"So, what are you going to do?" Scott asked Jax.

It was 11:30 that night, and they were alone in the kitchen, going over the insane events of the evening. Brenda was asleep, and after exchanging unpleasantness with Warchester and Flanagan, Jax and Scott had gotten rid of the other two agents.

"What do you mean, what am I going to do? I'm going to call my attorney and get this annulled as soon as possible, of course," Jax said, tapping a pencil absently against the table top. "I don't want this," he insisted. "And neither does Brenda. Can you imagine her reaction when she realizes what has happened?"

"Well, she was laughing about it on the way here," Scott reminded him.

"In her present condition, she would laugh at a funeral processional," Jax dismissed. "But when the effects of the medication wear off, I guarantee you she won't be laughing."

"I don't know about that. It is pretty funny."

"I doubt you would say that if you were the one who'd inherited a wife and had a mad clergyman on the loose, looking to make your life miserable."

"You don't look all that miserable. And you may want to reconsider this speedy annulment business by the way," Scott said seriously.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Well, are you still having your doubts about Warchester and Flanagan's ability to take care of Brenda once we're off this case? Which, incidentally, will be in a few hours."

"You know how I feel about that," Jax said. "They won't be able to protect her, and I absolutely hate the idea of leaving her with them. But as you pointed out to me already, the Director issued this order and there's nothing we can do about that."

"Well, that was before," Scott said.

"Before what?"

"Before you were a married man."

"Scott, I really don't see the humor in any of this."

"I'm not trying to be funny. I'm serious. Jax, think about it. At this very moment Brenda is legally your wife. That means that you can take her with us when we leave here tomorrow. And it won't be defying any orders. Her finals are done at school. They're going to be shutting down very soon for the holidays. Right now, with the situation as it is, we can take Brenda with us back to Virginia, free and clear. And we can look out for her until Bastian Reese is captured. But, if you go ahead and push for that annulment first thing in the morning, then you're giving up the one thing that gives you a legitimate reason to defy Scorpio's orders," Scott paused thoughtfully. "You know, they say that God works in mysterious ways, right? Maybe this is His mysterious way of seeing to it that the three musketeers are not broken apart while the prettiest musketeer could still be in danger."

"And so to do this, God really thought the only recourse was to marry the prettiest musketeer to me? Without either of us having any say in the bloody matter?" Jax asked sarcastically.

"Well, radical move on God's part maybe, but it worked, didn't it? It gave us the perfect solution -- sorta."

"What's so perfect about it? Yes, we get to take Brenda with us. Okay, I admit that's great, and I'll feel a lot better with her under our protection. But in case you forgot we do have a new assingment. How are we suppsoed to look out for her if we're off taking care of business? And as you asked me before, how exactly am I supposed to explain my wife to my fiancee? How am I supposed to explain suddenly having a wife to anyone?"

"Well, see you're fogetting now that with Brenda as your wife she's entitled to bureau protection. And i'm not talkin' about normal agents like the two clowns back in Syuracuse. You can request that she get Special Forces protection if you and I have to be away. They can't deny you since you guys are married and you're a Special Forces member. As to the other matter, you already know that in my opinion you shouldn't even have a fiancee to have to explain anything to," Scott responded. "But, be that as it may, I think we can handle this. You promised Ariel you'd be home for Christmas, right? So she's not expecting you until then. Well, today is only November 28th. We'll have Brenda at your house on the 29th, and with any luck, we can find Bastian Reese, get you your annulment, and get Brenda back to Port Charles, all before Christmas."

"Oh, I see. So I'm supposed to just hope that Ariel doesn't find out that I'm home until Christmas, and that she or my family doesn't just happen to drop by, or that my neighbors don't find anything unusual about a beautiful, young woman living with me in my house."

Scott shrugged. "You have a better idea?"

"No, actually I don't."

Scott grinned a little bit. "So we're going home tomorrow then -- all three of us?"

Jax nodded slowly, then he dropped his head to the kitchen table. "I don't believe this is happening to me."

"Just lucky I guess," Scott said, but he wasn't being funny, he meant it. As far as Scott was concerned, the comedy of errors that had culminated in Jax finding himself unexpectedly married to someone other than the woman he'd proposed to was a sign -- a sign that his marriage to Ariel was not meant to be and should be stopped.

"Can you tell me something?" Jax asked. "One, how do I explain to Brenda that she's technically married to the very same man she wants to, as you told me, obliterate from her memories? Two, how do I prevent her from killing both you and me once she realizes that we decided to take her home with us without ever giving her a say in the matter? And three, tell me how I'm supposed to handle living alone in my house with someone with whom I share an attraction, the likes of nothing I've ever felt before."

"Jax, you have 12 bedrooms. Just put her in the one furthest from yours," Scott suggested.

