Brenda couldn’t stop shaking. Ever since Jax had told her of the existence of the homing device in the suitcase of heroin, a feeling of dread that she couldn’t shake had washed over her.

Jax had carefully re-buried the case of drugs deep beneath some mangrove trees and then held her gently as they made their way back to the camp. He had seated her next to the fire in the waning afternoon and gotten some of the rum that they were saving for medicinal purposes. Once he had made sure she took a swallow of it and sat with her for a while, he went off to catch some fish for their evening meal as usual. She sat by the fire, watching the ocean waves break on the white sand beach.

{Why did it have to happen now? Just when everything was so perfect.} Brenda blinked and shook herself mentally. {What is the matter with you? Has your brain gotten fried by the sun?} She couldn’t believe her change in attitude. Three weeks before, she had been suicidal at the thought that they might never be rescued. Now, the prospect of rescue and contact with the outside world frightened her even more. She looked around at the warm sand, the trees swaying gently in the breezes, and their hut, which had become as grand as the Taj Mahal to her.

The island had become her paradise – Jax, her Adam. She had learned more about living during her time here than she had in her almost thirty years of living in the big cities of the world. Even though a small part of her realized that a severe tropical storm could threaten their lives, or lack of a storm might cut off their water supply, she didn’t really want to leave. {What’s the matter with you, Brenda? What if you get sick? REALLY sick? Jax is great, but he’s no doctor. There are no antibiotics here. You would probably die.} But as she gave a long sigh, she realized that even if she died here, she would have had lived in Eden for at least a month of her miserable life. {Poor Julia. At least if I have to die now, I’ll have known what true happiness is.}

"Brenda…..hello, Brenda?" Jax’s voice interrupted her reverie. "Are you in there somewhere?"

She smiled as she saw him standing there, holding his spear with tonight’s dinner still attached to the end. "Sorry about that," she said softly. "What’s on the menu tonight?"

"I thought some grouper might be nice," he replied with a laugh since it was their usual menu, but then his face grew serious. "I didn’t want to leave you for too long since you were so upset. I just need to get this guy cleaned and started cooking, and then I’ll come back and we’ll talk, OK?" She nodded and about twenty minutes later, he came back and sat down on the sand opposite her. She could see the fire blazing stronger and could smell the familiar odor of the cooking fish.

She looked down at the sand and began sifting some of it through her fingers. "Do you think the drug smugglers we saw that day are the ones who the heroin belongs to?"

Jax shook his head. "Definitely not."

"You seem awfully sure of that. How come?"

Jax sat crossed-legged on the sand opposite her. He folded his hands in the open space in his lap and took a deep breath. "Well, I got a chance to watch those guys for quite a while that day before you showed up. They didn’t look like they were the least bit interested in this island or anything on it. They weren’t searching for anything. If the heroin DID belong to them, they would have sent boats in with men looking for it."

Brenda nodded slowly and seemed to relax a little. "That makes sense." She seemed encouraged and carried his thinking a little further. "I mean, if the heroin had been theirs they would have at least been dragging the water for it or something." She nodded but then stopped short and looked at Jax in a panic again. "But then that means that whoever it does belong to will be coming to look for it."

Jax nodded wordlessly. "But it’s been a month since we landed here. Why haven’t they come after it yet?" Brenda asked in a quiet voice.

Jax shrugged his shoulders. "Don’t know. I’m no expert on electronic devices like that, you know. Maybe it was damaged somehow in the crash. Maybe the battery died before they could get a fix on it." He sighed. "Or maybe they’re just waiting until some of the media hoopla about the plane crash dies down." He smiled. "You know, I imagine we made the front pages for quite a few days there in the beginning. And if I know my brother, he’s probably still raising bloody h*ll trying to find us. Maybe they want to wait until some of the other search planes and boats are gone."

"But we haven’t SEEN any search planes or boats!"

"It’s a big ocean, Brenda." Jax stared over his shoulder at the water. "Knowing Jerry, he’s probably out there somewhere – cursing my name and wondering where I finally managed to put the Lear down." He sifted some of the sand through his fingers as Brenda had. "Or there’s another possibility." He gave her a veiled look. "The owner of those drugs may already be behind bars and may have to get word to one of his employees to go look for it. Sometimes those things take time."

