard the “Ooohs” and “Aahs” of the rest of the family. She slipped out of Jax’s arms to move forward and get a better look at the new arrival in the stables.

     Jessa was gushing loudly and bubbling with excitement about the pretty new horse and longing to pet it. Jax had gotten this pretty, pretty horse today! The same day she had told him how much she loved horses! The horse had to be for her!

     Brenda gazed at the beautiful white mare, which was whinnying softly at all the attention.

     “She’s beautiful!” she breathed.

     “She’s a thoroughbred,” Jax said.

     Brenda nodded. “I can tell. Jax, she’s magnificent.”

     “She’s yours,” Jax said softly.

     Brenda swiveled around to look at him in shock. “What? Really?”

     Jax nodded. “Yes, really. Now maybe you’ll stop sneaking behind my back and riding Mercury.”

     Jane gasped. “Brenda, luv! Never tell me you’ve been riding that midnight terror?”

     Busted, Brenda chewed on her lip and a hint of rose colored her golden cheeks. Then she cast a look of exasperation to the stableman, Ernie. “You told him?”

     “Hey, that horse is an ornery, wild thing when he wants to be, and I know Mr. Jacks forbid you to ride him. And with good reason. And well, missy, the day I saw you riding him, I plum near had myself a heart attack, and so yeah, I told Mr. Jacks,” Ernie admitted sheepishly.

     Which would explain why the other times Brenda had snuck into the stable to ride Mercury, Ernie had always given her excuses about why Mercury could not be ridden and saddled up one of the gentle, boring horses for her instead.

     Brenda slid a guilty, apologetic look to Jax. “It was only once,” she said quickly, holding up one finger for emphasis.

     “Not for lack of trying on your part,” Jax responded.

     “Okay,” she conceded, “but I was really careful. Ask Ernie.”

     “Well, that’s true, sir. But careful don’t count for much on that demon horse of yours, as you already know. I was scared outta my wits seeing your pretty, little wife on top of that crazy, giant stallion, ridin’ like the dang wind across the meadow. Now, this new little filly you’ve brought home today - she’s a frisky one, all right, but not a dag-blamed lunatic, like that crazy black stallion over yonder.”

     In a stall down the hall Mercury kicked a hoof against the stall and snorted in indignation, as if he knew very well that he was the topic of insulting conversation in the stable.

     “She’s just gorgeous!” Juliet said, reaching out to scratch the new horse’s snowy white mane and admire her sleek, muscular flank. “My horse Arabella is going to be jealous. So, what are you going to call her, Brenda?”

     “Horse,” Jerry suggested.

     “Fluffy?” Justin teased.

     Brenda shot them both a glare and then smiled and walked up to her new horse, stroking her fingers lovingly against its head. “Isis,” she decided.

     “Welcome to the family, Isis!” John said, and the newly dubbed Isis seemed to whinny in approval of her name.

     Jessa looked on darkly.

     Brenda turned then and raced over to Jax, leaping into his arms and wrapping her arms around him. “Thank you so much, honey; she is so beautiful!”

     Jax smiled at her, as his family began to file out of the stable and head back to the mansion and Ernie left to go have his own supper. “So, you like her?” he asked unnecessarily, as he set her down in front of him.

     “I love her!” She covered his face in kisses. “And I’m sorry - about Mercury, I mean. I was so careful Jax, and it really was only once,” she swore.

     “I know.” Jax cradled her face. “But he is a wild horse with everyone but me, Brenda. Hell, sometimes even with me. He could easily have been in the mood to throw you. And god, but your impulses are going to be the death of me, sweetheart.”

     She knew he was halfway serious.

     “I’m really sorry, Jax, ” she said again, kissing him again. “Forgive me?”

     He kissed her, and then looked ponderous. “Hmmm… I don’t know.”

     She giggled against his lips, wrapped her arms around him, stood up on her tip toes and kissed him yet again, long, deep, and sensuous. Then she pulled away, licking her lips. “Forgive me now?”

     His response was something between a grunt and a groan, as he pulled her back to him with a delicious urgency covering her mouth with his. So involved were they in their deepening kiss that they were oblivious to the fact that everyone had left the stable, except for Jessa.

