BRNNNNGGG!!! BRNNNNGGG!!!

An insistent ringing broke into Jax’s peaceful dream world, calling him back to consciousness. He was having the most wonderful dream about holding the love of his life in his arms, and it felt so good that he didn’t want to leave this place… didn’t want to wake up… He liked this dream…

BRNNNNGGG!!! BRNNNNGGG!!!

Reluctantly, he could feel himself being pulled back to reality and out of his dream lover’s arms by that persistent ringing. It was his cell phone, he realized, just as the ringing finally stopped. “Good… Now, don’t call back,” he murmured sleepily, keeping his eyes tightly closed as he shifted his body and fumbled for the blanket to pull up over his head. But instead of feeling blanket material, his hands grazed across soft, warm skin - and it wasn’t his own.

His eyes popped open at that, and he was momentarily confused as to whether or not he was actually awake, as he looked down to see the dark-haired beauty from his dream sleeping peacefully on top of him, even though he was sure he was awake. Then it all came flooding back to him: Malibu… the storm… this woman…

Especially this woman…

He realized now that she must have been on his mind all night long. He’d fallen asleep wondering about who she was and what her story was, which is likely why he’d dreamed about her. That was understandable… But it was the content of the dream that surprised him - it had been the most erotic dream he’d ever experienced, but it hadn’t been sexual at all.

If it had simply been a dream about sex, he could have understood that. After all, he had sex dreams all the time about women - even women he didn’t know; most men did. And it would have been very understandable for him to have a purely sexual dream about her since their partially clad bodies had been pressed together rather intimately - though innocently - for quite some time now. But this dream had been about emotions, not gyrations. It had been about love, not lust. It had been about the kind of love his parents had had… the kind of love he’d longed for all of his life…

Remembering the dream now as he watched her back slowly rise and fall as she lay against his chest, he felt extremely satisfied, yet strangely unsettled by it all. He’d fallen asleep holding a total stranger in his arms, yet he had awakened feeling as if he were holding the one woman in the world he was meant to be with for the rest of his life. A short while ago, his only concern for her had been that she come to and be okay and then leave so that he could get on with his life, but now it felt to him as though she were his life, or at least a very important part of it now.

It was crazy - or maybe he was crazy…Or maybe he was simply punch-drunk from jet lag and too much work and not enough sleep over the past few days. That had to be it, he decided, and once he was fully awake and out of this precariously intimate position with her, he’d be able to shake these unsettling feelings he still felt from his dream and see her as the stranger she was. Their paths had crossed for one brief moment and that was it, nothing more. After tonight, they would go their separate ways and that would be it.

Having settled that in his mind, he knew he needed to get up and dressed and get to his cell phone before his brother called back. He knew it had to have been Jerry who’d called just moments ago because his brother was the only one who had this particular number. And he knew that Jerry would not be content to simply leave a message on his voice mail and wait patiently for Jax to return the call, which meant that he would be calling back again and again until he finally spoke to Jax personally, and another round of shrill ringing would likely wake her up.

Not that Jax didn’t want her to wake up soon - he did. The sooner she woke up the better; he just didn’t want her to wake up to find them together like this. He wished now that he’d simply allowed her to warm up alone here by the fire, or that he had at least put his pants on before he wrapped himself around her. What had seemed like a good idea at the time, now looked terribly compromising, even to him, so he could only imagine what it would look like to her.

He slowly lifted his head to look at her as he tried to ease her off of him without disturbing her. Then he carefully lifted the layers of blankets and towels that covered them both and gently rolled her off of his chest and onto the cushions beside him. He held his breath as she sighed and rolled on her own onto her side toward him, but she didn’t wake up, which relieved him. Her skin was warm now so he decided against putting all the layers back over her again; instead, just pulling one of the cashmere throws over her body.

Luckily, when she rolled she had turned so that she was now facing the fireplace, and the reflected light of the flames made it easier for him to get a good look at her now. Her color was good; a definite pink shown through the tan on her face and her lips were now the deep rose tint that he had somehow known they would naturally be. Her thick, dark hair had dried into soft waves that cascaded down her back, while ringlets of smaller curls haloed her face, giving her an angelic appearance. He gently brushed the curls away from her forehead so he could see the bump she had there. It had developed a nice deep purple shade and stood a good half-inch above her brow now. It would likely be quite noticeable for at least a week, but the cut itself was minor and he doubted it would leave a scar. “Nothing to mar that beautiful face of yours,” he whispered, unaware that he was smiling as his hand lingered against the silkiness of her hair.

BRNNNNGGG!!! BRNNNNGGG!!!

The shrill ring quickly brought him out of his reverie, and he jumped up and began looking frantically for his cell phone by following the ring. It seemed to be coming from the sofa that he’d lain the woman on when he’d first brought her inside. He didn’t see the phone immediately, but as it rang again - BRNNNNGGG!!! BRNNNNGGG!!! - he realized it was wedged between the cushions, which is why he couldn’t find it before this. He grabbed it out of its resting place and quickly opened it before it rang again. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure the noise hadn’t disturbed her, he moved across the room to talk to his brother, grabbing his jeans from off the floor as he did.

“Jerry, don’t you ever sleep?!” he whispered angrily, slipping his jeans on and zipping them. He glanced across the room again to make sure that she was still not awake and couldn’t hear anything.

There was a snort from Jerry. “Well, little brother, since it’s 1:30 in the afternoon here in Sydney and I gave up my afternoon nap long before you were even a gleam in Mum and Dad’s eyes, why the hell would you ask such a thing? … Besides, according to my calculations it’s just 8:30 last evening there, and you’ve never turned in before midnight in your life,” he pointed out defensively, then, not bothering to let Jax answer, he quickly asked: “… And why are you whispering?… You haven’t left the house, have you?” he asked anxiously.

“No, I haven’t left the house. I’ve stayed here like I was supposed to, but I’m not exactly alone at the moment,” Jax replied softly, again looking back toward Brenda. He thought he saw her move slightly, but, with just the fireplace lighting the room, it was hard to see anything clearly from this angle and distance. He decided to head back to his office for more privacy and grabbed the flashlight so he could see where he was going.

“What do you mean, you’re not exactly alone?” Jerry asked, panic in his voice at the thought that someone had discovered that Jax was in LA. “Don’t tell me the household staff showed up already! I told them not to arrive until late next week! … No one is to know that you’re even in the States, let alone out there in LA until after we’ve made our move and gotten our hands on the stock we need for control of GenCorp!” he reminded Jax angrily.