Jax shook his head. "I can't do that to her. If I'm taking her back to Great Falls with me, people are going to find out who she is to me sooner or later, and I won't have anyone belittling her or disrespecting her or whispering about her. No, Brenda will be in my room, where any wife of mine would be," Jax decided.

"Well, sure, I understand that if you have company or something. But when it's just the two of you, I hope you don't think you can sleep in the same room with her, Jax, because it will not work. Even if you're sleeping twenty feet away from her on the floor in a tub of ice, it will not work. She's your kryptonite, superman, and you know it."

"I have to stay near her," Jax reminded him. "She's the target of a master thief who wants something he thinks she's got, remember? I'm not going to leave her alone in some bedroom tons of feet away from me."

"I understand you want to protect her, but you're taking the chance of driving yourself totally crazy in the process."

"Maybe only a little bit crazy," Jax said. "I mean, it'll just be for a little while."

"I think you underestimate the temptation you're going to be living with," Scott said. "What makes you so sure Brenda is going to be unhappy to find herself married to you? Maybe initially, yes. But personally, I think she'll get a kick out of the whole thing. I also happen to know that she wants you. Knowing Brenda, I think she'll see this as her golden opportunity and go for broke to make sure you never want to let her go," Scott warned. "That's just my opinion, of course."

Jax found the idea of Brenda going for broke to keep them tied to each other highly titillating, and Scott saw that.

"That whole concept of her fighting for you kinda floats your boat, huh?" Scott said with a hint of a smile.

Jax surprised Scott by actually nodding in agreement. "Do you want to know something?" Jax said quietly. "I'm not feeling any of the things I should be feeling given the situation I find myself in."

"Meaning you're not upset about this," Scott guessed.

"Well, initially I was. You were there, so you know. But the thing is, I think what really upset me was the fact that that leprechaun, posing as a priest, got one over on me. I don't think it's the being married to Brenda part that's upsetting me. I actually feel -- well, not exactly happy about it -- but definitely not unhappy about it. And that's not right, is it? I mean, I should be going out of my mind, shouldn't I? This should be the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me."

"That depends on your perspective. In my estimation, this could be the best thing that ever happened to you, Jax. Maybe not getting hoodwinked into a marriage, even though you're obviously crazy about the girl in question. But I think this -- all of this -- will force you to do what I've been wanting you to do for a long time: seriously look at your future and see who should and should not be a part of it."

"Excuse me, but I thought you had vowed never to say another word about Ariel," Jax reminded him.

"You didn't actually believe that, did you?" Scott laughed.

Jax grinned at him. "Will you not rest until you find a way to stop this wedding?"

"You don't want me to stop until I do," Scott informed him. "You want me to talk you out if it, Jax."

Jax said nothing.

"Because you know this is wrong," Scott continued. "You don't want to break the promise, but you know it's wrong to keep it."

Jax decided to change the subject. "I think we should leave tonight," he said, getting up from the table.

"We can't," Scott responded. "Our plane tickets are for tomorrow. And we have to get one for Brenda now, too."

"We'll use my jet," Jax decided, getting on the phone to get his pilot on the way to Port Charles.

"Why do you want to leave tonight?" Scott asked when Jax was done making the flight arrangements for them. "I mean, I think we should stick around until the morning, wait until Warchester and Flanagan show up, and then let them know that they won't be needed."

"What if in the morning, Brenda decides she would rather be stranded in quicksand with Eve Lambert than go back to Virginia married to me?"

Scott shook his head. "Highly unlikely. But if she feels that way, then we'll just explain to her why we're doing this and that it's for her safety. She doesn't even like Warchester and Flanagan anyway. She told me that."

"Maybe not, but she may prefer being with them to being in the vicinity of me, especially under these circumstances," Jax pointed out. "She may hate this whole idea of having to live with me. You know how she can get. She'd probably pack up her stuff and walk all the way back to Port Charles just to get away from me and annul this marriage as soon as possible."

"Well, if that's the case, then it's her decision, and we'll just have to respect that," Scott said.

"What? No way. I'm not leaving her here with them," Jax said, and Scott heard that he was resolute in that determination.

"So, you think leaving tonight will take away her ability to go against you on this? Not damn likely, Jax. She'll jump from the plane if she has to."

"What I think is that if she wakes up and she's already at my house, we'll have a far better chance of convincing her to stay there."

"Okay, and so how do we handle our replacements? We just let them walk in here to an empty safe house and freak the hell out and call HQ? They'll probably say we kidnapped her."

Jax thought about that for a moment. "We'll call into HQ first," Jax decided. "As soon as we land, we'll call them. We'll say we had a security breach here last night, and we thought it was Bastian Reese making a second attempt, so we got the target -- which would be Brenda -- out of there. HQ will inform Warchester and Flanagan about what went down, so we won't have to deal with those idiots at all."

