"YOU BIG DUMB………BIG……….JERK!!!!!"

"Now Brenda…….." She gathered the sheet around her naked body and rolled as far to her side of the bed as she could, but not before landing a fierce one-handed punch to Jax’s shoulder. "OUCH!!" He winced and rubbed his left shoulder, rotating it gently as she continued to glare at him. "You punch like a girl, you know," he smirked softly, nodding towards her clenched fist. "You’re gonna get hurt if you wrap your other fingers around your thumb like that……"

"Stop trying to change the subject, you…….you…….. JERK!!!!!!!!!" Brenda frowned, blew on her aching knuckles, and then reached over to punch him once more, just for good measure. "You LIED to me!!!"

"I never LIED to you – exactly." Jax exhaled loudly and pulled himself up to a modest reclining position in her bed. With the lamp on Brenda’s side of the bed providing the only light in the room, his torso was hidden in shadows. "I just never told you……well, I couldn’t figure out a way…….." His face suddenly contracted in a painful grimace, his eyes screwed shut. "Can you hang on just a ……." He held up his right hand in a "wait a minute" gesture, then cupped it beneath his face while pulling his eye wide open with his left forefinger and thumb. As Brenda watched in growing understanding, he popped out one contact lens and then repeated the gesture for the other eye.

"THAT’S how you did it!" she breathed, watching in rapt confusion as he rubbed his aching eyes.

"D*mn bloody nuisance they are," Jax growled, shaking his head. He grabbed one of his black gloves from the floor and then deposited the lenses in it, cradling them protectively on the nightstand next to the bed. "I don’t see how people can stand to wear them full time….."

"Do you have ANY idea how crazy you were making me?" Brenda snapped out of her momentary calm fascination with his disguise and shifted back into "furious female" mode. She snatched a satin robe from a chair next to the bed and angrily shoved her arms into the sleeves, wrapping it around her naked body. "I was beginning to think I was losing my mind!" she added, standing on her side of the bed, arms akimbo, hair gloriously tousled in the aftermath of their lovemaking. "The other night, at the Mission, when I looked into your eyes when you wanted to…….. when we almost…….." Her voice trailed off, but then her rage gathered steam again. "Anyway, when I looked into Kismet’s eyes …….and then I thought I saw YOUR eyes…….." She licked her lips, her hands flailing impotently at her sides. "But they WERE your eyes, because they ARE your eyes………" Suddenly, she stomped a bare foot on the hardwood floor, making a slapping, thunking noise. "D*MNIT, why didn’t you just tell me the truth???!!!"

"Because it’s not as simple as you think, Brenda!!" He cradled his head in his right hand, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. "I mean, what was I supposed to do? Plan another intimate dinner at Wyndemere, and then somewhere between the main course and dessert, say "Oh, and by the way, I’m really a superhero in my spare time…."?" he asked, staring straight ahead and holding out his hand cavalierly.

"And what did you think *I* would do if you did? Say goodnight, and then run home as quick as I could and call Tiffany Hill and say, "I …… know who…..Kismet …..is, I …..know who…..Kismet……is….."" Her voice would have reminded him of a third grader’s if it hadn’t been dripping with sarcasm.

"Brenda…….you just…….." Jax’s hands folded into fists and opened again, betraying his frustration. "It’s more complicated than you realize." He had been tempted so many times to tell her the truth. Yet he feared that once he showed her his special "power" – the "gift" of invisibility that seemed at times to be more of a curse – she would pull away in horror and fear. And he couldn’t blame her if she did. Jax’s fate had turned him into a freak of nature, to put it politely.

"You told me you loved me." Her voice dropped several decibels in volume as her shoulders drooped in despair. The loosely-tied robe gaped at her neckline, giving him just a tantalizing peek at the curves he had savored only moments earlier. She clenched her jaw to kill the sob in her throat. "The other day – and again tonight……just now…….the way you just…….just……."

"I DO love you, Brenda!" Despair glistened in his cornflower blue eyes, in his lyrically aching voice. "This has nothing to do with how much I love you!"