     Jessa had never felt such anger, such jealousy, such hatred as she had felt when Jax said that pretty, pretty white horse was for Brenda. Brenda had ridden Mercury, even after Jax had told her not to, and was he even mad at her? No! He buys her this pretty, pretty horse instead! And now he was kissing all over her again! Why did he always do that?! Dr. Chad said that Jax didn’t even love Brenda - that Brenda was just a prisoner here. So why was he always kissing all over her like that? And always touching her? And why did she let him? Why did he buy her things, like the pretty ring Jessa had pilfered and the pretty white horse? Why did he stare and stare at her with those pretty blue eyes as if she were the only one in the room? Jessa frowned ferociously. She hated Brenda!

     As it became increasingly apparent that neither Jax nor Brenda was the least bit aware of her presence, Jessa loudly cleared her throat.

     Slowly Jax and Brenda broke their very sensuous kiss and both looked over at her. Jax gave her a smile that was so divine that Jessa just felt her heart melt to her feet and her hate for Brenda increased even more. Brenda was the recipient of those smiles from him all the time.

     “Sorry about that,” he apologized. “It’s the curse of being married to my little goddess here.”

     “Don’t blame it on me,” Brenda laughed, and then she and Jax were looking at each other again and once again Jessa was being ignored.

     She cleared her throat loudly again. “Your horse sure is pretty, Brenda,” she said with a sugary sweetness that she did not remotely feel.

     “Isn’t she?!” Brenda agreed excitedly, managing to extricate herself from her gorgeous husband long enough to go back and admire her new gift. “Do you want to pet her, Jessa? Feed her an apple maybe?”

     “No thank you,” Jessa said, hating the horse now, since it was Brenda’s horse. “I’m just hungry and thought we should all be getting back to dinner.”

     “She’s right,” Jax agreed. “The family will be waiting on us. Shall we go, ladies?”

     Jessa’s heart beat with wild joy as Jax took her hand in his, but then her eyes slid jealously over to Brenda, as Jax’s other hand took hers; their fingers entwining intimately as the three of them exited the stables.

     Dinner contained the typical Jacks family joviality and wild antics as John, Jerry and Jax told the family about their road rage encounter with a water-gun toting, drunken Santa Claus in a Chevy pick up truck, who’d been weaving in front of them on the way home from Kentwood. They’d just gotten to the part about how they’d gotten him to pull over, get out of the truck, and Jerry had gotten the guy’s keys and tossed them into the forest running along the highway, much to the fury of the drunken St. Nick.

     “Then, while Jax is calling the highway patrol and Dad is keeping an eye on the water gun in the back of the guy’s hand to make sure none of us get blasted - he could have had acid in there for all we knew - anyway, the guy starts blubbering and breaks out into bloody song.”

     “What?!” Brenda and Juliet both said at the same time, clearly thinking Jerry was embellishing, as he was known to do.

     “I kid you not - ask Jax, ask Dad. He drops his little water pistol on the grass, tears streaming down his face, and starts howling at the moon some godawful tune from ‘Cats’ in a key designed to make one’s ears bleed.”

     Jax was nodding his head. “It’s true. It was pretty horrible,” he corroborated.

     “We almost wished he would shoot us at that point,” John muttered.

     “But alas, his gun was harmless,” Jax added. “When I got off the phone with the highway patrol, Dad and I checked it. There was just vodka in it.”

     “And where was the drunk Santa while you guys were doing that?” Brenda asked.

     “Stripping down to his birthday suit and prancing about the forest, still blubbering and caterwauling like a loon,” Jerry supplied. “When he started rubbing his bare arse against a tree and kickin’ up his heels doing the can-can it became too horrific to keep watching.”

     Brenda nearly spit up her ginger ale.

     “We stayed until the police came and then got the hell out of there,” Jax finished up. “I swore we had to be on candid camera or something; it was so unreal.”

     “This family really needs to write a book,” Joanna said. “Things like this just don’t happen to anybody but us. Do you realize that? We should write a book and make a bloody fortune.”