“No, the staff hasn’t shown up early… And you don’t need to remind me of the need for secrecy, but this was unavoidable!” Jax spat back, closing the door quietly behind him, so he could talk normally now. A spectacular flash of lightening split the evening sky; its brightness suffusing the wall of windows that looked out over the ocean and lighting the room like the noonday sun. Jax glanced at his watch then to see that Jerry was right: it was just 8:30, which meant he hadn’t slept much more than an hour, yet he felt as refreshed as he did when he got his normal six hours of rest. In fact, it was the most rested he’d felt since leaving his own bed in Sydney, days ago. He wondered why that was?

“What do you mean ‘unavoidable’?… And just who is there with you?” Jerry demanded anxiously.

“I don’t know her name,” Jax replied honestly.

Jerry interrupted before Jax could explain further. “Good God, Jax! You know what will happen to GenCorp’s stock if anyone even gets wind that we’re even interested, let alone there in LA for the annual meeting! Couldn’t you have kept your pants zipped until after we had GenCorp in our pockets?” he raged, as he envisioned this multi-million dollar deal that they had worked months to set up falling apart because his brother couldn’t keep his libido in check.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jer! Give me some credit here!” Jax shot back angrily, then, unsure how far his voice might travel, he lowered his voice as he added: “I’m not some 16-year-old, sex-crazed teenager! I know what’s at stake here, and I haven’t compromised anything… She has no idea who I am… And for your information, Jer, she’s here because I saved her life, not because I slept with her!” … Although, he supposed that, technically, he had slept with her, but not in the way his brother meant.

“Saved her life? How? And just how did you happen to be in her vicinity to save her life if you’ve being staying in seclusion, as we agreed?” Jerry asked suspiciously, then it hit him: “You were surfing, weren’t you!” he exclaimed, realizing that his brother might be able to resist the siren’s call of a woman, but he could never resist the siren’s call of the sea, especially when there were major waves involved.

“Jer, I needed some exercise and a break from work… You can’t expect me to be able to soak up all I need to know for this takeover by being cooped up in this place 24/7 with no way to clear my head,” Jax replied defensively.

“Jax, have you even looked around that place yet?” Jerry asked, exasperation seeping into his tone. “It has a full gym on the first floor, with every exercise machine that money can buy and a sauna that would make many a health club green with envy. And then there’s a huge pool out on the deck for swimming, not to mention the acres of ground for jogging around. And, had you bothered to ease your tensions by using any of those rather than risking going out to a public beach to surf, you wouldn’t have met up with anyone who could jeopardize this deal for us!”

“First of all, I didn’t go to a public beach to surf. I was using the private beach here. Secondly, I still haven’t met anyone who can hurt us here,” Jax pointed out. “Jer, she’s unconscious and hasn’t even opened her eyes yet, so she definitely hasn’t recognized me… Besides, I doubt that my name or face are all that recognizable to the average American. In fact, I could probably walk up to the CEO of GenCorp tonight and he wouldn’t even know who the hell I am! You’re worrying for nothing, Jer,” he assured him.

Jerry wasn’t assured. “I don’t like this situation, at all, Jax.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not, Jer, because she’s here and it looks like she’ll be here for awhile, so deal with it!”

“Hmmm… She’s been unconscious since you found her…” Jerry repeated.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Haven’t you been listening?” Jax asked impatiently.

“Good! We might be okay then…” Jerry muttered aloud, speaking more to himself than to Jax at that point. “We just gotta play this right…”

“Play what right, Jer?” Jax was totally confused by Jerry’s train of thought now.

“You didn’t call for help, did you?” Jerry pressed, ignoring Jax’s question completely.

“No -”

“Good!” Jerry interrupted, before Jax could explain why he hadn’t gotten help for the woman. “You were right not to call for help or take her to the hospital yourself… Possibility of exposure would have been tremendous either way…” Jerry continued.

“Trust me: that had nothing to do with why I didn’t get help,” Jax replied. “In case you don’t know this, Southern California is getting hit by something close to a hurricane, and nothing - not even the Ark itself - could make it through the streets in the LA-area tonight. Besides, the phone system went out and I couldn’t find my cell phone and I’m currently without a car, so I just took care of her myself.”

“Well, whatever the reason, it worked in our favor,” Jerry replied. “And when she does wake up, you can’t tell her who you really are… And, for heaven’s sake, don’t let her know that place is yours - She gets wind that you’ve got money and her interest could be piqued big time! Just make up a name and reason for being there, but then get her out of there fast!”

“Why don’t I simply take her back to the cove where I found her and hope she comes to before she’s swept out to sea! That way there will be no possibility whatsoever that she could taint this deal,” Jax suggested sarcastically.

“No need for cynicism, little brother,” Jerry demurred. “I’m certainly not suggesting that you throw her out immediately… Just don’t spend a lot of time socializing once she does come to… By the way, how exactly did you happen to be in the position to save her life?” he asked curiously.

“I was heading in just ahead of the storm, and I saw her fall from the rocks in that cove next to our beach. She was unconscious, so I brought her inside here because the storm was getting intense by then. I checked her for injuries and warmed her up and dried her off, and you know the rest…” Jax explained.

“So, you still haven’t outgrown your need to play superhero, have you?” Jerry chuckled.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Jax challenged.

“It means there’s a part of you that’s still stuck back in your teen years, when you spent your school breaks playing lifeguard.”

“Jer, I wasn’t ‘playing’ lifeguard. I was a lifeguard - it was my job, remember?”

“How could I forget? You wasted three summers at a job that paid next to nothing and that took you away from learning the ropes at the company.”

“It wasn’t time wasted, Jer. I loved that time. Besides, my training then may have saved this woman’s life tonight… Besides, I learned the ropes just fine at the company during my college years,” Jax pointed out. “ - And since… Or do you think I haven’t been pulling my weight around there all these years?” Jax asked, a touch of irritation lacing his tone.

“You know better than that, little brother,” Jerry replied quickly. “I just want you to keep focused now and remember the goal.”

“How many times have I let a beautiful face distract me from business?” Jax retorted. “ I can tell you how many times, Jer - never, and you know it!”

“Ah, so she’s beautiful, is she? Well, now I know why you felt compelled to save her, and it had nothing to do with your latent superhero urges and everything to do with your very active carnal urges,” Jerry teased.

