With the unexpected announcement of Jax tying the knot, members of the media who were in attendance at the party could not let this scoop pass them by and so they got on the horn with their editors and news directors and basically alerted the world, so Jax knew it would be on the news tonight and in all of the papers tomorrow morning. And then Danté and Shane would find out about it and they would never let him hear the end of it.

     As he watched Brenda dancing with Justin, Juliet came up to him. "Well don’t you look thoughtful," she said.

     "I can’t believe you gave Devon breathing room," Jax teased her as he saw that she was alone.

     "He’s off somewhere shmoozing up to the mayor trying to get him to come to the opening of the riverboat next month. So how do you feel with that ring on your finger?" Juliet wanted to know.

     Jax shrugged. "I don’t know. How am I supposed to feel?"

     "Well . . . . knowing you, I would think you would feel panicked and trapped and crazed and itching to take the thing off the first chance you get."

     Jax nodded, gazing at the ring. "You’d think so wouldn’t you?"

     "But you don’t seem any of those things," Juliet observed.

     "I know. I think I’m losing my mind."

     "Brenda does have that effect on people. You should see how insane she drove those airheads at school, not to mention her troll of a stepmother. Have you met her?"

     "Yes, I’ve met the troll. I actually met her prior to all this. Jerry and I ran into her and her daughter when we were coming out of Saks in Manhattan. She wrangled a lunch invitation out of Jerry and talked endlessly about her daughter."

     "Was she trying to matchmake?"

     "I guess so. I don’t remember it all that well. I was bored out of my mind."

     Juliet laughed. "So she wanted you for her own daughter and now you end up married to her hated stepdaughter. Oh, she must be out for blood now."

     "Brenda handles her pretty well," Jax mentioned. "She’s not in the least bit intimidated by her."

     "I know. It infuriates Iris. She wants Brenda to cower in her presence, you see."

     "That’ll never happen," Jax predicted. Then he saw his mother beckoning him and he excused himself from his little sister to go see what his mother wanted.

     Brenda took a breather from dancing the night away to go to the ladies room. On her way to the bathroom, she felt an arm grab her, pulling her into a corner.

     It was Iris, who was not hiding behind any phony smiles or fake affections now.

     "Well, you wretched little creature. You think you’ve gone and grabbed the brass ring, now, don’t you?" Iris sneered.

     "Get away from me," Brenda said, shaking the woman’s hand from her wrist. "You know, Iris, you can take your insults and hit the road. You are officially out of my life as of today. I’m going to have all of my things removed from the house and I’m going to contact my father’s attorney and get things rolling with getting my money. I don’t plan on ever seeing you again," Brenda told her frankly.

     "Oh dream on you ludicrous child! You think this marriage will last? HA! You will never survive in the world of the Jacks -- a world of good manners, polish and class. You have the manners of an inmate and all the panache of a goat! And as for class, well young lady you lack it in every way possible. You have no idea how to function around people who have it and it will soon show. You’ll become a dredge on the family name and they will dump you faster than yesterday’s stock quotes."

     Brenda reached for the nearby phone.

     "What are you doing?" Iris snapped.

     "I’m going to call 911 because you’re boring me to death!"

     Iris smiled, cold as a cobra. "Oh, such a witty child. Does Jax like that wit? Or is it just the pretty face that did him in? You know, Brenda, I don’t know how you manipulated that man into marrying you in the dead of night, but I’m sure it was one of your typical underhanded methods and trust me, wretched one, I will find out. And then I will expose you to Jax and his family for the manipulating lowlife you are and I will applaud loudly as you are drop kicked out of their life like a sack of garbage. Your days as Brenda Jacks are numbered. You mark my word!"

     A shadow fell across them as Jane Jacks rounded the corner and heard the tail end of Iris’ rant.

     "Hello there. Iris, is it?" she said extending her hand to Brenda’s stepmother.

     "Yes. What an absolute pleasure to meet you Mrs. Jacks. It’s not everyday one gets to hobnob with the creme de la creme. I’ve heard that your soirees are famous for how successful they are and I must say that you’ve outdone yourself this evening," Iris said gushing and putting on a bright smile.