"It has EVERYTHING to do with it! Because if you really loved me, then you’d TRUST me!" She sank to perch on the edge of the bed.

"I DO trust you!"

"But not enough to tell me the truth!!" When a tear ran down her cheek, she swiped it away quickly. "I DESERVED the truth, Jax!"

"D*MNIT, Brenda!! You want the truth?" Jax’s anger pulled him to an upright position in the bed. The sheet fell away from his body, exposing his chiseled chest. "You might not be able to *handle* the tru……."

"Ohhhhh……..my God…….." Brenda gasped, then quickly took a breath to fill her air-starved lungs. She put her fingers to her lips, then reached out towards him with a trembling hand. "Is that……."

Jax frowned in momentary confusion but then his gaze dropped down to his bare chest. "Oh………" He grimaced and traced a finger across the pale spider web of scars that crisscrossed his torso. "Sometimes I forget they’re there."

He shrugged his shoulders weakly. "I feel a twinge or two when the weather changes."

"My God…….." She inched closer to him on the bed, reaching a finger towards the thin white lines that mottled his tanned skin. "Sorel did all this?"

"You know the story, Brenda." Jax tried not to flinch at the heat her touch inspired when she continued to feather her finger lovingly over his scars. "When my heart stopped in the ER, they had to crack my chest to get it going again. And then twice more during surgery……."

"STOP!!" A tear ran down her cheek despite her best efforts to stop it. She raised her hand to gently cup the side of his face. "If you hadn’t come back………if I wouldn’t have had a chance to know you……..or love you………"

Jax suddenly covered her hand with his. "Love isn’t based on fear, or pity either, Brenda," he whispered, rubbing away her tears with his other hand. "Feeling sad or sorry about what happened to me shouldn’t be an excuse the fact that I kept things from you. You’re *right* to be angry with me……"

"Shhhh……." She pulled her hand from beneath his and placed her fingers against his lips to silence him. "Not tonight." When he took a breath to speak, she pressed more firmly. "We’ll have enough time to talk about it tomorrow." She slid her hand to his chest again, rubbing it as though she intended to memorize every nook and cranny. "Tonight I just want to be with you."

He hesitated a moment – he still wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, making love to her again with so many unresolved issues between them – but the molten yearning in her eyes was his undoing. Her robe fluttered away like autumn leaves kissed by the first whisper of winter. Her soft curves molded to the lean contours of his body as he gathered her to him in the bed with a groan of delight. While the storm calmed to a gentle rain outside, they took the time to explore, to arouse, to give each other pleasure they had missed in that first frantic coming together. She was more conscious of how her skin tingled wherever his warm flesh touched her; how her head fit perfectly in the hollow between his shoulder and his neck; how just the feel of his breath against her face made her heart race. They reveled in kisses they hadn’t shared the first time, whispering their love for each other in breathless sighs. Brenda found peace when she heard the reassuring pounding of Jax’s heart against her ear as he shifted his body over hers. He eased himself to fill the aching void within her, moving with agonizing slowness as he delved deeper into her with each rhythmic push. He lifted her hips upward to meet his ever faster strokes until a hot knot formed inside her. It consumed her until it broke apart in a wild burst of pleasure and warmth, making her cry out his name, shuddering in the force of the explosion. When he felt the pulsating waves of her pleasure against him, he responded with what seemed like the longest, hottest release of his life.

She closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure recede from every pore of her being as her heartbeat finally started to slow to a normal rhythm. Jax lay upon her, pleasurably heavy, his breath rasping in her ear and his sweat trickling down her skin. When he finally rolled to his side and buried his face in her sweat-dampened hair, Brenda shook her head at his muffled words. "No talk – not tonight," she moaned, reaching behind her to stroke his face with her fingertips. "Just love me…….."

At last, reluctantly, he pulled back from her a few inches. "I do, Brenda. More than you’ll ever know."

She smiled, her eyes fluttering shut again. "And I love you too, Jax……."