“Are we back to that again?” Jax asked, irked by his brother’s continued assumption that he was attracted to this woman. “I told you -”

“I know… I know!” Jerry conceded. “And I believe you - and I trust you to handle this discreetly with no mention of who you really are or what you’re actually doing there.”

“You know I will,” Jax promised, jumping slightly as an especially loud clap of thunder shook the house. He looked back toward the closed door to the hallway that led to the living room where he’d left the woman. He hated the thought of her waking up all alone in there in the dark. “Jer, I really need to get back to her soon. Was there a reason that you called in the first place?”

“I actually called because I’d heard on the news about the storm and I was worried,” Jerry replied.

“About me - or your investment?” Jax teased, although he knew both his brother’s answer and his intent because he, more than anyone, knew his brother’s heart.

“Why, my investment, of course!” Jerry laughed. “You know what the press says about me - heartless bastard and all that rot. And it must be true, if the press says it is.”

“Yeah, well, we both know it’s not,” Jax said softly. “And even with all your bluster tonight about this woman possibly screwing up this deal, I know that you would have done the same thing I did, had you been in my shoes - whether it cost us a few million or not. You’d never let someone die simply to protect an investment, and we both know that, Jer.” Jerry had a reputation for being gruff and most of the time his mind was narrowly focused on business and nothing else, but beneath it all he was a good person with a generous heart.

“Yeah, you’re right…” Jerry admitted, somewhat reluctantly. “But don’t let that get out… I’d hate for anyone to know that this corporate shark actually has a soft side. The myth of my ruthlessness actually helps intimidate the competition,” he added with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Well, your secret’s safe with me, Jer,” Jax laughed softly. He focused his flashlight beam onto his watch and realized that it had been nearly fifteen minutes since he’s left her alone. “Jer, I’ll talk to you later - And let me call you for a change, okay?” he added teasingly.

“Okay, okay! So I’ve been a little anxious about this GenCorp deal,” Jerry admitted, “but it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever gone after, and it has the potential to make us more money than all of our other investments combined! And, if anything goes wrong, it also has the potential to cost us everything. We’ve really stretched ourselves thin for this one, Jax.”

“I know… One wrong word and we could destroy everything that Mum and Dad built up over the years,” Jax sighed. “But this potential disaster is already averted. I promise not to do anything on my end that could jeopardize this deal. I’ll send this woman packing as soon as both she and the weather are fit, and that’ll be the end of it,” he promised. “Bye, Jer, and don’t worry about a thing,” Jax added, as he closed the phone and slid it into his pocket, making sure to turn it off first, just in case Jerry got the urge to call again. Then he turned on the flashlight and headed back to the living room to check on his guest.

“Yeah, sure,” Jerry mumbled, as he hung up his phone, feeling strangely more anxious now as he had before he’d called his brother. He leaned back in his desk chair, pondering the cause of his current anxiety. He knew that Jax would be true to his word when it came to GenCorp. He’d handle the preliminaries flawlessly and in complete secrecy, as he always did; no fear of disaster there any longer. Yet his anxiety remained.

He replayed in his head everything Jax had said. And he realized that it was not so much the actual words that Jax had used that were making him nervous, but more his inflection and tone, and not when he’d spoken of the GenCorp takeover, but when he’d spoken about this woman that had just fallen - literally - into his life. He knew Jax and his white-knight complex very well, and he seriously doubted that Jax would be able to simply walk away from this woman; he’d more likely feel responsible for her in some way - possibly even drawn to her, especially since Jax had described her as beautiful. Not that Jax was a sucker for a beautiful face. He had been chased after and proposed to by some of the most beautiful women in the world, yet he’d always kept his head about him.

But, in Jerry’s opinion, Jax was a romantic at heart; Jax longed for “true” love the way Jerry longed for the next big deal. Jax spoke often of wanting to find that one special woman, and he’d even said that he’d give up his fortune if it meant finding someone who would marry him purely for love and not for money. Jax wanted what their parents had had - a love that was for richer or poorer and weathered the inevitable storms of life, and he said that he’d know just by looking into her eyes when he’d found the right one.

As tired and overworked as Jax was now, he might very well view his crossing paths so dramatically with this woman as fate bringing them together. Then he might do something reckless and foolish, like believe they were destined to be together and give her his heart in the mistaken belief that he’d finally found his true love. And that, Jerry knew from bitter experience, would be a disaster for Jax, which is why he was going to do everything in his power to make sure it would never happen.

Thankfully, that god-awful shrill ringing had finally stopped, but Brenda’s head continued to pound relentlessly. And her body felt strangely stiff and sore, too. What did I do to myself? she wondered, as she fought to open her eyes. She slowly opened one eye and then the other, but she couldn’t see much, as her hair was in her face. She could have sworn she’d had on a hat… Where’s my cap? she wondered, as she slowly brushed the hair from her eyes and tried to adjust her eyes to the dim, flickering light. And what is that light?

She focused in the direction of the flickering light and saw the fireplace there… A fireplace? Where did that come from? The last thing she remembered, she’d been sitting on the rocks in the cove - No, standing on the rocks in the cove… How did I get from there to here? she wondered, as she slowly sat up. It was then she noticed her dress - or lack thereof. Where are my clothes? she panicked, lifting her hand to soothe her pounding head and brushing her palm against her forehead as she did so. “Ouch!” she yelped, as she felt the bump and the cut on her forehead.

She heard a noise behind her and turned slowly to see who or what was there, but in the dim light it was difficult to see much of anything. Finally, she could make out a shape. It was a man - a tall man with a muscular physique. “Jagger?” she whispered hoarsely, confused now as to the possibility that she had merely dreamed that he’d asked her for a legal separation. It must have all been a bad dream, she reasoned.

“You’re finally awake,” the man said softly, as he came closer, then sat on his haunches beside her.

He was Jagger’s height, with Jagger’s physique, but he was definitely not her husband. This man was blonde and had a distinctive accent - Australian, if she wasn’t mistaken.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, as he reached over and gently lifted her face toward the light. To him, it was a completely innocent move, done simply so he could get a better look at her bruised forehead; to her, it seemed an intimate caress of her face, similar to the way Jagger would hold her face after they’d made love.

She stared at him wide-eyed for several seconds, her mind trying to comprehend what was going on, as she realized that she was in an unfamiliar room, laying on a bed of pillows in front of a fireplace that provided the only light in the place, with a shirtless stranger, and she was wearing only her underwear. Had she done something stupid tonight - and with a total stranger, no less? And why did her head hurt so badly, inside and out?