     "Oh, why thank you. I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed yourself, really I am. Now would you kindly get out of my house," Jane said without missing a beat.

     Brenda’s eyes widened.

     "P . . pardon, me?" Iris stammered.

     "You heard me," Jane said.

     "Did you just ask me to . . . to . . . leave?"

     "You bet your sweet patutuy I did. No one insults my daughter in law in the despicable manner which you just have and is then invited to stay at my home. Now kindly find your daughter and vacate the premises. Now," Jane said.

     Iris looked mortified, especially as other passers by began to gather around to see what was happening.

     "Well," Iris said. "Mrs. Jacks, please . . .I’m sorry if I offended you, I think you perhaps misunderstood the conversation I was having with Brenda . . ."

     "Oh there was nothing to misunderstand. Your intentions were perfectly obvious and equally disgusting. Now let me share a word of caution with you, this delightful girl is a part of my family now and if you mess with one of us you’re taking on the whole lot of us, do you understand that? You’d best just thank your lucky stars that it was me who overheard your display of nastiness and not my son or else Lord only knows what would have become of you. Now, I’ll have my butler call a cab for you. Please get your daughter and wait outside," Jane said and she didn’t move until Iris stiffly went back into the ballroom to seek out Avaline.

     Jane tuned to Brenda. "Well from what I saw it seems that you’ve got that woman’s number. I hope you didn’t let any of the garbage she was spewing get to you, luv."

     "Oh, I’m used to her hateful tirades," Brenda assured her. "But I think one thing she said may be true. I’m not a refined young lady, Lady Jane. I do the best I can you know, but the world I grew up in is a far cry from this. My mother died when I was 2, my father had a gambling problem and then there was Iris . . .some role model, huh? I would hate to embarrass you or Jax or . ."

     "Hush this instant. If by a refined your lady you mean the likes of your awkward, gaping-eyed stepsister or the saccharine, over-the-top personality of Amber and her crowd, then I say thank the Lord above that you are no refined young lady!" Jane laughed. "And believe me luv, Jax wouldn’t want you any other way."

     Brenda smiled and hugged her mother-in-law tight. "Thank you. And thank you for coming to my defense with Iris, it meant so much to me. No one has ever done that for me except for Juliet and Jax."

     Jane hugged her. "Sweetheart, you didn’t just marry my son. You married his whole family. Your stepmother will realize that soon enough if she keeps up her ridiculous vendetta against you."

     "Me being happy is like poison to her."

     "Oh let’s not even waste another lovely breath on that beast. I shall bar her from the house and we won’t have to deal with her nonsense in the future. Now let me get a gander at these gorgeous rings of yours while you tell me all about this midnight ceremony," Jane said as she and Brenda walked into the ladies room.

     Niles saw to it that Iris and Avaline got into the cab and he was not surprised to see Chad leave immediately after them. Something was going on with the three of them, Niles thought. He’d have to keep a look out on that make-shift Adams Family trio.

     After the party, which had turned as much into a wedding reception as a social function, Brenda asked Jax to give her a tour of his wing of the house since she was really unfamiliar with it.

     "It’s 2 o’clock in the morning. You want to do it now?" Jax asked her.

     Brenda nodded. "Yeah, I’m not really tired. Do you mind?"

     "No, of course not. Okay, well this is the bathroom," he said pointing out the mint green marble bathroom which was the size of a small bedroom.

     "Yes we’ve met," Brenda said.

     Jax smiled at her. "Okay, well next to the bathroom is the linen closet, next to that is another linen closet. This door over here leads upstairs to the sundeck and the Jacuzzi; I’ll show you that in the morning. This is my study," he said opening up a large room filled with books and newspapers, financial magazines, atlas’ and the like. It also had two computers, two desks, a stereo, a TV, three sets of phones, a couch and four leather chairs.

     "This is where you do your corporate raiding?"

     "Sometimes."

     "Don’t you have a big, cushy office over at the J&J Jacks building?"

     "Yes, but I’m not the office type of guy, you know. I’m only there like once a month."

     She nodded smiling. "You’d rather conduct business riding on the back of a rhino in the middle of the jungle."