Brenda nodded slowly. "So……have you thought at all about what we’re going to do about it? I guess the idea of just offering them some money when and if they show up still won’t fly."

Jax nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. "I’m afraid so, love. People who deal in those amounts of illegal substance won’t want ANY witnesses, no matter how much money I offer them." He picked up a small rock and skipped it across the sand before looking back at her. "But I’ve been thinking a lot, and I think I’ve come up with a plan."

Brenda looked up in surprise. "A plan? What kind of plan?"

Jax took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We build a raft, and try to get back to civilization before they come."

Brenda raised her eyebrows. "Do you really think we can?"

"We can give it a h*ll of a try, princess. It sure beats just waiting her like sitting ducks until they show up and eliminate us as witnesses."

Brenda sat stunned for a moment. If Jax had said these words to her just two weeks before, she would have been leaping for joy. But now -–she wasn't so sure. A raft would mean rescue, and rescue would mean a return to civilization – and the life she knew would never make her as happy as it once had. She almost missed Jax’s words to her. "I’m sorry," she smiled wanly and blinked. "What did you say?"

"I said, are you willing to try building the raft?" Jax repeated slowly, not sure what to make of her silence. He had thought she would be ecstatic at the thought of leaving this island. Even though building the raft made sense in light of their discovery, Jax had to admit that he would hate leaving this paradise. He just had to make sure before they left that she would be tied to him – just as he had planned it.

"Why wouldn’t I be willing to try the raft?"

He took a deep breath. "Well, for starters – I think we need to get a few things straight before we embark on this plan."

"Like?" She raised her eyebrows, not knowing what direction this was taking.

Jax leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Like we need to remember that the owners of those drugs might show up at anytime." He gestured at her, pointing with his finger for emphasis. "That means no running after any ship or plane that shows up on the horizon, no matter how harmless it looks. We stick together as much as possible."

Brenda nodded slowly. {Doesn’t sound too bad so far.}

"And we keep the fires to a minimum, only what we need for cooking." Another nod, this time less enthusiastic. Jax saw her discomfort. "Don’t worry, though. We’ll always have a fire at night. I promised you and I don’t break my promises."

Brenda warmed at his thoughtfulness but then realized that he might also be referring to his marital promises to his wife.

Jax looked at the hut. "We’re going to need to put some leaves and stuff around the hut to camouflage it, just in case we’re not around and the owners of the heroin land on this side of the island and take us by surprise. Or in case they would be able to spot it from the air."

As Brenda nodded again, Jax came over to sit next to her. He took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. "This is going to be hard work, Brenda." He looked down at her hands. "Your manicure is going to be shot to h*ll once we start working with the trees and weaving the vines for the raft. Your back will probably ache and you’ll find out about muscles that you never realized you had."

She gave a sigh. "I don’t care. I’m game." She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, considering the alternative of being shot, a little backache doesn’t seem so bad." She smiled weakly.

Jax returned her smile and took her hands again. "But at the same time, we’re not going to turn into moles, hiding from the sunlight and from life. We’re going to be careful, but we’re still going to live. And trust." His eyes grew very serious and the fire seemed to burn all the way down to her heart. "And love. We’re not going to get so involved with this raft project that we won’t still take time for us to live and to love."

Brenda nodded. {I can do anything. As long as I have your love.}

Jax stretched his arms out and glanced back towards the cooking fire. "Then it’s settled. Tomorrow we’ll start building the raft. Now, I’m going to go see how supper is doing. Why don’t you start getting the dishes and fruit out to go with it?"

Brenda sat there for a while watching as he loped down the beach to the fire and turned the fish. {I guess it’s true what they say – life can change in the blink of an eye. I sure wouldn’t have thought this morning that by tonight, we’d be planning to build a raft.} She was pulled from her thoughts when Jax shouted her name, and she quickly rose to go start getting things ready for their dinner.

"Hand me that vine, would you, love?"

Brenda reached out to grab a long section of vine she had just finished braiding, stopping momentarily to slap a small gnat that had lit on her thigh. Once she had eliminated the pesky insect, she handed him the vine and rewarded him with a brilliant smile. "How’s this?"

"Perfect." His eyes glowed with warmth and passion. He stopped working for a moment and wiped some sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Are you getting tired or can we keep working?" He glanced up at the sun. "I think maybe we’ve got a couple more hours of daylight left today.