"HQ will want to know where she is."

"So, we'll tell them where she is."

"With you?"

"Yeah."

"They're going to want to come to your house and check this out, Jax," Scott warned him. "Donnelly will probably come, hoping he can find some reason to fire us over this."

"We won't give him any reasons," Jax said.

"Well, then you're going to have to convince him that you just fell head-over-heels in love, just like that," Scott said, snapping his fingers. "Jax, everybody in the bureau who knows you, knows that you left for this assignment engaged to Ariel. I'm saying, Donnelly is not going to believe that you just up and fell in love and came back married to somebody else -- somebody else who just happens to be the civilian you were assigned to protect. He's going to think this is just another one of our extreme methods of getting our way and circumventing the rules."

"I'll just have to convince him otherwise then, won't I?" Jax said, getting up. "You saw how Warchester and Flanagan were tonight. Brenda would find better protection from the tooth fairy. I'm not leaving her here with them, Scott. I'm not. That's final."

"You don't have to convince me. I just want you to realize that the minute we get Brenda back to Virginia and make that phone call to headquarters, the you know what is gonna hit the fan big time."

That was an understatement if ever there was one, Jax thought, as he and Scott both went to pack up their and Brenda's things and prepare for flight.

"You drive. I'll go get Brenda," Jax said, tossing the Pathfinder keys to Scott and then going quietly into the bedroom to get the young woman who was technically his wife. Brenda was lying in the bed with the covers kicked off. She had on Scott's dark blue, FBI sweatshirt, which went down to her knees, but her movement in sleep had caused it to move up significantly, exposing shapely, golden thighs. Jax stood gazing at her for a few fascinated moments, and then set about getting her dressed. He grabbed her black sweatpants and then carefully went about sliding them over her legs. He had to move the sweatshirt up to her stomach, and in doing so, revealed white lace panties and a cute little, heart-shaped birthmark at her hip. Desire tugged at Jax's heart, as he slowly outlined the shape of her birthmark with one finger. God, she was so perfect. He pulled the sweatpants up over her waist, put on her socks and then her boots. Then he got her jacket and carefully began to put that on her as well. It was then that she woke up.

Jax froze in place when he saw her eyes flutter open and saw her gazing at him. He wasn't sure how she would react to his being here in her room, touching her like this.

"What's going on?" she asked. Her voice was soft and sleepy, and it was clear that she was not quite that awake.

"We have to go," was all Jax said.

"Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?" she asked, reaching out and touching his face. She felt hypnotized by his eyes.

"Yes, this is a dream," Jax said, hoping she would go back to sleep.

"I like it," Brenda said, sifting her fingers lightly through his hair. "Jax?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

"I think you're ravishing."

"I think you're ravishing, too."

He laughed. "Close your eyes, Brenda. Go back to sleep," Jax said softly.

"I am sleeping," she insisted. "I'm dreaming of you." She slid into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. "And I don't want to wake up from this. It feels like you're mine now. And when I wake up, you'll be hers again."

A few moments later she was very quiet, and her breathing was soft and even, and Jax realized she had fallen asleep in his arms with her head on his shoulder.

"It feels like you're mine, too," he whispered to the sleeping girl. And then he lifted her into his arms and headed for the front door. Just before he walked outside, he heard the sound of something falling and rolling around on the floor. He gazed down to see the prop wedding ring from tonight's fiasco rolling into a corner. He remembered Brenda laughing about how it was too big for her. Leaving the ring on the floor, Jax left the safe house for the last time.

Jax and Scott were gratified that Brenda did not wake up at any time during the ride to the airport, and she was even now still asleep as they were climbing aboard Jax's jet. Deep in a Nyquil-induced sleep, Brenda was oblivious to all of this movement and preparation. She had no idea she was right now on board a luxurious, black Lear jet that belonged to none other than her Agent Adonis. There were other things that sleep made her miss as well: like the way Jax held her when she was shivering; the way his breath softly left his body each time she inadvertently moved closer to the warmth of his body; the way he looked at her as if gazing at the new dawn. And she missed the quiet, revealing conversation he had with Scott as well.

"You are so gone on her," Scott said, quietly gazing out of the window at the night sky.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but your opinions are getting on my nerves," Jax said.

"Look at you," Scott persisted. "Look at the way you touch her. Look at the way you look at her. See, if you were this way with Ariel, I would never doubt your feelings for her."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Say the truth. Say you're not in love with Ariel. Admit that much, Jax. It's just you and me here, come on."

"Okay, I admit that much," Jax said.

Scott nodded. "Good. Now take the next logical step, and tell me you're going to call off this wedding," Scott said next. "Please tell me that you're not going to go ahead and marry someone you don't even love."