     “We already have a bloody fortune,” Justin pointed out, then turned to his brothers. “Too bad I wasn’t with you; I could have critiqued him,” he moped, crossing his arms.

     “Hey, we missed the opera singer morphing into a human strawberry,” Jerry said. “I’d have taken seeing that over the drunk St. Nick in the Chevy any day.”

     “Oh, you should have seen her, Jer; she just had the most enormous bosom!” Juliet said, rolling her eyes and stretching her arms wide in front of her to illustrate and give her brother a visual.

     Aunt Violet nearly gagged on her slice of pot roast at this entire dinner conversation.

     Laughing at Aunt Violet’s mortification at the outspokenness of the family, which surely did take some getting used to, Joanna began clanging her fork against her glass of lemonade. “All right: attention, family. I have an announcement to make,” she declared.

     Jerry had gotten up to pick up the potato salad from the other end of the table and his wife gestured for him to sit back down. “You need to be sitting down, I think,” she teased him.

     Jerry groaned, sliding back into his seat with the bowl of potato salad in his hands. “Did you get yet another ticket for your hideous parallel parking?” He turned to glare at his family. “What the bloody hell have I told you all about letting her drive?”

     Brenda laughed and tossed a croissant over at Jerry, as Aunt Violet watched in shock as it bounced off of his head and landed in a bowl of fruit on the breakfront behind him. “Leave her alone, you jerk,” Brenda said to her brother-in-law.

     “Oh, nice shot, love,” Jane murmured casually, as she poured some balsamic vinegar salad dressing over her salad.

     Jerry tossed Brenda a grin, and then she gasped and ducked as he beaned four green grapes at her. One bounced off Brenda’s shoulder and flew up in the air, landing down the front of Aunt Violet’s dress.

     The entire table grew suddenly quiet, as they all stared at the flustered Aunt Violet.

     “Good heavens! Is this dining behavior normal in this household?” Aunt Violet croaked, reddening as she removed the offending grape from her bosom.

     “Actually, this is very tame for us,” Justin mentioned, smiling like a devil.

     Aunt Violet gaped at him, looking as if she would cross herself then and there.

     “Sorry about that, Aunt Violet. But listen, in the future you need to realize that if you sit near Brenda, you are in the line of fire and must be prepared to suffer the consequences of your poor seat selection,” Jerry informed her with a shrug.

     Aunt Violet shook her head as if in a fog. She felt as if she were in bedlam surrounded by escaped inmates! “Dinner was delicious, but I believe I’m getting a migraine. If you will all excuse me,” she said haughtily, departing the table as quickly as possible and going to her room.

     Jerry sighed as if despondent. “Well, damn. Was it something I threw?”

     Laughter erupted at the table.

     “Oh, you are a wicked boy Jerry Jacks,” his mother admonished.

     “Jax is worse,” Jerry insisted.

     Joanna clanged her fork against her glass again, still laughing. “All right, all right. Doesn’t anyone want to hear my announcement?”

     Jessa held her head; the antics of the Jacks family dinner making her dizzy.

     “By all means, announce away, my dear,” John commanded.

     “Everyone,” Joanna began calmly, then squealed: “I am going to have a baby!”

     No one could have possibly looked more stunned than Jerry.

     “Oh, what glorious news!” Jane breathed, clapping her hands together.

     “A baby!” Jerry echoed in disbelief.

     “Lord - Jax, Justin, one of you go and run behind your brother now - quickly, he’s going to swoon,” Jane said in alarm.

     “Mum! For the love of god, men do not swoon,” Jerry protested indignantly, a scowl on his face. Then the scowl was replaced by a beaming smile, as he once again looked at his wife and said, “A baby?”

     Joanna nodded with glee; her eyes misting at the tenderness in Jerry’s gaze.

     “Congratulations, my dear!” John boomed merrily, rising out of his chair to walk over and give Joanna a big hug. “My first grandchild! And here I thought Jax and Brenda were going to beat you to it,” he joked, winking at Brenda, who was suddenly looking a bit ill.

     Everyone was up and about now hugging the parents-to-be and offering congratulations.