She wasn’t sure what had gone on between them before this, but now she felt very self-conscious sitting there in only her skimpy black satin underwear while he continued to hold her face and smile at her. She saw the throw beside her and quickly pulled it around her, covering herself completely. “Very confused,” she finally answered his question.

“Oh,” was all he said, frowning, as he assumed her head injury must be worse than he’d thought if she was having memory problems. He hoped that it was only temporary. “Do you remember anything about what happened?”

Brenda shrugged her shoulders, assuming he meant about what happened between them. Had he drugged her? Is that why she couldn’t remember being with him?

“Hmmm…” he grunted, his frown deepening. “How about your name? Do you at least know who you are?”

Brenda gave him a bewildered look, as she curtly replied: “Well, of course, I know who I am!… I just can’t seem to remember who you are or how I got here - or what we did together.”

Jax smiled then, as he realized that she had completely misread their situation and he had misunderstood her, as well. “Well, we just slept together,” he replied, his eyes twinkling. “Was it that forgettable an experience?” Then he saw the panic and the tears in her eyes as she appeared to drop her head in shame; she was evidently mortified at what he’d just inferred..

“Actually, all we did together was sleep - nothing more, I promise!” he explained, his tone apologetic then. “You fell on the rocks outside and hit your head, and you’ve been out ever since. Normally, I wouldn’t have moved you, but this storm was just beginning, and, the way the waves were already lapping the rocks then, I was afraid we’d both be fish food before very long, so I brought you inside. It’s a good distance from the cove where you fell and this place and it was raining pretty hard, so we were both soaked by the time we got inside. I tried just drying you off and covering you up, but then you started shivering like crazy, so I knew I had to get those wet clothes off and you warmed up fast or you’d get really sick.”

“Which explains why I’m on the floor in front of a fireplace, wearing only my underwear,” she murmured and nodded, peering up at him shyly.

“Yeah, I figured that the heat from the fireplace and shared body heat seemed the best solution at the time… And you finally stopped shivering,” he smiled, as he lifted her chin toward him again and gently brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “And you don’t feel feverish, so I guess it worked.”

“I’m really grateful for everything you’ve done for me - saving my life, keeping me warm - I really am,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip and lowering her eyes self-consciously again as she spoke.

“You’re very welcome,” he replied, smiling as he realized that she was evidently still feeling ill at ease. Even in this light he could see that she was blushing. “I sense a ‘but -’ coming,” he prodded, but when she remained silent and continued to look away from him, he continued for her: “ - But you wish that I hadn’t taken off your clothes… Is that what you wanted to say?”

He could see the corners of her mouth curl up into an embarrassed smile then, but she kept her eyes cast downward and away from him as she replied: “It’s just that I’m not used to strangers seeing me in my underwear.”

His smile broadened at her reply. Her modesty was remarkably refreshing in this day and age and especially in this town. “Well, I’ve seen women wearing far less when I was working as a lifeguard in Australia. We Aussies are not a modest lot, so the skimpier our swimsuits are, the better, we always say.” He was glad now that he’d gotten up when he had and put his jeans on. She would likely be mortified if she realized how little he had worn while they were sleeping together - or the state of arousal he’d been in at the time.

“So, you’re a lifeguard?” she asked, quickly changing the subject and taking the focus off her and her underwear. His being a lifeguard made this a little easier to take - they saw scantily-clad women all the time; it was all just part of their job, just like it was for doctors.

Jax was about to say that he had worked as a lifeguard summers as a teen, and that he was in the corporate world now, but then he remembered his conversation with his brother just moments before. “Yeah, I was a lifeguard for awhile back in Australia. I just arrived here in the States last week, so I haven’t found anything here yet… Name’s Tom Quinlan, by the way,” he added, extending his hand to her.

“Brenda Cates,” she smiled, as she shook his hand. She glanced around the room then, as she mulled over what he had just told her about himself. Even in this light, she could see that this was a very large room that was likely part of a very large house. The furnishings that she could see in this light looked expensive and tasteful. She’d done ad campaigns for several of the large, exclusive furniture stores in San Francisco, as well as for a several manufacturers of fine furniture, so she knew a little something about quality pieces and their retail costs.

The sofa cushions on which she was sitting felt like silk, which meant the sofa was at least $3500, and she could see that there were 2 identical sofas in the room. The throw she had wrapped around her was cashmere and probably cost at least $500 and there was another just like it on the floor beside her. The rug under her and the sofa cushions looked imported - likely Persian - and probably cost at least $7500.

She knew there were no homes down on the stretch of public beach that she was staying that were large enough to have a room this size in them, and she doubted that any of their owners could afford to decorate so expensively either. This place was evidently situated on the other side of the cove, where the beach was private and the homes were exclusive - and the homeowners were filthy rich. So, how exactly did an out-of-work Australian lifeguard, who had just recently arrived here in the States, come to stay in such a luxurious house on one of the most exclusive and expensive stretches of real estate in all of Southern California?

Jax watched as she studied her surroundings, and he realized that she was not buying his cover story. And why would she? It was pretty sketchy - and what Aussie beach bum has access to such a prime piece of real estate as this place? He needed to do some spin-control - fast. “I…uh… I didn’t have a place to stay, so my brother arranged it so I could stay here for a few days… The company he works for - back in Australia, that is - owns it. The company bigwigs stay here when they have business here on the West Coast.” Well, at least that last was partly true - the owners of Janeway, LTD, were using this place while they handled their West Coast business. She just didn’t need to know that he and his brother were those particular owners.

“Your brother must be pretty important in the company to be able to finagle perks like this for a family member, Mr. Quinlan,” Brenda commented.

“Please - call me Tom… Yeah, well, one of the executives owed him a very big favor…” Jax continued, surprised at how easily the lies were coming to him. He hated lying in any situation, but, for some reason, he especially hated lying to her. But Jerry was right - it was necessary. “And there are conditions to my stay here: I have to be out by the end of next week and I have to leave the place the way I found it, and I’m not allowed to entertain while I’m here.”

“And yet, here I am,” Brenda smiled.

“Well, I think the company will understand about the circumstances of your being here,” Jax laughed.

