Jane Jacks was at the home of Lilith Taylor discussing the particulars of the party for the Orpheum which Lilith wanted to have next Saturday night. While the two women were talking Lilith’s "granddaughter" was upstairs on the phone with her mother.
"Tell me everything," Iris demanded. "Did you see the house?"
"Yes mother. It’s magnificent. They have land for miles. They have their own golf course!"
"Oh isn’t that marvelous! I’ve always wanted to take up golfing. Now, tell me, did you encounter Jax yet?"
"No. I think it was too early. We saw no one but the butler actually. But some woman was coming to the house as we were leaving and Mrs. Taylor said that everyone thinks this is the woman Jax will marry."
"Over my dead body," Iris stated. "What was this woman’s name?"
Avaline thought about it. "Some kind of jewel. Ruby? Opal? No, it was Amber. Amber Stanton. She’s prettier than I am mother."
"Don’t you worry about that. As soon as I get down there next week we’ll take care of prying her away from your Jax. We’ll take care of her and any other women foolish enough to think they can have him." Iris promised.
"Mother, must I really stay with this awful Mrs. Taylor? The woman is a monumental bore who drones on about her husband and the war ten times a day," Avaline complained. "And her house is so tiny and stuffy. Her air conditioning only works intermittently and her dog is a slobbering beast."
"Endure it," her mother ordered. "Lilith Taylor, crotchety old bat that she may be, is the only one who can get you into Jax’s circle of friends right now. Once we’re in we’ll ditch the old windbag. Now tell me more about the house. How big was it exactly?"
"It’s a mansion, mother. An estate. It’s huge."
"Then there would be plenty of room for me to live there also, I take it?"
"Absolutely. Mrs. Taylor says that there are 22 bedrooms in the main house. Plus there’s this beautiful guest house at the foot of the hill."
"Oh, that will do me very nicely," Iris purred, imagining her life as part of the Jacks family. "How was the house decorated."
"Mother I was only there for five minute and only in one room," Avaline groaned.
"Well how was that one room decorated?" Iris persisted.
"Beautifully. There were Persian rugs on the floors, Piccasos on the walls and a huge tapestry of Michelangelo’s Guardian Angels hanging over one of the fireplaces. You’d love it."
"Yes, Sounds splendid, like I won’t have to change a thing," Iris said dreamily.
"Mother, when do you think I’ll be able to see Jax?"
"Well at the party of course. Now remember to call yourself Ava, not Avaline. Ava is much more glamorous and will be retained in his memory better. Now did you get that hair cut as I instructed you to?"
"Yes, but all the women out here have long, beautiful hair . . ."
"Exactly. They all look alike -- like a bunch of preening show dogs with accents. You with your elegant short haircut will be eye-catching. Now, tell me more about the house . . ."
As Devon and Jax made their way down to the pier where the other divers awaited them, Brenda, much to Chad’s chagrin, remained very close to Jax chatting back and forth with him. Chad could have sworn that Jax was angry with the little goddess for tagging along with him but apparently most of that anger had passed. It was obvious to Chad that his beautiful Brenda had eyes for young Jasper which would explain why she barely paid Chad himself any attention at all so far.
"So can I go out on the boat with you guys?" Brenda was asking Jax as he helped her up the pier steps while a furious Amber had to be helped up by her brother.
"No," Jax and Devon said at the same time.
"Why not? I can swim and I’ll be really careful, and I’m not afraid of sharks. Really."
"No way, Brenda," Jax said.
"But you guys will be gone for hours," she complained and Juliet concurred with a moan of her own. What was the point of conniving their way out here with the guys only to have them take off on their expedition alone for several hours?
"Really Jax, what are we supposed to do while the two of you are gone?" Juliet said as she watched Devon climb aboard the boat.
"That’s not my problem," Jax told her. "You’re the ones who wanted to come here, so make the best of it. Go exploring or go surfing or swimming or something," Jax said as she slipped on his oxygen tank over his wet suit and climbed into the boat which held four other divers, all of whom were getting an eyeful of the three pretty ladies.