     "Something like that," he conceded. "Anyway, next to the study is the gym, you’ve seen that before. And through that corridor there is how we get to the second level living room – you’ve seen that before too. Here’s another bathroom," he pointed out as they passed a white marble bathroom, slightly smaller than the first one. "And more linen closets."

     "I’m getting all of these great decorating ideas," Brenda said excitedly. Jax rolled his eyes. Oh well, his mother had told him to expect this.

     "And this is the bedroom you slept in last night, it has it’s own bathroom over there and the French windows lead out to a terrace overlooking the gardens, as you know. Let’s see. . .there are three more bedrooms down there to your left, I use one of them to store my stuff like my scuba diving equipment and my skis and my hiking gear and stuff like that. Those stairs there lead to a private dining patio, and the stairs across from them lead to an attic room which I basically turned into an observatory of sorts. You can see an awesome view of the constellations from there. Oh and my pool table is up there too if you’re into that." He moved along. "And this," he said, "is my bedroom."

     They walked inside and Brenda’s eyes grew wide as she looked at the size of this room.

     "Oh, this is so you!" she laughed as she took in the way-cool black ice furniture, the pinball machine, the computer hooked up direct to the stock market, a wall of pictures of Jax and his friends showcasing all of the exotic locations they had been to and wild things they had done, an aquarium built into the wall which looked like a stunning moving window, two huge walk in closets, a big screen TV and a very cool black leather designer couch with tiny violet velvet J’s on it, and two big matching armchairs.

     He had a huge king sized bed which was black ice to match the rest of the furniture. He had a bathroom in here, a mini-bar and his sliding door windows also opened out to a terrace, this one overlooking the golf course.

     "Fantastic," Brenda murmured. "I can’t believe, how gigantic this bedroom is, It’s big enough to do cartwheels in!"

     "Cartwheels?"

     "Yeah! Hey, Jax, watch this," she said playfully as she kicked off her shoes and shut the bedroom door. He watched in fascination as she then did three perfect cartwheels and then jumped up on the bed. "Pretty good huh?" she said laughing at the wonder in his eyes as she jumped up and own on the bed. "Oooh! A water bed!" she laughed.

     Jax grabbed a pillow and swatted her with it behind the knees so that she fell on her butt on the bed.

     "Hey, no jumping on the bed," he said and then he started laughing as she pretended to be doing the back stroke as the bed swayed soothingly beneath her. "You’re crazy," he said, gazing down at her.

     "So they tell me." She spread her arms across the bed and rolled around on it. "So this is what a waterbed feels like, huh?" she said gazing up at the beautiful arched ceiling.

     "Yep."

     "I like it," she said with a smile that was downright irresistible.

     "Most people do."

     "What people? You mean like women that you’ve had up here?"

     "I haven’t had any women up here. You’re the first - -well not that I’ve had you either but . . ."

     "You have never taken a woman up here? Oh yeah right, Jax!"

     "I mean it. This may be my wing, but this is my parent’s house, you know? I respect them enough not to bring women arbitrarily in and out of here," he said as he sat down on the edge of the chair that was near the amazing fishtank-wall. "It would have been different if I had a steady girlfriend in my life like my brothers always did but . ."

     "So you mean you’ve never made love to anyone in this bed?" she interrupted him.

     "Nope."

     "You’ve never made love to anyone in this house?"

     He hesitated. "Not inside the house, no."

     Brenda’s eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"

     "Well, let’s just say that we have a lot of property," he responded with a wink, leaving her to ponder that one.

     "Hmm," she said in a "who cares" way that made him smile because he knew she did care, otherwise she never would have asked so many questions on the subject.

     "So why do you have a water bed then?" she asked him.

     "Oh you think having a waterbed is all about attracting women?"

     She shrugged, smiled a little.

     "For your information, oh ye of a million questions, I happen to love the ocean, as you already know. I think it’s one of the most beautiful natural wonders of the earth -- of course, I hadn’t met you then --"

     She grinned in delight at his offhanded compliment.

     "The ocean is very soothing and relaxing," Jax continued, "and I find it acts as a great mental transport. I never have a bad night’s sleep in this bed." Of course, he thought, tonight, might be the exception.