*~*~*~*

"I didn’t hear you get up."

Jax spun around at the sound of Brenda’s husky voice. He mentally berated himself – as a rule, nobody could sneak up on Kismet. Nobody got the "drop" on him. Nobody – except this petite, gust-of-wind-could-blow-her-away, emotionally overwhelming blitzkrieg of a woman.

"I tried not to make too much noise….." A lock of hair fell across Jax’s forehead when he smiled at her, sending a warm syrupy feeling through Brenda’s lower body. He shut the refrigerator door, placed several eggs and a carton of milk on her kitchen table, and then crossed the room to brush a kiss across her lips in record time. "You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t want to wake you," he murmured, rubbing his lips against hers again.

"Mmmmmmm……." She almost purred at the delicious fire his kiss evoked. Although she had pulled on her satin robe again, Jax wore only a large white towel wrapped around his waist, tied in a careless knot just below his left hip. When she peeked around him and saw the array of ingredients on the kitchen table, though, her eyes widened in curiosity. "Watcha doin?"

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I couldn’t sleep any longer so I decided to get a start on breakfast."

"You mean…….." Brenda shoved past him, drawn to the kitchen counter by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee. She lifted a cup to take a sip, closed her eyes in heavenly delectation, and then popped them open to stare at him in awe again. "You’re really going to COOK breakfast? From scratch? Just for me?"

"Well, I was hoping you’d share some of it with me," he grinned sheepishly, brushing past her to refill her coffee cup from a steaming carafe. "Mum always said that no woman would have a man who didn’t know how to cook his own breakfast and pick up his dirty ……...unmentionables."

"Mmmmmm…….." She got a naughty glint in her eye. "Speaking of your unmentionables……."

"Bloody h*ll………I’ve created a monster." Jax shook his head. "I was just about to start the French toast, but.……." He walked to the table, picked up a spatula and waved towards the back of her condo. "You’ve got time for a shower first, if you want……." Silver fire twinkled in his azure eyes as he ambled slowly towards her again. "Or you can stick around and watch me cook…… and then we’ll save water and shower together after breakfast……."

He was standing so close that she felt the tugging motion beneath his towel – the twitching movement that lifted the cloth and let her know that he was just as eager for continued intimacy as she was. That their hunger for each other wasn’t about to be satisfied by one incredible, delicious night of passion. But despite that reassurance, Brenda also knew that the *night* was over. It was morning, and they needed to talk about the obstacles between them that had been so easy to ignore in the darkness. And she wouldn’t be able to do that if she was dissipated and distracted by another round of Jax’s lovemaking.

"As tempting as that sounds, I think I’ll go ahead and shower now……" She pressed one more kiss to his lips before using all her inner strength to back away from him. "I’ve got to be in court later today and if we shower together, we’d probably go back to bed together and then …….well…….."

"I’d never let you leave." Jax nodded regretfully. "You’re right." He waved his hands in a "shooing" motion. "Go shower and let me get started making some culinary magic."

Brenda used the time while she showered as she often did for a court case, lining up her arguments logically, planning her strategy. But somehow, she also knew that logical planning wasn’t going to be all she needed to "win" this time. The real problem wasn’t just the fact that Jax had kept his identity a secret from her. She was hurt, and he knew that. The problem was that even if he confided in her about each and every aspect of Kismet’s existence, it wouldn’t solve things. The very fact that Kismet EXISTED was an obstacle that stood between them like a tractor-trailer stalled sideways in the middle of a two-lane highway. Vigilante crime-fighting went against everything she had ever learned in law school and all the precepts she worked so hard in court to uphold.

By the time she exited the shower, the tangy scents of cinnamon and maple syrup hung heavy in the air of Brenda’s condo. She bundled her still-damp body into a thick terrycloth robe and was just padding down the hallway towards the kitchen when she heard Jax’s voice.

"Yeah, that’s it." He paused. "Yeah –warm is probably best. You don’t want to chill him and add to your problems."