"Swimming? In shark infested waters?" Brenda asked with her hand on her hip.
"The sharks don’t come this close to the shore, Brenda. Besides you’re immortal right? Goddess that you are?" he said as he connected the oxygen securely in place.
Brenda gazed at him as he adjusted his diving watch. "When you say that are you just making fun of me?" she asked him, lowering her voice, although most of the others heard her.
"No," he said. "You look like a goddess to me."
"Me too," two of the other divers chimed in, laughing.
The look exchanged between Jax and Brenda made Amber very uneasy. Brenda let loose one of those dazzling dimpled smiles of hers then. "So then you really do think I’m pretty? Really?" she asked as if afraid he would suddenly change his mind.
"Astonishing," he responded. "Not that it’s of real significance to me though."
He always knew how to ruin a perfect moment, she thought having that desire to knock him across the skull again.
"Hey, you never did say who was sleeping where," she reminded him.
"Julie can take care of that," Jax said. "Just watch out for the Iguanas," he added with a knowing look to Brenda as he and Devon and the other divers pulled away from the pier with their equipment leaving their four passengers behind.
"Iguanas?" Juliet repeated, looking at Brenda for explanation.
"Ahh . . .it’s just a joke. Hey maybe this wasn’t such a brilliant idea after all, huh?"
"Why, because they’re taking off for a while? Don’t worry, they’ll be back. Then we can have some fun," Juliet said. And then she grinned at Brenda. "So Jax’s loop-de-loops didn’t bother you, huh?"
Brenda laughed. "No! I loved them! Did you hear me? I was having the time of my life. I think I totally shocked him when he saw that I wasn’t scared at all."
"You’ve definitely knocked my brother off guard," Juliet said. "And no woman has ever done that in all the years I’ve known him."
Amber glared at the backs of both Juliet and Brenda. She was starting to realize that this 19 year old girl could pose a real threat to her quest for marital bliss with Jax. Jax was far too interested in this child. Amber had caught him flirting with Brenda on several occasions and there was a budding camaraderie between them that Amber did not like at all. While Jax had been flying the plane like a lunatic at certain points, Amber had barely been able to keep her breakfast down, meanwhile she had heard Brenda screaming and laughing with delight and obviously having a ball and not scared at all. Amber knew without witnessing it that Brenda’s reaction would have pleased Jax and impressed him. She would have to get rid of that girl before things went from bad to worse. As it was, Jax could hardly take his eyes off of the hazel eyed brunette whenever she was near him. It was becoming a problem which Amber knew she would have to put a stop to. She had known Jax just about all her life and she had never seen him so involuntarily captivated by another woman let alone a mere teenager. She didn’t like this one bit.
"Why don’t we go exploring the island as Jax suggested?" Chad said as he took Brenda’s arm.
With no Jax, Brenda was finally able to pay Chad some attention. "Have you been here before?" she asked him.
"Once or twice, quite a while ago, but I think I may still remember it well enough to get us around."
"Why don’t the two of you go on and Juliet and I will see what we can scrounge up for lunch?" Amber suggested, thinking that it would be wise to allow her brother time alone with Brenda.
"Scrounge up?" Juliet laughed. "No way, I do not cook, Amber. We can just take one of the boats and go over to St. Barts. There’s this amazing Thai restaurant there that we always go to. We can just bring back a bunch of food from there."
"We have to take a boat?" Amber said looking uncomfortable.
Ha, Brenda thought, she looks like the kind who would get all sea sick.
"It’s only fifteen minutes away, Amber. Come on, lets go. Bren, I’ll be back in about half an hour. Here’s the key to the villa if you need to get in while I’m gone." Juliet turned to Chad. "Be a gentleman Chadster."
"But of course," he said. "I wanted to show Brenda the water fall, Julie. Is it still beyond that grove of mango trees?"