"I’m OK," Brenda replied with a smile. "Let’s keep going." Jax nodded and bent over to get back to lashing some logs together. He didn’t see her stop working and begin to stare at him, lost in her own thoughts.

{Although I hate to think of leaving this island and losing you, I’ll never regret the time we spent building this raft.} Brenda looked down and shook her head, amazed that she would actually find this back-breaking work enjoyable. But it wasn’t really the work she enjoyed – it was Jax’s company.

Ever since they began work on the raft, they spent every moment together. Brenda never realized just how knowledgeable Jax was about survival. He knew which trees would be most buoyant and which would make them sink like rocks in the water. He knew which vines would be best for braiding into rope and which would snap when Brenda would try to bend them. She began to notice things about the interior of the island she never noticed before – rock formations that could hide a cooking fire, or trees with large leaves that would help camouflage their hut.

Jax’s company was the best benefit. He would talk to her as they worked together, telling her stories of growing up and learning to survive in the Outback from Thomas. He told her about his aborted attempt to go "walkabout" when he was only ten years old. His eyes took on a dreamy quality when he spoke about other islands he had visited and especially when he spoke about the way he felt when he was flying a plane. He never talked about his wife or son – but there were times when he would come close and Brenda realized that he avoided the subject just because of her.

Brenda never realized there were so many dirty jokes in existence until Jax started telling them one day. He explained that his older brother, Jerry, had a filing drawer full of them that he kept locked in case his mother ever decided to "clean out" his old files. Brenda’s breath caught in her throat at the twinkle in his blue/green eyes when he would tell a punch line and make her blush.

Due to the heat of the day and the physical exertion, Jax would usually go shirtless while they were working, and needless to say, Brenda enjoyed the view of his well-developed chest glistening with the sweat of his labors. Jax began to tease her about being a prude again when she almost passed out from the heat one day while braiding vines. His eyes began to twinkle again when she got a determined look on her face and stripped off her shirt and bra. As she continued to work, topless, she wasn’t surprised when Jax declared that they would be stopping work early that day. They never even made it back to the beach before Jax had stripped her of her shorts and made love to her among the leaves and vines.

On this particular day, Brenda was surprised when Jax told her they would be stopping work early. "Why? Are you OK?" She felt a sudden chill at the thought that he might be ill. How could she ever take care of herself without him?

But he had just smiled at her knowingly and come to tap her on the nose with his finger. "I have my reasons, princess. But you have to wait until dinner to find them out." Brenda had never seen him this secretive and excited.

Jax caught some fish for their dinner as usual and Brenda set the table and poured water into gourds. She smiled as she retrieved their fruit for the evening. She had been able to find some fresh coconuts that would be a treat from their usual fare of bananas or figs. And apparently Jax had some kind of surprise planned, although Brenda couldn’t imagine why.

He had come inside the hut with the cooked fish and then surprised her again by shooing her outside, ordering her not to return until he came for her. After about five minutes, he came back out of the hut and stood behind her. He had removed his blue chambray shirt and stood bare-chested in the pale moonlight. He placed his hands over her eyes and told her he would lead her into the hut. When they entered the hut and he finally took them away, she was surprised to see that he had created a magical bit of paradise. Somehow he had managed to sneak in flowers of every variety found on the island, and they now decorated their table. Loose flowers were strewn on the floor and on their bed, bringing a flush to Brenda’s skin as she realized his special plans extended beyond dinner. He had brought out the bottle of rum and had mixed it with some of the coconut juice, creating his own version of pina coladas.

Brenda was beyond shocked. "Why?" was all she managed to say as she gazed into his glittering eyes.

Jax put his wrist up to her eyes so that she could see it. "Notice the date, princess? Happy Valentine’s Day." The tears started to run down her cheeks but thankfully it was too dark inside the hut for him to see them. He bowed formally and led her to her usual seat, pulling his hand-made chair closer to her. "You know," he said confidentially, "I was really lucky to get a reservation at this place at this late date."

"Absolutely," she agreed with a smile. "I hear they have excellent cuisine."

As they sat down to the table, Brenda’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. At Jax’s surprised look, she replied, "I KNOW I put out the spoons. Where did they go?"

Jax turned her face to his and picked up a small morsel of the cooked fish, blowing on it first to cool it and then popping it in her mouth. "I took them away, love. Tonight we feed each other dinner."