     Brenda gave Joanna a kiss and then waited until Jax was occupied hugging his sister-in-law before she excused herself to dash to the bathroom, as Jessa’s eyes followed her curiously.

     Inside the bathroom, Brenda splashed water on her face and tried to calm down her racing heart and her roiling belly. She moaned in distress to realize that her overwhelming fear of bearing a child was still with her. A fear that had been instilled within her at her mother’s death; her mother having died while giving birth to Brenda’s sister. A sister whose birth had killed their mother, and who herself had only lived two hours before dying. Brenda shuddered at the memory that had been engraved in the mind of a ten-year-old girl. But god, she had been sure this ridiculous fear had passed by now! But when John had jokingly mentioned her becoming pregnant she had gone into a cold sweat of utter dread and had nearly lost her dinner then and there.

     Throwing open the bathroom window, Brenda gulped in fresh air, locking her hands together to try to stop them from shaking. Everything would be okay, she told herself. By the time she and Jax were ready to have kids she would be past all of this; the stark terror of childbirth would be gone. It would be. She loved Jax and the fear would be gone. Yes, the fear would go away. God, please let it go away.

     She took a deep breath, unclasped her hands and placed them on the windowsill.

     She bit her lip and tears stung her eyes as she saw they were still shaking.

     That night as Brenda came out of the shower, flashed him one of her gorgeous smiles and climbed into bed, Jax sensed that she was distracted about something. He was sitting in the bed Indian style watching the financial news on CNN, but tossed the remote aside and pulled her into his lap when she climbed into the bed. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and placed a soft kiss to her cheek and gave her a hug.

     “Something on your mind, pretty lady?” he asked her, resting his chin atop her soft, beautiful hair.

     “Yeah, actually,” she said, resting her hands over his, which were linked together against her stomach. “It’s great about Jerry and Joanna and the whole baby thing, isn’t it?”

     “Mmm hmmm.”

     She tilted her head back so she could see his face. “Jax, do you want kids?” she asked him.

     He gazed down at her. “Someday,” he said. He looked at her thoughtfully. “Don’t you?”

     “Of course,” she answered immediately. He felt her fingers moving nervously across his hands. “So, how many do you want? Just one?” she asked, hoping he would say yes. She could conquer the paralyzing fear and get through pregnancy just once. For Jax she could do that, she was sure of it.

     “I was thinking more like five. Maybe six - all girls, who look just like you,” he said, grinning, but he saw her paling and his grin disappeared. “Sweetheart,” he shifted her so that she faced him now. “Hey, I was just kidding,” he assured her. He took in her pallor and her shaking hands, which she was trying very hard to still. And all at once he was reminded of a warm day in Egypt, he and Brenda walking by the Nile River and her telling him how her mother had died. In childbirth. “Brenda,” his voice was soft, soothing. “You can tell me anything, you know.”

     “I know.”

     But she said nothing else.

     He said nothing either for a while, allowing the silence to linger, and then: “Bren, are you afraid to have a baby?”

     She jerked her shaking hands away from him and managed to get out a laugh. “No, honey, of course not. Why… why would you think that? Hey, have you ever thought of names that you’d want for the baby? Is the whole “J” thing some sort of family rule or something?” she asked, although her hastiness in changing the subject did not go unnoticed by him. She had also picked up the remote control and was skimming through the channels, not looking at him.

     “It’s all right to be scared, Brenda. Most women are the first time.”

     Scared, maybe, Jax, but most women are not terrified like I am, she thought.

     “The first time what?” she asked him with a smile, trying to inject some teasing into the too-heavy mood.

     He smiled at her. “That first time, too.”

     “I wasn’t scared then,” she told him, turning around and leaning sideways against his chest, curving slender arms around one of his muscled ones. “I remember I just wanted to be with you so badly. I was so physically attracted to you. And I just adored everything about you. I just wanted you to love me so much.”

     “And I did. And I do. You know how much I do. And you are avoiding answering my question, aren’t you? Brenda, listen to me. With what happened to your mother it’s perfectly normal for you to be more scared than most women would be about having a baby,” Jax said, stroking her silky hair and then placing a kiss there.

     “So, you’re not disappointed in me? Tell me the truth.”