Juliet nodded. "Yes and mum and dad made this little pond in front of it now. It’s really cute. Show her the rose petal cave waterfalls to, that’s really fabulous. Okay, you guys, we’ll be right back."
Amber was not at all in favor of getting on a boat, but she was willing to do it to give Chad time alone with Brenda. Time to woo her, to turn her head and let her give up her ridiculous girlish fantasy of any kind of relationship with Jax.
As Amber followed Juliet towards one of the boats, Chad led Brenda down from the pier and began to show her around, pleased to finally have her all to himself.
Jax came up from out of the water and climbed back aboard the boat, having just tagged a Tiger Shark. Devon and another diver were inspecting a hammerhead before dumping the wildly flipping shark back into the water. Spotting Jax, Devon walked over to him.
"Hey, I just saw one of the boats pull out from Jacks Isle," he told Jax.
"They must have went to get food," Jax said.
"Well it wasn’t all of them. Perry had his binoculars and said it was two women."
"Julie and Brenda," Jax guessed.
"Two light haired women," Devon said.
"Julie and Amber?"
"Which means that Brenda is alone on the island with Chad," Devon said smiling.
"So what?" Jax said acting as if he could care less, although it was obvious that he was bothered by it.
"Just thought you might like to know," Devon said and the other diver who was with him, Perry Grant, grinned.
"I’m sure she’s perfectly fine," Jax murmured. "It’s Chad I’m worried about. She’ll probably drive him to hang himself in the garage with her antics."
"You’re right, Jax, I’m sure she’s in good hands with Chad," Devon agreed counting the seconds before his best friend would leave them to go back to the island.
"I know if I were alone on an island with her she’d be in my hands all right," Perry snickered.
Jax drummed his fingers against his chin as he gazed out into the ocean. He recalled the way Chad had been eyeing Brenda this morning over breakfast. He remembered how much he didn’t like that. "She is sort of my responsibility," he decided. "I mean, she did come down here with me."
Devon nodded, still counting off the seconds in his head.
"It’s not that I don’t trust Chad, but with a girl like Brenda sometimes it’s difficult to ahh. . .you know, control yourself."
"I would imagine it would be very difficult indeed," Devon said.
Jax grabbed one of the nearby jet skis floating on the water and disconnected it from the line that attached it to the boat.
"I’ll be right back," he said.
Devon nodded again, knowing full well that Jax would not be back.
"I’m gonna lose that bet," Devon realized with a sigh as Perry, having learned of the bet that Jacks clan had made about what Brenda’s effect on Jax would be, laughed and pat him on the back in sympathy.
"You sure are, "Perry agreed. " You sure are."
Over in St. Bart’s, Amber was pretending to be sick so as to give her brother more time alone with Brenda.
"I’m sorry, Julie," she said. "I just think it was the boat ride. I’m sure if we sit for a half hour or so I’ll be fine. I’m really sorry."
"Oh, don’t apologize. You just sit here, I’ll order the food and then I’ll go to look for a market so I can get you some motion sickness pills," Julie offered.
"You’re’ so sweet. Thanks," Amber said in her thick southern drawl as she watched Juliet go into the Thai restaurant with a smile on her face. "Go for it Chad. I’m giving you all the time you need, big brother" Amber murmured as she slid on her sunglasses and played sick.
Jax tied the jet ski to the pier and made his way to the villa which was empty. He changed out of his diving gear and into jeans and a white short sleeved polo shirt and his black Doc Martins. He stood out on the patio to try and see where Brenda and Chad might be, but he didn’t see them. Pocketing his cellular phone in his back pocket, he jogged down the pretty cobblestone stairs and walked across the beach towards the waterfall.
Brenda was getting a little tired of the way Chad was holding her arm. He kept stroking it every now and then which she didn’t really like much. She tried to nonchalantly wriggle out of his hold and did so successfully. "Wow this is beautiful," she said gazing at the waterfall by the pond.
"Not as beautiful as you are," Chad said as he sat down by the edge of the pond. "You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen," he told her.