Brenda smiled and nodded. She was grateful to him for saving her life, yet there was something about all of this that didn’t seem to ring true. Not that he didn’t trust him - she did. After all, he had just saved her life, and he could have taken advantage of her while she was out, but she knew instinctively that he hadn’t. Yet she couldn’t quite buy his story for some reason.

But it was really none of her business, she decided. It didn’t matter how or why the man was here, she was just grateful that he was, otherwise… It was then she remembered why she’d been up on the very top of those rocks outside in the first place: the surfer. She’d heard someone calling and she’d gone up to see if it was the surfer in trouble in the water. Oh, god, what had happened to him? She grabbed Jax’s hand. “Did you see anyone else out there tonight - on the beach or in the water?” she asked anxiously.

“No, just you… Why?” Jax asked, wondering if someone else had been with her out there after all, and she’d just now remembered that important detail.

“There was someone else - this crazy surfer - He was wearing a bright yellow wetsuit, and he was way out on the ocean the last time I remember seeing him! I heard someone yelling - I thought it was him, so I climbed up higher to see if I could see where he was. I couldn’t find him, though, and I… I guess I must have fallen then… Oh, god, what if he’s still out there? We’ve got to call 9-1-1 or the Coast Guard or someone to go look for him!” Brenda pleaded, but to her surprise “Tom” just sat there, smiling. “What is wrong with you?!” she shouted. “Didn’t you hear what I said? A man could still be out there somewhere!”

“Don’t worry… You might not have found that crazy surfer, but he found you,” Jax said, grabbing his discarded wetsuit from behind the couch and holding it up for her to see. “That crazy surfer was me,” he grinned.

“Oh!” Brenda laughed, both relieved and surprised by that. “So, who did I hear calling me then? … Or was that just the wind playing tricks on me?”

“No, that would be me also,” Jax admitted. “I got knocked off my board by a seasick seagull that was trying to stay airborne and hold onto its dinner at the same time, and the wave that I’d been riding swallowed me up and deposited me and my board back on the beach near the cove. That’s when I looked up to see you still sitting there. The storm was already here and I wasn’t sure if you were even aware of the situation, so I yelled to get your attention... I guess I’m responsible for your fall in the first place, so it was only fitting that I save you.”

“Like something out of Poe,” Brenda mused.

“Poe? As in Edgar Allan?” Jax asked, realizing immediately what she meant by that reference.

“Well, you have to admit that there is definitely a lot of irony at work here… And you said that a seagull had knocked you off your board?” Brenda asked, and when Jax nodded, Brenda laughed: “Probably the same one I’d been watching for so long. He kept missing his catch and looked like he was fighting a losing battle, but he never gave up… Very resilient little guy…”

The irony was certainly not lost on Jax, and it almost made the hair on the back of his head stand up as he thought about it now - especially given the dream he’d just had about the two of them. Was all of this merely coincidence or had fate played a hand in putting them together? He couldn’t explain it, but something in him told him that they had been destined to meet.

But what if she’s already involved?… Jagger… She’d called him Jagger when she’d first seen him…

“Umm… you called me Jagger a few moments ago…” he threw out, fishing for information on this Jagger and his relationship to Brenda.

“Yeah, that’s my husband -” she automatically replied.

Jax’s heart fell. “Oh… well… um… he must be worried about you… The land lines are down, but I have a cell phone you can use if you want to call him and let him know you’re okay,” he offered, as he pulled his phone from his back pocket and handed it to her. He was surprised when she shook her head ‘no’.

“Actually, we’ve just recently separated, so I guess he’s my soon-to-be ex-husband… And I doubt that he’s been pacing the floor, wondering where I am right now…” Brenda added sadly. “He’s up in San Francisco, probably already huddled with his divorce lawyer, planning his new life as a single man… and I’m here, huddled under a blanket, just thankful to still have a life… Talk about irony!” she said with a laugh.

“There isn’t anyone else that you want to call?… Like whoever you’re here with?” Jax prompted, as he still held the phone out for her to take.

“Do you mean like my on-the-side lover?” she asked pointedly, and Jax’s face immediately reddened, although she appeared not to notice. “Nope! I was never the one with the wandering eyes… I’m staying alone here at a friend’s place, so no one even knows I’m missing, for the moment.”

Jax knew it was selfish of him and he couldn’t quite understand why he felt this way, but that information actually exhilarated him, and he tried to conceal his satisfaction. “I’m sorry about your marriage…” he finally said.

“Hey, don’t be…” Brenda shrugged, adjusting the blanket around her shoulders. “It’s not like I didn’t see it coming. It was over a long time ago; it was just that neither of us was brave enough to admit it until now.” She held her hand to her head then. “Ummm… Tom, I know this isn’t your house, but do you happen to know if there’s any aspirin in the place? My head is really killing me…”

Jax had been so absorbed in looking at her - God, she’s even more beautiful when she’s awake and smiling! - and hearing her story - legally separated and here alone - that he’d forgotten completely that she was probably in a good deal of pain. “I’m sorry! … I should have known…” Jax apologized, as he rose to a standing position. “I saw some aspirin in one of the kitchen drawers earlier when I was looking for a flashlight, and there’s a couple of cases of bottled water in the pantry. I’ll be right back,” he announced, as he left the room.

Brenda sighed loudly as he disappeared into the darkness, watching as the beam of light from his flashlight bobbed up and down and then disappeared completely, too. She was suddenly aware of the storm outside, as a particularly loud clap of thunder shook the house, followed instantly by a tremendous flash of lightening. Carefully, she stood, feeling far less shaky than she’d anticipated, and walked slowly toward the French doors she had seen at the far end of the room when the lightening had lit the room. Several more bolts of lightening streaked across the sky in raid-fire succession just then, giving her a good look at the ocean, just a few hundred yards down the hill. She had lived near the Pacific most of her life, having grown up not far from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, but she had never seen the ocean as angry and as roiling as it was now.

She leaned against the glass of the doors and shook with relief, as she thought about how easily she might have been swallowed up by that sea had this man not seen her fall and rescued her. And even if she hadn’t fallen - if she hadn’t heard his calls and she’d climbed down and headed back to her rented house instead of up to look for him - she would never had made it those two miles to the safety of her place; between the wind and the rain and the surging surf, she would likely have been knocked down and eventually drowned anyway because she doubted that anyone else had been foolish enough to be outside with a storm of this magnitude right on top of them.