Jax didn't say anything, but his eyes were on Brenda. He'd never seen anyone look more angelic when they were sleeping. He smiled a little when he remembered the way her eyes had lit up after she'd gotten up the nerve to kiss him and had gotten quite a kiss back in return. She had seemed stunned by his response to her -- stunned and happy. He would never forget the look in her eyes or that gleeful smile of hers that was more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen in his life. Maybe he had led her on, after all? He had kissed her, knowing that nothing could ever come of that kiss. And then he had kissed her again. And again. How could he blame her for thinking he was sending out mixed signals? How could he blame her for anything at all, he decided, running the back of his hand against the side of her face? He swore that something like electricity shot into him when he touched her. Why was it that he felt so alive with her?

We were caught in a wave you and I
How we rode the tide
Oh we were so alive you and I
Must that dream now die?

"Jax, I'm going to say something to you now, and I want you to listen to me," Scott said. "I mean it," he added, sensing that he could really make a breakthrough with Jax right here, right now.

Jax looked up at him. "I'm listening."

And Scott could see that he really was.

"Okay," Scott said, swiveling around in his seat so that he was facing Jax fully. "I'm just going to come out and say this because you need to hear it."

"Go ahead," Jax said.

"Jax, you are really in the wrong this time. You're not doing yourself or Ariel any favors by agreeing to marry her when you know that you're not in love with her. That is just wrong."

Jax was about to respond, but Scott cut him off.

"I'm not done yet. You're shortchanging yourself by playing the martyr and walking with both eyes open into a pit of misery, which is what a loveless marriage will be. You'll be shortchanging your kids, who'll have to grow up in a house where their dad is not in love with their mother. And think about Ariel, too, for a second. You may not be in love with her, but you've known her all your life, and she's your friend, right? You love her in that way, at least. You care about her. But if you do this -- marry her -- you're shortchanging her as well because you're denying her the opportunity to go out there and find a man who will love her. You're not that man, Jax. And marriage won't change you into that man. And it won't change Ariel into Brenda either. And even if there were no Brenda, the situation would be the same. Going ahead with a wedding for the sole purpose of not breaking a promise is just crazy, and with the current state of affairs you're in, it would actually, technically, be bigamy, too."

Jax sighed.

"Okay, I'm being serious again. It's a recipe for disaster, Jax. And you are entirely too smart to do something as stupid and unfair as this."

"Are you finished?" Jax asked.

"That depends," Scott said, looking at Jax carefully. "Did you get any of that?"

Jax looked at Scott for a long time without saying a word, and Scott began to wonder if Jax would still, even after this conversation, go through with the wedding.

"Jax, you have to call off this wedding," Scott insisted, trying to get Jax to say that he would do that.

What Jax did was to reach into his pocket, detach a set of keys from his keychain, and hand them to Scott. "Here," Jax said.

"What is this for?" Scott asked, gazing at the set of keys in his hand.

"Those are the keys to my boat . . . which now belongs to you. You are a pest and a nuisance, and you're relentless. But you're also my best friend, and you happen to be absolutely right in everything you've said just now. And I thank you for that. I'm going to call off the wedding," Jax said, and he was amazed at the trembling shivers of freedom that were slowly making their way throughout him.

"You mean that?" Scott asked skeptically. After all, he'd been trying to talk Jax out of this folly for so long. It was hard to believe that he'd actually been successful at last.

"Yes, I mean that."

"You're not just saying all of this to shut me up?"

"As if I ever could shut you up?"

Scott smiled. "Jax, you're doing the right thing," he said.

"I know. Don't say anything to Brenda about this though, all right?"

"Why not?"

"Can you just promise not to say anything to her about it -- please?"

"You think if she knows you're available, she'll go after you, and you won't be able to resist her? You really are scared of what she does to you, aren't you?"

"Don’t you think you’ve given about enough advice to cover the next ten years, Scott? Can you just promise not to tell her and leave it at that?"

"Okay, I promise. I won’t say anything to Musketeer #3. So when are you going to tell Ariel the bad news? The sooner the better, you know. That woman is making wedding plans like mad. She must be stopped."

"Well I’d really hate to ruin her Christmas, so I was thinking I’d wait until the holidays had passed if I can. Then I’ll take her out to dinner and tell her."

"But what if the Bastian Reese matter is still pending at Christmas, Jax? What if Brenda is still with us? Then how do you explain her to Ariel without having to tell her the truth about the wedding being off? I mean, she’ll take one look at Brenda and see right through you."

"I’ll just have to deal with that because Brenda will be with us," Jax said.

Scott rose a dark eyebrow speculatively. "How do you know that? We could find Bastian Reese tomorrow for all you know."

"No, we won’t find him that soon. Brenda’s going to be with us at Christmas."

"How do you know?" Scott asked again.