"Oh. That’s so sweet. Thanks," she said smiling at him and looking around. "Hey, Chad, let me ask you something about Jax . . ."
Chad was immediately put in a foul mood. "Jax?"
"Yes. Do you think he would give me flying lessons if I asked him to?"
"No," Chad said abruptly. "Jax is a loner, Brenda, and from what I know of him he prefers women over girls."
"I am a woman," she clued him in.
"Not in his eyes. You’re still in your teens. You’re the same age as his baby sister. Look, he’s already quite annoyed with you for tagging along with him out here. He won’t be likely to encourage you spending several hours a day alone with him in a plane."
"Hmm. Maybe you’re right about that. Do you think he’d teach me how to golf? We’d be out in the open then."
No," Chad said, growing impatient with her fixation with Jax.
"Do you think he’d shoe me how to ride his motorcycle?"
No! Brenda don’t you understand that he has no interest in spending any unnecessary time with you?" Chad asked her.
"You really think so? Because you know I get the impression that deep down he really likes me."
Chad was at his wits end. "How on earth could you get that impression?! He all but wanted to throw you from the plane!"
"Yes but, anger is only misguided passion," she said proud that she remembered Jax’s exact quote. And then she looked at Chad. "Oh, are you going to be sick? You look funny. Do you need to lay down?"
Chad took a deep breath to remain calm. "I’m fine. Let me show you the rose petal waterfall, all right?" he said standing up and taking her hands in his. "It’s in the caves. It’s a magical place. Very mystical, very private, very seductive and . . .romantic." He kissed her hand and for a shocked moment she thought he would lick it! His dark brown eyes were ravenous as they drank her in and she was suddenly apprehensive about going anywhere with him, let alone into a cave.
"Ahh . . .you know something? Shoot, I think I lost one of my earrings. Let me just back track and look for it," she said, disentangling her hands from his as she backed up.
"Leave it. I’ll buy you a new pair," he said, reaching for her hands again.
"Ahh . . no, no because you see they were a gift from my dad so I really want to find it."
"All right then I’ll help you," he offered.
"Ummm. Okay. Well you look over there by the beach and I’ll look over here," she said as she removed one of her earrings and pocketed it and then took off in the opposite direction of Chad. She felt like exploring by herself anyway, although she did want to see those rose petal caves. She watched Chad and saw him wandering off towards the beach looking down for her non-missing earring. "Sorry Chad," she said to herself, feeling bad for lying to him. She had probably misinterpreted his intentions and jumped to conclusions. She should go apologize to him, after all he had never been anything but nice to her. "Oh I’ll apologize later," she decided as she excitedly made her way, alone, towards the caves. Standing outside she heard the rush of the waterfalls inside
"Wow," she murmured as she walked inside. Pink vine roses ran along the walls and when the water ran, the petals fell from the roses and fell down as if it were raining flowers. "This is amazing," she breathed as she twirled around and allowed the petals to fall against her skin.
The sound of the water was so soothing and the scent of the roses was everywhere. This was truly a magical, romance inspiring place. Laughing, she walked right into the water fall wetting herself with pleasantly cool rose scented water and pink petals. "This is incredible!" she giggled as she let the water run through her hair and drench her, clothes and all. Her playfulness was disturbed by the sound of someone calling her. It was Chad. He was at the other end of the cave.
"Brenda? Are you in here? Brenda?"
Why had he come back this way so fast? Well she sure couldn’t let him find her in here having a ball while she had sent him on a wild goose chase for her earring, she decided. She raced towards the opposite end of the cave and ran right into Jax who took in her breathless soaking wet appearance and didn’t know what to think.
"Jax," she whispered.
"What happened?" he asked her. "Where’s Chad?"
"He’s coming. I don’t want him to find me, where can I go?"
Jax’s eyes narrowed. "Why don’t you want him to find you? Did he do something to you?"
She shook her head. "No, I just. . .I sort of tricked him into going looking for my earring so I could get away from him for a little while and now I feel really bad and if he finds me . . ."
