Safe house #77, Syracuse, NY...

Although he was in some considerable pain, Jax managed to rather easily take Brenda down without hurting her, to keep her from attempting another furious kick to his other shin.

He could see from her expression that she was stunned at the ease with which he'd gotten her on the floor and the way he had her now quite wrapped up and unable to move.

"I'm going to let that one go," Jax told her, "because I lied to you and you were angry about it. But don't think you can ever get away with doing something like that to me again," he warned her.

"Please let me go," she said, attempting to squirm out of his hold. Every movement, to her shock brought her nothing but pleasure. A pleasure that became more intense the longer she was trapped beneath him like this.

"No," he said.

"No?!" she repeated incredulously, her feelings of pleasure replaced by her anger now. "Let me go!" she insisted.

"We need to get some things straight between us first, Brenda. "Then I will let you go," he told her, gazing down into her hostile eyes. So much for their two second truce a little while ago. Her eyes were very beautiful, he noted. They were a soft shade of brown, flecked with gold. They seemed perfect for her. His eyes wandered down to her lips, and he cursed himself for allowing that to happen as a wave of desire so intense that it was very close to manifesting itself physically, racked his body.

"You don't have to keep me down here like this to talk to me," she blurted out, desperate to get him off her and to stop these wild and wonderful sensations. "I won't do anything, I promise. I won't hit you or kick you or anything. Just . . . please get up."

He noticed the panic in her eyes, and then he noticed the goosebumps forming on her flesh. He could feel the beating of her heart, too, wild and frantic. And then he noticed something else as he gazed down at her tight blue sweater. Was he doing that to her?

She saw where his eyes were, and she felt herself blush to her roots.

"Are you cold?" Jax asked her, and she looked as if she wanted to murder him.

"Freezing!" she yelled, not about to let him think that he was the reason for this reaction in her body.

Jax just rose a rather disbelieving eyebrow.

"Look, will you say what you have to say, and let me go?!" she insisted, really getting much too hot and bothered by this prolonged intimate contact with him now. She had desired men before, of course, but not like this. Never like this. And she had awful visions of Eve or Agent Wilkie coming into the room and seeing Jax on top of her, with her pinned to the floor like this, and jumping to all sorts of crazy conclusions about what they were doing in that position.

"I want you to promise to cooperate with Agent Wilkie and myself, Brenda," Jax said. "The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can all go home and go back to . . ." He lost his train of thought as her knee brushed against his thigh. " . . . ummm . . . back to our lives," he finished. She felt like heaven beneath him. And he wished he could say that every other woman he'd been with had felt this way to him, and that she was nothing special. But it simply wasn't true. No woman had ever felt like this to him. Not even Ariel, who had once ignited his passions so wildly. All of that seemed tame now in comparison to what this girl did to him. And the fact that she was able to get this reaction out of him with them both fully clothed was all the more mind boggling.

"Cooperate how?" Brenda asked, as she studied his sensual lips, thinking they appeared entirely too kissable for her liking. He was the sexiest man she had ever seen. Strong, stubborn, confident, muscular, tall, beautiful . . . . She very much wanted to reach up and touch those locks of dark gold, not that such a thing was wise, or even possible given the fact that he, for all intensive purposes, had her arms pinned to the floor beneath his.

"Well, don't be unnecessarily difficult or inquisitive, for one thing," Jax said, trying to be strictly professional and ignore anything and everything that was going on inside of him at the moment. But how exactly did one simply ignore a tornado? And why the devil was she looking at him in that perfectly enchanting manner? "If I can't tell you something, it's because I honestly can't," Jax continued. "Just accept that. Another thing I'd like you to do is think very hard about every detail of your conversation and your subsequent dance with Bastian Reese. I want you to try to remember every word he said to you. Everything."

"Fine, fine," she said, the fire just racing through her blood now. No man had ever set her aflame in this fashion. And he wasn't even doing anything. "Get off me now, please."

"I also need you to try and find that phone number you say he gave to you," Jax said, ignoring her request.

"Okay, Okay," she said. And then she glared at him when he still would not let her up.

"One more thing," he said.

"What?!" she demanded, thinking she could not stand much more of this physical contact with him without doing something stupid and impulsive and born of the desire she was fighting to control.