Jax shrugged. " I don’t know. I just do." The truth was that Jax was going to make damned sure she was with them at Christmas and beyond. Oh yes, he had Brenda Barrett now - no matter how he'd gotten her, he had her -- and he was not going to let her go.

The Concorde bound for London…

On the Concorde to London, Jenna glanced over at Bastian who looked absolutely lost in thought.

"I hope you’re thinking about a way to get us those Swiss bank account numbers," she said, interrupting his thoughts.

"I thought I told you to let me worry about that."

Jenna was quiet for a few moments and then she turned to him once more. "They’re not ordinary FBI agents, are they?" she asked.

"No," Bastian responded. "Not remotely ordinary."

"I’d like to know how you know them, Bastian."

"I’m sure you would," he said, making it clear he would not be providing her any answers to her curiosity.

"Well at lest tell me about the dark haired one. Scott, did you say his name was?" she asked trying not to sound as interested as she really was.

"Stay away from him," was all Bastian said to her.

"Why, does he have the plague?" she asked, laughing.

"No, you have the plague, Jenna. You are on the side of the law that he will never cross. And I won’t have you trying to insinuate your way into his life. Is that perfectly clear?"

Jenna looked at him curiously. "This sounds awfully personal Bastian. You know, I don’t get this. We should be thinking of these two agents as the enemy and here you are telling me to stay away from this guy Scott as if you’re trying to protect him. I’m the one who’s your partner, remember? Those two want to put us in jail. Why should you care about what happens to them?"

Bastian looked as if he were getting a headache. "Is there any way I could possibly persuade you to take a vow of silence for the duration of this flight?" he asked, closing his eyes and leaning back in his seat.

Jenna knew he was dismissing her. She gave him a little glare, but didn’t say another word. That only alsted five minutes, however.

"Before I take this vow of silence, can I at least ask you when we're going to get our bank acocunt numbers back?" she asked.

Seeking peace for the duration of the flight, Bastian answered her. "We'll have them back by Christmas," he promised.

Great Falls Virginia…

As the limo cruised quietly down the gorgeous tree-lined street leading to Jax’s hilltop home, Scott moved his neck from left to right as he felt exhaustion setting in.

"You want to stay over for tonight?" Jax offered.

Scott nodded. "Yeah I’m beat. I can’t even think about trekking all the way to my place now. Plus, if Brenda wakes up and is less than enthusiastic about all of this, it might be a good idea for me to be around."

"Maybe not," Jax said as the woman in question shifted in his arms. "I know she likes you Scott and she trusts you. But with the way things are now she’s going to have to trust me too."

"Well she doesn’t," Scott pointed out.

"Yes I know this, Scott. This is why I think you need to be around less, not more. She has to start trusting me and not always having you to turn to in any given situation."

Scott laughed. "What are we talking about now? Brenda our assignment? Or Brenda your wife?"

"I don’t think of her as my wife," Jax insisted. "But if we’re going to try to convince other people of that, then Brenda’s going to have to trust me so we can pull this off."

"Well you have a point," Scott agreed. "But as for not thinking of her as your wife, I think you’d better start to do just that. Jax, she is not our assignment any longer. We both have to remember that. Brenda is here with us because she’s your wife. This is what we need Donnelly and Scorpio to believe, so you do have to start thinking of her that way."

Jax glanced down at Brenda. Thinking of her as his wife, huh? Well, that would certainly not be too difficult.

She stirred. She stretched. Her hand absently ran up along his chest. Suddenly Brenda felt very disoriented. She was not in her bed at the safe house. She was in something that was moving and she was definitely in the arms of a superbly built male. Her eyes ran along the open parka of said male and up along that chest her hand had just been touching, and up further still to a beautiful cleft chin and then a face that she knew all too well and saw in her dreams all too often.

Her head snapped up as she encountered those sultry aquamarine sparklers that always floored her.

"Jax? Where are we? What’s going on?" she demanded, trying to detach herself from the intimate position she found herself in with him. She was relieved to see upon a quick glance around that Scott was there too, sitting across from her and Jax in what she now realized was a limousine.

Jax and Scott exchanged a glance.

"We had to leave the safe house in Syracuse," Jax said. "We just…uhh…moved you. We didn’t want to wake you up what with your not feeling well and everything."

Brenda slid out of his lap and down next to him. "What time is it?"

"Almost 5 a.m.," Scott said.

"So we’re going to another safe house then? And what happened to the jeep?" Brenda murmured glancing around at the fancy limousine. Then she peered out of the tinted windows and her eyes popped open wide as she saw her surroundings. The street was immaculate and wide and full of snow-covered trees. All of the houses they were passing looked like elegant mansions with huge driveways and property for miles. The limo began to incline up a hill and Brenda could see the house that stood up there. She saw before her a lush, well manicured lawn covered in snow. There were sculpted bushes lining the circular drive. At the top of a slightly sloping hill stood a magnificent home that Brenda thought looked like a palace. The house was made of handsome gray stone, double storied, with tall, elegant windows one above the other all across the front of the house. Bright green ivy handsomely splattered the stone.