They both heard Chad calling to her as he made his way through the cave.
"Jax, hide me!" Brenda begged him.
He shook his head in disbelief. "Hide you? From what?!"
She laughed. "It’ll be so embarrassing if he finds out that I tricked him. he’ll hate me. Come on, please? He’s almost here. Please?"
Jax climbed up onto a ledge that was cascading some of the rose petal water and then reached down and pulled her up, holding her in front of him. Below them Chad came into view, calling out Brenda’s name.
"Where the devil is she?" Chad muttered to himself, and Jax could only imagine how badly Chad wanted to get his hand on Brenda, especially if he’d had the opportunity to see her soaking wet like this..
Brenda, her back pressed against Jax’s front, his arms encircled about her waist holding her in place, was becoming unglued at the physical contact with him. They were both wet and smelled great and they were pressed against each other. It was all just too, too intoxicating.
Jax was having similar feelings of intoxication as he held her, even as he was incredulous to realize that he was hiding out in a cave atop a ledge on his own property with her for what purpose? Ah yes, to hide her from his friend whom she had had the good sense to basically ditched. This was not to be believed.
They watched as Chad backtracked still calling out to her. When he was out of sight, although not out of earshot, Brenda carefully turned around so that she was facing Jax. The act of her moving like that almost sent him to his knees with all the arousal it sparked.
"Thanks," she said.
He just nodded, not sure if he could speak just yet.
"What are you doing back so soon anyhow?" she asked next.
"Why are you talking?" he whispered. "He could come back any minute, you know."
She sighed. "So I can’t even talk now?"
"I wouldn’t advise it," Jax responded.
"Well that’s ridiculous. He can’t hear us."
"You don’t know that."
"Well if we can’t talk then what are we supposed to do until he leaves?"
Jax knew he would regret this later, but right now he didn’t regret it at all. "You need your mouth to be occupied, is that it?" he asked.
"I didn’t say . . ."
"All right, Ill do it. But only because you asked me to," he said with resignation.
"Asked you to what? What are you . . ."
"And only because I need to distract you so that you’ll be quiet," he said cutting her off again.
"Will you please stop talking in riddle and just tell me what the heck..."
This time he cut her off by the tantalizing pressure of his lips moving seductively against hers. This was different from the first time he had kissed her because they had not been this physically close, or in such relative privacy or soaking wet either for that matter. It brought out a sort of wildness in the both of them and she felt her arms encircle his neck as his lips rained down their provocative fire upon hers. She felt one of his hands holding her, making sure she did not fall, while the other hand slid across her wet stomach and fueled her passion as her lips parted to accept from him a kiss unlike anything she’d ever known in her life. The water fell over them in a soft, erotic cascading motion as they shared a smoldering kiss that was really pushing the envelope towards much more. Brenda was so mesmerized by the cyclone of passion she was caught up in that she thought none of this was real, that she was just having one of her Jax fantasies. She remembered the first time someone had tried to kiss her with their tongue and how repulsed she had been to the point of screaming as she ran away, but now, this was the most delicious thing she had ever felt, had ever done. She could not get enough and the way she was kissing him back let him know it. She felt her body reacting with arousal to their waterfall kisses and then she was startled when she felt the arousal of his body as well. It scared her a little at first and then it somehow made her more excited if that were possible and her kisses with him became a thing of wild sensuality that drew them that much closer to the point of no return.
Chad had made his way back to their end still calling to her, but they were oblivious to him and he was oblivious to the fact hat the girl he was looking for was making out wildly enough for it to be called foreplay, with his friend right above him. Finally, deciding she was nowhere in the cave, Chad left it all together, but inside wet and wild kisses of reckless abandon still had center stage.
Brenda who’s body was aching strangely with a need for something -- or was that a need for someone, she wondered?-- was delighting not only in the steamy passion erupting between her and Jax but also that she, even with her lack of romantic experience, was apparently still capable of igniting these hot passions within him.