But she hadn’t died. For some reason fate had seen fit to step in and spare her life. She was being given another chance to get things right in her life, and she wasn’t about to waste that opportunity. Jagger may have dumped her, but she wasn’t down and out - far from it! In fact, other than this horrific headache and the Mt. Everest-sized bump on her forehead, she was probably in better shape than she’d been in for months, possibly years. In fact, suddenly she felt downright good right now!

She looked up to see the flashlight beam coming back into the room, then she saw Tom as he headed toward the fireplace, where she’d been when he’d left her just moments before. “Brenda?” she heard him call.

“I’m over here,” she answered, as she continued to lean against the French doors, watching as the storm and the sea raged outside.

He was at her side in an instant. “Ummm… Are you sure you should be standing? I mean, you’re not dizzy or anything?” he asked, as he opened the aspirin bottle and measured out two tablets into her outstretched palm.

“I’m fine… Other than this incredible headache - I think I might need the whole bottle to stop this pounding,” she joked, to which he laughed and dropped a third tablet into her hand.

“How about we start with just three?” he smiled, as he opened a bottle of water and handed it to her, before recapping the aspirin and setting it on a nearby table.

“Probably a wise idea,” she laughed, as she popped the pills into her mouth, washing them down with a long swallow of water. “Mmmm… good - it’s cold,” she murmured, as she lowered the bottle from her mouth and looked back up at him.

“I found the water in the refrigerator. I also found plenty of ice in the freezer, so I made an icepack for your head,” he said, offering her the kitchen towel that he’d filled with ice cubes. “Even though the electricity’s been out for hours, everything in the refrigerator and freezer are still in good shape. I guess that’s because they haven’t been opened in awhile.”

“Yeah, things stay cold in there when you haven’t opened them for several hours,” she replied conversationally, as she carefully leaned back against the doors and positioned the makeshift icepack against the bump on her head.

“Try several days - or, at least some time before I arrived,” he grinned.

She lowered the icepack and gave him a skeptical look. “Are you telling me that you’ve been living here for days and tonight was the first you’d opened that refrigerator?”

“Well, that particular refrigerator. In fact, it wasn’t until the electricity went out this evening and I was trying to find flashlights that I’d even ventured into the kitchen,” he laughed, remembering his frantic search earlier in the evening. Tomorrow in the daylight he was going to have to do a massive cleanup of the kitchen, as utensils and cutlery and dishtowels were scattered everywhere.

“If you hadn’t been in the kitchen before this evening, what have you been doing all this time for food?” she asked, her eyebrows raised suspiciously.

“I’ve been using this -” he grinned, pulling his cell phone back out of his pocket. “- And this!” he added, holding his right index finger up in front of her face. “And in thirty minutes or less, I have my dinner delivered right to my door - and with any combination of toppings I want.”

She burst out laughing at that. “You seriously haven’t been living on just pizza since you got here…”

“I seriously have! And lots of black coffee!” he laughed. “I’ve been staying in this fantastic room in the back. I think it’s the office area because it has this huge desk and a couple cushy chairs and even this great leather couch that’s as easy to sleep on as any bed I’ve ever slept in. It has this entire wall of windows with this incredible view of the ocean… Anyway, to get to my point, it has this little mini-kitchen hidden inside this big closet - it’s got a little refrigerator and a little microwave and a little sink and a little coffeemaker. It has lots of gourmet snack foods in the cupboard, too, but I mainly just use the coffee.” He looked down to see her gazing up at him, her eyes twinkling and a huge smile on her face. He loved the way she was looking at him - and that smile… God, she could light LA with that smile, he thought.

“You’re too funny, Mr. Tom Quinlan… You’re staying in this fabulously huge beach house in one of the toniest zip codes in the world, yet you’re content to sleep on a couch in an office, rather than one of the probably dozens of spacious bedrooms upstairs; and you dine on takeout delivery pizza and coffee that you’ve brewed in a coffeemaker that’s in a closet, when there’s probably a gourmet kitchen stocked with every food and beverage imaginable, yet you’re happy this way… You’re certainly a man with simple tastes and simpler needs…” she laughed, then she sobered slightly as she added: “It’s nice to know there are still a few men like you out there.” She stared at him briefly, and, as the twinkle slowly faded from her eyes, she looked away from him and back outside.

He hated that she seemed suddenly sad. He wanted to do or say something that would put that twinkle back in her eyes, that megawatt smile back on her face. “Are you hungry?” he finally asked, after a few moments of silence had passed.

She looked back up at him, the twinkle immediately back in her eyes and an impish grin on her face. “Why, are you planning to break out some of those gourmet snacks from the closet?” she teased.

God, she was beautiful - and funny, too! “Well, for you, I’ll venture into the kitchen and break out the good stuff,” he laughed, which made her laugh, too. “So, what’ll it be - caviar and cognac, oysters Rockefeller and a delicate white wine, or prime rib and a nice Chardonnay?” he asked teasingly.

“Ah… so your tastes aren’t so simple after all, Mr. Quinlan,” she teased. “Well… hmmm… those all sound very tempting, but I think I should probably forgo any alcohol tonight -” She pointed to the bump on her head and he nodded. “ - And I’m really not into rich foods or heavy meals, so I think I’d prefer something simple… Do you suppose there might be some cheese and crackers hidden somewhere in that kitchen - or possibly some fresh fruit? - And another bottle of cold water would be heavenly.”

“Ah… a woman of simple tastes and needs,” Jax grinned. “And I know for a fact that you have to be the last of that particular breed!” he winked, making her laugh again. Good, there was that smile again! “I’ll be right back,” he promised, as he turned to leave.

“Ummm… before you go, could you point me in the direction of my clothes?” Brenda called after him. “It’ll be easier to move around if I don’t have to be holding this thing around me,” she added, pointing to the cashmere throw she still had wrapped around her, covering her body.

Jax knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her she could drop the blanket any time, but he knew that she felt uncomfortable without it so he refrained himself. Instead, he walked to a table on the other side of the fireplace where he’d laid her clothes to dry. “They’re here,” he said, picking up her tank top, then touching her shorts, “but they’re still pretty wet…”

“Oh…” was all she said, but her disappointment came through loud and clear.

“I could get you one of my shirts to put on if you’d like,” he offered.

“Thanks, I’d like that very much!” she answered quickly, and, despite the fact that he couldn’t see her clearly now from where he was standing, he could hear the smile in her voice, and that was enough to make him smile, too. He turned the flashlight on and headed back toward the office. “You don’t suppose I could borrow a pair of socks, too?” she called after him. “My feet feel like they’ve been packed in ice!” He didn’t comment, but she heard him chuckle as he left the room.