     "Yeah I can see why," she said, crossing her legs at the ankles and placing her hands behind her head. "This feels amazing," she murmured, closing her eyes.

     He looked at her, hardly able to believe that she was even real. She was like some exquisite thing that walked out of a dream. He expected her to go poof at any moment.

     "So I guess when you make love on a bed like this you really do sort of feel the earth move, right?" she giggled.

     "Among other things," Jax said, gazing at her distractedly.

     She opened her eyes and looked at him with a curious grin. "What other things?"

     He shook his head feeling the zing of the thing, that inexplicable thing, thing, thing! "Nevermind," he said. "Brenda, your sleeping here is never going to work."

     "Hey, you said you’d try."

     "Temporary insanity."

     "Well then I think I like you better when you’re insane," she decided. Come on, let’s just give it a shot," she said rolling off of the bed and heading towards the door.

     "Where are you going?" he asked her.

     "To change. We’re going to bed now, right?" she laughed at the expression in his eyes as she opened the door and went to the bedroom next door to retrieve something to sleep in.

     While she was gone, Jax resigned himself to the fact that she was determined to try this impossible thing. So he got ready for bed. He stripped down to his dark blue boxer shorts and was on the phone checking on a deal in Bangkok when Brenda came into the room.

     It was hard to tell which one of them was more affected by the sight of the other. She wore cream colored satin shorts and a matching short sleeved top exposing a sexy area of tummy and Jax’s aquamarine eyes just drank up the sight of her. Brenda was doing some heavy duty drinking in of her own at the sight of the man who was now officially her husband standing there in nothing but those dark blue boxers and fanstastic bod looking handsome enough for it to be illegal. She wanted to rush out, find his mother and thank her for giving birth to him. Jax was right, she realized, this was never going to work. But she refused to admit that. So she just gave him a little smile and climbed into the bed as he finished up his phone call.

     He was not oblivious to his apparent effect on her though. He ended his phone call and turned to look at her. She quickly averted her eyes to the magazine she was reading.

     "Do you still want to do this?" he asked, a hint of a smile on his lips.

     "Of course," she said, not looking at him as she flipped through the pages far too quickly to be actually reading them.

     "Okay," he said. "Hey check this out, this is sort of cool. Are you ready?"

     "Ready for what?" she asked, putting the magazine down.

     "Just watch this. Ready?"

     "Okay, ready."

     "Look up," he said. Then he shut out the lights and the entire expanse of the ceiling was suddenly back lit with tiny twinkling stars. It was as if they were outside in the wild blue yonder at the deep blue hours just before twilight.

     "How cool!" Brenda squealed in delight. "Oh, I love this!"

     Jax climbed into the bed. "Yeah, well I’m a cool kind of guy."

     "Yes you are!" she agreed.

     "See I had that done so I would feel like I have the whole ocean beneath me and all the stars above me," he explained.

     "That’s beautiful," she said leaning on one elbow as she gazed at his perfect profile in the darkness of the moonlit room.

     "It is? Well I didn’t really mean it to be. Not sappy beautiful, anyway. I just meant that I like feeling like I’m sleeping right on the sea. And look, I think I see a mermaid," he said reaching over and tickling her.

     She laughed and grabbed his hand. "Hey!" she said still laughing. The moment was very playful but soon grew fraught with sexual tension.

     "Time to go to sleep," Jax said, removing his hands from her stomach.

     "Okay," she agreed coming closer to him.

     "What do you think you’re doing?" he asked.

     "Giving you a goodnight kiss," she explained innocently.

     "I think not, Venus."

     "Jax, I can’t go to sleep without kissing you goodnight," she complained.

     "That’s ridiculous."

     "I’m just warning you. I’ll be up all night. Talking probably."

     He raked his hand casually through his dark blonde hair "Go get one of Julie’s teddy bears and kiss that if you need to kiss something so badly," he advised.

     "I can’t believe you’re such a chicken," Brenda sighed.

     "I’m not afraid of you, Brenda. I’m afraid for you."

     She sat up in the bed, laughing. "What?"

     "You know how you get when you kiss me. I’m just trying to protect you. You’re so out of control when it comes to me."