     “In you? Never. Cement that into your brain, please. And, by the way, I always tell you the truth - you never have to ask me to do that.”

     A ghost of a smile touched her lips for a moment, and then was gone. “I want to have a baby with you, Jax - I do. I want to give you that.”

     “I know,” he murmured soothingly, stroking her hair. “And you will. When you’re ready.”

     She closed her eyes and shuddered at the thought of bearing a child, and she felt a bitter disappointment in herself at this ridiculous fear that paralyzed her so. “I’m not ready now,” she said in a voice so soft he barely heard her.

     “I know, sweetheart,” he said. “That isn’t a problem. Brenda, you’re 19 years old. I’m 24. We have a lot of time. There is no pressure here whatsoever. I said I wanted kids someday; I didn’t mean today, you little lunatic,” he said, his hands suddenly lowering to tickle her ribs and lighten her mood.

     She laughed then. A true, genuine Brenda laugh. Pure and sweet and so very pretty - and breaking all the tension.

     “Hey, you know what I was thinking?” Jax said, turning off the TV, turning off three of the four lamps, leaving only one on, and sliding them both under the covers; their bodies spooned together, as his lips trailed along her throat.

     “What?” she asked eagerly.

     “I was thinking that when you get your Winter break from your classes in February that we should take a trip to Tuscany - just you and me. And check out that little castle of yours. You know, the one you won in the last paint war?”

     Brenda squirmed around in the bed, arousing her husband, and then shot up excitedly, straddling his muscular thighs; her hands resting on his washboard stomach. “That is such a great idea! I can’t believe I’d forgotten about that castle. Imagine, I own a castle!” she laughed with glee. Then she frowned. “Wait a minute, have you seen what it looks like, Jax? It’s not some really hideous thing, like Dracula’s castle or something, is it?”

     Jax laughed that sexy little chuckle that Brenda loved so much and shook his head. “No, it’s nice. It’s cool.”

     “Is it built out of stone?”

     He folded his hands behind his head. “Yep. And, as I recall, it has a beautiful terraced garden, too, with a whole lot of fruit trees. Fig, plum, pear, apricot. Cherry trees, too, I think.”

     “How many acres is it?”

     “Thirty one.”

     “Wow. Is there a swimming pool?”

     “No. But a beautiful lake runs through the property. It’s perfect for swimming.”

     “Oooh, do I have a vineyard?” she asked excitedly.

     He laughed again. “Actually, yes, I think you do. Now, hush for a minute, motor mouth,” he said “because do you know what else I was thinking?” He moved his hands from behind his head to rest them on her waist.

     Her laughter was joyous. “Did you just call me motor mouth?”

     He gave her a look of adorable exasperation. “Don’t you want to know what else I was thinking?” he repeated.

     “Yes, why, sugar, you know I hang on your every word,” she said in her best Scarlet O’Hara southern accent, while batting her eyelashes flirtatiously at him. “Go on, darlin’, you just tell me.”

     He grinned at her silliness. “I was thinking that I really, really really, really want…”

     “Yesssss?” she asked, swatting his stomach with her fingertips at his intentional delay of his words.

     He had meant to say that he really wanted to know what she had gotten him from the costume shop for the party, but looking at her, suddenly all thoughts fled his mind. Well, all thoughts except one…

     “I really, really want…” he said again, losing himself in the dark, glittering beauty of her darkly hazel eyes.

     “Okay, what?” she demanded, resting her small, perfect hands on his muscled forearms and looking down at him expectantly and with the typical Brenda lack of patience. Her dark curls spilled seductively over one shoulder - almost in slow motion - and Jax was lost.

     “… To do this to you,” he whispered, pulling her down on top of him. He kissed her softly, slowly, erotically, determinedly; his tongue utterly delighting in exploring the warm, sweet contours of her beautiful, sexy little mouth, as he rolled over, his body now covering hers on the bed, and began to divest her of her pajamas with incredible skill and amazing speed.

     Thus, they ended the day exactly the way they had begun it. In rapture.