She slowly made her way back to the fireplace. Looking back over her shoulder to where Tom had just disappeared, she made sure that he was truly gone from the room and then she lowered the blanket and moved closer to the fireplace. She had gotten chilled over by the doors and she was hoping to get close enough to the fire to warm herself quickly before he returned. She’d dropped the blanket because she was afraid it might get too close to the flames and catch fire. She’d just have to keep an eye out for the beam of Tom’s flashlight; that should give her enough time to cover herself with the blanket again before he actually got back into the room.

She moved as close to the flames as she felt she could safely go and smiled as the warm air moved over her. This felt so good. As stiff and sore as her muscles were, a good soak in a tub filled to the brim with hot, soapy water would feel even better. That was the first thing she planned to do once she got back to her beach house. The second thing she planned to do was take an inventory of her life and get rid of those things that weighed her down and keep only those things that lifted her spirit and made her feel positive. She’d had too much negativity for far too long in her life, and now that she’d been given a second chance at life, she wanted to be surrounded by only positives from now on.

To that end, she decided that meeting with a good divorce lawyer would be her first order of business once she returned to San Francisco. Perhaps she’d call Alexis Davis… Alexis Davis was one of the best divorce lawyers there was in Marin County, and she and Brenda had spoken to one another many times at various social and business functions over the past couple of years. She’d told Brenda at one such event - jokingly, Brenda had thought at the time - that she was available to represent her when Brenda decided to dump Jagger and move up the food chain. Brenda had just laughed off her offer, as it was late and Alexis had had a good deal of champagne over the course of the evening, but she wondered now if it had been a genuine offer, and, if so, what exactly had prompted her to make that offer?

Brenda knew that Jagger’s womanizing reputation had followed him well into the course of their marriage. But she had generally cast a deaf ear and a blind eye to all the rumors about his possible transgressions, dismissing them as coming from people who had simply mistaken Jagger’s natural flirtatiousness for actual womanizing. But what if she’d been wrong and the gossip mill had been right? What if Jagger had continued to have affairs even after they’d married? Is that why Alexis Davis had pressed her card into Brenda’s hand that night? Had she been aware of indiscretions on Jagger’s part? “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” her Aunt Ruby had always said. Aunt Ruby had also pointed out time and again to Brenda, when Jagger had first come into her life, that womanizers rarely give up their philandering ways, even after marriage. Had Ruby been right about Jagger all along? Had he actually cheated on her? That thought made her sick at heart.

She heard a clatter from the direction in which Tom had gone, and she jumped and grabbed for the blanket, quickly wrapping it around herself again. But then she heard Tom’s voice yelling from the distance: “Ummm… everything’s okay… I just… ummm… knocked something…a statue, I think… off the desk… I’ll just be a few more minutes, I promise!”

That quickly brought Brenda out of her melancholy, and she nearly laughed out loud as she pictured him frantically trying to pick up all the pieces of some terribly expensive - though terribly ugly - objet d’art, with only a flashlight and the occasional flash of lightening for light. Poor guy! She seemed to be a bad luck charm for the man.

He had been trying so hard to keep this place pristine, even staying in the office rather than in one of the bedrooms upstairs and not even venturing into the kitchen. And then she drops into his life and throws everything off-kilter for him. She imagined that her wet body on those silk sofa cushions had left them water-stained, which would be costly to clean, and now he’d damaged, if not completely destroyed, an expensive work of art. His brother would probably kill him when he found out, and the brother might even lose his job over this. And poor Tom would likely be paying for all of this, in one way or another, for a good, long time. Tom saves her life and now she would probably cost Tom’s brother his livelihood and Tom his own life savings. “Yet another ironic twist in all of this,” she sighed, dropping the blanket back onto the floor as she turned back to stand closer to the fire again.

It took Jax less time than he’d anticipated to clean up the mess he’d made when he’d knocked over the ugly, little statue that had sat on the corner of the office desk and to deposit its broken pieces in the trash, where he’d thought it belonged from the day he’d first set eyes on it. He quickly grabbed one of his new dress shirts off its hanger, then set the flashlight down on one of the chairs as he dug into an inside pocket of his suitcase and pulled out several pairs of socks. Deciding that his cotton running socks would probably be warmer than his dress socks, he grabbed a clean pair of white ones and headed back to the living room, forgetting to pick up the flashlight on the way out.

He’d made that particular trek so many times now that he could probably do it blindfolded and in his sleep, so he didn’t even notice that he’d left the flashlight behind. He walked back into the great room and looked up to see that she was standing next to the fireplace now, her back to him - and she’d dropped the blanket. He stood in the shadows beyond where she could see him and simply stared. She was truly exquisite, from the top of her head to the tip of her toes, and seeing her standing there, all curves and softness, made his mouth suddenly go dry and he found himself unconsciously licking his lips.

He had seen many beautiful women in his life, but he didn’t think he had ever been as drawn to another woman as he was to her. And he wondered why that was? Certainly her beauty tantalized him - What red-blooded male wouldn’t be excited just by looking at her? But he knew that this attraction he felt was more than just physical. Her quick wit, her easy smile, her innate shyness all showed him a glimmer of who she was inside, and that attracted him as much, if not more than her stunning physical beauty. He longed to hold her in his arms again, to feel her face against his chest as she slept, to feel her awaken in his arms. He wanted that always and forever. He felt consumed by this desire for her. He barely knew her, yet what he did know about her made him hunger to know more. But he didn’t have the right to push her to reveal more of herself to him, when he was hiding so much of himself from her. He’d simply play it by ear… Let whatever happened between them simply happen…

Good grief! Let whatever happened between them simply happen? What was he thinking? What was he doing? He was considered one of the sharpest men on the corporate scene today, admired for both his cool cunning and his keen intellect, and yet, here he was, standing in the shadows and longing for the love of a woman he didn’t even know! Hadn’t he just assured his brother, not more than an hour ago, that he wasn’t some hormonal teenager without an ounce of self-control? Yet, that was exactly the way he was acting now! What had gotten into him? Jet-lag? Overwork? Days of too much fast food and caffeine and not enough sleep? Probably all of those things, but most of all that dream had gotten into him - and now he couldn’t seem to get it out of him.