With the kissing having gone way, way beyond anything he had envisioned, Jax knew that he had to calm this hot, intense, electrical current between them before he gave into his pirate urges to whisk her off to the high seas and have his way with her from sun up until sundown. He broke the kiss and a breathless, dazed Brenda stood there filled with desire and not knowing what to do with it. It was like a fountain running over.
"Okay, he’s gone, you can talk now. Actually, we can go now," Jax said, as he slowly, and with obvious reluctance, removed her arms from around his neck and peeled her body off of his and helped her down the ledge before jumping down himself.
Brenda could not believe that he was going to act as if nothing had just happened. Meanwhile she was in a state of shock that anything could feel so good. Her lips were on fire and so was the rest of her body. She was dizzy with pleasure and plenty of residual arousal.
"Why - - why did you do that?" she asked, still breathing hard.
"To keep you quiet, that’s all," he said.
To keep her quiet!! Couldn’t he have just, put his hand over her mouth or something?! Did he have to go and kiss her to the point where she wanted to pass out from pleasure?! They had only kissed, they hadn’t gone any further than tat and yet, she certainly felt like that had made love.
"But . . but . ." she stammered unable to put her words into any logical order at the moment as her body was still tingling every which way from what he had just done to her. "You . . . you . . . you can’t do something like that to me and then just . . .stop," she said.
His aquamarine eyes swept over her and seemed to be in agreement with her statement, but them he raked both hands through is golden blonde hair and said, "Look, I didn’t meant for it to be so uh . . .good. But it was and I’m sorry . . "
Brenda looked incredulous. "You’re . . .sorry?"
"No, I guess I’m not really sorry," he admitted. "But what I mean is this can’t happen again."
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because, next time it won’t stop there," he told her truthfully.
"I should hope not," she murmured.
He gave her an exasperated look. "Hello, you’re not supposed to be encouraging me here, Venus."
"Not even if I want to?"
"Especially if you want to. Now come on, you should go back to the villa and get into some dry clothes," he advised as he began to walk ahead of her.
Brenda just stood there for a moment unable to move. How could he not have been as affected by all of that as she had been? Good lord she would barely breathe, could barely think straight and yet he seemed perfectly fine. It must be her lack of experience in the kissing department, she decided. She would get better at controlling her reactions with practice. And she was hoping to get lots and lots of practice time in with Jax despite his saying that it wouldn’t be happening again.
"Wait for me," she said as she ran after him.
Inside the villa they both ran into Chad who did not look at all pleased to see them together.
"Jax, what are you doing back here so soon?" he asked suspiciously.
"We needed the underwater camera," he responded.
"And I ran into Jax and Look! -- he helped me find my earring. Look, here it is," Brenda said, hoping she sounded credible as she held out her hand showing the earring she had taken off.
"Why are the two of you all wet?" Chad asked, looking even less pleased than before.
Jax was getting annoyed with his friend’s questions. "It was raining. Didn’t you see it?" Jax said as he went upstairs to take a cold shower.
Chad looked at Brenda who stood soaked and looking incredibly sexy in her wet clothing. "It wasn’t raining, was it? He pushed you in the pool, didn’t he?"
"Ahh. . .right," Brenda said. "Excuse me, I have to go change," she said going into one of the empty rooms and changing out of her wet clothes and into deep violet, velvet leggings and a short white crop top. She exited the room carefully, not wanting to be cornered by Chad right now. Whenever Jax was around, he was the only thing that occupied Brenda’s mind and she didn’t want to be side tracked.
She saw Chad by the bar preparing two pina coladas with umbrellas. She walked around to the back where she found Jax wearing jeans and a towel around his neck as he sat at the table with a Powerbook laptop. He hair was wet, his body still glistening with water from his shower and her heart was thumping away with longing. She walked over to the outside freezer and took out a cold bottle of golden Cola Champagne, unscrewed the top and walked over to him.
"Here," she said, handing him the beverage.