"Where in the world are we?" Brenda asked. "Who lives here?"

Jax hesitated for a moment. "I do," he said.

Brenda glanced at Scott in shock. "He lives here?"

Scott nodded while Jax let out a sigh of mild irritation.

"Brenda, you can direct questions about me to me you know," Jax said.

She turned to him slowly as the limo came to a stop in front of the house on the hill. "I don’t believe for one minute that you live here," she told him. "That would be impossible. Why, you’d have to be a millionaire…"

"A billionaire actually," he said. "Stay here for a moment, please." he said as he shot Scott a quick glance and then got out of the limousine. Brenda felt the chilling shaft of cold air when Jax opened the door.

"Wait a second, he really lives here?!" she gasped.

"Yep. He’s really a billionaire too. Brenda, I have to tell you something before he gets back," Scott said urgently.

"Where did he go?" Brenda asked, gazing around outside.

"To put away the tiger."

"What?!"

"Brenda, what do you remember about what happened when you were up on stage the second time?"

Brenda was still trying to figure out if Scott was joking or not about Jax owning a tiger. "Did you say he went to put away the tire?"

"No, the tiger. Brenda, do you remember that priest up on stage?"

"The man with the Irish accent, Yeah," she said nodding. "He was so funny! I remember Jax seemed really mad at him though. So do you mean to tell me that Jax owns a tiger? Big, striped orange thing? And why are we whispering?"

"Do you know why Jax was mad?" Scott asked her, still whispering.

"I never know why Jax feels or does anything," she said. "Which is just fine with me! Him and his feelings are no concern of mine, " she insisted. "Why are we at his house? What town are we in?"

"We’re in Great Falls. It’s in Virginia."

"Virginia?! We were on a plane?" Brenda asked in astonishment wondering how they could have gotten her all the way here without her knowing a thing.

"Brenda, that priest was the genuine article. A real live priest," Scott continued. "Apparently there was some heavy duty scam going on between your pal Drew’s fraternity and some other campus fraternity. And basically, you and Jax got caught right in the middle of it and something happened….ahh….a pretty major something….."

"Scott! What are you talking about?" she asked, looking at Scott as if he were talking Chinese.

Suddenly Scott put his finger to his lips as Jax came back to the limo. "Okay, let’s go. Brenda, how are you feeling?" Jax asked.

"Well I’m confused as hell, but other than that I’m perfectly fine thank you. But somebody had better tell me what is going on here."

Jax extended his hand to her to assist her out of the limousine.

"Please don’t touch me!" she said, extremely cognizant of what this man’s mere touch did to her. "I’m perfectly capable of getting out of the back of a car on my own." But as Brenda moved towards the door to exit the vehicle a wave of dizziness hit her and she slumped back against the seat. "Ummm…okay well maybe I just need minute," she said.

Ignoring her continued protests and shouting at him, Jax scooped her up into his arms as Scott let himself out of the other side. It was freezing outside and Brenda automatically shifted her body closer to Jax, throwing on the hood of her white parka and burying her head against his shoulder. Jax and Scott made their way up the steps to the front door and Jax opened it, letting them all inside.

The warmth that greeted them was wonderful and Brenda took off her hood and gazed around at the interior of the house in amazed disbelief. The entrance was gigantic. The black and gold marble floors were polished to a gleam. There was a large sitting room on the left, another of equal proportions on the right. A hallway began to the left of the circular staircase. The glow of a roaring fire could be seen to the right where there was an enormous, elevated living room with gleaming white oak floors and expensive East Indian rugs.

"Jax, is that you?"

All heads turned at the sound of the woman’s voice coming out of a bedroom on the first level. The lights went on as Jax flicked a switch. The woman was petite with short blonde hair and blue eyes very much like Jax’s, Brenda noticed.

"Darling, what are you doing here?" Jane Jacks asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and then gazing at Brenda with questioning eyes.

"For crying out loud I live here, mum. What are you doing here?" Jax countered, shocked to find his mother in his house at 5 a.m. Actually just shocked to find her there period.

"Oh, well we wanted to surprise you. Hello Scott, luv."

"Hi, Mrs. Jacks."

"As I was saying, we wanted to surprise you, Jax. We wanted to have the house all decorated gloriously for the holidays for you when you got back, so we packed up tons of decorations and a big old Christmas tree and I used my spare key to get in to do the job. As you can see we haven't started yet. We were going to get started first thing today. I didn’t think you’d mind, luv. But then again we weren’t expecting you for weeks yet. Jax dear, who is your friend?" Jane asked, again staring questioningly at the far-too-attractive, dark-haired young thing in her son’s arms. Jane was unnerved at how perfect they looked together like that.