He lowered his head to her, and Brenda suddenly couldn't breathe correctly. Panic mixed with excitement streaked through her. {He's going to kiss me!}

Yes, he wanted to kiss her. He had never wanted anything more. Her lips were calling out to him in seductive silence, and his desire to taste her was like nothing he had ever felt before. She was so beautiful. She was so soft and warm and beautiful . . . He cursed silently and rid himself of these thoughts as he moved his lips away from the delightful temptation of such close proximity to hers.

"You're never going to kick me again, right?" he said to her.

She found herself both relieved and upset that he had not kissed her after all. Despite her panic, she had practically been aching for his kiss, and now nothing. Instead, here he was trying to order her to not do this, and not do that. It was infuriating! And so was this mad desire she felt flooding every cell in her body. She glared at him defiantly. She was sure she would have reason and desire to kick him again, probably within the next five minutes. She did not want to promise never to do it.

"Brenda . . "

"I heard you."

"Well?"

"All right. I won't kick you again," she promised, proud of herself for specifying the word kick.

"Good," Jax said. Still, he did not move and Brenda dared not struggle against him for fear of her desire hitting some kind of point of no return, where her ever-increasing wants and needs would banish away her good sense.

"May I please be set free now?" she asked sweetly.

He grinned down at her mock-conciliatory behavior, and his smile was almost more than she could bear. Her heart was beating so loudly, she was sure they could hear it all the way in China.

"I don't know. I kind of like having you in this position of submission," he said softly, his eyes holding hers captive in a gaze that was bluer than anything she could even describe.

Something warm and delicious shot through her when he told her that he liked having her in this position. She literally shivered and hoped he would think it was with fear and not with pleasure. Although the thought of him thinking she was afraid of him did not sit well with her either.

"Don't you care what they might think if they walk in here and see us like this?" Brenda asked, not understanding him at all.

"I generally don't give a damn what people think," he told her with a shrug. "What do you think they would think?" he asked curiously, looking in absolutely no hurry to get off of her. She heard herself gasp a little as she felt his thumb absently stroke across her wrist and a shudder of pleasure caressed her body.

"I would . . .rather not say," she said her eyes shooting away form his, preferring not to say out loud what she herself was thinking, feeling, wishing.

Jax laughed softly and to her great relief, but to her body's great protest, released her from his hold.

"I take promises very seriously," he told her as he helped her to her feet. "I expect you to keep each and every one you made to me just now."

" Oh, yes, your lordship," she muttered.

"What was that?"

"I said: yes, I will," she said, crossing her hands over her chest to cover her traitorous body.

"Good," Jax said, tapping a finger against her chin. "If you just work with me and let me do what I came here to do, this will be over soon, and then you won't ever have to see 'his lordship' again," he told her, letting her know he'd heard what she had referred to him as, then he took his things and left the room.

Strangely enough, the thought of never seeing him again did not please Brenda at all. And she experienced an odd sense of melancholy thinking that the idea of being rid of her pleased him so much.

As for Jax, the idea of ending this case and being away from her filled him with equal parts relief and desolation. He couldn't shake this bizarre feeling that she was the woman he was always meant to be with and that to walk away from getting to know her would be something he would regret for the rest of his life. It was ridiculous, of course, and based on nothing but this physical attraction which was no basis at all in Jax's opinion. Still, he could not shake the feeling. Well, he couldn't shake it now, anyway. He fully intended to have it thoroughly shaken by the end of the day, however. He was about to spend the rest of his time on this case with his heart fluttering about like some love-struck school boy every time he looked at her.

"Did you get Ariel?" Scott asked, as he passed Jax while Jax was depositing his things in the other room.

Jax nodded.

"Hmm. Didn't exactly have the desired effect, did it?" Scott murmured, glancing at Jax with interest as they walked over to the living room.

"The desired effect?' Jax repeated.

"Putting out the fire," Scott clarified.

"It's just . . .a tiny, little fire," Jax dismissed. "It's under control."

"Mmm Hmmm," Scott said, not at all convinced. "You want to just hand over the keys to your boat right now?" he said, extending his hand forward. "Or do you still think you're going to be getting married next summer?"

Jax said nothing.

"Jax, you're not ready for this kind of commitment. If you were, Brenda wouldn't be able to tie you up in knots like this," Scott pointed out, tossing the keys to the Pathfinder up in the air and catching them.

Jax looked appalled. "Tie me up in . . .?" He looked suddenly angry. "I am not tied up in knots over anybody, most especially not her!"

"Yes, you are," Scott said calmly. "And in record time, no less You've known her all of two-and-a-half hours now. This is not... uhh . . .somewhat disturbing to you? That a woman you barely know affects you more than the woman you plan to marry? This is not like a great big sign to you, Jax?" Scott asked with a tiny grin.