She tiptoed to the kitchen door and when she peeked around the corner, she could see Jax standing at the stove. While holding a large plate in his left hand, he flipped perfectly browned slices of French toast onto it with his right, all the while cradling the telephone against his ear with his right shoulder.

"Well, you could do that if you really wanted to, but I think it’s a mistake." He paused again, then nodded. "Right – you’d just be giving in to the tyrant’s demands, and that’s never a good idea." After nodding one more time, he twisted the knob to kill the gas flame on the stove and then turned towards the table. "No problem at all – handling emergencies like that is my specialty, so to speak."

"Jax!" He jumped slightly but then smiled when he saw her standing open-mouthed in the doorway. "Who……..what…….." She could only point at the phone while she fought the curiosity that was creeping into her voice. "I didn’t hear the phone ring!"

He nodded, nonplussed. "I know. You were in the shower." He set the plate of French toast down on the table and handed her the receiver. "It’s your sister."

"My sis…….Julia???!!!" She almost dropped the phone as a shiver of panic ran down her spine. "What’s the matter? Is something wrong with her? Or the kids??!!"

"Brenda?…….Brenda?………" Jax just smiled at her as she fumbled for the phone while Julia called to her sister through the receiver. "Everything’s OK……….calm down………"

"Jules??" When Brenda finally got hold of the phone, Jax turned away from her and went back to the stove, humming softly. "What’s wrong? Jax said it was an emergen……."

"JAX??!! That’s the billionaire, right?" Julia’s schoolgirl excitement and giggling only made Brenda more furious than frightened.

"Um…….Julia……"

"Tell me – does he LOOK as delicious in person as he sounds?"

"Julia……."

"And if he’s there this early in the morning, then you must have decided to dump the superhero guy, right?"

Brenda gritted her teeth and clenched her fists in anger at Julia’s giddiness. "Julia Eleanor Barrett Grinkoff, if you don’t tell me RIGHT NOW what the emergency was, I’m going to have to KILL YOU!!!"

"Ethan refused to pee." Brenda grip on the phone slackened and it almost fell from her hand for a third time when Jax piped up before Julia could answer. He looked matter-of-factly at her over his shoulder while dropping bacon into a large skillet. "Some kind of temper tantrum, I suppose – although Lord knows why any male would put himself through that kind of pain just to make a point."

While Brenda tried to slow her racing heart, she heard Julia’s soft chuckle through the phone. "I’m sorry I scared you, Brenda, but you know how attached Ethan’s been to Alexei lately. So, when his daddy had to go to London unexpectedly for an economic conference, my terrible toddler decided to go on a ……um……..potty strike."

"How……um…….." Brenda put a hand to her hair, ruffling it to dry the still-damp curls while her breathing returned to normal. "How long has it……um……been?"

"Almost twenty-four hours." Julia sighed. "I was considering taking him to the emergency room when I called you and Jax answered. He suggested I try putting Ethan in a bathtub of warm water."

"Really?"

"Yep. So since I was in the bathroom with him anyway, I decided to try it and………" Brenda could hear her sister’s elation through the telephone. "Houston, we HAVE a liftoff!!"

"Well, as disgusting as that sounds, I guess I’m happy for you, Jules," Brenda grimaced. She gave a silent thumb’s-up to Jax, who nodded and smiled broadly as he poured a tall glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice for her. "I really should probably get going and let you get Ethan cleaned up……"

"Actually, I was going to call you later today anyway, Bren," Julia interrupted. "Before he left, Alexei tried to find some information for you on those two corporations you asked about." Brenda heard a rustling of paper as Julia apparently consulted some notes. "He said he couldn’t find much – the CEO of Threads, Incorporated was listed as one Thomas Jefferson……"

"And let me guess – George Washington runs Elanco?" Brenda asked, an acid tone to her voice.

"Just about that bad." One of Jax’s eyebrows rose slightly when Brenda slipped into a kitchen chair and made some notes on a pad next to the phone. "The address and phone number that are listed for Elanco are phonies. Parking lots, I think Alexei said. Somebody’s doing a mighty fine job of covering up something here – and I’d bet Ethan’s last Lego it’s illegal."