"Who is ‘we’, mum?" Jax asked.

"Your mother and I!" Ariel said as she came racing down the stairs, obviously from Jax’s bedroom. She wore sexy lingerie, her silk robe intentionally left open upon hearing Jax’s voice. "I thought I heard your voice down here! Now you’ve come home early and gone and ruined the surprise, Jax," she chided him. "I hope you've come bearing me tons of sinfully expensive gifts from wherever you've been. Jewelry is always perferred." And then she came to a halt at the foot of the stairs, stunned to see her fiancee holding a beautiful young girl in his arms. As she assessed Brenda with instant hostility, Ariel closed her robe and then lifted demanding eyes to Jax. "Explain this person," she said waving her hands dismissively at Brenda.

Brenda had no idea what was going on, but she figured out the older woman was Jax’s mother and this pretty blonde who carried herself like the queen of the land must be the shipping heiress – Jax’s fiancee.

"So much for waiting until after Christmas," Scott murmured to Jax.

"Well?" Ariel said impatiently, moving closer to Jax and angrily wondering why he did not set this young girl down on her feet. "Oh I know! This was second on my Christmas wish list. I assume she is for me?"

"For you?" Scott asked, incredulously wondering what kind of kinky, weirdness was going on in Ariel Lexington's head.

"Yes, well Jax knows one of the things I wanted for Christmas aside from a new fur was a personal maid," Ariel revealed. "Although, I didn’t want one so young and obviously inexperienced. Oh, she’ll never do, Jax. We’ll have to exchange her for something much better immediately. And Jax, darling, why on earth are you carrying this child? Is she injured or simply incredibly lazy?" Ariel asked getting angrier by the second as Jax still had the alluring creature in his arms.

"A maid?!" Brenda erupted indignantly. Her brown eyes turned to blaze at Jax and she tried to leap out of his arms, but he only held her tighter, making it impossible for her to escape him.

"Okay," Jax said taking a deep breath. "This is not how I wanted to do this at all," Jax said. "But I see no point in delaying this now." He finally set Brenda down in front of him, but he stunned her and incensed Ariel by taking Brenda's hand and sliding his fingers in between hers. His hold was firm and told her she was not to move or try to defy him right now for he was having none of it. But Brenda was too shocked to defy him. She could not believe he was behaving this way with his beautiful, ill-tempered fiancee standing right in front of him, drippin in jewels and attitude and looking none too pleased with him. "Mum, Ariel, this is Brenda," Jax said. "Brenda Barrett," he paused a moment, took a breath, and then added "Jacks. She. . .this is my….wife."

Brenda’s head whipped around to stare at him in stunned silence. What had he just said?!! What?!?!?

Jane stood open-mouthed in startled disbelief of her son’s claim. And Ariel looked at frist amused in an unamused sort of way, then stunned, then infuriated and then as if she could brutally murder everyone in the room. Her gaze raked over Brenda in utmost contempt and then shot to Jax, enraged and refusing to believe this.

"Your wife?!" she shrieked thunderously to the high heavens.

She looked as if she might physically attack Brenda, so Jax smoothly slid Brenda behind him. Still stunned by Jax's bombshell, Brenda held onto his hand while leaning against his back and peering from behind him cautiously at the wild-eyed blonde woman who was now raging at him.

Jax took the verbal abuse well. No dobut he was thinking he bloody well deserved it, Brenda thought. What had ever possessed him to tell his fiancee and his mother this outrageous lie?! And then Brenda recalled her bizarre conversation with Scott in the limo. Something about a real priest and a fraternity scam gone out of control. Something about her and Jax being caught in the middle and something major happening. She gasped and turned to look at Scott, her eyes wide.

He just gazed at her, nodded and mouthed the words "Congratulations."

"And you!" Ariel was now shreiking at Brenda. "You conniving little slut! You homewrecker! How did you do it? How did you get him to marry you?" she snarled, her eyes feline and feral. "Come out from behind him and face me, you sniveling coward, you child-jezebel, you high flown whore!"

Brenda had had enough of this abuse. Her eyes flashed with anger and she was moving from behind Jax, but Jax slid her right back.

Jax turned to Ariel. "Ariel, I am very, very sorry about this. You have every right to pour out your fury on me," he told her. "I deserve no less; I know that I've wronged you greatly by leading you to believe that we were going to be married. But the fault lies solely with me, not with Brenda. None of this is her fault, and I won't allow you, or anyone else," he said, gazing at his mother, "to blame her for my actions. I also won't stand for her being spoken to like that in her own home."