"You are blowing this way out of proportion," Jax insisted. "I just met her, for god's sake - this doesn't mean anything. I'm just . . very attracted to her, that's all. She's beautiful."

"So is Ariel."

"Not like this, though," Jax said.

"Not like what?" Scott prodded.

"Why are we talking about this?" Jax grumbled. "This is so inconsequential to the reason that we're even here. By the way, I got Brenda to promise to basically behave herself, so we shouldn't have any more problems with her that we can't handle."

"She promised you that? That little mutineer in there? Amazing. So you think we can ask her about Reese?" Scott asked, leaning against the wall.

Jax nodded. "I think she'll tell us everything she can remember. I think Brenda knows more than Eve does."

"Me, too. Why don't I go out and get us all something to eat, and then we can grill them over dinner," Scott suggested.

"Okay. You better ask them what they're in the mood for," he said.

"Ask them?" Scott asked incredulously. "No way. You know what'll happen, Jax. Brenda will want Thai food and Eve will want hamburgers, and we'll have to listen to them scream at each other over who gets what they want. No thanks. I'm just going to get us all a pizza. Anyone who doesn't want that can starve to death," Scott said, putting his jacket on.

"Maybe I should go," Jax said.

Scott shook his head and clasped Jax's shoulder. "See, now this is bad. You're scared to be alone here with her, aren't you?"

"No, I just would like to get out for a few minutes," Jax said.

"Same thing," Scott said, tossing Jax the keys to the Pathfinder. "I think it's a good idea. Get out of here, clear your head. We can't keep them up all night grilling them either, Jax, because they both have morning classes tomorrow, which means we have to get up at some ungodly hour and take them to PCU and sit in on the classes."

"Don't remind me," Jax muttered. "I just want to find Bastian Reese so we can get out of here," Jax added quietly, heading for the door.

"We're here for six months, partner."

"Not if I can help it," Jax murmured. "I promised Ariel I'd be home for Christmas."

Scott looked surprised. "You shouldn't have done that, Jax. You have no idea if we'll be done by then. That's just a month away."

"I'm not staying here six months, Scott," Jax said firmly.

"Jax, come on. You know how slippery Bastian Reese is. We're good, you and I, but -- do you really expect us to find him before Christmas?"

"We have to," Jax said. Then he let out a sigh and shook his head. "I almost kissed her a few minutes ago," he confessed quietly and Scott had never seen Jax look quite so.....confused. Jax was not the type you could fluster or knock off center. And yet she had done it, hadn't she?

Scott nodded, immediately understanding. If Jax was this affected by Brenda after a mere two-and-a-half hours, he would never make it six months having to cohabitate in the same house as her day after day. And seeing Jax so knocked off center brought out all of Scott's protective instincts. Jax had only been his partner for three years, but they had been friends since they were kids. They were like brothers; had even told people that they were cousins while growing up. They knew everything about each other. Right now, Scott knew that Jax was mystified by the intensity and suddennes of what he was feeling, and trying to reconcile how he could possibly be feeling anything so intense and perfect for one woman, while being engaged and supposedly in love with another. For Jax, none of this made any sense, and he would drive himself crazy trying to set things right in his mind. Scott was not about to let him do that.

"We'll find him before Christmas," Scott promised.

"You understand . . .why I can't stay here very long, right?" Jax asked, glancing over at him.

Scott simply nodded.

Yeah, he understood, all right. But then again, some things were just destined to happen . . .

The Concorde, en route from France to New York...

The heather-gray eyes of Bastian Reese checked his dazzling Rolex to see what time it was, and then he ran a hand through his deep auburn hair as he streched his legs, relaxing in the luxury of first class. He was tanned and well-rested from his jaunt to the South of France, where he had stolen several priceless paintings from the Louvre and had them now safely tucked away in his Cayman Island hideaway awaiting his black market buyers. Now he was on his way back to that quaint, sleepy, boring, little town of Port Charles, where he would find that delectable Brenda Barrett and retrieve from her the things he desired. Some that he'd already gotten, like a dance with her. Some that he hadn't gotten, like a long, slow kiss . . . perhaps more. And most importantly, he would ensure that she had not realized his terrible mistake when he thought he had given her his phone number but had given her something else entirely. Something which, in his state of intense attraction to the stunning young thing, he had foolishly handed over to her in lieu of his phone number.

Something he wanted back at all costs.