     The day of Desdemona’s masquerade party, Jessa snuck out of the house on the pretense of playing with the dogs in order to meet with Chad. She saw him lurking behind one of the huge oak tress way down at the end of the drive, and she let herself through the gates and scrambled down there to meet him.

     Chad looked at his watch and glowered at her. “You’re late,” he stated. “We have to hurry. So, are they all going to Desdemona’s New Year’s Eve party tonight?”

     Jessa nodded.

     “Excellent. I need to know what Jax is wearing and what Brenda is wearing.”

     “Don’t you want to know what I’m wearing?”

     He rolled his eyes to the heavens. “I assume you’re already wearing it,” he said testily, gazing at her Little Bo Peep get up, stuffed sheep and all. Oh sure, like that childish get up would really get Jax’s attention, he thought, looking at her with pity. And hadn’t Little Bo peep lost all her sheep? What was she doing with one?

     She smiled. “I’m supposed to be…”

     “I know who you’re supposed to be, Jessa. What is Brenda going as?”

     She gave him a sullen glare at the mention of her rival. “That queen of Egypt,” she mumbled. “She looks ugly.”

     Chad highly doubted that. “Cleopatra? All right. Got it. And Jax?” he asked, gazing about to ensure they were still alone.

     “All of the Jacks brothers are going as G.I. Joes. Mr. Jacks wanted to go as that, too, but Mrs. Jacks got her way, so Mr. Jacks has to go as Fred Astarie to her Ginger Rogers. He said he was going to cry. But Jax, Justin and Jerry are all going as G.I. Joes.”

     Chad rolled his eyes. “Well, that is appropriately ridiculous,” he muttered. “Cleopatra and G.I. Joe?”

     “Well, it was your precious Brenda who picked it out. She’s always doing weird things. Jax had nothing to do with it,” she retorted, stamping her foot like a hostile little child.

     Chad waved a hand for silence, though he was amused at what a jealous little shrew Jessa was beginning to sound like. “Which G.I. Joe is Jax going as?” he questioned her.

     She looked confused. “Huh?”

     Chad let out a loud sigh of impatience. “There is an Army G.I Joe, a Navy G.I Joe, an Air Force...”

     “Oh, oh, okay,” she said, understanding now. “Well, I don’t know which is which though. Justin has the green and green camouflage outfit. You know, green and green - like two different shades of green like.”

     “Yes, I know, I know, go on. We don’t have all day.”

     “Ummm… Jerry’s is black and tan, Jax’s is gray and blue…”

     “Navy G.I. Joe. I should have known with the way that man is obsessed with the damned ocean. All right, listen carefully, Jessa, I want you to be by the sliding back doors of Desdemona’s house at precisely 11 o’clock.”

     She gave a bewildered look. “How come?”

     “So you can let me in. I was not invited.”

     “Well, you’re gonna need a costume,” she said, jutting a hand on her hip and looking him up and down skeptically.

     “I know that,” he said, shaking his head at her slowness.

     “So, how am I supposed to know it’s you, Dr. Chad?”

     “I will be the other Navy G.I., Joe,” he murmured silkily, as they parted company.

     Upstairs in their bedroom Jax and Brenda were getting ready for the night’s festivities, and Brenda was sitting on the bed rifling through her jewelry box.

     “Honey, have you seen my ring? You know, the one you won from that Saudi Prince who wanted to buy me?” she asked, as she continued to search for it. “It would go perfect with this costume, and I can’t find it.”

     Jax slipped his fake ammunitions belt filled with fake grenades around his waist, then strapped on his fake side arm to his ankle, reached over for his helmet and approached her. “I haven’t seen it,” he said. “When’s the last time you wore it?”

     “The day we came back home from our honeymoon. And I put it right back in here. I totally remember doing that. I haven’t taken it out since.”

     “Maybe you just overlooked it in there then. Look again,” he suggested. “By the way, have I told you how much I love what you picked out for me?” Jax turned to her with a boyish grin, lobbing one of the soft, Nerf grenades at her.

     “Yeah, I knew you would,” she gave him a pretty flash of her dimples, as she caught the grenade and tossed it back at him. “The minute I picked it out, Joanna was swearing that Jerry had to have one, too, and then Julie said that it would be cool if all of you guys were G.I. Joes, and - voila - the idea was born.”