Brenda felt like she was in a dream as dinner turned into an orgy of touching. Brenda fed Jax small bites of fish, watching his eyes as sparks of green mixed in with the pacific blue. As he licked her fingers clean of the fish, he began to unbutton her blouse slowly, gliding the backs of his fingers on her skin just beneath the two front edges of the fabric. Jax was maddeningly close to the place she wanted him so much to touch, but he only grazed the gentle swell of her breasts, causing her to inhale shakily. He stopped his caresses long enough to take a piece of fish and feed it to her, and then he leaned forward to lightly nip at her neck as she closed her eyes and chewed. When she opened them again, they were dark brown and limpid.

By the time they toasted with the coconut shells and Jax fed her the sweet meat of the fruit for dessert, Brenda had been relieved of her shirt and bra. She licked his fingers clean, tracing patterns on his darkly tanned chest with her first fingers. He complained that she had eaten the last of the coconut and he insisted that he have a taste from her lips. Brenda melted into his lap and let him taste all that he wanted.

"Jax!" she finally managed to gasp as he traced a path between her bare breasts with his kisses. "I don’t think there’s any coconut there!"

He raised his head and gave her a devilish look. "Now, Ms. Barrett – how can I be sure unless I try?" He pushed the dishes off the table and lay her back onto it, grasping her wrists above her head in one hand and exploring her sun-bronzed breasts with the other while he kissed her senseless. He trailed kisses from her face to her neck, nibbling at the place where it joined her shoulder and he knew she was particularly sensitive. After paying tribute to her other breast with his mouth, he released her hands and placed both of his hands on either side of her, bracing his weight above her.

Brenda felt as weak as a baby as he loved her relentlessly. As Jax continued his sensual conquest of her body, he draped her legs over his shoulders and lifted her hips. Brenda’s arms remained thrown up behind her until he found her essence and favored it with his loving. She brought one hand to her mouth to stifle her scream, but Jax immediately stopped his leisurely explorations and looked up at her. "Let yourself go, Brenda," he whispered fiercely. "I want to hear every sound you make as I love you. All we have is the stars and the fish, and I don’t care if they know that you love the way I love you."

Brenda could see the fire in his eyes, even in the darkened hut, but she didn’t know that the same fire was reflected in her eyes. She reached for him, but Jax only smiled knowingly and continued to enjoy her with as much fervor as he had used when enjoying the meal she fed him earlier. She brought her heels up and braced them against his shoulders, hoping to anchor herself to some kind of reality other than his mouth and hands. When Brenda’s body was finally racked with the spasms of her pleasure, the fish and the stars had more than adequate knowledge of her satisfaction.

Jax slowly shifted his arms to lift her off the table and carry her to their flower-covered bed. As she finally was able to open her eyes lazily, she twined her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a deep French kiss. Brenda now was gratified to hear Jax’s moan of pleasure as she teased his lips with the tip of her tongue and finally slipped it inside to lick the roof of his mouth. She had never felt this warm and complete. Jax felt it too – they had created their own paradise – their own Eden. As he made them one and began to move, his voice joined hers. His movements were long……and merciless……..and thorough…..…until both bodies were glistening with sweat. As they reached their pinnacle together, their cries echoed from inside the hut into the silent, sultry night.

"Jax, do you think those clouds over there look funny?"

Jax looked up from his crouched position on the raft. Brenda was standing about 25 feet away, her hand shielding her eyes from the bright sun. He wiped his hands together and jumped down off the platform, which had grown substantially in the ten days they had been working on it.

He came to stand behind her and looked up at the sky. "It does look a little cloudy, love, but I don’t think it’s anything serious. It might rain by tonight, but that’s good because our water supply is running a little low."

Brenda let out a sigh of relief. "OK, good. Good." She patted her chest to calm herself. "I was just afraid it was one of those tropical storm things again." She peeked around him. "Ready to stop for the day?"

Jax let out a long breath. "Yeah, I guess I’d better. If we ARE going to get some rain, I want to check the reservoirs and make sure they haven’t turned over for any reason." He leaned down and gave her a brief kiss. "I’ll be back at the hut as soon as I can and we can go fish for dinner together. How does that sound?"

Jax’s face looked pale. "Where? Show me."