"Peace offering?" he asked.
"I wasn’t aware I needed one. We’re not fighting are we?"
"Not yet," he said as he took a sip of the exotic fruit cola.
"Well if we were I’d give you a much better peace offering than a bottle of soda," she assured him with a flirtatious little smile. "So what are you doing?"
"Talking to Jerry. Want to see?"
"Sure," she said getting up and sitting next to him, crossing her legs to that he had a very nice view of them. "Are you sending him some e-mail?"
"No, we’re live. Go ahead type in something."
Brenda leaned across and typed in ‘Hi Jerry. This is Brenda. Working hard?’
‘Hardly working is more like it!’
‘That was dad, Brenda. Of course I’m working! Nose to the grindstone and all that. I’m surprised to find you there. Actually I’m surprised to find you alive. I would have expected Jax to have drowned you by now.’
Jax and Brenda both laughed.
‘He tried,’ Brenda typed, ‘but I’m immortal!’
Jax grinned at her and impulsively, Brenda kissed him. Her kisses were like wine and Jax was feeling the buzz. One kiss lead to another, and then another. And now that he had shown her how to kiss in the most intimate of ways, she put her newfound experience to good use, entrapping Jax in a web of sensory pleasures that he was hard pressed to even attempt to escape from.
In search of Brenda, Chad finally made his way out to the patio where he was shocked to witness the ardent display of sexual combustion in the form of heated kisses between his Brenda and Jax. A jealous fury ripped through him. How dare he kiss her like that! So this was why Jax had returned! To make the moves on the goddess before Chad could. What upset Chad moreso than Jax’s intimacy with Brenda, however, was her own intimacy with him. The girl was all over him, kissing him in a manner that would have made most onlookers blush to the roots and reach for smelling salts. It was almost as if they were making love with their clothes on, it was so fluid and sensual and blistering hot, Chad thought with the jealousy and anger burning a hole in his belly. Why didn’t his sister just marry Jax already and get him off the damn market?! Obviously he couldn’t wait for Amber to get her lazy rear in action and snag Jax. He would have to find another way to get Brenda. And damn it, he would get Brenda. That goddess belonged to him and Jax would just have to look for one of his own! Infuriated to find himself actually becoming aroused watching Jax and Brenda’s slow, burning kisses, Chad turned on his heel and re-entered the villa dumping the pina coladas angrily in the sink.
Outside, Jax felt control slipping away from him. He knew by the way Brenda was all over him that her control had long ago vanished. She was basically in his lap at this point and it was once again up to him to calm the building storm, which was as hard to do now as it always was. But he did manage to, after indulging in one last sizzling lip lock with her that nearly changed his mind, break away from her.
"I told you we weren’t going to do that any more," he reminded her, even as she kissed his chin and laughed prettily.
"You just looked so cute," she said. "I’m sorry."
But he knew she wasn’t remotely sorry. Because he certainly wasn’t. She was becoming aware of her sexuality and her affect on him and she was going to use it, he knew that much. He had opened her up to feelings that she now wanted to explore fully and he had to find a way to derail her before things went too far between them. Unfortunately, the only way he could think of doing that was enough to make him want to take a swig of Hemlock instead. But it might be the only way to pour a shot of cold water on Brenda’s raging hormones – to start seeing Amber again. Thankfully he would only have to do this distasteful charade for three months until Brenda went back home. Surely he could last three months with Amber?
Yeah. Maybe. But could he last three months without the lips of this goddess planted exactly where they belonged? On his? Damn, how had she done it? He’d only known the girl for two days! She was barely 19 and a novice in the ways of romantic love and yet her kisses were seared in his soul. This was crazy. He had to get his head out of the clouds. And there was no better way to revive himself from sensual heavenly dreams of 19 year old Brenda than by entering another round of dating hell with Amber.
So that was the plan. Dismal and masochistic as it was, that was the plan he decided on. But Jax had no way of knowing how drastically his life would change a week from now . . .and how moot that plan would become . . .