     “And you ladies all went the royalty route,” Jax said with a slight raise of his blonde brows as she looked at her. “Well, except for my mother.”

     “Yeah, your mom was pretty insistent on the Ginger Rogers thing. And Julie really wanted to be Queen Elizabeth, though I don’t know how she can stand to be in that huge, poofy gown and all that white face powder!” Brenda shuddered.

     “And Joanna is Mary, Queen of Scots; so, does that mean she and the Pest will be fighting all night? Threatening to behead each other for treason, and all that?”

     Brenda laughed. “Well, I’ll stay out of their fighting because I’m just the Queen of Egypt. I don’t care what happens in England and Scotland.” Then she was putting her jewelry back into the case and shutting the lid with a sigh of frustration. “I think my ring just grew legs and walked away. It’s not here.” She got up and replaced the jewelry box on the dresser and stood in front of the mirror, wondering where the missing ring could possibly be.

     Jax was suddenly behind her, his arms encircling her. “You don’t need it. You don’t need any jewelry at all because you, my love, sparkle more than any jewel known to mankind.”

     The smile she graced him with was a thing of dazzling beauty that only served to perfectly prove his point. “Awww, honey, thank you, but Cleopatra would not be Cleopatra without her jewelry,” she said, indicating her jeweled headpiece, bedecked with simulated rubies, and the little glittering golden balls at the ends of her many, long, dark braids, as well as the two golden snake arm bracelets with emerald eyes she wore on her bare arms.

     “Yes, you look deliciously authentic,” Jax agreed, nuzzling her neck. “I am feeling very Mark Antony at the moment.”

     Watching their reflection in the mirror, she grew breathless. She laughed and twirled away from him, knowing what this could lead to. “We better go,” she said, taking his hand.

     “You mean go far away from the bed?” he teased her.

     She laughed again. “That, too,” she said.

     He shrugged. “What can I say, you look incredibly scrumptious, little goddess of mine. I’m going to have to keep an eye on you.”

     “You’d better,” she said, tossing him the sultry glance of a little minx as she preceded him out of their bedroom, which was just fine with him as he got to admire the marvelous view as she walked out of the room in that body-hugging Egyptian Princess costume.

     Desdemona’s New Year’s Eve party was a glittering affair, with high-spirited guests decked out in costumes, a sumptuous buffet of food, and chilled champagnes and excellent wines flowing freely.

     At exactly 11:05, Jessa and her stuffed sheep were leaning by the back door awaiting Chad’s signal of seven knocks. When it came, Jessa opened the door and Chad quickly slipped in dressed, as he’d said he would be, identically to Jax; the helmet covering his auburn hair, and military-style sunglasses hiding his eyes.

     But he looked nothing like Jax, Jessa noted. He was skinny and lanky, whereas Jax was athletic and muscular. Jax was taller, too. And while Chad was certainly attractive, Jax still surpassed him mightily in that category as well. Poor, poor Dr. Chad. He must hate Jax as much as she was now hating Brenda, she figured.

     “You’re five minutes late!” he snapped, then ignored her, as he was all at once otherwise occupied.

     She watched him as he searched the room high and low with hungry, eager eyes for a glimpse of Brenda, but could not spot her in the merry crush of people and finally gave up for the time being.

     “I can’t take the chance of being recognized and thrown out,” he was saying to her, “so I’m going to stay here for the moment,” he gestured, indicating the corner he had moved them to. “What I need you to do is listen to me very carefully and do exactly as I tell you to. Do you understand?”

     Jessa nodded.

     Chad reached into the pocket of his blue and gray camouflage pants and handed her a small vial. “All right, you find Brenda in the crowd and ask her if she would like something to drink. Do not take no for an answer. You then go to the refreshment table over there to get it and you drop two drops of this into her drink. Two drops - no more, no less. TWO DROPS. Is that understood?”

     “Yes,” she said, kicking her foot in boredom.

     “Then you tell her you want to show her something outside in the back before midnight, and you lead her out there and I’ll take it from there. Make sure she is alone. Do NOT take her outside if Jax or one of his annoying family members is with her. In fact, you make sure you keep Jax occupied somehow, all right?”