"Yeah, well nobody ever said you were a dummy, Julia." She saw the beginnings of a frown on Jax’s face when he read her notes over her shoulder. "Look – I’ll call you back tonight when I’ve got more time to talk about………everything, OK?"

"OK, but I want DETAILS, girl!! DETAILS!!!" There was a pause. "Ethan, do NOT run out of this bathroom without putting on some clo…….."

Brenda just smiled and laughed softly when the connection was broken abruptly. "Sometimes I think Julia deserves some kind of award, handling those two kids when her husband’s out of town." She let out a long breath, hung up the phone, and looked expectantly at the tempting display of food on the table. "What smells so good?"

"Why don’t you come over here and find out?" Jax bowed gallantly at the waist, pulling out her chair. Brenda smiled her acceptance of his invitation, crossed the kitchen and sat down at the table. She took a sip of orange juice, then daintily cut off a square of French toast and slipped it into her mouth, sighing with delight at the taste. "Jax, this is AMAZING!!"

"Thanks." He sank into his own chair opposite her and poured a generous helping of syrup on his French toast. "Glad to know I haven’t lost my touch." He pushed his hair back nonchalantly when it fell across his forehead again. "Thomas considers the kitchen *his* territory these days, so it’s been a while since I got a chance to cut loose with a frying pan and spatula."

They made pleasant conversation while they ate, carefully avoiding the topic that both of them knew had to be resolved before they could go on with their lives together. Eventually, Brenda took a piece of bacon, bit off a small chunk, and then cocked her head jauntily to the side. "Geee………he raids corporations, he cooks, he knows how to deal with temperamental toddlers…….." She waved the slice of bacon in the air, raising one raven eyebrow slightly. "Is there anything you *can’t* do?"

"Welll…….I’m still working on that "leaping tall buildings in a single bound" thing," Jax murmured. He set his fork down on the plate and looked deeply into her eyes. "You know, Brenda…….it’s time we stopped beating around the bush. That 300 pound gorilla in the room isn’t going anywhere soon."

She snorted softly. "And just when I thought I was doing such an amazing job of ignoring him….."

A heavy silence hung between them until he spoke again. "I’m sorry that I kept my identity secret from you, Brenda. But in the end, it’s probably safer for you that way, you know." Worry turned his eyes to a stormy gray color. "There are certain people out there who would give anything to know Kismet’s true identity, and they wouldn’t hesitate to use any vile means at their disposal to do it." Although it wasn’t his primary reason for withholding the truth from her, he realized that it *was* a viable consideration.

She rested her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers as she worried her lower lip with her teeth. "I thought about it a lot when I was in the shower, Jax, and I don’t think that you keeping the truth from me is the real problem between us." Pressing her lips together, it was obvious that she chose her words carefully. "I just can’t………." Her voice broke and her breath caught in her chest. "I can’t approve…….." She finally sighed and reached out a hand across the table. "You don’t have to fight all the bad guys in the world, you know, just because of what happened to you that night."

"Survivor guilt, you mean……" Cold stoicism shone in his eyes. "I know, Brenda. I saw the shrinks after I woke up from the coma, just like the PCPD wanted me to." Jax rose from his chair abruptly and walked around the back of it, gripping it tightly. "I know that I can’t save the whole world, and I’m not trying to do that……"

"So then this has all been just about Sorel……" she supplied gently.

"He killed my partner, right in front of me, Brenda." She saw the familiar pain etched in the firm set of Jax’s chiseled jaw. "Sorel didn’t care whether or not Garcia had a wife and kids who needed him. He just shot him………" He looked away from her, breathless with rage. "And there was so much blood…….."

"And Sorel DESERVES to be punished for that, Jax!" Brenda cried. She rose from her seat and went to him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "But you don’t need to do it by yourself!"