Brenda thought she might faint from the shock of Jax's defense of her.

"So if you can't treat her with some modicum of civility then I'm going to have to ask you to get dressed and leave right now," Jax said.

A tense quiet hung over the room as no one spoke. It seemed like no one even breathed.

It was Brenda's series of sneezes that finally broke the unsettling silence.

Ariel managed to calm herself from her bloodthirst for Brenda and she calmly said to Jax "I would appreciate it if we could speak in private, Jax."

"I'd like that too," Jax said, thinking the wrose was yet to come. For he could only imagine her reaction to his having to tell her the reason why the wedding was off. He dreaded telling her he didn't love her. It seemed too cruel to do it at this time of year. "Just give me a few minutes," he said and then he was moving towards the stairs, taking Brenda along with him. She followed him up the spiral staircase and into a vast, gorgeous master bedroom. They both saw the the sheets were wrinkeld and the satin comforter drawn back and realized that Ariel had been sleeping there. Without a word, Jax backed out of his room and took Brenda into another bedroom, large, but not quite so vast as the first. He shut the door and leaned against it, finally letting her hand slowly drop from his.

"We're . . .married?" Brenda said in a voice so soft he could barely hear her.

Jax nodded. "I wanted to be able to explain this to you. I wanted to let you know how this all came to be. But . . ."

"You didn't expect to find your mother and your fiancee here," Brenda finished for him.

"No, I don't normally come home to find people in my house."

"That's what you get for giving your mom a key to the kingdom."

Jax smiled at her.

"You're still warm and you need to be laying down," he told her.

She went to the bed and sat down on it, still looking at him. Wishing like mad that she didn't want him so much. "So you're going to go back downstairs now and tell Ariel the truth? That we only got married by accident?"

Jax nodded. "Yes I'm going to tell her that. And other things."

"That should make her feel better. To know that you really do still love her. And that you and I being together is just some crazy mistake you guys can laugh with your grandchildren about someday," she murmrued, unzipping her jacket and tossing it on the bed next to her.

Jax looked at her and seemed lost in her eyes. He seemed a million miles away.

"Brenda . . . ."

"How exactly did we get married by accident, Jax?" she asked, trying hard to act as if none of this mattered to her.

"I said the wrong words at the wrong time. Or maybe the right words at the right time. And that crazy priest had it in for me, to boot," Jax explained to her, sitting next to her. "He refused to undo what he had done. Scott was there, he witnessed the whole thing. So......here we are. Mr and Mrs. We can get this annulled in a few weeks though. If we both go to . . "

"No," Brenda said shortly, folding her hands together.

Jax rose a blonde brow at her firm, stubborn-sounding response. "No?"

"That's right. No. Now if you'll excuse me, I think you're right. I need to lay down. Oh, and thank you for coming to my defense down there. I know that couldn't have been easy for you."

"It was very easy, acutally," he murmured and then went back to the subject of the annulment. "I dont understand. Why, no?" his gaze upon her was very curious and unintentinally sexy, too. Was Scott right? Did she actually want to stay married to him and fight him on any annulment attempts? He could not hide a grin, which was so divine that it's effect on her incensed her.

"Just, no, Jax. All right? No! Now, you should go," she said getting up and taking his arm to make him get up as well. She led him to the door, opened it and pushed him outside.

Jax shook his head, baffled by her. "I'll send Scott up here with your things."

She nodded and then threw him for a loop by smiling at him -- the smile that would make him do anything she asked of him. "By the way, don't you owe me something?" she asked him.

He looked at her blankly. She sighed, stood on her tiptoes, wapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips slowly over his. His instant reaction to her kiss made her only want to kiss him longer, deeper. Forever. But she pulled away after the fourth kiss, pleased with her self-restraint in the face of one so supremely irresistible.

"I don't recall getting a 'you may kiss the bride' kiss from you," she explained when his aquamarine eyes gazed into hers searchingly for an explanation for those kisses. "So that can be the belated version. Bye now." She shut the door as Jax stood there on the other side wondering what in the name of leapin' leperchauns she was up to.

Brenda herself didn't know what she was up to. She told herself this could be her perfect revenge on him for playing with her emotions, for taking her to such highs and sending her crashing to the ground minutes later that day she had first dared to kiss those ambrosial lips of his. She would stay married to him for a while and drive him insane, prevent him from getting involved with anyone else or going ahead and marrying Ariel as soon as the annulment went through. She would refuse to give him his annulment anytime soon and make him miserable and fustrated. She would flrit with him madly and relentlessly and lead his emotions all over the place the way he had done with her. But despite the visions of her so called revenge dancing around in her mind, she knew the truth was that she just didn't want to let him go. She just wanted him so much it was like an ache inside of her. By some insane miracle he was hers! And she intended, at least as long as she could, to keep it that way.