     “How?” she whined.

     “I don’t know,” he muttered impatiently. “Pass out in a bowl of punch, dance around the room and pretend to twist your ankle, throw up on him - I don’t care. Just keep him with you.”

     “What are you going to do to Brenda?” she asked eagerly.

     “Make her see what she’s been missing all this time,” he smiled slyly, as he eyed the tiny vial of the potent mushroom-based aphrodisiac he’d pilfered from the office of a colleague at the hospital. A couple of drops of that in Brenda’s drink and any male standing within a short radius of her would light her fire in a big way. He intended to be the only male within radius of her when the effects of the powerful aphrodisiac hit her. He intended to let her see how it could be between them, to give her something to compare Jax to - something superior, of course. “Just two drops,” Chad reminded Jessa sharply. Two drops was enough to have Brenda amorously all over him, especially since he was dressed identically to Jax. Anything more than those two drops though could have some very bad adverse effects on her, which had nothing to do with sexual arousal. The rare mushroom that the extract came from did have toxic elements, after all, in doses too large. “Just TWO - I cannot emphasize this any more to you, do you understand me? Two drops, like this,” he said showing her how to use the eyedropper, which was attached to the top of the vial. Two drops only,” he repeated slowly, as if he were speaking to an infant or a badly trained puppy.

     “I heard you the first ten times, Dr. Chad. Two drops. Just two. Only two,” Jessa grumbled, walking away from him and making her way over to where Jax and Brenda stood laughing at something the mayor was saying to them.

     As luck would have it, the minute Jessa walked up to them Brenda was telling Jax how thirsty she was and asking him to get her something to drink.

     Putting on a benevolent smile, Jessa turned to Brenda. “Oh, I’ll get you something to drink, Brenda. I’m going over there anyway. What would you like?”

     Brenda smiled at her. “Thanks, Jessa. Some of the punch will be fine.”

     “Okay, I’ll be right back,” Jessa said, still smiling like a choirgirl.

     She went over to the large table where the drinks were, and a member of the wait staff asked her what she wanted. Jessa asked for the punch and was handed a glass. She then went over into a corner near the piano to dump the contents of the little vial into the glass.

     “Two drops. Do you understand me? Just two,” she mimicked.

     As she opened the vial, she turned around to see where Brenda was. Her brow creased into a frown as she jealously watched Jax talking to his friend Devon, while his arms were wrapped around Brenda, pressing her back to his chest, as if he could not bear to let her go even while he conversed with someone else. And Brenda, she was all cozied up to Jax’s mouthwatering body, while chatting away animatedly with Desdemona, Juliet and the mayor’s son - all of whom seem captivated and highly amused by every word that came out of her stupid mouth. Even that aunt, the one who didn’t like Brenda much - oh, yes, Aunt Violet was her name; the one who came dressed as Marie Antoinette - even she was tittering in delighted amusement (albeit behind her fan, so Brenda would not see her and know that she found Brenda delightful in that moment) at whatever story Brenda was telling.

     Jax’s fingers were playing with the Cleopatra braids in Brenda’s hair now. His other hand securely around her middle, anchoring her to him, as if he feared she’d be snatched away from him by any of the men passing by. He bent and whispered something to her. She tilted her head back and laughed and hit him playfully against his stomach. He grinned at her and brushed a kiss against her lips and then returned to his conversation with Devon, as Justin came over to join the conversation and took the opportunity to pound Brenda’s head with some of the glittery New Year’s balloons floating about the room that he’d been collecting. Her laughter was like music floating across the room, and Jessa noticed that, although Jax was still talking to Devon and nodding his head in agreement at something Devon was saying, his eyes were only on Brenda, like smoldering blue sapphires.

     Fueled by her jealous ire at the scene before her, Jessa swiveled around to finish what she had started, but with a defiant “Hmpf!” she disregarded the eyedropper completely and poured the contents of the entire vial into Brenda’s drink.

     Then, putting the choirgirl smile back on her face - a smile that brightened with every step she took - she headed slowly back across the room to hand the drink to its intended victim…