"What are you suggesting, Brenda? That I let Mac Scorpio and the PCPD take care of bringing Sorel to justice?" Sarcasm hardened his eyes to shards of glittering blue ice. "Yeah – right. Sorel shot Garcia five years ago and nearly killed me, and in all that time Mac and his crew haven’t even gotten close enough to give the scum a parking ticket!"

"So then work WITH the PCPD!!" When Jax exhaled loudly in disgust and turned towards the stove, Brenda caught him by the arm and forced him to face her again. "If you’ve got better leads on Sorel, then share them with Mac!"

"Why? So Sorel can hire a fancy lawyer like Alexis Davis and end up walking on some legal loophole?" His voice was laced with bitter resentment and anger.

"No!!" He tried to pull away but Brenda maintained her grip on his arm once again. "If the PCPD arrests Sorel, I *promise* I’ll do everything in my power to make sure he’s convicted and receives the maximum sent……."

"NO!!!" She felt his arm tremble with impotent rage, forcing her to relinquish her grasp on him. Jax folded his hands as if to pray, placing them against his lips, then turned to her. She saw the glitter of hot tears in his eyes. "I WON’T put anyone else in danger again, Brenda! If I do this alone, I won’t take the chance of losing anyone else! Especially not someone that I lov…….." His voice caught on a choking sob and he gripped the back of the kitchen chair tightly. "I just ………I can’t go through that again………."

He abruptly let go of the chair and strode around her towards the stove. He grabbed the dirty skillet and took it to the sink, plunging it into warm soapy water and scrubbing it with a vengeance. She watched him blow off tension for a few seconds in silence, then whispered, "If I hadn’t been there the other night……at the Mission……..you would have killed Sorel, wouldn’t you?"

Jax kept scrubbing furiously for thirty seconds, then paused, never turning back to face her. "Sorel deserves to die, Brenda," he whispered, staring out her kitchen window. "For what he did to Garcia – and to me." After another thirty seconds, he let go of the pan and revolved slowly, drying his hands on a towel. "And despite your blind loyalty to your *precious* system, you can’t make me any guarantees that Sorel will get what he deserves."

It felt like a giant wall had fallen between them – a blockade of thorns that would forever keep Sleeping Beauty from her vigilante Prince Charming. She took a shuddering breath and then licked her lips before speaking. "Jax – I have to tell Mac and Dara what I know about you and how it affects the case. I can’t just look the other way."

"I know." The sadness in his eyes told her that he saw the same insurmountable impasse between them. Then, suddenly, those magnificent orbs lit with crystal highlights and he leaned back against the sink, crossing his arms across his chest with bold abandon. "Of course, then I’LL be forced to tell them that you knew about my identity all along – ever since the night we met at the Mayor’s fundraiser."

Her eyes widened with furious shock. "But that’s…….

"Collusion, aiding and abetting, withholding evidence, even possibly grounds for being disbarred ……." Jax feigned innocence. "How’m I doin’ so far, Counselor?"

She seethed in silence for five seconds before exploding. "It’s a LIE!!!"

He tipped his head to the side, jutting his chin forward cockily, holding his hands out to the side, palms up. "Your word against mine, Counselor."

Her chest rose and fell a few times until she stared at him, one eye narrowed. "Alright – I’ll bite. What do you want?"

Jax’s shoulders rose in a shrug. "Well, the way I see it, YOU finagled another two weeks on the Brighton case out of Dara Jenson when I wanted YOU to stop." He strolled towards her until he came to a stop, just inches from where she stood. "Two weeks should be plenty of time for ME to do what needs to be done about Sorel."

"But that’s blackmail!!!"

Jax held up a finger to stop her objection. "Fair’s fair, Miss Barrett." He nodded towards the calendar on her kitchen wall. "Fourteen days – clock’s ticken’."

Brenda exhaled loudly, puffing at a lock of hair that had fallen into her eyes. "You don’t play fair, you know," she groused, kicking ineffectively at his shin.

He tapped her on the nose good-naturedly in reply. "I learned from the master, my dear."