     Her laughter was so pretty. He was listening to it and was blindsided by the pillow whacking him over the head.

     "You know you sound more and more like one of your arrogant fake pirate ancestors all the time," she laughed.

     "And what does that make you, Olive Oyle?"

     Brenda hit him with the pillow again. "Hey if Olive Oyle is your speed then you definitely married the wrong woman. I suggest you go find Avaline and knock yourself out."

     "I’d beg somebody to knock me out if I ever got a yen for her."

     Brenda laughed and then sat up on her knees in the bed. The moonlight silhouetted her in a striking effect. "Will you please just kiss me so we can go to bed? You know neither one of us is going to sleep until we do."

     Yes he did know that.

     He reached over and took her hand. She wished there were words to express how she felt whenever he touched her.

     "All right," he agreed. "But don’t get carried away."

     "I won’t," she promised.

     "I mean it."

     "I won’t, I won’t," she repeated as she moved towards him on the left side of the bed as it swayed with her movements. She leaned over him, enchanted by the way the moonlight cast a gorgeous sort of backlighting to Jax’s eyes. Her lips brushed over his with a sensual slowness, once, twice . . .the third time was an explosion of passion as her body sank down onto his and she felt his hands on both sides of her waist, the touch of him searing into her skin like a sweet fire.

     He knew it was a mistake to kiss her, especially in a bed, especially with the both of them barely having any clothes on. But kissing her was like that potato chips commercial, he couldn’t have just one.

     As the kisses heated up between them Jax realized that this sharing the bed thing was never EVER going to work. He was going to stop this kiss before it went even more out of control than it already was and then he was going to go sleep on the couch or something.

     That was the plan. But what actually happened was that he rolled her over onto her side of the bed so that now she was underneath him and their lips never once parted. Now, things were getting really dangerous. Her hands slid over his muscular arms and her exploratory touch was like an aphrodisiac. The passion could not be quelled, the kisses were becoming more risky and more erotic by the minute. And he had promised her a platonic marriage? Had he been out of his mind? Who was he kidding?!! What finally did get Jax to break away from the -- well, let’s just call it what it was: foreplay -- was the sound of Brenda’s soft, pleasurable moaning which alerted him to the fact that she wasn’t about to stop this, so if he didn’t then there would be a lot of rocking and rolling on the high seas tonight and his promise to her of a platonic relationship would be like dust in the wind. Not only that , the marriage would be consummated. It would be real. And that was equally tempting and scary as hell at the same time.

     When he broke away from her he saw the flash of disappointment in her eyes. She really didn’t want a platonic marriage did she? She would welcome him breaking his promise. She wouldn’t even be mad about it. Well, if she kept this up she would soon get her wish, he thought. Sooner than soon.

     "Sorry," she said grinning apologetically, "I guess that would qualify as getting a little carried away, huh?"

     "I’ll say," he murmured, backing away from her, too scared to touch her again right now with the way he was feeling.

     "Well I’ll be better tomorrow night. I promise."

     "We’re not sleeping in the same bed tomorrow night. We’re not even sleeping in the same bed tonight. I don’t have that kind of willpower," he said getting up and going over to the couch.

     Brenda smiled at his retreating back. So she was messing with his willpower, was she? And he wasn’t leaving the room, he was just going to the couch which she knew had to have some kind of significance. "Is your couch comfortable?" she asked.

     "Not as comfortable as my bed," he responded.

     "Well then come back. Jax, I won’t do anything, I promise," she said and he could only imagine how hard she had to struggle to keep a straight face saying that.

     "Well I can’t promise, Brenda, that’s the problem. Now go to sleep before I have to gag you and tie you down to the bed," he said with a cute irritability.

     She laughed. "You’re saying that as if I would mind." She hesitate, "Well . . .I might mind the gagging part, but you can tie me down to your bed anytime."

     "You’re impossible," he muttered as he put the pillow over his head to the sounds of her soft laughter and tried in vain to get the very feel of her out of his mind.

     The zing heart thing happened to him all night until he was able to fall asleep. And then it followed him into his dreams as he dreamt of that accursed, demon cupid chasing him with that blasted arrow. In his dream he got away. Or so he thought. . .