But it was only a dream, he reminded himself. He had dreams all the time. But he’d never had one that had followed him into his waking moments, as this one had, or felt so real as this one had - or felt so right… “NO!!!”

Brenda’s head jerked around at Jax’s shout, and she scrambled for the blanket, quickly wrapping it around herself again. “Tom?” she called, squinting her eyes toward the darkness where Jax stood.

Dammit! She heard you! Jax scolded himself. How are you gonna explain this? That you’ve been standing here in the shadows, secretly watching her and panting after her, like some pervert…

“Tom?” she repeated, louder this time. Still no answer… She pulled the blanket tighter around herself, as she took a tentative step toward where she’d heard him shout. “Tom, are you okay?”

No, I’m not okay! I’m having irrational feelings about you based on nothing more than a stupid dream!… He took a deep breath and slowly stepped backwards to make sure that she couldn’t possibly see him, then ran back to the office. Now, calm down, a little voice inside him reprimanded. Where’s that self-control you’re so famous for? It was only a dream. It means no more or no less than any other dream you’ve ever had, and it certainly isn’t telling your future. Fate had nothing to do with bringing the two of you together. And all the other ironic coincidences are just that - coincidences. You’re no more meant to spend your life with her, than you are to spend it with the woman who checked you through Customs at LAX or the girl who took your pizza order yesterday. Get a grip on yourself, and get her out of here as soon as possible!

That’s exactly what he’d have to do: get a grip on himself and get her out of here. Out of sight, out of mind, end of story, as far as he was concerned. And until then, he’d simply distance himself from her - treat her with the cool detachment that he was known for in business. And then, as soon as the storm was over, he’d call her a cab and she could either go home or go to the hospital, but either way she’d be gone from his life and he’d be rid of these fanciful notions that being around her had sparked in him.

Yes, that little voice inside his head was right, he decided as he grabbed the flashlight off the chair where he’d left it and headed back to the living room and Brenda. It wouldn’t be until later - much later - that he’d come to realize that the voice inside his head just then sounded very much like that of his brother.

Despite the fact that he knew the path well, he directed the beam of light just ahead of his feet to make it looked like he needed it and was just returning from getting the clothes. “Are you okay?” he heard her repeat as soon as she saw the flashlight. “I was worried that something had happened to you.” He hated that she was concerned, especially since he didn’t deserve her concern. He deserved her contempt, considering the fact that he’d been ogling her without her knowledge and planning a future for them without her consent.

“Yeah, ummm… I just… ummm… dropped the flashlight under the desk and then, ummm… hit my head when I was trying to retrieve it. That’s all,” he lied, unable to look at her as he handed her his shirt and socks.

“Thanks,” she said, taking the clothes from him and setting them down on a nearby sofa. “Here, let me see where you hit your head,” she offered, as she moved to take the flashlight from his hand.

“No!” he snapped, pulling the flashlight out of her grasp as he jumped back away from her. There was nothing for her to see on his head because he hadn’t hit his head. Besides, having her touch him again might be too much. He needed distance from her.

Brenda was startled by his abruptness; it was as if he didn’t want her to touch him. Well, she didn’t really know the man, so maybe he had issues with things like that. Some people simply did not like to have other people touch them; maybe he was one of those people. Yet, if that were the case, wouldn’t he have reacted like this when she’d grabbed his hand earlier, she wondered? “I’m sorry…” she apologized. “I just thought that it might need some attention…”

Jax saw that his outburst had startled and confused her, and he was embarrassed. “No, I’m sorry…” he offered sheepishly. “It’s just that it’s nothing - really. I barely even felt it…” he explained quickly.

Brenda regarded him for a moment, as she tried to understand what was going on with him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but the man seemed somehow less friendly toward her now than he had before. Maybe he’s simply adding up the costs of having saved your life, Brenda, just as you were doing a few minutes ago. That was likely it, she decided. Probably whatever he broke back there was worth a small fortune, and he knew that either he or his brother would probably have to pay for it.

He said he’d just arrived in the States and he didn’t have a job here, so he likely had limited funds. He probably saw what little money he did have rushing down the drain even faster than the rain outside was rushing into the storm drains since she’d fallen into his life. Well, she wasn’t rich by Malibu standards, but she and Jagger lived very well and they had a steady, fairly sizeable income from their ad agency, over and above the debt they owed, plus they had invested wisely in several stocks. And even though she was only entitled to half of that now, she probably had a lot more disposable income than Tom did at this point. When all of this was over, she’d simply send him a healthy check to help defray some of the cost of this night, although it wouldn’t cover everything. After all, he’d saved her life; no amount of money could ever repay him for that.

“Okay… well, I guess you know where the aspirin and the ice pack are if you need them,” she finally said, as she picked up the shirt and socks that he’d just brought her. “Now, if you could point me in the direction of the nearest bathroom and either relinquish that flashlight or give me one of my own, I’d like to wash up and put these clothes on.”

“Oh… yeah, ummm… here,” he said, as he handed her the flashlight. “I haven’t checked but we should still have water. Despite the electricity being out everywhere, I can’t imagine all of the backup generators at the pumping stations being down, as well… Ummm… there’s a bathroom back there.” He pointed in the direction he had just come. “It’s the third door on the left… There are towels in the closet and an assortment of soaps and shampoos and other items there, too, if you need them.”

“Thanks,” she nodded. “But I just want to wash up a little. I’ll wait to shower until I get back to my place,” she added, as she headed for the bathroom.

“I’ll get us something to eat while you’re gone,” he called after her, but she didn’t reply.

He watched as the flashlight beam finally disappeared down the long hallway, then he headed to the kitchen, all the while wondering if she hadn’t answered him because she hadn’t heard him or that she didn’t feel it needn’t a response or that she was hurt by the rude way he’d just treated her? What does it matter? that voice asked. You wanted distance and it looks like that’s exactly what you’re getting.

Yeah, that was what he wanted, wasn’t it? Distance… no emotions involved… simply treat her as he would any other stranger he’d just met… But the problem was that she no longer felt like a stranger to him… He’d saved her life… He’d held her in his arms… He’d dreamed of her loving him… Of them loving one another…

There it was… The dream… If he could just get that damned dream out of his head, he’d be okay!… He could do that… He could get anything out of his head. He’d simply concentrate on something else until she left, and once she left he’d have no more reason to even think about her or the dream. He would simply exorcise both her and that dream from his head.

Unfortunately, something told him that getting them both out of his heart would be another matter altogether…