She chewed on her lower lip, then eyed him warily when he moved closer to her, brushing his hips against hers suggestively. "So what do we do until then?" Brenda put her hands firmly on his upper arms to put some distance between them. "I mean, this problem between us isn’t going to go away, you know. I’m still morally opposed to what you do as Kismet……"

"…….and I’ll still be d*mned before I stop doing it," Jax finished for her. He tightened his grasp again, pulling her against him despite her objection. "So for the next two weeks, Miss Barrett, we do our best imitation of Scarlett O’Hara and worry about that when the time comes."

Her lips pursed into a pout, even when he lowered his face to press a hot kiss at the base of her neck. "That’s not exactly a very smart way to handle things, you know."

Jax smiled wickedly at her when he raised his head. "At times, ignorance can be bliss, love," he crooned, placing another kiss at her temple. "Now why don’t we let these dishes go and see about taking that shower we discussed earlier?"

When she felt his interest rising again through the towel, she quickly jumped back out of his embrace. "Jax, as much as I would like to do that, I REALLY need to get going!" She glanced up at the kitchen clock and swore loudly, spinning around to dash down the hallway towards the bedroom. "I’ve got some motions to present to Judge Hathaway at noon and then I’ve got meetings all afternoon with the Paralegal Association……"

Jax followed her down the hallway. He stopped in the doorway to her bedroom, leaning against the jamb as she furiously opened and shut dresser drawers, tossing lingerie everywhere. "So what are you doing tonight?"

She paused long enough to look over her shoulders at him, eyes wide. "Tonight?"

"Yeah……" He crossed his arms and gave her a smile that would melt concrete. "I thought I could make it up to you for being such a cad by taking you out for dinner and dancing……"

A smile teased at the corners of her mouth. "Dinner and dancing sounds nice……." Brenda flew into action again, skipping towards her closet to pull out a dark brown suit and ecru silk blouse. "Why don’t you make the reservations and then let me know where to meet you?"

"We don’t exactly need to make reservations……." She froze again and turned to stare at him in confusion. "Since I already bought the tickets." He pointed towards her closet. "Oh, and did I mention that it’s formal?"

"Formal? Tonight? And you bought tickets?" Brenda frowned, mumbled to herself, and then suddenly her eyes blossomed with realization. "Oh, my God, Jax – are you talking about the Ball-B-Que?"

The Ball-B-Que was Port Charles’ annual summer gala where the rich and famous gathered to dine and dance under the stars. Usually, it benefited some local charity, but since it was an election year, Justus Ward’s opponent, Walter Glenn, had chosen it as a fundraising opportunity.

"So……." Jax strolled casually into the bedroom, whisking his Kismet trousers off the floor and tossing them onto the bed. "Will you save me from sitting next to some blue-haired matron and go with me tonight, Brenda?"

She sighed, wondering how she could ever deny him anything as she stared into his beautiful aquamarine eyes. "Jax, I’m going to be tied up at the office all afternoon! I don’t have time to get my hair done, or go get something smashing to wear tonight……"

"Your hair looks fine just the way it is." He smiled at her, reaching out to toy with one of her raven locks. "And as far as a dress goes, I’ll send Thomas over to Windom’s to pick something up for you." Jax looked down at the Kismet gear and winced. "After all, he’s going to have to bring me something to wear home since I can’t exactly saunter out of your building wearing that."

She chewed on her lip again, then clenched her fists when she glanced at the clock and saw the time. "OK. I’ll go with you tonight," Brenda conceded, landing a light kiss on his lips before dashing towards the bathroom, suit in hand. "But don’t EVER spring something like this on me at the last minute again, alright?"

Jax chuckled to himself as the bathroom door slammed behind her. He picked up his Kismet mask, twirling it cavalierly on his first finger and flopping onto her bed to stare at the closed bathroom door. "Oh, I have a feeling that life for us is just going to be FULL of little surprises, Miss Barrett. Especially now…….."

To be continued……

Music credit: "Superman," by John Ondrasik, performed by Five for Fighting on the CD, "Songs from Dawson’s Creek, Volume 2"