Brenda felt the beginnings of panic. "Why? What’s wrong with them? Are they poison?"

Jax shook his head. "Just show me!"

Brenda took his hand and they made their way to a secluded, thickly overgrown section of the island. Jax crouched down and began to dig furiously at the ground. "Jax! What is it? What are you digging for?"

Jax didn’t have to go far. He reached down into the ground and pulled mightily. When he stood up, he was holding something like a trophy. "Do you know what this is, Brenda?" She shook her head. He was now smiling like a lunatic. "It’s an onion! A real, honest-to-God onion!" He smelled it and smiled even wider. Jax looked at the ground around him. "Come on – let’s keep digging. I wonder if this was some kind of a garden at one time."

Brenda raised her eyebrows. "A garden?" Then she paled. "You mean like the drug smugglers planted a garden?"

Jax remained crouched on the ground and laughed heartily. "No, my love, most drug smugglers aren’t like Martha Stewart, unless they plan on growing their own marijuana. No – I mean a vegetable garden." He dug a little more. "See – look. It’s a CARROT!"

Brenda now crouched beside him and dug along. Her labors were finally rewarded when she pulled an orange sphere out of the ground. "What’s this?"

Jax smelled it and even bit a piece off. "It’s some kind of yam, I think." At her puzzled look, he smiled. "A sweet potato." He looked around him. "Maybe at one time there was a small group of people living on this island. Maybe 100 years ago." Brenda shuddered a little at the possibility of what may have happened to them – a tidal wave or a violent hurricane. But Jax’s elation was too contagious to ignore. "Come on. We’re going to have a feast fit for a king tonight."

As they finished their supper several hours later, Brenda had to admit that Jax was right. Adding the onion gave the roasted fish an entirely new flavor that was delicious. Jax had dug up a few carrots and yams and broiled them along with the fish, adding to their feast.

{You won’t be able to run around here in the buff too long if you keep eating like that, Brenda!} She shook her head and Jax saw her. "What’s the matter?"

"I was just thinking that if we keep eating like that, we’ll outgrow the few clothes we have here!" she replied as they cleaned up the remnants of their supper.

Jax came up behind her to slip his arms around her waist. "Hmmmm, let’s see. Our clothes won’t fit us anymore and we don’t have any others to wear. Which means that we would just have to run around naked all the time." He pulled her head back to look him in the eyes. "Please explain to me, Ms. Barrett, why that would be a bad thing!"

And after a few of his persuasive kisses, she couldn’t think of one reason why it would be bad to save her soul.

The storm raged outside the hut, causing Brenda to snuggle deeper into Jax’s arms. It had started raining soon after they went to bed, but the combination of the ecstasy of Jax’s lovemaking and her weariness of the day had sent her into a deep sleep.

Some thunder woke her with a start, but Jax’s arms just tightened around her and she closed her eyes and enjoyed it. She heard the tapping of the rain on the roof of the hut and realized that their water supply would be replenished for some time to come. The hut was darkened, but it didn’t scare her anymore. The dreams about Julia hadn’t come for a long time. Not since she began sleeping in Jax’s arms.

It hadn’t stopped the dream the other night, though. She shut her eyes against remembering it. She had dreamed that they finished the raft and left the island. She smiled a little at her dream of the raft. It was grander than some yachts. But it was still constructed out of tree roots and vine, and she and Jax were still the only ones aboard. She remembered seeing miles and miles of vacant ocean vista in the dream. The wind had become nonexistent and they were just drifting aimlessly. Then the storm came, and after that the sharks.

She had awakened in a cold sweat and Jax immediately felt her distress and comforted. He had assumed the dream was about Julia, and she didn’t tell him differently. But it bothered her, because the events of the dream could easily come true.

She lay her head on Jax’s chest, listening to his strong heartbeat. Their water supply would now be adequate. They had found a new source of healthy food, guaranteeing them vitamins that may have been lacking from their diet before. They had protection from the elements, albeit crude and minimal.

Brenda stirred again to turn to face Jax. She saw his eyes slowly open and look into hers. "Can’t sleep?"

"I had a dream again," she said softly.

"Want to talk about it?" He traced the side of her face with his finger.

She took the finger and kissed it. "I don’t want to leave here, Jax. Let’s not take the raft out after all. Let’s just stay here."

To be continued……